Poppy Seed to Pumpkin

On June 23rd, we sat our two excited girls down to share the SURPRISE we had been telling them we were going to share since yesterday afternoon.  We re having a baby-coming sometime after Valentine's day!  From the moment we shared the news, Annabelle has declared the baby a girl-named her and will not tolerate accepting anything different.  Maggie was reluctant about the news but went back between excited and not interested in the slightest. 

We then gave them a poppy seed and told them that is how big our baby was right now.  We let them hold it in their hands and see how little it was.  We then glued it to a piece of paper to track our babies growth over the next few weeks.  It is amazing to me that something so little can be so very very loved already!

You will have to forgive the scars on Maggie's hand-which is larger than the baby, but she was healing from swim lessons:)

We have continued this tradition each week. 

 5 weeks

 6 weeks

 7 weeks

 8 weeks

 9 weeks

 10 weeks

 11 weeks

12 weeks

It is so delightful to share the fun of our baby with the girls.  The last time I went through a pregnancy, Annabelle would not even talk about the baby.  This time, they are shopping for the baby-playing with the baby in my tummy, and they both talk about the baby all the time.  I LOVE it so much and cant wait to see how much they enjoy the baby in the house.  I also cant believe how fast it is all going.  I am sure it will start to get harder, but for now I am enjoying everything and cant wait to meet our new daughter or son :)

School Days

Annabelle is going back to school tomorrow. 

I cant believe the Christmas break is over so quickly and we are back to the routine of school.  For a little girl who thrives on routine, this will be very good for her, but for a mommy who likes my mornings with this cutie, I am sad!  I am also a little worried about Annabelle's return to school because her teacher found out she had Fallopian tube cancer (resulting in a complete hysterectomy) during the break.  When she was out for 2 days last semester, it really did a number on Annabelle and she was very clearly affected by the change, so I know it will be hard for her to go back and not have Mrs Moran there to make things the way they usually are.  I hate that this poor teacher is struggling with Cancer and my thoughts are of my daughter, but I guess that reveals my own issues.  Never the less, we are praying for Mrs Moran each morning and each evening that the Chemotherapy will kill all of those cells before they attach to any healthy organs.  She should be returning in about 8 weeks at the soonest so please keep her in your prayers.  She is such a sweet teacher and I am happy each time I see her face so I hope Annabelle and I both get to see her soon! 

Also-the above pictures is Annabelle's school picture from this year.  You can always tell a school picture by that familiar blue background and I CANT BELIEVE my daughter has one already! 

It is all happening way too fast :( 

My favorite parts of Christmas

This weekend has been an amazing time of cleaning and organization and I feel so much better now that my house is out back together after all of the festivities of Christmas.  I LOVE our Christmas decorations and am always so excited to put them up and so sad when we have to pack them back up.  This year was no different, but I had time after cleaning the decorations to really clean and organize a few rooms in our house.  We are having two large toys coming over to our house soon from my parents so we had to make space for them and have been cleaning out toys to make room.  As I look at my living room minus the beautiful lights, I find myself returning to a few moments of Christmas that I really enjoyed!  The first one started the day we got the Christmas decorations out.  We did it while the girls were asleep so they woke up and saw all of the decorations out.  Annabelle was excited beyond words.  She remembered so many parts of last Christmas and was so happy to see Baby Jesus and all of her favorite ornaments on the tree.  She spent A LOT of time studying the tree and I think she could tell you where each and every ornament was. 

I also LOVED buying the girls a Little People Nativity Set.  I decided to give it to them early instead of as a gift and I am so glad I did.  When I first showed it to Annabelle, we read the story from the Bible and she acted out the parts with the people.  She "re-did" that so many times and it was awesome to hear her rehearse the story of Jesus.  When she talks about her memories of Christmas, she never mentions the gifts, but she is very ready to sing to Jesus again and see her nativity.  I love that!

The other thing I loved about the preparations of Christmas was the fun Nutcracker musical scene we have had for several years.  Each time I turned the lights on, both girls rushed over to lay on the floor and watch the scenes play through.  It was so precious!

We even got to go to a performance of the Nutcracker at the Library and both the girls loved watching the dancing.  The Nutcracker is a wonderful memory for me of my childhood Christmas celebrations and I love that I am able to share one of those memories with my cuties.

We had lots of places to go for our Holiday Celebrations, but some of the memories that I cherish are our Christmas Eve Eve celebrations with Italo's brother and family.  We went to their house and made a delicious meal of Gnocchi, salad and zucchini.  The kids were so excited for present time, but were very patient until we finished eating.  Maggie attached herself to both Anthony and Isabella and they were so generous to give of their toys and time to entertain both of the girls. 

