30 Minutes Until Bedtime!

Every night I give Megan a 30 minutes warning before we need to head up stairs to get ready for bed. I give the warning and say "Ok do you want to run around the house?" She gets up and waits for Mark and I to get up and run around with her. Yes, I realize it might seem odd to get her excited/hyper right before bedtime, but for some reason it works for us. We run around our house in a circle, sometimes she chases us, sometimes we chase her, occasionally Baron will join in the mix but it almost always ends up with each of us trying to hide from the others.

When we first started running around and hiding Mark and I hid, but lately Megan started finding great spots to hide in. Above you can see her in her favorite hiding spot. Yes she hid all by herself... and yes we did have to slow down our running in order for her to finish hiding.

She is so funny when we run past her when she is hiding she laughs hysterically. Sometimes when she is hiding she will jump out at us right before we pass her. So much fun right before bedtime!

After we are done running around the house she will climb up the stairs and watch as Mark throws a beach ball over her head (best $.99 ever!) As he tosses the beach ball over her head, she bumps down the steps waiting for the beach ball to bump her head.

This picture is of Baron winning the pillow tug-o-war. Megan and Baron will steal pillows away from each other all day long. Megan knows if she takes a pillow Baron will chase her. He won this pillow and she climbed up the steps to sit next to her buddy and the prize.

Cheese!

Megan wanted to have the pillow in her mouth like Baron. Both of them are so funny with pillows, blankets and other weird items. They are the best of buddies and fun to watch.

So after this 30 minutes of weird playtime, Megan and Daddy say good night to various objects in the house and I take her upstairs to brush teeth, put p.j's on, read books then off the dream land to rest for the next day.

Fun at Grandma and Grandpa's

When I first looked at this picture, I was sadly able to see that my little baby isn't a baby anymore :( Megan just looks so grown up in this picture, but very cute (and yes I teared up a little when I saw this picture)

Megan got her tricycle for Christmas and loved being pushed around the house. Now that it is nice out she had been able to ride her trike at Grandma and Grandpa's backyard (thanks to the very flat concrete that was poured last year!) She can't reach the peddles yet, but that doesn't slow her down at all. I don't even remember showing her how to steer or anything but she is amazing to watch her back up, turn, and stop. Although she did get going a little fast after going down the "hill", we now have a helmet for her!

Let me just take a quick second to explain these following pictures...my parents have a "Brady" backyard. After years of trying to grow grass in the very shady backyard then adding a crazy Golden Retriever to the mix, they decided the best option for them was to have a Astro-turf backyard. It is awesome!

Last year they had the concrete redone so Megan was helping Grandpa cut the grass and nail it back into place.
Grandma was trying to give Megan another lesson on how to use the hammer, but as you can see Megan wasn't paying attention. ***Note that my mom was doing this about 6 hours after having surgery on her shoulder!!! She is doing SO much better now***

Now she's got the idea!

At this rate she will come in handy for home remodels (that is whenever we buy a new house!)

Here she is in action. She caught on quick and lost interest quick! But she sure was cute while she was being such a big help.

The Return of the Ball Pit

The other day we had to bring the ball pit out so Megan had something different to play with. It had rained for a few days and was supposed to rain on and off for a few more days. On this morning it was sunny out after we ate breakfast and I asked Megan if she wanted to play in the backyard (because we were still in P.J's) and she said "uh-huh" We walked outside in sun but about 5 minutes later it started to sprinkle. Knowing we had to change our clothes anyways, we still played outside. But when it started raining harder, I had to find a way to make an outside baby happy....ah, we haven't played with the ball pit in a long time!

This time Megan had more fun filling the ball pit with anything and everything that would fit. You can't see them all but inside is a soccer ball, shower looffas, or course her turtle, her potty seat and random dog toys.

She also discovered that she could bend down the sides and make the whole thing move. She even managed to climb in by going through the roof (very funny to watch) She had lots of fun with the ball pit this time around.

I think I ran upstairs to grab a pair of socks and when I came down Megan and the ball pit were missing. Megan also discovered that she could move the ball pit around the house. She was able to drag it through the front room, over a plastic bin, a dog, a bumbo seat, past a vacuum cleaner...

