Bluebonnets & Bubbles

Okay, so I uploaded these photos in the wrong order...but they are still fun!

Today we found a bluebonnet patch and decided it was a beautiful day to take photos. This morning was a little overcast and perfect for photos, but it was also a bit chilly and windy, so we decided to wait until this afternoon. It was entirely too bright, but really warm. We've been in Texas for 11 years and have NEVER taken photos in the bluebonnets before. We've seen the beautiful patches, but never stopped to take photos. I honestly had no idea they were so fragrant! Such a wonderful fragrance, too!

After the bluebonnets, we came home and played in the yard...Megan had so much fun running in the "grass" (one of her favorite words to say, but it always makes me think of Meet the Fockers--she doesn't pronounce the "gr"! We won't be teaching her "ole" any time soon! lol) that we broke out the bubbles and had even more fun!

Bubbles are fun!

Mommy & Megan in the backyard

Daddy & Megan in the flowers

Megan exploring the flowers

What a face...the usual one for the camera!

Sleep and all that...

Sleep has been bad since we got back from SD. Actually, it wasn't great there, but it's gotten worse since we got home. She's been averaging being awake at least 1.5 hrs a night. Whether that's being awake until 10pm or awake from 130-330am, she is getting about 7-8 hours of sleep a night. Not good when she needs AT LEAST 9.5. That means LOTS of fits, whining, fussing, throwing herself down on the ground and crying. Oh, and did I say lots of fits? Yep, lots of fits and throwing herself down. April 13th can not...let me repeat...CANNOT come soon enough! whew.

Words...Megan has seemed to find several words or rather sounds lately. This past week she started saying "whoa" (stretching out the "oooaaa", of course!). Today she started saying "bah-bah-bah-bah". She also likes to play "where is..." game. What's that game? Well, she hides something behind her back and she makes the sound of "where" (without actually saying where). Our job is then to say "where is...? I don't see it." She loves to play it with dolly. It's so funny!

Our trip..Megan did really good in the car, but honestly, I don't look forward to making that trip again in just a few short weeks. It made the goodbyes easy when we left on Sunday, but the trip is so darn long...so.darn.long. I swear we arrived tired (we left at noon and arrived at 2am), didn't get much sleep there and came back tired (we got home at midnight, then Megan was up at 230). I honestly would like nothing more than to lay on the couch all day with nothing to do and sleep. But, we all know that's not possible! Oh well. One day I'll not feel tired. Not sure when, but I'm hoping its soon!!!!

Bento's give-away

Never heard of Bentos? Check out Maisie Eats Bento! Right now she is giving away a great kit to get started.

Last Year on this day...

Megan was handed over to us! March 31st...at around 10:20am.

2008

2009

Wow how things change! (things other than my hair! haha)

We're back.

A few photos from our trip. It was fast and exhausting, but good. We didn't get much sleep, but had a great time with family. It was the first time all of my cousins (minus 1) were together in I don't know how many years.

Here's a few photos. Maybe more later...we took lots!

A tired Megan & Daddy at Nana's

Brooklyn, Ashley, Megan and Brady
(we did NOT purposefully coordinate the outfit colors! We're good!)

And we wonder why Megan doesn't like group photos! lol.

It's been a Year

Last year on March 25th we were getting on the plane to go to China! Wow, have things changed in the last year. You can see our first post from China here.

The clothes I'm buying Megan now days (okay, well, shirts) are toddler size. I thought it would be forever before we started buying that size, since she started out so small (size 3-6 mo). She's just changed and grown up so much. Its hard to believe that she's come so far in such a short period of time.

Just a few more days and Megan will have been with us a year. Wow has time flown!

Farewell, Grandma

This picture was taken in August when we last saw Grandma. When Megan & I were back in SD for Christmas, I got a stomach virus the day we were going to go see her and we left just a day later. So, we didn't get to see her.

Grandma passed away Monday night. She celebrated her 91st birthday earlier this month. We are leaving today for the funeral which will be on Saturday. Uncle Collin is driving to our house today, then we're all leaving together around 5pm. Pray Megan is able to fall asleep in the car and sleep well tonight since we're driving all night.

Such a big girl!

