We are CRAWLING....

Oh my goodness..... Tonight we went to church to see the Christmas performance to cheer Dad on (he was singing in the choir). Megan was in the best mood because she took an almost 3 hour nap. She was so excited to see her cousins that she wanted to talk to them and play (especially her cousin Daniel - who is one of her namesakes)- unfortunately it wasn't really the place for it, so we ended up out in the narthex with some other friends and little ones. Megan decided she wanted to go see her friend Macie (Macie is almost 11 months old) - and she crawled right on over! I could hardly contain myself!!!! But as with all things, I knew that it would probably take weeks to get her do do it again (she likes to try something and then take a break until it suits her again).... but oh no - everytime I put her down after that, she's practicing. We got home tonight and I put her in her room to see what she would do and she promptly showed me all the things that are not baby-proofed. Ummm.. there was a lot! I was trying to video her crawling and had to keep dropping the camera to get the cord out of her mouth, or move her away from the blanket she could pull off the ottoman (since there was a basket of socks on top). I'll try to post a video later - I have to figure out how to get it off the camera and onto my computer. But I had to let you know - Megan is on the move!

Have a little Holiday fun....
Elf yourself!
The Blaisdell's have been elfed.... check us out at:
http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1271690792

When will the tooth come in...

I am absolutely amazed at how long it takes for an itty bitty tooth to actually break through the gum. Oh my goodness.... With Megan's first tooth I could feel it and see the little buds for several weeks. But then her second one shot through within a week later. Now we are working on our first top tooth. I can feel it in there, but it's not through yet. And it's been a rough time for Megan. Bless her heart, she just wants to chew on anything she can find. She had grown tired of our JeJe teether (see past teething blog) but today she had it in her mouth for almost a solid hour this morning. It stops vibrating every 7 minutes and I knew when 7 minutes had passed because she would throw it down. Then I'd hit the button to turn it on and she'd pick it back up. I'm trying to teach her how to turn it on herself, but that's a lesson for another day.

With all that teething going on, it's sometimes a battle of trying to keep her preoccupied so that she doesn't have a chance to get grumpy. We are trying to keep her on the floor as much as possible so that she'll finally get over her crawling hump and take off. (I know I'll regret wanting that as soon as she starts moving). She loves her doorway jumper.

Here's a picture of her jumping and in mid scream... it's a little blury due to all the activity and her eyes are closed - but you get the idea of how much fun she is having...

Today was a fun day for Megan. I went to a baby shower this morning and Megan got Daddy time! They evidently had a blast. Then by the time I got home it had warmed up to almost 70 degrees. Woohoo! A little blast of summer after a cold spell. It was so great we went for a really long walk (Which Megan loves - we'll have to get that on video to post), and then we played outside on a blanket for an hour. Let's just say Megan took some good naps today!! I'm hoping she'll keep it up so that maybe I can get our Christmas cards out on time this year.

Wade Family Weekend

This weekend was a fun weekend of celebrating with my family (The Wade side). We FINALLY had our big family dinner to celebrate my parents 40th anniversary. Now their anniversary was back in October, but that was such a busy time for everyone, the celebration just didn't happen. We are so blessed to have the role models of my parents who demonstrate how much they love, care and respect each other - that we had to celebrate and say thanks to them for doing so much for us. So our little family of 3, met up with them (grandma and grandad) and my brother's family (Kevin, Kelly, Daniel, Justin and Anna) and we headed to the Blue Willow Inn in Social Circle, GA. If you haven't been there - we all highly recommend it. It's a beautiful place and great food. The holidays are an extra special time to go because it's so beautifully decorated.

Here's the Blue Willow Inn all decorated for Christmas

Here's Daddy/Uncle Tom with our little Megan,

and our nephews Daniel and Justin and our niece Anna

My brother Kevin, Sister-in-law Kelly with the kids - Daniel, Justin and Anna

Our little family - Me, Tom and Megan

Having fun with Uncle Kevin and looking at leaves with Aunt Kelly

Mommy's girl - zonked out from all the fun

Shepherds and Sheep

To top off the weekend, we headed to see my nephews in their Christmas performance at Church. Daniel was one of the shepherd children, and Justin was a sheep. They did such a great job. It's always such a joy to watch the kids praise the Lord. Just warms my heart! And Megan LOVED it. She was so enamored with watching her cousins perform, and the lights and all the kids running around. I was worried that I'd end up standing outside with her - but she was so good during the whole performance.

