I thought this year, in addition to my annual birthday letter to Maggie and Ben, that I would try to dedicate an entry to each of them and post it at the exact time they were born. I started typing tonight, and realized that it is harder than I expected to describe my oldest child. She, quite simply, amazes me.
Growing from a four and a half pound peanut into a giant. . .well, maybe 23 pound peanut. She is tiny but mighty. I have no doubt now that she is going to be a petite woman, and that she will probably always be short.
She is such a smart little girl. She notices everything. The other day, we played such an elaborate game of hair, she remembered every detail of our appointment at the salon. And then did every step to paint, cut and style my hair. I have to really watch what I say, because she remembers everything, and tends to repeat things that we have talked about.
Maggie likes to talk. All the time. The few times I have been able to take her alone somewhere she will talk the entire time. The whole time in the car, walking around in the cart. We were trying to pick out a birthday present recently for a friend, and she commented on everything that we went by. Mommy, I want that for my birthday. Ben would like that. Mia needs those. And so on, and so on. She talks to Ben, she talks to Kee, she talks to Mia. She uses very polite phrases all the time, like "Mommy, may I have another chip please?", and says thank you (or reminds Ben too). The "may I" thing cracks me up, because other than teaching them "May I please be excused" to get up from the table, I don't think we use it that much. I promise, I'm not doing the teacher routine of "Can I go to the bathroom", "I don't know can you?" or anything like that.
We have a dual video monitoring system that I love now that they are toddlers. We got it new when Mia was born, and one of the best features is that I can talk to them through the monitor. The camera in Mia's room where Maggie naps hasn't been attached anywhere yet, and so Maggie will now grab it, put her face up to the camera and talk to me at naptime. It is hilarious. The other day, I was being goofy at bedtime and in a stern voice over the monitor said, "This is your mother. You need to go to sleep" and I heard Maggie go, "Mommy? Mommy is that you?" And then she launched into some discussion of whatever it was they had been doing.
Maggie likes to dress up, but isn't into it all the time. She also has some interesting ideas of what is dressed up. She loves to wear her pretty dresses (anything she can find from her closet, regular clothes, not pretend clothes kind of dress up) over her jeans or pants. She tells me it is so she can spin. This first picture below is a dress that was mine when I was little. I don't know when I wore it, but it fit her perfectly, other than being short. She looked like such a little doll in it!
She is a drama queen. Not as much as she was a few months ago, but man can that girl overreact. I have heard it is common in girls. She is forever running over to me wailing at the slightest thing from Ben that sets her off. As they are twins, and he is a brother, he knows all of the best buttons to push. He will take Kee away if he is being particularly mean, or lately, he will physically try to move her somewhere if she isn't going where he wants her. She has picked up a few of my disciplinary phrases, and will tell Ben he needs to stand in the corner. We do a 1, 2, 3 counting system, and she loves to "help" me count when Ben is in trouble. She is also a stinker. I will ask her to help with something, and she will tell me no, I am busy. You ask her to sit the right way in her chair, and she will innocently ask you if she is doing it right, while doing something she knows is wrong.
She dances, she sings, she pretends. There is quite a little imagination growing in that brain of hers. She has elaborate routines of picnic, tea party, anything they are playing. I can hear her directing like a little general when her cousin Ryan is here too. She seems to inspire the boys to do what she wants. She will pass out pretend food to adults when we have the family over, but tell you, "No, you don't eat it yet. You have to wait." She loves to hold Kee by the hands and dance with him in front of her. There is a lot of spinning in her dancing. She remembers a lot of words to familiar songs. She is starting to let me listen to the radio a little bit more, and there are a few songs that she likes. She sings along with Taylor Swift, anything Mamma Mia, and loves the very soft and sweet "Little Things" song from the Sesame Street soundtrack. At our Music class, she sings the goodbye song complete with hand motions.
Outside, she has recently discovered that not only does she love bubbles, she can blow them too. All she wants to do is blow bubbles outside. Such a big girl, and so much more independent now.
Today she is three. Three years ago, a tiny angry little head that appeared above the curtain. A peanut who stared out at me from the incubator, watching me like she knew everything already. Stubbornly nursing on her own timeline, sleeping when she felt like it, partying late at night. Charming everyone she met with those big chocolate brown eyes.
Happy Birthday Margaret Jane. I couldn't love you more.
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