Friday Funnies: Goodbye November!

My little girl makes me laugh and love her more every day.  What would I, I mean we, do without our Megan?

I'm going to share a couple cute pictures first this week.... Megan must be getting jealous of all Owen's baby toys!  She's been climbing in and out of his exersaucer the entire week!!

Megan (Ms. I can dood it all meself) literally did top these tortilla pizzas for me on her own!  She is becoming quite the Mommy's little helper in the kitchen!

Three of Megan's grandparents celebrated birthdays this week so her and I were going to bake little cakes for everybody.  Tuesday night we went to the grocery store to buy the sour cream and then baked a deee-licious batch of banana bar cake.  I think Megan's favorite part about helping is sticking her finger in the bowl of batter and sampling.  She doesn't really get the licking the beaters or spatula part but loooves to dip and lick her finger.  Throughout the mixing of the batter we kept talking about how this cake was for Grandmas' and Grandpa's birthdays.  Megan must have really liked the batter because once she looked up at me and sighed... "Can it please be my birthday too?"

Megan's doing a great job potty-training this week.  I think we are just getting to the part where she might start telling us when she has to go.  Tonight we were at John's parents' place for their birthday dinner.  Megan walked up to Grandma Lewis and said, "I'm pooping!"  Grandma quickly rushed her to the toilet and started stripping her very carefully to salvage any clothes and keep the poop from spreading.  It turns out there wasn't any poop there at all!!!  Must have just been Megan's way of letting us know she had to go!

Another one from tonight and I think I need to do keep trying to explain Santa to Megan.  We talked about how Santa was going to come soon with presents for everyone.  Well, when we finished dinner she whispered to me, "Can everyone ride in your car, Mommy?"  I asked her, Where?  "To go see Santa!"

Moving Forward

More breaking news from the Lewis household... Owen, Wiggle-Butt, as Megan would call him, is really living up to his name lately.  On Sunday he started crawling!!!  Ok, it's not the real hands and knees crawling just yet, but he is able to move forward on his own doing the army crawl.

We were doing some much needed cleaning on Sunday night and even moved the couch to clean up all the junk under there as well as a little rearranging.  We had Owen on the rug as we moved it around out of the way of the furniture.  When we got everything back in place John noticed that Owen moved a tiny bit forward by himself!  Before this he was only pivoting on his tummy and scooting backwards.  We put some toys out in front for him to crawl towards but he really got good once we put down the remote control!  Go figure, that was Megan's favorite crawl-to object too!!!

We told Megan that we had to put things out of his reach in order for him to crawl.  So what does she do?  Puts the remote on the complete opposite side of the room!  Not that far, Sweetie!!

I didn't take any pictures because we actually got the video camera out for once to document his accomplishments!  He is going to be getting into everything now, I'm sure.  But it just adds to the fun around here.  And the way he nose-dives for objects (like the remote when I'm holding it) and twists around when he hears sounds or something catches his eyes I'm sure it won't be too long until he is pulling up on things too!

Potty Progress: Once And For All!

News flash!  Some little girl here is getting potty trained!  We've been going on and off for the last five months and finally I put my foot down and said enough is enough.  Megan is 2 1/2, her cousin is doing great with her own potty progress, her burned hands have healed, trip to Florida and Thanksgiving are over, and frankly, I want to get it over with before Christmas!

Megan wearing Pull-ups the last few months seemed to only benefit the adults pulling them up and down, not actually aiding in the training itself.  My new rule on Saturday was no diapers in the house except naps and bedtime.  We only let her wear panties and if I have to clean up a little pee then I have to clean up a little pee.  We opened up a brand new package of fairy panties and went to work.  Megan had a few emotional moments on Saturday and that's when the two accidents came.  She learned pretty quick that it's not a good thing when the pee runs down her leg and onto the floor :)  I explained that I was not mad at all and that we could clean it up.  Overall she did as good as I could have asked for!

I was especially proud of Megan on Saturday night when she let me put her on the toilet to poop.  She had gone into her bedroom and tried to shut the door on herself and I knew exactly what she intended to do in there.  She loves to be in private when she has to poop, you see (under the steps is actually her favorite spot).  I put her in the upstairs bathroom with the door shut.  I came back a few minutes later and there was a big poop in the toilet and the even wiped herself!!!

