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!

Leavin' on a Jet Plane

We're ready (well, almost ready) to head out east. We're planning on leaving the house before 6am for our 8am flight. We're SO EXCITED to spend the week with my sister & her DH...then seeing all the family next weekend! I doubt I'll get to post anything while we're gone...

But, while we're gone...head over to Bringing Lily Home (you can also click on the button on the right). Adrienne & Jim have been trying to add to their family for quite a while...since November, they've held 2 kids they thought would be joining their family, only to find out the biological families changed their minds. They are on the journey to bring Lily home from Korea. They are doing some GREAT fundraiser giveaways. Click over and check them out!

Please Pray

Little Stellan (see the link on the right side bar)...is back in the hospital and need in desperate need of prayers. They simply cannot get his heart to calm down. As I understand it, his heart as been beating at around 225 beats per minutes for the past almost 24 hrs with little break.

You can follow her blog (and tweets) for more updates.

Catching Up

Things have been so busy around here. DH has been working 50+ hr weeks which makes for little time for me to have someone to watch Megan so I can blog. We leave on Aug 1st for vacation in Massachusetts and I've been attempting to get organized for it. We're renting an apt with my sister, Katie, and her DH so that means planning meals, etc. in addition to sight seeing. I've also been trying to work on my dissertation for the few hours Megan is at grandma's every week. I'm teaching online again this fall, so I've also been updating my class...and making some adjustments from last semester I didn't like. As you can see, blogging has take a back seat right now! I try to at least put some photos up of our sweet Megan.

Okay, so back to Megan! Some things to note:

• She is talking all the time. Mostly just putting various sounds together, but I would guess she has about 50 or so words she says regularly. (I love to eves drop on her talking.) The majority of the words she knows are taken DIRECTLY from her Sign ing Ti me videos. Thank goodness she signs when she says them because some of them are hard to understand (for example, her current favorites: "like" and "don't like"). For "milk", she says "gilk" and "stop" is "bop". Oh, and "hungry" is "hum".
  
• She's beginning to recognize the first letter of words. For example, she says "M-mom"; "A-apple"; "D-dad"; "L-la la la" and she always signs "grandma" whenever she says "g" only she says "guh" for "g".
• She just started saying some family names...Nana, Katie (ta-tee), Ashley (ash) and she says "bubba" for both Brady & Brooklyn. I'm trying to get her to say "bee" for Brooklyn since it's her nickname.
• She loves to ride her bike. She loves to say "crash!" when she runs into the wall or door or whatever larger object was in her way.
• Funny story: last week went to W@l-m@rt to escape the heat. I made the mistake of going down the kids shoe aisle to see if they had their sandals are sale yet. We had to stop and look at the tennis shoes...and try on a particular pair that was white with turquoise sparkly ribbons on them. She was quite frustrated when I told her we were not going to buy them, but we would tell daddy that she found a pair she liked. (Oh my, I couldn't believe it!)
• She is working on her bottom 2-year molars. They are kicking our tails. It's been horrible. We've even had to break out the paci for more than just nap time. I think it helps distract her from the pain in her mouth.
• She loves to write and color.
  
• She also loves foam stickers, puzzles, balls and making towers with her blocks (which also have letters on them). Oh and how I could forget: pushing her dolly stroller I got at a garage sale for 50 cents! Best 50 cents I've spent!!!!
• She's beginning to express interest in numbers. She identifies and says 8. She'll identify numbers up to 10, but won't say any other ones, yet.
• She loves to brush her teeth. If she could brush them all day, she would be most happy. In order for her to know when teeth brushing time is over (and therefore minimize the number--well, and length--of the fit), we have one of her stuffed animals in the bathroom that plays music. We let her brush for a little while, then we start Ms. Elephant playing her music. If she thinks we are waiting too long to start the music, she points to Ms. Elephant and makes sounds like "you forgot to start the music!". Too cute.
• She's really gotten into stuffed animals (which she has a lot of!). Ms. Bunny, Ms. Rabbit and Mr. Bear are some of her favorites. Oh, and how could I forget Pooh!? Pooh plays music and she loves to carry him around listening to his music...and asking for more and more and more. She often likes to take a stuffed animal in the car. Currently, Bunny & Rabbit have made several journeys.
• Getting her in the car completely stinks. Its horrendous. She wants to go wherever we are going, but she prefers to run away from me and the car. I used to have Mr. Bear in the car which would get her to come to the car to give Mr. Bear a hug. Now, however, that doesn't work (or she's already taken them all in the house!). So, this past week, I've simply sat in the passenger front seat with the door open and ask her (repeatedly) if she's ready to go. She always says "yes" (which she says to most everything), but still takes her time coming to the car. It's the MOST frustrating thing! She doesn't do it for DH, but then he either holds her hand or carries her to the car. She also does it coming in the house. Lately, I've just been carrying her into the house since it's SO MUCH easier. And she doesn't object. Yet.
  
