The girls

Maggie-isms

"That was gooder than a chicken leg!"

Discussing with Audrey the TV channel Noggin, which features an animated moose in between shows. "I trust that moose. He's the director of the shows. If he says Diego's on next, I believe him."

A languid sigh. "I wish I was in Paris." Puts her hand across her forehead, the very picture of continental ennui.

Birthday celebrating

We continued the birthday weekend with a lot more celebrating on Sunday. First, Robert and I took Maggie out for her birthday outing with no sisters. After many, many weeks of brainstorming, planning, selecting and rejecting ideas, Maggie finally decided that she wanted a fancy tea party with all of us dressed up, and then something grown up like a concert. We couldn't find a concert, but we found a children's fairytale play at the Santa Monica Playhouse, and a famous British restaurant called the Tudor House conveniently nearby. Maggie decided to wear her favorite dress and was very pleased when Robert and I dressed up too.

At the Tudor House, Maggie had a fruit tea that turned purple when she added (a lot of) milk and (a lot more of) sugar to it. She was delighted and drank three cups of it. She ate tiny sandwiches, scones, strawberries and cream, and a gingerbread bear. All three of us stuffed ourselves on the all-carb-and-cream feast. It was wonderful.

After tea we walked a few blocks in the cool Santa Monica gloom to the theater, a charming little place that put on a fantastic one-hour play. The only wrinkle was that there were four actors...and five people in the audience. Just us and a woman with her 2-year-old grandson. But the show must go on, apparently, and the actors were excellent and gave Maggie lots of special attention. I recommend this theater to everyone--take your kids to see a play there when you can! Maybe we can get a group together sometime to go.

We came home to a bunch of decorations my mom had put up, and soon all the grandmas and papas were here and ready to continue the celebration. Maggie opened her gifts and then we all had dinner and cake. Maggie had planned her cake very carefully: she wanted an ice cream cake with chocolate cake and chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream. She got it, and it was covered with princesses. She was completely thrilled.

I'm a little disappointed that we didn't have a big party with friends like we originally intended, but this little family party was fun and simple and enough to make Maggie happy. And that's the point!

Maggie is 5 years old

Happy fifth birthday to Maggie!

This morning I grabbed Maggie for a hug and got weepy for a minute thinking how fast the last five years have flown by. Not long ago, I was a brand new mom feeling like I was playing house with my new baby. Now I'm a pro who knows seemingly everything about babies, toddlers and preschoolers...and who is about to launch into the new realms of kindergarten, PTA, soccer teams and all the rest.

Maggie is very excited about starting kindergarten. She says she is looking forward to having a backpack, getting a carton of milk in the cafeteria, making friends with other kids, seeing the sand box, meeting the teacher, finding out the teacher's name, and seeing what the classroom is like.

I'm afraid that I haven't been doing much with the girls' education over the summer. At her Montessori preschool Maggie was learning to read and do arithmetic, but I think her skills have slumped somewhat. We read books every day, of course, and I encourage Maggie to read words we encounter in everyday life (she also likes to type words on the computer). But she hasn't been itching to do a lot of schoolwork and I haven't felt the need to force it. She's smart, she likes to learn, and I have no doubt that she'll excel in school.

At five, Maggie is shedding the last bits of babyishness and becoming more grown-up all the time. She is very responsible and rarely does anything naughty except for occasionally being too rough with her sisters or being a little rude to us. Most of the time, though, she is perfect. It's an interesting thing, as a parent, when you hear your own words and tone of voice come out of the mouths of your children. Often this is embarrassing, but sometimes it's sublime. Yesterday Audrey was wondering if she would get to eat a birthday cupcake at daycamp. Maggie sat down with her and patiently, sweetly explained that she wouldn't get one because they would be in separate rooms, but that Maggie would do her best to save a cupcake for her so she could have one that night. It was exactly how I might have explained it, and it made me feel proud of Maggie and pleased that at least sometimes, I do an okay job at modeling good behavior.

