Posted on

‘Round Here

Yesterday we were driving in the car and Maggie noticed a school bus out the window and freaked out yelling “Bus, Bus!!!!” while pointing at it. I think she had thought that her very own little bus at home had come to life and found us on the road. After that, she kept pointing out the trucks and cars and telling me that she was ‘yooking’ for another bus.

Mags was showered with valentines from Barry’s mom, Sue, the Merk boys and my grandparents and I can officially say that she now knows how to open a present on her own, so there will be no need to practice before her birthday this year. (Thanks for the gifts, guys! Our little sweetheart loves them all!)

This past weekend I hosted our annual Cousins Dinner and set up a craft station for everybody to make their own crown; because who doesn’t love to wear a crown and eat, right? Anyhow Maggie has absolutely fallen in love with putting stickers on herself and anyone in a 10ft radius. The other night Barry had stickers inside his ears, which I thought was very clever placement.

We’ve also got our coffee table covered in butcher paper and Maggie has spent quite a bit of time drawing and coloring away.The other night, if I could just brag for a moment, she accidentally scribbled an “M” and then noticed it and pointed it out to Barry and I, who were sitting with her. She did it a few times, but then started scribbling and claiming the scribbles were other letters, so the Miracle Moment was short lived. But still. She made her first “M” and I’m proud.

Today we’re going swimming with our A-Town crew at the new pool by our house. It should be interesting, but hopefully we’ll all have a good time and it can become more of a regular thing.

Eeek. Mags is shouting for me from the other room, so I better wrap this up.

Posted on

Maggie, Mara & Thomas Enjoy Camp Janet

I feel so lucky that some of my very best childhood friends also have children that are about the same age as Maggie. When we’re all in town at the same time (aside from Erin who now lives there!!) we try to make a point of it to get together with the kids. Most recently Erin and Lara came out to my parent’s house with Thomas and Maggie and we ended up going to see the cows next door and eating large amounts of popcorn.

Mara is old enough that she understands what it means to go on a walk, but when it comes to Thomas and Maggie, their still a little hopeless when it comes to directions or walking distances without getting distracted.

By the time we made it to the cows, and picked up some pussy willows on the way, it felt like we’d reminded both of them that we were going to see the cows many, many times. The cows weren’t really sure what to do about a bunch of kids staring at them, so they just stared back. Sydney, on the other hand, decided that the best thing to do was to charge at the fence, which made me nervous because there was one cow that looked like it wanted to eat Syd for lunch.

My parents have a collection of toys that stay at their house and it is always fun to see what other kids, besides Maggie, glom onto. Thomas was all over the fruit cutting station, the hammer,  a truck, and also my dad. He kept bringing my dad different things and made sure that my dad noticed it. It was all sorts of cute.

While the kids played with play-dough my mom started to pop some popcorn and by the time the first kernel had hit the bowl, nearly everyone was done playing with playdough. As the adults and kids both huddled around  bowls of popcorn, we started talking about all the different groups of people that have enjoyed popcorn at my parent’s kitchen table. It was a long, long list and it seemed fitting that Maggie would be shoving handfuls into her mouth with two of her buddies by her side.

I only wish I could have understood their conversation as they each reached for handfuls. Mara is pretty quiet, so much of the talk was between Thomas and Maggie. It wasn’t long after that both Erin and Lara had to leave, but lucky for Mags and me, we got to stay and keep eating and chatting around the popcorn bowl.