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.

Oh, my!

Just a few disorganized thoughts...

We have parrot on our hands...she mimics EVERYTHING. Words. Actions. Everything. Tonight as DH went to close the blinds, she followed behind him, reaching up to touch the blinds, then moved onto the next one. It was too cute! She often mimics words like "oh shoot." "gosh" "geez" and one day even said "oh crap"--right after I did, of course! Definitely have to watch what you say now!! SHE'S ALWAYS LISTENING!!!!

She can now say her alphabet. She does skip a few letters, but for the most part, she has them all down in order. Sometimes I volley the letters with her, other times she is just jabbering on about them. Also, you can now say a word and ask her what letter it starts with...I would say 99 percent of the time she is right. Even words she's never been asked before! Crazy, I know. Oh, it gets better...you can ask her what sounds letters make...and she'll tell you. Smart one, I say.

She is SO silly when we're at the table. Did I already tell this story? I don't remember...but we often pull her fruit out at the end of each meal (otherwise, we eat mostly fruit!). She's caught onto this...and tries to catch a glimpse of what fruit we're grabbing. Well, a couple of weeks ago, we got some really yummy peaches. They were large, had red-ish skin and were stored in the "apple" drawer. So every time I grabbed one out, she'd say "apple!" and I'd say "no, peach". It really became quite funny. Well, now the peaches are gone, and we've got some pears. But, she consistently says, "apple. peach." then yells "PEACH" in a fun voice which then turns into a silly voice. Now she adds "pear." to list...but still will insist on "PEACH." She's got quite the personality, this one!

She loves to say "whoa" for "no"...it does take a little adjustment to your thinking. She loves for us to ask her silly questions "is this momma's blankey?"...she says "whoa"..."daddy's paci?"..."whoa"..."Kota's pillow?"..."whoa". "who's is it?" and she says "MINE!". She loves to lay in bed in the morning for a good 10-20 minutes to just "talk" with me. I just love it...we practice our alphabet, the numbers on the clock, silly questions, etc. It's such a fun time.

She also knows most animals and what sounds they make. Our favorite is "meow", which she says in a soft, falsetto voice. Oh my gosh, I could just eat her up!!!

We are SO blessed!!!

Sleep

A few thoughts on sleep this morning...

I realize that many of you would not be in agreement with our decision to sleep with Megan every night. I really had hoped that she would sleep in her bed (toddler bed, now) once we got through July, but that has not happened at night, although she does nap in there by herself. And to be honest, I'm not really sure when that will happen at night. See, Megan is doing so much better now that she's sleeping with one of us. That doesn't mean that we don't have still have bad nights. The difference is that a bad night means that she's having bad dreams, crying in her sleep and thrashing around. Sometimes she calms down some when we touch her, sometimes when we shush her and sometimes completely on her own while we wonder what's making her upset. She has been sleeping until about 6am every morning...sometimes a little earlier and others a little later (this morning it was almost 6:30, but she had a very restless night).

What are the benefits I've seen of us sleeping with her...well, she's sleeping better overall, and honestly we are getting more sleep. She is far more confident in familiar and unfamiliar environments. Maybe this is because she's older, but I honestly think having more sleep has made an impact. She's now sleeping for longer periods of time, which means more restful sleep. She's also not as "sensitive"...meaning that she's not always in tears because she thinks everyone is laughing at her, even if the laughing has absolutely NOTHING to do with her. I don't know if I have even blogged that about her, but even the documentation we have from one of the nanny's in China commented about how she is so sensitive. We've seen the same thing. And she is still very sensitive, but she's giggling (or at least smiling) when she's being silly rather than crying because we see her behavior as silly. Her personality is showing more both at home and elsewhere.

So, while sleeping with one of us is not ideal, it's what she still needs right now. Consequently, whether this is our preferred sleep plan or not, it's working for her--and ultimately for us, so it's what we are doing. When will it end? I honestly don't know, but we'll take our ques from her.

Letters & Sounds

Here's the long version of her celebrating...

