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The No-No Word Files

There are so any good things happening right now that I want to document, remember and be able to look back on, but the end of the day I’m ready to curl into a ball and sleep. I’ve wondered to myself lately if I’m still a blogger because I’ve so neglected this blog in the past months. Of course I’m still a blogger because I’m certainly not sitting down to journal out our adventures and scrapbooking them away  ~ so this continues to be our book. Our slice of life.

Maggie’s become a hilarious little person these days. I’ve always thought she was a hilarious person, but her language has absolutley exploded and she doesn’t miss ANYTHING. I knew this day was coming, but the proof hit me this past week as she chirped from the back seat words that I’d rather my darling daughter not know.

We were picking Barry up from work to have a lunch date (sushi!!!!!) and I stopped to get gas at the most crowded gas station in the world. As I was trying to manuver the Element out of the gas station, with the bike rack attached on the back, to make the 1 mile drive down a hill to Barry, we were cut off by a truck. I was frustrated….


Me: That truck is causing problems.

Maggie: That truck causing problems, Mama?

Me: Yep, that big, white truck. We need to go that way.

I then successfully got out of the gas station parking lot but had to make a quick turn, but was cut off by another car.

Me (under my breath): Sh*t balls.

Maggie: That sh*t balls, Mama? That truck sh*t balls?

Me: Yes, Mags. That truck sh*t balls.

What else can you do? I tried to act like it was okay for her to be saying that in hopes that she’ll forget.  I haven’t heard her say it again, but the girl has mind of a steel trap and I’m wondering if it will come back to bite me. Ah, sh*t balls.

There are so many other eloquent examples of Maggie’s language, but this was one where I realized that I need to watch myself.

Maggie has also caught onto the fact that books hold stories and she can ‘read’ them herself. We keep finding her curled up in various places reading and almost nothing makes me feel more proud and happy; I’ve got a child that loves to read!!! Yahooooo!!! We’ve started a semi-regular routine of going to the library to check out books. We’ve been going to story time since she was about 6 months old, but now she has a whole new understanding of the place now that we ‘take books home.’

[I’m cutting this short because Maggie has just arrived at my side announcing that it’s time to Face Time with Thomas and she’s quite persistent, so I’m going to go see what Thomas is up to…their ‘conversations’ are always funny.]

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The Random Files

RACING

We pulled out of our driveway last Sunday morning at roughly 5 a.m. to make it to Seattle to watch Barry’s 6:30 start of his race. I wasn’t sure how it was going to go – me carrying Maggie around in the backpack while we watched the swimming, biking and running; however, she surprised me with how much she loved watching all the action. The night before she had helped Barry clean his bike and lay out all his gear, which meant that she was well versed in what he’d need for each portion of the race. 

When he transitioned from his bike to the run, she was very worried that he might not change into his running shoes and when we saw him at the finish line, she immediately checked his feet to make sure he had the right shoes on. She’s quite the little boss-hog. Not sure where she gets it from….must be Barry. 

Barry did great at this olympic-distance race, as usual. He’s so humble and would never tell you all the hard work he puts into training, but I’m here to tell you that most mornings he is up by 5:30 and off working out.  It became especially inspiring to me durning my first trimester, when I wouldn’t have traded a million dollars for a few extra hours/minutes/seconds of sleep. 

And by the way, isn’t he hunky? 

OUTSIDE ACTIVITIES & PICTURES

Tomorrow the weather is supposed to be 80 degrees and when I heard that I instantly checked our popsicle supply ~ worry not, we’re good to go. All joking aside, it is supposed to warm up tomorrow and I can hardly contain myself. We’re going to meet up with some friends and I’ve already set out the cooler, sun screen and towels.

