We're going to the zoo....

This week we went to the zoo....

Megan LOVES the zoo but it was the first time that Tom got to see her react to all the animals. We started out our zoo day with a fun concert by Rob of The Music Class. Megan and I took a little mommy and me class there - and she had so much fun that we wanted to take advantage of a free concert at the zoo. We met up with some folks from our church in the parking lot, then another couple in the class, then another couple when we were eating lunch. That just made it more fun!

Here's one of our friends, Shelby, enjoying a song with Mr. Rob. She got to be the "demo girl" for a tickling song.

After the concert we got down to animal business... Megan once again couldn't get enough of the elephants.
She got rides from both of us. Here I am holding onto her for dear life because she'd been bouncing up and down on my shoulders and trying to lurch into the rhino pen. She really likes the rhino's...
Here she is with Daddy. All smiles, but thankfully not lurching. :^) She also has the best time watching the giraffes and zebra's.
After seeing all the animals and eating lunch we headed to the playground (which is a great playground). Of course after all her playing, she found the best part of the playground... a step! Megan has really been trying to climb up and down steps and on and off chairs. Here's the play by play....

OH - a step....

I think I can....

Woo Hoo - YEAH for me!!!!

Megan went up and down that step at least 10 times - and never stopped looking so happy and joyful about her accomplishment.

So fun. I have so much to try to get posted on here. Hopefully I'll have more time tonight or tomorrow to try to catch up.

yea!

You learn so much from a toddler who's learning to talk....
Like what you tend to say over and over - it seems to be their first words.

Thank goodness Megan hasn't hit a "No" stage yet. But it's obvious that Tom and I have to work on incorporating "yes sir" and "yes ma'm" into our speech a bit more - and "yea" a lot less....

On the mend

Thank goodness, I'm well on the way to recovery from the dasterdly childhood illness.... But this past week was so crazy that I didn't have a chance to do anything. Poor Tom got no celebration for Father's Day (for the 2nd year in a row and he's only been able to celebrate 2 years). Last year I was down for the count getting ready for surgery. Then He missed out on truly celebrating his birthday this week (last year I was recovering from surgery). But... we survived and all those fun celebrations we just put off celebrating for a week or so (Thanks sweetheart, and I'm so sorry......).



But here's a few snapshot moments from this past week.

Megan is all about sitting in chairs. She's even figured out how to sit in her hippo... but then she gets confused on how to sit and make it more. We have a rocker that Tom had from his childhood and it is her favorite "toy". She will climb up in it and rock herself or get her babydoll and rock it. It's so cute. I'll have to get a video of her in it.



And I couldn't go to the pool this week since I was sick, so we made due with some water fun in the backyard.

Megan is still trying to figure out how to climb into her water table. It's a hard line to tow when it's so funny to watch her try, and yet I'm trying to teach her to not climb in there.

With me being sick, Megan and Tom got lots of daddy/daughter time. Which Tom said was a great way to celebrate Father's Day and his birthday. I just love watching them together.

To top off the week/weekend.... we had a little grilling accident.

You might remember the fun little grill that Megan LOVES to push around - well it got away from her and she was still holding on.... splat goes Megan on the driveway. Ended her Saturday with a skinned knee and a scraped up and bruised forehead. But that tough little cookie. She cried when it happened, cried for a minute and then we put the "boo boo bunny" ice cube on her head and she suddenly was fine. Within 5 minutes of the accident she was off in the playroom climbing on her little rocking chair. Resiliant little girl, that's for sure.

I'm hoping to get some cute video's posted in the next day or so (if megan cooperates with her naps).

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday Daddy!

A lot has happened in a year. Last year I couldn't really help you celebrate. All I could do was lay there and snuggle with you. My hugs and smiles were the only presents I could could really give.

You said I was the best birthday present you could ever have.


I loved sitting in your lap and letting you tell me stories and give me kisses and making all sorts of goo-goo faces and noises. It was really cute. I think having you as my dad was the best present I ever got!!!!Now I'm bigger, but I'm still your baby girl. Now not only can you give me cuddles, snuggles and kisses, but I can give them back. Instead of just letting you have all the fun, I can listen to you read me stories and help out on some parts. If you forget to turn the page (or just read too slow for me)- I'll jump in to your rescue. I love our time together and I love celebrating your birthday. This year, maybe you'll even share your cake with me (yum) and I'll help you with your candles. I got lots of practice at that on my birthday so in case you forget (I hear that happens when you get older) I'll be by your side to help you out.
And Daddy.... Happy Birthday!! Mommy says that every day is a special blessing - and every kiss a special present... so I'll have lots of those presents waiting for you at home.

