Maggie is 8!

I'm a month late on this post, but hey, I'm getting it done now, and that's what counts, right? Right.

He's not a red-headed Scotsman and I guess people don't arrange marriages anymore.... but.... 

Maggie is eight! It's hard to believe that my tiniest baby is now eight. She is still very small for her age, but don't let her stature fool you. Maggie has a larger than life personality.

This year Maggie is in second grade. She has a late August birthday and was a premature birth so we ended up holding her back a year in school by doing pre-first since she struggled to learn to read. I'm happy to report that the extra year was exactly what was needed and she is now a fantastic reader.

Reading to sisters

Maggie is playing soccer for the third year. This is her first year on U10 girls for Solanco. She is the smallest girl on her team (although there are a couple girls not much bigger than she is). Maggie is also the least aggressive player on the team. It's interesting to watch my children grow up and see how they are similar to me and how completely different from me they are (as in I had uncontrollable rage on the soccer field).

So glad these two are on the same team!

In many ways, Maggie's personality is very much like mine was at her age. She loves almost everything and has so much joy and zest for life. But she can also have rather wild emotional swings where she feels like everybody hates her and it's the worst day ever. Or maybe that's just all girls? haha!

Maggie is going through some tough "phases" right now. She has become a very picky eater, she doesn't like to be called Magdalena (even though it's her full name and very beautiful), she cries a lot, the smallest things set her off, argues with her oldest sister, despises cleaning up ("But I didn't get it ouuuuuuuut!!!") and she can be tough to parent.

However, while I hope these negative things will turn around in the near future, there is so much joy in who Maggie is right now. Maggie really loves the simple things in life. She often tells me that she doesn't need presents, being together with family is the best gift. (But she does like receiving a well-thought out gift). Maggie loves toads; if being a toad catcher was a job, she would be rich. When Maggie grows up she hopes to discover a new kind of bug that hasn't been found before. She still hopes to marry a red-headed Scotsman and have a dozen red-haired, freckle-faced kids. As you can likely guess by her desired number of children, Maggie loves babies. She is very good with both of her younger sisters, a natural little mama.

Creature lover!

It's tough being the middle child (that was me!). She wants very much to be doing what big sisters are doing and not be thought of as a baby, but she still loves to play. While Abbey and Anne tend to want to read quietly or play a game in their free time, Maggie still is creatively imagining new worlds, making her animals talk, and going on adventures. Thankfully she has two younger sisters who are now benefitting from her guidance into all things creative. Ruth and Carrie really look up to Maggie. The three of them are creating a special bond this school year. Some of Maggie's work is too simple for her, so to make it a little different she is reading those assignments out loud to the younger girls. Not only are the little girls getting added Bible lessons taught by a dear sister, but Maggie is practicing her reading aloud skills. I've noticed since they started doing this four weeks ago that these three have been playing together more regularly. Carrie has asked Maggie to read to her before nap instead of mommy.

It's always so interesting to see family resemblances between my sisters' kids, my cousins' kids, and my own. Maggie shares similar features with several cousins and second cousins on my side, yet doesn't share any of those features with her siblings.

Second Cousins with matching eyes

On her actual birthday the girls and I all drove up to Hershey Children's Hospital to donate the Build-a-Bears we had made. Since we were in the area, we went over to Hershey Chocolate World and did the free tour. All the kids loved it. We got a light lunch (Burger King fries count as a light lunch, right?) then grabbed slushies from Turkey Hill. It was her best day ever. Oh, and we didn't do school that day, so also a big win in her book! For her date with her dad they went to That Fish Place where she got a beta fish she named Lava, then Isaac's for lunch. She spent a glorious weekend at her Mema's house where they did untold number of enjoyable things. Trent's parents have started taking the birthday girl to do something special when they turn eight. They took Maggie on an Amish buggy ride, and got Amish root beer. As you can clearly see: Eight is Great!

Maggie is a sweet, sweet girl! We are so thankful to have her as a special part of our family. Happy 8th birthday! We love you and can't wait to see what this year holds for you!

Magdalena turns 7!

It seems I'll never weary of exclaiming how quickly the time goes. The next time I blink I'll be the little old lady in the grocery store cheering on the young mamas to cherish those babes. 

