Friday Funnies - Megan 2 1/2

Here you go... a few funnies to bring you to the end of a long work week and into a gorgeous weekend ahead!

After church two Sundays ago I found this gigantic carrot in our veggie drawer.  (It did not come from a baby carrot bag - just so we're clear here.)  Anyways, I peeled it and gave it to Megan to gnaw on.  She was so excited but I think she needs a little refresher on animal noises.  As she was holding it she was hopping around the room saying, "Ribbit, Ribbit, Ribbit!"

Last Sunday at the beginning of Megan's Fireflies class the teacher said it was time to gather around into the circle.  Megan looked at me and said, "It's not a circle, it's an oval."  Sure enough, the ABC rug that the kids sit on for "circle time" is really an oval shape.

Brother & Sister Stare down!!

(I am on a mission to get a good picture of the two of them yet!  This one is not it...)

My mom has been awesome lately and really helping me out watching the kids at night while I go to my chiro appointments and errands.  I think Megan likes it there because tonight when I walked into my parents' house and said we need to leave, this was her response:  "Mom, pump!  Pump for the baby".  Then she looked at my dad when he came home and said, "Mom's going to take Owen".  She wanted to stay there!

Later evenings also mean some driving home in the dark.  Megan doesn't mind because she loves to look for the moon while riding in the car.  She asks me where the moon went and then giggles when she realizes it was just playing hide-and-go-seek behind the trees!  We were looking at the Harvest Moon tonight once we got home and talking about how high it was in the sky.  I told Megan it was so high in the sky that we couldn't even touch it.  Her response?  Maybe we should get a ladder!

And even though we like to be silly, this seemed like a good time to quote one of our favorite bedtime books.  I said, "I love you right up to the moon..." and waited for Megan to reply back  with, "...and back."

Weighing In: Halfway & Goal

As you might remember, John has been working extremely hard the past eight weeks to try and lose some weight. He's been diligently counting the Calories of everything that he puts into his mouth and also using the Couch 2 5K application on his iPhone for a guided workout and preparation for the Monster Dash in October.

John started out weighing 270.5 at the very beginning of August with a goal to lose 20 pounds by Thanksgiving. Well, as of Sunday he actually surpassed his goal. We're only halfway to Thanksgiving but he weighed in at 249 on Sunday! And he's not stopping there. I've been getting text messages from him all week with his daily morning weight which seems to keep getting lower every day.  We're thinking this is the lowest he's been since we met.  (We think but aren't quite sure since we didn't own a scale until after we were married.)  With another two months before Thanksgiving John is excited to see how low he can get his weight down to.  He wore his "skinny" jeans the other day and also thinks it will be great to get a whole new wardrobe some day.  I think the number one motivation factor for John right now is that he's actually seeing results at least on the scale.  I think he's looking great too!

With John counting Calories, he's allowed to eat 2,360/day with it still figuring in a steady weight loss.  I signed up for the same counter and it's only giving me around 1,300 - almost half of what John's allowed!  Must be great to be a guy!  John likes the days he goes running because he also earns about an additional 300 Calories which means he can have a big bowl of ice cream before bed!

I am down from 140 to about 133 pounds.  Now that I am almost off the pump, I'm hoping to drop below 128 before Thanksgiving.  I no longer have to eat the extra Calories or drink like a camel all day long, both  which are needed in order to keep the milk supply up.  I'm not sure if I will be able to follow the Calorie counter as strictly as John has been but at least my eyes are opened to how much I really had been eating in the past!  No wonder Americans as a culture are so overweight!

Owen at Four and a Half Months

I wanted to do another quick update on Owen since he's already matched most of the goals I had for him this month.  

Owen is doing great eating solids.  Most days we do a big feeding of both cereal and fruit both morning and evening.  So far we're just doing rice cereal and have tried bananas, apples and prunes.  Just for fun I tried green beans last night but Owen didn't share my humor.  The peaches I tried tonight weren't a big hit either but I don't think it will take him too long to learn to love them!  Slowly, he is becoming less gassy as his tummy learns to digest all this new food.  He's even down to only about 2 poops a day.  But with how smelly they are, that is plenty!  

