margaretyagan

Apparently my birthday festivities yesterday were just the beginning of a weekend of fun!  I got up at the usual time but noticed that people seemed a bit more tired than usual.  (Apparently my parents, aunts, and uncle were out partying last night!)  I had a fun morning playing and had an uneventful nap.  When I got up, Mom, Dad, the Drostes, and I all headed out to Francesca’s for Aunt Claire’s brithday brunch!

I’ve walked (well, rolled) by Francesca’s many times, but never gotten to go in side.  Also, we almost always go to Moonshine for brunch!  Maybe now that I’m a toddler, my parents trust me to go to fancier places?

I started throwing some food on the floor and made a huge mess!  Dad tried to clean it up but the nice owner of the restaurant insisted that it was okay!  Dad was in a remarkably open-minded mood and let me try pretty much everything.  I really like pancakes!  They’re just like birthday cake except they can be eaten for breakfast.  What a great idea!  I also really really loved scrambled eggs.  I ate at least half of Dad’s breakfast all by myself (and in addition to my own breakfast).  Unfortunately, I didn’t get to taste the booze that Aunt Claire ordered.  Apparently turning 21 means you have to drink alcohol for breakfast?  Wow.

After brunch, Mom and Dad and Grandma and Grandpa headed home while my aunts took me to Wicker Park and let me play on the swings.  After I got home, I got to hang out in the yard and play with the awesome slide that Aunt Sarah had gotten me for my birthday.  While I was out there playing, Grandpa Droste  installed an extra fence in the yard to make it “Maggie proof.”

After my snack and my nap it was time for yet another birthday celebration!  Nana’s birthday was last week but we hadn’t gotten to formally celebrate it yet.  Mom, Dad, and I drove over to Nana’s and Grandpa’s neighborhood and ate at Bistro Margot.  The food looked really good, but I didn’t get to eat much of the real food.  It was fun to have Uncle Danny around and to see Nana and Grandpa Yagan in such good moods!

Here’s what I was doing a year ago!

Well, as you all know, my birthday was on March 11th, and I thought it was so nice that Mom took the day off and that she and I went to the bakery together and that I even got to eat a cupcake.  Since I’d never had a birthday before, I had no reason to expect anything else.  Well, today was definitely something else!

Here’s a slideshow of my day:

http://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf

I got up at my normal time and Aunt Claire joined Dad and I on our weekly trip to the grocery store.  We had a great time, as usual.  Everything seemed pretty normal until we went to the floral section and bought a bunch of balloons, including an Elmo balloon that said “Happy Birthday.”  We got home and I was so happy to see that Grandpa Droste had come for the weekend!  The entire Droste side of my family was visiting us — yet another hint that something was up.I played with my aunts and grandparents while Mom and Dad were cooking in the kitchen.  I took my nap a bit later than usual and got up right around 11:30.  I came downstairs and saw that the house was really clean and lots of yummy food had been cooked.  At about 12:00 Mom took me up to my room and changed me into a brand new dress (while Dad conducted an impromptu photo shoot).

When I came downstairs, I started to figure out what was going on – I was having a birthday party!  Luckily, I was well-rested and in a great mood as Mom carried me down the stairs to greet the awaiting paparazzi (aka, my family).   The entire Yagan side of my family had also come over to celebrate.  My whole entire family hasn’t been all together since the week I was born!

After being passed around a bit, we all sat down to dinner.  Mom and Dad had cooked several recipes (lentil burgers, corn & salmon chowder, orzo with vegetables, just to name a few) out of my baby cookbook for me — and all the adults — to eat.  I was so excited that I could eat absolutely everything on the table and everything that everyone else was eating.  I think I’m going to like being a toddler!

After we ate, it was time to open presents.  I got so many things!  New cloths, new shoes, new toys, new books, and even a slide for the front yard!  It was really fun to rip open the gifts and I especially liked the ones with fun colored paper in them.

After we were done opening gifts, there was more eating!  I had a huge birthday cake (a “smash” cake) all for me.  By the time I was done, I had eaten literally 50% of the cake!  It was so good.  Mom was especially thoughtful to get me strawberry filling – I love strawberries!  I consumed about a million times more sugar today than I have in the entire first year of my life.  I had so much cake on me — on my face, in my hair — that picked me right out of my high chair and took me straight into the bathtub!

ABC’s!

