http://www.blogger.com/html?blogID=1755139666841541603 about a dream: May 2011

Monday, May 30, 2011

maggie's party

maggie's birthday party was so much fun! i'm sorry i don't have a picture of the bounce house, it was great. it had two punching bag-like protrusions and one "hoop" coming up from the floor (so kids could run into and jump through them), and a slide going out one side. it was non-stop fun!
the weather was perfect, too. cloudy in the morning and then the sun came out at about noon. if it was any warmer, it would have been too hot for the kids to jump! well, too hot for nina anyway, who really gets overheated easily. she needed to take a few breaks and i probably should have made her take more.

maggie almost fell asleep sitting on her picnic table. it was too cute! she was exhausted and just sat down with her head on the table part. but just when i went to get a picture she hopped up. she ended up taking a nap during her own party, which delayed the cake by about half an hour.

on top of that, erik, isabelle, chester, craig, and elizabeth were here, so we did a campfire the night before and were up later than usual. then today it was in the 80s so we spent the day at hendrick's head. it really felt like the middle of july!

Saturday, May 28, 2011

three years ago tomorrow




our little maggie was born!

i can't believe three years can go by so fast. and so much can change!! that adoring little baby, who looked at me with such love in her eyes--the baby who only needed mommmy, naneys, and a fresh diaper, is today the curly-haired blonde who looked at me with anger in her eyes, frowned, and told me to go away and die.

yup, things sure change...

what provoked such a harsh response? guess. i told her she had to wait to nurse. if you're all wondering why i'm still nursing maggie, why i've been unable to wean her, please consider this exhibit A. make that, exhibits A throug Z. this is why people used to believe in demonic possession and exorcism. it's actually easier to believe that your child is possessed by a demon than to believe that she could say something like this! twice. she said it twice.

of course, i have to believe she's more repeating something she's heard before than expressing her true sentiments. she's not an emotionally disturbed child. i don't think she is anyway. she does have quite the temper, but i know she does love me, and i think she'd be pretty upset if i died. i mean, obviously she'd be upset about not naneying anymore, but i'd like to think she'd just miss me in general.

oh well, i'll try to forget it (now that i've recorded it for posterity). in a funny way, this makes me feel much less sentimental about turning three. i love two, it's one of my favorite ages, but two with maggie has been pretty difficult, and i'm just as happy to move out of this stage. may three be a new beginning!!

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

we're all finally getting better

finally!

i ended up taking maggie in to the doctor's on tuesday because her cough just wasn't going away. she's fine, it's just some old sticky mucous running down the back of her throat that's been making her choke. we got some cough and cold medicine to give her at night so she can get some sleep, but it's not that helpful. oh well, she's getting better. nina's pretty much better too, and even i'm feeling good.

also, they did her 3 year checkup at the visit too. we were supposed to go on june 1, but they decided to let the sick visit count as the well child too, since we have lousy coverage and she's obviously so healthy (and advanced!). she didn't talk very much at the appointment though, and when she did she used her very shy princess voice. oh, and she's 30 lbs (just under 50th percentile) and 38.5 inches tall (~70th percentile). perfect and perfectly healthy!

also, the weather's finally beautiful! i've got a bunch of things going in the garden, some herbs in the window boxes, and the strawberry patch is looking lovely. hopefully we'll have a lot of treats to eat this summer!

nina is excited to be done with school. grandparents day is on friday, she's looking forward to that, she's been practicing her songs all week. oma is coming on saturday, and then next week is a 3 1/2 day week, very exciting! and of course maggie's birthday on sunday!

Saturday, May 21, 2011

that maggie

i was putting her to bed and she wanted one more story. i said no. she said yes. i said no. she said, "if you don't read me a story, i don't love you."

ouch! an arrow through my heart. she really knows how to get right to a person's weak spot. i fear for her teenage years.

of course, i read her a story. i couldn't not! i think it was an empty threat. hope. but with maggie, i can't risk it.

in better news, it was beautiful for like, 2 hours today! warm, sunny, blue skies... ahh. summer. then clouds, wind, a fog, and some drizzle rolled in and it went down to 45. summer in maine!

Thursday, May 19, 2011

a few funnies

nina reads everything now, which is not as great as it sounds. i can't check facebook with her around, because she'll read over my shoulder. i was checking my email, and on the yahoo sign-in page it said, "your world, your way." i didn't even notice it because who reads the stuff on the sign-in page. well nina said aloud, "my world my way!" in the funniest little voice. it was too cute.

another time there was some kind of ad, i don't even remember what for (acai berry juice? online college?), and there was a "learn more" button you could click. nina looked at it and said, "I want to learn more!!"

