French fries, lemonade and animals...

Last week Megan went to her first Lenawee County Fair. Mark and I go to the fair each year to get french fries, lemonade and to check out the animals. I really want a baby cow but until they create a genetically altered calf that will stay a calf, I have to get my fix at the fair.

So cute picture of Megan right? She just loved people watch as Grandpa carried her around. What you can't see in this picture is Adrian's finest. There was a group next to us that was showing off their 7/8 month old to their teenage friends and then proceeded to let the 7/8 month old drink Pepsi right from the can! Yep, got to love fair week!

Megan thought the pigs were funny because they were big blobs that made funny noises.
We met up with Grandma, Grandpa and the Wiley's in the cow barn. We also lost our daughter to Grandpa, he stole her and carried her around the rest of the fair.
Big moo-moo cow! We saw a lot of cow butts, which isn't the best for pictures. But Grandpa was able to walk around this guy to give Megan a better look. Apparently Megan liked the cows because the next day at the grocery store Megan saw a huge picture of a cow and talked to him loudly with excitement!
We needed a low key animal after an incident in the horse barn. We were looking at a horse that seemed excited. He would stick his head out of the stall the turn in a circle, then stick his head out again. Megan was just watching him and we were slowly moving on to the next horse. Megan was in the middle of sticking her hand out (like in the pig picture) when the horse looked at her a neighed the longest and loudest neigh I have ever heard. Megan's little face froze in fright, then she screamed her head off like I have never heard before. So hence we went to see the ducks to calm her down.
NEVER GOING TO HAPPEN!!!
Again, never going to happen!!! Too dangerous.

Tunnel of FUN!!!

Last week when Grandma wanted to get out of the house she made a trip to IKEA and of course got Megan a few things. Next to the $.49 fish this tunnel was Megan's favorite. At first she wasn't sure about it, but after so experimenting, we got Megan to crawl through. Then she was hooked and kept crawling in and out.
She really liked taking random toys with her through the tunnel and as she got more comfortable she started to stop and sit in the middle. In this picture Mark was rubbing the top of her head. At first she didn't know what was going on but then she was all giggles.
Cute little butt shot! Just proof that I do put her in skirts (and that she can crawl in a skirt!) She had so much fun with the tunnel. She has played with it a few times since these pictures were snapped and she still likes taking toys from one side to the other. She is really into emptying things then putting all of the items back inside so I'm sure to her taking toys through the tunnel is just a HUGE game of emptying a box and the filling it back up. (kind of an abstract example, but you get the idea)

Practicing for Uncle Jason's Visit

Of course this picture was taken on Sunday during our weekly Tim Horton's fix. Megan had finished mooching from our yogurts and was waiting for her Timbit when I had to try something. I wanted to see if the bag would stay on her head. It did! She didn't even try to take it off!
As a kid my mom took lots of pictures of my brother and me in chef hats, so I was just following the tradition. I think our early introductions to chef hats helped both of us feel at ease in kitchens. I like to cook and have made all of Megan's baby food but my brother, Jason, really liked wearing chef hats and became a chef!

I like to think that Megan kept her chef hat on because she heard that her Uncle Jason was coming to meet her soon. In a few weeks, Jason will finally meet Megan in person, and then he will cook for us (yum) He is always crazy busy so it is hard for him to find time to come back to Adrian (I mean would you want to have your vacation in Adrian???) So I am excited for him to meet Megan.
Megan really likes her Tim Horton's yogurt! I'm sure the reason why it taste so good is because it has a ton of sugar in it, but it has a ton of real berries so it's better than nothing! For the record, Megan only has about 4 bites of this yogurt, her normal yogurt in much healthier.

11 Months Old (already)

So Megan's 11 month photo shoot went almost like her 10 month photo shoot! She was having so much fun rolling off her elephant the second I put her down. It was fun and she was all smiles. I have a picture frame that has holes for each month, so it will be public knowledge to anyone in our house that when Megan turned 10 months old, she no longer wanted to pose for a picture. Hopefully, when she turns one (scary thought) she will pose so I can have a nice picture for the frame. If not, the frame will still be cute!

Of course she has learned some new things, such as:

• She can stand on her own, most of the time just standing up in the middle of the floor.
• She will "sing" along to any song that I sing.
• She can find Baron or Stella (the fish) when we ask her where they are.
• She can "scream" Stella's name when we talk about Stella.
• She loves eating crackers, even though still no teeth!!!
• She has taken about 4-5 steps but stops and crawls.
• She knows how to open cupboards and toy boxes and can empty them quickly.
• Still gets up twice a night, but her routine is solid so each day is pretty "easy" right now.
• And I think she has learned to say "mama" I'm sure to the untrained ear it doesn't sound like it, but her "mama" always sounds the same when she is looking at or for me. Still working on "dada/dad/daddy"

Yes it does look like she has a lot of hair in this picture. She is starting to grow hair but she doesn't have as much hair as this picture makes you think. She just seems to be a happy baby all the time. She only really cries when she is hungry, tired, or told "no". Mark and I know we are blessed to have such a happy baby. I would like to think parenting has helped achieve a happy baby, but really I don't know. We just follow our gut, and so far it has worked.
Don't you just hate it when you are playing in your living room and you get attacked by an elephant!?! And no Megan wasn't in pain, she was crawling and we were "chasing" her with the elephant. In this picture she fell to the ground because she was laughing and couldn't crawl because she was laughing so hard.

