Happy Birthday to you!

Little Maggie-pie,

I can't believe that you are two years old! The last two years have gone by so fast.

You are such a sweet and happy little girl! You have an almost constant smile on your face, and you generously give hugs and kisses to your Daddy and I. Today we were talking about how baby Jack is in my belly. You gave my belly a pat, tried to look down my shirt to see the baby, and then you leaned down and kissed my belly. I think your little brother is going to be very lucky to have such a sweet older sister. You show the same consideration for your baby doll and your stuffed animal "friends." You are often changing their diapers, giving them food and drink (real and imagined), placing them for naps (even sharing your special blanky for nap time), rocking them in your arms, and giving them hugs and kisses. There are a few bikes stored behind a fence that we pass each time we walk from our car to our apartment. You always want to go see the bikes. Today, while we were looking at the bikes, you said, "oh, cute bikes!" (these are adult size, rusty, missing seats and tires). Then, you patted the tires, and when I tried to encourage you to move on, you had to give the bikes a parting hug (I cringed because you were wearing your new birthday outfit and we had just come from church and also, but it was "sweet" as you so often say).

You are also a super energetic little girl. When we went car shopping until 1:00 a.m. one morning, you literally ran in circles around the dealership until we left. One of the workers told us that they had taken bets about when you would eventually crash. Around 11:30 p.m. he told us they had all lost the bet. The next morning when I tried to wake you up for church, you batted my hands away, closed your eyes and made fake snoring sounds. I tried to pick you up, and you batted at my hands again, and continued with the snoring sounds. You love to run, jump, and spin in circles.

You LOVE to sing and dance. When we drive around in the car, you sing any lyrics that you can pick up, and it is impressive how quickly you pick them up. I think your favorite song is "here comes the dinosaurs." We sing and march around the house to this song usually multiple times a day, but you also know the lyrics to many of the songs that your Daddy and I like to listen to.

You are a really good little talker--almost making complete sentences, and you are pretty patient when I can't understand what you are saying. Instead of getting frustrated, you repeat yourself over and over or try to act out whatever you are trying to get me to understand. The other day when your Daddy couldn't figure out what you were saying even after repeated effort on your part, instead of getting frustrated, you just started laughing at him. You are still learning to use pronouns; if you want me to hold you you say "hold you?!" or "sit by your?!" It is so cute, that I haven't tried too hard to correct you. I know that you will figure it out in good time. You can say all your numbers in order to 10, although you skip 5. You also know that the teens come next, and will jump randomly from one teen to another when trying to count until you start back over at 1. You are still working on your colors, and will almost always say that something is blue when asked its color. You also use blue as an adjective to describe a particular thing (e.g. "blue one binky"you might say to try to get me to understand that you want your favorite binky which is actually red and clear).


I am so grateful for the chance that I have to be your mother. You are so sweet, energetic, loving, smart, kind, cute, cuddly, beautiful, fun, and funny. Even though you are teaching me patience (I think that is sort of what motherhood is for), you bring so much light and joy to my life every day. I want to freeze you in the moment so that you will never grow any older, so that you will always be my squishy cheeks, little sweetie. Yet, still, every day I am so excited to watch you learn, grow, try new things, and make new steps.

I love you!
Mommy

Your cake is supposed to be a beach (your favorite place for the best I can tell). The bears are lounging on beach towels and floating in inner-tubes.

IF

Joe and I have had the chance to fly to some pretty amazing places; I learned to love flying. Sitting, reading, relaxing, daydreaming.

Turns out that flying is not quite as fun when you have a bulging belly, frequenting poked and elbowed by a super squirmy toddler who really wants to crawl around on the disgusting airplane floor. Especially when the flight gets turbulent and you think you are going to throw up and the lady in front of you complains that "SOMETHING is hitting her chair." Luckily, it turns out that Maggie loves turbulence. She giggled and squealed so loudly when our decent into Idaho Falls was a little rocky that she was starting to get laughs from several rows of passengers, and I think it was her cuteness that helped me keep my lunch. She was more skeptical when I changed her diaper while standing her on the toilet seat in the airplane bathroom. Anyway, I think there might actually be some wisdom in the age limit requiring a two-year old to purchase a ticket (something that I seriously doubted before I squeezed in one last free flight to visit my family in Idaho).

Still, every jab in my nauseous belly seriously payed off for the time that we got to spend in Idaho Falls. By the end of the week Maggie was cuddling with Grandma and Papa which is pretty impressive because she has been SUCH a mama's girl lately. She had so much fun playing with her cousins Tabs and Kaia that she still talks about them. The other day she asked me if we could see Grandma and Papa. It made me so happy, but so sad because I had to explain that we would have to go on another airplane before we could see them again. Even though we have had fun visits together in the past, this is the first time that Maggie has seemed to hold onto any memory/attachment to her family. I hope that even though family visits aren't as frequent as I wish, that she will still be able to build loving relationships and that maybe next time we won't be starting from scratch.

I think I took a half dozen pictures trying to get a good one of these three silly girls. In every picture Tabs is being cute/silly, Maggie has a huge, cheesy smile (pretty much her permanent facial expression) and Kaia is either glaring at me or looking away completely. Cracks me up. That girl has so much attitude. 

Those geese are aggressive! Maggie had her hand bitten (if you can bite with a beak) twice until she started running from away; then they started chasing. Usually it is Maggie doing the chasing even when her hands are full of food.  Still a beautiful place.

Ready, Go!

Here is a conversation that has been had on many days in our home.

Me--"Maggie, can you tell Daddy what we did today?"

Maggie--(after looking at me for a minute), "Beach!"

Joe--"You went to the beach today?!" (I shake my head).

Maggie --"water! cold!" . . . "Bye beach."

I am sad to say that we don't actually go to the beach on most days. Instead, after the above conversation, I proceed to help Maggie tell Joe about what we actually did that day, (usually much less fun than going to the beach).

At least Maggie has the right idea about what we should be doing every day, and she certainly makes the most of our time there.

The other day, though, I had the bright idea to have a beach picnic. We were on our way home, and only had a few free minutes but I had packed sandwiches, so I thought, "why not eat them while watching doggies and runners (another of Maggie's well loved activities) down on the beach path." Well, I am sad to say that our picnic ended with me dragging a screaming, flailing toddler away from the water. In my defense, I usually do let her play in the water (or maybe that's the problem), but now I have learned my lesson. We only head to the beach when the ocean (and not just the sand) is an okay.

In case you missed it, Maggie is yelling "Ready, gooooooooooo." It is her own derivative of "ready, set, go" which I think she used in the beginning to get her courage to run into the freezing cold water. Now, I think she just likes to yell.

Belly Full

By way of announcement, sort of (it is a little overdue) . . .

Yesterday, Maggie was sitting on my lap and tried to lean back into me and cuddle. When she was blocked by my growing belly, she patted it with her little hand, and said "belly full." Then, she jumped down to go play.

Yes, my belly is rather full of a growing baby. A little boy due Aug 7. Yay! (I am kind of scared, actually, but super happy too).

I am 26 1/2 weeks. I guess this picture was taken a few weeks ago (23 weeks I think), but it is the only belly shot I really have to document it. My belly is certainly much fuller now.