Magrilless

Isn’t she precious? And a trouble maker?

Things we’re working on this week: No feet allowed on the table, even after the food has been eaten, and especially not with shoes on. No hitting or kicking the dog in the snoot, even though it makes her jump and run away really fast which is fun. No secrets about when it’s naptime or bedtime, even though it’s much easier for mom to trick you to go into your room and then ambush you with a diaper once you’re there.

Very exciting news: Maggie is beginning to sing. She’s always liked music to listen to or dance to or do motions with, but now she’s starting to carry a tune. “Twinkle twinkle” comes out of her mouth several times a day, sometimes sounding like “baa baa black sheep,” sometimes like “twinkle twinkle twinkle star,” sometimes “poopy poopy poopy pee” (I’m not kidding), but the tune is there. Maggie can also locate Colorado on the globe. She points to the globe and says “Colorado” then when she has it in her hands she points to the correct state and repeats “Colorado.” A geographist/chemist/lyricist; this girl does it all!

This has been a pretty ordinary week. Maggie’s gotten to be good friends with a couple of little people here, so every other day or so she gets to play with someone besides me. She’s having fun with all the boxes being empty; even though the jungle-gym is getting smaller, there are “new” toys in those boxes! She gets very involved when I pull out something that she hasn’t seen in a couple of months now. Let me tell you, this kid has got toys!

We’ve been practicing every day or so to drink out of a regular cup. A juice cup or a shot glass is about the right diameter for her to drink from, and she’s doing it like a pro! I’ve already retired her baby spoons in favor of regular forks and spoons, and it looks like sippy cups may not be all that far behind. One day soon we will not have any remnants of baby left in this little girl. Well, except for the whole potty training thing. We’ll just have to see when that seems feasible.

I know her hair is unruly. In my (and her) defense, this was right after breakfast, and who quaffs their hair first thing in the morning? But bows only last a couple hours in her hair now. She takes them off and hands them over when she notices they’re there, and then we’re lucky if we can get one to stay in long enough for a meal. I do really try for that; who wants yogurt all in their bangs?

Last Friday we decided to get rid of the old stinky carpet that runs throughout the house. And when I say stinky, I mean cat-pee, dog sweat, elderly person, shut-up for a year stinky. Those carpets had to go. A sneak peek at a couple of corners revealed hardwood underneath, so it was really just a matter of ripping up the carpet and removing the tack strips. Easy.

Except the padding underneath was so old it had basically disintegrated into sweep-up-able piles. Except where the cat/dog pee had soaked through and the padding was stuck to the wood.

Friends took Maggie for a couple hours in the morning which was enough for us to get up all the icky icky stuff and just left the dangerous stuff. (Truth be told, we thought it would be enough for us to do absolutely everything, but below is a picture of bedroom number one after about two hours.)

We continued to pry up staples and disinfect during Maggie’s nap, and by the end of the night we had a pretty darned good head start on things. Good enough that Mags’ room was completely done, tack strips and all, and the rest of the house “only” had tack strips left.

By the end of day two, thanks to gracious friends again taking over Maggie duty for a few hours, all the floors were barefoot enabled by Saturday evening. A pretty smooth operation, besides Bill’s continuing bout with mild mold “poisoning”.

The house no longer smells like cat pee (mostly — occasionally I still get a whiff), and the hardwood floors are in pretty darned good condition. Good enough that we can let them sit for a couple of months while we go on to more pressing improvements.

And eventually, when we get to ripping up the carpet in the kitchen and laundry room (who puts carpet there?), we’ll have some idea of the torture we’re in for. But don’t worry; it’ll still be exciting and new laying down tiles for that project.

Maggie knows her own name! I mean, she’s known forever that “Maggie” means she should look up or something. But just this week she will say “Maggie” about a picture of herself. Or we can now go around and do names for everyone, including her. A developmental milestone!

Maggie is ready to be done moving around now. Although she did a fabulous job helping take everything from the storage unit to the house. She even lifted half of some boxes for us. She was very proud to help and really liked the ice cream reward at the end of the day. Now she’s having fun with all the new in-house jungle-gyms. And it’s a lot of fun to open up boxes and find toys she’s forgotten she owns. I hope all this stuff coming into the house makes her realize this one’s for good. Then she can stop fussing at night again.

There she is. Home sweet home. Four houses from the edge of town. Backing the open space. A nice sunny terrace for a garden. Three good sized bedrooms with corner windows. A covered and attached garage. One well-cared for bathroom and space for an added half later on. It moves a little, being built on shale and all, but once we cut the doors to trapezoids, you’ll barely even notice.

We got an awesome deal, and we know it, and we’re going to take full advantage of it. We’ll let you know when we have furniture and thus a place for you to lay your head.