Merry Christmas!

We went to Christmas Eve service at church.

Came home, made pizza and opened some presents.
She loves her doggie!

And her food...she's very much into "cooking"

Christmas Morning she opened a few more presents
We took opened presents over 3 days. It's a good thing she took FOREVER each time! But last year she was not interested at all...so we're making progress!
Oh, and she got a new Elm* DVD...but she wouldn't open it! So about an hour after we started opening presents (and us asking her a million times if she was ready to open her last present), I opened the end of the paper so we could "peek" inside...then she was interested in opening it. Silly girl!

And since there was snow on Christmas..I thought we should head out and play in it. It wasn't sticky at all, so making a miniature snowman was out of the question (although a good plan!).

It's a White Christmas!

It snowed here last night and was cold enough that it stayed overnight!
So we headed out in the snow...
(good thing the hat & gloves arrived on Wed!)

Just some pics

Megan decided that drinking from straws are really cool now. I'm not sure what changed, because we've tried a number of times before.

Well, what is another use for a straw? A phone, of course!

Santa & Widget at story time at a local mall. Megan was MESMERIZED! Right now Santa rates up there with Elmo.

"See, look Mom! I can drive with my feet!"

Catching Up

While I've been pretty good about posting pics, I've not been so good at taking time to blog about the "stuff" happening around here. Let's see what I can come up with...quickly. It's almost time to go get Megan from school...

Speaking of school...Megan L-O-V-E-S school! She has great teachers this year and she is just flourishing! She's starting to play with the other kids (or so I'm told) and she's beginning to talk at school (if she's one-on-one with her teachers). If she could go to school every day, she would love it!

Megan is growing up so much. Potty training is going so well. I can't tell you the last time she had a potty accident (poop is a different topic entirely, but she's doing pretty well over all). I had bought a package of pull ups to wear when we go out. We did the first few times we went out, but she's never had an accident when we are out, so I've not bothered now. Of course, we don't have to drive too far, yet. I'm sure when we take our next road trip, she'll wear them, just in case!

Megan's love with Elm0 has only grown! Oh my gosh...we have 2 dvds with him in it. Every waking moment she asks to watch Elm0. every. waking. moment. I typically restrict her to watch them once a day. It's bad enough that I wake up in the middle of the night with those stupid songs stuck in my head. It about drives me crazy!!!

Speaking of waking up...Megan is doing well with sleep. DH & I split the night sleeping with her (so each of us get some sleep!). This morning, for instance, she was dozing in and out from 3:20 until close to 4am. It was like she was having bad dreams, crying out, yelling, and swinging her arms. It just breaks my heart not knowing what's going on in her little mind. But, she's sleeping around 10 hrs every night. We may be on the verge of her giving up naps (I'm hoping NOT!) as she's having hard time going to sleep at nap time some days lately. We're going to continue with them for as long as absolutely possible!

Megan loves to sing! Her favorite song right now is what she calls "sticks". It's "The Lord's Army" and it's the song her class at school got to play sticks with in their Thanksgiving program. She also loves "My God is so Big" and "Jesus Loves Me". She's starting to sing to different songs, now, too. In fact, DH likes to sing "Good night, Sweetheart" and she loves to sing it with him...and tries to beat him to the "du-du-doo" parts. It's too funny! And incredibly sweet!

Well, that's what comes to mind right now...

Our week in Pictures

Megan making "tea" in Dad's Dt Mt Dew can
Who doesn't want tea in a soda can?

Megan helping me make homemade pizza.
A first, actually.

Such a big girl! She wanted to wear a ring, so I pulled out a pinkie ring I have. It kind of fits, actually. She only wore it for the pictures.

Megan loves to "take pik-shur" with her camera.
She thinks she's taking MY picture! Well, that IS how the camera looks to her when you take her picture!

Fun at the park!

Megan LOVES the slide. Did I say "loves"? I mean adores, begs, enjoys AND loves the slide.

She is such a sassy one...

Could she BE any cuter? No, I didn't think so, either.

Boy the swings are fun!

Megan & Irish

Megan LOVES Irish...always has. Oh, she loves Dakota, too, but by FAR Irish is her favorite. (And Dakota doesn't mind since it means she doesn't get bothered as much!)