We also started Owen on formula so I could start weaning myself off the pump.  He doesn't seem to mind the taste and instantly we could tell that it filled him up a lot more than breast milk.  We learned the hard way from Megan that we need to transition slowly into formula so currently we're doing half & half bottles (3oz breast milk, 3oz formula).  He's had some big spit-ups since then but I don't think it's reactions to the formula, I am thinking it's just some overeating.

Owen's biggest success story so far after turning four months is falling asleep in his crib unswaddled at night!!!  I think tonight marks night five that we've been able to get him ready, cuddle a little and then have him fall asleep on his own!!  Can you tell how excited I am since before now he has been swaddled every single night since birth?  He still isn't making it through the whole night without waking himself up and then needing a bottle to get back to sleep though.  But I have something new to work on and am determined to get a full night's sleep soon!  

Owen is a lot happier on his tummy now and is getting a lot quicker at rolling to his back.  He's even perfecting rolling from back to tummy!  

What a happy baby Owen is!!!

 

"Yep... I can hold my own!"

Duck? Duck? GOOSE!!!

John went to the Twin's game tonight with his dad on this perfect fall evening.  And what better way for me to pass the time with two kids than to pack them both up in our stroller and go for a walk!  Owen was getting fussy and the outdoors almost always cheers him up.  See?

Megan insisted on walking alongside of me for one lap around the neighborhood and I was having a hard time getting her to keep up with me towards the end.  So I asked her if she wanted to go to the close pond and look for ducks.  Well, she had a great idea to not only see the ducks but to feed the ducks some bread!  I was up for anything as long as it would keep us occupied and outside so I ran inside to get some hamburger buns that were several weeks old anyways.  Megan carried the bag of buns all the way down to the pond telling everyone we passed that she was going to feed the ducks.

Well, when we got to the pond Megan tried so hard to believe that there were ducks at the very far end.  Sorry, sweetie, none here.  Not to worry though because we have another pond to check!  This time she rode in the stroller because we had to cross a major road.  I prayed the entire time that we would find ducks to feed because this little girl was so excited and I didn't want her hopes crushed.

But what did we find when we got to the second pond?  Something waaaay better than ducks... a family of four GEESE!!!  Even though none of the bread Megan threw actually made it into the water she loved watching them chow down on the pieces I threw in.  And I thought they were fun to watch too as they mucked their way through the shallow water after the soggy bread.

Thank you, God, for a perfect fall evening!

Potty Progress - Three Months In

So, we've been working with Megan on the potty for about three months now.  Part of me is surprised that she hasn't fully caught on to it yet while the other part of me completely expected it to take this long.  It definitely hasn't been an easy battle so far and I mean battle literally.  It started out fun and we cheered whenever she would sit on the seat without pants on but lately I cannot get her even into the bathroom without her kicking and screaming.  I think Megan is better about it when her Grandmas take her but she is very stubborn for me.  Even John usually has pretty good luck taking her.  

We have Megan wearing Pull-ups or slip-on diapers during the day and nighttime diapers for bed.  And I don't know why but she also seems to get more diaper rashes lately.  Not to the point of UTI but the diapers we switched to must not keep as much moisture away from the skin as her Cruisers did.  I am soooo ready for only buying diapers for one child at this point!!

Technically, Megan has gone #2 on the potty but just by accident when she was trying to push out extra pee.  She still prefers to poop in her diaper while standing in a corner or a closet.  As for pee, we could put her on the toilet 10 times a day and have her go every time but sometimes she will still be wet between attempts.  Other times she could be dry for close to two hours!  I just keep reminding her to "save her pee for the potty".  

Through the last few months we've been trying to keep the potty training exciting.  We got fancy new toilet seats for the normal toilets that have fold-down inserts into the lid.  Since that was plain white we let Megan decorate it with stickers so she'd have something to look at.  We would give her potty M&M's.  We brought fun books into both bathrooms to read while on the job.  Megan personalized a kitchen timer with tiny stickers to time out potty breaks.  And our last attempt was to give her coins for church if she would go potty - that one didn't go over at all...  For a while Megan kept telling us that she was going to help Alexa learn how to do potty breaks.  She probably thinks she's an expert by now and doesn't need any practice!  That or just plain bored with the process.  

