Megan at 2 Years!

I think this will be my last "monthly" update of Megan since she is now just plain 2 and we're not counting months anymore.  I will be busy writing about baby brother soon but will be sure to plenty of regular updates on Megan as well.  Megan sure has grown up a lot in the last weeks and John and I always point things out to each other ending with "...because she's 2".  Example: "Megan sat really nice at the library program today and even did actions to the songs - because she's 2".

Megan got her 2-year checkup a couple weeks ago and I have her stats below.  I thought for sure she had or would have gained more than just a couple pounds over the last half year but we have really noticed her slimming down over the past few months.  This was actually one of the first slim-downs we had noticed as she never seemed to have slimmed when she started walking as a lot of people said she would.

Height - 34.5 inches - 70%

Weight - 29 lbs - 80%

Head Circumference - 19 inches - 75%

We are nowhere near potty training Megan yet.  Although she is getting better about telling us after she fills her pants.  A couple times I put her on her potty without pants on but I think I get a whole 5 seconds before she either wiggles to the edge of the seat or gets bored and starts moving again.  Anyways, definitely not before the baby comes and then we'll test her again during the summer months.

Megan can say all of her ABC's pretty well with the exception of W.  It comes out more like ticka-ticka.  I think maybe we'll start working on the ABC song next!  Numbers have a ways to go yet because she really can only say 2 and 8.  She recognizes 8 but when she "counts" it's only 2's.

Lately Megan has really become aware of any owies or boo-boos that she gets on her body.  She had a little cut on her pinky toe and every time she took off her sock she would start whining until I would give it a kiss.  Today she hurt her thumb and I started rubbing her left thumb.  Well, I got them mixed up and before I knew it Megan's right thumb was in my mouth for me to kiss and make it better.


Megan has graduated from watching Youtube on my phone and now really likes the puzzle application that I have.  I'm really impressed how well she drags the pieces into their spots and then knows which is the back button to go and select another puzzle to work on.

Megan sure likes her big cousin Alexa and remembers fun things they do together.  At Megan's birthday party Megan and Alexa went down the slide together over and over and I think they go down the slide together a lot with Grandpa Lewis as well.  Now, when Grandma Gennrich takes Megan outside to go down the slide, Megan always points to the tandem slide and says 'Alexa?'  She's also done the same thing when we've been out shopping at Target and she thinks that Alexa should be there to ride in the other kid seat of the cart.  She is so lucky to have a girl cousin her age that she can spend so much time with.

Some of Megan's favorite things to eat right now are frozen green beans and frozen peas.  Forget about cooking them...just give them to her straight from the bag in the freezer.  She also is starting to like raw veggies such as carrots and celery.  Slowly we are able to get her to eat a little more meat - grilled chicken breast is probably her favorite.  I also found out that if we do "cheers" with our food and hers she is more likely to taste what she's given. 

Megan has really made her mommy happy lately by starting to have an interest in singing and doing some action songs.  Megan has a favorite bedtime song and just recently has started to sing along with it.  Of course the main reason she likes it is because it's all about telling animals to hush so she gets to make plenty of animal noises.  And she even knows what order the animals go in and is making the next noise before I even sing it.  The action song in that book is about ladybugs, so again, we have the animal theme.  Tonight Megan surprised me agan by starting to sing Jesus Loves Me!  I think this is what Grandma Gennrich sings at naptime so she's heard it plenty of times and Megan sang along with all of the last words of each phrase.  Of course it became a lot more fun when we turned on a small fan so she could sing into that!

Megan's vocabulary and speech is coming along great.  She's continuing to work on her manners and added a new word this month - please (pea)!  She's also starting to put three or more words together.  Sometime it's slow and sometimes she will repeat the phrase over and over but she likes the practice.  My favorite new phrase that Megan says is - Oh boy! which she pronounces Oh bear!  When she gets all excited that she's getting juice or another treat she'll start jumping up and down shouting, "oh bear, oh bear!".  Megan now is saying Mama for Grandma, Uncle, as well as two new pets - TC the cat and Abby the dog.

Bedtime still remains hit or miss but is getting better.  At least she seems to be sleeping better through the night and most nights she doesn't wake up at all any more.  We still have to do a couple tuck-ins most nights.

For some reason Megan has had something against our stairs lately.  Maybe she just wants our attention because she is always whining that we carry her up or down which is really old.  The way Megan goes up and down playground equipment there is no reason she should be afraid of our set of stairs.

I feel like it's so hard to capture all of the changes happening lately as there are so many of them!  I love that she's growing up and soon will be having real conversations instead of me just always guessing what she's trying to communicate.  I'm also excited to be able to do more and more projects with Megan as she grows up.  Today we tried dying Easter eggs and making cut-out cookies.  Both projects went "ok" but these things should keep getting easier as Megan grows up.  I'm really looking forward to seeing what Megan's like being 2!

