January Wrap Up & Funnies

I know it's been a while again since I've written last but there haven't been too many big things happening lately.  I'm just going to give you a quick run through of what we've been up to this month.

Our pastor invited John and me to join a new community group that him and his wife are starting.  We had a kick-off potluck dinner at their place at the beginning of the month and now are meeting every other Tuesday night.  It's about five young couples and we basically get to know each other and do a short Bible study at each meeting.  It should be fun and we're excited to get to know more people from church.  And Megan gets to go to childcare during that time and play with some old and new friends!

Last Monday morning we woke up to some pretty tricky weather.  The roads were slick and snow was still coming down when it was time for Megan and me to leave for her drop-off at G&G Lewis's place.  We got half-way to Chaska and I decided that it wasn't worth it and I would just work from home.  I was so proud of Megan because she somehow managed to entertain herself for much of the day without any Mickey Mouse on.  Luckily I wasn't too busy at work either so it made for a nice work day.

Megan's been able to get outside a few times with the couple snowfalls we've had this month.  My mom took her out at their place twice and we took her down the hill in front of our house.  She absolutely loved it and begged not to come in when even the adults got cold.  I learned that I maybe should not have gone down on the sled no matter how short the hill but it sure was fun!  Probably more fun for me since John was the one that had to carry or pull Megan back up the hill each time!

I figured it's never too early to get ready for the baby so Megan and I spent some time packing up her old clothes and at least finding her old neutral clothes and other accessories.  In the process we also cleaned out her old baby bottles.  They didn't get too far gone because she grabbed them and had me fill them with water so she could feed her Baby Alive doll!  Someone's going to be a great big sister!

 

 

I mentioned last time that Megan has been exposed to the wonderful world of YouTube.  She knows that she can watch it on Mama's "hello" and I even have her trained that we only watch it on her bunny Pillow Pet (the phone's been dropped too many times on the hardwood and it's pretty safe there).  She's getting very opinionated with it and will not watch the same clip more than a couple times in a row.  She watches lots of ABC and phonics songs.  But she also asks for cat videos - go figure!

I wanted to finish up with a few cute Megan quotes and stories:

We had a family outing to Target on Friday night.  I wanted to try on a few maternity shirts and invited Megan to join me in the fitting room.  As I locked the door she looked at me and said, "Mama, where da pot?"  She's so used to me bringing her along when I to use the restroom that she thought we were in a bathroom stall!

At church Saturday night there was a baptism so a little baby for Megan to watch up in the front of church.  The baby started fussing and the mother ended up walking the baby out of church.  Megan was so concerned that for the longest time while they were leaving and after they had left she just kept repeating, " 'scuse you, da baby... 'scuse you, da baby". 

Sunday Megan and I did a painting project and had to take off her hooded sweatshirt and I put it on our desk chair.  After we were done she realized that she wasn't wearing it anymore and we ended up playing a little game of "hot and cold" trying to get her to find where I had put it - mostly because I was too tired to get off the couch.  Megan finally grabbed it with her left hand and I excitedly said, "Good, it's in your hand".  Confused, she looked at her right hand.  I said, "No, it's in your other hand".  Well, she switched the sweatshirt to her right hand so she could look at her left hand and see that there was no sweatshirt there either.  We did that a few times until she finally realized that she had it all along!

Finally, while I was giving Megan a bath last night she really wanted me to join her in the bathtub.  She said something like, "Here Mama, in da baff" and pointed to the water.  I compromised and just put my feet in the water (it actually felt really good!).  She proceeded to wash my legs and feet with her little washcloth but again had another concern.  I have a couple freckles on my leg and she exclaimed, "Oh, Mess!" and tried really hard to wash them off!

There literally is at least one funny thing said or done every day.  Never a dull moment when she's around!

Megan at 22 Months

These months are just flying by and in just two short months our little girl will be 2!  These posts are getting harder and harder to do because Megan is mostly just getting better at all the things she knows how to do.  Doing them faster, smoother and with more gusto!

Megan cut tooth #19 last week - her upper left two-year molar.  As far as I know the last one hasn't come in yet.  This last tooth was sure not a fun one.  She was just incredibly clingy on me or John.  She had some bad diarrhea and even a blowout at our Pastor's house - gross!  Megan also had a few rough weeks of sleeping at night and lucky for me it was John who had a better success rate at getting her back down!

Megan is doing great sleeping in her new toddler bed!  It was really just the first few nights that she gave us fuss.  I've noticed that she doesn't exactly sleep quite as long in the morning as she did when she was in the crib but I'm ok with that as long as there's no issues during the night.  When she does get up at the earlier times in the morning she is so much happier than she had been when sleeping in her crib.  Her bed is so fun for her to lay on and do puzzles, read her books and play with her stuffed animals.  Also, since we rearranged her room putting her bed in the back and toys in the front, she has really enjoyed playing in her room and actually asks to go upstairs.  Bonus for me, especially in the morning when I'm getting ready in the bathroom and in general to get her away from the TV. 

