[Video] Megan Oil Change

Megan Oil Change?! from Stacy Herring on Vimeo.

Getting Into (and onto and out of) Everything

It's getting really hard to keep up with Megan these days. She's so fast and gets into everything in an instant!! We put up safety gates a few months ago to keep her in the living room and to keep the dogs out. They work well, but we don't always get the gates shut behind us, and Megan has learned to watch the gates and she can tell if they are shut or not. If one is not locked, she speeds towards it, pulls it open, and crawls through. She gets very excited when she's "on the outside" and likes to explore the bathroom, kitchen, piano room, and even the stairs.

When Megan is in the bathroom and kitchen, she loves to open the cabinets and pull out pretty much everything. Time for safety locks! (which i have, but haven't installed yet.) I do my best to keep her out of most of the cabinets, but I do let her have free reign over the tupperware cabinet.

And this last little trick of hers had to be put to a stop very quickly, but I did think it was a good demonstration of Megan's determination to go anywhere. I guess she wanted a closer look at the gas logs, so she climbed onto the hearth!

She's showing no signs of slowing down, either. In the last week she's started to stand up on her own. Tonight she even managed to move one foot forward before falling down. I don't know if that officially counts as a first step or not, but I don't think it will be long before she's going to be even harder to keep up with!

Playdate at the Museum

Today, Megan and I went to the Museum of Life and Science for a playdate with the Durham Mother's Club. Since it was a chilly 40 degrees outside, we skipped most of the outside exhibits (though we did take a quick stroll through the barnyard to say hi to the donkey, sheep, and goats). We spent the majority of our time at the indoor play area so that Megan could play with other kids. 

The museum has a nice area for play with a separate area for infants and toddlers, so they don't get run over by the bigger kids. There are lot of toys to play with and a big playhouse in the middle with stairs, a tube to crawl through, and a slide. Megan had fun crawling through the tube, and I helped her go down the slide a few times. She played well with the other kids and we only had one small incident in which an older boy took a pair of plastic pinchers (like what you would pick up a test tube with) and pinched Megan's cheek. Fortunately Megan didn't get upset and just continued playing.

Eating Like a Big Girl

Lately, Megan is getting much more independent. She wants to feed herself at mealtimes now. This gets pretty messy, and some days, I just don't want pureed foods in my hair and on my clothes, but we're working on it. Megan likes to take the spoon out of my hand, put it in her mouth, then smash all the leftover food on the spoon onto her hands, and put the spoon back into the bowl. She's proud of what she's doing and claps after she put the spoon down. I haven't gotten a picture of it yet since it take two (or more) hands to feed her, but I did catch this picture after a rather messy lunch. Apparently the featured dessert was "foot."

Cheerios!

Megan has graduated to eating finger foods. We started with Cheerios. At first, Megan wasn't too sure about them, but now she absolutely loves them!

Hide and Seek

One of Megan's favorite games to play is hide and seek. She loves to hide behind the curtains at the window and then throw them back, peek out and smile and laugh!! And while she's at the window, she likes to bang on it and yell at the people and dogs as they walk by.

The One About Christmas

Christmas this year was busy, but wonderful, and very special since it was Megan's first Christmas. Megan certainly had a very fun time opening her presents and we all enjoyed spending time with family. Here are some photos of the holiday season:

Megan playing with her new John Deere tractor from Granddaddy and Grandmommy. She loves to ride on it (while we push her), play with the farm animals that came with it, and hit the horn to make it play Old MacDonald Had a Farm.

Granddaddy took us all for a ride in the trailor behind his new John Deere tractor. Megan really enjoyed the ride and waved at Granddaddy the whole time. We rode around the field and up to the barn to see the horses - even Bailey-dog rode with us.

On the following Saturday, we had Christmas with Brian's family at his brother's house. We had a fun time with everyone. Megan especially loved playing with La Petita, the cat.

On New Year's Day, Granddaddy, Grandmommy, Aunt Beth and soon-to-be Uncle Kenny came over to finish up some Christmas. 

It was a very special Christmas and great start to a new year!