Magrilless

Maggie is big into questions nowadays. One of her favorites is “Come from, Mama?” She’ll point to something or name it and then wants to know how it got to be where it is now. Some days we go through every single item of clothing we both have on. She’ll hold out her shirt; “Come from, Mama?” “Nana bought that shirt for you.” Point to her tights; “Come from, Mama?” “Baku Sue sent those pants.” “Shoes. Come from, Mama?” “Those shoes came from Nora.” Then she’ll start on my clothes. And I have to remember the store or the location where my clothes originated. She’ll do it with food. With cars. With toys. It keeps my memory working.

Another question I hear many many times a day is “What’s that?” She hears anything and asks, even if it’s a noise I’m pretty sure she already knows. The heater comes on in the house. “What’s that?” “That’s the heater, Maggie.” I’m grating carrots in the kitchen; Eliza shakes her tags; a horn honks; the wind blows down the flue. “What’s that?” We have been able, so far, to be grateful she’s so curious and genuinely interested in learning. In a few weeks I’ll let you know if we’re infuriated with the nagging or if she’s moved on to wanting to learn something new and fresh

… to brilliance, elegance, beauty, efficiency, and a good sale at the hardware store. I can’t wait to see my energy bill this month!

Maggie is getting more and more independent and wanting to be treated like a kiddo and not a baby. She will either climb into her high chair and sit down herself, or she’ll insist on sitting on a big-person chair at the table. She increasingly wants to be the one to handle her spoon or fork, from plate to mouth and back again. When I’m cooking and she nags me to pick her up so she can see what I’m doing, she’ll fetch herself a stool to stand on if I suggest it. She praises herself for doing things alone. She’ll look at me after she accomplishes her task and say “Self!”

Story for this week: Maggie and I were out in the backyard the other day. I was moving rocks around, rebuilding one of our retaining walls; Maggie was digging and reorganizing toys and chasing Eliza and … sitting quietly for an extended period of time? I walked over and sat next to her. “What are you doing, Maggie?” “Eating rocks.” And she was. The proof was in the diaper the next day too.

Maggie has a new obsession this week: drawing. She will spend up to half an hour (long enough for, say, Mom to fold a load of clothes) spread out on the couch with a couple colored pencils and a big coloring book. Some times I hear her talk about what she’s drawing, like spelling names or tracing shapes. Once her pencil made a “U” shape and she called me over yelling “u!” She’s still not super reliable about keeping the pencils on the page, though. Occasionally I hear her say “uh oh Mama” and I know she’s taken liberties with coloring on some other surface. So we don’t take markers to other people’s houses or to appointments. But she does like to be given a “wiper” to clean up her stray marks. This is my kiddo!

We’ve also discovered that fire can hold her interest for a short period of time. Now that we’ve been having frosts at night routinely, we’ve been using our fireplace a little bit. Maggie can sit still for maybe 5 minutes and look at the fire. And she likes it when Bill takes the poker and jabs the logs, sending sparks flying up the chimney. For a little person who’s not into snuggling, we’ve gotten a surprising number of cuddles in already. Thank you fall for providing us with some avenues for tricking our daughter into coziness.