Maggie

We do love our little girl so very much! Maggie is all girl. She is now 2 1/2. She loves dolls, cooking, and having her fingernails and toenails painted. She insists on picking out her own clothes and hair bows! I have just decided to let her do it (except if we go to fellowship on Sundays). She is completely diaper/nappy free-even at night!!!! She loves for me to fix her hair, and I must say that I enjoy fixing it myself. She doesnt like it when I braid her hair though because I'm sure it hurts her!

She can understand and speak quite a bit of the local language. Therefore, she has been our best well adjusted child since moving here. She loves it here. She goes to the market everyday, and there is a certain fruit stall that she will sit at while they feed her free fruit! She has started to get tired of all the touching though, and will often yell out "Dont Touch Me". I do think so many things depend on age here...especially how children adjust and react to things. As Maggie is starting to get older, she is starting to get annoyed that people bother her or try to touch her, but she still is very friendly with people she is familiar with. She knows our postman well and he will always ask where she is...then she will run out to him when she sees him! She is great friends with all of the orphan kids that live across the road from us, especially Ruth, a little girl who is also the same age as Maggie.

Maggie is very strong willed, just like the boys! Shane thinks that she is the strongest of our 3 children, but I find disciplining her easier. I usually give her a choice....obey or disobey, and most of the time she will chose to obey without any tantrums. She just needs me to give her that choice! Sometimes, she will chose to go and sit in time out, but it is rare that that happens. She very close to Dave, but fights the most with him too. She copies EVERYTHING that he does! As you can imagine, that is one of our biggest challenges right now! She is all girl, but she can hang with the boys too. Some days I see her and Dave playing with dolls, and the next day they are playing with trains. I have found her on top of Dave once or twice hitting him! She loves Noah too, and enjoys it when he reads with her. She loves books! She will look at books for hours. She loves princess books or anything associated with Dora!

What is coming up for her....moving will be really hard I think. She will have to say goodbye to our closest friend, Ibu Tris. Ibu Tris just adores Maggie and they are very close. Ibu Tris doesnt speak any English so that is where Maggie has learned almost all of her language from. It will be hard for her to say goodbye to Ruth as well. I think she will adjust pretty well. I am looking forward to keeping her busy while I homeschool. I have been teaching Dave to read, and Maggie has her "busy box" to play with so that I can get the important stuff done while she is occupied! I will probably start a little preschool program for Maggie once I get settled just to keep her going and active! Please remember her as she tries to keep up with our active boys!!