Before Megan went to bed last night she went potty and I told her that if she had to pee during the night she could wake Mommy up.  But when she got up this morning she was still completely dry.  Really there hasn't been too much pee in diapers the past couple days.  The only accident she really had yesterday was when she told Grandpa Lewis she had to go but didn't make it in time.  We give her four M&M's if she pees and then a candy from her Halloween bucket if she poops as an incentive.  I think she was going every 15 minutes today for Grandma Lewis just to get the M&M's but that's ok for me!

The other big help for the potty is Megan's new favorite show Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood.  They cover issues that every preschooler might be faced with and stopping what you have to do to go potty is one of them.  We sing the song all the time so she knows it's ok to have to go.

I'm so proud of Megan and excited to have only one kid in diapers!  

This picture is from last month when Alexa and Megan were taking turns sitting on the potty at Grandma Lewis's house!  Grandma has one of the cool potties that plays sounds when the kids start going!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

...from our families to yours!!

Another Thanksgiving come and gone and so many more reasons to be thankful this year!  It's too bad that all of the pre-Black Friday deals try to shift our focus away from the real holiday - yes, even including my own.  With the big Florida trip and then trying to get a jump start on the Christmas shopping it's never too late to take a look around and give thanks for the many blessings that surround us every day.

We are so thankful for our wonderful families.  We love the friendship, support, love and laughter they provide - as well as being there for us as we raise our children.  We're also thankful for our jobs, house, food, cars.  And this Thanksgiving we have four more reasons to be thankful - a new sister-in-law, nephew Ethan, niece Lily and our own little Owen!

This is one of the outtakes from Mama Lewis trying to get a photo for her Christmas card.  Actually, all of the shots she took were outtakes so we'll have to see which ends up being used :)  I think this one is even almost Awkward Family Photo worthy :)  I guess having five grandchildren adds quite a lot of chaos!  

 

The Gennrich family shot at the wedding rehearsal at least has everyone looking :)  And of course, you can't beat the background!

 

 

 

Owen at Six Months

Wow, what a difference another month makes.... rather, what a difference six months makes!  It is just amazing how much a baby learns and grows in six months.  Owen is such a little cutie and a blessing to our lives.  It's hard to believe that he's so big already and before we know it he will be walking and talking!

Owen rocked his six month checkup and stats are below.  Still right in line with those of the last time he was in to be measured.  He sure is a tall kid!  I feel like he eats so much but he is also soo active that everything must just wear right off!!

Height - 28 inches - 92%

Weight - 19lbs 2oz - 78%

Head Circ - 17 5/8 - 87%

 

You'll notice that a lot of the six month pictures I have posted below are of Owen sitting up.  Owen is officially a sitter!!  He's been doing it well for a few weeks now and it is nice to be able to put him on the floor to play without having to worry about him falling over - at least right away.  I don't like to leave him like that for too long in case he gets tired but each time it seems to be a little longer than the last.  Since he can sit so well I have also started to give Owen and Megan baths together in the big tub.  They both like to play and as long as Megan isn't splashing tooo much he does a really good job.

Another benefit to Owen sitting up is that now we can put him in the exersaucer!  We actually have one in our own house this go-round and love it!  Owen is much more in content in it than his older sister ever was.  The minute we put him in it he just goes nuts with excitement and also shows us all the spring in his legs!  He can look up at the TV or turn around - definitely makes for a happy little guy!

Owen is doing excellent with his solid foods too.  We give him solids three times a day and he will eat about four tablespoons of cereal and just about that same amount of fruit and/or veggies at each sitting.  I typically will give him some cereal and fruit/veggies together and when that's gone as much fruit/veggies as he will take.  He got upgraded to the state 2 baby food since he's a sitter but that won't last long!  Favorite flavors are still pears and peas but we have tried and liked almost everything out there so far except some of the "meals".  He also likes yogurt!

