Our week after Thanksgiving

The slinky was one of the big hits of the week. Maggie loved throwing it down the stairs and even shared with Leah when she (and Brendan) came to visit.

As I shared earlier, we spent the week after Thanksgiving at my parents. We had such a nice time. During this visit Maggie started climbing up the stairs once again, she played independently and with her cousins who visited us one day. Maggie enjoyed having more people around to talk to. Aunt Mo-Mo (Morgan), Mom (Grandma), and Pops (Grandpa) played with her and I think even helped her to be less shy around others (baby steps though). Maggie also started calling me Whitney (or Wee-ney) as that is what everyone called me. She called Grandma, "Mom," because that is what we called my mom and even my dad got a couple of "Dad"'s out of her. As of the last couple of days, Maggie is has begun calling Andy "Ann-ee." This morning she woke up to the phone ringing and yelled for "Ann-ee" (she must have observed this from someone else).

In general, it was just nice to have company during the day and to get a break away from our home in Dayton. The transition from my not working to Andy working full time has been difficult at times. Last year, though I worked, I had a flexible enough job that I could work from home so we did a lot of the caring for Maggie together. With Andy gone from 7 am to sometimes 7 pm, it is a long day for all of us. Maggie demands a lot, especially during steroid week. So I was very happy to be able to have some time at home with my family, though both Maggie and I missed Andy. Thank goodness for skype as we were able to talk and see Andy daily.