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All Good

TIMEOUTS

And she’s back in full force – better than before, if that was possible. The last two days have been perfectly perfect, with hilarity found in the most random places – a roll of tape, the bath tub, and even timeout. As she’s regained her energy back, she has decided to test the limits. Which makes me both proud and frustrated.

She’s landed herself in timeout a few times for simple things, like not helping to put away a puzzle, to really big things, like hitting. When I tell her she has to “go sit by herself” her reactions vary from devastated to ho-hum-la-de-da. The highlight of this new phase, aside from the conversations that follow, is the singing that she belts out from the rocking chair. It comes at show-tune volume, even through the bedroom door. So far her specialties have been “Puff The Magic Dragon” and “Take Me home, Country Roads,” her latest two favorite song books.

I have to work very, very hard to gather myself before going into see her – because if she’s singing, she’s in a hilarious mood and I love a hilarious mood. She now grasps the concept of time-outs and so far it has been effective, we’ll see when it needs to happen in public sometime, which I’m hoping won’t be for a long, long time.

FAMILY LOVE

I meant to write about how amazing both my mom and Barry were last week, during The Week That We Shall Forget, and maybe I did? But both of them were rocks. Barry was calm,  steady and reassuring, as always. He also spent his days divided between home and work, a stress in its own right. My mom was all of those things as well, but in a flurry of activity – prepping food, wetting cloths, and jumping at a chance to hold Maggie. I felt kind of like a wet rag, full of emotion and on edge, just wanting it all to be over.

When it seemed that we’d finally turned the corner for the better, my mom came down again and Maggie finally was alert enough to appreciate her presence. This meant that I got to take a long, long shower and even go to the store. When I was showering, and even when I was at the store,  I kept thinking to myself how similar the feeling I was carrying was to having a newborn. That shower made me feel like a million bucks and being at the store made me feel like I’d flown around the world in the hour I’d been gone.

When the clouds cleared and our house started to feel like the same old house again, we started to get visitors. My grandparents arrived with jam and a bouquet of flowers from their garden, my grandmother claiming that she’d held my grandfather away as long as possible. They played hoops in the backyard and we all ate popsicles.

Greg came by as well and worked with Maggie on her sticker book and went over the ins and outs of playing catch. Maggie delighted in the attention and was zonked out after both visits – still recovering. Aside from having visitors, we also started to revisit toys that we’d forgotten about. Maggie worked on covering her rocking horse in tape and we dug out some old favorites, but it’s hard to beat some simple cuddle time with Papa….

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Sleeping Face

Maggie has a series of faces that she can run through to practice any of her emotions. The one that always gets me is her Sleeping Face because she scrunches her face and eyes up and pokes her lips out while making a tiny snoring sound. It is by far her best face. Sometimes I have to remind myself not to ask her to do Sleeping Face too often because when I need a laugh she can bust it out and I’m bustin’ a gut. 

Yesterday was a planned rest day – still recovering from last week’s events – and after a long nap and as much food as a teenage boy would eat, I felt like Maggie was ready to go in the afternoon. One of her favorite activities to do is work on puzzles together. We’ve got some that are a bit advanced for her, but if we help her she’s willing to work on them. It’s a nice activity. After we’d completed one of the puzzles, Maggie started to joke about my mom and Sparky coming to visit, checking out the window and cracking herself up when they weren’t there. 

I half-heartedly went along with her. But Maggie just keep getting more and more goofy, eventually claiming that she was Sydney. She then proceeded to climb into Syd’s dog disc and pull her face into Sleeping Face while cranking out HUGE snores. I about melted onto the floor laughing. She kept doing it, even while I went to track down my camera. I love Maggie’s sense of imagination coupled with sense of humor, I hope she never tries to hide either. 

And speaking of Sydney…my dad called this past weekend wondering how Sydney had done during The Week Of Sickness, he loves that little pup as much as we do. Of course Syd was the very best Therapy Dog anyone could ask for. She stayed closer than usual, which means that she was never, ever far from our side. I’m pretty sure that she could sense the tension a few times. There was one specific time when Maggie’s temp was not coming down and I called Barry in a panic –  not sure what to do, fearing another seizure.  Sydney, who often ignores us when we’re on the phone, was staring at me as if I were talking to her, tilting her head from side to side. I wished in that moment she was Dr. Syd, but felt comfort in the fact that she was not going to leave Maggie’s side for any reason. 

She’s a very, very good dog and we’ve been telling her that often. We’ve also been trying to get her back on her two-a-day walks, which she deserves after last week’s chaos. Maggie has a great Sleeping Face, and I’m certain that Syd does too, but check out these images of Sydney’s Game Face. So rough and tough. 

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On How I’ve Been Feeling

Thanks for all the messages, texts, notes, and overall encouragement and joy from the last post. I have been asked a number of times about how I’ve been feeling – being pregnant and all. For the most part, I’ve been feeling like my same old self, except for couple weeks there where I felt extremely tired at random times during the day. I almost never nap when Maggie naps, but more than once I’ve curled up next to her and let myself fall asleep.

Aside from being tired, I’ve been really into random foods. When I come home from the grocery store we play a game of “What Did The Pregnant Lady Buy This Time,” and there is always some item that leaves Barry shaking his head laughing.

A few weeks ago Maggie and I met up with Charlyn and her boys at the splash park. Connor had a little container of Cheese-Its and I couldn’t get them off my mind because they looked so good. I texted Barry about how delicious they looked and he encouraged me not to get any – since he tends to eat too many on his own. I held off and successfully made it home without stopping to get a box of Cheese-Its. That night during dinner, Barry, that stinker, brought them up again and suddenly my mouth was salivating again. I thought to myself that if I still wanted them the next morning, I’d go to the store and get myself a box for breakfast. Tasty, right?

As I rocked Mags that night, Barry took Syd for a walk – just like he does almost every night. I heard them slip in and out of the house and thought nothing of it, but when I came out of Maggie’s room guess what was sitting on the coffee table!!!! A perfect little bowl of Cheese-Its!! Barry and Syd went on a mission to the store to get some for me…..so romantic! (By the way, when we told this story to my grandparents, my grandpa told me not to tell any more stories of Barry being romantic because Grandma might gets ‘some ideas’ that maybe Grandpa could be more romantic. So funny.)

Since the Cheese-It incident I have mostly been feasting on fresh fruit and fizzy drinks. The other day I had corn on the cob and a PB & J for lunch….which sounds utterly disgusting to me now. And the worst thing food related? Shrimp and fish, my favorite of all favorites, are on the black list. They smell, taste and look gross. So sad.  Thankfully I don’t crave The Burger the same way I did when I was pregnant with Maggie. I do tend to get nauseous in the evening time, which I tend to call Evening Sickness (you know, opposite of Morning Sickness) and I still am sleeping like a rock – just not tired through the day anymore.