Thursday, July 30, 2009

Tooth Explosion

On Monday night, Megan woke up around 1 or 2am screaming. Normally, I let her try to work it out and go back to sleep on her own, but that wasn't happening. So I went in, comforted her, and went back to bed. Then around 5 am - same thing. In my groggy state, I didn't really think too much about why she was up, I just wanted her (and me) back to sleep. So when I was changing her diaper after we got out of bed (again) for the day, I noticed some white inside her mouth, and sure enough...new teeth! I think I've mentioned before that her teeth only seem to come in around 3am...

I think there are 3 new teeth coming in: 2 on the bottom and 1 up top, and they are pretty far back, so maybe molars. She has 8 in right now (4 bottom and 4 top), and this will bring her up to 11. What a mouthful! She appears to be feeling better now. We did give her Tylenol Tuesday night to help ward off any nighttime pain, but haven't needed to give her more since. Here's a picture of her toothy grin. Ok, that's not much of a grin!!


In addition to the tooth explosion, we've also had little vocabulary explosion. Up until now, Megan's been pretty content with her dozen or so words that she says. But in the past week and especially these past few days, she's really started trying to say more things. She now says baby, moo, moon, owl, oink, diaper, pillow, and beetle. Granted some (ok, most) of them aren't crystal clear, but she's showing a lot of interest in trying new words and we're certainly encouraging her!

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Then and Now

Ok, last post for tonight...I promise! It seems like lately it always comes up in conversation about just how much Megan (or any of our friends' children) have changed in the last year. So I thought it was time for another "then and now" photo post.

Then (August 2008):


Now (July 2009):

New Tractor Game

We made up a new game to play with the tractor. Instead of rolling the tractor down the driveway with Megan on it (which is still lots of fun!), Mommy rolls the tractor down the driveway and Megan tries to catch it! She thought this was a cool game, and was proud of herself when she caught it. She only missed catching the tractor once, and it was too cute watching her run all the way down the driveway after it.


After playing with the tractor, we found an earthworm in the driveway. Megan really likes worms, snakes, lizards, and bugs in general. She thinks all snake-like animals hiss and anytime she sees anything resembling a snake, she starts hissing. She also hisses when she sees any kind of hole, because she knows that snakes live in holes in the ground. She's a smart little girl!!

Playing at the Park

Yesterday after swim class, we went to a nearby park for our playgroup. Megan must not have had enough of the water, because she got soaked playing in the sprayer.


Megan really liked bouncing on the bouncy-dolphin.


She and her friend Max also played in the little car, but they didn't get very far in it...it had a flat tire! They still had fun beeping the horn and turning the steering wheel.

Random Photos

I copied photos from Grandmommy's camera this weekend, and have some new photos that were too cute not to share.

Megan practicing water safety on the boat:


Megan playing in Granddaddy and Grandmommy's new horse trailer:


Megan and Mommy:


Megan and the barn:

Monday, July 27, 2009

Swim Lessons

This week Megan and I are back in the pool for swim lessons. The lessons have been so much fun - for both of us - but especially Megan. She's doing really well with them, too. We sing songs in the water and practice swimming by throwing little floaty toys and reaching and pulling for them. She splashes and kicks, and has even gone under water a time or two (she's not wild about that, though). Her absolute favorite thing is jumping into the water of the edge of the pool. She even practices jumping off her little tractor at home. She's also practicing kicking and splashing in the bathtub, and the other night, she laid down on her back in the tub and started kicking and laughing. I think we've got a little swimmer on our hands!



(Thanks, Grandmommy for taking awesome pictures!!)

Megan and the Kitty

Our neighbor Tatum recently got the cutest little black kitten. Megan, who is obsessed with cats anyway, absolutely loves little Mini-Kitty. (That's what I call her, but her name is really Ellie.) One of Kitty's new toys is a mouse-shaped laser pointer. Kitty spastically chases the red laser dot all over the floor and Megan laughs so hard that you can't help but laugh at both of them. Megan even likes to chase the dot, too!!


Visit from Grandmommy

This weekend, Grandmommy Sinclair came up to Raleigh for Beth's wedding shower. The shower was really nice and I had fun hanging out with the girls. The wedding is only a few weeks away now!!


Grandmommy stayed with us and got to spend time with Megan. We played with our neighbor's new kitten, and finally took a wagon ride down to the neighborhood park to swing and play on the slide. Grandmommy even got to go to swimming lessons with us this morning before she had to go back home.


We all enjoyed her visit very much. We'll see her and Aunt Beth again this weekend - and Granddaddy too!! Thank you Grandmommy for a wonderful visit!!

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Horse and Wagon

Megan took her horse for a ride in the wagon tonight. We thought horses were supposed to pull wagons!!

Playing with Brayden

This afternoon Megan and I went to Raleigh to visit with our friend Jennifer and her son, Brayden. Brayden is 9 months old and just so cute! He's always so happy and smiling! Jennifer and Brayden had the pool set up on the patio so the babies splashed around while Jennifer and I got wet from all the splashing (Jennifer more so than me!) I was trying to keep Megan in the pool and chasing her around the backyard. I think at one point Megan belly-flopped into the water and Brayden, having just learned up and down, was having a blast plopping down into the water. We had a GREAT visit and can't wait to do it again!



Saturday, July 18, 2009

Duke Gardens, Revisited

Since I forgot my camera when we went to the gardens the other day, and since it was so nice outside today, Megan and I went back today to explore and to the see the ducks (of course!). As always, we had a great time and Megan loved smelling the flowers.