10 Month Photo

1 Month Photo

Just Megan's Size

Megan's new chair came yesterday and she has fallen in love. She was sleeping when Mark opened it, so in her dazed, just woke up state, I told her she had a present. I handed her to Mark and he took her over to see her chair. I think it took her about 2.2 seconds to wake up and climb into her new chair. She was grinning from ear to ear.
Doesn't she just look happy!?! She spent the next few mintues climbing into and out of her chair. We had to leave to go eat dinner at Grandma and Grandpa's house and she was not happy that she had to get out of her chair. We brought the chiar with us, not because she was mad, just to show it off.
When she got up this morning she went right for the chair! Too cute. I'm glad she likes it because it was kind of expensive. I got this chair because it has a slip cover that can be washed! I also got an extra slip cover beacuse we will have this chair for awhile (we want more kids someday) and I was thinking ahead and bought an extra cover because I didn't want to wait until I needed one and then not be able to find one a few years down the road. Plus this blends in with our decor. We have enough stuff that screams "baby" when given the option I always buy plain, neutral stuff!

And the Winner Is...Daddy!!!

First lets start with Megan's latest cute thing she does all the time. About a week ago she started resting her arm on her hip when someone is holding her or if she is leaning against something. It is very cute. She looks like she is giving us attitude with her hand on her hip, but she really does it out of habit. It's weird how things that I thought are "taught" to kids are really just kind of habits and that kids really do pick up on everything. Megan doesn't really give "kisses", she always turns her head when we try to give her a kiss. But the other day she saw Mark give me a kiss as he left for work and when he went to kiss her she gave him a kiss! So now she has to watch us before she will give us a kiss. It is very cute! And she thinks it is hilarious!
Now on to the winner of the Lenawee Country Club's Men's Member/Guest Invitational...Daddy!!! That's right golf actually does pay off! mark spent Thursday through Saturday playing golf (and drinking) Last year he did pretty good winning money with "skins" but this year he won 2 skins and won the whole invitational. So he won his money back and enough to pay for the chair from Pottery Barn that I just bought Megan, everybody wins! It was fun to see Mark excited about his golf game.

So why am I buying toys???

So this is one of Megan's favorite spots to play in. We have a wooden box the sit on the shelf and awhile ago she was interested in the box but then forgot about it. She found it again about a week ago and will spend about 15 minutes examining the box. After she has studied the box she then climbs into the table and just sits.
Yes, I realize I have already posted pictures of her doing this same thing, but now she does it everyday. She has spent months exploring our house and finding all of the fun things to play with and yet she still comes back to climb under the table. So why do I try to find exciting toys for her???

She does have one more favorite spot in the house. But I have to get pictures of that, although a video would be better because there is funny repetitive motion involved. I'll try my best.

Get Well Soon Grandma

Right now as I am typing this my mom is in surgery having a mastectomy because she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Hopefully this is the only procedure she will have to endure as her treatment. We just wanted to send our well wishes while she is in surgery. We will be at the hospital as soon as she is in her room (I will 2 minutes away and only my Dad could go back while she is in surgery) So when she starts feeling better she can get online and know we are thinking of her. (They have wireless Internet at the hospital)

Mom/Grandma,
We love you and can't wait until your back to your happy, creative, loving and energetic self. We'll be here for whatever you need for as long as you need it. Heal fast, because Megan will need some hugs soon!

On a side note: Cancer Sucks!!!

What a Weekend (part 2)

So who says you can't be in two places at once!?! On Sunday, we were at a "Thomas the Train" birthday party AND at a "Princess" birthday party at the same time! That's because Owen and Grace turned 3 and they both wanted different party themes.
There were lots of activities for all of the kids. They could swim, swing, ride bikes, throw Frisbees and of course eat cake! Megan was just a little too young to be with the big kids but she played with a lot of things once the big kids moved on to other activities.
Poor Megan, she has spent her whole life riding backwards that as soon as she crawled into the Jeep, she turned around to face backwards!
She did however know where the gifts were! She crawled over multiple times to get in the action. All she wanted was a box and a bow and she was happy. Gracie was very nice and let Megan play with on of her bows.

Here is Megan crawling towards the gifts. This is how she crawls on grass most of the time. More proof that she is half monkey!

Before the party we had an open house at our house because we are trying to sell it. Because we couldn't be at home while it was going on we went to Grandma and Papa's house. They are still on their RV cross country trip, but I promised to have the fishing net hung before they got home. Here is the end result, I tried to make it look rustic (it looks better in person). I hope Papa likes it, he is very particular and he knows better then I do on what a fishing net should look like. But if he doesn't like it, I will gladly redo it with his input. (But I hope he likes it now)

What a Weekend (part 1)

This weekend was filled with gathering with friends and family. We started with dinner at El Chaps on Thursday with my parents, the Chambers' and the whole Wiley family (which is very rare) Here is a picture of Kyrah Wiley holding Megan, Shonn Wiley is in the background. Kryah lives near Atlanta and Shonn lives in NYC so it was fun seeing them together. Plus Kyrah is very newly pregnant, so it was really fun seeing her. We are SO happy for you Kyrah!

After we got home from the BBQ at my parents house, Megan thought Baron needed to be hand fed. I grabbed the camera after she had already fed him about 6 pieces of food so this sort shows you what they were doing. Sometimes I am shocked how well behaved Baron is. Megan is slowly learning to watch Baron eat but sometimes she just has to play with his food. But I see that as an improvement because she only tries to eat his food half of the time now.

Still Climbing!

Seriously, Megan is fearless! As you can see she climbed onto our end table and wanted to climb the lamp. She knows where she wants to go, and will use whatever she can to get there. This journey started on the floor where I was laying down playing with her (Mark was on the couch) She the step on my hand then step on my neck to get onto the couch. She crawled over to Mark, then crawled away from him towards the table. Next it was onto the arm of the couch and wallah, she was on the table!

She can also climb to the top of our steps in about 15 seconds. But she has learned that if she climbs UP the steps, she has to climb back DOWN the steps! She cries when she is crawling down, even if she choose to come down. She's our little monkey, and we love her!