Happy Halloween!

I realize I am several weeks behind on posts, but wanted to get a quick family Halloween picture up before heading off to bed tonight!  Details to come soon!

Megan at 2 1/2 Years

I forgot to include this picture of Megan in her 2 1/2 year photo post so I thought I would include it with her update.  We used the "turn and smile" technique for this picture.  Actually a bit of an accident that it turned out as well as it did.  The only problem is that it really makes me miss the nice fall weather that we only had for a couple weeks!  

I could probably go on and on about the things Megan has been doing and learned over the past six months since my last update on her.  I'll try to keep it brief and I'm also sure there are things I've forgotten.  She is such a busy little girl!

Megan's favorite sayings:
Whew, that was a close one
I'm so happy to see you (to her stuffed animals, of course)
Daddy will fix it
No problem
You're welcome
Mommy, you potty break!
Mmm, delicious!
No, meself!
What doo-ning, Mommy?
What are we doing today? / Who are we seeing today?

Here's the rest:
-Megan doesn't like to walk much.  Instead she likes to do a "run, hop, march" sequence and thinks we should join in too.  We don't mind too much except when she likes to do this same sequence coming back from communion since we sit in the very back corner and by that time all eyes are on us!
-Megan loves to help with projects.  I told John I won best parent of the week because last Saturday we did four projects getting ready for Cat's bridal shower.  She helped me put spices in snack baggies, make tortilla bowls, wrap a present and make a card.  Even getting ready for the shower she was asking if she could help and was sooo thankfulwhen someone gave her a job to do.  It's hard to do projects with a little baby in the house but I need to make a conscious effort to include Megan on whatever I'm doing because she is a good helper.
-Megan tries to find Twinkle, Twinkle in the hymnals at church each Sunday.  At least she understands that those are the music books.  When we try to follow along with the readings in the Bibles, she makes us put them away and open up the hymnals!
-Megan's imagination is through the roof lately.  She is finally loving to play with dollies and stuffed animals.  She likes to feed them and burp them. 
-Megan's basically told us that she is done with naps.  If we say she has to take a nap, she'll tell us that she already took one today or she only "naps" once a day, meaning bedtime.  Even bedtimes are tough because John will carry her upstairs but she'll be saying, "No nap, no nightnight".  About half of the time we'll make her nap, it just depends on how cranky she is around 1 or 2 in the afternoon.
-I recently updated on potty training and nothing has really changed.  One day I set the potty timer and told her it was time for her potty break.  She looked at me and told me it was time for my potty break!  I thought I had a breakthrough one day last week when I had to use the bathroom but she actually wanted to go herself and insisted on taking off her pants, pulling off diaper, climbing onto the potty all by herself.  That only lasted a couple times though, but she'll let us know when she's ready.
-This girl has the memory of an elephant.  She never forgets... Anything!
-Megan's hair continues to get thicker and longer but you wouldn't know that it's growing.  It actually doesn't go down any further down her back but simply keeps curling on itself and gets more poofy.  When it's wet we comb it straight and it reaches a little onto her back.  She doesn't like anyone messing with her hair.  It gets pretty wild in the morning since some is curly and some is straight.  But if I try to comb or brush it out of the say she says, "No brusha me hair!"
-I'm estimating that Megan weighs about 32 pounds right now.  She seems to be getting a lot taller too but not any leaner.  She is not overweight but I like how her arms and legs have the perfect amount of "meat" on them.
-I think Megan's gained more just recently since she's started eating more and having a little more adventurous taste buds.  It's cute how she associates different foods with the different houses she goes to.  When she goes to my parents she knows that her and Grandma make oatmeal in the morning and often have soup for lunch.  When she is at John's parents she expects eggs and toast for breakfaste and then pizza for lunch.  At home she just flings open the refrigerator door and helps herself.  She will grab apples out of the drawer, reach and point to yogurt on the top shelf and sometimes is able to reach her milk or juice cup if she stands tippy toe.
-Megan's going through a little phase right now where she is afraid of the dark and doesn't like to sleep in her own bed for the entire night.  Even though we have an awesome nightlight in her room that can be set to different colors and also leave the door open she still will end up in our bed occasionally.
-Megan's vocabulary increases daily and she is constantly perfecting words that were once tough for her.  Right now she is really focusing on the "l" sound like in alligator, blocks, follow.  I think it's hilarious when she tries out a tough new word and just muddles through it because it's long and hard.  But when I guess what she really said she is all smiles.  For instance, when I guessed that she was trying to say "burp cloth" a couple nights ago and then "Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood" last week. 
-There are certain words that are so cute with her mispronounciations that I never want them to change such as doof = move, Mimick = Gennrich, Looloose = Lewis,
-Megan loves when we do things as a family and wants everyone to always be there.  I think she just wants everyone to have fun and not miss out on anything.  Plus, it's more fun with more people.  When we tell her that we're headed somewhere, we always get, "Mommy? Daddy? Megan? Owen too?
-There's a quote that you can always tell a German but you can't tell them much.  I think the same applies with Megan because she is sure stubborn like her Mommy.  I like that personality trait and we are just learning to work with it.  It's not always easy since she has it in her mind exactly how things need to go and it's hard to change those thoughts.
-Lately Megan has started tattling and lying a little.  It's mostly when bedtime comes.  She'll ask John if she can watch one more Mickey.  He'll say no so she'll come to me.  I will also say no and tell her I agree with Daddy.  She'll go back to John saying, "Mommy said 'yes' Mickey"!
-Another form of Megan's imagination... Lately, Megan's had imaginary cookies.  When we're driving or just playing at home, she'll pinch her thumb and index finger together and give us all cookies to eat!  Best zero-calorie treat yet!  I think there are imaginary snakes sometimes too...

