Pics

A few of my favorites from the past week or so..

Such a little lady...and big girl. Her new favorite way to sit (modeled after mommy, of course!) And notice the flip-fl0p tan lines on her feet! She's SO TAN already!

My little fashion-esta! She is completely in love with these boots lately! We've worn them to the post office (but didn't get out of the car) and the mailbox a couple of times. I don't know how she can stand it! It's been SOOOO HOT down here!

Kota's turn with the crown...

Irish's turn (it's a "new" one)

In case you think only the dogs wear it...here's Megan's way of wearing her crown!

And now it's June

Oh man, I can't believe it's June and I have not even posted one time yet this month! And it's half over. That's bad, especially considering that I am using this as her "baby book" to keep track of things she's doing. I've been so busy working on my dissertation, I have time for little else. My goal is to have stage 1 done by July 1st; propose by the end of July; then I need to have everything written by October 1st in order to graduate in December. As you can see, this is major undertaking and to complete it in 3.5 months...well, may be just crazy. I honestly don't know. I just know I can and I must be done with everything by December. If I don't officially get to graduate until May, that's fine, but I simply CANNOT pay tuition for a semester past fall! I just can't bring myself to do it!!!

So, back to Megan...here's a quick list of some of the cutest things happening right now.

• Sleep is still an issue. Some days are better than others, but overall, its still not good. We've been using melat0nin, which has helped, but the little stinker has figured out to push past the exhaustion it creates (like she always has). And I'll just leave it at that.
  
• She Loves, Loves, Loves Punchinello (a character of Max Lucado's). I found a movie at a garage sale and she repeatedly asks to watch it. It seems to have replaced Elm0 (my heart is not broken). At any rate, she loves to "act out" and "repeat" so many things from the movie.
  
• One of her favorite 'repeats' is: "can I come, too?" I mean for everything! If I'm going in the bedroom, she says "can I come, too?" It's so funny. And the way she says "too"...it's more like "TUuuuu".
• She has gotten into movies. Kind of. I mean she'll watch Punchinello, as well as another of Max Lucado's story lines, Hermie the Caterpillar. In the last week or so, she's started watching Clifford, the big red dog. But, no telling if that will last! She still loves Super Why.
  
• It seems like there's always something I'm laughing about that she says every day! She's so fun.
• She started sitting on the floor and opening a book and "reading". She looks at the book, turns the pages, holds it with the book balancing on her hands, then she puts it away.
• She's still sitting in a booster seat with a belt at home. At some point during the meal, she typically asks to sit next to dad. At which point she repeats the rules "if you stand up, you have to sit in the buckle chair". Of course, all you can really understand because she talks so quickly and softly is "stand" and "buckle chair".
• She likes to tell the dogs to go into the bedroom (they, of course, don't listen) and she likes to put them in the bedroom. So, we have to tell them (and sometimes have to herd them as well) with her closing the door. Sometimes she likes to go in there with them and shut the door despite the fact that we're getting ready to eat and need her out with us.
• She tends to order the dogs around. A lot. She likes to tell them to "Stop barking, Irish. Stop barking, Kota." First she says it loud, then she repeats it softer as she gets close to their face.
• She loves to "walk with them" (aka the dogs). Irish tolerates her standing next to him a lot more than Kota. Kota has figured out that if she just lays down, then Megan will tell us what she wants to do requesting we make Kota stand up. Then we have to explain that Kota doesn't want to walk right now.
  
• She likes to play with the dogs with their toys. Sometimes throwing the toys and trying to get Kota to fetch (which is only does when SHE wants to!).
• She likes to put things on the dogs heads. For example, she's gotten into this princess crown. She loves to wear it on her head and put it on the dogs head. Her favorite is to put it on Kota's head. I took a picture of it on Kota's head. I'll have to upload it. One day. Sigh.
• She loves to spell words. Nothing new there.
• She's sleeping with bring one of her stuffed dogs when we go to the store. She's named two of them "doggie Chris".
• She loves to roll the ball.
• She loves to wear dresses.
• She loves to open the doors...and lock them. If you know where we live, you could easily into our back door (we've hidden a key outside b/c she's always locking us out!).
  