Such a big girl...

HEY, it went down my shirt!

A cute outfit from this weekend...
it's a dress, but not quite warm enough for dresses yet.
I don't know why she doesn't look happy...probably tired

Pics

A few photos from this week:

My sick baby girl

Okay, not her most flattering pose, but look at her hair!
YES! Those are pigtails~!

Paci cause we're sick.

Sickness Update

Megan is feeling better...but still has periods of clingy-ness. I am taking advantage of her wanting to snuggle, believe me. When she does run a fever, it's low. Her nose is running like crazy and she is coughing quite a bit. She went to sleep last night about 6:15pm, but then woke herself up coughing several times between then and 7:30pm. The beginning of the night wasn't too bad, apparently, but she was awake from 1230-220am. ugh. But, then she slept until almost 530. I think she fell asleep only because I told her it was still night time and she could either sleep with mommy or in her bed. When I asked where she wanted to sleep, in her bed? She shook her head "no", then I asked if she wanted to sleep with mommy and she rocked her fist "yes" (the ASL sign for yes). So, we started rocking (again) and she fell asleep almost immediately. We both slept in the rocking chair for about an hour, then she woke up and pointed to her bed. Surprisingly, I was cognizant enough to put her in her bed right then..she rolled over and conked right out. She fussed again at 430, I patted her back and she went back out again and woke up around 530.

She's loved having her paci almost all day (she better enjoy it while she can...cause it won't be that way when she's well!).

Oh boy

After a very long day....after a very long night...a couple of conversations with the pediatrician, it was decided Megan likely has the flu. So then we had the choice of waiting until morning and going into her office or going to an acute care center. The choice was given to us at 4pm today...we opted to go with the acute care center. Since they close at 5pm, we literally flew up to the closest one and didn't leave there until after 6pm. If it hadn't been for the pediatrician suggesting the flu before we went in there, we would have only gotten a stronger med for a potential ear infection. When I asked the doc if she thought she had the flu since the pediatrician had suggested it, she said she didn't think so, but we could run the tests to be sure.

Well, she does have the flu. Since we left the clinic after most pharmacies were closed, we had to drive an extra 15 minutes (away from home) to find the closest 24 hr pharmacy. They were SO BUSY that it took 45 minutes to pick it up. Megan was such a trooper...it was after 730pm before we got home. She didn't fall asleep in the car and needed to have supper, medicine and formula (which she wouldn't drink) before she did. She ate a little, drank nothing--unfortunately--and fell asleep immediately. Hopefully she doesn't cough herself awake all night long. We all need a good night's rest.

photos & video

A few photos from this week...

My little helper...and beginning to not feel well

Here's short clip of the princess dancing. She even was dancing at school this week during music time! Speaking of school, she's been doing really well...loves to see her teacher...yells "HI" as soon as she sees her and doesn't cry when I leave. I've been picking her up between 11am-11:45am depending on what time she wakes up that morning and how tired she is. We are still getting up in the 4 o'clock hour--we had hoped that the time change would help her sleep until 5am, but that hasn't helped.

Sick baby girl

We made it through the week of my class. Thank goodness Megan had pretty good nights most of the week. Both parents got adequate sleep, not enough by any stretch of the imagination, but enough to function. Friday night was "really good" DH said (he took all night since I had class all day on Saturday)--she only woke up 3 times. I laughed and said, yes, for US that is a good night, but that most parents complain their child wakes up that many times during the night! How sad is that???

When I got home from class (around 3pm), Megan had a serious fever. DH noticed she was really clingy and hot, but didn't realize she had a fever. I'm guessing (based on his descriptions) that it started around lunchtime...and only got worse after nap. When I took her temp--with an ear thermometer, which aren't always very accurate--it was between 101.7 and 102.1. Funny thing, while she was clingy and hot, she really was in good spirits. Consequently, last night wasn't so good, even with regular ibuprofen and tynelol. I think she has a sore throat based on the face she sometimes makes when she swallows. And she's been drinking her juice flavored water really cold. She's drank quite a bit this morning (yeah! since she's typically not very good at drinking). Her voice is also really froggy/horse and she has a "rough" cough. I'm thinking it's got to be a virus because she's just finished being on meds for almost 2 weeks (she was only supposed to be on for 10 days--there was lots of medicine--and I lost track of how long she'd been on it!)