Megan's First Haircut

Tonight John and I brought Megan in for her first haircut.  John was reluctant at first but after a little persuasion he said we could get her hair cut as long as I wasn't the one to do it (and if he could go along)!  We had a coupon for a free first haircut for baby that we got right after Megan was born so the price couldn't be better.  We want to let Megan's hair grow out and also keep her from bangs but everything was so uneven. When it got so hot and humid the last few weeks you could really tell how straggly it was.  I'm hoping this helps her hair get a little thicker and curly too.

John and I were wondering how we were going to get Megan to sit still.  We didn't have to worry once we got there because they had the coolest motorcycle for her to sit on and also popped in a Dora movie which kept her attention.  It went so fast and we were in and out in less than 15 minutes!

I think she cleaned up rather nice!  And just in time for Easter!

Megan's 2nd Birthday Party

This weekend we celebrated Megan's 2nd birthday with our families.  This girl is sure lucky to have such a warm birthday week (high 70's) and she's had quite the adventures too (trip to MOA, MN Zoo, Parties)!

I knew I wanted to have a Minne Mouse / Bowtique themed party for her since that is still one of her favorite Disney characters and I wasn't sure how long she'd be into it.  Below is the "cake" I made.  I made marble cupcakes with buttercream frosting.  On top of that we put an oreo and two small oreos for mouse ears.  We used pull 'n peel twizzlers to form a bow for each cupcake and then I wrote "Happy Birthday Megan" on the oreos.  I think it turned out great and even made Megan her own Minnie cake so she had something larger for her candle.

For our meal we had hot dog wraps (think of the Hot Dog song from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse) that I put together the weekend before and just took out to thaw and raise around noon.  We had pink punch, veggies, chips, rainbow fruit skewers and a bowtie pasta salad.  Since the party was on a Sunday afternoon we ate around 4:00 then opened presents and had cupcakes and ice cream.  It was still light enough and pretty warm outside when we were done that we could all go to the park and play!

Here are Alexa and Megan in their Minnie Mouse ears!  We also blew up a whole bunch of balloons so the girls enjoyed chasing them and trying to keep them in the air!

Auntie Rachel drew Minnie and other characters on some of the balloons for Megan.  I had never heard Megan say "mine" before as she started to hoard all of the character balloons.  Alexa didn't seem to care since none of them were of Elmo!

Megan wanted us to open and play with every toy that she opened.  Here she is clinging to a Minnie figure that she received!

Megan even got her own first tricycle for her birthday from my parents.  Once she figures out the pedaling motion I know she'll get lots of use out of this throughout the summer!

Blowing out her candle!  She wanted to keep doing it over and over.  A couple times she got the blowing technique down but other times she just kept blowing through her teeth!

Some fun outside and the girls could even go down the slide together!  Uncle Mike supervises at the top.  We had to laugh because Alexa went so fast down the slide that she always ended up in the woodchips at the bottom.  Megan must have been more used to this slide.

Happy Birthday, Megan!  Our precious 2 year old daughter.  We love you!

Birthday Outing

Yesterday was Megan's second birthday and we had a very exciting birthday outing planned for her.  Both John and I took off work to spend the day with our little big girl.  We wanted to give her a nice day with both parents especially since she have to share our time with baby brother in a month and a half.  The day itself couldn't have been nicer as the temp reached 70 degrees - wow - and you have to look hard in order to find any snow on the ground. 

Here are Megan and Daddy right before we left the house at 9 a.m.

Our main planned activity was going to SeaLife at the Mall of America.  We started seeing signs for it as soon as we parked the car and I think Megan caught on to what we were doing because she kind of started chanting "fish, fish".  Here Megan and Daddy are peeking in at the sting rays.

Megan loved watching the water rush into the tidal pool.

Then we reached the underwater tunnel where fish swim above you and are essentially all around you.  Megan has a favorite action song about baby, mama, grandpa and daddy sharks so we were naming all of the creatures as they passed by.  I think in the picture below Megan saw a fish at the bottom of the aquarium who was "sleeping".

 Sometimes the fish swam right along the glass!

Finally, we walked through an area still under construction but was setup more like a rainforest.  It made for some cute photo-ops.

We debated on where to eat for lunch and ended up at Rainforest Cafe.  The atmosphere was great for Megan but she didn't eat a whole lot and the lunch turned out to be kind of expensive but I think she enjoyed it overall.  From Megan's chair she had a good view of a big butterfly that was flapping its wings the entire time.  I think Megan spent more time flapping her own wings than actually eating!  The rest of the time was spent pointing out the other creatures that were looking at her!