I love my new photo album…especially myself:

Gifts can be fun even before they are unwrapped:

Me and my new farm:

Hello, cake!

So, when it came to nap time…yeah, that wasn’t going to happen.  I was so wired on my sugar high that there was no chance of my sleeping.  After a half-hearted effort, they gave up and got me out of my crib.

Mom and Dad had decided to let me have one cabinet in the kitchen that I would be allowed to play in, so I spent some time in the afternoon playing there.  At one point I crawled all the way inside of it and then realized that I didn’t really know how to get out without face-planting into the floor!

When bed-time rolled around, I was pooped.  I think people were scared I might be unable to sleep, but that wasn’t a problem at all.  I had had one of the most fun days of my life with all of my family around and I was more than happy to end the day with a good night’s sleep!

In case you were wondering, we took over 1,000 pictures today!

And, here’s what I was doing one year ago today!

I was surprised to see Dad again this morning (a Wednesday AND a Thursday?).  I made breakfast quite a challenge today. I fought against the amaranth and peaches, but Dad finally won by putting little pieces of strawberry on each spoonful of amaranth.  I’m a sucker for strawberries!  By the time we were done battling, though, I had food all over myself — from head to toe!

After breakfast I went over to the shelves with the bibs and took them off, counted them and re-stacked them (with help) several times.  We sang lots of songs (one of Grandma’s favorites is “5 Little Monkeys”) and I’m starting to know that ducks go “quack.”  I’ve also figured out how to open the baby wipes and we spent a lot of time practicing open and shut and also playing peek-a-boo with wipes!

After my nap, we had a difficult lunch.  I finally finished the rice noodles from yesterday and I was kind of ambivalent about the  guacamole.  (It’s important to note that Mom LOVES guacamole and in fact it is her one culinary specialty!  But this guac recipe was from my special cookbook and made by Dad; I’m sure I would have loved Mom’s version!)

But the highlight of the day was Aunt Sarah’s arrival!  Dad decided to let me stay up past my bedtime to see her.  Aunt Sarah got here as fast as possible and pulled in just a few minutes after 7:00.  I hung out with her for about 15 minutes before Dad took my upstairs for my bath and put me to bed.

I woke up to see Dad getting me out of bed, which was cool after not seeing either of my parents yesterday!  Dad deliberately dressed me in a boyish blue outfit to save my girliest clothes for when my two aunts are around this weekend for my birthday party!

Dad got me started on breakfast, but left the cleanup for Grandma Droste.  After we finished up, I had fun playing with the blocks and the lion and Elmo, but the ball popper is still terrifying!

Sadly it was much colder outside today, so after my nap, Grandma Droste and I stayed inside and played with Fred the Frog (which Grandma Droste’s Mom made for my Mom had when she was a kid!) and read books in my room.  I devoured my lunch (red beans and rice — one of my favorites!) and practiced coloring again.

After lunch we ventured out into the cold.  We walked down Division, but there wasn’t nearly as much going on.  It was cloudy and sprinkling so most people just stayed inside.  We stopped by Alliance bakery to check on my birthday cake — they were still working on it!  Hopefully it’ll be done in time for Saturday.

I took another nap that was so long that Grandma actually woke me up — something that almost never happens, but I was about to sleep through dinner time!  Dad fed me dinner. I didn’t much care for the rice noodles, but I loved the papaya — first to eat, and then to throw on the floor.  That was Dad’s cue that dinner was over.

Happy Birthday, Nana & Happy St. Patrick’s Day everyone else!

I woke up at 6:15 but Grandma  Droste let me babble for a while and after 20 minutes, I managed to talk myself back to sleep!  I woke up for good at 6:50 and Grandma was there to get me up and dressed.  We read stories in my room before heading downstairs for breakfast.

I ate all of my breakfast (including the strawberry oatmeal I rejected yesterday) and then we sat on the front steps and counted all of the doggies that walked by — there were nine of them!  We also looked up and watched the birds in the tree over our heads.

I talked to myself for about half an hour before falling asleep for my nap.  I got up a bit earlier than I might have otherwise because I needed a new diaper.  Grandma and I sang songs and played until lunch time.

After lunch, we made a dash for the park to celebrate the 73 degree weather!  I was fascinated by all the chaos of the park.  Last year at this time I was just a week old and hardly ever left the house.  It’s amazing how much difference a year makes.