Besides being spoon fed Owen has really done a good job of starting to feed himself.  Puffs and Mum-Mums are quickly becoming staples in his diet.  My little secret with Owen is if he's fussing too bad in his high chair because he's hungry, I can just dump some puffs out on the tray and he'll go after them trying to feed himself.  I'm surprised with how many actually make it into his mouth and now on the floor or side of the chair.  I still get some weird looks from him since he's still not completely used to the texture but overall he does great!

Bottles have really started to cut back.  The most I can usually get him to drink at a time is about four ounces.  That is more than fine with me and we just make sure to put a little formula in his cereal to ensure he gets the extra vitamins.

Now onto my favorite topic - sleep...  Getting Owen to sleep at bedtime is no problem.  His internal clock is so good.  He knows dinner is at six and right around 7:15-7:30 he gets fussy for bedtime.  We change into jammies and then it's about a four ounce bottle and he is out.  He likes to sleep on his left side covered with a blanket or two.  As he sleeps he scoots upwards to the head of the crib.  The sleeping through the night is what we need to work on.  I always try to do what I can to avoid a bottle but it's almost nightly that he will need a feeding.  I don't know if he's just that hungry or what but I would love if he would start sleeping till morning again.  Typically it's a bottle at 2 and then back to sleep until morning.

Owen is getting so mobile with rolling to wherever he wants.  He just gets more fun as time goes on.  And is he ever so smiley!!  I just love his little toothless smile and his bright blue eyes!  I love the fact that he loves his mommy so much.  If I come home from work and don't go right to him I get in big trouble - I get a fussy baby!  Owen also loves to make eye contact with his daddy.  They can lock eyes for minutes!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friday (or Saturday) Funnies: Mid-November Wrap-Up

Here I go again with a whole collection of funnies to share because I didn't get around to it last week.  Most of them are from the week before but still some cute stories here.  I hope you enjoy them as we are enjoying the nice warm Florida Keys weather!

At cousin Alexa's 3rd  birthday party we asked Megan how old Alexa was now.  We got a couple different answers:  A couple times she replied with "Two and a half" and another time with "Two months"!

We dropped Megan off at childcare the Sunday before last and Miss Barb had a funny story to share with us.  Megan had been coughing a bit with her hand by her mouth.  When Miss Barb reached Megan to ask if she was ok, Megan told her that she had something in her mouth.  Miss Barb got a little nervous but calmly asked what exactly was in her mouth.  What was Megan's response?  "A cough!"

The Wednesday night before last the kids and I stayed at my parents' place for dinner.  While we waited for dinner to be ready I wanted to go play piano with Megan.  There was a piano book on the holder but it wasn't staying open for me.  My solution would have been to put another piano book on top of the page that kept flopping shut but Megan's mind had another idea.  She hopped off the bench and ran into my mom's office.  I thought she had bored with the piano and had moved on but I was quickly reminded how Megan's mind works.  She returned with a big clip, like a chip clip bag, but one of those that narrows at the tip.  She proudly gave it to me and said, "Here Mommy... a tweezers!"  I could use this to clip the pages together and keep the book open!

A couple shorter ones:

• I told Megan that she had a new baby cousin, Lily.  She was so concerned about her and kept asking if baby Lily was crying!  I guess she learned from her brother that crying is one thing babies do well!
• Megan's new nickname for Owen is "Wiggle Butt"!
• We know when Megan likes the taste of something when we get our new favorite expression of "Deeeeeee-licious"!

And most recently:

I was driving the kids to John's parents' place last Monday morning.  As you might remember this was the morning of winter's first snow here in Minnesota.  I was tempted to call the trip off several times and go back home due to many white-outs that I kept getting especially going around the curves.  It all turned out fine in the end but I let out quite a few deep sighs when I couldn't see anything.  Megan asked me what was wrong.  I told her that I couldn't see the roads or the cars.  She was so sweet and said, "But Mommy, I can see them!"  I was glad to have my little backseat driver helping me navigate :)

During that same trip I told Megan that her and Owen were the best little kids I could ever ask for.  Her reply?  "Well, who were you asking?"

