margaretyagan

I’m back home and into my normal routine, spending my day with Nana and Grandpa.  I was so happy to see them; it was as if I had just seen them yesterday!  I took a couple naps in the morning and devoured both my breakfast (cereal & prunes) and my lunch (sweet potatoes).

Nana and I got in our regular walk to Wicker Park and enjoyed in.  Finally, I had blueberries for dinner and I loved ’em!  Blueberries might be my favorite food in the whole world (well, of the dozen or so foods I’ve actually eaten).  I was a bit congested in the morning, but it all cleared up by the evening.

After more than a week in Dow, my stay is over!  After my breakfast, we headed out to the airport and got on a plane back home.  It was the roughest of my four plane trips ever.  I kept wanting to play with other passengers’ hair and bracelets but Mom kept me constrained to our seat!

When we finally arrived and got out of the secure area, Dad was waiting for us!  He jumped up and down and grabbed me out of my stroller.  We grabbed our bags from baggage claim and headed to our car.  Dad got the single best parking spot in the entire garage, so we were on our way in no time.  For the first time I can remember, Dad asked Mom to drive and he sat in the back seat with me.

Another first: I ate lunch (my cauliflower!) in the car.  I was really hungry and he was so happy to feed me.  We got home and Dad committed to spend the entire afternoon and evening playing with me since he hadn’t seen me in so long and was going to have to leave for a few days the next morning.

The three of us spent a lot of time together and we had a lot of fun.  I was especially excited by the beach ball that Mom and Dad brought me from their trip to Hawaii!

It was a sunny day, but I was all bundled up because we headed outside for our adventure and it was freezing cold. AS kept checking some important information on her computer so there was definitely something special going on! I enjoyed another long ride in the car, then AS whisked me out of my seat and into this big noisy building. She was in such a hurry!

“Hey, wait a minute,” I said. “I’ve been here before. This is the St. Louis airport. Mom and I flew here last week. Hold your horses, AS, I’m not getting on any airplane again with my mom or dad!” AS wasn’t paying any attention to me – she just kept rushing around. Suddenly we stopped in the middle of the hallway and guess who was walking toward me with a huge smile on her face? It was mom! Dad wasn’t with her, but I was so happy anyway. Wow! We all just smiled and laughed and smiled some more. After we got mom, we headed back to Dow (mom sat in the backseat just to keep smiling at me!) where mom and I played and napped, then had my day two of cauliflower lunch.

I woke Mom with what she described as “really freaking” screaming. No, I wasn’t wet or hungry or poopy. My 2 new teeth were making my mouth hurt a lot. So, after lunch Mom, AS and I piled into the car again and headed to Walgreen’s for some Baby Orajel – that stuff really works!

Since we were out and about again, we stopped by the Great Godfrey maze again to see G’ma at work. She let Mom and me have a ride in the cute giraffe train. I got to ride all around the park and wave at everyone, just like big kids. Cool!

We left and drove to Great Uncle Michael and Great Aunt Karen’s house. I met them in July, but I don’t remember G.U. Michael being so silly. He really made me laugh and Aunt Karen is so nice. I think they were super, but I have to admit that I especially liked their little dog, Tess. She jumped all around to keep my attention – she was happy to meet me, too!

My final stop in of my whole vacation in Dow was to GG Droste’s and G.A. Jackie’s house. GG Droste is such a kind and friendly person. I really liked her (I think she likes me, too!). We took a bunch more pictures , visited with G.A. Debbie and her friend Steve, and then headed back to Dow for the night. I was starving and G’ma had cooked some yummy squash for me. Every time she stopped feeding me, I screamed because I was so hungry. I didn’t even want to stop for a drink of water! AS gave me a quick bath, then G’ma gave me my bottle and off to bed we went. I fell sound asleep. What an eventful last day in Dow – I’ve sure had fun, but I ready to head back home to Chicago tomorrow and see Dad and Nana and G’pa Yagan!

AS and I had a very busy day today! We had errands to run, people to see and places to go. After another morning of millet and prunes (definitely not my breakfast choice) and a sort nap, we headed out on the town.

