Friends, Golfing, and More Friends

The other day we had our visiting teachers over (each one brought a couple of kids) and all the kidlets went NUTS running around the house and playing. I'm surprised we could even hear each other. Maggie had a hard time sharing all of her toys but still stood at the window when they left and whined, "friends.....friends".

One of Maggie's smacks (golf clubs) ended up broken but she was none too happy with my attempts to repair it. Scotch tape mom? Please! I distracted her by asked her to practice her swing.

We had to wait a little while before our playdate at the park with Vicki and her kids Alex and Brookie so Maggie entertained herself in our winter accessories tote. She tried on every single hat, scarf, mitten, etc. The funniest was her dad's big sock hat but by then I was onto the camcorder and don't have a picture of it.

Having active kids at the park makes it hard to even chat with each other, let alone take a picture. I didn't get even one so here are a few pics from Vicki's blog--one with each of her kids. Maggie sure loves those kids and kept asking Alex to "come here" when she wasn't running off herself!

Washing Hands? Peeese!

Maggie must be on a clean kick. For a couple of weeks now I hear "washing hands??" constantly. She washes her hands with her plastic bowls and cups.

We push a chair up to the sink, put a towel on the floor to catch all the water that ends up down there, then let her at it.

Playing in the Closet

Maggie finds a way to play in all of our closets.

A small video. If you listen closely you can hear her count when she's inside.

Weekend Review: Sunny and Nice

Friday was a beautiful day so I took Maggie out for a walk. She was quite a sight out there. People in cars were pointing and smiling at her.

After the walk we spent a lot of time in the backyard and man, oh man, did she throw a royal fit when it was time to come in. Even though she was clearly overheated she could have stayed out there all day. I calmed her with a snack and some tv time.

Saturday we spent the morning in Loveland at a stamp show. Patrick loved it and found quite a few stamps that he was needing. Afterward we ate lunch at a great Italian place and barely made it home before Maggie fell asleep. I finished the touch up work in the master bathroom I've been painting. Then we had the missionaries over to help us move our treadmill into the basement then chatted with them for a little bit. I took a much needed nap that afternoon while Patrick set up the treadmill. I'm so happy to have it!

Maggie played with her current fav toys--Thomas and His Friends (Thomas, Percy, James). She looooooves them.

Sunday we hung out in our back yard and enjoyed the lovely weather. I tried to get some sun.

Dairy Queen after dinner. She's getting the hang of how to eat an ice cream cone.

Things I Want Recorded

Colors and Numbers: Maggie can count. At first she was just copying her dad. Then she was anticipating what came next. Now she the light bulb is going off and she actually counts things. I took her to the park the other day and she noticed two planes in the sky and pointed them out ("airplanes. shwshhhh") and then counted them ("one, two. Two planes"). Uh, wow. I was bursting with pride. She sort of followed the same pattern with colors. Copying, then guessing, then, after serious contemplation, naming most colors. Its CRAZY to see the connection made in her head. We were watching a cartoon dinosaur playing with butterflies and she said, "butterflies" then went on to say, "orange butterfly, pink butterfly".....etc as they came onto the screen. So cute!

I may have to stop listening to my music in the car. Maggie is able to sing along with almost every song that comes on. Eeek. Some of my music isn't exactly toddler appropriate. I'm impressed at how many of the words she's able to sing. But sometimes its seriously sweet to see her singing her heart out along with Cat Stevens.

When Maggie hurts herself and her dad's around she insists he kiss it better...no matter what the "it" is. After recovering from her latest episode of illness she was playing around and fell on her butt. She whimpered and said "kiss it" while walking backwards toward Patrick. He was kind enough to kiss her butt--literally (it was diapered and clothed, but still...) and they both said simultaneously "all better". Awwwwh.

We got some hail the other day so I put Maggie next to our sliding glass door in order to watch it. She immediately asked to go outside and I said no. I did the hug yourself and shake motion and said, "cold, burrrr". She looked at me and, I swear, she rolled her eyes at me and said, "jacket".

I let Maggie use one of my pens and a piece of paper to color (on the couch). She was poking the pen through the paper and writing on the couch instead so I lifted up pen and paper to assess the damage. She gave me a dirty look and said, "hey! stop it!".

She's a connoisseur of candy. I was eating some Hershey's chocolate kisses while she was napping. I heard her stir and when I picked her up from the crib she took one whiff of me and said, "chocolate". I burst out laughing. Then a few days later I discovered a long lost bag of Robin Eggs from Easter. I had the bag hidden behind my back, putting an egg in every time she looked away. She got really close to me and all of a sudden demanded, "egg!". She knew exactly what I was eating!

Some Good Ones

Glittery Belt

This is the outfit she insisted on--a silver glittery belt.

This is her dancing in the belt.

This is what happens when she gets into our pantry. I think she's obsessive compulsive--remember the cheese line up a few days ago?

Paper towels, her favorite pink blanket (meme), two of my purses, the bikini bottoms she regularly wears as a hat, and a potato chip--just in case you were wondering.

My Sister Is Famous!

Well, I think Julie is on her way to fame. Please check out her kitchen remodel "Open Canvas" featured on Apartment Therapy. This is so exciting!

Hooray for Julie!

Cafe Rio, Park Play Date

Some church friends informed me there is a Cafe Rio knock-off place here in Colorado. Cafe Rio is my favorite place to eat in Provo. This was great news! We checked it out immediately.

I've given her a quesadilla before and she's flat out refused them. She gobbled this one up! I've offered her black beans and rice with the same result. It must have been that I didn't say a word and just expected her not to touch them so when she did I was thrilled. She ate heartily until putting a big handful of rice in her mouth that contained some cilantro. Out it all came and that ended lunch.

