Independent Ring Stacker

Today, Meghan was quiet, so I went to check on her....I found her with all but one ring stacked on the ring stacker. They weren't in the correct order, but they were correct enough that everything fit.

She did it all by herself, with no encouragement from a parent, and when she was done - she clapped for herself!! So cool to see her developing that intrinsic motivation.

Basketball!!

Aunt Lauren and Uncle Travis sent Meghan a basketball hoop. As soon as the ball rolled out of the box, she knew that this was a good gift....

I Spy With My Little Eye

Meghan has been loving her "I Spy" quilt that Mimsie made her for her birthday. I hang it on the couch when she's sleeping and when we get her up, it's often the first thing she points at and wants to play with. If I don't get it down fast enough, she will pull up on the couch and try to pull it down herself. So far her favorites are the dog, cow, and robot!!

Learning the Lawn Mower

Meghan has figured out how to work the pullstring and levers on her mower (a gift for her birthday). On Sunday evening, she and Daddy worked on figuring out how the lid to the gas tank went on. She also enjoyed "pouring gas" into the hole!

Meghan's Birthday Footage!!

Baby!!

For her birthday, Cole and I gave her a Cabbage Patch Doll and an IKEA doll bed. I painted the bed, covered the mattress, and made a quilt/pillow for it. We purchased a premie sleeper for her to wear.

When we brought it down for Meghan she immediately grabbed the baby doll and began kissing her all over!! She was so excited for her baby!!

After kissing and hugging baby for a while, she laid down on the floor with her and just cuddled. It was SO CUTE!!! 

Eating Birthday Cake

Meghan LOVED her birthday cake!! We have been doing baby led weaning and she has become a very efficient and very neat eater. So, while she didn't make a huge mess, she ate with a huge smile!!

We forgot to give her ice cream with her cake, but fed her some off a spoon a bit later. She didn't quite know what to do with it at first, but then decided that it was yummy and she wanted MORE!!

There are tons of pictures coming, you've been warned::

Meghan's Birthday Party!

Meghan's first birthday was a Zebra theme (she LOVES Zebras!). We made cupcakes with pink sprinkles (of course!). 

We all started singing the Happy Birthday Song, she was looking around at us singing and just kind of watching the show. Then she heard us say her name, realized we were singing to/about her, and her face just lit up :: 

We are raising a HAM!

Opening Birthday Presents

Meghan's birthday party was today. Most of her grandparents were here (Grandma Cindy was sick...bummer!) and some of her aunts, uncles, and cousins. Meghan was a rockstar! She enjoyed the time with her family and did not get overwhelmed by all the noise and activity - she seemed to enjoy it all!

We are so proud of her and all of the progress that she has made! Two months ago, a similar event was completely overwhelming, and today she just enjoyed it!!

Here are some pictures of her enjoying present opening....

(She loved the fun prints on her "I Spy" Quilt.) 

(Saying "hi" to cousin Isaac.)

(Showing off her "onederful" shirt!)

(Tissue paper is so much easier!)

Meghan's received: some wonderful new books, some adorable outfits, a lawn mower toy, and an I Spy Quilt. What a blessed little girl she is!

Oatmeal Smiles

Miss Meghan was super smiley after oatmeal a few days ago.... 

Look at all of that hair!! She's just so cute :) 

Dear Meghan :: 12 Months

Dear Meghan, my sweet little one year old,

I can't believe I'm already writing an update about you at a year! To think that a year ago you made your grand appearance as a tiny 7 lb 6 oz baby and now you are a crawling, cruising, babbling toddler just blows my mind!!

You are starting to slim down as you are becoming so mobile! You have less rolls on your legs and your belly is a bit smaller. Your weight is not decreasing, but you are gaining muscle mass. Your height and weight are very proportional to each other; you hang out around the 50-60th percentile. You wear cloth diapers on the highest rise with one snap empty in the middle; when you wear a disposable you wear a size 3. For a while in the last two months (before you got SO mobile) you had two empty snaps and were in a size 4 disposable; like I said, you have slimmed down since you learned to move! You currently wear 18 month clothes with some 24 month/2T shirts thrown in.

You continue to have a ton of hair! It's long enough that it rubs on your nose when I don't put it up. It refuses to be swept to the side, so I have to put it up in order for you to see :) So, you have a little ponytail spout right on top of your head everyday. When you get sweaty (like you do during a good nap) the hair on the back of your head gets curly - I love it! Your hair is getting so long in the back - it brushes the top of your shoulders!