And finally, my ultimate favorite of the week...  Megan's hair is finally long enough to get back in a ponytail.  John put it back on Thursday but it needed fixing when I got home from work.  I put it in and told her it looked beautiful.  She wanted to look at herself in a mirror so I was happy to show her.  Megan loved it - especially because she now looks like Daisy Duck!!!  What a clever connection she had made.  I think this might be a good way to get her to let me put her hair back.  I will just have to ask if I can put the Daisy in!

Baby, Oh Baby!

We knew that new baby cousins were on their way but didn't expect them this early!  In the last two weeks, Megan and Owen got two new baby cousins, both several weeks earlier than anticipated.

Lily Helen was born to Michael and Becca on Tuesday, October 30th.  She was six weeks premature weighing just 4 pounds 11 ounces and was 17.5 inches long.  Becca had been pains and she had been given medication to treat a kidney infection when actually she was in labor.  Her water broke at home but she thought she had just wet herself because of the extra water she'd been drinking and the meds she'd been taking.  When the pains got worse they rushed to Fairview Southdale and were told that Becca was 7cm dilated and was having the baby that night.  It took just three pushes and Lily was out.

Lily will probably have to be in the hospital a total of three weeks before she can go home.  John and I went to visit last Thursday night and already she weighed 5 pounds 1 ounce.  She can now breath without oxygen, the feeding tube is in her nose in the picture below but Becca is having success nursing, next is to get her body temperatures regulated so she can go to her own room and then probably get ready to come back home.  There was a little physical therapy to be done with her feet since one foot was lodged in Becca's rib cage the entire time but already the nurses were impressed at how well that had been helping!

What a little cutie!!!

 

 

  

Ethan Patrick was born to Kristin and Patrick on Friday, November 9th.  He was three weeks early and weighed in six pounds 15 ounces via emergency c-section.  Kristin seemed to have a pretty rough pregnancy this go-round so I'm sure she's happy her baby is now in her arms!  Several weeks ago she was put on bed rest because of high blood pressure and was also on some medication to keep it low.  The doctors didn't want her to wait any more so they scheduled her to be induced last Friday.  While starting the induction process they tried to lower her blood pressure which in turn lowered the placenta's pressure throwing Ethan all out of wack.  The doctors couldn't stabilize things and ended up taking the baby right away.  Ethan is doing fine except his blood sugar keeps dropping.  Kristin nurses and then tops him off with some formula but even that isn't working as desired.  He'll be in the level 2 nursery at St. Francis in Shakopee for a little while yet and hopefully gets better soon!

John and I stopped in to visit Kristin, Patrick and Ethan on Friday night and I'm so glad I got to hold our new nephew.  I forget how tiny babies are and it almost felt like I was holding a little cloud.  So precious!

Alexa has only seen Ethan once or twice so far but once he's home I'm sure he'll get plenty of love!  Despite the fact that Ethan has dark, dark hair and brown eyes, I think he resembles his big sister!  What a handsome little guy!

 

 

 

Trick-or-Treat!

I figured that since Thanksgiving is right around the corner I'd better wrap up Halloween first!  You saw our family picture I'm sure but here is how Halloween itself went.

This year Megan was a dragon and Owen was a bumble bee.  I was able to find Owen's costume at a garage sale this summer while still on maternity leave and it was a perfect fit for him and his little round head! Several weeks before Halloween I asked Megan what she wanted to be and there was no hesitation as she consistently answered "dinosaur" each and every time.  Well, I searched everywhere online and craigslist but could not find a dinosaur costume I liked.  I asked her why she wanted to be a dinosaur and she said, "because I want a tail and I want to scare people!"  Somehow my mom and I were able to convince Megan that a dragon would be a good idea and I remembered I saw some online at Old Navy.  When Megan and I went there to try on the costume she was so excited and just kept saying "I have a tail! I have a tail!"  The costume was a keeper and I really only paid $9 for it after the sales!  Plus, it is super warm for trick-or-treating and hopefully Owen will be as excited to wear it in two years as Megan was this year!

John was bummed that he had to work on Halloween this year since it fell on a Wednesday of all days.  With that said, my parents were more than happy to give me a hand taking the kids out - we especially wanted to visit Daddy at work and then go to Grandma and Grandpa Lewis!  