After Maggie went to bed and the presents had been opened, the older kids baked Cupcakes and played until they were ready for icing!  The had such a great time decorating the cupcakes and they sang Happy Birthday to Jesus with the most excitement I have EVER heard.  It was awesome!!!!

We spent the night with the Frigolis and went home to rest up for our next party.  Christmas Eve we went to My Dad's house for some delicious gumbo and good company.  The girls had a little slumber party so we could play games and everyone came in to give them good night kisses.  It was so cute seeing them with each person.  Maggie was so eager to hug and kiss everyone!  She is such a sweetie!

That evening, after we played a round of a new game, we had to leave to spend the night at my mom's.  We set up for Christmas surprises and then we went to bed praying that the 2 late nights in a row would not make Annabelle as miserable as we were fearing.  She did not have a good day the next day but we pressed forward and survived the day.  I did REALLY enjoy Christmas morning with our Birthday party for Jesus and watching the girls play together with their Christmas surprises.  We wore Matching Christmas jammies again and I forgot how miserably hot there were.  But Annabelle seemed to get a kick out of it, so I think we will go for it one more year while their jammies fit and then we will relieve ourselves from the torture!

We were very excited to find out that my brother and his family came back into town sooner than we expected, so we enjoyed some extra time with them that morning.  The girls were so excited to see more cousins!

After Christmas day was over and we were able to get the kids in their own beds, they sunk in to the familiarity and were more than happy to go to sleep.  The next day, we spent the whole day together as a family just relaxing and opening our presents to each other.  Canadians (or maybe the English) have a tradition of the Boxing day the day after Christmas and that is the say they open their presents.  We think it is a good idea and think we will make it our tradition as well.  Maggie was SOOOO over presents, she was actually crying when we handed her a presents.  It took 3 days AFTER this for her to finally open her final few presents.  It is fun to see them with all of their new treasures and I am enjoying looking at all of the pictures my husband took with his, I mean my, new camera.  The girls even look at the camera when we set up the self timer because they love looking at the flashing light :)  BONUS

Next year...we will HAVE to do something different so we dont have a repeat of this crying over presents!  Poor girl.

But, they have lots of fun with their new toys and have been actually playing together throughout the New years weekend!  Such a blessing to see since it is so rare!

MERRY CHRISTMAS and Happy Birthday Jesus!!

 

 

First Day of School

For those who have fellow toddlers, you may know the song from Imagination Movers called-First Day of School.  That is the song that Daddy and Annabelle listened to-and Annabelle sang along to---on her way to her first day of school today.  He made a video, but it is REALLY hard to watch because he is was driving a stick shift while holding a video camera!  I am glad Daddy and Annabelle will get to have this special time together each morning while I let her little sister keep sleeping, but it was hard to kiss her goodbye this morning and say goodbye.  This week, our wonderful Aunt Jill is going to pick her up from school, but next week, she will start taking the school bus home.  I think it is kinda funny that Daddy takes her to school in a yellow car and she comes home in a yellow school bus :)  She thinks that is pretty cool! 

I heard nothing but good reports from everyone today and Annabelle was her normal silly self when I made it home so that is a good sign.  We dont see any of the quietness that we saw after her visit on Thursday.  I am sure it will get a little harder as the week progresses but so far so good!  She picked a good week to start though because two of her classmates of birthdays this week and there is a party on Friday for Halloween!  So fun :)  Thanks for all the prayers!  We prayed before she left this morning and she was smiling the whole time we were praying for her.  Such a sweet memory for me to send her off with covering from her heavenly father and physical protection from her wonderful Daddy! 

Something Different...

Today I walked down a hallway of little lockers in an Elementary School.  The last time I did this was visiting my nieces and nephews at their schools.  Today was different because at the other end of those lockers was a classroom designed for MY DAUGHTER.  And on Monday, she will have a locker with her name on it, be given assignments, attendance taken, ride a school bus and all together be a BIG girl.  The days of deciding to take a day off of work to spend the day with her, staying in our PJs longer than we should on a work day or just enjoying story time together in the mornings has come to an end and now she will go to school. 

She has been in daycare since she was 3 months old, but this is different.  I know have parent teacher conferences scheduled, attendance rules and an elementary school with my daughter enrolled in it.  How did we get here so fast...I was supposed to have 2 more years before this happened!!!