Friday Funnies - Short & Sweet

Megan was helping me make the fancy taco shells for Cat's bridal shower last Saturday.  I wanted her simply to wet the flour tortillas but she followed my lead and started shaping them around the upside-down muffin tins and then started salting them...
Megan:  Mommy, enough salt?
Me:  Yes, whoa, that's enough!
Megan:  Ok, thank you! (and proceeds to keep salting!)

On the drive to Grandma & Grandpa Lewis's house on Monday morning...
Megan:  I eat my toast so Keeper can't get it!  Keeper also ate my goldfish!

Megan understands hide-and-seek but never has enough patience to actually hide long enough for us to find her.  She had always been pretty good with the counting until the other night...
Megan:  1,2,3!  Ready or not, here I come!
Mommy:  At least count to 10!
Megan:  10!  Ready or not, here I come!

Mommy:  Megan, are you a silly girl?
Megan:  No, I'm Megan!

Megan:  Mommy, I want ice cream.
Mommy:  You may have ice cream as long as you also have apple crisp.
Megan:  No, I don't like that.  I just like ice cream!

John:  Megan, what's your name?
Megan:  Megan!
John:  Who's this?
Megan:  My brudder, Owen!
John:  What's Daddy's real name?
Megan: ... John!
John:  What's Mommy's real name?
Megan:  Hun!  Mom, you're Hun, right?

And to top all of this off, Megan has started playing a little game in the car lately where she laughs histerically at Owen, trying to get the little guy to laugh.  It's so cute when it's successful because they both have great laughs.

Owen at Five Months

 

Well, I know I did a four and a half month update on Owen but even since then he has changed soooo much!  He is such a great little guy but sure didn't stay baby long.  Maybe it's just me being preoccupied with two kids now but he seems to be growing up a lot faster than Megan did!  I'll get new stats for Owen next month but right now I estimate his weight to be around 17.5 pounds (at least on our scale).

I'll start with the big one... Owen absolutely LOVES his cereal and fruit.  Loves, loves, loves.  So much that he is now eating solids three times every day and we even have a hard time getting him to drink a full bottle of formula.  Each meal is usually 3 Tbsp of rice or oatmeal mixed with almost a full container's worth of strained fruits or veggies.  We've since added squash, carrots, sweet potatoes and pears to his list of foods!  We try to alternate a bottle with solids but listening to Owen is the best way to go.  I know it's time for food when I hear the "mmmm, mmm, mmmm" coming from his mouth!  In the morning I have the most luck with giving a bottle but my new motto is just don't mix up too much formula at one time and we'll be fine!

