Pages

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Too Cute Tuesday: Memorial Day Fun Photos

I made the mistake of taking Megan outside to my parents' patio during our Memorial Day get-together.  Thus the following set of pictures - Enjoy!

You have no idea how many times that watering can had to get filled up...
 
Happy, now that she has a bucket full of water...
 
But there's always room for a little more water...
 
Pickle buddies...

Everyone loves stroller naps.  All played out...
 

The Other GGBG

My Grandma confessed to me that when she saw the title of one of my recent blog posts, GGBG, she thought it was going to be a dedication to her: Great-Grandma Beverly Gennrich

Well Grandma, this one is for you!  First of all, thank you for being one of my biggest fans of our family blog.  It's fun sharing our photos and stories with you and Grandpa and I am so proud of you for being about to pull up the site on your own computer.  I remember when you didn't even know what a mouse was and kept trying to pet it!  You were the one that got me hooked on garage sales.  Remember when I slept over at your place during the summers when I helped you and Texie cater and you and I would go on those wild goose chases for the garage sales?

Here are a few other things that Great-Grandma Gennrich said and did this Memorial Day weekend that I will remember forever:

Megan was giving kisses to everyone and everytime we brought her give Great-Grandma kisses she would put her tongue out - almost to lick her cheek.  Great-Grandma said, "It's because I'm old and well-seasoned.  I must taste good!"

Playing 500, Great-Grandma raised her partner Brian's bid from 7 Hearts to 8 Hearts.  She got the giggles as she was picking up the blinds because she couldn't believe she raised him with only having a single heart in her hand!  One of her silliest 500 moves ever!

Lastly, while we were all playing Megan's game of "try on my sunglasses" (you know, the light pink ones with the fake diamonds all the way around the rims), it was finally Great-Grandma's time to try them on.  She put them on and immediately exclaimed, "Look at me!  I am Lady Gaga!"  I am just impressed that she knew who Lady Gaga was - I guess that's what you get when you watch American Idol!

Grandma, we love you!  Thanks for being YOU!

Monday, May 23, 2011

GGBG

Yesterday, John, Megan, my mom and I headed south to Gustavus for a spring GGBG event.  (That stands for Greater Gustavus Bassoon Guild in case you're not familiar.)  My college bassoon teacher, Dr. Pesavento - a.k.a. AP - is retiring after this year so a grand GGBG event was in order.  I was proud to be one of the 14 bassoonists playing for the chapel service creating such glorious music.  There were seven current students, one high schooler and six alumni with graduation years ranging from '04-'83.  It was nice to see others that I had played with in my college years and other GGBG events plus meet the current students who I hope to play with again in the future.


Monday, May 16, 2011

Megan at 14 Months

Time for another Megan update.  Our little girl has been in our lives for 14 months now.  Each day is an adventure and always something new.  Here is what she's been up to:

I mentioned last month that Megan was working on her molars.  We now have all four molars plus her top two eye teeth!  That's six new teeth since she turned one year old- Not bad!

Megan is slowly starting to eat better (as long as we mix up her options frequently).  In fact, just recently she has started eating noodles with sauce on them!  Hooray for flavor.  Her favorite veggies are green beans and continues to spit out carrots.  She has really enjoyed the times when I let her feed herself a plate of mashed potatoes or cup of yogurt (which is primarily on bath nights for obvious reasons).  Megan is so cute when we sit down for family dinners because as she sees the table set with food and as we scoot her high chair close to the table, her immediate response is to fold her hands. 

I've made several  trips to Target and the grocery store lately with just Megan.  We had a couple times where she would not sit in the cart so I took her out and she helped push the cart for me from down below.  I just had to make sure we were going in the right direction.  Occasionally, she would stop to look at things like balls and try to put packages of napkins in the cart, but for the most part it was a fun experience.  It also works well for me to simply carry her and let her push from my level too. 

After our first Hoppers softball game, Megan surprised us by blowing us kisses.  She blew kisses the entire way home and even makes the Mmmm-wah! sound when doing them. 

For a long time we had trusted Megan completely on the stairs.  However, recently she is trying to go down the stairs like a big girl.  She will sit at the top of the steps with her arms out waiting for Mommy to hold her hands and help her step.  I liked it when she could go down on her own but I love that she is trying out new things and also knows to wait for our help.  We say "step" for every step down that we take and Megan is so proud of herself when we reach the bottom.

