Maggnificent Monday

Maggie is gaining a reputation among our friends here. When I arranged to drop her off with another family one evening so Bill and I could have a grown-up meal, I asked if I should pack her a brown bag dinner. “No no,” said this mom. “She’s so agreeable, it’s just easier for her to eat what we’re eating.” Which is a nice way of saying Maggie is a garbage disposal. People have stopped eating snacks in front of her, because even if we’ve just had something to eat, she’ll gobble up entire packages of things. Carrots, tofu cubes (which she calls toad food), pretzels, curried peanuts; these things disappear before the other kids can get a word in edgewise. Don’t get me wrong. I’m grateful to have a kid who’s not a picky eater. It’s so easy to just give her half of my green chile pizza or some mediterranean salad at a restaurant. And to not have to think about cooking two meals or dumbed down meals at home. But geez, kiddo, show a little restraint!

Maggnificent Monday


Maggie is big on names. When we hit a rough patch in the day, like changing a dirty diaper or getting into pajamas, we often go through names. “Let’s try to remember everyone we saw today.” And she’ll go through everyone. “Mariah. Sophie. Asher. Jeremy.” Or “Who works at the office?” “Rob. Les. Daddy. Kenny. Julia.” “Who are dogs that you know?” “Eliza. Porter. Luna. Bitzer. Chile.” She mentions who lives in which house when we walk past. And she always adds someone’s name when saying goodbye or goodnight: “Bye bye Brenda.” “Ni night Daddy.”
Speaking of Daddy, I was eavesdropping on Maggie and the sprinkler last night and heard her say, “D A D D Y. Daddy.” !!!
This girl is such a maneuverable mover now. She doesn’t ask for a finger to up or down our stoop anymore. She freely runs around the backyard, up and down and around the stone walls. She climbed a very tall corkscrew ladder at the park yesterday with no assistance. She gets into her high chair before anyone even notices. We were remembering the other day how proud we were when she could get down one shallow step without being picked up. Times change.

Maggnificent Monday

Showing Neenee where Durango is on a map.
We’ve stumbled upon a miracle. It’s called a blanket. We have yet to get the radon mitigated in our house (it’s just barely above EPA standards, and the guy comes this morning), so we’ve been leaving all the windows open or at least cracked. At night it gets a wee bit chilly in the house, up in the mountains here now that it’s fall (yesterday it was 58 in the house at 7:30). So we started putting a blanket over Maggie when she gets in her crib at night. And low and behold, she goes to sleep! It used to be that we’d listen to her walk around and talk and flip and squirm in her crib; sometimes 45 minutes would go by of happily conducted Maggie business. Now when we go in to turn off her night light before we hit the sack, she has not moved an inch since the blanket. Right to sleep! A miracle!
She gets bigger every day. Our current mission is to find nice thrift store shoes for fall/winter in her size. Who wants to pay $13.50 for a pair of shoes that this lovely girl will trash in a couple of months?! The good news is that Maggie likes the thrift store here because it has lots of toys for her to play with and a cat that lets her pet it. Another use for the shopping car (what Maggie calls it, since we do most everything except shopping trips by bike-a-cycle) on shopping day Wednesday.

Maggnificent Monday



It’s kind of chilly in the evening after a bath, but a lovely evening for a little walk, so what does mom think? We’ll just put on your jammies and then you’ll be toasty on the walk and ready for bed when we get home. Except mom wasn’t thinking about puddles and how much fun they are to jump in. So what do you do after a muddy puddle jumping session and a dusty hike afterward? Pool in the backyard of course! Cools you down after a nice workout and cleans the mud off those shoes. Brilliant.
Maggie is talking our ears off these days. If she can’t get my attention calling “Mommy!” she switches to “Gretchen!” She loves to tell us everything she sees. In the house: “Eliza drinking. Eliza thirsty. Eliza tail wagging.” On walks: “Wheelbarrow. Boat. Trash fall down. Birds. Two birds.” In cartoons: “Timmy cry. Goat on. Crackers. Ball sky.” At bed time: “Neenee blanket. Neenee cozy. Maggie blanket. Maggie cozy. Ni-night Daddy. Cozy. Blanket on.” On our last hike up Perins Peak there was probably 10 minutes when she just repeated over and over “Nora sleeping.” A friend who picked us up at 8 to carpool to a climbing spot commented that Maggie was sure conversational in the morning. No, she’s just talkative all the time. And wants us to talk to. There was another 10 minute section of that hike where she kept asking “Mommy say.” “Kevin works with Daddy.” “Daddy say.” “Kevin works with Daddy.” “Mommy say.” Don’t come to visit if you like peace and quiet!
Maggie is starting to freckle up. Her face is very dirty and she’s in motion in the picture below, but you can make out a little freckle on her nose below her left eye. So darling.