With all this food comes it's counter-part... Movement!  (You thought I was going to say 'poop' didn't you!)  He has energy to move more because of all the new food he's eating but he needs to eat more because he's burning everything off!  Just in the last few days it seems like someone has filled Owen up with quarters and let him go!  When put on the floor he will roll this way and that and is starting to scoot little bits while on his tummy.  The last week Owen's been moving around a lot on his crib.  I generally put him in the middle of the mattress but before he even falls asleep his head is up at the end resting on the bumper pad.  One night he had even turned perpendicular!

Owen loves to jump on our laps and get his legs moving.  Especially after being satisfied by a bottle or seeing a familiar face come near.  Of course he recognizes Mom and Dad but he is particularly fond of his big sister!  She must be glad he's growing up because she is always down there on the floor with him "helping" him roll.  Poor brudder Owen!

Owen is still loving his bath but has discovered something new.... He loves to be naked and has now started grabbing his little boy parts... Ugh, the joys of having a boy!

Lastly, Owen had been sleeping pretty rotten this past month as a whole.  Some nights he was waking as early as 1 a.m. for a bottle.  I was determined to get my sleep back so we bought overnight diapers and started feeding solids three times each day.  The extra solids must have been the key because after a couple days of it Owen finally slept 8:00p.m.-6:30a.m.  I sure hope last night was not a fluke 'cause this mama needs her sleep!

But even so, how can you get upset when a night feeding means extra time looking at this handsome face!

Friday Funnies: Into October

I hope everyone had a great week.  I wish we had more of the warm weather from the first three days of the week instead these near freezing and windy temps we're having now but hopefully these little stories will warm you up just a bit.

Here's one I forgot to add last week... Megan was wearing skort, so a skirt with shorts built right in.  For some reason she pulled up the skirt part as high as it could go and said, "Hey, where's my button?" She was looking for her belly button!

"Um, Mom... Why did we buy a double stroller again?  This one works just fine!"

Even Owen made the Friday Funnies this week.  My family had some fun with him at Grandma's birthday party.  "Give me that bottle... NOW!"

"Uncle Kevin, you don't really need that nose... do you?"

 

This is an outtake from our 2 1/2 year photo shoot and would have been a great shot if Megan would have looked at the camera and smiled.  Instead, this is what was going through her mind... "I'm behind a fence.  I'm a cow.  Moooooo!!!"

My last story for the night is what Megan did on the way home from Grandma and Grandpa's on Sunday night.  She was a little whiny so I gave her my cell phone to play a favorite puzzle game of hers.  We passed the phone back and forth taking turns putting pieces in.  I finally told her she had to play on her own.  The next thing I know is Megan calling from the backseat saying, "Mom, I play Mickey on your phone?"  I was in shock when I saw what was up on the screen as I had never even used those screens before.  On the home screen she had clicked the Sprint ID button (I hardly ever even go here), clicked Create New ID, scrolled through a dozen icons at the top of the page until she found the Disney Jr. logo.  Clicked the logo and scrolled to the bottom until she saw some familiar Mickey Mouse pictures!  Wow... kids these days and their technology!!

Megan's 2 1/2 Year Photos

With the sudden drop in temperature I don't know if we'll be able to get our annual 'fun in the leaves' pictures at my in-law's place this year so I was lucky to snag these great pics of Megan over the last couple weeks.  I love that her half birthday is in September so it makes for some great outdoor photos and the weather is great!  I took the first five pictures at Lake Waconia by our favorite dock.  Some geese flew by as I was taking them and Megan thought I should be taking pictures of them instead of her and that's why there's the pointing (but I still thought it was cute).  She is such a little toddler that you'd have thought I could get her to actually look at the camera for one picture, right?

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

Grandma's 78th Birthday

This past Sunday my Grandma Gennrich celebrated her 78th birthday!  Grandpa celebrated 80 years this past February and we are so fortunate to still have both of them in our lives!  Especially to spend time with their great-grandkids!  They hosted a simple but very nice dinner/game night in the party room of their apartment building where they are the caretakers.

Sunday was a gorgeous day and it was even nice outside after dinner when I took these pictures of the Grandma & Grandpa. They read this blog every day so I wanted to make sure I got a chance to embarrass them a little.  Aren't they so cute!