Magrilless

What have we been up to? Decorating for Christmas! Can’t you tell? Maggie carried ornaments from the box to the tree for us to hang, she supervised placement of stockings, she’s held strands of lights while we string them around, and most importantly she’s taken good care of her pumpkin — the newly-christened Christmas pumpkin. She’s totally getting into the Christmas thing, despite the witch’s hat. She points out lights on car trips, talks about our stockings on the chimney, likes to look and gently touch the ornaments on the tree. Now that there’s snow on the ground, and in the air, it feels like the season has begun. We’re excited over here!

Maggie has a few new trends which are driving me a little nuts. She’s started waking up at 6, which may not sound like a big difference compared to 6:30 or 6:45, but it feels big. We’re considering pushing bedtime back to 7:30 to compensate, but then dinner gets compressed and she’s running around and what if she starts waking up then even earlier? Joe Bunny (on her alarm clock) doesn’t wake up until 7, so he might have to change his whole routine too. The other thing which is starting to grate on my nerves is the way she answers almost any question now. “Hey Maggie, a question you absolutely know the answer to?” Maggie’s response: “I don’t know.” Sometimes followed after a significant pause by the actual answer. I’m getting tired of saying, “You do too know. What color is this?” Maybe she’s getting tired of being asked inane questions. I guess some kids incessantly ask “Why?” or something. It’s just a phase. It’s just a phase. It’s just a phase. Breathe, mom, and chill out.

Maggie on the move, on a mission. Which pretty much describes her all the time. She is generally engaged in some sort of purposeful activity at any moment. And likes it that way. She’s like her dad and his dad and his dad, I guess.

What a wonderful week. It’s soooo nice when Bill gets to be home with us. We were super productive all week long, and Maggie got double duty attention, which is just heaven for a two-year-old. A few notables: We went to the hot springs up the road and Mags floated around and jumped off benches into waiting arms and splashed and had a wonderful time in the hot water. She was even polite and patient in the changing room (which has only one bench for the entire place). She has graduated from liking one cartoon (and only one) to being tolerant of almost anything. We watched “Beauty and the Beast” and she sat through mostly the entire thing (in two installments). This is huge for us parents! We’ve gotten to where we know every “Shaun the Sheep” episode by heart and can tell what she’s watching by the music (since there’s no dialog); we’re very excited to watch other things occasionally. Maggie met Santa and Mrs. Claus and likes going to see the inflatable versions in the yard down the block. She helped us put all the nutcrackers out (our only decorating so far) and loves going for walks looking at lights on houses in the evening. This will be her first Christmas which will mean anything to her, so we get to do it up. Oh boy!

Happy Birthday, Mags! We went out for breakfast. Dug in the dirt. Played a lot of games. Are going to the park to climb and swing and be jolly with little friends. These have been two of the fastest and slowest years of our lives.

Maggie has gotten into “no thank you.” When we were teaching her “please,” if she asked for anything and used the word, she got it. If she didn’t, she either had to start over again or just deal without it. In the beginning, even if she asked for something I’d usually say no to (“cookie please” right after two), she got it. Just so she’d understand that “please” is a much better and more effective way to ask for things than demanding. Now she uses “please” quite often. So we’ve been doing the same thing with “no thank you” lately. Instead of screaming, I tell her to say “no thank you” and then she gets the result she wants. I try to comb her hair; “NOOOOO;” “Maggie, say ‘no thank you Mommy;’ ” “no thank you;” I stop combing her hair; happy child with tangled hair. She’s gotten the picture pretty quickly. She says “no thank you” in this sweet little voice all the time. Which is so much nicer to hear than the toddler’s “NOOOOO,” even though the message is the same. But now we’re starting to get to the point where we’ll have to tell her some things aren’t a choice. “Maggie, you sure are stinky. Let’s clean up that dirty diaper;” “No thank you;” “ummmm.”

And I did manage to get Maggie to sing Yankie Doodle for you. Sort of. She starts it really well. And I guess she does finish singing it too. But you see what we’re contending with taking pictures and movies of this child. If I get one or two good pictures a week, I consider myself a photographer.