THEN, we were watching TV and a car commercial had the words "your ride" on it and she said "my ride!!" which again, was just hysterical in her little voice. the poor child pretty much only watches PBS since we don't have cable, and is totally naive to advertising!

there are 2 maggie cutes.

the first is that she was coming up the stairs holding a bottle in one hand and a book in the other (yes, a bottle. she kind of likes it, but i think more in a novelty way. she has accepted it twice now at 5 am instead of nursing. i mean, very reluctantly, but when i refused to nurse her and offered the bottle, she said fine. i think she chewed on it, that was what it sounded like for the 10 seconds before i fell back asleep. but whatever, it's working, she has fallen asleep without nursing for the last few nights. i told her that my milk turns to mustard when she turns 3, but maybe she'll even wean before it comes to that!)

i digress...

she was coming up the stairs holding a book in one hand and her bottle in the other. i was upstairs. when she reached the top of the stairs i told her that she needs to hold on to the banister when she comes up the stairs, for safety.
"but i am holding the book and the bottle," she said, "and i only have two hands."
"well yes," i said, "so next time leave one of those things behind.
"like this?" she asked, moving her book behind her back. haha!

then tonight just before getting ready for bed, she was stamping some paper with this strawberry shortcake stamp we got at mcdonalds once. she wanted nina to help her and said, "nina, push with all your might."
nina said no (she was too tired i think to get down on the floor) and maggie said "nina are you out of might?"

such funny kids i have!!

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

it's been an icky, rainy week

it's drizzly and in the 50s out there, which is much nicer than the drizzly, mid-40s day we had yesterday. what a bust may is turning out to be! there is some hint of better weather approaching in the 10 day forecast, but we'll see. sometimes it seems like they put nice weather in the extended forecast just to make people feel better. we're supposed to see some sun again on friday, so we'll see... every once in a while it gets brighter out there for a few minutes, so i know the sun still exists at least.

i won't go in to the effect this is having on my garden, but let's just say it's not good.

the girls are sick, too. nina was home yesterday and today (wednesday), which was especially disappointing because they were supposed to read with their 4th grade reading buddies, and she's been looking forward to that for a week. she has no school tomorrow or friday either, because they're screening the incoming kindergarten class. i'm not even sure if she'd be up for school tomorrow anyway. she's still miserable. it's just a head cold, but lots of sneezing, coughing, and tissues. she had a mild fever today too. maggie had it first and is mostly better, but her nose is still running. right now they're in fresh pjs after a nice bath, and sitting on the couch with pillows and blankets watching cartoons. and sniffling. nina took a nap today, partly because i gave her benadryl, but her poor nose was running, and her eyes were watering, she really needed it. hopefully the nap did her some good.

i'm trying to remember some funny tidbits but i can't right now. maybe later!

Saturday, May 14, 2011

maggie is writing!

how exciting!

you may remember that several months back, maggie started to write letters. i didn't say anything at all, just held my breath and watched her. i know maggie, and how very frustrated she gets when she can't do what she wants to do, so i was afraid that any word from me would elicit a "no! NO! i'm can't do it!!" melt down.
well, within a day she had a meltdown anyway. she just couldn't make the letters like she wanted to.

but today, she tried again! actually a few days ago she wrote and M and was really proud of herself. but today she wrote her whole name! then, she made her friend anthony a birthday card. i told her how to spell it, but she wrote "happy birthday Maggie" on it. she meant from maggie, but she didn't have the space. she also scribbled on it and said that said "thank you for the toys." well, she's still a little confused about what goes into a birthday card i guess. and exactly who those toys we wrapped up were for. haha!

well, i will eventually get around to taking a photo of maggie's writing and putting it up here. but not tonight! we had a busy day at anthony's birthday party, we all had lots of fun.

oh, maggie called a cashew a "cat-a-ma-chew." how cute!

the rest of the week was pretty same old, same old.

Monday, May 9, 2011

the girls and i like to play trivial persuit

i make up questions for the girls, because the ones that came with the game are too hard for them (and me, for that matter. a trivia whiz i am not).

mostly maggie just likes to put the chips in the little pies, but i make up questions and ask her them to keep myself occupied. today i asked her, "who is the president of the united states of america?" just to see if she know.

"i don't know," she said. "maybe santa?"

haha! this kid cracks me up!

Sunday, May 8, 2011

happy mothers' day to me!

is it mother's day or mothers' day? seems like it should be mothers', but what do i know? nothing, according to my children. haha!

no, it was a lovely mother's day. both girls made me made me beautiful cards. maggie's had an excellent drawing of a rose on it, really surprisingly good. i would scan it, but i have this aversion to using technology sometimes. the hassle, it's always such a big hassle.
anyway, then there was a gift! bossypants by tina fey (vanessa, i can either mail it to you when i'm done or save it for when you're here) and a box of chocolates. how nice!
i was hoping i'd get to sleep in, but no. and maggie had an awful, awful night's sleep because she was a bit sick (runny nose and slight fever). something must have hurt because she kept waking up and never really settled. i should have given her tylenol but it didn't occur to me in my broken-sleep haze. when i was sleeping, i was dreaming about her fever getting really high. fortunately that was just a dream. i didn't find our thermometer, but she was about 102 at the highest.

then we went to church, enjoyed the lovely mother's day breakfast, and then hung around the house in our PJs because maggie was sick and nick had sprayed the outdoors for ticks. it was still on the chilly side, probably the upper 50s, maybe it hit 60 for like 6 minutes, and windy-ish. we did play on mom and dad's tick-free lawn for a while after maggie's nap, when she seemed to be feeling better. the girls picked me bouquets of dandelions. i tried telling them that small bouquets are technically called "nosegays" but nina persisted with bouquet and magge with po-kay (some hybrid of pre-K and bouquet, i think she was confused because there was talk of playing pre-K for a while).

then, the girls wanted me to do a cartwheel (i'd shown them a cartwheel last week and only mildly injured myself). i told nick to watch and nina said, "yeah, and she's not horrible!" with such genuine enthusiasm, it was too funny.