I know it will be such a great opportunity for her and I know she needs some extra help getting ready for Kindergarten because of her difficulties, but this is not exactly what I was emotionally prepared for when I started this process.  She will be in an inclusion classroom designed for children with disabilities.  What that means is that all but 3 children in her classroom are "non-diagnosed" children and my daughter is diagnosed with a disability that requires "special ed".  So here we go...

Today she got to play in the classroom while Italo and I attended a meeting to discuss her goals.  She was SOOOO excited to go to her new school and almost bounced down the hallway into the classroom.  She walked into the room and when we came back it was a different story.  She left with the weight of the world in her head and was VERY quiet on the way home.  I was emotionally overwhelmed so I am sure she was as well.  Watching her for about 30 mins in the classroom confirmed that we were doing the right thing with this new path, but it was heartbreaking to see her with the other kids.  I can not wait to see how much she changes in this environment because it will be so great for her, but when you almost think she was getting better on her own and then get smacked in the face with the reality that she is not and still has a long way to go, it is hard.  It is hard to see your daughter hurting,  It is hard not to be able to help her.  It is hard not to have the answers. 

I know that God has all of this under control and I know that He will provide comfort to me and Annabelle through this process, but it is really hard right now!  We would sure appreciate your prayers for us over the next few weeks as we transition to our new normal.  And look out for a big girl getting off a school bus on Monday with a backpack as big as her :)

Parenting is like being a Referee

Parenting is a really tough thing to do. I have been thinking a lot about what it can be associated with, and I determined that it reminds me a lot as being a referee in a soccer game.

See, the main objective of the referee in soccer, is not to ensure the flow of the game, or the enforcement of the rules of the game. The main objective of the referee is to ensure the well being of the players on the field – and that takes precedence over anything else.

In the same way, as a parent, the main objective is to ensure the safety and wellbeing of my children (and any other that they may be playing with at the time). There is, of course, the enforcement of the rules as well. Rules are established to ensure the order. In our house, we have defined some rules as guidelines to follow. Such as Maggie will be asked to return a toy to Annabelle if she takes one of Annabelle’s special toys. This is kind of like a foul be called on the field. Toy is returned and playtime carries on – no big deal. Other times a yellow or red card may be used. If one of the kids hits or pushes the other intentionally, then a Time Out may be enforced followed with an apology, a hug, and a kiss.

Of course, there is more to parenting than being a referee to them, such as actually playing with them and having all kinds of crazy laughs together. But at the core – there are a few primary goals. Their safety and wellbeing is always at top of my list.

The never ending saga.....

I have always loved cars. Even from a young age, the attaction to these four wheeled machines was just there. The love manifested itself with the purchase of Matchbox cars. Soon, I started to realize that some things are just built better than others. I loved my Matchbox car collection that was built in England; but when the plant was moved to China, the quality of the toy just flat out dropped! I still have a little collection left, and suprisingly, I the cars that I didn't manage to totally distroy are still kept in a car case hidden inside my desk at work. We have a new china cabinet at home, I may just take over a shelf to put them on display again... :-)

Anyways - that was a totaly off the topic paragraph to say I have been working on my real car again. Amy's car is 3 months away from needing an inspection. The check engine light would turn on and off on it's own last year, and I snuck it to the shop while the light was off. It was a lucky moment that delayed the need to really correct the problem for another year. :-)

This year, the light is not going off - it is a pretty solid yellow light that never seems to have an off day. In reading the codes, I get P0141 and P0400. The P0400 code is related to the EGR system. When I took the tube out a while back, this is what I saw:

I cleaned it out pretty good and put it all back together. I think the light went off for a moment once, but that was it. Not nearly long enough to get a new inspection sticker.

Last week I thought I'd see if I could correct it by clearing all the passages into the valve covers. There is one tiny hole on each cover that can be clogged with sludge. I thought I'd see if I could remove the vacuum hoses, and clear them out. I guess I should have known that rubber hoses on a 10 year old car would have become brittle to some extent. Some were impossible to move, and ended up being busted. I ended up going to AutoZone and purchasing some new generic hoses to replace the busted ones. When I put them all back together, I noticed that some of the other hoses I thought were fine were starting to crack. I kind of gave up hope of it correcting the issue, but I did clear out the two tiny little holes on the valve covers.

