Happy 4th of July!

I don't know if I have written about picking Maggie up from school. When I walk into her classroom, I usually see her before she sees me. Her teacher smiles, nudges her, she sees me and lights up. She runs over,"Mama, Mama. I eat, I sleep." She likes to give me a list of her activities, the things she has accomplished while out of my presence. If she has an accident and the teacher tells me, Maggie repeats that as well. She may be hard to drop off but is a real joy to pick up. I really liked the last report from her teacher... She would do some work, stop and just observe what her other friends were doing for a time. I am trying to figure out which of us, she gets that from.

Persistence pays off....

Max wanted his floppy jalopy. I said no and thought that would be the end of it, because I would be the one getting it down from the closet. He took the challenge and ran with it. He said, I will build something on my own without help. He climbed on top of one of our little plastic drawers and pulled it down off the shelf. Could I get mad? Nahhhh, especially when it didn't seem to phase Krismon's sleep. Heck, I have been wanting Max to show a more independent side with the ability to follow directions so he can create things on his own. Though... right now he is just taking everything apart so we shall see.

Kids in quiet restaurants.... We broke the cardinal rule by taking them to a little pasta shop around the corner. While many people generally enjoy Maggie's squeals of delight and her chatter, it sounded to us like she had a bullhorn in her hand and was projecting to every nook and cranny of the place. Max was much more well behaved. And thank goodness for the little art supplies we picked up in the Philippines that stay in my bottomless purse to keep little ones entertained. I think the bold art on the walls, okay so some of it was a little gaudy( okay you got me a lot gaudy) and this may have contributed to Maggie's overstimulated attitude. The food was wonderful and again thank the US big food gods for giving me an extra large amount of food since I ended up feeding some of mine to Maggie and after Max finished his half portion, some to him as well. It was yummy Chicken Marsala. After dinner, it was all we could do to get out quick enough. I was glad for the bathroom breaks at the end to pee both kids as they provided the time enough to get leftovers wrapped up and the check paid for and then we were out of there into the melting heat. I think we will probably go back there to eat but not with the kids....

"The kids like toys and the parents love them(the kids, me and Maggie) so much to the world and back," so says the Max! He wanted to add his two cents to the blog post. "I want to visit all my grandparents." (done, he says)