Maggie has been wearing her hair in ponytails and pigtails all summer, but for the past two days has wanted to wear it hanging down and loose. I'm surprised at how long it suddenly seems and how it makes her look older. I think she is so pretty with her impish mouth and expressive eyes. She has a new habit of pursing her lips and narrowing her eyes when she is displeased or trying to figure out something tricky. It's cute, but of course, I like her big delighted smile more than anything.

She is mostly happy but prone to sudden mood swings, especially when she's tired. She is outgoing and likes to be with people but it saps her energy, and she needs time alone to recharge. She likes to perform. She tries to get attention by acting goofy--sometimes it's adorable, sometimes it's annoying. She is very, very kind to other people. The love she shows her sisters touches my heart on a daily basis. And she has good instincts for being nice to other kids and finding ways to get along. Today at the mall while we were waiting for her birthday photos to be printed, she befriended a little boy and found out his name, make sure he knew her and her sisters' names, and then offered him a choice of games to play.

She's had a great attitude about having her arm in a cast. Everyone told me that after the first two weeks we'd all be used to it, and it's true. I don't even really notice it most of the time, and Maggie seems to notice it even less. She still runs and jumps (more than she should, probably), dresses herself, brushes her teeth, draws, etc. even though she can't use her primary hand.

Maggie's favorite things to do are go to daycamp, play with other kids, go to the playground, go to museums, watch movies and have popcorn, take photos, go on nature walks, play computer games, watch TV (especially Word World), dress up (although her interest is starting to fade somewhat), put on make-up and jewelry, spend time with her Grandmas and Papas, and play with her sisters.

Today's birthday festivities are modest. Maggie got to open gifts this morning: a jewelry box from Robert and me filled with costume jewelry, and a make-up set from Audrey and Jane. I took the girls to the mall to get Maggie's portrait taken, and I let them ride the choo-choo twice and get ice cream for a special treat. Tonight we're going out to dinner at her choice of restaurants (my money is on Islands).

Happy birthday, Margaret Hope!

The celebrating begins

Tomorrow is Maggie's fifth birthday. I know, I'm in shock too. 

Today she's kicking off her birthday weekend by celebrating at day camp. She picked a lemon cake mix and (with Audrey) we made dozens of tiny cupcakes and decorated them with vanilla frosting and candy flowers. She was very excited this morning to pack them up and take them to camp. She was also excited about her new birthday shirt and insisted on wearing her hair in a new style. Since it's gotten longer (but is still baby fine and limp), I've insisted she wears a ponytail or pigtails every day so it looks neat. But today I blow-dried it to make it more full and we experimented with pink bows until we had a look that Maggie proclaimed "perfect." With her hair down she looks older all of a sudden, and yet still so petite, and with all the style and sass she's had since she was a baby. My baby! My big girl! My FIVE YEAR OLD!

Playground pics

The other day I took the girls to the park for a picnic and some playground time. Maggie was a good sport about it even though she couldn't do anything at the playground except sit in the toddler swing. She has had an amazingly good attitude about her cast. (She got a new blue cast because when the swelling went down, her old glow in the dark cast was too loose. She picked blue this time because "blue is a princess color.")

Quick update

Maggie and I have been looking at the blog, and she suggested we add a post right now. I asked what she wants me to write about, and she says I should say that she and Audrey have been very good today. This is mostly true.

Now Maggie wants to type something:

MAGGIE HAS BIN GOOD

Jane speaks

Jane has been saying Mama on purpose for months, and has gradually added a few more words to her vocabulary. She says Dada for Robert, and has a few times tried to say Maggie, though that one is a work in progress. 

She mimics a lot of sounds and words, and some of them are starting to become actual words she says on her own. Just now she was in my lap playing with my headphones, dropped them on the floor, and in a perfect sing-song voice said "Uh-oh!"