Saturday, May 7, 2011

it's mother's day eve!

that's what nina called it today. she is so excited for tomorrow, she's so sweet! all i know is that she came home from school with a present for me in a brown paper bag. i can't wait to find out what it is!
so, fyi, maggie doesn't want to be called "maggie" anymore. she's changed her name to nina. if you find that confusing, you can call nina "anina" or the other nina "baby nina." she is such a riot. we went to a birthday party today, and whenever anyone said "hi maggie!" she'd say "i'm not maggie anymore. i changed my name to nina." i told her that i like the name maggie and asked why she wanted to be nina, but she didn't respond. at least, she didn't respond with anything coherent.
oh well, how long can this last? this is maggie, so i'd say not more than 6-8 months. haha!
which reminds me, not only does she no longer wear footies all day every day, she even wore a sweater yesterday! i can't tell you how many times this winter i asked maggie if she'd like to wear one of her nice sweaters. no. never. but now that the weather is finally warm(er), what does she pick out to wear? jeans and a sweater!! she did it on purpose, she gave me a devilish look when she picked it out, but i didn't say anything. nick and i had said in the winter something along the lines of "watch when it's hot she'll insist on wearing jackets and sweaters," and i'm sure she heard us and remembered. she forgets nothing!!!

on another note, last night was a mom's night out. maggie didn't nap, so i put her to bed and then left. unfortunately, she woke up while i was gone and was really upset by the time i came home (which was only about 5 minutes after nick called and 20 minutes after she'd woken up). she didn't say anything about it today, but i'm sure she'll bring it up this winter or so. i can't believe she's going to be 3 years old 3 weeks from tomorrow!!

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

another tick season is upon us...

i hesitate to write this in the blog, because i'd really rather forget all about ticks, but i just can't bring myself to leave anything out. so, nina had a tick on monday night. it was on her upper right shoulder. it must have crawled under her shirt, the bastard! it was attached when we found it, but fortunately couldn't have been on for very long, because it hadn't gotten any blood yet. so she should be safe from lyme disease, but we'll watch for the bulls eye rash just in case.
getting it off was unpleasant, and of course always falls to me. why is that? maggie was as upset as nina, and both girls ended up not falling asleep until way past their bedtime. even after falling asleep, maggie was really restless and kept waking everyone up.
so, we decided to not set the alarm for tuesday morning so that nina could sleep in, figuring she'd be pretty tired. and she was. of course, this is the girl who wakes up bright-eyed and bushy tailed at 6 am on weekends, but on a school day she slept until nearly 8. besides, when nina was crying after the tick extraction, she said she didn't want to go to school the next day. how could i say she had to? so i'd told her that if she didn't want to go in the morning, she didn't have to.
soooo, she stayed home. we had a great day too! it turned out to be mostly sunny even though we were expecting rain, and maggie was thrilled to have her. we did some home school work, because i didn't want to give her a totally free pass on school, but that went well. then we played a lot.

today was back to the daily grind though. it was also my last SAT class! it's nice to be done with that. maggie is fine with going to her friend hattie's house while i teach, but she's also been talking a lot about how she doesn't ever want to be apart from me, so maybe not teaching will help her separation anxiety. yesterday, totally out of the blue, she started crying and said that she 'didn't want me to leave that day that i left when anna was here.' i was confused at first, and nick and i tried to remember when we went out and anna was here. maggie said, 'no, nick was here too.'
then i remembered that when i went to ruth's baby shower last summer, nick stayed home with the girls and anna came by to use the wireless and help out. she ended up crying that night and i came home a bit early.
anyway, that was last summer for crying out loud! she's not even 3 yet, how does she remember this stuff? once maggie brought it up, i remembered that that was the night i wore the black dress that i'd worn to jenny's rehearsal dinner. when maggie had seen the dress, she automatically assumed that i was going out without her again, and freaked out. she kept crying and asking me to take it off, and i couldn't for the life of me figure out what was going on, until she said something about me leaving her and i realized she thought she wasn't coming too. she also said something about the dress, i can't remember what exactly, but i knew that i had worn that dress out before, and she associated it with the horrid, horrid trauma of me going out for a little bit and leaving her in loving and capable hands. i just hadn't remembered exactly what night i had worn it out (i had forgotten about the shower and assumed it was in may, when nick and i went out for an anniversary dinner).
wow, what an unforgiving memory for such a little kid! you can see though why i hesitate to go out... good thing she's so darn cute!!