After a brief stop at Office Depot, we went shopping at Goodwill. Boy, do they have a lot of neat stuff – AS loves looking there! I had funning hanging out with AS and checking out all the interesting stuff. The best part was that I was so well-behaved that AS bought me a red Cardinals baseball. It’s soft and squishy and I can grab it myself. I’ll be all ready for opening day 2009 – Go Cards!

I fell asleep on the way home so AS carried my seat into the house and just let me rest for a while. When I woke up it was time to try a new veggie for lunch…cauliflower. It tasted kind of questionable at first, and then I decided it was okay and gobbled it up.

Guess what I got to do after lunch? AS let me help her work on stuff in G’pa’s shop. It was amazing – so many things to look at and lots of paper to crumple. I’m sure I was good company and a great help to AS. I can’t wait to do some more paper shuffling another time!

G’ma was gone all morning, because she had to sing for a funeral for a man named Doc. I’m not sure what a funeral is, but it sounds important. When she came home she was so happy to se eme. She scooped me up from the hsop and loaded me into my car seat again. What??? Another outing in the same day? They sure keep me busy around here!

We met Debbie and Dorothy at St. Ambrose Church. They said I was beautiful! Next, we stopped at Target to get me some new socks. I’m getting to be such a big girl that my baby socks won’t stay on my feet anymore. Our last stop was to meet Cheryl and Vernon LeClaire at their insurance office. Cheryl kept trying to take my picture, but I didn’t cooperate very well because I was so distracted looking at their huge yellow lab named Cooper. Cooper sniffed my socks nad was so friendsly. He is such a cool dot that he even let me ride around the office on his back (with Vernon’s help!). Vernon is a good friend of G’ma’s. He is so funny! Apparently he has some great stories to share with me about my mom, AS and Aunt Claire when they all hung out at someplace called TNI. I can’t wait until I’m big enough to ask him lots of questions!

Needless to say, I was exhausted by the time we got back home and slept until 7pm. G’ma ended up waking me up to eat my supper. I didn’t even have the energy to play! I collapsed into bed at 8:30pm – what a busy day! My schedule was thrown off a lot today, but it was all worth it and I was a very good girl.

What a difference a little sleep makes! I practically slept like a rock all night – with the exception of one little time awake around 2am. I had a shorter morning nap before AS and I headed to Alton to go to Tyka’s house. Here’s the thing, Tyka has her own day care in her house and there were kids everywhere! It was so cool because since I was the smallest one there, they all wanted to come hang out with me and meet me – I was so popular. Hayden, who is 4, is Tyka’s son and he really became my pal and played with me alot. He was fun. We stayed for a few hours and I ate my lunch there and eventually fell asleep, which is when AS decided it was time to head back to G/G’s. She loaded me into my carseat and I just opened my eyes for a moment before drifting back to sleep. I slept all the way home and then about another hour in my carseat while sitting in the living room. So, a very good 2 hour nap made for a good afternoon and evening.

After I ate my supper, G’ma and I headed to J’ville to meet some new people (well, new to me, anyway!). We caught up with Willie and Joyce Goetten at this friendly restaurant place called Mulligan’s. We saw one of Grandma’s teacher friends who was with her daughter and two grandsons, Ben and Adam. Ben is 4 and Adam is only 3 weeks old. Was I ever really that small? I don’t believe it! We also met Grandma and Grandpa’s doctor, Dr. Palcheff. He told me I was very pretty. Aw, shucks!!!! Willie was a fun guy. He let me stand on his lap and jump up and down. Unfortunately, he wouldn’t share his salad and shrimp with me though…….and it looked so yummy! It was good to see Joyce again, and she was wearing a pretty necklace that she let me tug on.Next we went to Grandma’s friends’ house – Marilyn and Paul Rogers. Paul was so nice, and he has a cute little dog named Tatum I loved watching her, but her barking was a little scary. Marilyn is so funny! She loves little kids a lot, and she has 2 grandkids of her own, so she had all kinds of cool little kid toys to play with. I especially liked the piano with the lights and the dancing monkey on top.

