You Can Never Have Too Many Panties

Sundays are all about practicing the virtue of patience.

It begins in trying to bathe, dress, and keep clean two children. Mia hates having her hair washed and will scream at me the whole time. Maggie will then decide to jump and splash in the tub (last week completely soaking my dress and my hair, which had just been dried). Dressing Mia is generally not too difficult, as she does it herself (with few fashion faux pas if I set out her clothes in advance) and if I can convince her to hold still, I can even fix her hair. But, Maggie refuses to have her hair fixed. I blow it dry as quickly as possible and try to sneak in one rubberband to keep the front from falling in her eyes. As soon as she realizes what I have done, she tears out the rubber band, screams, takes both hands and teases her hair until it is standing up straight, and then glues both hands on top of her head so I cannot restore any order.

Today, Maggie was excited about wearing a white dress with blue flowers. But, she refused to wear the white tights and shoes I had selected. Finally, after ten minutes of trying, I gave up -- thinking I could put them on at the last minute before church. On her own initiative, Maggie found bright red socks and white sandals to wear. I tried to convince her to change and took them off twice, but finally resigned. Jeffrey assured me that no one would actually see her and think that I had selected her footwear. Maggie would also have nothing to do with her white sweater. I told her it was cold and she would want the sweater outside; she said "okay," and then ran to the coat closet where she donned a rainbow stripped snow hat, which she wore all the way to church -- to keep her warm.

I had the foresight, since Maggie has been potty-training to bring along an extra pair of panties, just in case. Halfway to church (which for those of you not living in Virginia is a 25 minute drive from our house), Mia announced that she had forgotten to finish getting dressed. I looked in back of me: dress, socks, shoes, sweater, even bows in her hair. Mia looked fine to me.

"No, Mom," Mia explained. "I forgot to put on any panties."

Well, fortunately, I had a spare pair. (They were too big for Maggie since they had been purchased the previous day when Maggie fell asleep in the car on the way to lunch and wet her pants. We had to drive all around town to find a Target where I quickly bought a three pack of panties -- size four was all they had -- a shirt and pants to change Maggie into.) Luckily, size four fit Mia just fine.

It was about halfway into Sacrament Meeting, right after Mia had left the chapel for a drink in the hallway, that Maggie said she needed to "Go potty." I hurried her out, since her window for giving notice is often very short, met Mia on the way, who insisted on coming along, and got both girls into a large bathroom stall without any accidents.

Maggie is not yet accustomed to using full-size toilets. As she sat on the toilet she spread her legs apart to get her balance, creating a perfect angle with her pelvis to project her urine straight up into the air in a perfect arc descending, not in the toilet bowl, but all over her panties.

Now, even if I had wanted to put Maggie back in the wet panties and have her tough it out for the remainder of church, she was going to have nothing to do with it. Using my adept skills of persuasion, I convinced Mia to remove the panties she was wearing and put on the little pantie-cover bloomers that Maggie had been wearing instead. (Admittedly, they had gotten a drop wet, but only a drop, and I was desperate.) With this wise course of action underway, I leaned over to flush the toilet and dropped the dry panties (not the wet ones I was also holding) right in the bowl. I now had two drenched pairs of panties and no more ideas. I contemplated for a moment which daughter would give me a harder time about just not wearing underwear at all. But, on second thought, I considered all the times my girls managed to sprawl out on the benches and chairs at church showing the world their panties, and I decided I had to find another solution.

I then remembered the spare diapers in the car. Perhaps there was one left. I sent Mia in for the keys, and made my way to the car with two pairs of wet underwear and a half-naked Maggie. There were no diapers. There were some socks, a rag to wash the car, nothing I could figure out how to conjure into underwear. But, Maggie did spot the snow hat that Jeffrey had hidden in the back of the car before church and wanted to put it back on.

I returned to the chapel with a plan to find someone with a two year old and see if I could borrow a diaper after the meeting, hoping I could keep Maggie somewhat upright in the meantime. Fortunately, after I sat back down on the bench heaving a great sigh and trying to whisper to Jeffrey the full nature of the predicament we were in, he found one old diaper in the church bag for Maggie. Whew!

In any case, I think I learned my lesson: you can never have too many panties.

PS- Mia did an excellent job on her primary talk where she recited from memory the third Article of Faith and talked about Jesus. She came up with the idea all on her own and had to bring along the large picture of the Savior with sheep from her bedroom.

Maggie, still having a rough time, got so mad in nursery when I left her to listen to the talk, that she ran into the wall on purpose, smacking her nose and causing a nosebleed. This would have been quite surprising, except that yesterday (after the accident in the car ) I made her sit on a blanket in her carseat so she did not get wet on the way home, and she got so mad that she hit herself in the face several times, also causing a nosebleed, which completely covered the new clothes with blood. Maybe it is parenthood, not Sundays, that requires the patience!