I loved the swing and the teeny-tiny slide, but the teeter-totter was a bit much for me.  Grandma had thought to pack my afternoon snack with us, so we had a picnic in the park.  It was almost a bummer to have to head home for my nap!  But apparently I needed it — I slept for over 2 hours!

Dinner was yummy and then we practiced walking across the living room about 20 times!  Grandma let me splash quite a bit in the bath and I got to bed a bit later than usual — about 7:50.

I got up this morning with Mom and went downstairs to see Grandma Droste!  I decided to be difficult at breakfast and actually rejected my strawberry-flavored oatmeal for the first time ever.

We played and read stories after breakfast and counted the dogs we saw out the window.  My nap was good — I talked to myself for about 20 minutes before sleeping for an hour or so.  I ate a good lunch and then I colored for the first time ever!  I’ll have to get some of my originals framed!

It was so nice outside (68 degrees!) and we really enjoyed our walk.  we went to Milk & Honey and bought some fresh fruit to take to the park.  There were so many dogs and kids that we had to wait in line for the swing.

During my nap, Grandma had set up my jumperoo outside in the yard.  When I got up I went out and played in it which was perfect because I could jump around and also see everything that was happening on the street.  When Grandma let me out of my jumperoo, I crawled straight for the pile of dead, dirty leaves and even took a few nibbles!

Finally Mom came home and saw the ring of dirt on my face.  She knew right away how much I had had today!

Just like yesterday, my schedule was running late all morning.  As soon as I got up from my nap, we headed over to meet a new friend, Maya!  Maya’s about 3 months older than I am.  She has all kinds of cool stuff (a huge Elmo and a toddler-sized armchair, to name a couple) and lives right next door to a really awesome park.

I ate a lot (and wiped raspberry all over Maya’s parent’s chair!) and had a really fun time playing with Maya.  After lunch, we all went to the park and I went down a slide (with help from Mom) for the first time ever!  I also snuck away from Mom long enough to eat some dirt!

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Then We dropped Mom off at the Flower & Garden Show, where she hung out with Grandma Droste.  I went with Dad to Nana & Grandpa Yagan’s and we had a really fun time.  We stayed so long that it was time for my snack, but Dad hadn’t brought any food with us.   Not to worry!  Nana brought out a white bean stew that she had made and I totally loved it!

Dad and I drove home and I hopped right in bed!  I played with everyone the rest of the day and had a fun dinner before heading to bed.

Everything ran late today.  I got up late.  I had breakfast late.  We went to the store late.  I went to sleep late.  I got up late.

When I got up, Mom, Dad, and I went to Target.  Dad was in some kind of crazy St. Patrick’s Day spirit, because be bought all kinds of green things (and Irish beer!).  He let me play with two books while I was sitting in the cart, but then Mom made me put them back before we checked out, saying I’d be getting lots of gifts at my birthday party!
We went to Union Station to pick up Grandma Droste and then headed home.  I absolutely rejected my bottle, to the point where Mom & Dad decided to permanently retire my bottle!!  I’m even post-toddler now!

After my nap and dinner, Mom, Dad, and I took a walk to Alliance Bakery to order my birthday cake! It was getting late and cold and dark, so Mom and I headed home while Dad went to run an errand.

I’m still not 100% today, but I’m feeling a lot better than I was yesterday and the day before.  I really enjoyed my tropical smoothie for breakfast but completely rejected the bulgar and raisin concoction that Nana tried to feed me.

We had a really good time reading books and playing with my new toys (especially the colored blocks).  I was a bit fussier than usual, but got back on track after a relatively long (almost two-hour) nap.

Red beans and rice (and chicken sausage!) made for a yummy lunch, though I continued to refuse the bulgar.  Finally, at my afternoon snack, Nana mixed the bulgar with yogurt and all of a sudden I loved it!  We thought about going out for a walk, but decided that since I was still getting over my cold, it made sense to stay indoors.

I slept so deeply that I snored during my afternoon nap.  I’m also trying really hard to walk — at least I’m now standing up for really long times by myself.

I woke up today at 7:05 and so didn’t get to see Mom before she left for work.  Nana was up to get me and I was so excited to show her my stuffed puppy!

I was feeling a bit better than before, but still congested and with a runny nose.  I enjoyed my new colorful blocks but I’m still horrified of my Busy Ball Popper!