Halloween will be here soon, and Jamie has been pushing the idea of doing a "Boo" costume (the little girl from Monsters, Inc.). It's a fairly difficult costume, and we both have a lot on our plates right now, so I told him we should just buy something off the rack that Maggie would like. Jamie pledged to make the costume himself (while I rolled my eyes)! This was the goal:
We had to have a costume by Saturday because we had tickets to take Maggie to Zoo Boo. Jamie came home with material on Wednesday night and borrowed his mom's sewing machine Friday night. After swearing up and down that I wanted no part of these shenanigans, I decided to help my poor husband get the job done. With four hands, one sewing machine, lots of fabric, a very helpful YouTube video, some swear words and 5 hours, we got the job done:
Homemade costume - I'm
officially a mom
Considering neither of us knows how to sew, I was pretty darn proud of the end product! We put it on Maggie the next morning and she was absolutely terrified. She eventually warmed up to the idea though. Jamie borrowed the "Sully" costume from a co-worker - this also terrified Maggie at first.
Hugging Sully after a few moments hesitation
We had fun at Zoo Boo with several friends! Maggie said "trick tree" a few times in the beginning, but eventually she just wanted to play with her candy and bucket. She was very tired by the time we got home!
I've got my bucket, let's do this!
Can we go get candy now?
Posing with "Mike Wasowski"
She would let us put the hood up for
approximately 2 seconds
Still not having any of that hood...
Apple? Is there candy inside?
Another family shot
The Odglen trio
I think she's trying to hold Will, but it looks like she's torturing him!
Inspecting her treasures on the way home
Time for bed?
Maggie's vocabulary continues to grow, and she surprises us everyday with new words. One of my favorite words is "pockets." She pronounces it really well, and it's just cute when she points them out.
I gave her a mini cupcake for dessert one night, and she refused
to eat any of it... until she smelled it. It was gone very quickly.
This was me trying to take a video of Maggie running around, but ended up being her demonstration of how sharing works (in her mind):
Maggie wants to jump soooo bad! She's had some success getting airborne, but she mostly just squats a lot. Whenever you tell her to jump, she runs to the nearest piece of furniture to hold on and starts working it:
Sometimes Daddy helps her super-jump
...which she loves
Saturday we went to a Baptism and party at our friends' house. There were a bunch of kids, including Maggie's friend Kate who is a little older than her. The theme of the evening was "how to not share," which lead to several little breakdowns for both of them. It's so hard at this age because you just can't convince kids to share just for the sake of being nice. We've been working with Maggie this week, with very slight progress (she will willingly share her toy with you, but starts sobbing as soon as it's in your hands).
Ready to ride off into the sunset
The toy Maggie coveted most all night...
a stroller with baby Carebear
Earlier last week we went to a Ben Folds concert with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. It was so awesome to see all those musicians in harmony (and to songs I actually know), fantastic! It made me think I should probably support the DSO more often...
Random picture... Maggie trying to feed the camera
Ugh, I'm so tired of hearing the word "no" from my daughter! It really doesn't matter what I want her to do, the answer is pretty much always the same. Getting her ready every morning has gone from our fun, cuddly time to non-stop whining. Don't even get me started on doing her hair! Every morning usually ends with tears.
Today we had about 10 minutes of non-stop sobbing when Jamie got home because she didn't want to get out of the car... she forced her way out of his arms so she could writhe on the ground for a while! She may have a touch of drama in her...
What drives me nuts is that she doesn't do this to anyone else except Jamie and me. She's well-tempered and usually pretty cheerful with everyone else. This makes me think that she's testing her boundaries, but what she's really testing is my patience! I'm hoping this is a quick phase - in the meantime, I'm trying to come up with constant distractions to keep us away from tantrum-territory.
This is Maggie before we had to leave to run an errand. She's playing a sad melody to express her feelings.
I got the mommy-makes-you-do-
stuff-you-don't-wanna-do blues
Our Farmer's Market has a food-truck rally once a month, and we went to check it out this week. It was slightly pricey, but our food was really great! They had a bounce-house and Maggie wanted to go in sooo bad. She was still running a bit of a fever from a cold, so I didn't want her to get her germs all over the place. Needless to say, she didn't not understand my reasoning. But there's nothing that a few doughnuts won't solve:
Can I have ALL the doughnuts?
Carry me, Daddy, I'm too weak to go on
One of Maggie's favorite activities is have a tea party with the tea set from Grandma. We set everything up, and she spoon feeds her stuffed animals and me with a disturbing amount of imaginary sugar and cream. I love watching her imagine things.
Everybody sit down and let me tell you about the week
My dear husband took a last minute trip to Baltimore with Bobby and my nephew Zach to celebrate his 18th birthday! It sounded like a fantastic idea (to the guys... us wives were less than thrilled), so they left Michigan at 9pm on Thursday and drove through the night to get to Baltimore for the 12pm game Friday. I'm too old for trips like that! Unfortunately the Tigers lost (and again on Sunday), so my husband is in a deep sports depression. Nevertheless, they had a lot of fun in Baltimore, and we got to celebrate with the birthday boy on Saturday at Grammer and Pops'!
Isn't my nephew handsome?
Andy traveled from NY for the game too!
Zach and his lovely sisters
Maggie loves her cousin Luke, and was thrilled to play with him on Saturday. My mom and I watched baby Claire while Luke and Allison ran a race, and we got to spend a few minutes with Luke at the house too. He was sitting on the piano bench, and asked Grammer is she could "put the pretty girl up here," and pointing to Maggie... this guy is such charmer!
Rooting for the Tigers!
Maggie also really loves Clair... not sure if the feeling is mutual yet
Maggie got to party down with the family during Zach's party:
Making an escape plan? (Daddy is unsuccessfully trying to put on her PJs)
Several days later, Maggie still loves wearing her special hat... and no pants
Cousin Sophie sent home some clothes and other stuff for Maggie from Maryland:
Reading her new book with Daddy
Trying on her new hats... Sadly the Michigan hat just gets laughed at right now
Dare me?
Maggie is becoming quite the drama queen, but usually just with me and sometimes Daddy. She loves testing her limits with me, which is slightly infuriating, but seems to be normal. Thankfully she's still a sweetheart for everyone else most of the time... here's a little taste of my diva:
