Cold Weather Won't Stop Megan

Wearing her winter hat we bought her to wear last year and a winter coat that was too small for Alexandra Harrington (thank you she loves it) Megan is ready to play outside. Megan knows that when I put on her socks and shoes we are going to go outside and she can barely sit long enough to get shoes on. She loves being outside!

When it was warmer out Megan would just play in and out of the garage for hours and she wasn't really crazy about taking walks. Now that it is cold out, the first thing she does is walk to the stroller and point. She gets in, I wrap her legs in 2 blankets and off we go. She likes to point at decorations as we walk. We gets lots of looks from people who are driving in their warm cars, not so nice looks either. But my theory is, "As long as it's not icy, rainy, snowy, or terribly windy, we're going to be outside!" Am I wrong for thinking this?

I think I re-started this stroller trend last weekend. We were inside all day and Megan started getting antsy around 5:30, too early for dinner and dark outside. I wrapped her up just like this, handed her a plastic bug lantern and off we went on a night time walk. She loved looking at all the lights, street lights, car lights, porch lights, she had a blast. At one point when there were a lot of cars coming towards us, Megan held up her light as if it was her head light, it was very cute.

After our walk next up is going for a bike ride. I carry Megan and the bike to the sidewalk and away she goes. Most of the time she goes backwards, but she doesn't care. As you can see from the video below, she likes her bike.

I had to take a picture of me in full "mommy mode" Megan always takes her baby outside and I asked if her baby was cold (Megan has misplaced her baby's shirt) Megan shock her head that her baby was cold and then handed me the baby. So being a mom, I put her baby in my coat to keep her warm.

The next day was a little colder and windier but we were still outside. Megan chose to ride in her convertible to take in the great weather. With a fleece blanket wrapped around her bum, a blanket to fill the gap by her legs and the second layer to her new coat (thanks again Harrington's!) we were off. I don't know if it was because she couldn't move her arm that well (think "A Christmas Story") or if she is dreaming of becoming a NASCAR driver but Megan would only turn the steering wheel to the left. After a few blocks of "turning" left I was cracking up. Oh good times, cold, but good!

Ready for the Holidays

After this week, the Schutte Family is officially ready to celebrate a very happy and a very healthy holiday season. This year has been a year where lots of our close friends and family have been through some not so happy things. From cancer to knee replacements to a soldier in Iraq this year was difficult, but I am happy to say that just in time for the holidays all of the not so great news has turned into fantastic news!!! The two wonderful women, my mom and Michele, who fought breast cancer have beat it! Papa Schutte has recovered from two knee replacement surgeries! This week we learned that our family friend, Jannae Schloemer, has beat Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma for the third time! Last but not least, Sunday at 9:00am my friend Angie Ringman will get to see her husband and father to her 2 children home safe from Iraq after a 15 month tour of duty (his 3rd tour)!!!

So as you can see this holiday season is extra special for us and our friends and family. We wish everyone a safe, happy and healthy holiday season. Happy Holidays!

Kitchen stools, diaper bin and lactose...

We have discovered that Megan will let us work in the kitchen as long as she is able to see what we are doing. So that means standing on a stool. We had great intentions of building a "kitchen tower" over the summer but that didn't happen. So I think we are going to breakdown and buy one from Williams-Sonoma just because I do not feel safe with Megan on a stool. This way everyone wins, it is a little (a lot) pricey, but it will get used for years in the kitchen.

To explain why Megan is in the sink...she was standing on a stool next to me while I washed dishes (we don't have a dishwasher) I was done, but Megan wanted no part of being done standing up high where she could see things. She was soaking wet from "helping" me with dishes, so I stripped her down put her in the sink and gave her a messy biter biscuit. She loved it and I was able to clean out my cupboards.

Doesn't this just look horribly uncomfortable? She laid like this for about 5 minutes. They really are made of rubber!

The last few weeks Megan has had some very rough nights. She would wake up around 12:00 screaming. When I went to check on her she would cling to me with a death grip. She was having REALLY bad gas and would just scream in pain. We did everything to help her get rid of the gas. Just when she would try to settle in and go back to bed she would sit up and scream again. This process last 3 hours almost every night. Because is was gas related and not her wanting to party I didn't prevent her from exploring. I kind of made it ok to read books, but she couldn't get toys out (I had to draw the line somewhere) Since she couldn't play with her toys, she played with her diaper bin. These pictures where not taken at night, she was never this happy at 1:00 AM!

Because she was awake for three hours in the middle of the night trying to get gas bubbles out she got kind of sick of me holding her/squeezing her/trying to get her to sleep. So she sought comfort in Baron and no cuddles with him when she starts to get sleepy (cute) If you notice, Baron is holding one of the stacking plastic balls in his mouth. Mark and I put one of his tennis balls inside and we wanted to see how big of a ball Baron would hold in his mouth. It was funny, because he would not let go of the plastic ball!

After 2 weeks of Megan waking up in pain I called the doctor to see what was going on. Dr. Hunter thought it sounded like Megan was having problems with the lactose in milk. Mark was thinking that but I didn't think that because she was eating cheese and yogurt since 8 months. Dr. Hunter said that some kids can tolerate cheese and yogurt but not milk (who knew) So now Megan is drinking lactose free milk (expensive) The first two night after switching, Megan slept trough the night :) The third night she didn't go to sleep because of gas. So today I cut out the cheese and yogurt and she just drank the lactose free milk and she went to bed just fine. So I am going to have a few days of figuring out what dairy products Megan can tolerate. Time will tell, cross your fingers she can have some dairy just because she needs it. I'll keep you updated...

Leaves!!!

