San Simeon

Los Angeles is great. I love living here. Don't get me wrong; I love the beach, the weather, the traffic. Ahem, I mean . . . did I mention the traffic?

So, back in November when we had the rare chance to escape, we headed up the coast to San Simeon where we met my sister Jenni and her family.

Camping + toddlers + cold + family + bubbles + elephant seals (hundreds, literally) + the beach = vacation (hopefully deserved), fun, and not quite enough sleep. Luckily Maggie is a cuddle bug, so sleeping in a tent is not too much of a problem.

We visited Hearst Castle, an incredibly fascinating place, built by eccentric billionaire William Randolph Hearst in the 1920-1930's. Hearst imported art from Rome, Italy, France, etc; some dating back as far as 230 A.D. In the creation of his castle, he was inspired by his childhood tours of Europe, and if you were to erase the palm trees in the picture below, you would probably be more likely to think that the picture was taken, well certainly not in California. One of the pools, styled after a Roman bath house, is mosaic'd with tiles including some made of clear glass fused with gold.

Maggie kind of adored her cousin Lydia. Once, she managed to catch Lydia in a hug. Meanwhile, Lydia called out for help, "Momma, stuck! Stuck!"

A rare family photo. We slipped tube socks on Maggie arms to keep her little hands warm while we were hiking.

I like these two.

The little girls started their lunch (the part that the seagulls did not fly away with) while sitting on rocks that would never have reasonably seemed seat sized. They have such tiny bums. So cute.

Watching a toddler eat a sandwich at the beach is painful.

Maggie is past putting handfuls of sand in her mouth just for the heck of it (at least mostly; she has been going through an dirt eating phase that I have not entirely figured out).

Still, I just turned my head when she used her sandwich to dig in the sand at a beach birthday picnic. I am not sure that she did any sandwich-sand digging on this day, but she has definitely brought a new definition to sand-wich. Ha Ha Ha.

I just want to kiss those wind-burned cheeks.

Christmas

1. Idaho. Utah. Family (wonderful). Cold, but no white Christmas this year
2. Seeing Maggie with her grandparents made me really happy
3. 4 little rugrats running, jumping, screaming around a bright pink princess tent
4. Painting cookies with 4 toddlers = lots of extra sugar, a big mess, and lots of fun
5. Staying up way too late playing games--wouldn't be a family get together if we didn't
6. One super long and super intense laser tag game in which the girls destroyed the guys (okay maybe we didn't destroy them, but having superior guns and vests didn't hurt)
7. Lots of cousins, aunts, uncles. Maggie loved playing with her cousins!
8. Santa is awesome (Does that mean I am awesome?)
9. New Year's Feast!
10. Maggie pulled a Christmas tree down . . . twice
11. Trampoline fun
12. Maggie having a full-on thrash around on the floor and scream temper tantrum just as we lined up to board the plane; nobody even noticed ha ha ha
13. After my mom dropped a veggie tray on the floor . . . Tabs said, "No, no grandma!" She thought it over for a minute, and added, "It's okay Grandma. It was an accident."
14. It was great to have a houseful of people on Christmas morning.

21 months almost

Hi Maggie,

You are turning into such a pretty little girl... less like a baby every day. And, today 2 people told me that you looked just like me. Those kind of comments are pretty new, and even though I don't really see it, it makes me happy that other people do.

You have become quite the little talker. You try to repeat back almost everything that your daddy and I say to you. Just a couple of days ago, you learned to say the word "happy." You spent the day walking around saying "happy, happy, happy, happy." I asked, "Maggie, are you a happy girl?" "um-hmm, yah" you responded, as this has become your standard affirmative response. You still like to tell me when you are happy.

