a funny maggie story i had forgotten to tell!

on tuesday, i took maggie up to damariscotta for a la leche meeting. it didn't happen (long story), so one of the moms and i took the kids to the lonna bunting playground (vanessa and erik, they took down the old, amazingly fun, head-bumping, splinter-giving, wooden playground, and replaced it with some modern plastic stuff. nice that i didn't have to pick out any splinters, but sad to see such a fun playground gone). anyway, maggie was dressed sweetly in a skirt and t-shirt, and at one point pulled out her pony notebook (it's a notebook filled with pony sketches. that's pretty much all she draws) and began to draw--you guessed it!--a pony! this one was named happy bat. picture it: she was up on a higher landing by a slide, lying on her tummy, drawing--her beautiful curls lit up in the late morning sun. another mom who happened to be at the playground with her little boy came up to maggie and asked,
"do you like ponies?"

"GO AWAY!!!" maggie yelled at her. you can only imagine her tone of voice.

ohhh, i was so embarrassed. i apologized, and the mom said it was ok. i made maggie apologize too, and she did.
"i'm sorry i was rude," she said sweetly to the mom.
"that's ok," said the mom, and patted her on the head.
"HRUMPH!" grunted maggie, storming off with a scowl.

i apologized again. that child! she looks so sweet, but i tense up every time she opens her mouth.

oh yes, and afterwards we went to the hannaford there. she was so good and helpful at the store, and i told her so when we were done shopping.
"so you don't hate me?!" she asked, loudly.

where does this come from? at least no one there knows us, and can't report me to child services.
(and of course, i told her, for the millionth time, that i never have and never will hate her, etc, etc, but i'm sure she'll say it again. she tells me every day in a sweet voice that she hates me. and it's opposite day. and she doesn't hate me. and it's opposite day. and she loves me. and it's not opposite day... she can go on and on for hours.)