I'm a big girl now!

It happened almost by accident. First Megan sat diaper clad on the edge of the tub while Logan splashed about. Then we dipped her toes in. Then, on Logan's request, we dipped them again...and her diaper got all sorts of soaked. These diapers soak up a lot of liquids given the chance and so we removed the water logged Pampers and dunked Megan in the tub again. She loved it. She smiled and cooed. She kicked her feet and cooed some more. Logan laughed and washed her head with a washcloth. They had a blast. IN fact, Megan threw a massive baby tantrum when I took her out of the water.

That was Saturday night. Tonight we sat in the bathroom and while Logan climbed in the tub. Megan watched her big brother closely. He walked to the end of the tub across from where we sat.

"Put her in!" he demanded and he splashed water with his leg.

In response Megan let out a big, and I do mean big, belly jiggling baby laugh. *They* say babies don't get those gut busting laughs until about 4+ months but Megs had one tonight at 2 1/2 months old. Boy did she find this brother splashing hysterical. She kicked her feet and gooed at him. And so we obliged. Into the tub went Megan.

She floated around. She kicked her legs like a little frog moving through the water. She cooed and gooed. She giggled. She stared with wide, round eyes at her brother. She was happy. And so was her. He washed her hair for her and her back. He gently ran wet fingers across her cheeks. He tried to splash her but when reminded how little she was he stopped. He is, by the way, now holding out until she's 'bigger' and can really play in the water with him.

When it was time to end the bath we let the water down the drain and removed big brother. Megan hung out a bit more. When the water was nearly gone Megan got to lay on her back in the puddle that was left splashing around her limbs in pure glee. Assuming this child was about to get chilled to the bone beign wet without water in the tub, I wrapped her up in a towel. . .

And she cried.

And she screamed.

I got her dressed in her PJs and she cried and screamed so more. Daddy came down to take her because big brother was asking for Mommy read stories. Megan cried and yelled a bit more then bury her head on the big Daddy shoulder and fell fast asleep.

Guess this big little girl loves that tub! Perhaps we need to ditch that baby bath thing already!?

Could it be?

Could it be that we already have another book lover in the house? We try to read daily to Megan just as we did with Logan before her. Some days we don't get too far because she's not a huge fan of being awake without motion for "long" periods of time. Other days we sneak in a full board book. Typically we end up reading to two kids at once.

Tonight Megan and I read her baby Bible. We started at the beginning with a creation story - two paragraphs in rhyme. Then we moved on the Noah and his Ark. Both stories had colorful illustrations chock full of animals and apparently that's just the sort of thing Miss Meg likes. She bobbed her head in closer to her book. She stared with her eyes open wide. Then she laughed her quasi laugh - she pulls air in sharply and squeaks. Her eyes twinkled and crinkled up. Her mouth broken open into a wide baby grin. She bobbed her head again and she started to babble. She gave those colorful lions and tigers and bears an earful. Lord knows if she heard the story or she was too busy telling herself her own version. Regardless one thing is clear, she enjoyed that book!

Happy Thanksgiving

Dear Miss Thing,

Just a note to let your future self know how much you are loved and adored by all those around you. This is your very first Thanksgiving and a great time to share exactly how thankful we are to have you in our lives - the only problem the extent of our joy isn't something one can put into words.

We are thankful for the unconditional love you already demonstrate with that sweet, beautiful baby smile. We are thankful for the gift of watching you grow and develop into what promises to be one spectacular little, independent, determined person. We are thankful for the light you bring to each of our lives every day.

Love,
Mom and Dad...and Logan too.

Laughing with the Lions 

Have a seat

I keep telling Megan she's not supposed to sit up yet, that she's only 2 months old, but the girl is in major denial. If she's even slightly inclined she'll pull up hard enough to lift her head and shoulders up. She grunts and tugs in an attempt to get all the way up. If you put something around her hips when she's in the right mood - your hands or the boppy - she sits up. She has been known to sit STRAIGHT up, but other times she sort of takes on a cool tip to the side like this:
 

Megan Mockingbird

Remember that aforementioned obnoxious star toy? You know what I'm talking about, the one Megan LOVES. Its a teether toy - a black and white handle sporting three hard rubbery tabs to chew on some day and a big, smiling yellow star. One side of the star is a mirror - not so exciting for Miss Thing for now. The other side has a smiling face with a big light-up nose. You press the nose to make it not only glow...but talk. The toy cycles through three sayings:

- Uh oh.
- Wow!
- Woohoo!