Yesterday, I went to go get the tires rotated and balanced. Nothing like waking up early Saturday morning to go get tires rotated if you ask me... Yes, I really don't like doing this. If I could, I'd buy the equipment needed to do all the balancing of tires in my own garage. Anyways - I learned that the tires are no good. Steal belt is starting to show through on some of the tires. Looks like I'll need to get some new ones by December if I really want this car to pass inspection. I have a new tire I want in sight by the way - but just need to wait a little before I can get it.

Today, for some reason I felt a little more inspired to correct the other issue. I went ahead and tackled the P0141 issue - which is a bad oxygen sensor. I went to AutoZone and purchased the needed replacements. I jacked up the car, pulled the old ones out and put the new ones in (it really was that simple). I think it will clear the code after a few start/stop cycles - but we will see.

I also went ahead and ordered all new rubber hoses needed to the EGR valve system as well, so hopefully it is just a vacuum leak that is keeping that pretty yellow dash light on, and a few good replacement parts will correct the problem.

Thank you Game...

At small group past week we were talking about things we felt entitled to and Gladice suggested that we play the Thank You Game at the end so we would start to realize how much we had instead of focusing on what we may not have. 

I decided I needed to play the "Thank You Game" specifically for Annabelle so here is what I am thankful for about her:

She is very predictable
She stays in her room at night no matter how long it takes her to fall asleep
She tells me she loves me
She likes to give kisses to her friends and family members
She loves to go anywhere I am going
She loves Jesus and can not go to sleep without saying her prayers (and brushing her teeth)
She asks about and for her friends
She gives the best hugs ever
She has a very grateful heart-she always asks who gave her things and realizes that everything is a gift
She does not let me be in control
She finds absolute delight in going to visit people
 

Thank you Lord for giving me a daughter than makes me rely on you everyday!

Stories

You need to understand that the One who is writing your story, has bigger plans for you than you would ever have for yourself." -Paul Tripp

This was the facebook status for two of my friends this morning.  Powerful huh!

The reason I find it so powerful is because I need to believe it is true with my head, my heart and with the way I live my life.  In my head, I know this to be true.  I have since I was a small child.  I was told by countless people that this was true and I believe it.  However, I do not let this thought transform how I live me life.  IF I did, I would live a surrendered life.  I would not try to control my thoughts, my emotions, my actions and my desires.  I would not get angry with the my life when I see the shape of other people's life.  I would not covet my neighbors lifestyle, my friend's children, my husband patience,  I would embrace where I am in my life each and every day and would live a life surrendered to the process of growth that God has for me. 

I love to watch movies, read books and hear people talking about their life...their stories.  Each time I do, I see a glimpse into the reality of someone else's life and when the person is a Christian, I hear how the gospel of Grace transformed their life.  It cant helped but come out, because when Christ gets a hold of your life you will be forever changed.  I enjoy seeing people in all areas of that reality.  I guess that is why I like reading blogs because I get to read stories each and every day. 

I am happy to share my story with those who want to hear it, but most of the time I have a hard time accepting that story for myself.  Why?  Because there are parts I dont like.  There are labels and "titles" I have that I dont like because of that story.  The biggest title I have that I dont like is SINNER!  I have seriously messed things up.  I live a life that is marked my selfishness, self indulgence, pride and guess what...it does not seem to be getting better. 

Here is the good news...God can work in my life and use me for GOOD even though my story has not been completed to perfection!  Don't believe me?  Take some time to read any story from the Bible about our "heroes".  Adam...Abraham...Jacob...David...Paul...I could go on.  God did amazing things with those men, but he did it IN SPITE of them.  Not because they were special, successful or powerful, but because God was.  I think that most remarkable thing about all of those men is when they laid their head down for the final time and left this world, they probably recognized how powerless they were and how great God was. 

When I was a little girl,  I would sit in my window sill, or in my tree house and dream about the life I would have one day.  I would act out "scenes" from that life.  I would play all the roles of the husband, the kids and myself and no one ever got frustrated, no one got tired, no one disobeyed.  I had a great time :)  However that little girl grew up...I realized that not everyone was going to act out the role of husband, child, friend, parent like I did when I was acting as them.  And I realized that I was not going to act the way I thought I would either.  I never dreamed of yelling at my daughter because she would not get in the car.  I never thought I would get frustrated with my husband for wanting to put his arm around me because I was so hot from running around that I could not take one more heat source on my arm.  I never thought that I would get frustrated with my daughter because she was trying to pull her way up my leg so I would hold her instead of making dinner.  I never thought I would be divorced.  I never thought I would be a working mom.  I never thought I would not understand how to teach my daughter.  I never thought I would....  BUT I DID! 

