My Little Magoo Turned FIVE (10 Days Ago)

My littlest girl is not so little. As she tells me, being five automatically makes you a Big Kid, so now I'm not allowed to refer to her as one of the 'littles' anymore. She's charming and feisty and loyal and loving. She still picks her nose, but knows she shouldn't. She asked for makeup for her birthday. She still insists on being rocked and sung to at bedtime. She won't be in kindergarden until next year, and I think that she'll basically be ruling the entire school by the end of the first week. 

We love you Maggie!

My Name Is Amy and I Am Old

As I sit writing this, I have a big, old fashioned red rubber hot water bottle strapped to my low back. Why? Because last Friday I thought I'd be a good mother and take my kids ice skating. Even though she seemed to hate it last year, Maggie begged to be taken along. I hemmed and hawed over whether I should take her. I knew if it was just the big kids, we could skate around and have fun, but with Maggie there, she would have to be my main focus. Her enthusiasm won me over, though, and I suited her up in some snow pants and we headed out.

At the beginning, before we got on the ice, she was still very optimistic. But when we got out there she kind of fell apart. Learning to skate on hockey skates is tough, and she fell about a dozen times in the first five minutes. At that point, all she wanted to do was hang on me, and have me literally carry her to and fro. I was letting her hold my hands to skate her over to the bench for a rest, and she got tripped up on her own feet. All of a sudden she yanked on my hands in a weird, turn-y way, and I felt a lightening bolt of pain shoot up my back. And so now I am that lady, who is always grabbing her lower back and moaning and looking for hot water bottles and heating pads and taking ibuprofen round the clock. 

On the plus side, since there was no way in HELL Maggie was holding my hands after that point, look what she figured out: 

Was it worth the pain I am still experiencing? Not really, but watching this helps at least a little! 

And Just Like That, She Was Four

Maggie turned four the other day, and boy howdy was it a big affair!

 We rented a big bouncy house, complete with slide

We had a piñata, which was totally a unicorn and totally NOT a donkey

And at the end we even went for a family swim!

The party was a huge success, by my estimation. Maybe the best kids party we've ever thrown. We had a great mix of family, old friends, and new friends. There were some folks who we missed, but after a few minutes in the bouncy house it was hard to focus on the negative.

Also, Maggie decided to stop wearing a diaper to bed now that she's four. I was happy to hear that, but not at all optimistic. She's never once woken up dry, but since it was the weekend I thought I'd indulge her. Well guess what? Three days later and she is doing spectacular! Not a single accident! However, for the first two nights she had to come and wake me up to tell me she peed and then to snuggle each time she went to the potty. Sweet, but it got old real quick. I finally convinced her that she didn't need to notify me each and every time she went potty, and last night I slept uninterrupted and she still woke up dry.

So far, four is awesome!

So without further ado, here is the annual birthday montage! 

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Back To School Update: The Girls

Oh, my darling daughters. Both of you faced some serious changes in your school routines this year. Lucy changed schools, which I was very nervous about. I really felt like moving her to the public school was a good idea, and now that we have a few weeks under our collective belts I feel like we made the right decision. She loved her Montessori classroom, but struggled with the freedom of choosing her own work. This year, in a more traditional classroom setting she is doing great! Socially, things don't seem to shabby either. A little girl she knew from gymnastics was assigned to the same classroom, so luckily she didn't have to walk in on the first day not knowing anyone, and since then she had made some new friends. I was a little troubled when a birthday party at the end of the first week was kind of disastrous for Lu, but today I saw a friend call out to her and wait so that they could walk in together. My heart almost melted.

Maggie is in the same school, but we moved her from the afternoon class to the morning class, which means none of her friends from last year are with her anymore. I struggled mightily with this decision, but ultimately for the sake of family maintenance had to switch her. Freddie is now going to school in the morning, and keeping her in the afternoon would have meant a ridiculous amount of time dropping off and picking up at this particular school. Plus, the afternoon dismissal time at that school is still the same as at Sam & Lucy's school, so I would have been struggling to pick kids up at two spots across town from each other. After dealing with that last year, I felt pretty strongly that moving her to the morning class would be key element to maintaining my sanity, and in the end that would be good for her. No one wants a bat shit crazy mom, right? Luckily, because she's a little social butterfly, this hasn't impacted her too negatively. The first few days were weird for her, but now she's got a whole new posse of friends, plus we're still friends with kids from last year and see them socially, so she's got that going for her.