When I got home Aunt Sarah was so happy to see me. She said she missed me, and I was only gone for 1.5 hours! She got me ready for bed, gave me my bottle, read “Good Night Moon” with me………. then I was out for the night. Sleep tight, Everyone!

From the get-go, today was sort of an “off” day. I slept very badly last night – waking up alot and not being able to fall back asleep. I was not awake and screaming or anything, just crying and not willing to fall back to sleep. Anyway, because of my bad sleep, I slept later than usual, not getting up until 7:15 – this basically put my whole day about 1.5 hours behind schedule, but we managed.

The morning was a combo of playing, trying to take a nap, and AS trying to figure out how to manage me and herself in a house not necessarily set up for a baby. Since it was just AS and I most of the day (G/G were both at work), she had to figure out how to shower and get dressed and ready to go on a morning when I was not in a sleeping mood! So, she finally figured out she could move my high chair into the bathroom and wedge it into a position where it wouldn’t budge and we did just fine. She kept peeking out and checking on me and flicking water on me and I laughed. After the whole “getting ready” part of the day was over, I was finally willing to take a slightly longer nap. It pushed into my lunchtime, but AS decided it was better to let me finish my nap and let my lunch be a little bit late. When I woke up, AS had my day 2 of asparagus ready for me and I’ve come to a conclusion – I don’t like asparagus very much. I ate it and everything and never refused the spoon, but I certainly made clear that I’d rather not have it everyday!

After lunch we loaded up in the car and went to Alton to do some shopping at a going-out-of-business sale, but didn’t really have any success – nothing we couldn’t live without! By the time we got home, it was time for my afternoon bottle and G’ma had just gotten home so she got it ready for me. After the bottle, it was becoming clear I needed to get in some more sleep, so I had another 1 hour nap – thats a total of 3.5 hours of napping for the day, just none of the hours in a row!

The evening was spent with G’ma while AS went out to eat dinner with Tyka (her friend, who I hear we’re going to visit tomorrow!) and G’pa was still at work. We played and took a bath and then AS was home just in time to give me a bottle and put me to bed. I heard G’ma and AS discussing the possible causes for my “off” mood today – the conclusion was my teeth. I think I agree with them – I’ve been trying to bite/chew on everything I can, I’m drooling like crazy, I am “playing” with my bottle nipple just as much as I’m drinking out of it, plus I was just not quite as happy today as usual. I kept feeling the urge to let out a loud cry – just one or two cries – then I was happy again. It was weird. Anyway, no other symptoms that make anyone think I’m sick or anything. It was just one of those days…

On a developmental note, I love feeling stuff! When I get my food on my hand, I just love feeling it mush around in my fingers, I enjoy rubbing my feet on the netting on the side of my pack’n’play, I particularly love hair (my own and others) – I don’t pull, I just like feeling the hair. AS says I like the textures, whatever that means!

I can hardly believe my time in Dow is already halfway over! It’s gone by so fast. Well today started off like usual – I had a good nap this morning which put me a great mood for our trip to J’ville. G’ma packed me and my lunch up in the car and we headed into town to meet Don and Peggy Snyders, friends of G’ma and now friends of mine! AS was gone to get her hair cut so she didn’t get to go along. Don and Peggy got to feed my lunch…drum roll please…asparagus! I never in my whole life had asparagus before and after initially making a sort of “gross” face, I ate it all up and think I like it. By they way, did you know that asparagus really makes a person’s diaper smell HORRIBLE! Well, now you know!

Don and Peggy were really nice and were so impressed that I am such a good eater and that I can drink so well from a big-girl cup. Guess what – I’m also helping to expand the world of technology users, because after Peggy got so hooked on my blog, she decided she needed her very own laptop so she didn’t need to borry Don’s all the time – isn’t that cool? Don took a lot of pictures of me and liked to play “Super Maggie” with me just like Dad does – I got to fly all around the room.