Megan is getting to be quite a dancer and getting very good at the Hokey Pokey.  I think the Hokey Pokey is one of her favorite songs right now and she just started really doing some of the actions.  She will put both her right foot and hand in right in time with the music as well as spin around and clap!  It's so much fun now that she knows what to do!  She also bounces and dances whenever some peppy music comes on, including the Hot Dog dance at the end of Mickey Mouse.  During the Mickey opening theme song Megan has been enjoying calling out all of the characters and really singing the "Doo" loudly at the end of it.  We're trying to branch out to several other educational shows as well and my new favorite is Little Einsteins.  Megan enjoys tapping her legs and waving her arms when they are flying around in the rocket.

Megan's vocabulary continues to grow and grow.  I'm impressed with how many animals she recognizes and calls either by name or by the sound they make.  Some new animal names are giraffe and rabbit and she loves when we ask her what the elephant says.  She will almost always throw her hand up in the air and really get into it.  She learned what a frog was this weekend and was hopping all around the room saying "hop, hop, hop".  More and more words keep getting strung together when she's talking.  Her newest is telling us what she wants more of.  "More juice", "More books", "More Duck".  Some other new words are garage, high and away.

We introduced Megan to YouTube when John and I got our new phones.  We've been watching a lot of nursery rhyme and ABC videos.  Maybe soon she can sing along to the ABC song with Alexa!  We also work with Megan on her letters in the bathtub.  We have some foam letters that stick to the side of the tub and practice saying them.  She can repeat about half of them after me but is more than willing to at least try to say most of them.  This might also be the reason she likes to point to some of the words and letters in a couple books we read.

Megan loves to try and get herself ready to go outside.  She feels the most proud when she can get her shoes on by herself.  Sometimes the tongue of the shoe gets underneath her foot but she always makes sure she gets the velcro patted down.  It's still hard getting the coat on but is a pro now at getting it off by herself.

Megan's food addiction right now is frozen GoGurt.  One tube of that is just not enough and boy does she know where that is kept! 

Well, I think this pretty much sums up the big things that are going on right now in Megan's life.  I love that it keeps getting more and more easy to communicate with her and even joke around.  What a sweet little girl we have!

Megan's New Bed!

Part of preparing our house for our little guy's arrival was switching Megan over to a new bed.  We did not want to buy a whole new crib and do not have room for a twin, so we ordered her a little toddler bed!  We will just have to buy a new mattress for the crib now but that is manageable.  It actually came in a pretty small box and John put it together relatively easy on Thursday.  Megan watched him the whole time and didn't take her long before she knew what Daddy was building.  She has been loving the play aspect of the bed but we also have her sleeping in it right away.  She loves to jump on it, bring all of her stuffed animals aboard and also sit on it to "read" books.

Thursday night was sure a struggle to get her in the bed at night and she only slept until about 1:30 a.m. when she wandered out of the room and we brought her into our bed.  Friday night was a little better.  She wanted Daddy to tuck her in and then she slept until 5:30 a.m.  Daddy was able to get her to go down and sleep in the bed for another hour or so.  I was dreading her Saturday nap but after we read enough books she was eager to get to sleep.  She woke up once during her nap but I got her to go back down.  It's weird to hear little feet patters going across the bedroom floor to the door when she wakes up instead of just hearing the crib shake!  I think she's catching onto the routine because tonight really wansn't bad at all as far as getting her lay down and fall asleep.  Hopefully she sleeps through the night so we have a happy girl for church tomorrow!

I'll try to get some updated nursery pictures taken before the baby arrives but this is all I have for now.  The changing table was moved to our master bedroom.  The bed and crib are both on the far wall with the window and the front half of the room is dedicated to toys and games!

Even Minnie likes Megan's new bed.

So dainty!  I love this little bed!

"Reading" one of her favorites... "Hot".

Being Silly - 22 Months

Where's Megan?

  

We rearranged Megan's room this week to make room for her new bed (more on that later).  Suddenly she could not get enough of her stuffed animals!  We were carrying them everywhere... Upstairs, downstairs, on the bed, off the bed.  All that moving is exhausting!

 

Be good, Megan... or else Daddy will pick you up by your ears!

Ohh.. Where Da Books?

Megan is always amazing and puzzling us with the things that she finds around the house to entertain herself. For the last two weeks, she has chosen a set of Winnie the Pooh chunky board books to be those items. They’re not something new she got for Christmas but a set of books I got her at a garage sale when she was about four months old! One day she discovered them in a toy box and has been collecting/carrying them around ever since. At first she just stacked them up and tried to pick the stack of 7-9 books up at one time. What a load for little hands! Mama to the rescue – we got a small fabric bag to hold them all.

So now Megan has a black bag to tote around everywhere she goes, just like Mommy’s purse. Megan likes to bring it when we leave the house – even brought it into the grocery store on Saturday with me. (How we managed to get to church without them is beyond me.) She has to hold onto the bag when we are reading bedtime books at night and then it also goes into the crib with her when she has naps and goes down for the night. It is so cute going into her room when she calls for us in the morning because she already has her arm through the handles like she’s ready to go.

My absolute favorite is when she has gone some time without them and then suddenly remembers them. She will exclaim, “Ohh…. Where da books?” Saturday morning she and I were walking down the stairs to see Daddy before he left for work and she made the same exclamation. Some kids have their blankies, dollies, or stuffed animals. Not our little one. She finds comfort in her bookbag full of books!