Weekend at the races..and other stuff

We have had a rather busy weekend for a change. We shopped and shopped on Friday at Concord Mills with Kimberly. Maggie amazes me again and again with how good she is when we go anywhere. Not that she's horrible at home but she is GREAT when we are in public. Kimberly and I ate lunch at Panera and then we headed to the mall. Maggie gamely rode in the stroller and had many opportunities to spy on people as she rode around. She allowed Kimberly to try on clothes and tasted her first Cinnabon. Ooh, YUM. I love some Cinnabon. David's mom asked me tonight if I was still doing Weight Watchers. Uh, no. I think one cinnamon roll is probably all of my points for a day, maybe even 2 days. Maggie fell asleep in the car on the way home and then she and I went to meet my friend Kathy for dinner at Chili's. Maggie spent much of the meal leaned backwards out of her high chair, again, so she could spy. I think she knows she's cute and wants to make sure that everyone has the opportunity to comment on it. She had a grilled cheese from the kid's menu. Sometimes I wish I could order food for me off of the kid's menu. It sounds better a lot of the time. When we got home (David was not there), I thought for about one minute that it might be fun if Maggie slept in our bed with me. I am so glad I decided against it because the stupid cats (CAT, really. It was Katie) woke me up at 4, knocking a pen around the kitchen. Then Katie broke the Roman shade in my window. Then I had to go to the bathroom. Then I was sad when the alarm went off at 6.

I just want to say right now that I am massively impressed with single moms. I do not know how they do it. It was a little more difficult getting the 2 of us ready than it is when I have some help. I did as much as possible before I had to wake Maggie up. She looked a bit disoriented for about 2 seconds and then was in a good mood and ready to go. It was COLD on Saturday morning (like 29 degrees) so I had to bundle her up. David's stepmom went with me and Maggie slept in the car on the way to the XC meet. She actually deigned to sit in the grass for a little bit at the meet but mostly I either held her or she rode in the stroller.
We hate cross country meets!!

We are not amused. Pick us up, please.

I feel morose. And melancholy.

What do we have here? Ah, a bag. The diaper bag! I wonder if there's any scotch in here.


It was very cold at the XC meet. I was VERY cold. Oh yeah, on a completely unrelated note, Maggie and I went for a walk on Friday morning and I about froze to death. I had to pull my sweatshirt sleeves over my hands. I also found Sonya Lee! Poor gal was in the middle of the street. She had some road rash but was none the worse for wear. I washed her off and she was ready to play again. Inside, though, she has requested. Anyway, we did not stay for the awards ceremony and went to Cracker Barrel for lunch. Maggie ate a ton of food (unsurprisingly) and shoved almost a whole cornbread muffin in her mouth. It looked like a cornbread explosion had occurred around her high chair. It was pretty awesome. I could go for a cornbread explosion right about now. Maggie slept in the car again and then we stayed and played with Barb for a while. That was fun too.

Okay, when we got back from China, I had all these grand plans to teach Maggie sign language. Then after about 5 half hearted tries at "all done," I decided just to forget it. Then Maggie started signing all done at the end of her meals. Crazy! I just figured I lucked out or something. THEN, I was signing "drink" to her last night, but again, I of little faith, figured she wasn't picking up on it. Tonight, we were at David's mom's and she signed drink to me and I gave her her sippy cup and she drank and drank. AWESOME. That is maybe one of the coolest things I have ever seen. I think we will work on "eat" tomorrow. Today at Walmart, she pulled my chapstick out of my purse and started imitating me putting it on. It is so amazing to watch her and see what she learns everyday. It makes me realize how important it is to be teaching her stuff and reading to her. She has also learned to give her babies and stuffed animals kisses (open-mouthed, of course). She crawls after Louie with her mouth open, trying to kiss him but he's not really so into that.

I really do not want to pose for you, Mom. At all.

See my baby? Now YOU kiss her. YOU. Kiss her.


We were heathens today. As usual. We did some shopping and ate lunch and then we all took a 2 hour nap together. YES. She is learning! We also went to dinner at David's mom's and hung out. Maggie ate a ton of food at dinner. She was very busy and packed and unpacked Jenga blocks about a thousand times. Linda and I were lying on the floor looking at the toy catalog from Target and Maggie came over and laid right between us. We decided that maybe Linda was a little too close to Mommy. Linda and I found a cool drum set that we think our nephew, Nicklaus, would enjoy. Heh.

I love Mommy!

And she loves me!

Open wider! Wider!


Tomorrow Maggie goes back to the doctor for her weight check. I think she will be fine. I very unscientifically weighed her on Saturday and it looks like she weighs about 18 pounds now. So she's gained 2 pounds. I think she's grown too. She is also going to get a flu shot. I went back and forth on her getting one for a long time. We are going to see my parents on Friday. That will be Maggie's first long car trip but I think she will be fine. If Saturday is any indication, she will probably sleep for a decent amount of the trip. I hope so, at least.

I guess that's all for now. I hope this post was adequate. I am very hungry. I guess I won't eat anything now since it is 10:30 at night but MAN. I could go for a hamburger or something right about now. I'm also listening to some Christmas tunes. 2 radio stations here had Christmas previews and I heartily enjoyed them. I love Christmas music. Sometimes I listen to it in the summer. Alrighty, until next time.