Each year on Maggie's birthday we like to remember the uncertainty before her birth. A growth restricted babe, foot first breach, dropping heart rate, shunting in her brain, cord twice round her neck. A time of tremendous growth in my faith in the goodness of the Lord, hence her middle name; Faith. 

After a cesarean section this 4 lb 10 oz, 17 inch little lady was placed in my arms, only to be taken away to the NICU. 

She has grown up healthily. 

From a round faced toddler. 

Who always has had her own sense of style. 

Lover of bugs..... 

And babies. 

When Maggie grows up she wants to marry a big, red headed Scottish man. She said she would even go to Scotland to find him if she had to. 

She wants a dozen red-headed children. I find drawings like this all over the house. This is one of her future daughters. 

Magdalena has grown into a lovely, caring girl. She is very generous. She does tend to have a bit of a temper at this age, but it working hard to overcome her natural tendencies to fly off the handle. 

For her birthday she chose a huge whoopie pie instead of a cake. 

This is when Anne and Maggie decided they would search for a four leaf clover together. After finding one they wished that they would get along better. And they said, "with God's help, we will." 

The two smallest babies, together on Maggie's birthday. 

Maggie loves:

Reading

Sour cream and Onion Chips 

Catching toads

Riding bike

Tacos

Climbing trees

Yellow crocs

All the yellow things

Animals

Ice cream

Playing games

Sewing 

Birthday fun at Grandpa and grandma Hess's. Followed by fireworks provided by uncle Troy. 

And at home. We tend to do very small gifts and give time instead. She got a book, a movie, and a game (Chinese Checkers) for her birthday from us. 

We spent the afternoon of her birthday at our community pool. 

She will go to the spelunking at the wind caves and out for dinner tomorrow for her daddy/daughter birthday date. Plans have been made for her to spend the weekend with Mema to continue her celebrations. 

Happy 7th birthday, Magdalena Faith. I'm so happy to be your mom, your first grade teacher, and your encourager. 

We love you!

Maggie turns 6 & Adoption

Teeny tiny adoption update. We have been officially waiting for two months - so most likely another 7 to go! This means approximately 7 more months until we are matched with our daughter, then after that we will have another 5-6 months until we travel. I'm sure the waiting will be hard as we get closer to our match, but right now the time is slipping right on by, for which I am grateful. I'm also thankful for the consistency of the China program and for the way our adoption agency keeps in touch with waiting families so we don't feel forgotten.

She had a traumatic entry into the world, but not much slows her down now!

Now, for Miss Magdalena. It's hard to believe our smallest baby, our third daughter, is six.

Leaving the hospital after 6 days in the NICU

Her first day home - about 4.5 pounds and 17" long.

It's so hard to believe that our sweet baby is now six years old!

For her birthday she went to the Strasburg Rail Road to ride the train. This was followed by a trip to Isaac's for dinner. The daddy-daughter dates have been one of the best investments I believe we could make. This trip was very low cost (Maggie had a free ticket to the RR and her meal was free at Isaac's - both of those things she earned during the summer reading program through our local library). **Trent has these photos - I'll try to add them later!**

Princess Maggie at the fundraiser

While our kids do enjoy gifts, they all appreciate the gift of time more than anything else. They may not remember what gift they got during any particular year, but they can all recall where they went with their daddy at each age. These moments are more precious than anything I could ever give them. I've learned through my own experiences as well as parenting books and psychology courses I've taken the profound impact dads have on their children, but ESPECIALLY their daughters.

She always wanted a red-headed baby, and now she has one!

Just a little about Maggie:
-She loves babies
-She loves drinking water
-She does not love juice
-She loves coffee
-She learned to tie her shoes in one try this summer
-She is becoming a more confident reader everyday
-She is still very small for her age despite her perfect cheeks
-She wants 10 babies when she grows up (5 from her belly and 5 from China)
-She has big dreams of getting married and considers her options seriously
-Did I mention she loves babies?
-She is very excited to start soccer practice
-She loves catching frogs with her sisters
-She loves to draw
-She is thoughtful (she often will draw pictures for people and send them in the mail or hand-deliver them)
-She is generous (she is continually giving Caroline her own favorite toys to make her happy)
-She loves bugs
-Her favorite color is yellow
-She loves Taco Bell bean burritos
-She is a great story teller
-She is very creative and is always coming up with new ideas for crafts or building forts

Maggie says that when she grows up she wants to be a mom. When Anne tells her that she has to do something else first, like, get a job, her reply is always, "I'm going to paint signs, like Mommy!" Bless her little heart.