She was laying his pillow on Thanksgiving..giving me the perfect photo opportunity.



Our girl & her dog

Some Christmas Pics

...that did NOT make the cut this year.

Oops, that ornament fell off when she was standing by the tree

I do love this pic, but it didn't make the cut...

This week's pics

For whatever reason, Megan loves to put on big shoes. Here she is modeling a pair of dad's.

One night this week, DH was watching Heroes in the bedroom. Megan just HAD to have dad read bedtime stories.

Megan LOVES to drink "mom's coke" or "dad's coke" (which can be mt dew or diet coke). In fact one day this week she asked "mom's coke. green straw. please." as she was describing the coke can (that was empty) that she wanted.

Megan's school had a trike-a-thon this week. Here's Megan getting ready to start riding. (You can see her in the red sweater on her pink/purple/white bike.)

Coloring. Oh man. That's all we do now days. For HOURS!!!!
Notice her wrist full of bracelets...which she LOVES (only on her left wrist, of course)!!!

Megan also loves to wear her necklaces. Her favorite way is to wear them this way...silly girl!

Potty Training Days 2 & 3

She's doing amazing!!!

The afternoon of Day 1, she didn't have any accidents at all. Then yesterday we had only 2 accidents ALL DAY (one of them was #2). Today (Day 3), she had 2. The most exciting part is we went to the store two times and she did not have an accident at all! She wouldn't go in the public restroom...it was sensory overload...the loud flush of the toilets in the other stalls, the loud hand dryer, etc. But, she did sit on the potty in both places (when we first go there and right before we went home). I did use a pull up while we were out (aka special panties), but she didn't go in those either!!! Just a little bit ago, DH saw her acting like she needed to #2, so he asked her, she said "yes", then she went!! YEAH!!! Huge celebrations at our house!!!!

She is still not telling us when she has to go, but we're setting the timer for every 45-60 minutes and take her. She's sort of indifferent on whether she gets a sticker right now, and that's fine.

Potty Training...

Today is the day. We started this morning when we got up. By 9am I was ready to quit. SERIOUSLY! We had 6 accidents by 8:30am. UGH. But, she's gotten the hang of it now...we go every 10-15 minutes and she pretty much goes every time. She's not telling me when she has to go yet, but it will come. We've only been doing it for 6 hrs.

And in those 6 hrs we've had 11 accidents and 6 successes. Not bad for the first day!!! We'll see what the afternoon brings!!!

First School Program

Megan's school had a Thanksgiving program last night.

Here is her performance.

Zoo trip with Friends

On Thursday, my friend, Stacey, called me to see if we wanted to go to the zoo. It was a GORGEOUS day, we didn't have anything pressing to do...so we went! Unfortunately, my camera battery was shot right after I got there (I forgot to check it when I left)...Stacey has all the good pics, but I did get a measly 4 pics before it completely called it quits...

Megan having fun on the slide in the children's area

The girls (Megan & Bethany) looking at the ducks.

Note worthy Skills

Since it's been a while since I updated the blog on things Megan does, I thought I'd post a list of things I can remember:

• She climbs on our beds by herself. It scares the crap out of me when she's on the bed without one of us close as she's scooted over to the edge and sat back, not realizing she was so close to the edge. So, the rule is if she's on our bed, she has to sit by the "sheep" (a stuffed lamb that is on our bed...we got it from the hospital when Ian died).
  
• Heck, she climbs on everything right now. She loves to climb on the chairs at the table, and frequently likes to stand up on them.
  
• She is so verbal now. I love to listen to her as she walking around the house...she'll say "b-c-d-e" or "8-9-10" or just babble. LOVE IT! Oh and she has said pretty hard words like dinosaur.
  