So, if I could surrender each part of that story to the One who has the power to heal, to restore, to make beauty from ashes...AGAIN.  If I could stop being the potter, the author, the artist and let the true master take the reins...Imagine what could happen. 
     

The Black Dog

Annabelle had her first bad dream last night/this morning....

I was getting ready for work when I heard Annabelle crying in the house.  I called out to her to tell her I was in the closet because I thought she was sad she did not know where I was.  She came in, tears in her eyes, and just wanted to cuddle.  Not knowing what the problem was, I tried to cuddle her and talk to her but she just kept whimpering.  After about 15 mins, the reason came out. 

She said a dog came into her room, was looking and growling at her and was now under her bed.

I dont know what she imagined, but this was the image that came to my mind.  At that moment, I realized that a bit of her innocence was gone.  She will no longer think that all dreams are about ballons and cupcakes and she did before going to bed last night (which is her standard answer when asking about what she dreamed of). 

We talked about dreams and the fact that they are not real but it is okay to be scared of what we see in our mind.  We looked under her bed for the dog and it was not there.  When Maggie got up, she wanted to look under her bed to see if the dog was there.  She then said the dog's name was Daisy and that it was probably a nice dog. 

I wonder if this is really more like the dog she saw:

I will never know, but I think it will be interesting to see what she wants to talk during our bedtime chat tonight before bed....

     

Lessons from our Kids

My friend Sherah blogged about her daughter saying No! the other day and I thought her words were so great explaining what our kids teach us about our heavenly father.  It has got me seeing the things my kids do through that lense.  A few morning ago, Annabelle was enjoying her cereal bar in the playroom while watching one of her recorded shows on the computer.  She came running into the kitchen and said, "Mommy my arm is REALLY hurting,  It hurts so bad.  Can you please help me?"  First off, I was tickled pink that she said all of those words.  A few months ago this scenario would have resulted in about 15 mins of SCREAMING and me trying to figure out what on earth was wrong.  So after I did m happy dance and tried to figure out hos she had hurt herself.  I had to giggle a little bit because the source of her PAIN was crumbs from her cereal bar on her arm.  I brushed them off, gave her a kiss and she said, "That is so much better, thank you so much Mommy!" 

I remember in High School thinking that some people were so silly for getting all worked up about the smallest things and it used to irritate me to no end that these "trivial" things were mentioned as prayer request before each class began.  This has stuck around with me slightly into my adult life, but I understand that the WORST thing is some people's life may not be the worst thing in my life and you can't compare troubles with people-EVER!  It is all relative but the thing that shook me to the core a few mornings ago was:

God cares about the crumbs on our arm and wants to help us get over the pain!

He may not always brush them off for us but he will comfort us until they no longer bother us or until they are gone.

Amazing that God does not tell us to ask our friends if we should be upset about a certain situation or google remedies to our problems and came to him ONLY after we have exhausted all of our own resources, he tells us to come to Him, lay our burdens down and he will give us rest.  He WANTS to hear from us.  He WANTS to help us.  He WANTS us to be dependent on Him for all of the answers and not just the ones we cant find somewhere else.  Nothing is too little or too big for HIM!     

In these tough economic times...

I came across these hilarious pictures of cheap home repairs today.  The made me laugh at loud-except for a few I did not understand what they were trying to fix...  like the urinals and the camera???  Please enlighten me :)

But the funniest part of this post was how true to life some of those photso seemed!  You see my Husband is a very handy guy.  If there is a problem with our cars or our house, my wonderful husband is going to find a solution.  However, our budget is not in a place where we can put extra away to have money for car repairs or home repairs so when something happens, he has to be more creative than others might because he usually can't spend much on the said repair.  I know it puts him in quite the guandry on each of the repairs, but somehow he ALWAYS finds a way to restore the issue and spend very little if any money!

He has repaired his laptop power connection with alumimun foil

He has repaired a $800 broken cable in our car with some basic electric cables 

He has replaced our engine mounts for less than 1/8 the cost of the car repair shop

  

He has pulled the EGR valve out of our car and cleaned it out rather than spending the money buying a new one

He has repaired the damage done by countless animals who decided to make our attic and different parts of our house their home

He has crafted an antenna to get us free of the fees of cable television (i will let him share all about this in his own blog post)

And the list could go on and on!  He is amazing at saving us money and doing things on a shoe string budget.  All I can say that I have done to save our family money is giving up my preference of highlighted hair for boring brown hair and cooking more meals than we eat out.  I really appreciate how handy he is and it allows us to stay out of debt that I am sure we would have if we had to charge these needed car and home repairs!

