Hello blog fans. We chilled at home in Canada this year for Xmas. We missed everyone in St. Louis, but I will make my parents pack for a big trip there when things thaw out here. Little E and I had a great time and there was lots of loot under the tree. Thanks for everything. My new chew socks and Irish sweater are great! Ella was busy all morning taking care of her new baby dolls. Ella threw a fit when the baby doll would not sit properly in her high chair. It was almost as funny as watching my parents go crazy when I wake them up in the middle of the night!

Ella and I ventured out into the arctic wilderness that is our backyard over the weekend. Dad said we needed to work on building character, so he made us build a snow den and live off the land over the weekend. Luckily Mama brought us hot chocolate and brought our DVD player out so we could watch movies in our igloo.

I was so cold when we got back inside, I had to go through three cycles in the dryer before I had unfrozen! We have a video of Ella bobsledding down our backyard mountain. Dad will post it on our homepage soon. In the meantime, you can check out the other Xmas pictures here - Xmas 2007.

In other big news...I had my debut theatrical performance at school last week. I was a wild cheetah. I was hoping they would let me provide a more extemporaneous study of this complex and misunderstood character in the play. I was thinking that the cheetah should pounce on the lead actors and maybe charge into the audience to cause a bit more chaos, but instead we had to just march across the stage holding hands with all the other cheetahs. Ella has grown tired of the food mama and dad eat, so she shops the circulars looking for deals on lobster tails and filet mignon. I just started the ketogenic diet (it is kind of like the Atkins diet). Mama and Dad say that it will control my seizures and I can reduce my seizure meds. Of course, just to keep things complicated for them, I decided to start eating by mouth again. We'll see how well they can handle this latest twist of chaos.

That is all for now. Have safe holidays and may the new year bring you lots of smiles and more peace in the world.

Maggie out.

The 2008 Calendar of Angels was shipped from here to Hong Kong and lots of other places around the world this week. Once again, it features me and all my friends doing what we do best – having fun! If you have not seen the calendar this year, check it out on my website - click here. You can order your copy from that same webpage.

We had a fun Halloween I was a rainbow and Ella was a devil during the day and a chicken at night! We had a blast going around the neighbourhood. The only thing I don’t understand about trick-or-treating is why my parents would not let me walk into the house and hang out when the people who answered the door and clearly wanted me to visit with them. They kept forcing me to rush to the next house to get more and more candy for them. Making us work all night collecting candy from every house in the neighbourhood has got to violate so many labour codes, not to mention their bad habit taking candy from the little children of the house at the end of the night.

Aunt Margaret came to see me. We had a great visit. I showed her all my favourite things to do. Thanks for coming up to see me! Ari and the whole gang came up to visit me too. We took little Mia to the playtrium, but Mama would not let me and Ari send her down the two-story slide. You can see videos of the rest of us cascading down the slide and little Ella doing household chores on my homepage - Maggie's Family Website - just scroll down to the big blue squares and push play. You can see more pictures of our adventures in my big photo gallery - Ari's awesome visit.

It is starting to get cold up here in Canada. Dad refuses to turn on the furnace. He says turning it on will be my Christmas present this year. I have to go into the dryer to warm up! Otherwise things are good up here. I will miss the big turkey day events with everybody in St. Louis tomorrow. At least I get to go to school and don’t have to stay home all day with Dad. That’s all for now.
Maggie out.

Whoaza, talk about a bad party. I think I must have been abducted by space aliens the entire month of September. I vaguely remember them giving me truth serum and trying to extract all my secrets from a tube in my throat. All I can say is that I am glad that whole bad dream is over.

(Secretary’s note: As most of you probably know, Maggie spent the month of September in the hospital. She was very seriously ill from Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome, ARDS. Essentially she went into respiratory arrest and had to be kept on a ventilator in the ICU for 16 days. In typical Maggie fashion, she has bounced back with a smile and a chuckle, but the rest of us are still in recovery. She has already started walking again and will go to junior kindergarten full time this week. There is no reason to expect any permanent lung damage, but we need to keep a careful eye on things this winter. We are especially grateful for all of the support we received from people near and far during this whole ordeal.)

Yeah, when I finally got home, Grandma Pat was there keeping Ella in line – and that’s not an easy thing to do these days. I hear my great aunt Margaret is planning to come visit soon too! Congratulations on retirement Margaret – more time to travel and for visiting me! My playgroup friends in Ithaca made me a cool blanket that protected me from the evil space aliens while I was in the ICU; now Mama has made this cool one for Ainsley in Chicago who has been very sick with the same space alien thing. Ooops, I think the whole blanket thing for Ainsley is still a secret so don’t tell anyone in Chicago about that.

Happy Thanksgiving to all my Canadian friends, especially all the cool nurses up on the ICU floor – you guys totally rock! Thanks for all the cards and toys. My sister loves the singing cards – she even tries to sing along with them! My parents never would have made it through all this without all you guys watching my back – thanks.

Maggie out.

Little Sis rolled the odometer from 0 to 1 last weekend. Malakai and Jericho came all the way from Madison to celebrate our birthdays. We had a great visit with the whole crew. Lots of time to mosh in the bouncy castle and enjoy more chocolate cake!

We took the boys to Fort Henry for a little hard rock and heavy metal adventuring. It is the old fort here in Kingston built in the 1800s to keep the Yanks out. They have these huge canons, but I guess all that stuff did not work to keep us out. Dad and Ella freaked out when they saw that I got my own rifle and license to shoot it in the house from the drill sergeant.

We were all a bit shocked that Malakai and Jericho signed up to join the British army! They made Malakai march up and down the square and practice charging. We went to the big park and romped on the play structure. Jericho sat on the lion – what a crazy guy!

All this adventuring was just too much for Ella! Of course my parents must have been tired too because they did not wake us up once that night! Imagine that, letting me sleep through the night. We need to have Patrick and Susan over for more play dates to tire out Mama and Dad. Safe journey back to Wisconsin and thanks for the cool books!


Maggie out.

Well, I took the summer off from sending out blogs, but I am back in action now. What a great time we have had this summer. So much has happened; I don’t know where to start. I could talk about my dad getting his PhD or my sister starting to develop attitude, but I would rather talk about me! I turned four this week, but my parents still won’t let me get my motorcycle license yet. Go figure. My friends Carly and Devona baked me a purple and green birthday cake. Whoa!!!

My Dad was acting all like “let’s admire the cake” like it was some fancy ‘object d’art.’ For me, art appreciation is a full contact sport. My sister Ella treats every meal like a full body brawl with her cup of yogurt.

We had a great visit to St. Louis this summer. There was the big Magster Fan Club Conference there. Lots of my friends were there. Dr. T from Boston came out to see me. Ari was there from New York and like hundreds of other cool kids. It was totally wicked. Check out the pictures on our website of all the cool people who were there – Angelman Syndrome Foundation Bi-annual conference.

Mama got me a totally new wardrobe. I am gonna be the most stylin kid in junior kindergarten. I start school after labour day. I am scheduled to get my tonsils removed before school. They say it should help prevent me from getting those weird viruses. I say let’s take out Dad’s tonsils instead and turn off the freight train snores coming out of his mouth at night. Malakai and Jericho are coming to see me this weekend, so I will send out another blog with more stories from the summer soon. Until then, show those birthday cakes that you are not afraid to plant your face right in the middle and take a bite out of them.

Maggie out.