That's about all I can think of right now.

My Beautiful Girl

There are no words necessary...I don't think!

Megan Painting

Here is Megan painting, but she calls it "hand prints". For good reason.

Zoo Trip for Birthdays!

Megan's & Bethany's birthdays are 2 days apart. So we moms took them to the zoo to celebrate our girls turning 3.

Bethany is so darn funny! She HAD to bring her binoculars to the zoo so she could see the animals. That girls CRACKS me up!

The zoo has this river play area in the Children's part. It was pretty hot on Wed when we went, so we ended the day in the water.

Sleep

I've been wanting to write another post on sleep describing what "problems" look like for us. But, it's not an easy thing to explain. At all. Well, there's a website that we've followed since we started waiting for Megan. It's about all things China adoption. The author wrote a wonderful, very descriptive posting on sleep. Interestingly enough, her description of sleep problems for her daughter "GlitterGirl" are almost identical to what we deal with every night. Some nights are better than others, but right now we are definitely in a difficult time. You can read her post HERE.

And no, my idea hasn't worked all that well to get Megan to sleep overall. She will recite the "eat healfee, drink water and sleep good", but she's still having a tough time going to sleep.

A funny story

Yesterday we went to the zoo with friends to celebrate birthdays. On the way to the zoo, we got behind a truck with serious pollution problems. I said to Megan 'Boy that car is stinky!' What was her response? "I think it needs to go poop." I lost it. Since she hadn't napped, I had to pull it together VERY quickly or I would have had a crying little girl...but I'm still laughing as I think about it!

Birthday "Party"

We had very small gathering today in honor of Megan's 3rd birthday (which is Tuesday). I made these SUPER CUTE, super easy (albeit time consuming) cupcake flowers. The petals are mini marshmellows cut cross-wise, then dipped in sprinkles (or colored sugar). They were really yummy, too!

The cupcake experiment!

The soon-to-be birthday girl.
She did not get the bike (it was a hand-me down from the neighbor, but in very good condition), but she got the helmet & training wheels.

The pictures are deceiving, she is sitting on the bike while we push it (or it rolls down the hill that we live on). She does NOT push the pedals at all. We're working on it, though.

I can't believe she's going to be 3!! sniff, sniff

Sleeplessness Answer?

The verdict is still out...we just started it today...but in a very early moment of quiet before 5am, I'm fairly certain God gave me a great idea.

I've said for a very long time that Megan is afraid to go to sleep. I mean, she'll be almost ready to doze off, yet she will wiggle, clap her hands, kick her legs, sign mom & dad, whatever it takes NOT to fall asleep. It's been taking anywhere from 60-90 minutes every night. We've missed several naps, despite being absolutely exhausted. If there is one thing I KNOW about my sweet, precious daughter and sleep, it is that when we get into the cycle of not enough sleep, it is very difficult to get out of that cycle. Its vicious. And often feels never ending. She's been getting about 8-9 hours of not very restful sleep a night and many days refuses to nap. So, we are talking about a child who behaves absolutely horribly! Hitting, yelling, deviance, challenging and pushing all of my buttons.

We're back to waking up at 5am again. I so thought we were past this. But, she's getting her final 2 year molar (FINALLY!) so it could be contributing. Who knows. The other part is that she's yelling out more nights than not, at least once, if not every hour all night. By yelling out, I mean she'll thrash about, cry and yell something (typically, "Megan can do it" or "I need to go potty" or "Mommy do it" but her most common one "NO! NO! NO!"). It took me a few nights to realize she does this 100 percent in her sleep. One minute you think she's awake, the next minute she's snoring. Literally.

Okay, so back to the potential solution. I got this idea this morning...telling her that to grow big she needs to: eat healthy, drink water (another problem we have...not drinking!) and sleep. We've been talking about it all day. At nap time, she was asleep in 5 minutes. She hasn't done that for quite a while. So, tonight when it was time for her to go to bed with daddy, I said, "you need to sleep good tonight"...and she said "so I can grow!" So, maybe we've found the s1lver bullet? Boy do I hope so!!! Guess we'll find out in a few days!!