...and this is where it ended up. It was stuck but she didn't let that stop here from playing! Goof ball! The ball pit is now back in the basement stored away for the next set of rainy days. I'm scared to think of what she will do with it next. I never would have guessed that she would have had so much fun playing with it.

Grandma and Papa are Home!!!

Mark's parents are back from spending the winter in Florida. So on Sunday we went out to spend some time with them and to get Megan used to seeing her other grandparents again. Since it has been awhile since we have been at their Michigan house, Megan was very shy when she walked in. She was ready for a nap, so I took advantage of her shyness and kept her calm and put her to sleep. Once she woke up she got a snack and then Grandma asked Megan if she wanted to go play under the stairs. Megan didn't even give it a second thought she grabbed Grandma's finger and walked to the stairs.

I can't remember if it was last summer or the summer before but Papa wanted to take advantage of the space under the basement steps. So he put some carpet down, added some shelves, a chalkboard and filled it with toys. It is/was a hit!!! All of the grandkids love playing in their. I think last summer Megan was carried in their a few times but was too small to enjoy it. But this time, she loved being in their. Plus I'm sure that Grandma enjoyed being able to play with Megan.

Here are the shelves that are under the stairs. This will probably be the only picture this summer of all the toys put away. Most of the time the toys are every where!

Megan is learning about the chalk board and eraser. It is kind of hard to see, but Papa put a split door in so just the bottom can close (perfect for playing store) or the top can close (perfect for "animals" to crawl in and out)

I was down there long enough to take these pictures then I headed back upstairs to let Grandma and Megan play. It was a good visit. It gave Megan a chance to get used to their house again so the next time we are there she can just start off playing!

Catching up on Pictures

Here are some pictures that have been taken since we got back from the cruise. I am going to give lots of little updates just to catch up on things. Starting with Megan's first pony tail!!! Her has been growing like crazy lately and I wanted to see if I could get a pony tail in. Megan sat pretty well for the first attempt. I think it was because I said I was trying to put a pony tail in and she heard the word "tail". Now I call them "tails" and she will sit still long enough for me to put one in. But right now her hair is so fine that "tails" are an at home hairstyle, because when a tail meets the carseat...bye-bye tail!

We have been outside everyday since the cruise (rain or shine) and the other day Megan saw her "sand box" in the garage so we had to get it out. I think she thought she was on the beach again!

Whoa! Grandma Berthold took the "sand box" to the next level! At her house she has a table to put her snacks on, then a sand box and next to it a tub of water.

At first she played with the sand and water by themselves, but when we showed her how the water sinks in the sand, she was fascinated by it. Then once the sand was wet, we showed her how she could build things with it. (we never showed her this on the beaches because it was too windy or not safe enough by the water because of the many women that wanted to braid HER hair!)
Learning about boo-boo bunny. Before bed Megan, Mark and I run around the house to get the last bits of energy out, plus it's fun to hear her laugh like crazy. But as we were running around she slipped and fell into a door opening. Mark and I thought for sure there was going to be blood every where, but luckily she was far enough back that she hit the wall right above her forehead. She cried but we introduced her to boo-boo bunny and that helped. Now whenever she says "boo-boo" or falls, she pats her heads, points to the wall that she hit, then points to where boo-boo bunny sleeps.

The picture above is her reminding us of where her boo-boo was. She showed us because I was trying to stop her from chewing on a puzzle piece. I had to tell her that she was hurting the hippo and he has a boo-boo where she chewed him. When she heard "boo-boo" she wanted to get her hippo boo-boo bunny.
Showing the camera the hippos boo-boos (the hippos feet)

Holding boo-boo bunny on her hippo.

But possibly the most exciting news is that Megan is starting the wonderful adventure of potty training. The first day back from the cruise Megan said "Poopy....potty" I asked her if she wanted to sit on the potty and said "Uh-huh" and ran to the bathroom. I didn't have a potty seat so I had to hold her on the potty and she pooped like she had been going on the potty for years.

So far Megan is about 50/50 with going on the potty. She will tell us when she wants to go potty and there are only a few times when we ask her if she wants to sit on the potty. I think that is pretty good for 3 weeks of going on the potty. Now my only problem is that panties/training underwear starts at a size 2T (about 3 times bigger then Megan's bottom) So if anyone knows where to find smaller training pants, let us know!