Extracurricularly speaking, my girls are BUSY. Lucy is taking golf lessons after school one day a week, and they both are attending a group piano class and a dance/acrobatics class. Luckily for me, since they are close enough in age, they go to the same piano and dance class, which was a huge relief for me. With Sam in hockey and piano and golf (not to mention the therapy that Sam and Lucy are still going to for now) I don't know how I'm going to manage all of this once Fred starts with sports/activities. Probably with a lot of coffee, and maybe some druge. Legal ones, of course, but I'm pretty sure drugs will be necessary.

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In other unrelated news, we are having a giant birthday party for Maggie this weekend. She wanted a pinata in the shape of a unicorn, of course. I was just starting to think that I was going to have to whip out some paper mache around here, but then a trip to Target saved me. Wandering down the party aisles, Maggie should out, "THERE IT IS! MY UNICORN PINATA!!!"

If anyone dares to tell her that it's actually a donkey, I'll use the pinata stick on your head.

A Conversation with Maggs

This kid? Deserves her own YouTube Channel, at the very least.

Last Day, Part One

Today was the last day of school for my girls. So I hauled them out into the yard this morning for a not-so-quick photo session. Luckily, they were both champs! 

Despite having a bit of a rocky year, Lucy is sad for the school year to be over. She is going to miss her friends and teachers, and spent over an hour last night drawing and writing notes for them. Most of the cards included an invitation for the recipient to come over and see her Easy Bake Oven. She really is a hoot, this one. Luckily, she gets to bring a part of her classroom home with us over the summer in the form of Peace and Harmony, the classroom rats pets. I didn't really want to volunteer to give them a home for the summer, but last week Lucy flooded the bathroom twice in two days, so I felt like I owed the school something. 

Maggie isn't really upset about school being over, but that's mostly because I don't think she really gets it. For example, her dance class is also over now, but she keeps asking if she has dance class tomorrow. I'm a little worried that next week she's going to be pissed, because this kid loves school. And dance class. I would try and woo her with the swimming pool, but she's not really that into it. I guess I'll be forced to bust out some play dough, which is her favorite in-school activity.

And just because they're sisters, here's a picture of them together!

And here's their picture from the first day of school. I was going to try and have them wear the same dresses, but they both grew so much this year that the hemlines were indecent. Where does the time go???

Weekend Escapes

The past day and a half have been pretty freaking awesome. I want to sit and write about it, but I don't want to miss too much of the fun! We've spent time with family...

Went swimming...

And went to Maggie's first dance recital, which was every bit as amazing as you might think. Just see for yourself...

Summer vacation can't come fast enough.

Mrs. Magoo

She loves bubbles. We can barely get outside these days, what with ALL OF THE SNOW IN THE UNIVERSE falling here daily, but whenever we do, it's 'please please please can we blow bubbles?'

Is it even possible to say 'no' to that face?

This Nicely Sums Up How Family Dinner Is Going...

Today at the girls' school they showed me their 'cornucopia of thanks' lining the walls. Since Lucy is in kindergarten she got a nice, big paper with a photo of her sweet face. She said she was thankful for 'Riding her bike, and flying her kite.' Which is hilarious, because I think I can count on one hand how many times she's done those two things combined. 

Maggie is younger, and so she only got a little leaf on which to share her thoughts. I scoured the walls until I found hers:

And I busted out laughing! When her teacher heard me, she came out of the class and confessed to having trouble suppressing her laughter when Maggs dictated this. This made me howl because Maggie has been the most difficult child with family dinners, and mac & cheese is like her salvation. She begs for it at every meal, INCLUDING BREAKFAST, and when she's given some she gobbles it up like she hasn't eaten in weeks.

I guess we'll have to have a macaroni side dish at Thanksgiving then, right?

ROY G BIV

At Sam's school, they have bees. You start your day with your bee in the green hive. If you are misbehaving, the teacher will warn you by moving your bee to the yellow hive. Continue to behave badly and your bee goes in the red hive. If you end up in the red hive too many times for the same reason, you have to complete a 'Think About It' form.

So far this year, Sam has already had two 'Think About Its' and can barely go two days without landing his bee in the red hive. The one 'Think About It' was for kissing his best friend, and while we had a long discussion about personal space and appropriateness of kissing at school, I wasn't too upset with him over that one. The real problem is that he just can't stop talking. Ever. His teacher called home the other day, and I'm starting to worry about what we're going to hear when we go in for his parent-teacher conference in a few weeks.

