Funny Maggie Sayings

I've got so many funny Maggie sayings that I thought I'd devote a whole post to them.

First of all, Maggie calls Finn "bruddy" which is a combination of "brother" and "buddy." Super cute.

Tonight while we were driving Maggie said, "I'm having some refreshments. That's a fancy word for snack!"
We said, "That's great, Maggie!"
She said, "Yep. I'm having some nose refreshments!"
We laughed, thinking, "Isn't she silly?!"
A few minutes later she said, "I'm fishing for some nose refreshments!"
Um. Does that mean what I think it means?
Yep. "Nose refreshments" = "boogers".
Also, "nose refreshments" = "not so fancy after all".

The rest of the stories are all Christmas-related, FYI.

Christmas Eve Maggie woke up around 4:30am and came into our room. I was afraid she'd realize it was Christmas morning and be unable to go back to sleep so I helped her as quickly as possible and Grant put her back in bed. Then, Christmas morning, Maggie was looking at her stocking and pulling out the Hello Kitty slippers that peeked over the top, and she said, "I saw these stockings last night when I got up but I tried not to look at them because I wanted it to be a surprise!" I'm so impressed by her self-control. I'm pretty sure she didn't learn that from me.

Earlier in December Maggie and I were shopping and found ourselves surrounded by Christmas lingerie. You know the type - red, gauzy, with white faux fur. Maggie pointed right at one and said, "OH! That's for mamas who want to look like Santa!"

We were listening to Christmas music and one of my favorite songs came on, "I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm". Maggie said, "Wait a second. What did that song say?"
We said, "It said, 'I've got my love to keep me warm."
Maggie said, "Hmmm...I don't think that'll keep her very warm."

Enjoy!

Christmas visitors, Part II

We went to Opryland Hotel on their last night in Nashville, my favorite Christmas-y place to go. Grant generously calls it my "one lapse of good taste." Thanks, honey.
We had a terrible time.
Terrible, and miserable.
Yeah, right! What's the only thing as wonderful as besotted grandparents? Besotted grandkids!
Finn: "Oh, Grandpa, you're so hilarious."
Finn: "Wait. Could you explain that joke again?"
This is pretty much how adorable Finn is all day:
And the same for this cutie, posing with Grandpa and her scarecrow painting (which she did all by herself!):
Here are Carol and Maggie in the midst of the Christmas present extravaganza:
Here's a funny story about the dolls. Carol wanted to buy Maggie a girl doll from American Girl Dolls but the only ones with hair (aside from the big, historical ones) were the twins. Well, Carol didn't think Maggie really needed two more dolls, so she asked some teacher friends if anyone would want to go in with her and she (Carol) would get the girl and the other person would get the boy. Apparently her friends were shocked that she would consider "breaking up" the twins. As if they're real twins! I guess the pressure got to Carol because Maggie now has a complete set of twins, and has named them "Ella" and "Peter".

I have the best in-laws and we had tons of fun while they were here. Ahh! So lucky!

Christmas visitors, Part I

One day several weeks ago I received a very exciting phone call when my college roommate and one of my best friends, Christin, called to say she and her family would be passing through Nashville on December 21 on their way to Atlanta for Christmas. At approximately the same time on that same day Grant received a phone call from his parents saying they would be coming to visit us, also on December 21! Both parties wouldn't be staying long - about 20 hours for Christin and her family and about 48 hours for Grant's parents. So we had a brief and wonderful time with lots of visitors!

Christin and Kevin had an adorable little baby, Jude, in June, about three months after Finn was born and while they were here we got to have the boys together for the first time. Christin and I have already decided that they'll be best friends and go to Samford (our alma mater) together and room together. Their dads had something to say about this but we'll just see what happens...
We had so much fun and the boys are off to a great start on best-friendhood. Here they are in the morning, sitting in bed together.
Seriously, does it get any cuter than this?! I don't think so. They were very affectionate with each other, a sign that they are destined for a long-lasting friendship.
And my favorite:
Christin, Kevin and baby Jude stayed with us and Grant's parents stayed with Grant's brother and his wife (Blake & Jenny). The night that Christin was here we put the babies to bed and his parents stayed home with them so we could go out for an adults-only dinner. We had so much fun. Why do they have to live so far away?!

We also celebrated Christmas with Grant's family while they were here. By the time they arrived I had virtually all of our presents wrapped and under the tree, and when the Howards arrived our present count doubled or tripled. I'll be posting about this tomorrow so that this post isn't jumbo-sized.