You have been working on teeth - very slowly. From reading I have done you are a pretty terrible teether! Once a tooth starts coming in and looks like it's almost through, you still have about a month of pain before it will be through. Poor thing - you are a trooper. We did give in in the last week and are allowing you to sleep with your pacifier - you weren't napping or sleeping through the night because of teething pain; when you have your pacifier, you bite it and give yourself the counter-pressure you need to be able to sleep through the pain. Your bottom middle teeth are all the way in, your top middle teeth are part of the way in (almost visible in smiles under your lip-tie) and the teeth on the sides of your top teeth are starting to push on your gums.

Your general daily routine at 12 months looks like this:
6:00 - wake up, breakfast
6:30 - 6-7 ounce bottle
7:45/8:00 - down for morning nap
9:30 - wake up from nap, 4 ounce bottle
11:00 - lunch
12:00 - down for afternoon nap
2:00-3:00 - wake up from nap, 4 ounce bottle
4:15 - dinner
4:30/4:45 - 5-6 ounce bottle
6:00 - bedtime routine
6:15ish - in bed for the night

In two weeks, daylight savings time will be here and we will be letting your schedule shift with the time change - you will sleep in a little later (hopefully letting Mama sleep in a little later & exercise before you wake up) and will get to stay up and play with Daddy a little later in the evening!

You have transitioned to your "big girl room" which is further away from downstairs noise and you love it! You sleep in complete darkness, with a sound machine on, and cuddle with your beloved bear/blanket named Charlotte and sometimes a burp cloth that has your name embroidered on it. You love layers at night - you sleep in a lightweight sleeper, fleece sleeper, and fleece sleepsack every night. We give you two chamomile tabs before every nap and bedtime which you love; we get a loud "mmm" every time we give them to you :)

You are a very routine oriented and thrive knowing what will come next. When you know it's time for something (especially dinner) you will come to where I am, stare at me, and shout "mom" until I respond to what it is time for. This is true unless we are out of the home! Despite your love of routine, you are very flexible when I need you to be. I have had lots of appointments in the last two months and you have loved coming along with me or going to play with your friend Kate. I have started a bible study at church and when I leave you in the nursery with new toys, you barely even notice that I am gone (though you always smile and crawl to me when I come back to get you!!). You just go with the flow when I need you to - thank you baby girl for that!!

You now love your bottles! In fact, after you had a vomiting virus recently, we tried to just switch you over to cups, but you would have none of that. Watching and observing you, I think that your mouth is not quite ready for drinking the amount of milk you still need/want through a straw cup yet. We're okay with you keeping the bottle for now - you never get it just to soothe you - it's always a meal or snack and always given by us. You enjoy watching a movie during your bottle still, but no longer need to use the weighted blanket. When we watch baby signing time, you will try to sign along with the videos!

You have done great with baby led weaning - you currently aren't very interested in large meals, but you are teething and have recently had a vomiting virus that is still having an affect on your lower digestive system. We know that your good eating habits will return. You will eat a wide variety of finger foods and are excited for the variety you eat to expand as you are able to chew more foods and as you are able to master utensil use on your own.

When you are eating, you say "mmm" as you eat favorite foods. You have also realized that others eat in their mouths and will try to feed them your food or will hold your hand to their mouth while they chew and say "mmm". You enjoy looking out the windows around your chair and watching the dogs; you will point at them, giggle at them, and you perk up anytime you hear one bark!

You drink water from a straw cup. You like the Take and Toss cups (though you like removing the straws - urg!). You are also starting to use the Playtex 9 ounce straw cups! The method they use to help prevent spills makes it hard for you to get a good suck going, so we don't use it. I ordered you a new water bottle that a friend from bible study said her son has had good success with - hopefully that will work even better for you!! You LOVE water!

You graduated from all services through infant and toddler services shortly after Christmas! Way to go big girl! While we think you're not quite eating like many kids your age (from reading, we think that's all related to your teething and recently-learned, still-practicing sucking skills), you're no longer so delayed that we need support services! You, my girl, are an absolute rockstar!!

You have become quite the babbler!! You will just talk and talk - especially in the evening or when you are playing by yourself. You also have six intentional words - Mama/Mom, Baba (Daddy), Hi, Bye/Bye-Bye, Ba (accompanied with the sign for milk, this is your request for a bottle), and Ball. You say "vmmm" when playing with cars and will often try to imitate animal sounds that we make with you. When you are doing something you are not supposed to (typically, reaching for a computer cord) you whisper under your breath - Daddy and I are pretty sure you are whispering "hot sauce hot sauce hot sauce" as that's all we hear! It's cute and we have to work really hard to keep from laughing!