In the afternoon we headed back to G/G’s house where I took a short nap before getting some very special visitors. Heather and Holly Goetten came to Dow — just to see me! Boy are they pretty – and I love their hair. They brought their dad, Jeff along (well, I guess he brought them along really, because they can’t drive!) and I was excited because I had never met him before. I had met Heather and Holly when I was in Dow last time, but I never met Jeff! He’s a fun guy, and I like his beard. It was also his birthday, so we all sand to him. Jeff thinks I’m very strong and can’t believe how well I stand up. Bad news, though, is that G’ma forgot to get her camera out while they were here, so I didn’t get any pictures with them…I hope she remembers next time I see them!

I think I’m getting better at some things these days. First of all, I definetly have two very visible teeth now – both on the bottom. I also like to reach out with both my hands and take both of someone else’s hands so I can pull and stand myself up. I’m excellent at blowing my food out of my mouth when I decide I’m full too – I’m not sure how much AS liked that, but I thought it was funny!

After another great night’s sleep, I woke up smiling and ready to go!

I finished my cereal and prunes in record time, played with Grandma, then took a two hour nap. G’ma dressed me in my new Halloween outfit – and my cool Halloween socks from AS!

We headed to J’ville to visit some of G’ma’s friends. We stopped by the school district office, teh Regional Office of Education and the Job Center. I met Judy, Marsha, John, Paula, Debbie B., Michelle, Terry, Debbie T., Leslie and Carolyn – whew! Everyone was so nice to me! They smiled and made silly faces and sounds to impress me. They were so much fun!

Then we went ot see AS at GG Droste’s house and Great Aunt Jackie fed me my lunch – more yummy mashed potatoes. I love them! I was so excited to be eating them agian that I even had them on my nose! GG Droste told stories about feeding Jackie when she was a baby.

Aunt Sarah showd me all the apples she was preparing for applesauce, apple butter and apple pies. Boy did the kitchen smell good! AS let me oversee the applecooking for a little while, and I even got to sneak a bite of warm, plain apples. Yum!

Tonight I got to hand out with G’pa while G’ma left to teach a class (AS was still at GG house finishing the apple projects)! He played with me on teh floor (we had toys and remote controls everywhere!) and even fed me my night-time bottle. Who knew he was so good at this baby stuff? I thought he just made sawdust!

AS finally came home – with a warm Apple Pie! She gave me my bath, we read “Good Night Moon” and I drifted off to dreamland. Goodnight Mom and Dad!

Well, let’s see…what did I do today? OH YEAH, I got to meet a very cute little dog! But wait, let’s start at the beginning. I got up and did my normal thing – got  changed, had my bottle, played a bit and then ate breakfast. My morning nap wasn’t as long as usual and I slept just under 1.5  hours. However, I woke up in a great mood and was off to another new place – church with G/G Droste! I was on my best behavior during church and even got to meet a little girl sitting behind us who was also named Maggie! She was about 1 year old, but it was cool that she has my same name!

We got back from church and G’pa fed me my bottle (a little late) then we played while AS got my potatoes ready for lunch. I sure do love mashed potatoes! Now for a very cool part of the day (I hope my mom and dad won’t be mad at AS!) – Sarah and I went out to the shop and up to the apartment where she’s staying with her dog. She has some work to do, and G’ma was sleeping, so she thought maybe I could nap out there while she was working. Well, I did sleep – for almost an hour – but before that I got to meet the cutest little dog named Marjorie and she loved me and I loved her! We just checked each other out for a few minutes and then Marge went on her way and I fell asleep. When I woke up, G’pa was there with us and he was putting up a new ceiling fan in the apartment kitchen so AS and I helped (well, actually just watched) until he left to get a part and never returned to us! (G. Uncle Mike stopped by and distracted him. Can you believe someone was more distracting than me?) So we decided to come back in G/G’s house and see if G’ma was up from her nap.

The rest of the day was spent playing, along with another little catnap and eating supper. Another day in Dow has passed and I was such a happy girl today. I sure am making it awfully easy for G/G and AS! I just hope mom/dad don’t get AS in trouble for letting me meet Marjorie…I promise them she didn’t lick me or anything!!!

I had a really, really rough night sleeping on Thursday night.  I had gotten so used to my crib in my room in my house that I struggled to get used to sleeping in a pack-n-play at Grandma & Grandpa Droste’s house.  Every time Mom got me to sleep and tried to put me in my pack & play, I started screaming!  Finally Mom let me sleep with her (I won!).

I woke up with Mom and she had quite an adventure getting my breakfast ready.  The millet refused to warm up properly and she ended up having to put it and my prunes in a blender.  But when she turned it on I got so scared and started screaming.  I ate in my car seat (the high chair wasn’t assembled yet) and then played with Grandma Droste after I finished eating.

Mom & I headed out to Jerseyville so Mom could get a new license at the DMV.  I slept on the way and through most of the time at the DMV.  We then went to Wal-Mart and bought some diapers and a sweatshirt.  We stopped by Grandma and Grandpa’s house to get my lunch (squash) then went to the Corn Maze to meet Grandma Droste.  Grandma was running a field trip and I got to be her assistant!  The big kids (2nd graders?) really liked me and made lots of faces at me.  Then Mom & I took the scenic route back to the car and I got to see the pond and the fountain.

Then we headed to Great Grandma Droste’s house.  Great Aunts Jackie and Donna were there, too, and everybody was really excited to see me.  I had never met G/A Donna before!  I made a huge mess eating lunch — in fact, I didn’t even finish it all because I was practicing my newfound blowing skills.

We played in the living room and hung out with GG Droste.  I LOVE WIFFLEBALLS!  In fact, chasing a wiffle ball even got me to willingly move from a sitting position to my stomach!  I also got to watch Great Aunt Jackie make friendship bracelets — I can’t wait to be old enough to wear one!  Also, Jackie was nice enough to bring me a blanket as I was falling asleep.

We picked up Grandma Droste at the Corn Maze and then headed home for my bottle.  After my bottle Grandma got on the floor and played with me and we even sang together.  She then fed me pears (my favorite!) and I was soooo tired!  I didn’t nap much today and I just needed to get to bed. HOWEVER, just before I was heading off to bed, Aunt Sarah arrived from Kentucky. She took off a whole week of work to come and hang out with me while I’m in Dow.  I fell asleep pretty easily then after a really fun day in Dow!

 I woke up Saturday morning with Mom and was in a really good mood when Aunt Sarah came and gave me my morning bottle. While I was eating grandma and mom left and headed to the airport for mom’s trip to Hawaii- Dad has a conference there next week and mom got to tag along (they were meeting up at the airport in Denver)! I played with AS for a while before eating breakfast and then decided today was the day to catch up on the sleep I’ve missed for the past couple days. I slept for three whole hours and woke up really happy.

After my nap I had another bottle, played more, went outside to get the mail with AS, then had lunch…POTATOES! It was my very first time eating regular potatoes and I love them as much as AS and Aunt Claire do – I can’t wait until I get to eat G’ma’s homemade mashed potatoes  with them! I decided after lunch I need to sleep a little longer, so I went back for an afternoon nap for almost 1 1/2 hours…boy was I in a better mood when I woke up – it was just what I needed.

As if the past couple days were not exciting enough, I found myself being changed into a “girly” outfit by AS (so no one else would mistake me for a boy!) and strapped into my carseat for a roadtrip to…Jerseyville! G’ma and I went to the high school craft fair where I got to see/meet so many people. I got to see Joyce Goetten again (I met her a few months ago, but I’m way bigger now!) and got to meet Great Aunt Judy, Penny Allen (G’ma’s friend) and Cliff Kaminsky (lots of connections to him, but we’ll go with Mom’s high school band teacher as his official title). Then we headed to the park where I had my afternoon bottle before heading back home to Dow.

The evening was pretty uneventful, although I was in a very good mood – got home, played, ate apples, played, took a bath, drank nighttime bottle, read book, went to bed…See you tomorrow!