She was thrilled to find and inspect a cicada

Recently Maggie has had some hard feelings toward herself. She has struggled with feeling like she isn't good enough. Learning to read has been very difficult for Maggie, along with some other memory problems. It's such a challenge to see these precious little souls face their insecurities. Generally her frustrations blow up into fits of crying and running to her room. Recently during one of these fits she told me she feels like she is a "bad girl" and can never be good. I was able to tell her that she's right. None of us are good. Only God is good. But we can have forgiveness and peace because of Jesus' death on the cross.

Such a devoted big sister!

I know my girls will at some point have to experience some hard things and do some growing up. My hope for all of them is that when those trials come, that they will turn to my Savior and fully accept Him as their own Savior. I feel like my job as their mom, role model, and teacher is to lead them there. I want to provide them with the facts, but so much more. I want to show by word and deed what a Christ follower looks like, even the messy, ugly parts of failure and mistakes because that's where grace shines through brighter. Eventually they will all come to a point in their lives where they must choose for themselves whom they will serve. I cannot save my children. It's a humbling reality for a Mama who likes to DO things.

So happy sixth birthday, Magdalena Faith! You are more precious than rubies. I can't wait to see what grand adventures you'll have now that you are six!
xoxo,
Mama

Paul Revere's Ride and the end of Second Grade and Kindergarten

May 20th we said goodbye to Second grade and Kindergarten, at least for a couple of years.

Anne and Abbey will both move up to third grade in the fall. It seems hard to believe that we have finished our third year of home schooling and look forward eagerly to the start of the fourth year.

Maggie will be doing what I lovingly call Pre-First. I know this grade doesn't actually exist in our country anymore, but if you are my age you will remember many children leaving Kindergarten and heading to pre-first instead of first grade. We have chosen to do this for Maggie for numerous reasons. I'd love to share my thought process with you all. First, Maggie turned five a week after school started last fall. She has a late summer birthday and was technically *by one day* premature (born at 36 weeks and 6 days). So she is young for her grade and quite small as well. Second, while we saw tremendous growth throughout the year, it was a hard battle. Maggie has learned to read, but she continues to sound out nearly every word, every time. She really really has to work hard to accomplish what comes easily to others. We want her to love learning and love school. I can guarantee she will not enjoy school if we push her to first grade next year. Third, I want to take this in between year to try some different techniques with Maggie - especially more music. I really believe that if we give her another year to grow and mature it will be extremely beneficial for her in the long run.

Here's a short video from the end of the school year of Maggie reciting "Trees" by Joyce Kilmer. Isn't she so adorable?

A few months ago I was introduced to the Eric Metaxas Show. I listen to his podcasts at night while I'm painting. On April 18 he gave the challenge to memorize Paul Revere's Ride by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Although I was familiar with the poem it was not one I had memorized myself. At that point we had five weeks left of school. I decided it would be just the thing to push the girls through the end of the year.

Here is Anne's recitation.

Abbey was also able to memorize the full poem. She was a little nervous while I was recording. When I wasn't recording she was doing a great job of adding inflection to the words, but she was more concerned about getting the words right to focus on her inflection. Also, Abbey just turned seven on April 18. The fact that she was able to memorize this (with a couple minor mistakes) was astounding to me.

We are giving three cheers for summer vacation!
Hip, hip, hooray!  
     Hip, hip, hooray!  
          Hip, hip, hooray!

Moopsy turns 18 months

**One of my favorites. This is a very typical look for Magdalena:
A little mischievous, ready to run, grin.**

I know a lot of people don't use nick-names for their children. In fact, some people purposely choose names that cannot be shortened or request that people do not attempt to change their given names. I have no problem with that, but I'm definitely not one of those people. I think our kids each have 10 different nick-names.

(Cheese!)

Some of Magdalena's names are: Mags, Maggie, Magdie, Moopsy, Sissy, Baby, and Magda. I'm sure if A&A were awake they could think of more.

And this is a Magdalena post.

As I always say, "Where did the time go??" We have reached yet another milestone for this little girl. This precious bundle who started out so small.

