Getting around

Megan went to bed last night the kind of kid who'd just lay on her belly pushing her upper body from the mattress to peak over the bumpers when she woke up. She woke up the kind that goes from laying down to sitting without adult intervention.

She also went from a girl that could inch her way to something she truly wanted to get her hands on to one that gets herself around quite well -- and did so without working up the courage to really let loose and walk on her own.

For example, Logan needed to use the bathroom and he wanted help. So we left Meg in the center of the living room next to her big toy basket which she normally is beyond content to knock over and empty. But not this time. This time she cried. I yelled back "You're ok Megan Rose. I need one minute to help your brother. We'll be right back."

And then we heard it.

Thud, thud, giggle, giggle. Thud, giggle, Thud. Thud, Thud, giggle.

It got louder and louder.

"I bet you your sister is in the hallway right this very moment." I said to Logan.

"Naw," he said confidently, "She can't go that far."

Thud, giggle, thud, giggle, giggle, giggle, thud. Louder and louder. Seemingly closer and closer.

"Ahh, well, maybe she *IS* in the hallway," he said.

He got just outside the door when he broke out into a fit of laughter - standing at my side as I yelped, "How ever did you get here Megan Rose!"

She laughed from where she sat - just three feet max outside the bathroom door in our hallway. A good "half-the-house" type of trip.

And then she showed us. She leaned forward onto her knees, butt off the floor...and she sort of hopped. Again. Then again. Then again. Moving forward faster than we've seen her do it before. Stopping only long enough to giggle. When she got tired of hopping, she scissor kicked her legs - open and shut, open and shut. She used to just use this as a means of spinning in circles for a new view. She's since added "moving forward at an alarming rate of speed" to its short list of useful tricks.

After that Logan and I went on a hunt in the basement for baby gates well Meg napped. We've got one up between the Living Room and the kitchen. The other needs to be assembled still.

She's gotten around quite a bit today. I put her down in front of the fridge so she could play with her oversized baby magnets and Miss Megan migrated several feet from where I'd put her, sticking her magnets on the metal (thankfully lided) bucket we keep the dog's food in.

She later sat in the office/playroom playing contently. At least for a bit, then she bunny hopped and scissor kicked her way from the center of the decently sized sunroom to the doorway - she used its single step up into the house to pull herself up and was trying to figure out what to do next when I grabbed her up onto my lap and created a cascade of giggles by kissing her neck and tickling her feet.

She took a break from the "need to be in motion" when I broke out the finger paints. She and Logan painted They both wore paint. They both had fun. After clean-up though, it was time to move again. This time, Megan decided she was ready to walk with the aide of a a push toy. Up and down the hall. Up and down the hall. Through the Living Room, into the bedrooms, up and down the hall. Giggle. Giggle. Chase big brother. Giggle some more.

In between it all she squashed in sizable strolls where she walked unassisted. Its a confidence thing for her now. It'll come. If she THINKS you're holding onto her overall straps, she walks without issue for a decent stretch. When she realizes you don't have her at all, she falls over. Its only a matter of time - and now the house is ready.

Summer loving baby!

Meg gets into the swing of summer with her first two piece bathing suit. She's got a thing against cold sprinklers and pools (can you blame her?) but she LOVEs to splash around in puddles and the tepid water of a shallow, sun warmed kiddie pool or the stairs of the inground at her grandparents' house. She also loves just hanging out all dressed up yet causing some trouble with the things she can grab and torment. . .as she is in these photos:

Walking, yes siree

So Meg is walking.

She's not walking laps. She's not walking distances. But she is walking.

Megan seems to stand better, sometimes, when she's got something to hold in each hand. Its as if having her hands full distracts her from getting over excited and tripping herself up. So we placed an oversized toy key in other hand after she pulled herself up using me as leverage.

She stood still for a moment and then she started to move. One step. Then another. Dropped the keys. Another step. And another...and another...until she had moved just shy of half the room to the coffee table. All on her own. All without a single hand helping her balance.