Now the problem is that I've found a yummy place to eat that is not only a good half hour drive from home but just happens to sit in the middle of a great shopping complex and directly across the street from some outlets. Patrick will be so happy.

After lunch we headed to the park with our neighbors Christina and her son Dylan. We had a good time. The weather was actually hot! We have no summer clothes yet so a onsie had to suffice.

Loving The Daycare

Daycare. Soooo good. I'm lucky to be a stay at home mommy so that I don't HAVE to have my child in daycare. I think that's why I can say that. Being able to have a couple half-days a week to myself has been invaluable. I drop her off and furiously clean and run errands until I pick her up. Because of our over indulgence or not (you decide) Maggie is somewhat needy and clingy which makes housework hard to do. And there is nothing worse than a huge errand list that requires 90% in and out of car seat time and 10% actual errand time.

We got off to a pretty rocky start with they daycare thing but I'm so glad I stuck it out. I picked her up today to find a super happy child who according to "Miss Kellie" was a doll all day!

That doll decided that a nap was not going to happen so we spent the afternoon in our backyard. We also found some sunglasses on our trip to the mall that she kept on for a whole 3 minutes at a time--prompting me to buy them. Just watch, she'll never wear them again!

Yes, another long video of Maggie doing not much. So if you're not one of the three people who care to watch it...

Weekend Review: Party Time

Friday night we went to our friends Julie and David's house for game night. Julie's parents are in town so we were lucky to spend time with them. We ate a yummy meal and we learned how to play Canasta. It was a really great time--and guess who didn't take a picture! I did, however, manage to capture her lunch of all things. She took her cubes of cheddar and lined them neatly on the table before eating anything. Notice her new trains--Thomas and Percy. They join her beloved James (not pictured). You can hear choo-choo all the time in our house.

We also went to Costco and I caved on a Thomas and His Friends book and got all giddy over a treadmill. I obsessed all day about it.

Saturday my lovely husband dragged his sick behind out of the house to buy me that treadmill. It was a great deal and I'm so excited for him to set it up! I bought the Nordic Trac Commercial 1500 which according to TreadmillDoctor.com is the best out there for under $1,000. The box was so big we had to take Patrick's big truck to pick it up. Maggie loved it! She kept saying, "daddy's truck, BIIIIIG truck" the whole time.

After that we just veged at home.

After church on Sunday I realized that we desperately had to do laundry. Maggie zeroed in on one of my bras, put it around her neck and proudly claimed, "mama's boobs".

After I took my bra back we went to our friend Alex's 2nd birthday party. Lots of fun for all of us. It was a nice day so we spent a little time outside. Maggie is giving our friend Mike a ball. His twins, Kierstin and Julie are to the right. Luke and his dad and Alex are in the background.

The Appetite is Coming Back

For a week now I've let Maggie eat anything and everything she wanted because she was sick. Unfortunately she didn't want anything! I tried to bribe first with fruit, her favorite jam and bread and then with M & M's, donuts, chocolate milk, etc. Her response was "nope". I don't know where she learned nope instead of just plain old no.


Today she climbed up into her chair and demanded food. I obliged. A few hours later she pointed to a cabinet and demanded to be lifted up to basically shop for what she wanted. She himmed and hawed for a few seconds before deciding on some cereal--her dad's. She has seen him with this box many times and I'm sure that's what drove the decision.

Rebounding Well

On her way to full recovery.

Maggie's Descent and Recovery

The weekend started out strong. Maggie played with her scarf--the one she asks for so often I finally just moved it into her toy basket (thanks Karla for knitting it for her!).

We even hit the park as her temperature started to climb. She acted fine so I let it go.

She insisted on running up and down these tiny trails throughout the park.

And finally the descent into yet another illness...

Don't let the ribs scare you...those always show. She's just skinny.

After limp noodle day on the couch (we call it Monday) she spent the evening snapping out of it in time to beg a manicure AND pedicure out of her mom and to help her dad make homemade pizza.

She did spend all of yesterday laying around feeling sick but we're definitely getting better.

Weekend Review: You Can't Possibly Guess

You can't possibly guess how we spent our weekend. Oh yes, we're sick again. After MONTHS of illness I was feeling grateful that it was coming to an end. Ha!

Maggie got a fever a few days ago. She replaced a fever with clammy skin, vomiting, and finally diarrhea. It's awesome. Luckily this is really her first illness that has barely affected her mood. She bops around and seems great until...you know. I took a few pictures of her looking very pathetic right before an episode but after cleaning up one too many "messes" I'm feeling pathetic myself and pictures will have to wait.

I'm looking forward to better times. Seriously.

Dress Ups

My daughter is definitely all girl. She loves to dress up with anything handy. I feel guilty I haven't bought her more actual "dress ups". This is her ensemble for yesterday.

This is what she did instead of napping. This was her second day of refusing to nap. I'm completely freaked out I've got one of those kids that gives up naps way early. It threw my whole day off not to have my usual break! I was so desperate to get her down I packed up my knitting bag and took her on errands thinking she would doze off while I drive and I could just knit in a parking lot for a short nap. She would have none of that. She went strong all day long.

Booty Right Off The Floor

Maggie asked for a bowl of Pirates Booty. I obliged. Then she walked to the foot of the stairs, dumped it out, and ate it right off the floor. Yes, I let her.

The New "Do"

I finally swallowed the lump in my throat and took Maggie in for a haircut. I know her hair was getting quite wispy and out of control but I really was attached. Here's what we walked out with.

It's a little bit crazy (bangs too short, back is TOTALLY crooked) so we'll be back in for a touch up but it's growing on me.