The last day that it was warm/dry Megan and I needed to rake leaves in the backyard. I pulled out some toys, blocked the deck stairs (16 feet wide) turned on the radio and started to rake. Megan loved it because it was the first time she was able to explore the backyard. Before if she was in the backyard she would climb the steps and eat grapes, she never explored anymore then the grape plants. So she loved finding different places to hide and explore.

I'm sad that the picture is blurry but you can still see that she was helping me out. I had to get her the other rake so she and I could both rake leaves. She got the hang of it. She was very cute. We didn't get all of the leaves before Megan had enough but we made a dent. It's up to Daddy to get the rest of the wet leaves :)

From Santa's Workshop...

Last week, Megan got her first official package from Santa's workshop, "The Elf on a Shelf"
Santa sends out lots of elves each year to different houses to help him keep on eye on who is naughty and who is nice. Santa sends along a book with each elf to explain all of the rules the elf has to follow. We need to give him a name but haven't settled on one yet.

Megan was excited to open the package from Santa.

Here she is meeting Santa's personal helper for the first time. She doesn't know it yet, but he will be with the Schutte family for a long time. He is sitting on a shelf right now and she says good night to him every night before she goes to bed and he leaves to report back to Santa.

Now that she is used to seeing him sitting on the fireplace he can move around. I heard that he likes to be in a different spot each day, so she will have to look for him in his hiding/spying spot. I'm so happy that Santa sent one of his elves so we can start a Schutte Family Christmas tradition.

Any suggestions for elf names would be appreciated...

A Girl and Her Walnut...

When it was still nice out, Megan found a walnut that a squirrel left by the steps. She played with it all afternoon. Then we put toys away and went on with making dinner. The next day when we went outside to play, I opened the garage to get Megan's toys out and she went searching for something. I didn't realize it, but the day before Megan put her walnut away in a plastic bin and she wanted to play with it again. I got her walnut out of the bin and she grinned from ear to ear.

She has also discovered that it is really fun to play with EVERY plastic thing in the recycling bins. So to make her walnut happy she found a dish for her walnut to sit in (on the right)

Like all things she had to see if the walnut was edible. Yes, technically it is, but not in this form or for a 1 year old.

Taking her walnut for a walk or running from mom because she thinks I will take her walnut. She likes her walnut and even put it in the same bin to play with the next time we are outside. Hope she still has fun playing with the walnut with gloves on!

Party Trick!

Our goober child worked very hard to pull off this "party trick." She's cute!

Cute baby in a robe!

I was cleaning/sorting through tons of clothes and found a robe that Grandma Schutte got for Megan. I put it aside a while ago because it was too big and she wasn't ready to wear a robe. Well now that she is ready for a robe it's just a wee bit too small. Very cute, but too short. She loves it and knows that after she is dry she gets to wear her fluffy robe.

Does anyone know where I can find a robe for a child Megan's size? Every robe I have found is either 0-12 months then it skips to 2 Tod Robe makers seemed to have skipped 12-18-24 month sizes. A 2 Tod is just too long, but Megan likes her robe and our house is cold after her bath :(

You'll notice that she is holding lotion and is bringing it to me. The funny thing is that she HATES when I put lotion on her. But I don't want her to have dry skin (apparently babies can get dehydrated if they have dry skin) So I make it as quick as possible when putting lotion on Megan.

She just looks so grown up walking around in her robe! She is just too cute I can't stand it!

Halloween Fun

Wednesday night we went to the Country Club for their Kids Halloween Party. We met up with my parents and the Olsavers. Went we got there they had games to play, food to eat and a balloon man making really cool balloon things. Here is Megan dressed as an Adrian College Hockey player. She loves her jersey and couldn't bring myself to buy a costume when she has no clue what Halloween is.

F.Y.I. Megan's black eye is fake. She has had some falls but this is all make-up.

Rosemary Olsaver just before she pelted the poor ghost with bean bags. She was a very cute fairy. Anytime she was picked up, she would flap her arms and fly like a fairy and say "I'm a fairy, I'm a fairy"

Megan liked watching the balloon man when he was making something for Rosemary. She kept her eye on him when he was making her turtle but wasn't sure about him until he gave her the turtle.

Her turtle with a very stretchy tail. Megan really liked being able to stretch the tail and fling the turtle around.

Getting ready to eat lasagna! But while waiting for food she was very content playing with a pumpkin ball string thingy. Just in case you were wondering her bib says, "I'm so cute it's spooky"

If Megan wasn't laughing this might seem like a form of abuse. But lucky for us, Megan loved when Grandpa tickled her.

Then for actual Halloween, Megan was (it hurts me to admit this) a Michigan Cheerleader. She received this as a Christmas gift last year from the Coyne family because everyone on the Schutte side is a Michigan fan verses my side that is Ohio State. She looked cute, just in the wrong colors.

She managed to grab a sucker and had it for about 30 seconds before she got the wrapper off then cried her head off when I took it away. Mean mom I know but she barely has 4 teeth she doesn't need a sucker just yet.

To the Coyne Family: I hope you are happy to see Megan wearing Michigan stuff. I make no promises that she will wear it again unless Conary wants a Michigan Cheerleader at his Lego competition.

Because I'm a Nerd...

The other day Megan and I got up and started our day like all the others; walk downstairs, let Baron out, open the shade so Megan can look outside...I looked outside and saw leaves falling from our tree so fast it looked like it was raining. I have never seen leaves fall like this. I just kept watching and grabbed the camera because it is one of those things that if you don't see it, it not really that exciting hearing about it. I thought it was amazing to watch knowing that ALL of the leaves were still green. Then I looked at the clock after 30 most of the leaves were off of the tree and by the time Mark got home, all of the leaves were gone from the branches only to leave a huge pile underneath.

So because I am a nerd I had to post the video for everyone to see.