Hockey 101 for Megan

Megan sits watching all of the other kids getting their hockey gear on. Mark has gotten really good at quickly getting her gear on, which comes in handy on the early mornings when the alarms don't go off!

Megan watching the Zamboni clean the ice before her first hockey practice. A.K.A. the first time Megan would try to skate without holding our hand AND in full hockey gear!

She didn't want to let go of Mark's hand so a coach came over to help her. Mark quickly got of the ice and Megan has been fine ever since.

Megan following directions from Coach Nick. (last one still standing)

Here is Megan skating during the first week of practice. I was so proud of her! She was all smiles.

She needed a break after that long skate!

She was ready to come off of the ice a few minutes early, but still all smiles! Her skates weren't staying on so she had to work extra hard and the coaches kept trying to tighten them. After week 1, Megan needed "new" ice skates.

Week 2: Megan's "new" skates didn't have long enough laces so her ankles were very wobbly. Of course it was the week when lots of people came to watch her...she sat most of the time.

Week 3: New skates, new pink laces and she was ready to go! Here she is skating around the net, following her coach where ever he went.

Going into week 4, Megan set a goal of trying to skate the whole time without holding onto anyone. She did it!!! And I think she told everyone she cold that she skated without holding onto anyone :)

After skating most of the time, she needed to rest next to her friend Grace. I think they are the only girls on the ice during this skating time.

Here (should have been) a video of Megan skating during the fourth week of hockey, nice improvement huh!?! It was after this success that Megan really starting liking hockey practice. She is a very proud girl and was starting to get frustrated but now she has the hang of things and loves going. She said her next goal is to shoot a puck, hopefully before week ten,this will happen! The video was too long. I will take a short video next week to post so you can see her improvement.

TIGER PICTURES!!!

Here is Joey's first set of Tiger pictures. He was 4 days old and weighed 7lbs. 9oz. I love love love this picture, he was still so curled up and little.

Look at those bright eyes, not bad for being 4 days old!

All stretched out by the time I took his 1 month pictures. He weighed 10lb 9oz. Yep, you read that right, he gained 3 pounds in one month!

He wasn't really happy about this photo shoot, so we had to take a break to come back to try again. He was much happier the second time.

For his 2 month tiger pictures, I had a hard time getting him to lay still because he was so happy and giggly :) So some pictures looks very goofy because they would mid-laugh.

At his 2 month well-baby visit Joey weighed 12lbs 2oz, which I thought was big for a 2 month old, but he was in the 50th percentile for head, length and weight. He just seems so big because Megan was so little (1oth percentile).

This was the best picture I could get. All of the other pictures he had his mouth wide open because he was laughing so much. It was fun and he loved his soft tiger.

Joey is growing fast and learning new things everyday. He has been able to hold his head up since about the moment he was born. He is "talking" like crazy and loves to grin from ear to ear when he recognizes a face he knows. He loves watching Megan play and after a few weeks he now loves taking bathes. Joey is a great sleeper and eats well. For the most part he is a very easy going baby just like Megan was. He only cries when he is hungry and when his belly bugs him, most of the time is is all smiles or is sleeping :)

I don't know about you, but I think they are pretty cute!

Adrian College Homecoming

Megan and Rosemary waiting for the parade to start,

As soon as the parade started Joey woke up and watched the whole thing. He loved the marching bands and every young woman walking in the parade LOVED him in his Bulldog jersey.

Then we went to the AC campus to stop and look at the animals at a petting zoo.

Then off the the big bouncy slide (that was sort of on a hill making the slide even steeper!)

This was the first of many, MANY trips up and down the slide.

Next the girls watched a kind of pathetic yo-yo show. All of the kids got free yo-yos to learn the tricks with the yo-yo guy. Well, it was kind of hard to learn tricks when the yo-yo was to long and the yo-yo guy was talking more about Star Wars than about the yo-yo.

After spending at 10 minutes winding up the yo-yo, this was Megan's trick. Yep, she mastered how to unwind a yo-yo!

I think the girls had a good time, don't you!?!

Then later that night Megan and Rosemary had their first sleepover at Rosemary's house. So needless to say it was a fun filled weekend.

A couple "firsts" for Joey

Ok this might now be his "first" smile, but it was the first picture of him grinning from ear to ear. I think I took this about 2 days after he started smiling when he recognized our faces. Now he coos and smiles a lot, which is just so much fun for all of us. But I think Megan likes it the best. She LOVES when Joey smiles at her.

First bottle. Fingers crossed Joey will drink from a bottle unlike his sister when she was a baby. He has a had a couple bottles and he doesn't seem to mind them, when he wants food, he wants food! So maybe, just maybe this will continue and I can be away from him for more than 3 hours at a time. (Geez, that sounds like I don't like being with my baby, but that not what I meant at all)

Megan's Soccer "School"

Megan has always been interested with soccer, so when the City of Adrian had a soccer program for 4 year old we signed Megan up. We told her it was going to be a "soccer school" instead of a soccer team. She was excited and loved shopping for shin guards with Daddy. She even had to wait to put them on at the field just like Daddy!

We were there a little early, so Megan and Mark started kicking the balls around. When Megan made a goal she turned and gave a her Daddy a high five...it was very cute!

Megan being Megan, waited her turn. She waited and waited for a ball to come to her, but after awhile she just ran into the goal where the soccer balls were collecting and started to shoot.

I little warm up stretch!

More stretching.

Megan needed a little rest.

She shoots...she scores!!!

After things were done, she ran up to Mark and gave a him a big hug. Not sure what Mark loved more, watching his daughter play soccer or getting a great big hug from her when she was done.

Yay, she got her soccer shirt. When we got in the car she asked if she could sleep in her soccer shirt :)

Before we go to soccer Megan makes sure that Joey is wearing his soccer shirt and at the end of soccer Megan always goes over to Joey, kisses his nose and asks him if he had fun watching her. It is very cute!

So as you can see Megan kind of likes this soccer stuff. It will be interesting to see in a couple years what sport she ends up playing. She is a our little athlete, and so far any sport she has tried, she is a natural at. All Mark and I hope for is that she finds something she has a passion for. We don't care what, just something she enjoys. Only time will tell what it is, until then we will have fun watching Megan try lots of new things.