She uses "da!" as her all-purpose word to mean "I want that" or "There it is" or whatever else she needs to communicate. For example, the other day I was holding her on my lap while she drank milk from her sippy cup (side note: one of Jane's funniest quirks is that she always drinks her milk or water like she's just stepped off the desert and is parched. She drinks and gasps noisily as if she hasn't had a drink all day--every single time!). She pushed the cup away so I set it on the table and started reading her a book. A few minutes later she shoved aside the book imperiously and looked up at me, jabbered a sentence, then pointed at her cup and said "Da!" Her royal command was quite clear.

She is jabbering a lot now, and it's so cute to listen to. She says whole sentences and goes back and forth with me in conversation, only she sounds like she's speaking a vaguely English-sounding foreign language. She seems to do this the most when she's just woken up or when she hasn't seen someone for a while. When her physical therapist, Clytie, comes over on Fridays, Jane always looks her in the eye and jabbers on and on. I'm not sure if she's filling Clytie in on what's happened all week, or merely trying to convince her that she really doesn't need to do those pesky exercises that she so dislikes.

Storage solution

A few seconds of our long day

Jane: Sitting still. Playing nicely with a toy. Clueless.

Maggie: Dragging a laundry basket up behind Jane. Tip-toeing. Trying to be quiet. Failing.

Me: Watching. Wondering.

Maggie: Whispering to herself. "I just have to...practice...my...trapping..."

Me: Scooping up Jane as the laundry basket was poised to trap her.

Maggie: Indignant.

Me: "We don't trap the baby. Go trap Audrey instead."

Maggie: Happy. "Okay!"

Fancy ladies

A few photos

The mind of Maggie

"Mommy, I want to ask you a serious question."

I steel myself. 

Lately she has been asking me things like "What would happen if the whole world was dead?" and "Where exactly is heaven?"

I'm ready for anything.

"Mommy, how do you know when your car is out of gas?"

Relieved, I explain about the fuel gauge and the warning light. She nods, a serious expression on her face, and informs me that if my car ever runs out of gas, I can call a man who will bring more in a special bag. With that off her mind, she runs outside to join her sister in practicing karate kicks.

Keeping Maggie happy

Maggie is doing pretty well today. I took the girls to the library storytime and we checked out a huge new stack of books. We've been playing a lot of board games and Maggie has discovered that she's really good at mousing with her right hand, so she's been able to play some computer games too.

A lot of people have commented on her plain looking cast; the reason it's not pink or purple is because she chose glow-in-the-dark! In a dark room it looks very cool. She decided she doesn't want anyone to write or draw on it right now, but she might change her mind at some point. Gina had a great idea: hot glueing jewels on it! I think Maggie might really like that.

If anyone has advice or ideas to share, I'd love to hear them. What can we do to keep busy that involves mainly walking or sitting? Keep in mind that that she can't do much writing or drawing or anything that requires her primary hand. She also can't run, climb, etc. So I'm thinking something like the zoo or aquarium would be perfect. 

Other ideas for places to go? Or activities/toys she could use at home?

Broken

Maggie broke her arm.

At daycamp yesterday afternoon, she tripped and fell, putting all her weight on her left hand. She was in a lot of pain so they called me to come pick her up. I did, and as soon as Robert could come home he took her to the ER. They were there for hours before getting x-rays, which confirmed a fracture. They put a splint on her while she was sleeping and sent them home. Today I took her to an orthopedist who did more x-rays and put on a cast. A huge cast from her fingers to her upper arm that she has to wear for at least six weeks.

The doctor said she is not supposed to run, climb, swing, slide, etc. She is basically only supposed to walk and sit. It's her left wrist, and she is left-handed, so she can't write, draw or mouse. She is miserable about it, and so am I (though I've been doing a fair job, I think, of staying upbeat for her).

Vote for Gina!

I entered Gina in a contest to win a free blog redesign. Please take a second to vote for her (it's the one that says something like Gina nominated by Deborah).

Vote Here!

You can also read my Ode to Gina over at her site.

Nature walk and collages