(Really gross side note: I have a bit of a rash and was talking to Lara about it today and we wondered if it was heat rash. Wouldn’t that be AWFUL if I got heat rash in 60 degree weather. I would equal a TOTAL Weather Wimp if that were true. I think I must have eaten something weird, or at least that’s what I’m hoping.  Sorry to share my rash with you. Gross. )

I feel energized again in terms of taking pictures, but recently came to the realization that I have almost zero photos of me. I need to get better at handing the camera off to people or even setting up the self-timer for some shots with Maggie. Right after I had Maggie I read a compelling article about The Invisible Parent – the one who usually takes the pictures – and how children often don’t have pictures of themselves with that parent. For the first year of Maggie’s life I worked really hard to get an image of us together at least once a month, even if it was posed, and I have totally slacked off since.  This is my declaration of trying to take more pictures of us together…and letting go of the image in my brain that I hope the photographer will get. Just having images should be enough. 

CAN YOU FIND ME?

CAMPING

We’re finally going camping in a few weeks. We’ve been putting it off – sadly I’m not sure that we went at all last summer – and now we’ve actually got some time on the calendar. I’m excited, but after setting up the tent in the backyard, I’ve determined that any excitement that I have is superseded by Maggie’s. I went to run some errands last weekend and came back to find that Barry and Mags had set up the tent. As I walked through the door, I could hear Maggie yelling, “Mama! Mama! I working in here! I working in here!” 

By the time her frazzled head stuck out I was doubled over in laughter. The sweet little Nugget was so excited to have the tent up that she was literally bouncing off the walls. I really don’t know why we’ve waited so long, since we love camping so much. The last time we went, Maggie was 3 months old. Geesh. 

 

 

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All Good

TIMEOUTS

And she’s back in full force – better than before, if that was possible. The last two days have been perfectly perfect, with hilarity found in the most random places – a roll of tape, the bath tub, and even timeout. As she’s regained her energy back, she has decided to test the limits. Which makes me both proud and frustrated.

She’s landed herself in timeout a few times for simple things, like not helping to put away a puzzle, to really big things, like hitting. When I tell her she has to “go sit by herself” her reactions vary from devastated to ho-hum-la-de-da. The highlight of this new phase, aside from the conversations that follow, is the singing that she belts out from the rocking chair. It comes at show-tune volume, even through the bedroom door. So far her specialties have been “Puff The Magic Dragon” and “Take Me home, Country Roads,” her latest two favorite song books.

I have to work very, very hard to gather myself before going into see her – because if she’s singing, she’s in a hilarious mood and I love a hilarious mood. She now grasps the concept of time-outs and so far it has been effective, we’ll see when it needs to happen in public sometime, which I’m hoping won’t be for a long, long time.

FAMILY LOVE

I meant to write about how amazing both my mom and Barry were last week, during The Week That We Shall Forget, and maybe I did? But both of them were rocks. Barry was calm,  steady and reassuring, as always. He also spent his days divided between home and work, a stress in its own right. My mom was all of those things as well, but in a flurry of activity – prepping food, wetting cloths, and jumping at a chance to hold Maggie. I felt kind of like a wet rag, full of emotion and on edge, just wanting it all to be over.

When it seemed that we’d finally turned the corner for the better, my mom came down again and Maggie finally was alert enough to appreciate her presence. This meant that I got to take a long, long shower and even go to the store. When I was showering, and even when I was at the store,  I kept thinking to myself how similar the feeling I was carrying was to having a newborn. That shower made me feel like a million bucks and being at the store made me feel like I’d flown around the world in the hour I’d been gone.

When the clouds cleared and our house started to feel like the same old house again, we started to get visitors. My grandparents arrived with jam and a bouquet of flowers from their garden, my grandmother claiming that she’d held my grandfather away as long as possible. They played hoops in the backyard and we all ate popsicles.

Greg came by as well and worked with Maggie on her sticker book and went over the ins and outs of playing catch. Maggie delighted in the attention and was zonked out after both visits – still recovering. Aside from having visitors, we also started to revisit toys that we’d forgotten about. Maggie worked on covering her rocking horse in tape and we dug out some old favorites, but it’s hard to beat some simple cuddle time with Papa….