The craziest part about all this handiness is that it took me a LONG time to come around to letting him do these things!  This whole issue reared its head a few months before we got married.  We got married in September of 2005 and in June of 2005, we purchased our first house together.  So do the math and that means that there were 3 months before our wedding day that we owned a home.  I moved out of my apartment and into my parents house and he moved in to our new home.  It was difficult for me to see him starting to do things on our house and for some reason I jsut did not want him spending time messing arounf with repairs.  I wanted to pay someone to do the work so I could have all to myself.  We actually had the biggest fight in a relationship-still to this day-over him repairing a sprinkler system!  We were both furious that the other person would not give in and fought for several hours in my parents front lawn over this issue.  It is so crazy I was so resistant to his handiness, but I guess I had to learn to trust him.  And stop being so dang stubborn!

I am so happy with all his creative genisus when it comes to his repairs but I really hope we dont find ourselves in the situation that many of those in the link above did and not have some money to buy the materials to make the visible repair attractive!   
   


  

My little Maggie Rose

I can not believe how quickly my Maggie Rose is growing up!  I thought it was time to document a glimpse into our world with her.  She now has 8 teeth.  The top 4 came in all at once and the two additional bottom teeth are making their way through the gums right now!

Besides a runny nose she has not made too big of a fuss about her teeth.

Maggie is full of life and quite the little kidder.  Each morning I go into her room and she plays a silly little game with me where she grabs her paci and her biggest blankie and lays down and waits for me to rub her back.  Then I rub her back and give her a little tickle and she jumps up, giggles and then moves her blankie to another part of the bed and starts over.  Unless I mention breakfast, this could go on for a LONG time! 

Maggie really enjoys eating and will eat more than anyone else in our family!  Only once in a blue moon she will tell me she is done, but mostly she just signs "more" and "Eat" over and over again!

She is not a fan of all of our water outings, but is starting to tolerate them more and more.  She usually finds the shallowest part of the water and enjoys licking up the water like a doggie!

The other night we went to a splash park and she seemed to like that a little better but after a little while she decided to head for greener pastures!

Maggie is very affectionate and loving.  Her favorite thing to search for is a lap that she can sit down in.  I dont think she minds much whose laps she finds as long as there is one around :)  She has started giving kisses when asked for one and it is so much fun to get them from her!  Even if she does give you some tongue with her kisses they are awesome! 

  Maggie has started to get more sleep during the day due to our new nanny that we LOVE so she and Annabelle are able to go to bed at the same time each evening.  That means that all 4 of us pile into Annabelle's bed for prayer time each night and we all exchange LOTS of kisses!  Annabelle and Maggie LOVE getting and giving kisses from each other and I LOVE listening to their precious giggles.  I wish I could see Annabelle and Maggie enjoying more special sister time but mostly Annabelle plays and Maggie just watches.  Annabelle does not really play WITH Maggie but I know she loves her little sister very much.  I pray that Annabelle will develop the skills to tolerate playing with her sister over the next few years but until then, I treasure each moment I see them playing beside each other or interacting in some way. 

My girl is a serious animal lover!  If she sees an animal anywhere is sight, she gets all excited and starts "talking" all about them!  My poor cat is chased around the house all day long but so far she has never been caught but Maggie.  I wish Makey would let Maggie pet her and sit down with her, but alas that is not in the cards.  Somehow she seems to have the same "fleeting" effect on all of the animals she encounters!

Maggie really is a sweet spirit and is at the stage where she really listens and obeys to most of what I saw.  I think it is amazing to see her looking for permission and guidance as she goes through her day.  She will start toward something and always gives me a little look of-"Mommy is this okay" before she continues.  I know the days of this obedience are going to be short lived so I am treasuring them as I see them now.  She is starting to push the limits these days and doing things I have asked her not to.  In the picture below she is barely touching the water and looking at me to see if it is ok.  So sweet....and disobedient at the same time :) 

Maggie does not have any words yet, but we find a way to communicate pretty well most of the time.  I am starting to teach her more and more sign language until her vocabulary catches up with her.  For now, she understands everything we say and is mimicking sounds she hears for words she likes. 

My dear sweet Maggie...you are such a joy to my life and truly make each day sweeter with your magical hugs and kisses.  You are loved beyond measure by your Daddy, your sister and your Mommy!  I pray that I can get to know you more and more over the next several years and unlock the key to your mind and heart so I can find the best way to teach you.