Here they are!  Ready to go see Daddy!!!

 

Daddy was so surprised to see us!!  And he loved showing off his little bumble bee and dragon!

 

 

We had to keep moving since the clock was ticking and off to Grandma and Grandpa Lewis's house it was! We were happy to see that cousin Alexa was there - she was going trick-or-treating with Auntie Dawn since her mommy didn't feel well.  I was happy to get a super cute cousin picture.  I said that Owen should have been a handsome prince or brave knight and we would have had all the characters for a perfect princess story with a beautiful princess and fire breathing dragon!!

 

We didn't stay too long there either since we wanted to get home in time for trick-or-treating in our townhouse neighborhood.  I think we got back home around 7:15 and were out trick-or-treating around 7:30.  It was actually a fairly comfortable night and we loaded Megan up in the stroller and off we went.  My dad never really took us trick-or-treating when we were kids so he was happy to push the stroller and watch  Megan have some fun.

One of the best parts about living where we do is that all the houses are so close together so it makes trick-or-treating so easy.  It would have been a little easier if Megan would have walked between the houses since almost half of them had lights on, but she instead wanted to go back in the stroller after almost every house!  

She did such a good job.  Most of the places she said "Trick-or-Treat" when prompted but towards the end she just defaulted to "Happy Halloween".  Either way, she still filled up her little pumpkin bucket about 3/4 of the way to the top!  It is funny how different people are in how much candy they give out.  I think a kid Megan's age would have a hard time since at one house she might get up to 8 fun sized candy bars but the next place if she would happen to accidentally grab two bite size candies they would tell her to watch it!  But she still had a blast and said thank you to everyone - even all the people that thought our cute dragon was a little boy!

Turn This Bath Around

Our little Owen has become such a great sitter in just the last few weeks.  So I decided it was time to turn his bathtub around and let him sit up in during his bath instead of being confined to the infant sling.  Owen couldn't be happier with that move!  He loves to bat at his little toys and, of course, get Mom wet with big splashes!  And now that I don't have to keep a constant hand on him I was free to take a few fun pictures of our little guy enjoying the water!  He sure knows when it's bath time and almost calms the instant the water is turned on.  Plus, I think Owen was due for a few more naked pictures anyways!

Oh, and big sister Megan likes her baths too but cannot wait until her and Owen can share the tub!!!

Monster Dash 2012

As you know John has been working hard to get in shape and lose weight.  He has been following the Couch to 5K program on his iPhone and the Saturday before Halloween he ran his first 5K!  He had just gotten to the 5K mark in the program and this race was a true test of everything he'd been working on.  The run he participated in was called the Monster Dash and the best part about it is that everyone runs in costume!  Its path circles Lake Harriet so it made for a nice run on a nice fall morning.  

Other members of John's family have run in the past but this year it was himself, his mom and his dad.  John's dad walked the entire course pushing Megan in the stroller and his mom did a walk/job combo.  Megan proudly wore her dragon costume and thought it was so cool to see hundreds of other people wearing costumes too - some dogs even dressed up!  

 

I think Valerie was a runner...

 

We originally wanted John to be the track guy from the SNL skit What up With Dat but in the end I think he looks more like Richard Simmons.  Either way, the wig looked cool and the track suit was great for running in.

 

Ok, so not everyone dressed up...

 

Megan was carbing up before the race.  Pretzels, cereal bar and peanut butte sandwich...

 

In the swarm of hundreds and hundreds of participants, I missed John and Valerie starting off.  We were also watching for John's blonde wig, but you know how many other runners were also wearing big blonde wigs?  It took close to 10 minutes for all of the runners to pass the starting line and then Megan and Grandpa were off!

 

Pictures from the finish line!  John did AWESOME!  He actually ran the entire time - even without his iPhone music that never kicked in :(  He surprised me big time when he crossed the finish line at about 33 minutes!

 

Valerie came in at about 50 minutes.

 

Everyone got cool medals (or trophies as Megan would call them) along with a power snack.

 

This is how Megan crossed the finish line.  I guess she fell asleep at the two mile mark.  I think everyone had a great time and at least she stayed warm in her fleece dragon costume!