Love - Megan

health update

Just a short little update...
I'm doing better. My feet aren't as sore and I actually got to go for a walk this morning when it was nice and cool. Hands are better and not itching as much so that's a huge praise! AND, "Magic Mouthwash" (combo of an antibiotic, numbing agent, and benedryl) is fabulous. Numbs my mouth for a good 30-40 minutes. Wish it was longer, but hey it's some relief. Between that and cholorseptic spray I'm getting some relief from the multitude of ulcers. I'm sooo ready for that part to be gone too. Overall, feeling better but still have a ways to go before my mouth is ready for anything hard, spicy or salty.

Megan and Uncle Dan

Uncle Dan - we had a great time during your visit and were so sad when you had to leave. Megan still walks around the house looking for you. She'll walk into your bedroom and point at the bed and do a little "meganese" grunt and chatter which I take to mean, "where did Uncle Dan go?"


Here are some fun memories of our time together...
Every day Megan and Uncle Dan snuggled up for a book...

We got to get together with some old friends and celebrate Neil's birthday and Tom's birthday to come...
And Uncle Dan - Megan LOVES her new pajamas... Thank you!!!!!
I found a barbie jeep for $1 and Megan thinks it's for her to ride around on. Of course, we don't help discourage her because it's fun to zoom her around on that little thing.
A trip to the outlet mall held some fun for Megan too!
We got to go to the pool while Uncle Dan was here - Megan loves her little boat (at least for about 10 minutes she does).But according to Megan the best is when you enjoy a popsicle with her.And she was always so appreciative when you helped her up after little tumbles. She hates getting her hands dirty.We are all hoping we didn't give you any little germies to take back with you. :^)
And we are looking forward to our next trip up your way.

HFM part 2

Just an update...
If your child gets this..... be sooooooo sweet to them - it stinks!
They say that IF an adult gets it (very unlikely since it's a "kid" illness) that they usually don't have any symptoms. Only like 1-5% of adults have any outward symptoms......

I'm off to buy a lottery ticket!

I thought the mouth ulcers were bad.... until I realized they were still coming up, spreading and getting worse. THANK THE LORD that my Dr. just called in a prescription for numbing mouthwash for me cause I can't eat or drink. And low and behold last night while I was sleeping I broke out into tiny little blister like bumps all over my fingers and my toes (and they itch). Oh yeah - not so good. So I'm wondering... am I contagious at this point? No one seems to know. Because evidently I'm not supposed to actually get it... so ???????????

Megan is feeling better now... good for her!
I would hate to imagine how a child would respond to this - I'm hating having it but I can honestly say, I'm soooo glad it's me and not her. I can handle the blistery bumps -- and hopefully the mouthwash will handle the rest!

HFM and 15 months

Yeah - if you are parent of a little one you probably know what that is....
Hand Foot Mouth Disease...
We got it...
Thankfully it's a really mild case! Megan had only about 36 hours with a fever and no mouth ulcers (which I heard are the worst) and only a couple of little blisters.... somehow - we think she gave it to me.

Hhhuuummmmm... guess I wasn't immune to whatever strain she got. I was down for the count yesterday. Sorry to all my friends at church. When my back was hurting so badly and I thought I had just strained it from lifting Megan - seems I had a fever and was in the midst of all those fever aches.... Got home and collapsed for the rest of the day and night. I'm feeling a bit better today but I now know why Megan is sooo fussy. If she feels as icky and just "blah" as I feel - I get it. I'd be cranky too! Oh heck - I am!

In the midst of all that we had our 15 month check-up today. The Dr said her HFM case is very mild and she'll probably start feeling better very soon (after this nap would be lovely for me).
OK now for all the important stats....

Height - 31 1/2 inches (75%)
Weight - 23 lbs 14 oz (50-75%) - I would have sworn she weighed more.
She's doing great and handled her shot very well. We split up some shots and she only had one this time.

I have lots of pictures to upload and get on here!
I'll work on that but wanted to get this posted in case Megan woke up. Our schedule is all shot today with the Dr's appt. in the middle of her nap time and her overall crankiness.... sometimes you just need an extra nap!

lemons

So you have to wonder... why do kids like lemons when they can't stand to actually eat them?
Megan always "begs" for our lemons - and when we give them to her... this is what we get....

Uncle Dan

Finally, Uncle Dan arrived. It was a bit of an adventure for him to get here. My family came over early to go to the pool before he got here and we had a cookout.

The sad news - the pool was randomly closed. Don't know why....
But we were all dressed and ready to get wet so we pulled out Megan's water table and her little wading pool and had some fun with the kids in the driveway.