• She is making requests (aka DEMANDS). For example, one today was "Mom. Down. Please. Ok." She ends every request with "Ok." Well, actually she says "ok" all the time (guess what word mom uses all the time???) Or another request sounds like this "ga-git-it. please. ok." (go get it, please, okay). Of course the tone is more demand than request, but we are working on that. Oh, another popular one is "Mom. Sit. Couch. Okay." Too cute!
• Whenever Megan is something "too", she holds up 2 fingers. Oh, the complications of the English language!
• She is always counting. We went to the store this morning and she was counting the stripes on the ground as we were crossing the street. Of course, it comes in handy when we're sitting in line waiting and she's bored. Then we count to 20 or sometimes 30 to help pass the time. Love the counting!!!
• She has really gotten into coloring. I attribute this to school as frequently they color first thing in the morning while they are waiting for everyone to come. She can color for a good 30 minutes, she's not just counting the colors or taking them out of the bowl and putting them back in like she used to. She, of course, loves to color Elmo!
• Speaking of Elmo..she is ALWAYS asking for "steekers" (aka stickers). And course, it's ALWAYS Elmo ones...who cares about anything else!
• She's also very much into blocks, towers, puzzles and books. I've pulled out a few "new" books that she's enjoying.
• She loves music. She's beginning to tell us the only songs she wants to listen to: Six Little Ducks; Jesus Loves Me; Wheels on the Bus (aka "Bus"). Occasionally, If you're happy & you know it, Clap your hands.
• She loves to talk on the phone...which could be a play phone, a remote, a dog toy. Just about anything will do! And she typically talking to "ta-tee" (aunt Katie), Nana or Grandmom, but sometimes "Ash" (cousin Ashley).
  
• She knows her name, my name and daddy's name.
• She loves to read clocks (digital ones, of course). If the clock showed 11:30, she used to say "one, one, dot, three, zero", but she's started say "eleven, dot, three, zero". Pretty impressive, I think!
• She loves to help with cokes (aka getting us a coke or putting more in the frig)...she says "coats", though...but sometimes says "cokes. frig." Oh and when the cans are empty, she loves to pretend she's drinking from it, AFTER she takes the tab off and puts it in the can. We're not sure where she came up with pulling the tabs off, but she does it on every can!

That's the best I can think of right now about our smart, beautiful princess! She's one smart cookie, that's for sure!!!

The Fairy Princess

We had a beautiful little girl dressed up like a fairy princess last night

She's wasn't really crazy about her wand, though.

We walked down to the neighborhood church (Grandmom & Papaw's church) and Megan got to sit on a horse for the first time.
She loved it.

We only stopped at 2 houses, played a few games at the church party then came home and handed out candy.

Counting

This morning in the bathtub...she was counting with dad..and kept going after 20...in fact, she went all the way to 29! She stopped then because she didn't know the word "thirty" (we've never counted this high with her before!)...we were both S-H-O-C-K-E-D!

I went to an adoption conference yesterday. It was amazing. You can see some of last year's sessions here. There were some awesome sessions last year...and this year was NO DIFFERENT! I'm really going to miss this conference when we move. Anyways, Dr. Karyn Purvis was talking about when kids feel connected and safe, they have explosions of language and learning. We have had major explosions since she started sleeping with us...she's clearly feeling very safe and connected. Even if you have no experience (or interest) in adoption, I'd encourage you to listen to the sessions as they are good for any parent or grandparent.

Elmo song

Megan LOVES Elmo. This is her playing with stickers...Elmo stickers. She doesn't want to do any other types of stickers, ONLY Elmo stickers. Did I say she LOVED Elmo? If you ask her if she wants to do stickers, she says "Elmo stickers!" And did I mention that she LOVES Elmo? Yep. I think I mentioned that.

Photos

Here is Megan with her "umbrell-elll-ell-ell-ah"
She was pretty excited it was raining today so she could take it to school.

They used markers at school on Monday...
Despite using a sugar scrub and washing her hands a million times, oh, and a bath this morning, she still has some blue on her fingers. So much for "easy removal"!

Today I finally got smart and decided to use Megan's backpack with rollers for school...the other bag was overflowing. She got this one from Nana for Christmas. So this morning, she had fun pulling it around the house.

Counting some more!

Here is Megan showing not only how to count to 20, but that she can hold up 2 fingers!