At your 18 month check-up you weighed approx 25 lbs and you were in the 50% for height and weight. You also easily said about 30 words at that time. Now, I have no idea how many words you can say because you come up with new ones ever single day. You also will occasionally combine a couple of words (e.g. more dink [drink])

Here is a very non-comprehensive list of some of the words that you use frequently: daddy, pease (please), hot, hi, dog, happy, ball, outside, nananana (banana), dink (drink), fooo (food), juice (you are always hopeful with this one after learning about juice at Grandma and Grandpa's house), teeeat (treat--even more hopeful with this one... in fact you still say "tick teeat" if you see candy, and let's be honest, I am more likely to give it to you when you ask so cutely), more, doggy, no, shoe, sock, tent (you learned this one over Christmas because your grandma and grandpa bought an awesome princess tent for you and all your little cousins to run around in), zoom, car, nice, sad, bath, hat, paayy (play), song, dance, show (again, hopefully), George, and cat (for your two favorite shows, Curious George and Cat in the Hat), nose, eyes, teeth, paste (for toothpaste), bite, some (as in I want some), jummey (jump), up, pick, (as in I want to make my own decision about which book, toothbrush, etc), and side (as in outside--your favorite place to be!)

A few more two syllable words have started making their way into your vocabulary too-- jacket, oranne (orange), colors (you say this when asking for your crayons), monkey

I have also heard "oh boy" and "oh shoot;" I guess it is a good thing I don't swear.

You frequently grunt when you pick up something large or heavy or if you are working really hard to tear something apart (most often something that can't be torn apart, like a block). . . I don't know if it's your daddy or myself that does the grunting, but I like to blame your daddy for that one.

You also make a bunch of animal sounds, but your favorite, of course, is still the monkey. The other day one of your little friends came over to play. He happened to have a monkey on his shirt. You ran over to him, pointing, and loudly said "ah, ah, ah, ah, ah" until he was startled and I realized and acknowledged that yes, he did have a monkey on his shirt. You were very proud of yourself.

We recently bought you a pair of nice, fuzzy, cheetah jammies. Your daddy taught you a cheetah growl and swipe of the paw, and now each time we put you in your cheetah jammies (or your zebra jammies) you give an enthusiastic cheetah growl and swipe of your little paw.

You have become a total mama's girl. Perhaps this is because, even though you have a pretty great vocabulary, you just recently learned how to say "ma" and "mom" over our Christmas holiday trip, and now you often call out for me. You pretty much have me wrapped around your little finger. You love to cuddle with me, and I love to cuddle you back! In fact, recently when you started having a hard time sleeping through the night (due in part to teething, traveling, and a nasty cold), your daddy and I started letting you sleep with us when you would wake up in the middle of the night. Maybe it was a mistake because now our bed is where you always want to sleep, but we both are such suckers for your sweet little cuddles. The other day I woke up and found that you had decided to use my belly as your pillow. Yes, I have said it before, but you are really cute.

There are some moments that being a mom is so wonderful; I feel like my heart is turning to mush. The other day I leaned down, gave you a hug, and said, "I love you." You hugged me right back and said "I-ove-uuuuu."

I love asking you for hugs and kisses. You usually comply with my requests. You give tight lipped, slobbery kisses and you wrap your arms around me and lay your head on my shoulder. I love it.

You have become very attached to your binky. Whenever you are upset you immediately throw your hands up and out (as if to say where is?) and then you cry out "BBBBBBBBBB." As soon as your binky is back in your possession, your hands go back up and you cry "BBBBBB." Now you are looking for your blankey. Sometimes, you walk around saying "BBBBBBBB where uuuuuuu?" You look in various rooms, under the couches, under your crib . . .

You love counting, or at least the idea of counting. When there are multiples of something, you love to count them. Usually, you point your finger over and over and say something like, "two, one, sempey, eight, nine."

You also love fisheys (as in gold, the kind that you can eat). Before you were able to say "fishey" (which you have now added to your vocabulary), when you wanted a fish cracker, you would make the best squishy little fish face. In nursery one day, the teacher was quizzing all of you little ones on what noises various animals make. Thinking he was being clever, he asked "what sound does a fish make?" Most of the children were stumped, but not you. You immediately demonstrated exactly the kind of noise, and face, that a fish makes.

