Two New Additions...

First let me take a moment to talk about Megan's new skill. For over a week now Megan has learned how to stand all by herself. She can stand for over 15 seconds easily, but then her A.D.D. kicks in. But the impressive part is that in order for her to stand, she crawls to the middle of the floor then gets in a squat position then pushes herself up to stand. Yeah, I was impressed the first time I saw it. I guess most kids don't do that, at least that is what people tell me. But I have yet to get a picture because Megan is Megan and loves the camera!Check out Megan's new ride. It originally belonged to Morgan/Liam then it was passed to the Barber twins, Owen and Grace and now it is ours to use. Soon it will have a new paint job, to cover up the sticker goo, because I am weird and I have to cover up the sticker goo.
How does she know how to have her hands at 10 and 2??? Her whole life she has been facing backwards in the car and yet the second she got in the car she knew what to do. She can even honk the horn, it's very cute.
Megan and I were walking around the block when Mark got home, but when he came outside Megan had to show her car to Dad. She even convinced him to take her for another ride! Then after that, I took her for another ride. She LOVES this car!!! I think she likes it better then going for walks in her stroller because she can see all around her. I'm sure many miles will be walked with this car, but at least it gets great gas mileage!
Meet Stella, Megan's new fish. She came to our house because I thought Megan would like watching Stella swim around. The only problem is that Megan wants to pet her like she does Baron and that shakes her bowl which causes her to freak out. Will work on that. Oh well, Stella will be fun to watch, even if we can't touch her.

Just a quick visit

Thursday morning, the Coyne family (our nieces and nephew) left to go camping in a motor home for 2 weeks. We haven't seen the Coyne family in a while because they live in Canada, so Megan and I went out to Grandma and Papa's to seeing them set off on their travels. They were all excited to see Megan. Here is Kelsey holding Megan, I think Megan was sneezing in this picture.
Megan was watching Eeyore's ears flap up and down, but she heard me turn the camera on, so of course she is looking right at me. Caila, Kelsey and Megan played inside while the adults were packing up the motor home.
Crystal loves Megan and wanted to hold her, but she wanted to home her in the motor home. But since everyone else was packing things I was able to get her to play with Megan in the van out of the sun. Crystal is a ball of energy, but so loving to Megan.
Although I told Conary I was going to blur out his shirt, he still posed for a picture. Megan had fun "punching" Conary in the nose. Yeah, we will work on that as she grows, but she thought it was funny and Conary didn't mind.
Papa was just waiting for the go ahead to hit the road. He is wearing his new hat that Caila made for him. Megan was getting close to her nap time, so she wasn't in the best mood even though she was in a chair her size.

We can't wait to hear how their trip went and how Mt. Mushmoore looks in person. I just hope they had enough washcloths!

Dinner with Grandma-great

The other day, Megan and I went out to dinner with Grandma, Grandpa and Grandma-great, Mark was golfing. Since we were eating at the Country Club and it was beautiful out, Megan had to play in the practice putting green. I think if we had that grass in our yard, Megan could play without having to sit on a blanket. This grass was perfect to play on, soft, durable and not at all dirty.
After dinner Grandma-great was eager to hold Megan. No one believes me when I stay that Megan doesn't sit still. She will twist and turn the whole time you hold her. So of course she was wiggling while Grandma-great was trying to hold her. But being the prepared mom that I am, I pulled out "Brown Bear" and Megan sat the whole time the book was being read to her.

I would also like to add, that it is nice not having to tote around baby food (at least not a full meals worth) when we go out to dinner. Even though Megan still doesn't have any teeth, she eats like a champ. She LOVES the sweet potato chips at the Club and enjoyed eating chicken chunks from my quesadilla.

Half Monkey!

Today is the day that Megan learned how to climb! She has been more adventurous moving around furniture, but today she learned she could move UP furniture. Granted, I was on a ladder this morning when I was trimming branches but in a matter on minutes she was climbing.