The Marvelous Miss Maggie

Margaret Claire is our second daughter and an on-going marvel to me. When we returned -- just two weeks ago -- from Utah, Maggie decided it was time to potty train. She did not consult with me, nor did she ask for my opinion. She just started going on her tiny potty on her own and putting on her panties. Within a week, Maggie had potty-trained herself (my only contribution was supplying the skittles after each success and cleaning out the potty). Then, last week, she decided to move out of her crib and sleep in her twin bed. Again, Maggie did not hesitate and vacillate. I had been dreading this transition, since Mia never successfully learned to sleep in her bed alone. But, Maggie has not gotten out of bed at night once. Each evening she runs in excited, says her prayers, listens to stories, and requests her "Nama CD." Some evenings she sings along when I sing to her -- most recently she sang "Meow" to the tune of "I am a Child of God," despite knowing all the words.







Lest any believe that this amazing ability to solve all of the issues that were most concerning to her mother all on her own is indicative of a submissive and compliant spirit, you should know that Maggie is a most determined child. Maggie's strong will is often manifest over two key issues, which do not bode well for her parents as she grows older: fashion and the phone.

Maggie can accurately be described as a two-year old shoe-aholic. She loves to show off her shoes, and has a constantly growing collection, with her latest addition being a pair of light blue Crocs from Easter. These are an excellent choice for Maggie since she REFUSES to wear socks. Blisters, injuries, even significant amounts of blood do not deter her from wearing the most fashionable shoes she can find, without socks, with EVERY outfit she owns -- most frequently the pink glitter shoes. Maggie will break down into tears if I don't surrender my heels to her at church. She will pitch her greatest fits over having to wear a jacket, coat or tights -- and cannot be consoled if her favorite dress or nightgown is dirty on a particular day. Recently, Maggie discovered a pair of Mia's old jelly shoes, and fell in love. She wore them constantly for four days, including -- despite our best efforts to persuade her otherwise -- to bed. Clearly, Maggie's mantra is: Fashion over comfort! Fashion over comfort!

Maggie is also very possessive about the telephone. She will not give me a moment's peace until she can personally talk to whomever is on the phone with me. Then, as soon as she gains control of the phone, she will run away as fast as possible and hide so she can talk on her own terms. She does not understand the difference between the phone and the webcam, and so her favorite thing is to say into the phone "Look!" and describe whatever she is seeing, without any idea that the person on the line has no clue what she is talking about. Maggie loves to carry around one of her three cell phones, and frequently in the car will open it up for a very important call to Daddy, Grandma, or her favorite: Auntie Ellie.

Maggie is learning to play with her sister like a true playmate -- and can even keep up with most of Mia's antics and plans. She loves her dog, "Louie," all of the Disney princesses, feeding baby dolls bottles, and drawing "A's" and "M's." Maggie can count to thirteen, move to music with more rhythm and grace then I have ever seen in a two-year-old, and loves her swimming lessons because they let her play with an Ariel ball.

Maggie's best word is "Lala" which is her name for her sister, Mia. Apparently there are some issues to be worked out in the way Mia likes to be in charge of both of their lives, though. When we were sleeping in the same room in Salt Lake, one night in her sleep Maggie yelled out at full volume: "No Lala, no way!" I don't know what she was dreaming, but Mia just better beware.

Easter Fun at the Merchants

Visiting Utah

In March 2008 Emily, Mia, and Maggie went back to Utah. Some of the highlights of our trip included attending baby Will's baby blessing, a memorial service for my family's dog "Mac," and sledding in American Fork Canyon. But mainly we just enjoyed being with family again.

During our March trip to Utah, Grandma took Mia and Maggie to her friend's house to learn about and ride a horse. Mia soaked in all the information, including that she does not want a horse that is "muttonwithered," and informed everyone that she is going to need to know all of this when she grows up to be a large animal veterinarian.

Mia was, of course, completely unafraid of the horses and excited to ride all on her own. Maggie, on the other hand, was nervouse around the horses and spent most of her time chasing and trying to catch the cats. She also bonded with the cow, which at one point began to chew the hair on the (naked) Jasmine doll that she had brought along.

Mia and Maggie also enjoyed playing with their cousins. Mia and Jackson pretended to be married, go on a honeymoon, have a baby, celebrate their anniversary, and a host of other life events in a day. All of which required frequent wardrobe changes and the setting up of many "homes" throughout Nama and Papa's house. Maggie and Annie totally connected and would sit and giggle and show each other their tummies all afternoon. It was wonderful to have such fun "cousin time" after living so far away.