Well Megan will literally spend an hour staring at that face as whichever big person is playing with her pushes the nose repeatedly. She smiles back at it. She laughs at it. She talks to it -- cooing and making all her assorted new noises. And yesterday she mimicked yet.

The toy went through its cycle of sounds and landed on "Woohoo!" Megan laughed, looked in hard and said "Ewwewww!"

So, does that count as a first word?

2 month update

Well Miss Megan is a growing girl. She's now a 'slightly' taller than average 22 inches (its over 50% for girls her 'age' but not quite 75% on the size charts. I'm guessing it puts her roughly at 60%) She's now 11 pounds and 7 ounces (75% for girls her age). I KNEW those 0-3 month outfits were getting small on her! Most of them top out at 11 pounds and 22 inches. I forget what her head circumference was - but I know it was about 90th percentile for girls her age.

Overall she's doing very well. When the doctor came in she was happily cooing at the little toy Logan had picked out for her as a 1 month birthday gift. The thing can grate on your nerves when its getting bounced around in your diaper bag and starts calling out "Uh oh!" or giggling. It does, however, make Megan laugh and chatter away. The doctor was happy to see her socializing so well.

We do have to take her to an Pediatric Occupational Therapist. Megan has been diagnosed with Muscular Torticollis (aka Wry Neck) - which basically means that the muscles on the left side of her neck are short and/or tight. This could be something that occurred in utero or as birth trauma. Essentially its nothing serious - a potential cosmetic issue down the line if left uncorrected. Today, because the way the neck muscles are, she has a left side preference. In other words, given her way, Megan will keep her head turned to the left. If she is positioned to look straight ahead or towards the right she'll do so with her head tipped at such an angle that her left cheek rests closer to her shoulder. This preference has created a bit of a flatter left cheek and jaw than the right side. To treat this we've already started migrating all her beloved mobiles (the girl LOVES anything you can hang over her head) to the right side of her various haunts. After her initial consult with the specialist we'll have a series of exercise to do with her to help loosen and lengthen those offending neck muscles too. Poor kid - she was most ticked off at the doctor when he tried to get her to turn her head without tilting it. He also said the muscles in her arms were a little stiff, but nothing overly notable. He wasn't worried about it because her legs were as they should be and everything else seemed in line with expectation. He thought her tendency to pull her arms in as he examined her may be related to the Wry Neck and resolving the one may help with both. I happen to think her arms are also part of her stubborn nature - she seems do fine with them being wherever most of the time - although she may hold them in more often when awake...but she wasn't pleased with the doctor at that point and not too keen on cooperating with him. ha!

Other than that, she's growing and developing perfectly. She got her shots today and hated every minute of it - not that I blame her. She screamed her head off from the moment she got the first shot until we got to the stair case. In fact, the receptionist even commented on how wonderful Megan's lungs were. Nice.

Outside of Well-visits, Megan is typically a very happy little girl that enjoys being talked to and sung to. She seems a bit ticklish because wiggling your fingers around her mid-section and under her arms will make her break into a full-faced smile complete with baby giggles. She loves her mobiles, like I said, especially the one over her Pack-n-Play/Changing table and her swing. Those would be lions and elephants respectively. She'll spend ages staring at each talking away to them. Sometimes the lion in particular will offend her and she'll yell at them for whatever it is they've gone and done. Its sort of funny to watch and so mean Mommy lets her complain a little before rescuing the lions from the verbal assault. The elephants must be more passive because they never get yelled at. In fact the rocking of the swing will often push the pachyderms behind the seat itself. Megan will merely twist herself as best she can in her seat belted spot so she can keep her eye on her buds while she sways to and fro.

She's also starting to respond to her toys now. She loves both her little green bug-thingy (not quite sure what its supposed to be!) It has dangling legs with things that hang off and make noise. She laughs at it and reaches out her arms towards it. She also love the aforementioned obnoxious star noisy teether thing Logan picked out for her. Guess big brother knows best.

More than anything though, Megan loves her people. At the sound of a familiar voice or the first glimpse at one of those faces Megan lights up with a giant smile and starts to coo. She adores her big brother, but truth be told, sometimes she sets into panic-face when she sees him lunging towards her with another body crushing hug or full-face slobbery kiss. I keep telling her to enjoy the complete adoration while it lasts. :)

Tease and Singing

First - the sleeping through thing was a tease. She did it for two nights then went back to her 5 or 6 hour blocks. Now, mind you, I'm happy with that two, I just liked 8 hours at one time better.

Megan has become a singer. She especially loves when Grandma sings to her. Megan goes into her full-faced smile and then softly starts to hum this soft little baby "Ahhhh" in response trying to join in the song.