Happy St Margaret's Day

Today is Maggie's first name day, and we aren't really celebrating because I have a cold. Maybe I'll take something to church on Sunday. I thought this would be a good time to catch everyone up with Maggie's development.

Maggie is now 6 months old. She sits really well. She's not quite able to sit herself up, but if you place her in a sitting position, she stays there until Lucy knocks her over. She can roll onto her belly. She has rolled onto her back, but she doesn't do it regularly. She can plank, baby twerk, push up onto her hands and knees and rock, army crawl forward, pivot, and scoot backward. She can take a few steps while holding fingers.

Maggie likes to experiment with sounds. When my sister Ashley was visiting, Maggie started making clicking sounds with her tongue. She clicked at Ash and would wait and click and wait until Ash clicked back. Maggie was so proud of herself for learning to speak "Ash."

Maggie likes to look at and handle books, stuffed animals, blocks, and balls. She likes to shake things that make sounds and crinkle things. She sat in the kitchen floor with a package of ramen while I made lunch the other day. She was perfectly happy to crinkle the package while I cooked. She still loves to play with her sister, although Lucy is occasionally to rough, and I have to rescue her.

Maggie is pretty easy going. In fact, she's usually very jolly. She loves to laugh at her sister. She's ticklish and giggles when her clothes are removed. Maggie's laugh makes every day happier for me. As long as she's fed, she's pretty happy. She'll let anyone hold her. She'll sleep anywhere. She self-soothes pretty well. After her 4-month shots, she calmed herself by the time the nurse got the bandaids on, before I even picked her up. She sucks her fingers and thumbs. She is pretty patient, but when she decides she needs something, she can get angry quickly if her needs are not met. If she tells me she's hungry and I walk past without picking her up, she screams. And it quickly escalates to sound like she's being murdered, and she cries tears.

We started solids last month, and so far she'll eat almost anything. She didn't like avocado. We thought she had a reaction to carrots, but it was a virus. She has successfully drunk from a straw, but she doesn't do it regularly. She averages one baby food meal every other day at this point. She likes it, but it's more of a treat than a meal at this point. When I have milk pumped, she's willing to drink from a bottle, which really helped after my surgery.

Maggie is a delight. I enjoy snuggling with her, tickling her, playing with her, and watching her grow.

Health Update

Maggie is sleeping on my lap, but I have one hand free, so I'll try to write a little.

My gallbladder was removed two weeks ago. I'm healing well and feeling good. Thank you to mom and Ashley for coming to help. And thank you to grandma for sending the food I was craving. I have a follow up appointment with the surgeon on Monday. Hopefully, I never have another digestive episode ever again.

Maggie was sick right before my surgery. She had a rash, body aches, and sore throat but no fever. Then almost her entire body peeled. It was scary enough that I took her to urgent care and then to the pediatrician a few days later. Strep test was negative; otherwise, it acted a lot like scarlet fever. Fortunately, she's better. Just a little clingy and cranky today. We all have those days.

Lucy seems to have her own allergy cough, mostly at night. More than once she's coughed so hard that she's vomited. I had been giving her Benedryl but switched to Zyrtec three days ago. It's a little better. I'm also doing the vapor rub and sock treatment to her feet and running the humidifier. I've offered honey and cough drops, but she refuses those. I hope we can get it under control. It's messing with our sleep.

Matt's cough is a little better with Flonase.

Christmas Gifts

Usually, I post something about gifts before Lucy's birthday. That didn't happen this year, so in case people are still shopping, I'll share lists and recommendations now.

Lucy
Lucy's Amazon list is here. There's a lot on it, so I thought I'd make some recommendations.

I must confess that Lucy watches too much TV. Because of pregnancy, c-section, breastfeeding a newborn, and having my gallbladder removed, I haven't spent the kind of quality time with Lucy that I wanted. I'm hoping that after recovering from my gallbladder surgery, I will be strong enough and Maggie will be big enough for me to do more with Lucy.