We've been busy around our house. The house went on the market this week and we are trying to keep it picked up and clean. What a job!!! We've had a couple of people look at the house, but no offers yet (thank goodness!). I honestly didn't realize how NOT ready I was to sell my house until I got the first "can so-and-so come showthe house tonight?" I really wanted to say "NO! I don't want to sell my house!!!" Of course, there are HUGE benefits of being back "home"...family...okay, that's the only one. And I'm sure the house we find up there when the time comes, we'll love, too. Eventually. We put so many hours into our house to make it the way we like it (minus most of the flooring), I'm not really ready to move on, yet. But, it'll be fine, I'm sure. I think God knew I was going to need some serious transition time with this huge move. DH is still looking and applying for a few jobs. So far, there's not really anything that jumps off the page. And there's not been any interviews. THE job is obviously not ready for us...or rather all of the things that need to line up are not ready for us, yet. Selling our house is only step 1, and we both feel that way. I really don't WANT to move into transitional housing, but truly, I'll survive. Heck, I've survived at lot worse. Can we can say Arkansas??? Geez. But that's another story!

Megan is doing awesome at school. She loves learning, so she's doing really well. Her teachers are really great. She doesn't even so much as sniffle when I leave her now. She's also been napping there. Of course when she does, she only sleeps 60-75 minutes, which is about half what she needs, but at least she is napping. Sometimes those evenings are tough, but we make it through with everyone looking forward to bedtime!

Her new favorite word is: umbrell-ell-llaaahhh. It's really cute to see her say it. In fact, when we were at the store this morning, she kept saying she saw umbrell-ell-las on signs that had kind of an umbrella type look to them. I could see where she could think that, especially if she was looking for them everywhere! She is also making HUGE advancements verbally. Putting words together, saying short sentences, saying what she is thinking. All these months of us constantly talking to her has finally paid off! She's communicating so much better now. Heck, she's made huge changes just in the last week! She keeps changing and growing. Sniff, sniff. She's not a baby anymore!

Fall is here!

The weather has been cool (in the 50s & 60s)...it's SO GOOD to get to wear long sleeves. I've been getting sick of Megan's warm clothes.

This morning we put on her October shirt...and cute orange pants.
She even gave me a smile! YEAH!

This week Nana was here...she & I went shopping on Saturday for a little bit, but had to take a photo before we left. I was tickling Megan to get the cute smile...(whatever works!)

Megan did really well with me working all week. She didn't like it, but she did have fun with Gran-mom and Nana. But, she was pretty clingy in the evenings after I got home. She definitely needed her mommy time then. We'll see how December goes as we're the same thing right after Christmas. Since Gran-mom will have moved by then (they move in 2 weeks), we're still finalizing how the first 2 days will go, but Nana is coming again to watch her the last half of the week again.

Outside Fun

Today is a beautiful day, so this afternoon we headed outside to play for a little while. Of course, I had to grab my camera!

"hhhmmmm...."

"Mom, the ball is over there...please get it"

Things are still a bit nuts around here. Nana flies in Tuesday to help care for Megan while I'm teaching this next week in the classroom. (Grandma V or Gran-mom has Megan calls her) is watching Megan the first half of the week for us.

Counting to 20

Here's Megan counting to 20...

Photos from the past week...

To help pass the time in the car on our way to Arkansas (which ended a day early b/c the weather was yucky and Megan was sleeping horribly), Megan had yet another sucker.

Yummy purple sucker!

While we were there, we took several walks around the lake and even took a dip in the pool a few times. Megan LOVED the pool, the water was a bit chilly though. Every time she'd get in, then get out and do "happy feet". I'll have post a video of happy feet. Dad took one, but he turned the camera, so it's sideways. We'll have to try again.

On the way home, I had to go to the bathroom, so we stopped at this beach area. Dad got Megan out so she could walk around a little bit...I got the camera out to catch the sweet sight I saw....

But this is a re-enactment...and Megan wanted to know what I was doing...did you notice her sassyness? She's something else!

Well, dad put her shoes on....and I didn't notice this problem until they got back from walking (and re-walking)...

Dad had a little problem with the shoes...
And he never even noticed until I pointed it out!!!
Good thing no one else was there!
And in case you need a close up of the shoes...

Oh ,DAD! (as Megan would say!)

Must blog this!

Every morning after I get out of the shower, for whatever reason, Megan loves to get in the shower when the water is off. She just walks around in there and does whatever. I've heard her grab the soap dish before, but I've never really watched her. Well, today, I did watch her.

