Maggie: Chocolate

The word we hear most from Maggie these days (besides "MOM!" which she yells all day long) is "ga ga", which means "chocolate". Yes, Maggie is a true woman and needs her chocolate fix once (or several times) a day. She will even stand in front of the pantry and do a chocolate dance, rocking back and forth on her little feet singing, "ga GA, ga GA, ga GA". We try to not to give her too much, and now that we've finally exhausted the Christmas, Valentine, and Easter candy supplies we may actually be successful at that.

So it comes as no surprise that when I made chocolate cupcakes complete with chocolate frosting a couple of days ago, Maggie was a big fan. The next morning as I'm doing the dishes, she sees the cupcakes sitting on the kitchen counter and immediately begins demanding "ga ga!" "No, Maggie," I say, "no chocolate." Very firmly because it's nearly lunch time and I'm a good Mom. Well, I turn around to load the dishwasher and hear a small crash accompanied by delighted cried of "ga ga!" Turning back around, I find the tray that had been holding the cupcakes on the floor with my little choco-holic hunched over it and hurriedly taking as many bites from as many cupcakes as she can. "Maggie!" I say. And she looks up at me with her happy, sparkling eyes and showing me a nibbled cupcake in each hand she says "ga ga!" Like she's saying, "Look Mom, I got my own chocolate all by myself" and she's so proud.

Apparently, she's tall enough to reach the counter now.

So, I sat her in a kitchen stool to finish off the most damaged cupcake while I put the rest back on the tray back on the counter and cleaned up the mess.


But the story's not over yet. Maggie finished her cupcake. I got her down, cleaned her off, and sent her to play with her toys while I took the kitchen towels to the laundry room. I was gone, what, 30 seconds? I walked back into the kitchen and found--can you guess--the cupcake tray on the floor, cupcakes with little mouse-bites in their tops scattered all over, and Maggie happily munching one in the armchair in the living room. "Ga ga!" she cried when she saw me, so proudly.
So I learned my lesson and would have put all the cupcakes further out of her reach, but she had pretty much demolished all the frosted cupcakes in her eagerness for chocolate. There was nothing left to do but throw the remnants in the trash and make a mental note to NOT leave anything chocolate in plain site again.