Megan's vocalization continues to get better and better.  She still babbles a lot but is starting to put more syllables with objects.  Her most recent are "dog" and "cat".  While sounding just like "da" and "ca" we know what she is meaning because she uses her pointer finger to point at either a dog or cat as she talks.  A lot of other animals also get called dog and cat for the time being but that will come.  Great-Grandpa Gennrich should be proud because Megan has also just started to say her version of the German "Ach".  Although she is trying to say the "G" sound it is coming out as "Ach".  She's possibly trying to make the "G" sound for the end of "dog"?

Lastly, a few cute Megan stories to close out the month:
In our master closet I have a box of random papers and knick-knacks that are still waiting to find homes.  Megan is aware of this box and often goes straight for it when she needs something new to play with.  Yesterday morning as I was getting dressed for church she came in and started pulling objects out until she got to a Gopher bobble-head figure.  She looked at it, pushed the head several times to watch it bobble and then nodded in approval.  It was as if she was saying, "Yep, this'll do."

One thing that Megan is really liking at home are the couple step stools that we have.  When John is home with her, she will always carry a big white stepper from her nursery into our bedroom so she can try to climb up onto the bed.  She also takes my collapsible kitchen stepper over to John's recliner so she can climb up to be with Daddy.  Today Megan had some stepstool fun at Grandma and Grandpa Lewis' place.  She carried a stepstool from their nursery over to the baby gate at the top of the stairs with hopes to climb over it.  Needless-to-say, Grandma Lewis was quick to put those stools away for now!

Saturday, May 14, 2011

John's New Wheels

 
John and I broke down last week and bought a car to replace the Explorer.  We were enjoying not having a car payment, but with the price of gas rising the way it has been, we figured we'd rather spend the extra money driving and going towards a better vehicle.  We ended up getting a 2007 Toyota Prius.  The color is seaside pearl- a beautiful blue!  The Prius is a small family car but it is plenty roomy inside for what we need it for right now.  It is also a hybrid car, meaning that it runs on both gas and battery (primarily battery for in town driving) and its fuel efficiency is around 45 mpg!  We feel we got a good price for the car, being the sought-after car that it is.  John is really enjoying driving it and it will primarily be his vehicle since he has the longer commute. 

On a side note, if you know anyone who wants a '98 Ford Explorer just let us know!

Friday, May 13, 2011

Daddy's 31st Birthday and Mommy's 2nd Mother's Day

The Wednesday before last, John celebrated birthday number 31.  Even though it was on a Wednesday night, meaning he had to work - and work late, he still had a good day.  The night before his b-day, our softball team played it's first game (ok, scrimmage) and it was nice to get out and have some fun.  I baked some Monster cookies for John to bring in to work for his birthday and they were a hit.  That evening during John's lunch break we had a nice dinner at his parents' place and we had a stuffed shells/spaghetti dinner followed up with chocolate cake!  We had a very nice time and we were surprised that Megan actually ate some of the noodles with sauce on them!  For gifts, John received a bat and gear bag for softball this summer, DQ gift card, a new lunch box, some mini squirt guns, a mini video recorder and some other stuff.  Thank you!

A couple days later was my Mother's Day weekend!  John worked on Saturday but Megan and I had a great girl's day together.  First we garage saled, went to the park and then strollered to the grocery store.  That wore Megan out so much that she crashed on the way home and took a really long nap before it was time to load up into the car and head up to Michael & Becca's for a Mother's Day barbeque.  It was nice to have a night off from cook we had great company.

On Sunday, John, Megan and I went to the Minnesota Zoo with Kristin, Patrick and Alexa (and about 1/4 of the rest of the families in Minnesota...). Moms got in free that weekend and John and Patrick used a free pass we got from the library. It made for a fun and cheap outing even though it was crowded and a bit chilly and rainy. I think the girls enjoyed it but will enjoy it more and more as they get older since most of the animals were pretty far away. Here are a few of my favorite pictures from our outing.

Megan rode many miles up on Daddy's shoulders!

I love you, Mommy!

Alexa loved the whoosh of the water into the tidepool.

These sea horses look like they are growing leaves!

Megan says... "A dog?"

That stroller looks familiar...

Taking a quick run outside during the break in the weather.
Now, this is one big aquarium!