Growing & Stuff

I love this pic! It's at the park, Megan LOVES the park. The pic really shows her excited expression about being at the park.

One day last week, Megan didn't take a nap. My contingency plan when she has no nap is going to the zoo. We are members, so we can go for free. On this day, she was so excited about going to the zoo that she put her hat and sunglasses on as soon as I said we were going. She sat in the chair watching W0rd W0rld while I got everything together to go.

We made brownies together for the first time. As you can see...tasting the batter was a necessity!

Our friend's son turned 1, so we went to the party. She also decided not to nap this day so we really were not sure how it would go. But she did pretty gosh darn well. This is such a cute pic of daddy & Megan. She's wearing daddy's sunglasses.

She has started moving her chair away from the table before climbing in to eat. She likes to put her feet up on the chair...like such a big girl!

This was taken on Friday, I believe. She's gotten so big. She looks so grown up here. She's holding a specially painted hand print she did at school for me for Mother's Day.

A couple more things she does that I've noticed recently...and if I don't get them down on paper, I will completely forget!

• She JUST started opening doors. I've been waiting for the day...of course it makes life so much more interesting, but I'm glad we've finally accomplished this feat. She doesn't entirely remember that she can do it, so we're still somewhat "safe".
• She says "shepherd" instead of "special" more often than not. On occasion she'll get it right, but typically she doesn't. It's really too entirely cute!!!
• She also says "soldier" instead of "shoulder".
  
• To get her to motor, I often play the "I don't think she knows how" game, which she LOVES to prove me wrong and do it without drama! (Yay for me!) She's started saying it herself now "I don't think she knows how!" then she does say "oh! oh! oh! Wait! She DOES know how to do it." I guess that's what I must say? I honestly don't know. But she even does it when she's looking for something then finds it "Oh! Oh! Oh! Wait...here it is!" She's so gosh down smart!
• She's also started wanting to carry a purse like me. Of course, it's almost always empty. Details. Details. Most often it gets left in the car b/c she forgets about it, but sometimes it has to come with. Too cute.

That's all I've got!

Megan Update

Oh boy, it's been way too long since I wrote anything about what Megan's been up to lately. She seems to change every day. So, here's a quick list of things that I want to remember, one day:

• She's talking ALL THE TIME. Oh my gosh. She loves to run around the house making up words. Her favorite is one that sounds like Donkey Kong...but its more like shonkey dong. She also loves to add "dee" at the end of all of her words...mommy-dee, four-dee, no-dee, etc. It's just really too funny.
• Making up new sounds all the time
• She says "no, I don't think so" or "No, I don't" or just plain "NO!" to pretty much everything. If you ask her if she's cute, her response is "No. (pause) No, I'm not".
• She loves to say "You little stinker" and shakes her finger right by her mouth. I don't know where this came from. She also loves to say "stinky", but there's a southern twang to it and it sounds more like "st-Ankee".
• Another favorite word is "funky" (emphasis on the UN--fUNkee). We have no idea where that came from!!!
  
• She tells the dogs to "stop barking" and "come here. This way." (as she's attempting to herd them in a particular direction). She also loves to "play" with them. She goes to their toy basket, mutters something about what toy to play with, then tries to get them to play with her. She also loves to crawl in the dog crate with Dakota and shut the door. Dakota isn't so fond of this new playtime experience for Megan!
• She's waffling back and forth on whether she wants to nap or not. I think she's prefer not to, but she's still getting up so cotton-pickin' early she just can't make it without some nap. She's still getting up between 5:30 and 6:30am every day. She's going to sleep around 8pm, unless she doesn't nap.
• She can do 24 piece puzzles with very little guidance.
• She loves to do "hand prints" aka finger painting, except she does NOT paint, she just likes to put the paint on her hands and press (okay, really bang) her hands on the paper.
• I know we're a bit behind the curve, but she's now eating her cereal with milk.
• She loves to sit on the "big girl" chair (no booster), but she really just loves to push the envelope and stand (when she's not supposed to).
• She's doing all pottying by herself, but still wants us to go with her. She rarely has accidents now.
• She's spelling words like crazy. There are very few 3-letter words that she can't spell. It's nuts, actually.
• She's starting to follow with her finger the words in books that we are reading.
  