When she got her hands down on the table she laughed. She does that when she's proud of herself. She laughs. Then she cheers, "AYYYY!!" Then she claps. And she did all that after her walk.

I yelled "ACK! LOGAN! DID YOU SEE THAT?! DID YOU!?"

And he was one giant proud smile. He nodded and he said very proudly "Yes I did, she walked! She walked all by herself!" Of course, he then attempted to pry her hands off the table to make her do it again. If he knew the word Encore, he'd have been yelling it.

Megan went walking several more times this evening - this time between Bruce and I. Logan did this when he first started walking. Its all he'd do - all he felt confident enough to do. From Mom to Dad. Dad to Mom. Over and over until he could it consistantly without falling. And now Meg does the same thing. Back and for, back and forth. Sometimes she gets a bit overzealous and she reaches her arms out ahead of her farther ahead than her feet can keep up, which makes her fall. Other times she gets cocky and she attempts to change direction, hanging a 180, midstride, which sometimes works, and other times knocks her on her keister.

Regardless, the girl is walking.

Baby Steps

If there is one thing Megan has really mastered, its getting herself from one spot to another. She has a number of methods from crawling to butt scooting. She cruises - which is her most favorite thing to do actually. And lately, Megan has increased her tinkering with walking. You almost wonder if she would get a lot further with the walking if her excitement was a tad lower. She does about 3 steps at a time every now and again. She gets so excited though that she starts to flap her arms wildly and then reach out for her intended target - a combined move that tends to knock her off balance. Once she takes those few steps she gets so worked up to do it again she jsut can't. She starts to reach forward too soon with too much force that she ends up lunging from table to big-person more than walking to her/him.

She's now 9 months old. Anyone want to place a bet on when those few solo steps extend to something we can actually refer to as "walking?"

One arrived

After what started to feel like endless teething that never led to anything, Megan's first tooth broke through yesterday. She's now sporting the tip of one little bitty baby tooth - the one on the lower left of her center teeth. If she follows the typical pattern of children growing teeth the 2nd lower, center tooth should appear relatively soon.

If you're happy and you know it. . .

Megan's taken up hand clapping - and its wonderful. She tried it out a few weeks ago doing it the experimental way of smacking open palm against the back of her other hand. It took her very little time to figure out the right way to clap and now she does it all the time!

If you sing "Pat-a-cake" to her, she claps and laughs.

If you say happily "Yayyyyyy" as you clap, she claps (and yes laughs).

If she's happy about something - she claps. Yup. Let's say she's been sitting on the floor mad that Mom is off helping Logan with his shoes, for example. She's yelling "MAMA! MAMA! MAMA! AHHHHHH!" and teeters on the verge on crying. Then Mom gets up and heads over to Megan; well Megan then laughs and claps her hands.

Give her food she likes - she claps.

A toy she's been eyeing - claps.

Yup, clapping has become Megan's way of communicating her pleasure at everything and anything.
--

More new sounds -- Megan quacks like a duck, sort of. We were playing during her bath tonight as we always do - playing with the big rubber duck that would be over the spigot if only the spout weren't too big for it. This spout covering duck has a little bath cap on that lifts up so that, in theory, you could fill it with bubble bath and then the bubble stuff would in turn drip down into the running water filling the tub with loads o' bubble. Megan likes to sit in her bath flipping the duck's lid open and shut.

Tonight I also told her, what I do most nights we play wiht "Mr. Duck." I hold it up for her to see the duck's face clearly and I say to her "Megan, duck says 'quack, quack!"

Tonight though, unlike every other night before it, Megan did not just smile and reach for the duck. No, she smiled, reached for the duck and said "Quah! Quah!"

Look Ma! No hands!

Well it just seems early to me but maybe I'm off on my milestones and timing, blah, blah, blah. Megan has been a bit more physical than Logan was at her age. . .and he cruised early, then worked up the courage to walk at 10 months. Miss Thing has been pulling herself up and cruising for a bit now. At 5.5 months she started holding our hands and 'running'. At 7.5 months she started literally cruising on her own around furniture. She's been pulling herself up from a seated position to stand for over a week. She'll be 9 months old on June 12th. . .and moments ago she just let go of my hand and her activity table to stand unsupported for nearly a full minute in the center of the room. She swayed a bit and flapped her arms like a baby bird to keep her balance, but holy cow - "Look Ma! No hands!"