Hard to believe...

this was June 2008...boy has she come far in just a little over a year! OH MY

Yeah, the video

Megan celebrating...
but it's short one..
a longer one to come.

Hives and stuff...

We've experienced our first allergic reaction. We think she's allergic to strawberries (even though she's had them before) but nothing else seems to fit. Today marks day 3 of hives. We went to the doctor yesterday and she gave us some powerful meds, which I hope will begin working better after today's dose. Thankfully--and this is an incredible answer to prayer--she is NOT itching very much at all. I guess they bother me more than they bother her as they make me shiver every time I see them! Photos to come...

In other news...she's saying "mine" (only when prompted, though!), "Pillow" and a whole host of other words. Yesterday, she heard the garage door go up (when dad came home) and she said "dad. Home." Yep, dad is home. She also LOVES to celebrate her words. So, she'll say a word..then say "YEAH!" in the cutest, most excited voice! It's just too cute!!! Oh man, she's such a doll! Oh, and one day this week she told dad "a-b-c-d-e" (completely unprompted)...and every time she says "j"...it's followed by "k". We're making progress on learning the alphabet. Today when were using her frog towel to dry off, I asked her what letter does frog start with, then I made the "F" sound. She repeated the "F" sound and said "F...Fish". Yep. Frog starts with the letter "f"...then she said "YEAH!" I really need to get her celebrating on video b/c it is so precious!

Last night, she was being SO DARN silly! Maybe it was the medicine making her loopy...who knows. That reminds me...sleep...has been better, but she's still sleeping with one of us. And since we've gotten back from vacation, she's been going to bed later. Some days she sleeps until about 6am, but other days she's still up between 5-5:30am even though she's going to sleep around 9pm. Most nights she sleeps through the night...but sometimes needs some form of rocking during the night (on the side of the bed, other times in the rocking chair). She is taking at least 2 hr naps in the afternoon...more often than not, closer to 3 hrs. Oh, and she's napping in the big girl, toddler bed. Her crib is officially gone (well, part of it is since the toddler bed is just an adjustment of the crib). She STILL has not gotten those darn 2 year molars in! I can feel them...they just have not broken the skin yet.

She is growing up so much...she's getting the toddler "lean" look...I noticed it this week when we were at the doctors office and there were a few other younger kids there. She was a whole head taller than them! Usually she's always the smallest...but my baby is growing up! sniff, sniff.

Letters and Things...

Megan has now started affiliating beginning letters with words.

So far we have:

A, apple;
B, boy;
C, cat;
D, dad;
E, eat;
F, fish;
G, grandma (she signs it of course, and often says "mom-mom"); or go
I, Irish (of course!);
M, mom;
N, Nana;

I think I helped with E and F...otherwise, she came up with them all on her own. Everytime she sees one of these letters, she always says the corresponding word.

And this morning, she was reading the letters on the cereal box...in order. That's new...usually, she'll look for her favorite letter (O), then go from there.

I think reading might be right around the corner...oh boy, she's ONLY TWO!

A favorite Photo

How could I have forgotten to upload this photo? We took this on the deck of the apartment we rented while in Boston. Today, I gave Megan the option to wear this shirt...she looked it and said "mama's". Yes, mama has one just like it. And to think, we'd only worn them for this photo! She's one smart cookie.

Boston

We arrived at the apt on Saturday afternoon around 4pm. Let's just say that driving in Boston is not easy...they lack adequate signage and the rotaries are, let's just say, interesting. But, we arrived and were glad we didn't have to drive again until we were leaving town on Friday! Well, except to run to the store for groceries, which in itself was interesting. I guess I should back it up right now and tell you that about 15 minutes after we left our house, I realized I had laid the luggage lock keys on the counter when I was warming Megan's milk and I didn't pick them up. We were running late anyways, so there was no time to go back. When we got to the airport, DH told the TSA folks to unlock the bags and leave the locks off. We got our bags and saw the locks were in tact. Crap. Thankfully, the apt owner is very handy and was able to pop them in about 30 minutes. So, drama 1: complete.