Happy Birthday, Dear Maggie

In my official HowardYouDoing tradition, here are photos from Maggie's birthday party about two months late.
It was Candyland-themed so I did my best re-creation of the game board for the cake:
Maggie and I had fun leading up to the party making giant candies and gingerbread men to decorate the house. I challenged myself to not make it a total sugar-fest so the goodie pails below had candy rings and candy necklaces, stickers that look like candy, gingerbread man cookie cutters, and play dough.
I made about five giant paintings of candy/sweets to hang up in the backyard. You can see the lollipop and gumdrop ones behind my sister-in-law, Kajsa, and Finn, below. I made one that was a swirly hard candy (like a peppermint) and we had the kids lick gummy lifesavers and try to stick them on the center of the candy, a la Pin-The-Tale-On-The-Donkey. Maggie could see through the blindfold but I wasn't sure about it until later. Oh well. We also had a peanut-shelling contest (because of Peanut Acres on the Candyland game board) and it was pretty funny to see all the little kids trying to shell the peanuts. Let's face it: no one was too fast. Here's the birthday girl with my mom, making approximately 10 gallons of bacon & corn chowder.We borrowed Maggie's Uncle Blake & Aunt Jenny's bean bag toss. They had their last initial painted on them, which, conveniently, is OUR last initial. You can also see my cotton candy painting (Grant said, "Why did you paint a blue cloud on a stick?"). I never claimed to be a great artist.
We just had a great time! We (and Maggie, especially) are so lucky to have such lovely friends. And as a side note, we have a new deck! It was just finished yesterday, but wouldn't it have been nice to have back in October for Maggie's birthday?! Well, there's always next year.

Early December update

We are deep in the throes of Christmas around here. Maggie wrote her letter to Santa and we mailed it in the giant Santa mailbox at Macy's. She was pretty excited about that. Here she is giving a thumbs up to her Santa letter.I don't know if you can read the letter so I'll type out what she wrote:
"Dear Santa,
Hi, I'm Maggie. I wanted to tell you that I have been a very good girl this year. Can I please have bride and groom barbies, some wedgits, more art project things, smelling stickers (orange, apple, and other fruits), lip gloss, and lipstick? Thank you and please have a wonderful Christmas this year.
Love,
Maggie"

If I could write a follow-up letter to Santa it would say:
"Dear Santa,
Yes, Maggie has been a very good girl this year. Please ignore her request for Barbies, or ANY dolls for that matter. Her dolls have taken over our house.
Enjoy the cookies we'll be leaving out for you and make sure your reindeer eat our reindeer food.
Love,
Courtney"

We had my dad and brother, Spencer, over for dinner two nights ago and my dad mentioned something and said it was cheap. Maggie bolted upright and said, "MOM! You LOVE cheap things!!!!!" We cracked up - and she's sort-of right. I LOVE a good deal!

Maggie said something else funny the other day, but I don't know if it'll come across as hilarious in writing. She walked up to me and Grant and said, "I realized that this shoe was different from that shoe and I said to myself, 'That's not right!'" It just cracked us up to hear this little 4-year-old say, "I said to myself"!

Here's our other little sweetie, sleeping in the sling on a walk a few weeks ago on a really nice day.
We had another appointment with our beloved geneticist, Dr. Summar, this week. We thought it would be our last appointment with him before he moved to DC but while we were there he said he would be here the second week of January and would we mind coming back in then so he could see us one last time? We said, "OF COURSE!" Maggie and I made some homemade toffee for him, Finn's nutritionist, and his nurse practitioner, all of whom we just adore. At this last appointment Dr. Summar had someone shadowing him (maybe a med student? or maybe an undergrad?) and when he walked into the exam room he told this young woman to get comfortable. He said, "This family and I are really close so we always talk for a while." I just thought that was the sweetest thing to say! As far as Finn's health goes, his developmental and neurological exams show that he's developing normally and his head circumference has increased, which means that his brain is growing (yay, brain!). Unfortunately he hasn't gained any weight or grown lengthwise for the last two months so they're going to be keeping a close eye on that. Meanwhile I'm trying to feed him as much as he will eat and trying not to freak out about it. His team definitely wasn't freaked out but it's hard for me not to feel anxious. He is very, very happy most of the time so obviously he's not starving or he'd be a lot more fussy. Also, he's had a cold for the better part of the last two months so they suspect that contributed to suppressing his appetite.

He's getting really, really close to crawling and loves to get up on his hands and knees and rock back and forth. His teeth also seem to be so close to coming in. They haven't broken through the gums yet but I can see them right there and they're really red. He LOVES giving lots of kisses and hugs (although to the untrained eye his kisses may look like he's trying to suck on our faces).

I'll leave you with a funny Maggie photo. Do you remember the elf costume I made her last year? Well, it still fits but is WAY shorter and she puts it on at least once a day. We went to a party a few weeks ago and she said, "I want to be fancy at this party. I better wear my elf hat." Here she is wearing the elf hat and doing her "how's my style?" pose: