A First. . .

Grandma, Mommy and the kids headed over to Pt. Pleasant to use up the rest of last seasons ride tickets. Of course we picked a day in the middle of a heatwave but who is counting. The afternoon gave Megan a chance to experience another milestone -- her first boardwalk ride. She got excited as soon as she saw the Merry-go-round. We tried the stationary bench first, but she pulled and cried out "Dat!" as she pointed to the horse nearest her. So we sat her up on one, strapped her in and held on tight. She loved every minute of it!

Elmo's world

Last week, while at Target running errands, Megan and Logan were amusing themselves in the toy aisle. Megan latched on to a wide array of items - most of which were over the $5 limit I had set when I agreed to let them each pick out something. She finally settled on a small, four-sound option See-and-Say featuring Elmo. She hugged the hard plastic image of her hero monster. She kissed it. She chanted his name over and over "Elmah! Elmah! Elmah!"

Logan pushed the arrow button for her. The thing sings. Its Elmo La-la-la-laing his way through his theme song. The arrow points to four different sounds that complete the song, the "Elmo's World" part. We've got bubbles for the underwater part, cell phone for that electronic ring, trumpet for brass sections, and crayon for nails on chalkboard...er, squeaking.

She played with it the entire way home in the car. Megan had just figured out how to turn the arrow and liked the trumpet sounds apparently. I was working on tunin gout the droaning on of that music when Logan's laughter pulled me back into the middle of Elmo's World. Meg was singing it. She was really singing it. My little 11 month old child, was actually "Da, da, da" singing IN TUNE the moment Elmo finished his la-la-la'ing. I thought maybe it was a fluke. But no. She's done it every time she gets that toy in her hand.

11-months old

The update is just a tad late, and perhaps its because Megan's fleet footed exploration keeps me too busy to jot down much of anything. Yes, little Meg transitioned quickly from 'wobbly-tenative' walking to 'running as fast as those little pudge-legs can carry me!' She moves and she moves fast.

Megan is still pulling up most of the time. She'll crawl or scoot to the nearest support, pull herself up and then run. That said, she has been seen standing herself up in the middle of the living room floor without the help of anything at all. Doing so, however, creates a bit of forward momentum that I think unsettles her a bit, so she doesn't do it often.

Not only does Megan walk/run. She also dances. She adores music. Most anything will set her head shaking, but she seems to have a preference for the Beatles and a few good old fashioned children's classics. . .and of course, Chicken Dance Elmo.

Speaking of Elmo. Megan's got a crush on him. But her adoration of Elmo is not nearly as huge as her total and complete love of anything "doll." She LOVES dolls. She has a few in her own personal collection that she mothers over. No one showed her how to cuddle those 'babies' of hers. No one showed her how to hug and kiss them. She just does it, typically as she says "Ahhh, dah!" She carries around one doll or another on and off throughout every day. If she wakes up and a doll is not in her crib she'll yell for whichever one she can see, reaching for it, straining over the side rail until someone comes and hands it to her. Then she hugs it tight and lavishes it with kisses.

If we're talking specific characters - Megan has a thing for Dora the Explorer. She's not actually ever seen the show, but she has a Dora doll at Grandma and Papa's house. Since getting that doll Megan recognzies Dora on everything and anything. Each time she sees the image she excitedly, and very clearly, says "Dow-rah!"

Megan chatters quite a bit. Most of what she says are sounds that represent real words. A perfect stranger would not realize that "Browba!" is now 'brother' but Logan certainly does and since he's Browba, that's all that matters. Speaking of Browba, Megan refuses to call him by name. She can. We've heard her do it on rare occasion, she just won't. (She's called him Oh-win.)

At first, her instance on "brother" was a result of our manner of talking of him. "Megan where is Logan? Where is your big brother?" Now, however, I think she's just being stubborn. We'll say "Megan, can you say Logan? Logan? Can you say Logan?" and she'll stare at him. Smile wide. Then yell "BROWBA!"

Her other words include: Mama, Dada, Papa, Gamama (Grandma), Dawg (dog), Tata (tasha), Ball, Bur (Bird), Baba (bottle), Brah (brush), Doll, Meh (milk), Bay (baby), duck, ROAR! (as in "megan what does the lion say?), Dat! (That!), My, Dow-rah, Elmah, No, Ni-ni (Good night/go to sleep), Book, um (yum).

She's been know to combine 'words' into simple phrases. For example, one night, as I tried to rock her to sleep, she laughed, pushed on my face and shouted "No ni-ni!" Another favorite of hers "My Dah!"

Megan's favorite things, other than her dolls and assorted stuffed characters, are of course whatever Logan has. She's a very good little sister in that regard - not that Logan always views this as good.

all out walker

While she can still be seen crawling - its typically just something she does in order to get to something she can pull up on. Megan is terror on two feet. Her new favorite activity is doing laps around the house. She needs not have a destination in mine nor an object of desire to seek. She just walks. And laughs. But mainly walks.

She's also adding more words to her growing vocabulary. Her current favorite being "that." If Meg wants something she doesn't know the word for, she simply points and says "dat." This works out well as long as you can figure out what she's pointing to. :)

Elmo has competition. . .Dora The Explorer. Not that Meg has seen the show, but she fell in love with the doll at the library. So of course Grandma had to buy it. Dora is Meg's only doll at Grandma & Papa's house. As such, Dora gets lugged around there an awful lot. Sometimes in a great big baby bear hug, other times by the hair. Megan will hug her doll tight, kiss it and say "Door-wah."