The child had contemplated crawling. She does get around when left to her own devices - she crawls backwards, she inch worms, her favorite thing to do is pull/push herself in circles that slowly move her from Point A to Point B regardless of where that is. When she sits she scissor kicks to turn herself in a circle until she finds what she wants. Sometimes she's able to move her legs in and out in such a way that she butt-scoots forward - but the standing is new. She was incredibly proud and finally began to topple when her excitement and pride got the balancing bird flapping arms moving too quickly in celebration. I caught her as she laughed and smiled. Logan clapped for her and she laughed at him yelling her latest form of Brother "Braba!"

UPDATED TO ADD: And just to show off a little, Megan decided to try some more standing on her own. She started to lean a bit too far forward and took two steps instead. She enjoyed those steps so much she keeps trying to do it again. She's not quite got enough balance yet to really stand for long on her own, let alone actually walk, but she's trying. She keeps standing with one hand on the table and then laughs as she moves to walk towards us. She gets nervous and ends up grabbing one hand before she lets go of the table. She's tried walking to Logan but he's not quite big enough to hold her up. She ended up on her butt the one time she actually trusted him enough to let go of the furniture.

Pull-ups

Its official. Megan Rose has figured out how to stand herself up. She's been practicing for weeks now using the adults around her. With no help from us beyond sitting within her reach, she'd grasp hold of us and stand herself upright. She might hold your shirt, your arm, your shoulder, your leg. Didn't matter.

Well now she uses inanimate objects. Today it was the red wagon. She was sitting in it. Logan and I were watering our newly planted veggies. I turned to see her standing hunched over in the wagon because the wagon side wasn't nearly high enough to allow her to stand upright as she held on. She saw me catch her in the act of figuring out her next move, lowered herself to the bottom of the wagon again and laughed. Needless to say she was removed from the wagon promptly.

She's happily cruising around tables and miscellaneous furniture. She holds hands and walks around with glee. She's even been known to attempt to take her own stroller for a walk. Megan is on her way to being a hellion on two feet. Look out!

--
New sounds - Megan recently began toying with the dog's name. When she sees her beloved Tasha come nearby, Meg whispers softly "Ta! Ta!" Stand her at the front door at her grandparents and she joins the chat for the man with the big hugs and grin "Pa! Pa! Pa!" She knows very well who Papa is because she'll look right at him if you ask her where he is. She's also been heard saying his name when he walks into rooms - although she won't play nice enough to say it when he's around to hear it.

She also enjoys her food. As she gums up Cheerios and banana pieces she says LOUDLY "UM! UM! UM!"

Got to love a good bubble bath. . .

mobile

Since she manages to move bits and pieces one way or another let's just say that Megan Rose is mobile - to a degree. No marathons yet. No finding her in the next room after putting her down, but the girl can move when she wants to. I came in here to check in with the office. At her wiggly instance I placed Miss Thing on the floor, a safe distance from the dog's toy basket. Its something Megan is fascinated with because really, who doesn't want to chew on a big rubber, spikey ball.

She busied herself playing with the toys we've left for her in this office/playroom. She grabbed at a few odds and ends that go along with big brother. And then she spied the forbidden loot apparently. My back was to her but her giggling made me turn around. She was scissoring her feet in and out at a rapid pace and wiggling her butt - a combined move that made her turn in a circle and inch forward. She did this until she hit the jackpot. She looked up at me, her little round, deceivingly innocent looking face full of pride, and she nearly dove head first into the dog's toys.