Then on Sunday we all met up at Grandma and Granddad's house for another cookout (this time with Granddad cooking ribs - yummo!). Megan got some fun playtime in with everyone. She had some time to snuggle with Uncle Dan... Megan was having a good time on the couch with Uncle Dan and Daniel while watching this....

Justin and Anna attacking Granddad.

OK Granddad - hope you can still move today.... :^)

Grandma got in some storytime with Anna.

Clips of fun

Just so you can feel like you were there....

Uncle Dan, we are so sad about the flight delay but are glad you'll make it in tomorrow... We got all the dinner plans worked out! :^) Yum!

Speaking of YUM....

Megan has started to use a fork. Don't think for a second that she's mastered a spoon - oh no. Way to hard - everything just slides right off. So randomly I gave her a bite of food off my fork and she grabbed it and started eating with it. Needless to say the next trip to the store was for some baby forks. She's still learning and gets frustrated with "slippery" food - but it's so cute to watch her determination to get it.

Water Fun

Summer is here and the temps are already in the 90's...
So we headed to the pool!!!

Megan's getting the hang of walking in the baby pool. Our little friend Will came to play with us. We had a blast!
Later yesterday afternoon we had more water fun (the pool time wasn't enough) we refilled the water table and splashed some more.
I've got more to post later - but now we are off to a concert at the mall.

A milestone

OK for some perhaps it's not a milestone - but it should be.

For a long time we've been trying to get Megan to blow kisses - and today she up and started without any prompting. We were heading out to the post office and I told her to say goodbye to Daddy (who was working from home) and suddenly she burst into a freenzy of kiss blowing. It was so sweet and we got the final moments on camera before she walked herself to the car (obviously not realizing what a big day it was for us!).

Fun days and celebrations

Megan is enjoying cooling off at the pool these days. She's taken to being a dare devil in the pool which has caused my heart to skip a few beats. Her most recent declaration of independence is to walk into the center of the baby pool and then dive head first into the water (no she can't stand up by herself in that position- so I jump in to grab her out of the water and she is laughing). But we've had some good laughs as well. Hard to believe that the "splashing queen" was the same child who HATED the bathtub just a few months ago. After a good playtime in the kiddie pool, Megan almost always goes to her bag and scoops out her snacks. She's a people watcher so there's lots of entertainment, even when she's not in the water.

And... the inner artist is begining to surface. Megan has finally realized that she's the only kid who doesn't seem to be getting crayons. So after a stop out this weekend, Megan finally got her hands on some crayons. After a little tutorial and some prompting she started scribbling (sort of) away. And was very happy with her artwork..... Of course if you turn your head for a second the crayon is in her mouth.
AND... we have to say - HAPPY BIRTHDAY RAYNA!
It's Rayna's first birthday!!!! We loved celebrating with you this weekend and can't wait for some future playdates!

Catching Up

Just wanted to catch you up with some of the things we've been up to...

GARAGE SALES...
First I have to say - a few weeks ago our neighborhood had their big neighborhood garage sale. I couldn't get my act together enough to participate as a seller - so of course I showed my support by shopping... we got some great deals!

This fun table is one that I actually considered buying for Megan a long time ago.
It can be an activity center for a baby with stuff that hangs down (I'm sure they use a more technical term), or you can turn the main tray sideways for a baby who is sitting, or straight for kids who are standing and cruising, or like this little desk and the bench becomes a stool. The really fun part is that you can flip the tray over and the other side is a writing area with a paper clip. How fun is that! Megan LOVES it! It was well worth $5 (especially since it's 10X that in the store).

And we scored a great grill...
For Megan....

My family has been talking about a "grill-0ff" to see who can make the best ribs. and I think Megan has secretly been planning a last minute entry into the contest. So watch out Granddad and Uncle Kevin. Until it's official - she's been pushing that grill all over the place outside. It even comes with grill tools - which I recently found in the bathroom??????? go figure.

While we are on the topic of things mysteriously ending up in other places..... We've been looking for our cable remote for 2 days. It's been driving up crazy because we can't find it anywhere. So tonight on our 100th search through the house I stumbled upon it (literally) in our closet. Of course, silly me - what a great place to keep a remote.... Megan tends to walk off with things and then drop them when she finds something more interesting. So it makes me wonder - what shoe did she wander off with?????

OUTINGS....

And just so you have a glimpse of the world from my angle ---

This is what you see when you take 2 toddlers to the park:

Last week we met up with some friends at the Zoo and had a great time. Megan LOVED the animals -- at least she did once I got her off the playground. :^)


(Shelby helped show Megan the ropes of all the fun to be had at the zoo - Thanks Missy, Shelby and Jackson!)