Sunday, September 28, 2008

Future Racer

Brian is rallycrossing today, and Megan and I are hanging out around the house. Even though we aren't out there with Daddy, we're cheering him on from home! Check out Megan's shirt: 



Wednesday, September 24, 2008

To Crawl or Not To Crawl?

Megan is still toying with the idea of crawling. She's getting closer to figuring it out, and I guess she'll get there when she's ready. We should be glad, really, that she's not there yet, because once she starts moving I don't think she's going to stop. And baby-proofing our house is going to be a nightmare. Brian still thinks that Megan's passion for attempting to pull up onto things is going to take her straight to walking. It's true, she does love to pull up on to me, and the other day I walked into the living room from the kitchen and she was trying to pull up on to the couch. She certainly has the strength to stand but lacks balance. When I hold her up in a standing position, she looks like she belongs in the commercial for Jell-O. So we're going to keep working on crawling for now. Here's the current play-by-play of Megan's attempts at crawling:

1. Start in sitting position.  Survey surroundings for possible targets:


2. Lean foward on hands and knees. Lock onto target:


3. Reach until target is acquired:


4. Face plant into target. Land on belly:


5. If all else fails, smile and look cute!


Saturday, September 20, 2008

21st Century Digital Baby

Megan likes to play with Mommy's computer. Better to beat on the old windows box than daddy's nice mac! During this play session, Megan managed to turn on the computer narrator, and the computer started talking to her, announcing every key that she hit. She also managed to hibernate the computer twice, open about 20 windows, log off my account, and close Internet Explorer. If you listen carefully, you can hear the computer say, "Closed Internet Explorer." That part makes us laugh every time. =)


Friday, September 19, 2008

Beach Blog: Day 3, Homeward Bound

Today wrapped up our last day at the beach. We woke to another beautiful sunrise and took one last walk out to the beach to say goodbye to the ocean. 


The waves were much bigger today --the weather channel said something about a low pressure system off the coast that was causing big waves all along the mid-atlantic coast. We considered a short walk but it was incredibly windy and quite frankly, I was cold. Really cold. So we headed back in to pack things up. 


I guess Megan was pretty pooped after all the sun, sand, and water...she fell fast alseep (and slept all the way home!)


So goodbye, Ocean. See you next year!


Thursday, September 18, 2008

Beach Blog: Day 2, Sunny Days Ahead!

We had great weather for day 2 of our vacation. All week the forecast called for cloudy skies and chance of rain. But there were hardly any clouds in the sky all day! We woke up to a beautiful sunrise, then went for a short walk on the beach.


In the afternoon we took Megan to the pool for her first swim. She didn't really swim -- more like cruised around in her cute little boat float. We had the pool to ourselves, so we had plenty of room to play. She had a good time splashing around.


We moved from the pool to the beach and just hung out in the sun for a bit and enjoyed the waves coming in and going out. It was pretty windy, but nice and sunny. Definitely the kind of weather you could easily sunburn in if you aren't careful, but we were extra careful. We all had sunscreen on and Megan had some extra protection with her new hat. (I forgot to pack her sunhat, so we had to get a new one this morning.) Then it was back inside for an afternoon nap.




We wrapped up today with one last walk on the beach as the sun started to set.



Tomorrow is our last day down here, so we'll have to say goodbye to the ocean and sand. We're thinking about taking in Fort Fisher Aquarium before we leave. We'll see how everyone (ie Megan) feels tomorrow. It's been a nice getaway.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Beach Blog (Part 1)

This blog post comes to you from Wrightsville Beach, NC. Brian and I are celebrating our 6th anniversary with a few days at the beach. This is Megan's first trip to the beach, too.


We had an uneventful trip down here, which is a good thing. Megan slept the entire trip -- another good thing!

We're staying at Shell Island and so far we've been impressed with the room (it's a suite, so we have our room and Megan gets the living room) and the food. I'd say the crab dip appetizer we had from the restaurant downstairs was easily the best I've had since our last trip to Maryland.