Drama 2: My sister, Katie (otherwise known at Ta-Tee) and her DH were to get in at the same time we were...but were flying into Albany (it was closer to the wedding). Their flights got rearranged and then delayed and they didn't get to the apt until 1 am. They were trying to call me on my cell so I could unlock the door and let them in....either my phone wasn't working or I was sleeping REALLY hard (the phone was IN MY HAND on vibrate...I had just talked to her 20 minutes beforehand)....they called 15 times before I got the call. Drama 2: complete.

On Sunday, Katie & Greg drove to Maine for the day. We ventured off into Boston right after lunch (Megan napped in the sling, thank goodness!).

DH & Megan in a park by the harbor

Then we visited Quincy Market

and Fennall Hall
(there was a vendor cart with some really nice, cheap Asian things.)

Then we took a run-around break

Visited Old Granary Burying Ground
Samuel Adams, John Hancock, Paul Revere and other are buried here.

On Monday, all 5 of us took a Trolley tour. It went to various spots in the city and allowed us to get off and on whenever we wanted. We all wanted to go to Harvard, and one of the stops was close. So we walked around campus, visited one of their museums, had lunch and Megan napped. I love college campuses--they are always so quiet and peaceful. Their campus is beautiful.

Harvard

Part of the trolley tour included a 45-minute harbor cruise.
Thank goodness it was NOT longer...as Megan's meltdown started about 5 minutes in. It was 4pm and we had left the apt at 9am. She was just done. The subway ride back to the apt that night was very interesting...with evening "traffic" and Megan's frustration.

Boston skyline from the harbor

Tuesday, we stayed around the house...Megan had been going for 3 days with short naps and we decided she needed a chill day. (Well, it was good for us, too!)

Wednesday, we went to the Franklin Zoo. It's a small zoo, but the animals are VERY close and had lots of space, so it was nice. We've been to several zoos since we brought Megan home and we always think we're going to see zebras (one of Megan's favorite animals). This one had zebras really close, but by then Megan was already sleeping. Go figure.

The giraffes were really active--as though they knew someone was watching and they were showing off. I got some great video of them running.

Thursday we just finished up seeing the last few things we wanted to see before heading out of town. We wanted to be back at the apt for Megan to nap b/c we knew Fri and Sat were going to be SO BUSY. She took a 3+ hr nap...and we woke her up! We didn't get to see as much as we had wanted b/c the subway was all backed up. What usually took us 25 minutes to get to the north side of downtown, took us 1.5 hrs and we were still on the south side. So, we got out and walked to the "must see" locations, and skipped the rest.

Friday we drove to the town were the wedding was in Western MA. It was about 2.5 hrs from Boston. On the drive, Nana called with Drama 3...but we had a resolution in mind then got a call that all was well, thank goodness! When we got there, we got to meet one of our travel mates that we traveled to China with. We were so excited to see them! We met at McDs, then went to a park.

Megan loving the park!

Megan & Ann getting reacquainted

Rehearsal, of course, was on Friday evening...and the wedding on Saturday. Then, we returned Sunday afternoon. We got home around 6pm. Drama 4 was on Sunday...but that's a long story. But, we made it, thanks to my brother...we arrived home tired and glad to be home!

The Wedding

Some photos from the wedding....I'll have to do another post (when Megan allows) that talks about the trip...but let's just say that we will ONLY vacation in an apt until Megan gets older. Hotels do NOT give her enough room to wiggle and run.

Her face says it all...(she's about ready to cry)
it's what happens when she only naps for 30 minutes.

The newly married couple, Gina & Collin

Cool joe, Brady, sneaking candy

B is just so darn funny!

The girls: Megan, Ashley & B
As usual, Megan didn't want Ashley to touch her,
but she was so excited to see her.
Go figure.

The girls holding hands. It really was cute!
Their fingers were interlocked.

Man she's so darn cute!
Love this kid so much!