Magrilless

This job comes with no hazard pay, disability insurance, or sick days. Geez. Hope I make it out on the other side.

Maggie was a real trooper on our trip to Albuquerque. Even though she only slept 45 minutes on the way there (the iPad’s battery power is amazing), she was still cheerful and polite and playful for the big party. She brought her appetite too and even let Cousin Carla hold her while I went for another cookie. She even payed attention when I told her not to pull on her pearl necklace. Albuquerque is so huge compared to our little Durango; it takes 30 minutes to get anywhere. I was afraid of putting on cartoons in town because I wanted to have enough juice in the machine for the trip home, so Mags was not all that thrilled with around-town travel. But she did like going to other people’s houses where she could torture their cats by chasing them and making them get off their perches, and where she could walk into showers to wash up Neenee. We treated it like a real vacation, eating whatever and whenever and however much we wanted; staying up a little late and getting up a little early; breaking in new markers and coloring books; and hanging out, laughing, and singing with all the relatives.

Maggie was so pleasant the days we were there that she’s had to make up for it with some extra grumpiness the last couple of days. But it’s worth it; moms always get the bad behavior in private. Plus, only one more work week and then Daddy gets to stay home and play with us, take some of the brunt from Mom, and get in the Thanksgiving frame of mind.

Maggie likes the snow. She calls it “sa-no” with this lovely little sing-song intonation. On our hike yesterday she was grabbing handfuls of it off of tree branches and shoving it by the fistful into her mouth. And when we would walk through a more open area, where trees weren’t at her arms’ length, she’d start saying “Maggie wants some more.” Today we went outside while flakes were falling and she caught some on her tongue, which was a very exciting activity. And she plucked the snow that had gotten caught on my eyelashes, which she considered mysterious. I don’t think she quite understands that falling snow is different than falling rain, but I’m much more excited about snow “puddle” jumping than rain puddle jumping.

Other than that she’s just been playing and drawing and drawing and drawing. She seems most interested in coloring over letters and words and pretending to write. She has started to grind her teeth again (like she did when she first had more than one tooth), which drives me a little bit crazy. And the sticking her whole hand in her mouth to see what it feels like to gag herself; that also drives me crazy and she thinks it’s hilarious. But she has started to sing more songs than just Twinkle Twinkle/ABC. She’ll now do Frere Jacque and Yankee Doodle. I’ll see if I can get her to sing Yankee Doodle on video for next week; her pronunciation is pretty funny.

Wish us luck. Maggie and I are trying our first solo trip to Albuquerque on Thursday. It’s the family jewelry store’s 60th anniversary, so we’re going to party with all the relatives (some have yet to meet Maggie!) and leave Bill here to work and fend for himself. Thank goodness she still likes cartoons in the car.

Happy Halloween! Maggie has been looking forward to this day for awhile, I think. She has a book called “What Is Halloween,” so we’ve been reading it and talking about this holiday for a long time. She even told me she would say “thank you” after getting a candy treat, before mom could do any prompting or drop hints. She has “trick or treat” down pat and “happy Halloween” too, so I think we’ll have a good time tonight. Occasionally she’ll also tell you a sheep says “baa.”

This has been a lucky week for Mags. First, she got hugs from random kids in the grocery store, without any prompting from either sides’ parents; she was just too cute to resist. She got to watch a worm poop in mom’s hand. When’s the last time you actually saw a worm defecate? She ate four kids’ worth of lunch at a party when the other ones decided they’d rather play than sit at the table. Then, she won a pecan pie in a cake walk at a fall festival. I’m hanging on to this kiddo!