• She MUST climb into the car by herself. And she must get into her car seat by herself (and her time line, of course!).
• She sings the words to so many songs (Twinkle Little Star, Jesus Loves Me, Zaccheaus, and ABCs come to mind)
  

That's the best I can do right now...maybe I can come up with a few more in a few days.

It's the end of the semester, so things are really super crazy for me with 41 students each turning in 2 papers ranging from 4-9 pages each! Plus they have weekly discussion posting requirements that I get to read. Add to that I need to write my proposal for my dissertation by late May. The plan is to propose by mid-June and finish up over the summer and defend my dissertation in the fall. This would mean I graduate in December! Definitely do-able...assuming things don't come crashing down! I'm just trying to keep my head above water daily.

The move..I have mentioned that on here, right? The house is still for sale, the job hunt is still...hunting. Although, there is one lead that's got great possibilities. So, we'll just wait and see what happens with it all. I pretty much keep my nose in my work as I've got plenty there to keep me busy, that's for sure!

Bluebonnets

The lighting was perfect today (a bit rainy this morning, but just cloudy this afternoon) so we headed out to a patch of bluebonnets down the street from our house.

Goodbye, Ian

After a very rough night and incredibly long day, we said goodbye to our precious Ian 6 years ago today. In fact, the day was spent holding our breath while waiting for my mom to arrive. My favorite part--if there was a favorite part of such a sad, horrible day--was the afternoon. He was in very bad condition, which wasn't a good part, but he would only hang on if I was holding him. So, I got snuggle time for the last almost 2 hours of his precious, short life on this earth. Time I will never forget.

Oh, how you'd be such a great big brother to Megan! We miss you!!

Happy 6th Birthday, Ian

It's hard to believe, but Ian would be 6 years old today. Oh how different our life would be if he were still here with us. We'd be preparing for kindergarten graduation! I cannot even think what that would be like...

We went to the zoo yesterday. This afternoon we'll release balloons in his memory.

Boy, do I miss my boy.

Our favorite story

Here is Megan reciting David & Goliath. You may need to listen to it a few times, she talks so fast!

It's been 2 years!

Two years ago on Wednesday (March 31), we held Megan for the first time. Boy has time flown by. I had planned on doing a post showing pics of when we were in China and today, but I couldn't get it to work! Then I got wrapped up in teaching, dissertation, Megan's school...well, life and I completely lost track of time! That has been happening a lot lately. Anyways...I don't even have pictures on this computer to upload. I'll have to do it tomorrow. Or maybe the next day. I also just recorded some cute video tonight with Megan reciting the story of David & Goliath. One of her all-time favorite stories. I plan on uploading that tomorrow and will post it.

Megan has gotten so verbal. In fact, last night as she was supposed to be going to sleep she said "I told you...stop...barking." Oh my gosh. I almost burst out laughing! One day earlier this week she was in a very tired mood and was upset by a choice she had made. She said to me "All done choosing!" She's also been known to say "All done listening!" in the midst of a fit, of course. She is just too funny!

Pics

Megan loves to vacuum when we do...it's just too precious!

Is this adorable or what?

School pics yesterday...this was right before we walked out the door.

A funny & all grown up!

We tried the solo pony yesterday afternoon...I had already fixed her hair 3 times, why not 1 more!?!

Front shot

Side view...yes, her hair is THAT long! You just can't tell as the curls have gotten curlier!

A funny story...The other day I was barefoot. We had just put her socks on...and I hadn't gotten mine out of the drawer yet to put on. She said "mommy's wearing just her toes". Yes, Megan was wearing her socks and mommy was just in her toes. How cute is that!?!? "wearing my toes"...I wear them everyday sweetheart, and so do you! (Of course, I didn't tell her the last part! And I was stifling a laugh, of course.)

Pics

oh my gosh...she is just too cute!
I have no idea why she's wearing her sunglasses while in her pjs, but never-the-less

trying on daddy's sweater (her idea!)

Since it's starting to get warm, I painted my toenails. She's been fascinated with them, so I painted hers for the first time. (I tried last year, but she was not interested at all.) She forgot about it the first day, until she got her pjs on. Now, she's constantly telling me "I want to look at my pretty toes"...and off go the socks! Oh well...they do look pretty cute!

What cuteness!

Megan's vocabulary is just...adorable. There are times that my brain has to move VERY quickly to figure out what her special names are for different things. Well, here's her word for cucumber...

Is there anything sweeter?

This has happened a few times over the past week or so...but today it affected me. I was working at the counter in the kitchen. Megan comes over, looks up at me and says "I wuv u mommy"...talk about melt your heart. There truly is nothing more precious!

(Of course a few minutes later she hugs Elm0 and says "I wuv u Elm0"...but surely I rank a little higher than Elm0! I hope!)

A funny..

Megan was in the kitchen...suddenly she looks at me and says "I need to floss". Future Dentist or dental hygienist? Maybe!

Sick little girl

Megan has strep throat. I have no idea where she contracted it, but one really never knows where germs originate! She's acting mostly normal, but there are points you can tell she's not feeling her best (like when she is not eating some of her favorite foods). But, she's on the road to recovery now. I'm just glad we figured it out before the weekend...

Megan abilities

Just quickly to update all the things that Megan can do. She truly is brilliant...and we realize we have our hands FULL with this girl!!!

• She counts to 50 without much help...actually I think I heard her and DH count to 56 the other night.
• She sings through her alphabet without batting an eye. She loves to call Nana or Grandma & Papaw to do "b-c"s (as she calls them).
• She can recognize at least 25 words. She spells several. Some of the ones she knows include: duck, mom, dad, nana, Megan, dog, cat, car, water, vine, boy, girl, God (which causes her break out in song: "God is so good"), go, stop are the ones that come to mind right now. She loves to take her alphabet puzzle and "do words". She literally can spend an hour "doing words". She loves the challenge!
• Speaking of puzzles, she has "graduated" to jigsaw puzzles. It didn't take her long to figure them out, either! Maybe 3 days?
  
• She loves to sing "Jesus Loves Me"...as seen in the previous video. She also loves to sing "Father Abraham", "In the Lords Army" (aka "sticks"), "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star", "Circle, Triangle, Rectangle & Square" to name a few.
  
• She has quite the memory. About 2 weeks after we had been home from our family visit, she told me Uncle Keith was being silly and Megan cried. And she was right! It was a day she had not enough sleep and was extra sensitive and she did cry over nothing. Of course, crying over any hint of a laugh when she is tired is not all that uncommon, and thankfully it has gotten so much better! She's finally realizing not all laughs/giggles are at her (especially when she doesn't want them).
• She desperately want to ride her bike. Yes, she has a big girl bike. The neighbor girl outgrew hers and they kindly gave it to Megan. Surprisingly, it does fit her, but we have not gotten training wheels nor have we gotten a helmet (both will be birthday presents). We've had to hide it in the garage or every time she goes out here, she wants to ride it. Right now.
• Sleep...well, that's a whole other post. She had been doing so well, but then when we were in SD it got bad. In fact, since we've been back all sorts of things have been bad...including her social anxiety at school & church. She's been crying at both for some reason. She's loved both of those things for some time, I'm not really sure why she doesn't right now. We are looking into some options to potentially address both of these issues which I think are very much connected.
• She does not mind going in time out. In fact, after she gets out of time out (usually for hitting, which does a lot when she's tired), Elm0 typically has to go into timeout. Often she wants ME to put him in timeout and I typically refuse. I tell her that if she thinks he needs to go in timeout, then she needs to put them there. And so she does...she moves the chair to the right spot, puts him on the chair, bends down and tells him he's in timeout for hitting, then she walks away. Of course, then she forgets he's in timeout. But, the whole thing is just hilarious! Its really hard not to laugh!!!
• Speaking of Elm0, he has to do everything she does...even down to going on the potty to go potty. And I think a few times we've had to get paper for Elm0, too. It really gets too much sometimes, but she is definitely getting into imagine play. Finally.
• Her favorite phrase right now is "okie, dokie, M"...yes, she calls herself "M". We have no idea where she came up with that one...we don't call her that! She's so funny!!!

Well, that's the best I can do right now...

Singing

Here is our precious one of singing her favorite songs.

Let it SNOW!!!

I'm not kidding when I say that we got over a FOOT of snow yesterday! Yes, in ONE day!!!! It was a beautiful falling snow, and it wasn't horribly cold out as it hovered right at 32 all day. Megan & I spent about an hour outside playing in the snow. I did wonder, though if we had moved our house to South Dakota! One friend suggested it looked like Narnia outside..I would have to agree!

We made snowmen (okay, I MADE snowmen while Megan walked around in the snow!)

She had fun standing by the snowmen, though.

You can see here, in the pic I took last night before bedtime, that the deck is completely covered and the snow almost comes up to Irish's chest. Today, in fact, DH had to shovel some snow in the backyard so that Dakota could walk somewhere besides right beside the house! Despite those difficulties, the dogs are LOVING eating the snow!

A fun trip!

Megan & I went to visit family this weekend...here are some of the pics we took...

NanaLin & Grandpa Steve with Megan
(yes, Elmo goes everywhere)

Grandmom V & Papaw with Megan
(Papaw had surgery on his shoulder the day before)

Playing in the snow with Nana
It snowed 7 inches over the weekend!

Play dough with Nana and cousins Ash & Brady

Cousin Brookie and Megan with me

Megan said she needed "put gloves on & clean"

Silly stickers with Nana

What is it about Big Bird?

For whatever reason Megan is completely FASCINATED by Big Bird...specifically this BB instrument that comes from her medical kit. She's slept with it...talks to it (of course!)...loves on it...it's really the craziest thing!

Doesn't look at that intriguing, if you ask me.

I love this pic of her...she's actually smiling (actually, I think she is saying "Big Bird! What's he DO-ing?")

Giving loves to BB...

This girl cracks me up!

Chinese New Year

CNY is in a few weeks...on Valentines Day, actually. So, I thought this morning I would check out which outfits we got in China will fit this year. I found these....

This is my favorite..although the dress is crooked. She was not cooperating very well...at all, actually.

This what they identify as "pajamas"...it fits pretty good, too. And its red. One of my favorite colors on her.

Playing in the Sand

Megan loves to play in the sand. Its been really nice this week, so I pulled the sandbox out for her to play in. As you can see in the video, she doesn't really "play"...but I'll let the video speak for itself.

Skills & Sillies

Megan is quite the character! She's making some significant advancements verbally. Here's a few the Megan-isms lately.

• She says "great job!" to all sorts of things either she or Elm0 does.
• She just started saying "ta-da!". She plays "where is Elm0?" then says "ta-da!" when she "finds" him.
• She's started to say "cool" at somewhat random times.
  
• I've brought her "Norwegian heritage" out...she says "oof-da".
  
• Somewhere she picked up "okie-dokie". We're not sure where, but think it must be school because neither DH or I use that phrase. Occasionally she'll say "okie-dokie, M" Again, we don't know where the "M" comes from as our nicknames (okay MY nicknames) are "Meggie" or "Meg" or "Meg-pie", but never "M". Who knows where that comes from.
• She is fascinated by what she calls her "flappy". At night time she does NOT keep blankets on...never has according to the paperwork from China we re-read this week! So, she sleeps with a onesie on under her fleece blanket sleeper. Since we don't snap the onesie close until she has a diaper on...so the flap hangs down. It drives her crazy if she is getting ready to go potty, getting dressed or putting her pjs on and her "flappy" is hanging. Its a love/hate relationship as she wants to "see flappy", but yet gets all frustrated when she sees it. It's kind of funny, actually.
• She loves to play "Where's Elm0?" Sometimes she plays "where's Megan?"...which is a game she's always played, but now she tightly closes her eyes and says "where's Elm0?" or "where's Megan?" Sometimes she covers her eyes while they are closed, but not always. It's just too funny...then when she appears she makes the cutest little "ah!" of discovery sound.
• She also (of course) loves to watch Elm0...she has 3 movies, of which we watch 1 over and over and over...of course, watching Elm0 1-2 times a day is her limit...but that doesn't mean she wouldn't love to watch it all day long. At the beginning (and end) the movie gives their website...so whenever she sees the Sesame sign, she says "sesame street dot org". It's too cute!!!
• Speaking of Elm0...she'll be quite excited to know that at the end of February she & I are going with some friends to Sesame St Live...it shall be interesting (for mommy, anyways!)
  

Elm0 Love

Megan loves her some Elm0. She got 2 small ones for Christmas (thankfully, neither make noise!!!). Funny enough, this one she got to open a few days before Christmas from an aunt & uncle. The other one NanaLin brought--so it was a few days after Christmas, both however, within a week. Yet, the one she got from Nana is called "new Elm0". Who knows why...she can adjust its arms, legs and head. It's kind of cool, but the body is kind of big to hold in her hand. This one, however, she can hold in her hand. We never know which Elm0 will be the popular one of the day. "New Elmo" has been coming with us the 2 days (the store, the doctor, the zoo, sits in the car while she's at school) and she slept with him at nap time yesterday, too. Awh, yes, we have to sleep with Elm0. We thought it would be a distraction to actually going to sleep, but so far, so good. Both look a little ratty because they are squeezed so dang much...and carried around...thrown around...stepped on...well, you get the picture.

One morning Elm0 had to have cereal for breakfast, too. And he typically has to take turns when its time to get a drink, etc. She loves her Elm0!

Oh, and how could I forget the conversations! They are just too precious!!! I'm sure she's telling him something in this picture. Typically, we hear, "what you doing, Elm0? What YOU doing?" or "Look, Elm0! Look!" But my favorite is when she blames him for something. It really is funny.

Pics

Megan with her new rain boots. The only way they will stay on right now is if she wears them with her pjs...so next month's trip to SD might require her to play in the snow in her PJs! But then, who would complain about that!!!

My little diva...with all her baubles.

Nana Lin & Megan...I sure wish Megan would smile in pics!

Our Growing Girl

Pictures tomorrow (I think)....

But, I wanted to share that we took Megan to the doctor. I asked them to give me updated measurements. She is now 32.5 lbs and 37.5 inches. She's grown 3 inches and gained 2 lbs since June! WOW! It's no wonder I can't keep clothes & shoes that fit her! Geez. Surely she's going to take a break from growing for a little bit. She is now on American charts over 80% for both height & weight. So much for having a tiny girl!

I think it's all the green veggies she eats...peas, edemame, broccoli and green beans. Oh, and milk. She loves her milk (warm, of course!).

Happy 2010!

First off, I just checked...and I haven't take a single photo (well I took a couple today before Nana left) since Christmas. So, I have no new ones to share. I taught a class last week, so I was very busy with that...and very tired. Megan did great, but definitely missed her mommy time. Last night we took Nana out for supper and Megan wanted to sit on my lap almost the entire dinner (this is a request that started about a week ago or so). I think combining those last 2 year molars coming in and me being gone for a week is a recipe for needy-ness.

Second, I cannot believe we've (almost) finished the first decade of the millennium! It seems like JUST YESTERDAY we were celebrating 2000...where have the past 10 years gone?! My goodness, that's bad.

This weekend, I spent some time wondering what changes hold for Megan this year. What will her interests be NEXT Christmas...shoot, how BIG she will be! Even Nana mentioned she couldn't believe how big she's gotten. She just looks so gosh darn grown up. While that's exciting, its just so darn sad! My baby is growing up SO FAST. It's what kids are supposed to do, I know, it just seems like it's happening so fast. I thought it'd be FOREVER that she'd be wearing size 3T pants and 4T shirts, but it's pretty much here already. Somehow, less than 2 years after bringing my very small baby girl home, she's gotten all grown up. It's so exciting, yet so sad.

One thing I have forgotten to mention is Megan's most recent ability...she knows her right from her left. We're not sure where she learned it, but we've quizzed her on several different situations and she's always right!

Speaking of needy, my needy child is needing her mommy.