Megan was in her 6 sided baby play thing while I was trimming the trees in our back yard when I heard her cry. She got her little feet stuck half way up the side and didn't know how to get down. I helped her get down and kept trimming trees. Then we went to play in her room and she climbed into the window. The picture above is her climbing a downstairs window, but in her room there is a wall heater she stepped on to get into the window. She didn't stay there long!

She also tried to climb an end table but couldn't. Now she is sleeping so I'm sure she will try to climb something else when she is awake. I'll admit that minutes after she was born I looked at her and said, "I'm so glad you don't look like a monkey." So she doesn't look like a monkey, but she does love bananas and loves to climb, so maybe I jinxed her.

10 Months Old

So not exactly the picture I was hoping for, but Megan wanted no part of laying still so I could take a picture. The second I would put her in position, she would flip over and crawl off of the elephant and sit right next to him. She taught it was hilarious and laughed every time she did it. I shouldn't be that surprised, she NEVER sits still. So needless to say, a picture isn't worth making Megan cry, so this is the picture you get to see. I'm sure she hasn't grown much since last month, but she has learned some more skills.

Some of the new things Megan has learned are:

1. She can clap her hands.
2. She will wave good bye when someone leaves or waves when someone waves to her.
3. She has mastered eating finger foods.
4. When she does climb up steps she knows how to crawl backwards to get back down.
5. Most nights she only gets up once but occasionally she still gets up twice a night.
6. She knows the sounds the bath tub makes and can't get in the tub fast enough.
7. She is getting a lot more adventurous when she walks along furniture.
8. She is now making noises that sound like talking verses babbling, and she talks all the time!
9. Still no teeth, but that doesn't slow her down when it comes to eating everything!

Another great picture of Megan playing when I wanted to take her picture. She is so cute, that she could do almost anything and I wouldn't care. The only time I get frustrated when she is playing is when I have to change a poopy diaper. I spend more time trying to keep her feet out of poop then I do changing her diaper! Of course when the diaper is on, she stops moving, stinker!

Mark and I are still amazed at how great Megan is, both in behavior and in just being ours. She gets so excited when Mark gets home from work, it is very sweet seeing them together. I can't even remember what it was like without her. Although it is hard to believe that in 2 months she will be a year old already, but things just keeping moving along. We have never wished for her to grow up any faster nor have we ever wished she would go back to a previous stage. She is just so much fun from day to day that why would we want to rush anything. We love her.

Here is Megan after she got off of her elephant when I was trying to get a picture. She had so much fun playing during her photo shoot.

Nine Month Photo

One Month Photo

Yummy...sand!?!

Apparently, it is an unwritten rule that every child has to eat sand before they can play with it! I knew Megan would try to eat the sand, but I thought she would have some negative expression when she did. She didn't, she kept eating it every so often as if it might taste different each time.
You'll notice that she isn't really in a sand box, it's a Rubbermaid container! Once again because of trying to sell our house and eventually moving, we didn't want to buy yet another thing to take up space. Plus, once we move, we are going to build a sand box for Megan. I had a huge, 6' x 6', sand box as a kid and spent hours building castles with moats. I loved it! I want Megan to have the same thing.

So this mini-sand box lets Megan lets Megan get dirty but is portable and doesn't take up valuable space. Maybe someday she'll realize sand is for playing not for eating.

Good Dog

I see Megan and Baron play together all the time, but here is a video of just how well behaved Baron is with Megan. So for everyone who just sees our crazy dog when they visit, he really does settle down. I think Megan and Baron are becoming good buddies. Oh, and the newspaper mess in the background is Megan's handy work. Every newspaper ends up like that.

I know that I have mentioned that our dog is weird, but he has this fascination with pillows that is just comical. He will steal a pillow off a bed or the couch as soon as you're not looking. Then he will carry it around and eventually he will sleep on it.

Because he carries pillows all over the house Megan likes to crawl over them and she thinks it's a toy. When Megan starts playing with them, Baron goes and yanks the pillow away from her. Sometimes she falls to the ground but she never cries. After she spots the pillow ago she crawls over to it, and the process starts again. This happens with ALL of Baron's toys. It's a fun game they play. Megan never cries when a toy is yanked away from her so maybe it will help her learn to share.