Sweet baby girl

Thankfully today my sweet baby girl is doing much better. However yesterday, poor Maggie was sick as can be. She had a high fever all day that just wouldn't subside with medicine. In the afternoon, she was at 103.5 and obviously miserable. Our pediatrician's office was full for the rest of the day so they sent us to the Children's Hospital after-hours clinic in Bellevue. What a fabulous place! They diagnosed Maggie with RSV and an ear infection. Poor thing! She was breathing so heavily and fast that they didn't want to release us until it had normalized a bit. After 2 hours at the clinic we headed home with a new stuffed kitty to make Mags happy. The staff at Children's, whether it be in Seattle or Bellevue, is nothing short of amazing.

Today I'm happy to say that her fever has broken and she's much better. She even feels like playing so right now we're playing dress up. I can't think of anyone who looks better in red snowman jammies and a pink tutu!

Potty talk

I absolutely love the preschool that Ragen goes to and the kids who are in his class are wonderful too. It's nobody's fault - I think it's just the age - but there's been an exponential increase in the potty talk in our house. We've really worked on nipping it in the bud and Ragen's been doing a great job with choosing his words more carefully. It's actually pretty rare now if we need to remind him "uh oh, potty talk..."

Last night we were driving home around bedtime and in order to keep the kids from fighting, we starting playing a word rhyming game with Ragen. I'd say a word and he had to come up with a rhyme. My first word was SHOE and Ragen immediately blurted out POO. It was so unexpected that Jeremy and I both starting chuckling (as quietly as possible) in the front seat. I told him that if he wanted to continue playing the rhyming game, he'd have to use words that aren't potty words. He immediately corrected me "Mommy, I wasn't talking about poo, I was talking about Pooh as in Tigger and Pooh. That is definitely not potty talk."

Clearly mommy needs to pull her head out of the gutter, or toilet bowl in this case.

Ratatouille

Maggie has creatively renamed herself Ratatouille. To think of how many hours we put into selecting her name and it turns out all we had to do was turn to a Disney/Pixar movie. We've really been working with Maggie on saying her own name. If you ask her what her name is she'll either reply with "me" or "mai" which we think is her version of "Maggie."

Today I asked her what her name is like I do most days and she proudly said "Ratatouille" with a big grin. I thought it was a one-off thing but she's been doing it all day long. What's so funny is that she's really just now starting to make progress with her speaking so it's easier to understand her. She's never tried to say Ratatouille before now. She does have a Ratatouille game for her Leapster which I'm guessing is where this all came from.

For now, you can call her Ratatouille. :)

Star of the Week

We have been counting down to this week since school started. Ragen is Star of the Week this week at school. After about 2 or 3 kids got to be SOTW, Ragen started asking when he got to be. I told him it was after Christmas because he was the first kid to be SOTW after break. Wouldn't you know it, all during break he was asking how many days til it was his turn. This kid has a crazy memory.

All week, he got to bring his favorite snacks to share with his friends, be the line leader, pick his activities first, etc. Today was the unveiling of the Star of the Week poster. We worked on it together all week and he was so proud of it.

I think the most important part of being SOTW though meant that Daddy was going to come and watch his presentation. There are a few dads who drop off the kids at school on their way to work but our daddy goes to work so early, he never gets to come to school. Recently Ragen has made a few comments so I think it bothers him a little. So I made sure Daddy blocked off his morning for the poster day. When we walked in, Ragen's eyes got huge and he started saying "look guys - there's my dad" with a big grin. It was so sweet.

As he went over his talking points on the poster, Ragen's friends raised their hands to ask questions..."what is your favorite movie?", "what is your favorite animal"...There were a couple of questions he didn't come up with a quick answer so instead he'd say "I think we're going to skip that question because I'm not sure." One kid asked him who his favorite friend was and without skipping a beat Ragen said "I think we're going to skip that question so nobody gets their feelings hurt." It was so sweet. I'm super proud of my STAR!!

Presenting his "All About Me" poster

Taking the job of line leader pretty seriously

There was also a pancake breakfast at school this morning which was a huge hit!

Ragen & his buddy Reese (for the record, he's sitting down and she's standing up & leaning for the picture) :)

Ragen-isms

Every now & then, Ragen will make me stop in my tracks and I just laugh out loud. I love it when he says something that totally negates the fact that an hour earlier, I was wanting to sell him to the highest (or any!) bidder. :)

Today I put him in the playroom for quiet time and he came out about 30 minutes later because he "just had to tell me something." He was studying me like he was grasping for something to say and then he just blurted out "Mommy, that purple jacket you have on is FAB-leeous!" And yes, he emphasized FAB.

I might just start using his word for fabulous when something is extra fab!