Having been removed from her grasp and safely stowed, Megan has now moved on to bigger and better things. She's now scissor kicking again trying to retrieve Spencer the train - at least when she's not attempting to use Logan's toy pliers. Wait, I take that back. Another new trick. . .she can go from sitting to belly without bonking her head. :)

Sounds and such

It seems that once the developmental ball starts rolling it just keeps on going fast. Megan's utterance of the sound "Dada" is occurring less often haphazardly and more often when she sees Dad. In addition, she's adapted her Boowah sound to something unique that we are now thinking is her way of saying "Brother." She tends to say it only when she wants Logan to look at her. I don't think I realized how often we refer to him as "big brother" but I suppose its often the way she's taken to the name. She also is trying out "Baba" for bye-bye. She works the sound out as she flops her full arm in a wave. The motion comes every time you say "Bye-bye" and wave at her.

She follows direction fairly well. "Megan can you splash?" during a bath will be rewarded with a big slap of roly-poly baby arm into water. And of course a strong set of the giggles. Or better yet, when she's on her feet, arms high above her head, and ready to run, she'll head off wherever you tell her to go. "Meg bath time. Go to the bathroom." She giggles and she goes. She beelines right for the running water every single time. Or tell her to find Daddy in the kitchen and again, right to him.

She loves to cruise around. She loves to stand - she'll hold herself up at the front door or on a table. She'll ages leaning on the LeapFrog activity table she's inherited from "boowah." She hits the various keys and flips the miscellaneous levers on that thing. Luckily Logan has stopped insisting its his.

To and fro

Meg is well on her way to mobility. She doesn't lift her lower half off the floor when she moves and she doesn't move forward per se - at least not far. She is totally capable of turning herself to face whatever direction she finds comfort whether she's on her belly or back. And, well, she sort of inch-worm crawls herself backwards. Yes. She's doing a dead-leg crawl in reverse. Its amusing to us to watch and utterly frustrating for her.

Progress on that crawling thing. . .

No, she's not all out crawling yet, but she is inching closer. . .quite literally. Tonight during our typical bedtime routine I decided to give tummy time another go. Megan arched her back and lifted herself fairly high, spotted the dog, reached and then cried. Tasha was, luckily for Tasha, out of Megan's reach.

But hey, the dog is good motivation to move, right? So Megan stretched again. No such luck. She buried her face in the carpet and yelled. And so I tutored. I tapped her right foot moving it a bit so that her knee hugged her side. Then I tapped her left foot.

And then Megan did it.

She moved one hand and then the other to pull herself forward and straightened her legs as she did so.

We did this a few times - just enough to get Meg close enough to brush her fat baby fingers to Tasha's reluctant paw. The dog then ran, but Megan had something bigger figured out.

Logan came down the hall moments later, fresh off his bath and looking for the night's storyteller (aka me). I urged him to sit a short distance from his sister - just out reach. We called Daddy to watch. And Meg did it again. This time she did most of the work herself and she kept her head up fairly high. She'd get a foot on my palm and push off hard as she reached in front of her with a hand. Then the next foot and reaching with the other hand. She's not up on her knees as she does it. She drags her legs along the ground in a weird sort of half crawl. She keeps her eyes locked on her target and she laughs with pride as she goes along her quest.

Logan clapped for her. He cheered. He crawled around her showing her what to do again and then he hugged her. And Megan laughed. Then she flipped herself on to her back and clapped proudly with her feet in imitation of the three of us. We clapped for her and cheered and she, being her typical self, basked in the glow.

Knees!

Megan doesn't spend a lot of time on her belly. She HATES belly time. She hates it so much that she'd rather just yell and scream then flip herself off her stomach. Lately though she's come to appreciate at least one new trick belly time provides her - getting up on her knees. It started yesterday and it started as she was complaining about belly time. Megan put her hands down firmly on the floor, placed her forehead just ahead of them and then rocked back onto her knees elevating her middle off the rug. She's yet to do get her head far off the ground - leaving her in a weird sort of tripod stance. She doesn't move when she's like this, but it may be coming.