Since Megan is such an independent personality, I think she is enjoying the fact that I am often preoccupied with Owen in conjunction to herself being pretty self-sufficient.  There is too much fun to be had to stop and worry about going potty!

I did feel a little more encouraged when I read on Huggies' website that it's normal for potty training to stall.  Even my new chiropractor said that his second son had no interest in it for a while and one day it just clicked.  I guess we'll just keep plugging away at it and wait for that to happen!

Fireflies

John and I are so thankful that our church has a Sunday School class for kids Megan's age!  The class is actually for children 18months-2 years so technically she could have started it last year already.  But we figured it was better for us to go to the Bible study during Education Hour and have Megan start this year.  Her class is called Fireflies because they are the littlest of lights.  We're hoping this will also be a good outlet for Megan to get comfortable around other children.

The structure of Megan's class reminds me a lot of her ECFE class we had her in last fall and the parents also stay by to help the kids.  They start by playing while waiting for all the kids to arrive.  Then they have circle time where the teacher reads a couple books, kids do some action poems, do a memory verse and sing some songs.  There are a lot of things that repeat from week to week which is good so the kids have more chances to catch on.  The parents also get handouts so we can practice with our kids at home throughout the week.  I've been working with Megan on this month's memory verse which is "Nothing can separate us from God's love. Romans 8:39".  She is so cute doing the actions in her own little way.  Now I just wish she would do it with the other kids at class!

After circle time all the kids wash their hands and sit at the table for a snack.  Both times Megan has asked for more food.  They probably think we don't feed her!  Finally, there is an art project or picture to color before class is over.

The topic for this month is God made us and everything and he loves us very much.  Last week the teacher read the parable about the shepherd who has 100 sheep, loses one and leaves the 99 to look for the lost lamb.  The children looked around the room for lost lambs and then colored picture of a lamb and even glued on cotton balls!  John likes helping Megan with the art projects and she was so proud of what she made!

One funny story about her Sunday School... The morning of her first class I was trying to get her excited about it even at home and kept telling her that she was going to school right after church!  I kept telling her that she was a big girl since she got to go to school now.  Well, as we were leaving I could tell something was wrong and she had something she needed to get off her chest.  She whispered to me, "So when do we ride the yellow bus!"  When we were going to church the next week she seemed satisfied with the answer that she needs to be bigger before she can ride the bus.  Whew!

Owen at Four Months!

I was lucky to get Owen in a few days before he turned four months for his next checkup.  Here is how he measured up last week Wednesday:

Height - 26 1/4 inches - 92%

Weight - 16lbs 1oz - 75%

Head Circ - 16 3/4 inches - 60%

I looked back to his two month numbers and the percentages are almost identical.  And then I compared these to Megan's at her four month visit.  The percentages for height and weight were exactly flip-flopped - she favored the short and heavy side while Owen is long and lean - our original observations were correct!

The main reason I was so happy to get Owen in to the doctor's was to get the go ahead to begin feeding solids.  We had to tap into my frozen supply of milk since he continued eating over 36 ounces of milk every day and I simply can't keep up.  Plus, I think Owen maybe slept through the night twice the last month and when he would wake it would require a full bottle to get him back down.  Sure is a hungry boy!  As for liquids, Owen still has only had breastmilk.  When the frozen supply is over we will have to start adding in some formula which I think he will adjust to just fine.  Otherwise I will just continue to pump until the end of October - whichever comes first.

The doctor did give us the go ahead to begin solids so after his checkup we headed to Target to stock up on baby cereal and some first baby food!  We've been giving cereal and sometimes bananas to him almost every day and it's kind of hit or miss.  He seems a little gassier after adding in the food and his poo has been a little different texture and of course, instantly more potent.  I started off with making the cereal extremely runny so it was just like eating milk off of a spoon.  He actually thought that was pretty fun but as it's gotten thicker I'm not sure what he thinks!  We'll keep trying and he'll catch on in no time.  Since beginning solids Owen has been sleeping a little better - just keeping my fingers crossed.

