After school work with the girls. Megan has started tracing her letters. Alyssa watched her do it and was so excited that Megan can “write” now. Now we just need to teach her how to hold the marker.
(Yes we have a bird sanctuary in the backyard)
Megan turns three today. I have been telling her for the last few days, that when she turns three she is a big girl and big girls don’t scream. Megan is so full of life and that usually comes across in a loud way. I don’t think that she will immediately snap out of this issue, but I am secretly hoping that the “terrible twos” are behind us and I am looking forward to this next year.
We had a great birthday party on Saturday with Nana, friends from our old life, friends from the neighborhood, and friends from church. It was awesome to be surrounded by so many people who care about us and wanted to celebrate with Megan. Since Happy Feet came on TV a month or so ago, Megan has wanted a Happy Feet party. So I did my best to deliver. Even with 13 kids inside the house, I think it was fun for all.
Happy Birthday to our Meggie. You keep us laughing hysterically and we are so thankful God made you part of our family.
This kid cracks me up. Getting her to smile is impossible. She is so full of personality that standing still and doing just want mommy wants is just not in her. We got off to a good start today and though she was a little hesitant to enter the room, she did great. A lot like Alyssa did now that I think about it. She was in her chair coloring in seconds and said bye without thinking twice — not so much like her sister’s first experience.
Her teacher said she had a good day when I picked her up. She had a relieved look on her face when she saw me, but she was telling me in the car that she wanted to go back. She ate her lunch, colored three pictures, did not take a nap and tried to take her shoes off. She told me that she got out of her bed and a teacher put her back and she got in trouble. She told me about three times, so I am not sure if it happened three times or she was just repeating. It is difficult to really understand it all from the mouth of a 2 yr old…almost 3 though! Yeah for Day 1.
My Megan is a crack-up. She has more personality than everyone in our house combined. She wakes up in a bad mood and goes to bed screaming, “I’m not tired,” but manages to keep me smiling everyday. She is a handful but still full of heart. She finds any and everything to play with, makes up games, pretends to be anything from a puppy (complete with licking) to a baby in Audrey’s bed. She will correct you when she has decided to be someone else for the day like Ginger (family dog), Even (Eve from Wall-e) or our favorite Coca. “I’m not Megan Mom, I’m Coca!” I completely love this girl, maybe because she seems so different from me. Or is she? This video is so Megan. There is a some jibber-jabber that we have no idea what she is saying, but the arguing and the “Doctors Kit, Doctors Kit” make me laugh.
The week has been busy already. We played with the cousins this weekend and the girls are in swim lessons 4x a week. Alyssa did great, and Megan…well, she acted just like Alyssa did at her age. Sometimes she needs a little convincing to try something and her teacher decided she didn’t want to “break her trust” with Megan. So we sat on the edge screaming. Today was much better, in fact completely opposite. She walked right over to her teacher, hopped in and then screamed when it was time to get out. I cannot win with this child.
We have swam everyday so far, went to see UP with Daddy tonight and attempted to get Alyssa’s ear’s pierced. She wants to do it so bad, but just can’t sit still and let the girls do it. I can’t say I am too disappointed. I am the one who keeps asking her, but then secretly inside, I really don’t want her to do it.
Then Audrey. She seems to be growing before my eyes. She is happy, talking and rolling her way from the rocking chair into the coffee table and more. She cannot sit up yet, but appears to be trying to crawl. What? Can you physically crawl before sitting up?
Megan got her first “real” haircut. You can call it “real” because she did more than just trim the edges, or because I actually took my camera to document it. But as far as her scrapbook (if I ever finish it) goes, this will be her first haircut.
She must have felt like a big girl with this new style, because she attempted to paint her toe nails today.
I came in the bathroom to find her with the polish open and splattered all over the counter. Remarkably none on her clothes or the rug. When I asked her what happened, she said, ” I spilled it everywhere”.
Mommy: “What were you doing?”
Megan: “Trying to open it so I could paint these two.”
Despite the paint running down her toes, she didn’t do too bad for her first time. Oh that kid!
We flew into Houston for spring break last week and will head home tomorrow. It seems there is always someone to see and things to do when we visit that I am not sure we got much rest. But at least I didn’t have to do laundry or dishes, actually had a date with my husband, and went to the coast for some bird watching together… ever seen a flock of pelicans flying in formation above your head? So here is our week in short:
We spent some time with my brother and his family:
Alyssa and cousins
Brother Brad and my dad
Braden, the oldest grandchild with the youngest
We celebrated Lauren’s 2nd birthday and played for the day:
I wanted to sign up Alyssa and Megan for swim lessons when we return in June, so Megan had to take her evaluation class. She did great. Walked right in the door to the pool with her instructor and did what she was asked. She only slipped off the step once while waiting for her turn. Luckily the instructor was right there to scoop her out of the water. Where is the panic button in that place?
We visited with friends and just hung out. It is nice to come home and see our family, but God has a funny way of showing you that he knew all along what he was doing. And we are in the right place for our family right now. We are so happy to be in Tennessee.
Audrey did roll for the first time from back to stomach…or so I hear. I was on a date.
And Megan has taken coloring to a new level.
I think it is a sign that you have slacked off on blogging when you have several topics to cover. Life just seems so busy lately, that I rarely have the energy to think of something to write about. From school, to managing 2 year old tantrums to the routine of a 4 month old, I am honestly exhausted by lunchtime. It is sad, I know. But lately the sun has decided to come back to Nashville and the weather has been great. I forgot how much fun being outside can be. Audrey has “kind of” upgraded to the exersaucer. She still spends most of her time laying around, but can hold herself up for a brief time and sit in this thing. Megan too can sit in it. However her knees are resting on the bottom of it and she gets herself stuck. Now that I think about it, that would have been a better picture.
This picture of Megan makes me smile. She is a little bit of my baby because she is holding “Lumpy” her elephant that she has had since 3 months old but has on her big girl panties too. She is so darn cute that I can hardly stand it sometimes. But so darn strong-willed. I am constantly re-thinking my parenting strategies with her.
And here is Alyssa and her friend, Mayson. They are in class together and have been playing in the neighborhood together too. We went bowling with her last week and had a great time. I love how kids can connect so easily. How they can like each other so much that they run with arms stretched out screaming each others’ name when they meet. How they can overlook differences and forgive so easily. I pray that Alyssa always has good friends like this in her life.
This iPhone has been over-used since Ethan got it. We use it for movies on the airplane or restaurants, Alyssa practices math and other games and lately Megan has been enjoying it. She says, “I want play games.” Sometimes I feel that this little device is taking over our life, checking email just because you can, entertaining children and even acting as Ethan’s alarm clock. But it is a pretty awesome phone.
Here is Alyssa before school.
And here is smiley Audrey. She still has some feeding issues and constantly spits-up, but she is so darn cute. Were the others this cute??
Ethan’s mom, Oma, came to meet Audrey this week. She was able to stay through Saturday and help me with cooking, cleaning and entertaining which ever kid I needed her to entertain at that moment. I think she had some good quality time with Audrey and you can’t say you’ve had that unless you were spit up on at least half-dozen times.
It has been freezin’ here. Literally. I will admit I was the one complaining that it was way to warm into October, but this is ridiculous. Audrey is too little to be hanging out in this weather and all Megan wants to do is go to the playground or the pool. She doesn’t really understand seasons yet. So while we have not been out much in the last 3 weeks, we have done some fun stuff inside. Painted Christmas ornaments:
And painted nails:
And then just in general, we are being cute:
