My last Maggie Monday post was from about a month ago, and I feel like she’s already changed a ton in just four short weeks! Since my last update on Maggie-girl, she’s spent time with my parents while Kevin and I went to Hawaii for a week, was a not-so-willing participant in a family photo shoot, enthusiastically celebrated her second Halloween, and spent time with Gram and Gramps (my in-laws). She’s also learned more words, gone from her adorable open-mouthed “oooh-wah!” kisses to real kisses, and developed an intense love for the hokey pokey. (She’s really good at turning herself around…)
- First up: The visit with my parents. Maggie did SO well there, and I’m not a bit surprised. My parents saved tons of toys from when my sister and I were kids, and they put things out in several rooms of their house. Maggie had a blast playing with our old toy kitchen, doctor’s kit, dolls, farm set, and so much more. I’m so grateful she got to have that special time with Mimi and Papa, and it was amazing knowing she was so happy while Kevin and I were so far away.
- We had a family photo shoot a couple of weeks ago with my super-talented friend Sarah Shinsky, and while Maggie started out interested in the whole camera-in-her-face thing, that lasted all of about 15 minutes. We spent the rest of the hour-long shoot trying all of the tricks that usually work with her (tickling, distracting her, getting her to make animal sounds, pulling out snacks) without much success. Remarkably, Sarah was able to capture more than 50 photos of our family where you’d never know Maggie was in full-on toddler mode during the shoot. I LOVE how they turned out, and we’ve already ordered our Christmas cards using these photos.
- Maggie LOVED Halloween this year (including her pineapple costume). At 19 months old, I figured it could go either way. She might get it, or it might just be a total miss. Well, SHE GOT IT. It took all of two houses for her to latch onto the concept and get super excited about Halloween. We trick or treated for more than an hour, and she even said “Trick or treat!” and “Thank you!” at a handful of houses. Win! (We ended up with lots of candy at home, of course, but thought we’d try treating the candy as toys. Since she’s never had it before, we thought we might be able to get away with it. Verdict? It WORKED. She was semi-interested in it for a few days, and we slowly threw it away and she never even noticed. Obviously, she’ll have candy at some point, but we figured if we could put it off a little longer, why not do it?)
- This past weekend, Kevin’s parents came to spend time with us. We had the best time with them, and Maggie LOVED having Gram and Gramps in town. (“Gram” and “Gramps” are hard words to say, but she’s developed a very distinctive version of them, and it’s so sweet!) To say our girl is loved (and by SO many people) is a huge understatement.