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Maggie is thoroughly enjoying school. She enjoys it so much that she forgets to go to the bathroom while she's there, and pees herself almost every day during pickup. Good times. We're working with her teachers to help quell this issue.

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Last week we had to go in for a meeting with Lucy's teachers. They called us in because they've noticed some behaviors that were raising some flags. Red flags. She fixates, objectifies her peers, doesn't make eye contact. Lucy has always been quirky, but the stress of the move has taken her quirky personality and turned it up to eleven. So we've agreed to have her undergo a battery of screenings. I think that, if she does end up with some sort of diagnosis, it will be on the mild side, and I'm not averse to getting some insight into how she ticks. But still, it kind of sucks. As a parent, it's tough to hear that there might be something "wrong" with your kid. Not because of the stigma or anything, but because you want them to have an easy, happy life. Anything that might stand in the way of that is upsetting.

I don't think anyone could ever pin a label on this kid, but anything we can do to help her move through life more easily has to be the right thing to do.

Now we just have to wait for Freddie to develop some sort of issue!

Maggie is Three!

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Better late than never! We love you so much Miss Maggie Magoo!

Maggie is Three

My darling little Magoo is three today. I'm working on finding the things I need to make her birthday montage, but so, so much of my life is still in boxes. But she got a new house. And Nunnie came to the rescue and got a cookie cake. AND? She got to spend some quality time in the play area inside the grocery store, which she's been dying to do since tuesday when she got turned away for not being three. AND she got to go to a big party for her beloved aunt's baby shower. Luckily for us, she really didn't realize that the party wasn't for her.

I love this little peanut so much. I can't believe that she's three. My sister-in-law, who we showered today, is seeing the same OB for the birth of her little girl as I saw with Maggs. Talking to her at the shower today really brought back memories of the day Maggie was born, even more than usual. She was such a sweet and perfect little child right from the start. She has always been so loving and affectionate, and today she's just as noisy and chatty as she was when she was born. She can cuddle with the best of 'em, and she tells me at least thirty times a day that she loves me.

I think she know that, if I could, I would tell her I love her at least thirty thousand times a day.

Last Days

First day...


Last day.

First day...


Last day.

And just because they wanted to be included, too, here are the young 'uns...

Potty Training: Spring Break Style

So we've finally decided to buckle down and potty train Maggs. She's been using the potty intermittently for a few months, and since we're just chilling at home this week while the kids are on spring break, it seemed like the ideal time. She spent last weekend with my parents and wore big girl underpants the whole time with only one accident. Naturally, I was optimistic. I can't help it, it's my nature. (Insert eye roll here.)

I bought her a package of Rapunzel underpants and away we went! Everything was just great until my parents had the audacity to leave on Sunday. We were at the hockey game (yes, THAT hockey game) and Maggie was pretty much non-compliant with our sitter. Then yesterday she was really hit-or-miss with me. She'd go on the potty when I took her, only to pee in her pants less than ten minutes later.

Today was the beginning of the end. This morning she was whining that she didn't want to be a big girl, that she wanted to stay a baby and wear diapers. Well, I'm not one for quitters, so I said no way! Put on your big girl panties, both literally and figuratively. She did, and it was ok. For a while. I had to put Freddie down for a nap mid-morning, so I situated her at the table with a bowl of raisins. And when I came back downstairs she had made a few raisins-like objects of her own, right in her Rapunzel unders.

Good times.

I set about cleaning her up, and then I got to cleaning up the bench she was sitting on at the time of the incident. I was looking for some lysol wipes, but I wasn't having much luck finding them. I poked around under the bathroom sink, and guess what I found stashed behind a wall of toilet paper rolls?

A huge pile of...........

CANDY! (Admit it, you totally thought I was going to say poop, right?) And discarded candy wrappers!

By this time I had pretty much forgotten about Maggie and she was running around the house pants-less.

I cornered my two big kids and gave them the third degree. It was pretty obvious after about six seconds that Lucy was the guilty party. Adding to to the evidence against her is the fact that she always takes an eternity in the bathroom. Even if she only goes in there to get a tissue. After trying to pin the blame on both of her younger siblings (because we all know Fred has a mean sweet tooth) I explained that if she told the truth she wouldn't be in as much trouble. She broke down and confessed everything. Even about how she used the step ladder to get the candy down from the high shelves in the pantry. *facepalm*

So now Maggie is back in diapers and Lucy isn't allowed in the pantry. Can school just start again, please?