I got some awesome photos of the beautiful flowers in bloom. There are a ton of pictures on the photo page, but here are some of my favorites:




Unexpected Dip in the Pool

I filled up the pool the other day and put it in the sun to heat up the water. However, we never got around to getting into the pool for one reason or another. But today, I guess the temptation was too much for Megan, so she hopped in - shoes and all! The water was warm and she seemed to have a good time! She's going to have her fill of swimming this week. We're going to splash around with Brayden tomorrow and Monday starts her swimming lessons.


Tractor, Part 2

Part of Megan's daily routine includes pretending that the tractor is a jungle gym. In her newly found state of independence, she insists on climbing up onto the tractor all by herself, bouncing on the seat, "driving," and climbing back down.

Friday, July 17, 2009

Tractor Ride

Megan loves to ride her little tractor. You've probably seen pictures of her on the tractor on the blog before. We take it outside to ride in the afternoons. This day - with Kitty in tow - she was looking particularly cute on the tractor, so I snapped a few shots.


We've also found that the tractor rolls really well down our gently-sloped driveway, so Megan can go for a fun ride.




Don't worry - no one was harmed in the making of the video. It was just a small tumble, and Megan and Kitty both got up, brushed themselves off, and got right back on for another ride!

Duke Infant Study

Megan and I participated in our 5th Duke Infant Congnition Center study yesterday about infants' non-verbal understanding of numbers. If you are interested in the details, you can read more about the study by clicking here. Megan did really well, especially since this was a much longer, 3-part session. She even made it all the way through the 15-minute touch-screen portion of the test (which she didn't make it through last time). I even got to participate in a portion of the test at the end while Megan hung out and played with the lab assistant in the other room.


Our refridgerator is getting full with all of Megan's "diplomas."

Afterwards, since we were already on Duke's campus, we went to Sarah P. Duke Gardens and strolled around. We saw tons of ducks up close on the little footbridge at the pond, and there were lots of beautiful flowers in bloom - mostly lilies that I could identify. We found some really neat "off-the-beaten-path" nooks and crannies in the Asian garden that we will go back and explore. The gardens aren't always stroller-friendly with all the gravel paths, but we managed ok. We also went over the terraces, which were amazing. Megan really liked the lily pads and the rose blooms. I forgot to take my camera (since the Gardens was a spur of the moment decision), so we're watching the weather for a nice day to go back and get some new photos.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Megan's Pet Kitty

Megan has a best friend, her pet kitty. Kitty is her little stuffed cat (I think it's really a jaguar, but that's still part of the cat family!). She loves to take Kitty with her pretty much everywhere. He naps and eats with her. She feeds him whatever she is having for lunch and gives him milk, too. Here, she's sharing her grilled cheese sandwich with him. We love Kitty-kitty-kitty!!!

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Where's Megan??

Megan has a bad case of "morning hair."

Sticker Crazy

Megan received an adorable sticker book from Granddaddy and Grandmommy for Easter. The stickers are removable and Megan absolutely loves to play with the stickers and stick them on the pages and peel them back off. Yesterday she spent almost the whole day playing with the book and the stickers. When she got tired of sticking them on the pages, she found a new place to put them!


Sunday, July 12, 2009

Sweeping the Dog

Granddaddy and Grandmommy's dog Bailey loves to be swept with the broom. Megan remembered this and on our last trip to Albemarle, Megan got out of the car, went straight into the garage and got the the broom, and proceeded to sweep Bailey. But of course, one broom was not sufficient for the job, so Megan went and got the second broom. Bailey is very easy-going and loved the attention and the sweeps! (Unlike our own dogs, Bailey does not run away when Megan comes wielding the broom.)


Granddaddy and Grandmommy also recently got a new puppy, Tigger, who thinks it's cool to have a little person more her size around to play with.

And there's still plenty of puppy love left over for our own puppies as Megan shares a hug with Shoki.


Mocha is still camera shy and declined to have her picture taken for this blog post or for any other reason.

Signed up to Swim

Megan is officially signed up for the Parent-Tot swim class at our nearby community pool. I can't even begin to tell you what an accomplishment this is - and we haven't even made it to the pool yet. Apparently Durham swim classes are akin to Willy Wonka's Golden Tickets. I arrived at the pool to sign up around 9:15 Saturday morning (registration opened at 9:30), thinking it would take about 15 minutes and I could get back home. Wrong. When I arrived, there were only half a dozen parking spaces available in the far corner of the lot and there was a line of people stretched almost as far back as those parking spaces. One Mom had arrived at 6:30 that morning to secure her spot at the front of the line. People had brought chairs, books, and snacks...they looked prepared for a day at the beach. Hello, people!!! It's a swim class. I think I would have had an easier time getting Megan enrolled into an Ivy League preschool =).

At least I was in line with some nice folks, so that helped pass the time during my 2-hour wait. That's right -- TWO hours. We had fun laughing at the expressions of Oh My Gosh! and You've Got To Be Kidding! on the faces of other people arriving after us. I also got to play nurse to some of the kids in line who came off the playground with banged up hands and knees. The first aid kit came in handy for sure!

Nonetheless, we are excited about our upcoming swim lessons (they begin on the 20th), and for future swim class sign-ups...we may finally have an occassion to break out the camping tent!


Saturday, July 4, 2009

Riding Big Al

During one of our last trips to Albemarle, Graddaddy let Megan "ride" on Al. Megan adores the horses and thought being on Al was awesome!