• She knows that red means stop and she recognizes stop signs. We'll be in the car and I hear her say "bop"...and sure enough, we're at a stop sign. She also knows that green means go. Now, knowing these things do NOT mean that she's any better at waiting at the red light! She still complains when we have to stop.
  

Sleep...you know things are really hit or miss at our house. What we have had the MOST success with right now is having her sleep with us. It's not ideal, but it helps all of us sleep. Ultimately, that's most important right now. I have noticed that once the ibuprofen wears off is when she begins stirring. If I don't get her another dose right away, we're up for at least an hour while waiting for it to kick in. In fact, the best way for her to get back to sleep is simply to sit in the rocking chair with her. If I do, it can often just be 30 minutes or so. Sometimes less, sometimes more. I'm desperately hoping these teeth come in very soon. Although, I know that right now we'll just have the bottom ones in, at least we'll be half way there!

That's the best I can think of right now...I'm sure there are a TON more things I'd want to put on here...but they are not coming to mind right now.

Swimming, again.

It's been hotter than blazes down here...heat index horrific. Megan & I broke the pool out this week to cool off (well, she cooled off..and I took photos!)

This is the "million dollar shot"
(except she wiggled..and its blurry. there goes my million dollars. crap.)

This is a close 2nd...

I need to update on so many things...but Megan is trying to hijack the computer mouse, so it'll have to wait...

Please Pray for Kate

2009, where, oh where have you gone??

I'm not sure how it can be July already...but alas, it is...we've had a busy few days...

Today we picked up a new pool from my friend, Audrey.
It has a slide...which Megan LOVED going down!
Since she decided to skip nap today, the pool helped pass the afternoon.


Megan & mommy got haircuts yesterday.
Megan's hair is still long...don't worry!

Brenda (the lady who cuts my hair) gave Megan this bike...
she's hardly gotten off it since we put it together last night! (We should have waited until morning for her to see it put together..she didn't want to go to bed last night)
Her little legs are too short to work the peddles, but she walks with it--quite successfully, I might add--around the entire house.

She is fascinated with ice. Whenever the dogs get one, she has to have one too, or she takes theirs.

We've started the month off busy!!! It doesn't look to be slowing down until we get back from Boston.

Words now include: baby, book, read, papa, stop, go, hey, up, bye, hello, whoa, mom, dad, apple, shoe, church, ball, day, beep-beep Irish, diaper, bubble, eat, hi...and she's constantly babbling...we're making progress!

New words

Let's add to the list of words: ouch (which she thinks is a pretty funny word! She likes to go hit her head, then say "ouch"--go figure!) and up.

We head to Boston in 32 days! Looking forward to seeing a part of the country I haven't before.

Fun at Splash Factory

We went to a local city splash park this morning.
Despite going at 9am, it was over 90 degrees--plenty warm for a water park visit!
She was soaked within a matter of minutes!

Look, Mom! I'm trying to catch the water!

water, water, water! It's hard to catch!
(that's her friend, Bethany, in the background)

I'm so cool...

This is SO MUCH FUN!

Okay...what is NOT documented in the photos...how much running she did. She literally ran and ran and ran and ran...well, you get the picture. She'd run into the water fountains, then she run back to me. Then she'd run around to the other stations, then she'd run to the fence, and the grass and just everywhere. There was little visiting for me with the other mom's from the playgroup! But she had fun. And it completely exhausted her! Completely.

And, no, she didn't keep her sunglasses on the whole time, in case you were wondering. Once they started to get too wet that the water hindered her sight, she brought them to me. I couldn't believe how long she kept them on, though!

Too smart (and cute!)

Here she is today with her monkey "mommy-keep-track-of-me" backpack

New stylin' shades. (Yes she keeps them on! )
The frames are purple (of course), she wouldn't even TRY ON the pink ones, once she saw the purple ones.

This week has been unbelievably hot around here...in the 100s with heat index almost 110. One morning, we were getting in the car to go to the store. When we go outside, she is a stinker about getting in the car. All she wants to do is run, run, run (away from me, of course!). I've gotten smart and left a stuffed bear in the car. When it's time to get in the car, I simply say, "are you ready to see Mr. Bear? " Typically, she just run over to the car and gets so excited to see Mr. Bear. (Thank goodness!!!)

Anyways, back to the story. So, I put her in the car seat. She looked at me, made a funny face and signed "hot". I smiled, giggled a little (you have to be careful about that sometimes!) and yes, honey it is HOT! Too cute!

Another funny story--the other day I asked her which of 2 outfits she wanted to wear. One was a light purple tank with a denim skirt while the other one was a coral onesie with coordinating shorts. Anyways, I could tell she was NOT excited about her options...she kind of had a "ho-hum" look on her face. So, I offered another outfit exactly like the shorts, but the onesie was a deep lilac purple with striped shorts. She squealed with delight and literally grabbed that outfit out of my hand before I could even get it on the floor to show it to her! Such a fashionesta.