Here's what Magdie likes to do:
~Run
~Chase sisters
~Play Magdie-Monster (a game in which she chases sisters)
~Close doors (this drives me crazy)
~Sleep in her toddler bed
~Climb on things that she shouldn't
~Yell (especially when she knows it is upsetting Annie)
~Wake up big sisters from their naps
~Read books
~Look at tractors out her window
~Hold Petey's leash
~Holding/sleeping with "big teddy"

(Mags and "Big Teddy")

Here's what Magdalena does not like to do:
~Sit still
~Stay in her crib
~Be looked at too closely by children who are not her siblings
~Sit at the table after she's finished eating

(Hold still?? What does that mean?)

Maggie is really starting to talk a lot. She can put about 3 words together to make a short sentence. These usually start with "I want..." and can sound like, "I want Mommy", "I want down", "I want tractor", etc. At this point she is definitely a Mama's girl, to a fault. She is really good when I'm not in the room. As soon as I come into the room she wants me to pick her up. If I don't pick her up she will usually scream and cling to my leg. So in general she's attached at the hip. I have to remind myself when I go to compare her to her siblings that they were both "big sisters" by this time, so they didn't really do what Magdalena is doing. They were already in big sister mode. I think it's high time this little girl has someone younger than her so she's no longer "Baby".

(My baby... can you see my hands in the picture?? I had to hold her because she wanted to run away!)

Trent, Annie, and Abbey often like to point out to me how big Magdie is and how she's really growing up quickly. I know it is true, but it is a little hard to swallow. Not that I want her to remain a baby forever, but it just makes me a little sad to see how quickly these years are going past.

Love those feet!

I know Maggie weighs 21 pounds since we were at the doctor last week, but I'm not sure how long (or short) she is. We'll go in a couple weeks for her 18 month check-up. I'll do a stats-comparison whenever we go!

Look at this little stinker!

Magdalena is 9 months

Didn't I blog about Maggie being 6 months just the other day? How has 3 months gone by already?

When you have your first child, many many people come up to you and tell you to enjoy it because it goes fast. And while I have always believed it, it's crazy to be living it. The next time Maggie goes to get professional pictures she will be one year old... but lets not get ahead of ourselves.

Here is Maggie at 9 months:



What can Maggie do? Well, she is sitting up unsupported, she is nearly crawling on her hands and knees. She can go about 3-4 hand crawls, then she usually ends up moving her arm/hands and half-dragging her legs. She can pull-to-stand!! This is so neat, but it really shows that the end of her "baby days" are very near. {Trent can hardly wait!}


She can also get herself into the sitting position from the crawling position, but not every time. At about 8 months Magdalena started saying "II", which I thought sounded like "Hi!" Just a couple weeks ago she started waving when she says it, so we confirmed that she really is saying "Hi!". When we are at the store she likes to wave to people and say, "III!" It's very precious.



Magdalena continues to be a poor sleeper. She is usually waking up 1 or 2 times in the night to nurse. Thankfully she goes right back to sleep after I feed her. A couple months ago we had taken her off all food to determine whether she has a food allergy. So, we are very very slowly reintroducing food. So far, she does well with applesauce and sweet potatoes. This week we will try pears. She still cries, but not nearly as much as when we first started food.

*evidence of Maggie crying*

Maggie also has (almost) 2 teeth on the bottom. I say almost because one is fully through and the other is very nearly through.

*Teething*

Magdalena likes to crawl around and find all sorts of fuzzies, string, and other random small things that she shouldn't have, and tries to put them in her mouth before I can get them from her. (I know, I know, you're thinking 'sheesh, Emily, clean your floor!')



So, we're living life. We're loving on each other every chance we get. I adore Maggie's chubby cheeks and arms, especially since she started out just so so tiny!!

*don't you love those chunky arms?!*

I am definitely thankful that Maggie is here, and healthy, and we aren't going to endless doctor appointments full of stress and uncertainty. I'll take the waking up in the night over hellish doctor appointments any day. Though, I suppose you must have one to get the other....

And the best for last:

Can she get any cuter with that spiky hair?!

Special thanks to my mom who made Magdalena's dress and matching headband!! Love you, mom!!

Oh, and she has a 9 month check-up next week (I think), and I'll post her height & weight then!