margaretyagan

I was up and at ’em like usual this morning, but I started getting sleepy by 7:00.  I managed to stay up to have breakfast and then took an almost two hour nap.  The weather has stayed nice, so Nana and I went for a walk.  There were a ton of kids in the park and it was the first time that Nana let me get on the swing (Mom & Dad put me in a swing weeks ago, but I haven’t been back since!).  I devoured my lunch (including yummy apricots) and took another nice long nap in the afternoon. Grandpa took over around 3:45 and we hung out until Mom got home.

Today got off to a highly unorthodox start.  I woke to Mom being quite a bit more frenetic than usual.  She didn’t even change me out of my pajamas before whisking me downstairs and rolling me out the door in my stroller.  We headed up to Wicker Park where hundreds of people were standing in line to get into the gymnasium.  Even more confusingly, Dad was already in line, right up at the front.  Mom and I cut the line to meet up with him (I’m pretty sure that without me, Mom would have gotten a lot of flak for heading straight for the front of the line).  Once we got into the gym, I got to vote for the very first time — well, I got to help Dad vote, anyway.  Dad had been reconsidering his vote, but he knew I wanted him to vote for Obama, so he did.

Starbucks was giving away free coffee to people who voted, so Mom, Dad, and I swung by and got two coffees (one for nana!) and a chai latte.  Chai latte?  That sounds elitist, Mom!

Nana was waiting for me when we got home.  I changed into my regular clothes and, after all the excitement, promptly fell asleep.  We had a baby-proofing safety consultant come by the house and make recommendations about how to “Maggie-proof” (hey!) the house.  Apparently, any given thing in the house is a potential risk.  Dad didn’t look very happy.  Then a couple guys came by to estimate doing some work on the floor.  It made an already hectic day even more so.

Around 3:00, Grandpa took over for Nana and we got to hang out for much of the afternoon.  Mom was working from home, so she was able to hang out with me much earlier in the evening since she didn’t have to drive all the way home.

I fell asleep before anything was known about the election, but at around 11:00 there was a lot of honking and loud blasts all over the city of Chicago.  Go Barack!

Dad woke up with me around 6:00 this morning and then after some pretty brief play time, we hopped in the car and headed out to our weekly trip to Dominick’s.  As usual at that hour, I was in a really good mood (Mom & Dad are lucky I’m a morning person!).  We got what we needed and then headed back home where Mom was waiting for us with lots of excitement.  We played for a while, I ate breakfast, and then I took a nap.

When I got up it was almost lunch time and boy was I in for a surprise.  I thought I had eaten some pretty adventurous food — I mean, I bet most people have never eaten millet!  But this was crazy — turkey!  I had never eaten meat before; so much for a life of vegetarianism!  I have to say, the turkey wasn’t exactly delicious.  Luckily it was immersed in pear bath, so I was able to get it down.

After lunch, Mom, Dad, and I took off to run some errands.  It was a beautiful day — even bordering on hot.  We went to J. Crew, Banana Republic, Carter’s Ann Taylor Loft, Anthropologie, Dominick’s, and Target.  We eventually got back home and Mom and Dad took turns playing with me until dinner time.  Dad gave me my bath (I can’t remember the last time he did) and then put me to bed.

My Saturday was pretty unusual, in that I woke with Mom and Dad was nowhere to be seen.  I hung out with Mom all morning.  After I got up from my afternoon nap and bottle, Mom put me in the car and we headed downtown — a place I rarely go.  It turns out that Nana and Grandpa had just moved to a new home in Chicago (which explains Dad’s absence).  Everyone was kind of stressed out, but — even without my magic dragon outfit — I managed to cheer everyone up!  All of a sudden Nana and Grandpa were in a great mood!

I like their new apartment, especially because there are lots of new things to look at out their windows and lots of new things to discover in the apartment.  We hung out there until I got tired around 7:00 and then we headed home, where I went to bed pretty much as soon as I could.

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One of my favorite parts of our usual walk is all the dogs that bark and play with each other.  But today, a bunch of the dogs were wearing funny outfits.  Why would the same dogs I see almost every day be wearing costumes today (especially the one with a pink sweater and a pearl necklace!)?  Anyway, it definitely added some excitement to the outing.  I enjoyed my lunch (broccoli & potatoes) and my day seemed to be back to normal. 

Then, around 5:30, Nana decided to change me out of my totally clean and dry outfit and into a green…dragon?  Nana couldn’t even contain her laughter!  Nana, Dad, and I (and later, Grandpa and Mom) went outside and hung out by our front gate.  Then, out of nowhere, kids came — dressed up in all kinds of crazy costumes — to meet me.  Dad kindly handed out candy to all of my new friends.  I even got my picture taken with a group of cute kids and a scary looking batman (not “batgirl,” she insisted). 

This whole dragon thing was really cool — I think that’s what I want to be when I grow up!

I was in a great mood today.  I took a long nap in the morning (8-10) and had a lot of fun playing with my toys after I got up.  For lunch I started yet another new food: broccoli!  It was really good.  Not sure what the first President Bush had against this friendly veggie.  After a short nap around midday, I spent the rest of the day playing and was having too much fun to take a third nap.  Nana and I went for a walk down Division and then got back for dinner before Mom got home.

(In case you were missing the frequent poop updates I used to have, you’ll be happy to know that I pooped four times today!)

So, the exciting news today was that I spent most of my day standing up (hanging on to the couch) and playing with my toys, which Nana spread out all over the couch.  Luckily someone is always around to catch me when I fall over, because sometimes it seems a lot easier to lunge for a toy than go through the hassle of moving my feet to get there.  I had an interesting blend of flavors for lunch today: peas and cauliflower…and bananas!

It was a beautiful fall day today and Nana and I took a trip to Wicker Park.  I’m so lucky that we’re having such a mild autumn this year!

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Finally a more normal schedule today, though I was more tired than usual in the morning.  I had my bottle with Mom and cereal with Nana before taking a long nap from 8:00 to 10:45.  Grandpa had a doctor’s appointment today, so I didn’t get to spend as much time with him as usual.  Today was my second day of blueberries, which just might be my favorite food now (sorry, pears!).

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!