Here's what she did:

She walked in--of course saying "mom, bath." Yes, that is where Mom takes a bath. She walked over to the shelf (we have a low shelf thing-y were all the bottles of "stuff" sit)...grabbed my shampoo bottle, acted like she put some in her hands. Put the bottle down, rubbed her hands together, then promptly rubbed her hair. Now, HOW STINKIN' CUTE is that??? I mean, really. Oh, and in case you are wondering, yes, our shower door is glass so she can see what I'm doing in the shower. I guess that's where she got the idea from, but who knows!!!???

First day of School

She is just TOO DARN CUTE!

Monday was actually the first day of school,
but she had a fever and yuck, so I kept her home.
So, today was the first day she went!

News you can Use

Well, maybe not use, but it is news. We feel like the Lord is leading us back "home". We've felt this since about July, but didn't think it would be happening for a year or more. However, the past few weeks have led us to believe that the move will be happening much sooner. We met with a Realtor friend, and she brought up a whole list of reasons for putting the house on the market now. EEEK!!! So, our goal is to having it on market October 1st. Consequently, there will likely be few posts in the next couple of weeks while we clean out closets, just plain CLEAN and get ready for the house to go on the market. We do expect that we'll have to move by Christmas (oh, goodness!), but we will move into an apartment in Texas until DH finds a new job unless he has a new job by then. We don't know when that will be, but God does and we'll simply wait!

P.S. Megan's favorite word the last couple of days is "okay". She walks around the house saying "okay...oooo-kay...okay." It's just too cute! Well, then just about everything she does is so cute (well, except the hitting she's been doing lately that has put her in time out. She knows she's not supposed to hit...so after her warning, then she'll start hitting the door, the wall, the couch or whatever doesn't put her in time out. Too funny.)

ABCs

Megan reciting her ABCs

photos & fun

Megan's first sucker.
She liked it well enough, but didn't seem to mind when I took it away when the stick was so soggy and I was afraid it was going to come off.

What is this? What she's felt she should be pushing around in her stroller, of course! Mr Bear and the dogs' dog toy. I don't know why the dogs' toy is in there, but she's purposely went searching for it yesterday to put in there again. So, who knows what she is thinking!

Grandma & Megan working puzzles.
Megan's FAVORITE thing to do is puzzles.

We tried the sandbox this week. I haven't tried it for a while (laziness on my part--not wanting to be in the extreme heat & humidity!). I got it out this week...and her favorite thing to do with it...

Dump the sand out into the grass, of course!

One other thing I forgot to mention...the crib & toddler bed are gone...her room is now the playroom (yeah! All the toys are together in ONE room!). She's sleeping in the double bed, which is now her room. That's a big milestone!

September. What???

How can it be? I don't know...

Megan now can tell you the entire alphabet minus a few letters...she almost always skips R and V and occasionally another here or there. But, otherwise, she's got it down PAT! She LOVES to sing. Her favorites are Jesus Loves Me, I'm pickin' up a Baby Bumble Bee (I don't know what real title is) and Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. I will often hear her saying "yes, 'sus.... yes, 'sus". It's really too cute. Actually, she loves all music. One day this week, we were in the car and I heard her say "bus"..and I was thinking, what is she talking about? I don't see a bus anywhere. Then I realized she wanted different music and she wanted to listen to "Wheels on the Bus". Today when we picked her up from the nursery at church, the teacher commented that she was quite the dancer...that she is. (side note: she didn't cry one tear today when we dropped her off! WOOHOO!) She dances to any kind of music--commercials on TV, the radio, music on movies, music on her toys, anything even semi-musical.

We meet Megan's teacher for Mothers Day Out on Wed. I'm interested in seeing how she does since it'll be a new teacher although she'll have several of the same classmates.

I'll post photos soon...it's been a while...she's had her first sucker in the last week! No, she's never had a sucker before. She seemed to like it...but sweets aren't really her thing, so she's not really into candy all that much.

latest fashion

Megan--always into the latest fashion--is modeling it for the camera...

what is she wearing on her feet, you ask?

Well...her dad's dirty socks, of course!

I had sorted laundry..and she thought it would be fashionable to put on the socks that were ready to go into the washer.