Megan watching with Aunt Kelly

Playgroups, Crib time, and Daddy

Oh what fun... we had a playgroup today. It's always interesting when you try to plan a playdate with kids under the age of 1. Everyone has a different schedule of when to nap and when to eat. Half way through it, it was time for Megan's nap... but being the good hostess she was she stuck it out for till almost the end. Of course, that was while demanding to be held by mommy.

Nate and Megan

Megan, Nate and Sarah Michelle
Megan, Nate, and Rayna
Sarah Michelle and Andrew
Lately, Megan's naps have left a lot to be desired. All the books say (I'm realizing that textbook babies are few and far between - but hey, research is good) that when all those movement milestones are kicking in, kids wake up a lot and want to move. I believe it. Megan still hasn't mastered rolling over from her back to her stomach. Now it's not that she can't... she just chooses not to. She's done it before - but now it's just not what she wants to do. I'm seeing some strong willed trouble in my future. :^) But, when she wakes up, I'll go in and help her roll over - trying to get her to do it on her own (she's not catching on to that part of the equation). Once she's rolled over to her stomach, she can maneuver to anywhere in that crib. Her latest goal is trying to stand up in the crib. I'm usually watching her from from door, sometimes she knows I'm there (like today) and will try to climb up the high side of the crib (the end). It's like a giant game of peek-a-boo for her.

Once she wakes up she usually realizes that Daddy is home - either from work, or he's been working from home that day. The great thing about Daddy being home is that if he's on his lunch break, she gets Daddy story time.

If he's working (and she's in a good mood) then she'll get to play a little in the office. Lately that means trying to stand up on Daddy's chair. Are you catching the theme of pulling herself up...

It's been a great week. Hard to believe it's the end of November. Megan will be 9 months old in a little over a week - wow! I know December will hold a lot of fun memories!

The Holidays are Here

We put up our Christmas tree this past weekend. I don't think we've ever gotton it up the weekend after Thanksgiving, but this year seems to be so busy - that we had to do it early or else it wouldn't get done. Megan loves staring at it and if she could crawl, she'd be all over it! She loves looking at the lights and ornaments. Whenever she's fussy, it's the place to take her because she's mesmerized by it. We just have to keep her a good distance away from it, she's got a great lunge and grab.

Speaking of crawling... We are quickly trying to get the house babyproofed in anticipation of the day she finally realizes that she can go forward and not only scooch backwards. Megan loves trying to stand up already so if you put her next to anything she can lean on or grab, you better believe she's going to try to pull up. I was working in one of the guest bedrooms to work on covering the outlets and she was supervising and making sure I didn't miss anything.

Of course, when mommy told her little helper that she had to move and get off the wall and away from the outlet that she thought was a fun new toy (the one mommy was trying to cover up)...

Our other BIG discovery is solid food. As I've said in the past, Megan isn't crazy about the solid food. Unless you are giving her "puffs" (the Gerber puffs). Those she loves.... Almost to a fault. Little Miss Attitude has now realized that if she's in her highchair she gets puffs. The big struggle is getting baby food down her because all she wants are some puffs or a biter biscuit. Which of course have no nutritional value. And she likes exploring table food and loves to practice picking it up (her pincer grasp is getting good) but it goes in the mouth and then out of the mouth with a great show of displeasure. Yesterday we tried with some watermelon pieces (she loves the taste of it, but hates the texture) and some macaroni.

Have you noticed that Megan seems to be without clothes a lot... We are working on the crawling and she seems to be sliding around in her clothes. So in the morning and evening, she gets to go bare (mostly bare) so that she can get some traction.

Fun Family Times

Imagine this... 3 families consisting of 6 adults and 4 children (one under a year) all needing to smile at the same time. I'm telling you, our photographer needed a raise today! And in the end, it was a fun memory even with the goofy grins. 3 generations ranging in ages from 71years -8 months. What a joy! To top off the fun adventure to the mall for pictures, Megan got to go on her first merry-go-round. Her cousins kept her laughing and smiling while Daddy held her on the horse and mommy tried to take some moving pictures (not my camera so you'll have to wait for those to be posted). So fun!

Afterwards we had some family time and started to think about decorating for Christmas. We've started all the discussions of what kinds of family traditions do we want to have with Megan. Our families gave us some wonderful holiday memories and we want to do the same for Megan. So we are working through how to celebrate Advent, setting limits for gift giving so that it doesn't become a free for all, do we celebrate with Santa (which by the way is the source of many of our fondest childhood memories), what "tree trimming" traditions do we want to establish. We figure this year is our test run because it's not like Megan will remember it... I'd love to hear from my friends out there - what memories and traditions mean the most to you!?!?!?