Owen's mouth seems to be a leaky ending faucet lately!  He is a real drool tool!  His fingers continue to be in his mouth constantly.  I used to think he was digging for teeth but it's been quite some time now and hopefully if that is the case they'll show up soon!  Owen's actually been sucking on his thumb a lot too and maybe he'll end up being a thumb sucker yet...  The other thing he started doing with his mouth is blowing bubbles or blueberries.  Of course it had to start as soon as we began solids.  I think Mommy is going to need a bib too!

Besides getting Owen used to solids, my next big challenge is getting Owen weaned off of being swaddled when he sleeps and also weaning off of the naps in the bouncy seat.  The latter has actually been ok but we have a long way to with the swaddling.  He sure is my little swaddle baby and perhaps it's because of how tight he was in the womb but I think it's time he learns how to sleep even is his arms wiggle free!  When he gets tired and fussy his arms start waving all around and we just need something to hold them still!

Last Satrday John and I witnessed Owen's first giggle!  I can't wait to hear more of them soon and I hope he shares Megan's sense of humor!

Other things... Owen sure likes to have his family and others near him.  I actually think he gets jealous when people aren't paying attention to him.  Owen loves to see other's eyes and faces to watch changing expressions and smiles!  He loves to sit up and look around much more than just laying around.  We also let him sit in the Bumbo seat every day to help work on sitting up.  Owen's other favorite thing to do now is to go outside.  He definitely is going to be an outdoors guy who loves the fresh air. 

 

First cereal attempts!

 

 

 

I love my highchair!  Now bring me some food!

Change me!!!!!

Time For Your Check-Up

The hottest new show on Disney Jr. for little girls right now is Doc McStuffins.  It trails closely behind Mickey Mouse Clubhouse as one of Megan's favorite shows.  The show itself is about a 6 year old girl named Doc who has a magic stethoscope that brings her toys to life.  They help her fix other toys and stuffed animals in a pretend clinic setting.  I think the show is great too but after watching each episode 30+ times...

Anyways, because of this show Megan has become obsessed with playing checkup.  Over Labor Day weekend that is where you could find us the majority of the time.  Even Owen got plenty of checkups.

To play checkup we need to go upstairs to Megan's room and lay down on her floor and she gets out her doctor's kit.  Most of the time we get covered up with some receiving blankets or the sheet from her bed.  And the pillow... can't forget her pillow!  I have to chuckle whenever it's Megan's turn to receive the checkup because she always makes sure that the shot is put away because "she doesn't like them".  (Even though Owen and the rest of us still need to get them.)  Then I have to sing the "Time for Your Checkup" song before we start in.

After she's done looking us over with all of her doctor tools (which keeps growing, by the way... we've added hair cuts, hair brush, and a look in the mirror to the list), it's time to scribble our "diagnosis" into her Big Book of Boo-Boos.  Doc uses a blue crayon in her book so Megan has the same thing.

John had the funniest diagnosis last weekend.  In the words of Megan, it was: Mommy and Daddy got into a fight.  Mommy knocked Daddy to the ground and broke his head.

Ouch!

I think I prefer the diagnosis of:  Mommy needs a nap!

Daddy's Good Luck Charms

Even though Megan and Owen both slept through the majority of the Vikings game today, they still wore their Vikings gear all day (minus church time).  Megan's cheerleading outfit still fits from last year, just a mini skirt now and Owen has a cute little romper.  

It must have paid off since the Vikings pulled out a win in overtime in their first game of the season!    

Friday Funnies - Megan (almost) 2 1/2

Megan has, unfortunately, entered the "why" stage.  It seems that every answer to a question I give is followed by another "why" and another and another.  But that doesn't mean she's stopped making us grin and laugh.