We stumbled past the Disney Store and knowing Megan's love of Minnie, we couldn't not go in.  We told the lady that greated us that it was Megan's birthday and she arranged to have a special sign come up on their movie screen just for our little princess.  It was a little overwhelming because lights were flashing too but it was a very nice surprise.

We had to walk through Nickelodeon Universe on our way back to the car and Megan was not scared one bit looking at all the rides.  She just kept pointing saying "Whee, whee" and then started pointing to herself.  We decided to go with the basic carousel and figured that would be ok with her since she was making horse noises by this time.  Megan had so much fun and her and Daddy waved to me each time they came around!  This is my favorite shot of the day. 

John and Megan shared a scoop of vanilla ice cream as we left the mall.  We had one more spot to stop so we could pick up a birthday present for Megan.  We picked out a big pack of play food for Megan's little kitchen and she also got a free birthday balloon for stopping in!  Overall, the day was a huge success.  Three worn-out Lewis's made it home a little after 4 from a wonderful birthday outing!

Her Bologna Has A First Name

So many things wrong with this picture!  Megan was in the best mood on Saturday but that also meant that she was super squirrely the entire day - hopping through the grocery store during the entire trip and lots of dancing and singing at home.

 

You can see from the picture that she ripped her super cute pigtails out during her nap leaving her hair a mess.  Then, while I was working on her b-day party food she pooped in her diaper, took her pants off and ran to her potty chair.  I changed her diaper a little while after but never got her pants back on.

Megan must have been watching me like a hawk because as soon as I opened up the refrigerator to grab something, she snuck right in there and wouldn't come out (a common ritual here at our place).  She grabbed a piece of bologna out of the package and decided it wasn't half bad.  Then Megan took out the entire package and sat down in the middle of the kitchen to feast as you can see in the picture above.  It doesn't stop there... Next thing we knew she took the remaining five pieces out of the package, put them in a bowl and threw the package away.  She took her bowl, crawled underneath the kitchen table to have a little picnic by herself!  She wouldn't come out so we just gave her a cup of milk and left her to her dinner.  Sometimes we just have to go with the flow...

Photo Roundup - 23 Months

Our little Megan loves winking at her family during mealtimes!  She's pretty good at it too!

Bathtime with Daddy always results in lots of smiles and crazy do's.

Daddy and Megan making "snakes".

Megan has a recent fascination with microphones.  We made one ourselves and she sang danced all around the living room last weekend.  She even let Minnie sing a few verses.  Funniest is when she taps the golf ball and blows on it like she is really testing a mic!

Daddy-Daughter nerd pants.... Need I say more?

Pregnancy Update - 2 Months To Go!

Since we just turned the calendar to March, I now officially have less than 2 months to go!  My doctor promised she wouldn't let me go as overdue with this one as I did with Megan so I think I'm safe we reached the 2 month mark.

Over the past three weeks I can tell that it's getting harder to walk around and that my baby belly is getting lots bigger.  The baby's movements are getting a lot more visible too.  I always have to chuckle when the doctor asks if I am feeling movement because this baby literally never stops!  Her response was, "Oh, you have one of those babies, huh?"  Yup - actually two of them because this is exactly how Megan was too.

Because I kept growing bigger and bigger it is getting harder and harder to move around and be on my feet in general.  We had a busy last weekend and I was rushing and on my feet a lot getting ready for Grandpa's b-day party and then orchestra rehearsal for church.  By the end of last Saturday I literally had no energy left and could not even walk.  Ugh...

As depressing as that day was, I've had some positive notes this week.  First of all, at my doctor's appointment on Tuesday I learned that I didn't gain any weight since my last appointment.  I was so worried that I was going to get scolded big time about weight.  Even though I didn't gain anything the baby still grew like it was supposed to and the heartbeat again was in the 145-150 bpm range.  I mentioned the hot and dizzy spells that I've been having occasionally and the doctor figures it's because my blood pressure is on the lower end and when I sit down the weight of the belly cuts off some blood flow.  Nothing to be concerned about, just need to adjust how I'm sitting when that happens.

Then, I had a chiropractor appointment on Wednesday which always feels good.  I'm to the stage where I not only lay on the big foam pillow with the hole in the middle, but they drop the middle of the adjustment table for me too.  At the end of the appointment I mentioned that I needed something to hold my belly up because the weight was the main reason I've been feeling so awful.  She suggested I try rock tape and sent me home with some pregnancy applications.  I'm only on my third day of wearing the tape now but I can tell it's made a world of difference.  John has to help me put it on but it's supposed to stay on for at least three days before we need to reapply.  It actually looks like an ace bandage but is adhesive.  I'm very glad we stumbled across this stuff and I hope it continues to help me survive these last couple months!