A Door Opens... At LAST!

Margaret is three and a half. I had hoped (and dreaded a little) that she would be able to open the front door on her own by this point in time. Instead - up until last week, I was summoned each and every time she wanted to go outside.

Last week, to both my joy and my dread, she figured out how to open the door from the inside. She still knocks when she wants to come back in, but she can get outside on her own. This is particularly useful when she is inside and I am outside needing the door opened because my arms are full with groceries or something like that. She's a wonderful door opener.

Not too long after figuring out (with a little help from Savannah) how to open the door, Margaret woke up a little earlier than I wanted to. (side note here: I work the night shift at the Portland Oregon Temple 4 nights a week; I don't get to bed before 4 in the AM on those nights, and greatly value the precious 4 hours of sleep that I get on average.) When Margaret got up, she got dressed and came into my bedroom only to find that at 6:30 AM, Mom was STILL asleep. I know. How DARE I sleep in. Well... to complicate things, Margaret has been blessed with an adventurous spirit and a great love for animals. Especially small fuzzy ones that say meow. We have seven of them.

So... as you can expect from the lead in, Margaret went outside to play with her little furry kitten friends. She shut the door behind her. And then, she couldn't get it opened again. I THINK she went outside sometime around 7 AM - she sat downstairs and read some books for a little bit (that much was evidenced by the books all over the floor when I woke up...). At 7:15, I was jolted from a deep sleep by Margaret SCREAMING my name. As if she were being tortured, screaming. I'm not sure that my feet touched the floor of my bedroom as I ran downstairs to see if she was being injured in some manner. She wasn't downstairs. I threw the door open and hollered her name... no answer. She was running around the house trying to find a way into the house again - screaming my name.

Why haven't I put this up before? Because it's taken me this long to recover from the shock and fear of what could have happened if I hadn't heard her.

Will Margaret go outside again when I'm sleeping? NOT ON YOUR LIFE. She's figured out that if I'm asleep (or downstairs doing laundry, for that matter) I can't hear her, and she is either going to have to find a way to open the door, or wait. (or scream my name in terror... that works too.) That and we've established a new family rule. Kittens are off limits unless Mom is alert and coherent. (try explaining THAT to a 3 year old...)

It was the BIG 0-1!!!

I can hardly believe it, but LeGrand is now officially one year old. We had a GRAND celebration with Grandma and Grandpa Stahr and Aunt Sheila (and, of course, Mom, Dad, Savannah and "Sweetie-Pie") in attendance. It was a day like no other this week, temperatures outside were in the upper (read: 88-90) 80's, we baked the cake in our wood cookstove outside (not an easy thing to do, but the cake was divine!), and canned cherry juice on the same stove. Savannah, Margaret and I all got a tad bit sunburnt, but a good time was had by all. I think LeGrand had the best time of all... after all, all the attention was on him.

Here's a mini-photo essay (sort of) of the birthday party.

This is the cake the the guests ate...

This is LeGrand's own personal cake. He didn't touch the candle, but he wanted to!

He had help (thanks, Dad!) blowing out the candle... oooh. Smoke...

The Joy of realizing that this cake was just for him!

The first tentative little nibble...

Hand over Fist - enjoying the cake...

Finding out that it's Finger Lickin' Good!

Must. Get. All. The. Frosting...

I think I'll just put my entire hand into my mouth... YAY! This is yummy cake!!!

Oh. I think I missed some. Shove more in.

The sheer joy of being one... and getting cake all to yourself.

Finished with cake... and pleased as punch that it turned out well.

Not, however, sure about these presents. Especially that battery shaped one.Thanks, Grandma and Grandpa Pierce for the shirt I can wear for the next 3 years!!!

I LOVE IT!

So the birthday party was a success. We put cranky to bed in his OTHER new pajamas that fit divinely at 9 PM; said good-bye to all the guests (before 9 PM), and today, the day after, is clean up day. Oh yeah. And it's return the present that Mom and Dad gave LeGrand because it's kind of a dorky present and the other one was much cooler. We'll just exchange it for the cooler one...