One final last cute thing that I am going to write about for today . . . You love to pop your little pointer finger into the air and say "one?!" What you are really asking for is more (as in, "oh, do you want one more?" But you are very persistant with your one. When I am nearing the end of a bedtime song or your daddy is nearing the end of a bedtime story, you pop your little finger into the air and say "one?! one?!" Sometimes you end up with more than one because you are just so dang cute when you ask for "one?!"

Okay girl--even though I could keep writing all day about the funny things that you do, I think I had better stop for now. I just want you to know that your daddy and I love you very much.

Love,

Mommy

Happy Halloween

About three weeks before Halloween, and with the help of a mini package of M&M's, Maggie learned to be very proficient in saying trick-or-treat (it actually sounds like "tick teeee"). I gave her just enough candy corn for the following three weeks for her to learn that tick teeeee is indeed a very good thing to say. With all the excitement, when it came time for actual trick-or-treating on Halloween, she forgot the magic words (or maybe she has just become convinced that tick teeeeeee is something you say when you want your mom to give you candy... she continues to try it). Anyway, it was still fun to plan and make our costumes, and Maggie was still very happy with the loot that she collected. Because I am such a mean mom, Maggie has only eaten a couple pieces of her special candy (and a couple more she has managed to take care of straight through the wrappers), and while she certainly enjoys that, I think she has enjoyed scattering her candy throughout our apartment even more, and I have learned how many places a toddler can find to stash candy as well as what happens when a sucker is placed with your silverware in the dishwasher.

For those of you who are not Simpsons fans, well, we are Homer and Marge Simpson (I hope you were able to figure that out), and Maggie is Maggie Simpson. I know it is totally ridiculous, but I couldn't resist.

A true L.A. girl and a farm

In the spirit of autumn, I took Maggie to a farm harvest festival where she got to explore a pumpkin patch, climb on a haystack, go on a wagon ride, see lots of animals, and her very favorite activity (naturally) . . . watching the animatronic chickens sing and clap their robotic beaks. She was pretty much in love with the chickens and kind of melted down when I dragged her away for the 3rd time.

On our way to the farm Maggie proved that she is a true L.A. girl. When we suddenly came upon a traffic jam, with a very concerned face, she pointed to the traffic and said, "Uh-oh."

"You can say that again," I thought.

Then, later in our drive, she did.

We came upon another traffic jam (we do live in L.A.), and again with a very serious face, she pointed to the traffic.

"Uh-oh," she said. You know you live in L.A. when your 18 month old knows a traffic jam when she sees one.

Also, the farm was nice :)

(And cheering for the chickens, of course)

I forgot to mention

One thing that I love about this girl is that like most babies, she has a special little lovey. It is a very soft and cuddly pink, cream, and tan blanket. However, unlike most babies she has a unique way of gaining comfort from her little lovey. She smells it. And smells it. And smells it. In fact, if she is looking for it, she will put her hands in the air, as if to say "where is?" and then will take a big fake sniff through her nose to tell me that it is indeed her blanky that she is looking for.

Best Fans Ever (or at least the best looking and most loved by me)

One great thing about my job in the ER is that while I am gone, Joe has the opportunity to really be a dad. He has time with Maggie all to himself, without me around to boss him around. Come Saturday afternoon, when I finally wake up after having checked out for two days, I pop back into their lives, catching them mid-activity and this is one of my favorite things; I always wish that I could have been a part of their lives for the last two days, but then again, me being gone is what makes the daddy daughter days so sweet. Well, on my last working Saturday I woke not too long before kick off for the UT football game and I found this:

Yep, Joe had gotten them both ready the big game in full UT fan apparel, complete with matching shirts, jeans, and shoes. Kind of melted my heart. So, naturally I threw on my own UT shirt and then demanded that Joe let me take some pictures.