Hopefully she's feeling better soon! (pics later)

Sleep

Could this be Megan's problem? Sleep Apnea? I think it might be. The description pretty much describes what a typical night looks like for us: restless sleep, frequent wake ups, stops breathing for periods of time longer than 10 seconds, overtired child which causes frustration, irritability and behavior problems (at our house it's hitting, which she does when she's tired--oh, wait, that's ALL the time!). I really noticed the breathing this morning.

She was awake at 10:30, 12:50, 1:50, 2:50 (we rocked that time...I fell asleep in the rocker), 4:10 then "for the day" at 4:45 despite still being tired and not hardly able to keep her eyes open. She didn't go to sleep until after 8pm either. That's less than 9 hours last night. ugh.

Treatment for sleep apnea in toddlers is a CPAP machine (if the problem is blockage), if the problem is the brain failing to send the breathing signal, CPAP machine doesn't work so I'm not sure what the treatment is for that.

Counting down the weeks until we see the sleep specialist. Only 5 weeks!

Sheer Silliness

Megan is VERY into her tongue lately. She loves to stick it out (not quite this much, though) and she's even gotten into touching it. Tonight (oops, she's in her pjs again!) she was sitting with me in the chair and being silly with her tongue. I asked her to stick it out so I could take a picture....this is one of the silly ones I got!


And just to prove I don't always just take her pictures when she's in her pjs...here she is on Friday. Both the shirt (former dress) and pants were from last year . I was hoping the pants would be more like capris...but alas, they are more like ankle length (aka high waters if you ask me!) or long capris. But, believe it or not, they fit perfectly around the waist--they are size 9mo.

Megan's Sleep...

This morning I've been doing some internet "research" to determine what's out there that describes Megan's sleep pattern. I found this question that pretty much describes what we deal with regularly. Dr. Greene's response is to contact a sleep specialist to determine what the underlying reasons are for their waking up at night. Done that.

I've considered melatonin. I was seriously considering it this morning at 3am when she was still awake after being awake for an hour (25 minutes in her bed, 35 min in the rocker), then woke up when I laid her in her crib (she laid there for 5 minutes rolling around, until I finally just picked her back up and rocked her again). But, in the research I've done this morning, I'm not sure melatonin would work. She doesn't really have a problem falling asleep, it's staying asleep that's the problem. Besides, most of what I've found does not recommend melatonin for kids--there has been very little research on the potential long term effects. There have been a few studies done on kids with brain issues as they do not produce adequate amounts of melatonin. So, I'm not sure.

I just have to wonder if she is processing subconsciously. It's been a year since referral...it's almost been a year since Megan was placed with us. So, could there be some processing going on in her little mind? I don't know, but I do wonder.

as promised...

Okay, so the plan with this photo was to include one of her wearing this as a dress (as it's supposed to be) last year. Do you think I could find one? Heck, no. At any rate, this is a dress she wore last year, which will be a shirt this year. Boy has she grown.

I did notice that I have taken A LOT of photos of her in her pjs. Guess we need to change that!

But, in keeping with the tradition...here is Uncle Collin with Meggie on his visit this weekend.

Various Updates...

Sleep update: DH & I have been splitting the nights. He takes until midnight, I take from then on. Man do I feel like a different person even if I only get 3 consecutive hours of sleep then hit or miss from midnight on. DH is having a much harder time functioning on much less sleep than usual. It just stinks in that I NEVER see DH. Seriously. He's been working late and getting home right about supper time. I put dishes away while he gets Megan ready for bed, then puts her down around 6-610pm. That's earlier than usual, but it seems like no matter what time she goes down, she's up at 4, so she might as well go down earlier. Besides, she is tired anyways. She has absolutely refused morning naps...no matter what. She can literally be dead tired, but she will NOT go down.

I emailed a friend who is a pharmacist to ask if there were any sleep meds approved for kids. She said no, so I'm not sure what the specialist is going to tell us. I guess problem not give us a solution that will work immediately. Last night I'm quite sure she was having bad dreams--the point that she almost had her eyes open. And she did some sort of running/walking in the circle in her bed last night DH said. He said it was actually kind of funny. I don't know what that was about, but she went back to sleep almost immediately, so she likely wasn't even awake. That was right before I took over, and then she woke up when I took over. I had to rock her--she was awake for about 45 minutes. ***I should clarify, here. She was awake about 25 minutes in her bed rolling around trying to fall back to sleep. In fact, her breathing sounded like she was asleep, but her eyes were wide open. It was only then that I decided to go ahead and rock her. Otherwise, when she wakes up, we always try to wait to see what she's going to do. Sometimes we just shush her, she's rolls over and goes back to sleep. Sometimes she just goes back to sleep without us doing anything. It just depends.

She has sinus infection which has impacted her ability to breath and thus sleep. Hopefully, once she over this she'll be sleeping better and I can take the nights by myself. Although next week, I'm teaching a mini term. We have class the next 2 Saturdays from 8am-5pm and every night next week from 5pm-10pm. I'm not sure how the overnights are going to work since we both need our sleep. There's no way that I can last from midnight to 10pm. While I love teaching, I'm an introvert and it is SO EXHAUSTING. Seriously wipes me out. This is the first mini I've taught since we brought Megan home, so it should be interesting how it all works out.

Dissertation update: I have a plan, I have guidance, I have data. So, now it's simply finding time to research and write. Oh, and I am applying for a $3000 grant. Hopefully, I'll get it which can help with costs for this stupid thing. I still need to email my chairperson to tell him what's going on. Don't know where I'd be without my boss (is she still my boss if I'm on hiatus?). Anyways. She's awesome.

Photos later.

April 13

...is our current appointment for the pediatric sleep specialist. Pray for a cancellation so we can get in earlier. He only does appointments on Mondays...hence the delay.

This Week in Photos

She looked so grown up laying on the floor like this playing with her toy.
The only thing missing was the feet in the air!

That ballerina leg at it again. It's getting quite good!
(it also likes to attempt to rest on the Entertainment Center, but it's just a little too high)

this morning...
she was my little secretary taking notes about what we were going to do today.

A typical night at our house

Someone wanted to know what a typical night looked like...while they are not the same every night, there are typical similarities. So, here's what last night looked like:

6:45pm asleep
7:30pm coughing fit (she lost her paci, but went right back to sleep)
8:00pm I don't remember, but I know she fussed, but went back to sleep on her own
9:30pm coughing again...needed me to shush for a few minutes
11:00pm fussing...needed me to shush for a few minutes
12:10am fussing in her sleep...but went back to sleep on her own
1:40-3am awake. Very, very awake. I started rocking around 2am as it was clear she was not going to back to sleep on her own.
3:07am I put her in bed, sleeping
3:20am woke up, but clearly tired. Standing in her bed. I started rocking.
3:25am fell back to sleep, I kept her in the rocker with me
4:10am decided it was time to wake up, despite hardly being able to keep her eyes open.

It doesn't seem to matter if she's asleep at 6:30 or as late at 7:15pm, she's still up sometime around 4am. This weekend when DH was on sleep duty, she was up around 320 each morning. Yes, 3:20 A-M. ugh.

So, as you can see...I get very little sleep. I've been awake since 1:40am and to say I'm tired is an understatement. DH went off to work despite both of us having pink eye (and he should've stayed home, but what do I know about pink eye?). I came down with it yesterday morning, and the doctor never called me back yesterday nor did the pharmacy. DH woke up with it this morning. I'll call the doctor again this morning.

Hopefully, I'll get a short nap when she goes down this afternoon. But, nap time usually is her only sleeping 40-60 minutes in her bed, but then she goes back to sleep in my arms in the rocker. She's been sleeping about 2 hrs in the afternoon and typically refuses morning naps. I might try one this morning though, around 530 or so depending on how crabby she is. The last several days it doesn't really matter what time I try it, she fights it and never does go to sleep. Today I was supposed to go into the office to see everyone, but called yesterday to say we weren't coming since I've got pink eye. So, we're just hanging around the house today...it could be a REALLY bad morning. Who knows, though. I guess she stays awake simply by not stopping...she's constantly moving. Constantly.

I called the sleep specialist yesterday...they said I should hear something from them by Friday. Apparently, they have a doctor look at the information the pediatrician submitted and go from there. I don't know. Anyways, I'm praying we hear soon and can get in within the next 2 weeks or so.

sleep

is almost non-existent at our house right now. Well, I guess I should say that hasn't been good, although the last night was better. At any rate, I hit my peak of tolerance on Wed. Poor Megan has just not been getting enough rest, which means we're not getting enough rest (okay mostly me). When you combine those 2 things together--it's really not pretty any way you look at it. So, I called the doctor on Wed and saw her yesterday.

The great thing about the appointment was that she was stumped. I think she was impressed with how much we have been doing to make sleep a better experience for Megan (and us, of course!). There were things we were doing that she didn't even ask about--whether that meant that she hadn't thought of that or she hadn't gotten that far to ask if we'd tried it, I don't know--but she was definitely stumped. And we didn't even discuss how to get her to sleep past 4am. Of course the variable to we do not know is Megan's genetic history with sleep disorders. We also talked about getting her off formula, the bottle, her eating as well as this runny nose/cold/allergy thing Megan seems to have started on Wed. She was surprised how particular Megan is (like she won't drink out of the sippy cup with a yellow lid) and chuckled at some of her antics. Since she is not drinking enough formula (despite being offered it 3x a day), she wants us to just leave everything else as it is.

Ultimately, I feel like I've been given a shot in the arm...it was a great confirmation to see that the doctor was completely stumped. But most importantly, she gave us a referral to a pediatric sleep specialist. I'm anxious to get in and see him to see what answers/solutions he has for us. Honestly, I think he's going to tell us she has a disorder. Maybe not, but I think he will. The answer I don't know is what the treatment is for it and whether we have to just hang on until she outgrows it. (Lord help us if that's the answer!)

Consequently, although I am still VERY tired, I'm encouraged that we are on the road to an answer.

Misc photos

Megan is so wiggly now, we simply wrap up in the towel for a few minutes, then get dressed in the bathroom as I'm following her around trying to get her dressed.
Thank goodness the bathroom is small!

Snuggling with dolly--who's very popular right now.

The sight today:
She saw a book on the floor by her chair...had to read it and have dolly close while I was getting her tray and food ready.

videos

For those who have never had the pleasure of watching Megan eat her peas...here's a video I took right before Christmas.



more to follow...

Happy Valentine's Day!

Fun with Horsey

Megan got this horse for Christmas. This morning she was giving dolly a ride. I asked her to smile for the camera...this is the face she gave me. Oh my what a ham!

We are getting up before 4am. Again. She's working on her 2 year molars. The gums on the bottom feel like the teeth have almost cut through. Hopefully this set won't take as long as the last 2 sets of teeth!

She is fully into size 18 months and some 24 month tops. It's hard to believe how much she's grown up...and so fast! I'm trying to prepare myself for a 2 year old...hard to believe it's almost here! When we go shopping now, she wants to walk into the store. And if you try and pick her up so that you can get past the traffic (who are not so patiently waiting for you to pass), she gets mad and screams an ear deafening scream. That's my big girl.

The Dancer

I have to blog this...and wish I could get the whole thing on video...so far, no luck.

Megan loves to dance. It's so funny (and cute!!!)! She starts off all rambunctious--stomping her feet, leaning side to side (lasts about 30 seconds, if that!)...but by the time the music gets going, she's simply holding her hands out in front of her and slowly moving them up and down. Think go-go dance or the dance they do on the commercial they "film" on the movie That Thing You Do. It's so cool, calm, almost 80s techno like. IT'S SO FUNNY! And incredibly cute.

I think I have the beginning part on video, she just started the last part within the past week or so.

Updates

Like the new look? I Love it!!! Thanks to Sasha at Princess Blogs for updating it for me--with very little direction! I only asked that it be cheerful and that I liked coral and pink. She took it from there. She and Ashton are honing their blog design skills and are updating blogs for free--contact them if you are interested in an update. You can click on their "button" in the right hand column. It will take you to their blog which has their email addresses on it.

We've been so busy...not sleeping well the last few days, I'm finally feeling better, Megan's doing pretty well with school and we're transitioning to one nap from 2. The nap transition is hit or miss...when you get up before 5am, it's really hard to wait until noon to take a nap. But, she needs to only be taking one nap for school...so we're working on it.

We celebrated Chinese New Year last night with the playgroup (which we rarely have time to attend). Here's Megan in our "practice" dress up for dinner. Then a group photo...which is not the best, but you can see there were a lot of families present!

Practice dress up..

White Swan playgroup

One year ago today...

We received "the call" at 2:12 pm from our SW, Rachael!!!! I was carrying my cell phone with me everywhere so I wouldn't miss that long awaited call. When it finally came, just hearing Rachael say "Kris?" made me break into tears, get all shaky and make my mind go blank! I couldn't believe it was FINALLY the day! We got so few details...but did find out that she was very little just 24 inches tall and weighed a whopping 12.5 lbs! A few hours later, we opened our email to see these precious photos.



And today she's doubled her weight and grown about 7 inches! Who would have known that her hair would grow in curly...that she's have so much personality...that we could be SO IN LOVE!

She is our "Sweets", our "Meg-alicious", our "Meg-pie". In every way a perfect fit for our family. I am still overwhelmed by the awesomeness of how she joined our family. We are so blessed and eternally grateful.

Fun at the park

This weekend we stopped at the park for some family fun.

Okay, so this was AFTER the park

Daddy & Megan by the slide

How sweet...

Today Megan & I stopped at an outdoor play area at the mall
I happened to have the camera from our weekend fun

Goodbye, Mr. President

Saw this awesome video on Debbie's blog...thought I'd share!

I'm still recovering from bronchitis, I'll post more about Megan later.

To catch up...

...well, not really catch up, I guess, but update. We have been sick around here. I'm still fighting my bronchitis stuff (on my 2nd med and still coughing like crazy), DH is experiencing allergy stuff and poor Megan has some sort of upper respiratory yuck. She started meds on Friday and we seem to see an improvement already. She has not been sleeping well (when can when you can't breath and feel yucky?). I spent the entire week sleeping on the floor in her room. It was easier to be there to "ssshhh" than having to jump out of bed and run across the hall to do it. And when she's fussing literally (at times) every few minutes, I would have just laid down and have to be back up again. Needless to say everyone is sleep deprived around here. It's been a tough week.

Let see...a few things noteworthy of late:

• Megan weighs 25 lbs 5 oz. They didn't measure her height, but I know she has grown. She has already grown out of some of the clothes we got her for Christmas and is entering into size 18 months.
• She is coloring now. We've tried numerous times, but she just had no interest what-so-ever. But lately, she's really enjoying it. Today she liked to take all the colors out of the box, organize them on the paper, then put them all back in the box. Then promptly take them back out. Whatever makes her happy! She is attracted to the red, fuschia and purple colors. In fact one day a few weeks ago, I gave her a few colors to chose from (blue, purple, pink and red, maybe--I don't remember exactly), she grabbed the blue one and threw it--literally threw it. Well, she wasn't interested in the blue one! It was quite funny.
• She is using a fork some, if we help her stab the food on it. She's tried a spoon, but she insists on turning it before getting it to her mouth, so keeping the food on it--and getting it off in her mouth when it's turned is tough.
• She's also eating off a plate. I know that sounds basic, but when I had tried in the past, she would grab the plate and throw it. I hadn't tried for a long time, and decided I should again. She's doing fairly well with it. I can't say that we haven't attempted to throw it, but it hasn't happened too often.
• She's decided she's "too old" for the Nuby sippy cups. I'm not sure when it started, but she would refuse to drink and I couldn't figure out how to get to. So, I decided I'd try the hard topped ones (like the playtex or gerber ones) to see if she'd drink out of them. BINGO! Yep, loves them. Really I think her favorite are the disposable ones, but they leak REALLY bad. I'll let her drink out of them at the table, but not anywhere else.
• She's decided water isn't cool. I've always kept water in a cup in the LR so she could get a drink anytime she wanted. If it dripped or whatever, I really didn't care since it was just water. But now she won't drink it unless there is some juice in there. I hope this passes quickly! I don't give her much juice, but just enough--I guess--to give it some flavor.
• She's starting to pick out her hair clips. Last week I thought I'd give her a choice to pick out which hair clip she wanted to wear (she had a choice of 2). When she picked it, it appeared that she doesn't pull it out! And I've been combing her hair with her sitting on the bathroom vanity so she can see. It sure helps her keep her head still! We started using a kid-friendly detangler on the back and it sure has helped keep it from snarling and looking all frizzy after nap. It does, however, kind of make her curls so flat in the back .

We've just marked Megan being 20 months old (I can't believe we almost have a 2 year old!). And we are coming up on marking 10 months home! How time flies!!!!

School update

Right-after-school photo

I know, I'm late, but this week has been C-R-A-Z-Y. It was topped off with me getting hives on Monday night from the antibiotic I had been taking for 10 days. It was bad. I'm still a little itchy in my hair and behind my ears, but its manageable (although no fun!) compared to what it was Monday night. I've had hives from meds before, but this time was much worse than last time. I had them on my face--including my eye lids--besides all over my neck and torso. I think last time was on day 10, too. ugh.

I meant to take a picture BEFORE we went to school and I completely forgot, so I took one as soon as we got home (hence the blankey in the photo!). Megan did really well. We had planned on her being there for just 30 minutes. But, when I went to get her after 30 minutes, she was playing well (she didn't see me!), so I left and returned 30 minutes later. When I got there, she was crying (I could hear her when I walked in the door). She had been fine doing her own thing, but the teacher had just checked her diaper and I guess it was a reminder that Mom wasn't there. I don't know. Anyways, we came home. She hung on to blankey for about 20 minutes or so after we got home, then she dropped it and was fine. She then took a TWO HOUR nap! At an hour and half, I checked on her and she had not even moved. She was exhausted!

So, today was School: day 2. The plan was for her to be there an hour. She did well. They had music which she loved, of course. There are more kids there on Wednesdays. The teacher just said, there are more boys and it would overwhelm her sometimes (aka boys are rowdy!). So the teacher would simply take her into the hall to give her some space. She had her blankey and paci when I got there. There were signs she had been crying before and she was whimpering when I got there. She was glad to see me. She is really tired today, too. Between the stress of school, getting up early and not having a morning nap, I think she'll sleep pretty well this afternoon!

All Sorts of Stuff.

So a few things from the past few weeks...

Not only does she like peas for dinner, but she
likes to "chew" on her peas from her play kitchen, too!

She LOVES to steal the Swiffer and drag it all over the house.
(Can't wait until she can use it to clean!)

Took this picture tonight before bed.
It's so hard to get a photo of her smiling right now.
(Can't wait until that phase is over!)

Things have been so busy. I'm still attempting to recover from an upper respiratory infection of some kind. Spring semester starts on the 20th; we're using a new book, so I've been updating my class. Megan is beginning to object to her morning nap...which is problematic when she's still up between 4-5am. She only has 1 incisor left to cut (thank goodness!). Oh, and the most important thing happening right now...Megan is starting school (aka Mother's Day Out) on Monday! We're going to take it slow at the beginning, but she'll be going 2 days a week. Hopefully, she'll adjust quickly because I need time to work on school while she's at school. I think she will enjoy it when she realizes it's okay to be without mom. I'm happy to report that one of her play friends, Bethany, will be starting school with her, too, and they will be in the same class. I'm so grateful that the girls will be together!

I'll post more on her first day of school next week.

And Now it's 2009

We had lots of fun in SD (well except when I got the stomach virus, which thankfully was short lived!). Here's a few photos...

Auntie Jodi, Cousin Ashley & Megan

Uncle Keith & Megan making "ornery eyes" at each other

NanaLin, Cousin Brooklyn & Megan

Cousin Brady & Megan "negotiating" just how close he could sit by her
(he was constantly trying to steal kisses, which was not approved by the princess!)

Auntie Katie & Megan

What a year 2008 was. We have marked 9 months Megan has been with us...and we are just a month away from the first anniversary of seeing her sweet precious face. Boy has time flown!