You definitely understand spoken language - we now have to spell certain words around you! You know the word bottle, bye-bye, and Daddy and these words must be spelled if they are not currently occurring. You have demonstrated that you understand what books, balls, animals, cars, etc. are. You do not yet point to objects we ask you to point to. You point at objects for us to name all of the time - you are fascinated by the world around you and are learning that things have names and you want to hear them all.

You give high fives. You clap. You wave hi/bye. You sign all done, usually after prompting. You sign milk with the word "ba" for a bottle. We are starting to teach you the sign for "more". You thinking that blowing kisses is hilarious and sometimes we can get you imitate us.

You can climb the stairs independently - you have only fallen once! You pull up on everything and love pulling up to get a better perspective on the world. You can reach into the recycling bin and pull things out, open the kitchen drawers and pull out the towels - you are almost constantly under foot while I am in the kitchen. You love to look out windows (especially if dogs are outside!). You love to cruise, but don't usually like to walk holding our hands. You can stand independently for at least 30 seconds, but you don't know it! We catch you doing it while playing in your basket of balls or while playing with toys on a shelf.

You continue to love having books read to you and reading books by yourself!! You especially love touch and feel books or books with puppets!! You enjoy playing with your zoo and farm and know how to put the animals in and out of the buildings. You love to dump out containers; in the last two weeks you have started loving to put everything back in - hooray!! You will dump all of your toys and then clean everything back up into one container. You are starting to stack blocks and tobbles! You nest your cups. You love to knock towers over. When we show you your baby, you kiss her; you also kiss faces and dogs in books!

Music covers a multitude of wrongs in your mind! You especially love the song Old McDonald which we sing as Young McMeghan.

You love going on walks in the stroller and taking it all in; I attach your water cup and snack cup using "straps" and you sit back and enjoy the ride! You especially love when we walk to some of our friend's house and you get to swing in their baby swing or crawl around after balls on their trampoline. Balls are basically your favorite toy; you have gotten quite good at throwing them and we had to take away your hard plastic ones! You completely understand the game of giving a toy or throwing a ball to someone and them giving it/throwing it back to you.

Exploration could easily be the theme of your last two months. You discovered cabinets (and Daddy got LOTS of practice installing cabinet locks), toilets, the recycling bin, grass, leaves (which you think should be a food group), etc. You are busy and just have to know how things work. I love your exploratory nature - that will serve you well in life, sweet girl - as long as you don't injure yourself while exploring!

With all this exploring, you have started figuring out how exactly things work and what their purposes are. When given your hairbrush, you attempt to brush your hair; whereas, given your toothbrush you will attempt to brush your teeth. You know your socks and shoes go on your feet, and while you don't have the fine motor control to put them there, you will hold them touching your feet until I put them on for you. When we are in the car, you will use your blanket to block the sun from getting in your eyes and move it as the sun moves in relation to the car. You get into my purse when we are running errands and it's in the cart next to you because you know that your snack cup and water are most likely in there - and you know exactly where to look for them. You also know your diaper bag and get excited when you see it off of it's hook because that must mean we are going somewhere. Your smarts just astound us!! We are so proud of you and love seeing you learn more and demonstrate a greater understanding of your world!

You are a people person. Apparently you didn't get the message that you come from two introverts. You love going "bye bye"! I can't tell you that we are going bye-bye until we are leaving in 3 minutes or less or you just get impatient. When we are out you smile, wave, and greet almost everyone you see. I seriously think Walmart should be paying you a commission for the number of gloomy faces you have turned to a smile! You are stretching Mama out of her comfort zone as we now stop and talk to many strangers while we are out running errands!

I think those are all of the "really big updates" about your last two months...you are growing and changing so very fast. Some days I just want to stick a brick on your head, stop exposing you to new things, and try to force you to stay my sweet little baby. But I know, dear girl, that God has amazing plans for you, and I have to remind myself to let you grow up and into those plans.

You are loved baby girl - by your parents, by your extended family, by our friends, and most importantly by God. You are a gift. You are cherished. And we believe great things for you!

love,
Mama

Yummy Solids!

Meghan had a yucky yucky virus last week and basically starting refusing solid foods. She had been becoming pickier and was throwing lots of food rather than eating it for a week or so before that virus struck. So, we've been working on letting her have exposure to lots of foods hoping she would regain her good eating habits again.

And, I discovered that (at least for now) she loves foods in small sticks! She has discovered that she can bite with her front four teeth and has been devouring foods that I can cut into matchstick sized pieces! Yay!!

Why Do We Buy Toys?

Meghan can get into the recycling bin, so if it's more than half full, she's sure to be playing with something she finds in it while I am making dinner. Two nights ago, she was loving the yogurt box....