Brian writes: So, it is my turn! We ran! We played! We konched! Yay!


So as Brian was saying, after we got settled into our room, we took a long walk on the beach. It's cool down here and windy, but overall very nice for a late afternoon stroll. The tide was low and just starting to come back in, so we had plenty of beach and found lots of shells...really big ones, too. I've never found shells that large and intact at a NC beach before. We found a horseshoe crab that had washed up on the beach. He was dead, but interesting nonetheless.


Megan got to touch the water a little bit, but since it was cool, we didn't want her getting too wet and cold. Tomorrow, we'll play in the water.


I got some nice photos, but they're on the memory card and the card reader is in the other room where Megan is sleeping, and I'm not going to risk waking her up. Getting her to bed hasn't been the easiest thing lately, and I'm not going to press my luck. So I'll update this post with the pictures in the morning. Thankfully, Brian provided the shot above with his iPhone. I know...iPhone, Macs, wonderful, blah blah. Thanks, Brian! =)


Edit: Megan woke up, so I uploaded. :)

Sunday, September 7, 2008

Lots to Tell

It's been a busy and tiring week. Megan turned 6 months old and celebrated with a trip to the doctor for her check-up and more immunizations. Rumor has it we're done with shots until 12 months. She's now 17 pounds 12 ounces, 26.5 inches long, and has moved up to the 50th percentile in head circumference. She's still in (some) 6- and (mostly) 9-month clothes and size 3 diapers.



As for the rest of the week...After so much practice (and success!) with getting Megan to nap in her crib during the days, she went on a nap strike this week. I think she took a short nap Tuesday morning, then no more. At all. Period. She would doze off a little while nursing, but as soon as I put her in the crib the screaming would begin. And it is way more difficult that you might think to entertain a 6-month old for 12 hour stretches -- especially one who is clearly exhausted. I think she is going through the stage where she realizes that when Mommy leaves the room, she's still out there somewhere, and would much prefer to be with her. I've noticed she has gotten more clingy to me lately, but I do get nice hugs out of it. Today, though, she took her morning nap in her crib and slept for about 2.5 hours. What a relief!!

Also this week, Megan had some more developmental advances. She's started to babble. She says "ba ba ba ba" and "ma ma ma ma," and we're pretty sure we heard a few "da da das" in there, too. And she wants to move around soooo badly, but just can't quite figure it out. She wants to pull up onto everything, too, but can't quite get that worked out either. But boy does she try! She can push up onto her hands without a problem, but is reluctant to lift her bottom off the floor. She leans forward in a sitting position and rocks on her hands and knees -- most of the time this ends up with her face-planting into the floor, then flipping over to her back. It's cute in a painful-to-watch kind of way.


On Friday, Megan ate her first solid food: the not-so-yummy rice cereal. We both decided it was gross. And jury's still out on whether or not rice cereal is actually a solid if it's drowned in milk. I was seriously spoon feeding her milk. But baby steps, or baby spoonfuls, i guess... By the way, her very cute bib reads, "Hey, Spit Happens!"


And as if all that weren't enough, Mom took on a freelance project this week, which wouldn't have been so bad if Megan had napped even a little. But since she didn't, I had to do most of the work after her bedtime, so I had some late nights. All that aside, though, it was nice to get back to some graphical things and keep my brain fresh.

So I think that covers it...check out the picture page...I uploaded new shots. Until next blog...


Monday, September 1, 2008

Daddy Made a Video on a Mac!


Megan -- Spick N Span! from Stacy Herring on Vimeo.

Another "New" Car in the Family + Photos!

Hi All. It is me again, the daddy.

So, first off, the family is doing superb. Megan is learning that Macs are great for doing work, and Windows Boxes are good for beating on.



Also, I would like to take this time to post pictures of the latest Rally Car! (Thanks to Stacy for accepting of my affliction and understanding) So, we are trying to keep saftey and cost to a minimum, with a dash of intelligence thrown in :)






All goes well, and I thought I would just throw in some more picture updates until Stacy realizes we need something better than this :)