For instance, Megan and I were outside Monday morning since I was off for Labor Day.  We had been filling up some little buckets with water from the garden hose when all of a sudden she had some other ideas.  "Mom, run!" Megan would scream with the hose still pointed down.  Then all of a sudden she would get a wicked grin on her face, lift the hose up and spray all the way across the patio in my direction.  I think she loved watching me run and scream!

Then, the stuff she says...  During our finger painting project outside, I think I actually did more painting than Megan did.  But I always asked her if I should put this color here or that color there.   Megan would often reply with a "Yes, good idea, Mommy!"  Then last night as I was feeding Owen some rice cereal, Megan grabbed another one of Owen's baby spoons and continued to pour apple juice from her sippy cup into it, slurp it out and say, "Um... delicious"!

And then there was the time I made her smell Owen's diaper to see if he pooped.  She usually just smells in the general area but I had her get real close.  Boy did that nose ever wrinkle up!

Megan and I went to Target on Sunday and of course, she had to pick her favorite cart.  You know, the full sized cart with the two really big seats behind it.  As I buckled her in she kept pointing to the seat on the left saying that was Alexa's seat.  I told her that when Owen is older he will sit in that side.  Megan looked at me with all sincerity and concern saying, "But where will Alexa sit??"

Plain and simple... "When Owen is bigger he can eat ice cream!"

John and I took turns reading Megan's first bedtime book to her one night.  I read the baby bunny part while John read the Daddy bunny.  When that book was done John read the first page of the second book.  He turned the page and didn't say anything.  Megan must have liked us reading together because she looked at me seriously and said, "READ".  Just the way she said it cracked me up and sent me to the bathroom before I made a mess!

One of our attempts to get Megan to potty is using a kitchen timer.  She definitely gets the concept, just doesn't always follow through to actually use it as such.  Anyways, on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Minnie has a birthday and everyone is throwing her a party.  When their timer goes off to signal the cake being done baking, Megan exclaimed, "Daisy, potty break!"

August Wrap-Up

Yes, we're still here... I know it's been some time since I've written again but there hasn't been anything too exciting that's happened lately and even if there was, I think I would be too tired and busy to write about it!  I'll give you a brief summary of what we've been up to the past couple weeks, wrapping up the month of August.

Two Fridays ago my mom and sister volunteered to keep both kids overnight!  We were thrilled to have another date night.  So what did we do?  We went to Costco!  I haven't been there in years so it actually was a nice treat for me even though we spent wayyy too much money bulking up our freezer and shelves.  Our biggest score was bagged sliced apples.  Hopefully that means no more half-eaten apples laying around our house!  After Costco John took me out to Dickey's Barbeque Pit in Eden Prairie for dinner and we enjoyed our dinner on their patio in the perfect end of summer weather!

When Rachel brought Megan and Owen home she said she was going with Kevin and Cat to take engagement pictures  the following dayand I volunteered to go along with!  After all, it would give me some experience with models that actually sat still.  For some reason I always take way too many pictures but over the next few days of sorting through the shots I ended up with about 100 starred.  I had a lot of fun both taking the photos and editing them!  (I hope Kevin is ok with me posting a couple here- please don't tell him, just in case)

 

I have also started going to a new chiropractor in Chaska.  I found out about them at the County Fair and wanted to give them a try since my usual one hasn't been cutting it.  It's an entirely different approach, using a scan of your nervous system to determine if you have subluxations in your vertebrae.  To adjust, he uses an integrator to do what is called torque release.  The whole process is actually going to be pretty lengthy with a lot of adjustments but I'm excited to see if I can finally feel better.  I'm also ready to invest more into my body now that I know I'm not going to be putting it through any more babies :)

Finally, John has been super busy lately with his working out.  He has already lost around 15 pounds so far and I give him kudos to sticking with his plan.  He continues to count every Calorie of food that goes into his body and has started a Couch to 5K workout plan with hopes to run a 5K soon!  His iPhone has apps for both the Calories and workout plan which makes it both easy and fun to keep up with.  The Couch to 5K alternates running and walking for about a 20 minute stretch every other day, so very doable.  John keeps asking me when I'm going to start it up!  We'll see if I can get something going sometime soon.