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."

So Big!

At her 10 month appointment, Megan Rose was 28 inches tall and 21 pounds. Her growth, while doing the typical "almost one year old slow down" keeps her in the upper percentiles for both height and weight for girls her age. She failed to enjoy her visit with her doctor. No shots this time, yet she was still miserable. Silly doctor thinking Megan might want to lay down still on her back. Crazy lady! Ones back is only good practicing your roll to belly and then sit up move.
Followed quickly by your "find something to grap and pull up" move. Which is then followed either by "cruise around laughing" or "feel brave, let go and walk" moves.

More words

Megan's entering that fun phase where she tries to mimic every sound she hears. The ones that mean something she's attached to she tends to easliy incorporate into her daily use. Its not exactly something most people would recognize as a word without living with the girl, but those of us that do hear what she means. The latest additions:

Elmah - Elmo, which is currently her latest obession. Megan LOVES Elmo. She gets a hold of that red fuzzy stuffed one we have in the house and she smothers it with kisses, then hugs.

Dah - Doll

Dag - Dog

Na! - No

The nice thing is she's not only using her words to have something to say, she's using them to say something. This morning I woke up to hear "Mama! Maaaaaaama! Ma. Ma. MAAAMAAA!"

I went in to find her standing at the side of her crib. She smiled when she saw me and said "Mama. Baba." -- Or in English, "Yo, lady, get me a bottle." We walked to the kitchen. I opened the fridge, she laid on it. She clapped and whispered over and over "Baba! Baba. baba."

Ball girl

One of Megan's favorite games is a good old fashioned game of ball. She likes to throw it. She likes to roll it. She likes to try to catch it as someone rolls it to her. Any old ball will do. As soon as she sees one, she starts to get excited. And now, she can vocalize it too.

We went to the park today. Meg and I sat in the shade as Logan and Daddy played soccer on the big open field. The boys moved on to some football around the time Meg got bored of sitting. She was doing her little cruising by holding one hand thing until something caught her eye and she wanted to move faster. She grabbed for my other hand and as we got closer to her prize she started to giggle.

That's when I heard her say it, clear as day "Ball!"

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.