Megan loves to "walk". In fact if you sit her on your lap or near enough to your lap, she'll lean back and lock her legs until she very literally stands herself up balancing herself against you. She eagerly grasp your hands if you let her so she can go for a walk - marching and prancing around as she giggles. And lately, given the chance, she'll stand all on her own holding onto the door or a table. We've been wondering she too would skip crawling altogether, but perhaps not. Perhaps as soon as she figures out that crawling would allow her to wreak mobile havoc on her own, she'll be off and going. Stay tuned for updates!

words and sounds

So Megan has been doing the whole "Mmmmah!" thing when she's mad or upset and wants me to pick her up. Today, for the first time she saw me coming toward her, held out her arms and yelled happily "MAMA!" then laughed.

She's also playing a load of games lately. IF you sing patty cake she'll clap her feet together in time to the song - not her hands. No. The child uses her feet to clap along.

If you ask her how big she is, Megan will put her arms as high above her round head as she can and laugh as she makes the sound "AhhhhH!" She holds them up there until I say "Sooooooo big!"

In the mornings when I retrieve her from her crib I often say "Peek-a-boo!" as I lean over the side to see her. This morning as I leaned over to get her she yelled out "Booowah!!" I thought it might be a fluke, so later in the morning I covered her eyes with my hands. When I moved them away she yelled out "Booowah!" In fact, as I type, she sits on my lap, body facing the screen, head tipped back all the way to my chest, looking up at me and saying "Boooowah!" until I look at her. And then she says it - "Ahh, Mama."

Hugs!

She's been doing it for a while, but I just don't get to typing it up when I'm thinking of it. Megan is a big time baby hugger. Megan will hug and 'kiss' but, but she's more apt to just hug you. When I get her in the morning or if I take her from someone after having been away from her a bit, Megan will throw her arms around my shoulders, laugh and then throw her head deep into my neck as she squeezes with everything she's got. I don't think I've ever had such an amazing bear hug before - at least not from someone so tiny - and yes, she does squeeze TIGHT!

Miss Meg's first Spring day

Mmmmmmmmmmaw!

Megan has a new sound. Still a leery to call it a word, per se, but it might be. She says "Ma" or more accurately she says "Mmmmmmmmmmmmah!" Its not something she utters often. It tends to come out when she's sitting or laying on her own and she wants Mommy to come pick her up - thus the potential word. She'll see Mom and she'll start to kick her feet as she yells her M sound louder and louder. "Mmmmah! Mmmmaa!" Once she's picked up she buries her head down into Mommy's neck and throws her arms around Mom's shoulders. Yup, Meg is also a big time hugger. And a kisser. But mostly a hugger.

Like a good Jersery Girl

We had a rather busy day today - some kite flying at the park, a little swinging, lunch out in an old converted train car, and then some walking around the Barneget Lighthouse. While Dad and Logan a walk along the path atop one of the retention walls, Megan and Mom stayed on the sandy beach area to keep Miss Meg out of the strongest of the sea breezes (more like strong winds!) Miss Meg was placed down on the beach and the first thing she did was plunge her pudgey baby hand into the sand. She giggled and then did it again. And then she started to dig. She dug herself a small little trench, unearthed some sea shells and contemplated eating one before Mom rescued it from her grasp. Megan Rose loved the beach. She loved walking through the coast-line trees and bushes. She loved playing on the sand. Just like a good Jersey coast girl should.

Improvise

Megan has this teether that she's in love with. She got it sometime in January and quickly figured out how to make it work -- chomp down hard enough on the yellow "beehive" and it'll vibrate. The moment she sees it she lunges for it, grasps the two green side handles, angles it to her mouth and chomps down hard. And then it buzzes. Yes, the thing makes this deep, loud, buzz as it vibrates. Almost a soothing hum to go with the sensation that must help her sore gums.

Today we noticed a new twist to this game. Megan was chewing away at the handle of the teether - a part that won't vibrate no matter how hard she works at it. No soothing vibration. No sound. At least none from the teether. Megan began to emit this deep, loud, buzz-like humming sound. At first we thought it was maybe just a coincidence of timing. Nope. She did it again several times through the day. If she gets working on that teether but doesn't bite into it in the right spot or hard enough in the right spot, she'll make the noise herself.

Not bad for 6.5 months old.

Photo taken January 2005