When she plays something, Lucy plays with blocks, cars and trains, her vintage Little People house, play dishes and food, doctor kit, play dough, and dress-up clothes. She also likes to paint. And she still loves books. And almost every night she wants to play board games before putting on pajamas. Two of her favorite things to pretend are Pirate Lucy, Super-Lucy, and Lucy Puppy.

Recommendations:

Games
Lucky Pirates
Animal Upon Animal
Preschool games other than Candyland

Painting
Bathtub paint, available at Walmart and in gift sets at places like Big Lots
Melissa & Doug Paint with Water. Any paint with water is good. That's just what Amazon has.
Art smock.
Finger paint paper.
Color Wonder paints.

Cooking/Food Toys
Food to cut.
Sandwich making set




Characters
Lucy isn't super-loyal to any character. Her birthday cake was Super-Grover, but the runner-up idea was a Gruffalo theme. Pajamas, books, or shirts with any of these characters would make her happy. Other specific items are noted. And despite knowing that she watches too much TV, I've put some DVDs on her list. We rely a lot on streaming shows, which means that she doesn't have much to watch without the Internet, so it's good to have DVDs of her favorites.

Shaun the Sheep has been a favorite for a long time, and she always comes back to it. We have the movie and some DVDs, but she doesn't have any plush sheep.
Gruffalo - Lucy likes a couple of books by Julia Donaldson, one of which is The Gruffalo. On her list are Gruffalo finger puppets, magnetic book, plush figure, and a collection of books from that author.
Paw Patrol - Lap desk would be great for coloring at church
Dr Seuss - We have several of the books, and she watches the Cat in the Hat on TV. A plush Cat in the Hat is on her list.
Wonder Pets - Painting Book
Sesame Street (esp. Elmo and Super/Grover)
BB-8 (Star Wars) - Bicycle Helmet was her favorite thing from the entire Target toy catalog. Plush robot.
Marvel Superheroes, especially Hulk
PJ Masks
Doc McStuffins - She always comments on the Lego block set.

Toy Storage Bags
For a while, I've been storing sets of toys in huge ziploc bags from Dollar Tree, but Lucy has started putting them on her head. She still doesn't understand danger or death, so my forbidding her to put bags on her head has had little affect. I stop her when I catch her, but it's best to switch to a non-plastic storage system, I really like big draw-string bags that double as play mats. We have one. They can be bought on Amazon. But a person with a little time and skill could make them.






Maggie
Maggie's list is here.

Maggie is just starting to sit and play independently. She likes balls, blocks, and stuffed animals. Most of all, she likes to play with her sister, so things they can play together are great (except for when Lucy doesn't want to share, but we're working on it.) We still have all of Lucy's baby toys, so Maggie doesn't need much. SHE DOES NOT NEED ANOTHER SHAPE SORTER. I love shape sorters, and that's why we have plenty already.

Recommendations:

Books
I've put a lot of cloth activity books on her list. She has a couple of cloth books without activities and loves them. I've also put some sheep books by Nancy Shaw. We own and love the other books in that series and would like to complete our collection.

Blocks
The Infantino Press and Stay blocks look like fun and might work with Lucy's bristle blocks, allowing them to play together.

Stuffed animal
Maggie doesn't have a favorite yet, so I thought we might try Dilly the Monkey. Dilly has clothes with various fasteners to learn. We don't have anything like this.

Puzzles
Maggie won't be able to do puzzles for a while, but the chunky puzzles double as wooden figures to play with.


Curious George
Maggie has just started to notice television, but Curious George is already a favorite. I don't plan for her to watch a lot, but we don't have access to George the way wedid when Lucy was smaller, so it would be good to have DVDs.



Natalie
I have an Amazon list. Things I really want are marked as Highest or High priority. I want a carbon monoxide detector, fire extinguishers, some face masks, dish wand refills, and a broom/mop organizer. I know. I'm wild and crazy and dream big.


Matt prefers money.