Pre-School, Part THREE

Tomorrow morning I'm going to tour a new pre-school for my little Maggie. Yes, MAGGIE. As in, this one:

How is it possible that she is going to pre-school? She doesn't even turn three until the end of next September. But for most pre-schools, you only have to be two and three-quarters, so off to school she goes!

Now, we could send her to the same pre-school here that Sam and Lucy went to last year. It was a nice school, and the hours would be pretty compatible with Sam and Lucy's schedule. BUT! In an effort to make my life more complicated, I'm going to check out a Montessori school up in Pennsylvania, about 20-30 minutes away. Given the start and end times, I may be able to make it work. Maybe.

There is also a YMCA in that area. One thing that I miss more than anything here in Morgantown is a Y. Everywhere we've lived with kids, the Y has been a permanent fixture for both the kids and myself. If Maggs does three hours of school each day, then Fred and I can hang at the Y in the meantime. Lunch on the way home, naps when we arrive back at our domicile. If everything goes according to plan.

In all likelyhood, Maggie is going to end up going to the same pre-school here in Mo-town that Sam and Lu went to, but I feel like I own it to her to check out this other option. Sam did the Montessori thing, and I think it was super-beneficial to him. I want to be able to give that kind of experience to all of my kids, if possible. So while it may make my life a little more crazy, if it's better for my kids, it's better for me.

BUT, I totally reserve the right to bitch and moan about it whenever I wish.

Bonding Over Nose Picking

We try and discourage them, but we are obviously not persistent enough.

Lovely Ladies

This One...

I can't even explain how she gets to me.

Maggie's Misfortune

About a month ago I posted a tale of sickness. It all started with Sam, and ended with Maggie. Or so we thought. Because for her, it never really ended. Since then we've had some really, truly awful experience both with vomiting and with the contents of her diapers. And that's all the more detailed I really want to get about that, YOU'RE WELCOME.

Last week I took her to the doctor to get some tests done in hopes of figuring out if she had some rare Balkan parasite or something. These tests involved needles, getting a non-potty trained child to pee in a collection basin, and a pleasant afternoon of driving around with a cup of turds in my cup holder. And all for naught, because all the results came back negative. Don't get me wrong now, I'm relieved that there is nothing majorly wrong with her, but did you read the part up there about the turds? In my car? Yeah.

She seemed to be getting better though, so I breathed a sigh of relief, hoping that it had just been a nasty virus and that she was finally over it. Until Tuesday night, when the diapers from hell began again. Seriously, the fumes almost melted my eyelashes off.

After she was in bed, crying about the horrible rash that developed on her tiny hiney within minutes, I sat down to think about what she had to eat that day. Working backwards, she had grilled cheese for dinner, PB&J for lunch and a banana and soy yogurt for breakfast.

LIGHT BULB.

Maggie is the only one of my children I have ever given soy yogurt. She's my pickiest eater, and I try to vary the protein she consumes. However, she also my only child who has more consistent diaper rash and she DEFINITELY pukes more than the other three. None of my kids have ever had a food sensitivity/allergy, so it never even occurred to me that something she was eating might have been making her ill. Since cutting out the soy yogurt she's been seeming well. I'm going to wait a few weeks, try and let her have a little and see what happens. I'm hoping it won't be too tough to avoid if she does appear to be sensitive to it.

Naturally, just last week I bought two big bags of edamame to introduce to the kids. I guess she'll have to stick to peas.

Kids Say the Most God D@mned Mother F*cking Things

On Wednesday we took the kids out to eat at a local restaurant. Since Maggie doesn't drink anything but water, and she had a sippy cup with her, we didn't order her a drink. But when she saw that her brother and sissy got special kids cups with smiley faces on them, she insisted on her own. She stood up at the table and loudly demanded that we get her 'Maggie's cup! Maggie's BEER!' over and over.

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Lucy has been telling me all about her friend at school. Thursday she said to me, 'I love C,E and M. They are my best friends!' So I asked her what she liked about them. Her response? 'They are the smallest ones so they always do what I want!'

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Last night Sam and I sat down to watch the Flyers game. I knew there would be some pre-game stuff, so we tuned in a little later than the scheduled broadcast time, but since the Bruins won the Stanley Cup last year, there was an extended pre-game show. After watching all of the retied Bruins come out to raise the banner, there was some sort of presentation of a jacket. I dunno, I stopped paying attention at some point. Sam was sitting on the step eating some crackers, and was losing patience. Under his breath he muttered, 'Just start the fucking game already!'