A Donkey Made My Day!

If life had a magic rewind button, I would go back and experience this day with Megan over and over. Too bad it doesn't, huh? I guess I'll have to settle for the warm memory and the pictures, which I hope always remind me that some of the best memories happen when you least expect them.

Megan and I went to a little farm near our house to buy some flowers for the yard this morning. When we pulled up, there were a bunch of sheep in a little pasture by the parking lot. Megan looked at them for a while but it got a little boring because the sheep just stood there saying "baaaaaaaaa." I convinced Megan to shop with me for some flowers and we'd come back to look at the sheep again before we left (hoping by then they might have the energy to WALK AROUND or do something more fun that just stand there.) Anyway, Megan was acting a bit "naughty" while I was shopping for the flowers. She kept trying to walk away from me to go watch the sheep do nothing again. I told her we would go back and look at the sheep after we paid for the flowers, but ONLY if she minded her manners and behaved. It took every ounce of patience she had but she was able to pull herself together for the last few minutes of shopping. We put the flowers in the car, ran back to the pasture (well, Megan ran and I scurried behind her) and guess what........those darn sheep wandered off somewhere and the pasture was empty. I could see Megan's heart breaking as she yelled, "Sheep! Sheep! Baaaa! Momma, where'd sheep go?" All of sudden, a creature emerged from the woods.

It was the most adorable little donkey.

I couldn't believe it when he trotted right up to Megan, who was still yelling "baaaaaa" from the other side of the fence. Perhaps he was just glad to see someone other than those boring sheep.

He stood there for a little bit making some noises at Megan. She made some back too, mostly squeals of utter delight. He was so much more interesting than the sheep!

Then the little donkey started rolling around on the ground. Megan got really worried something was wrong with the little guy. She kept saying, "Are you alright? Are you alright? Momma, donkey fell down."

Check out the concerned look on her face. She is such a compassionate little girl. I told her the donkey was getting ready to take a nap. This seemed to satisfy her. She waved bye bye to the donkey. When I said goodbye to the donkey, Megan said, "Shhhhh momma. Donkey sleeping." (only she pronounced it more like, "Shhh momma. Onkey seeping."

To some people, that little guy is just a donkey but to me, he's my knight in shining armour. It's almost like he knew just when to emerge from the woods to save my little girl from disappointment (and me from having to wait around all day for a lazy sheep to appear.) That sweet donkey also helped to create the warmest memory. That donkey made my day!

Austyn's Kindergarten Graduation

We had to skip gymnastics class last night (oh darn) to attend my niece Austyn's graduation from Kindergarten. The kids sang a bunch of songs while all the proud parents/grandparents (and aunts) videotaped and snapped pictures. It was a cute little performance. Megan sat on John's lap and tried to sing along with the kids.

I can't believe how quickly time seems to pass, especially while watching little ones grow. It is amazing to me that little Austyn is going to be a first grader next year. Makes me realize how little time we have to enjoy our "babies" before they become "kids." These "kids" go off to school without us and learn cheesy songs from someone other than US! It really was a sweet graduation, and a nice little reminder to savor every moment of Megan's "littleness."

"Cuckoo and the Zoo"

We had an exciting time at the zoo today! My friend Kasey, who is an assistant principal at the high school where I used to teach, had a day off today and joined us at the zoo. Her son, Cooper, is two and a half and made the perfect playmate and partner in crime. It was so cute . . . Megan kept mispronouncing his name as "Cuckoo." I think their favorite animal was the ducks (which we can see any day of the week at the lakes in our neighborhood.) ha! They liked the alligator too.

At the elephant exhibit

Kasey and "Cuckoo"

Bravely checking out a gorilla's behind. They both scrambled backwards pretty quickly when the gorilla turned around to face them, nearly tripping over each other in the process. I had a kid wrapped around each of my legs or I would have snapped a picture of that as well!

Sharing a double stroller, which seemed like a great idea at first. About halfway through the day, both kids insisted upon walking. Three-quarters of the way through the day, they both begged to be carried.

A hug goodbye!

Is There Nothing Sacred Anymore?

NOPE!

This blog is to record Megan's milestones. Well, guess what........she can go pee-pee in the potty. She doesn't use it exclusively yet, but we're working on it. She gets a sticker when she goes in the potty. She'll do anything for an Elmo sticker! I hope this picture doesn't come back to haunt her when she is running for president someday. ha,ha

I didn't really intend to potty train her just yet. Her doctor said to wait until 2 years old. Then Megan started to become very interested in elimination, so to speak. (She started announcing to the room when she was "going" in her diaper. If I somehow missed the announcement, she would take off the dirty diaper and attempt to change it herself. This got a bit messy.....yuck!)

To digress for a moment - the life of a stay-at-home mom can be so NOT glamorous sometimes. Picture this event from a few weeks back. . . the dog won't stop staring at me because she has to go outside. I can't take Megan with me because she is only wearing a diaper. I put some Elmo on the TV and dash out to the yard with the dog. I was gone for not even 2 minutes, right out the front door. During that time, I must have missed Megan's announcement that she had dirtied her diaper. In the 120 seconds that I was gone, she managed to take off the dirty diaper, dump the contents in a pile on the carpet, crawl up the stairs (leaving a trail I was able to follow,) and come to a final stop with her dirty, naked behind sitting on the floor of John's office. (And leaving yet another poop stain there as well.) Oh yeah, I forgot to mention she was coloring on the floor with markers. Honestly, how do people manage more than one child?? I've pretty much got my hands full with just her!

Anyway, I decided it was TIME to potty train. Can you blame me?

My New Scrapbook/Craft Room

Sometimes I think I have the coolest husband in the world.

Not only did he shop with me for EIGHT straight hours to purchase the furniture/accessories for my new scrapbooking room, he maintained quite a pleasant attitude throughout the process. (For those of you not too familiar with John, he HATES to shop.....especially with me for several reasons......I take forever to make up my mind, change my mind multiple times, and look at everything whether I plan on buying it or not.) When I questioned him about why he was being so cool about the never ending shopping trip his reply was, "Because I know how excited you are about this." Wow! Seriously, after EIGHT hours.....not to mention we had to drive 2 hours to get to the store and still had another 2 hours left to drive home! All the stuff barely fit in the car but we somehow managed to bring it all home.

We then spent the next week putting the furniture together and painting the room. We bought two drawer units and each put together one of them. When I was finished with mine, John looked at it and asked, "Why do you have so many pieces left over?" ha, ha. I told him it was fine. Then I picked it up to move it and the top came off in my hands. (The directions were pictures rather than words. The pics didn't really make sense to me. I needed words! I am a word person! They showed a picture of a screw and next to it was written 10x. I thought that meant to turn that screw 10 times.) Of course, I wasn't going to ask John for help because I'm a confident, intelligent, fully capable woman.....hear me roar! John later told me (after my drawer unit fell apart) that the 10x meant there were ten of that particular screw. OHHHH....why didn't the directions just say that? ha ha ha ha

So......the coolest husband in the world proceeded to put together the rest of the furniture without laughing at me too loudly. Trust me, he laughed.........laughed for a pretty good while. He just didn't do it too loudly, and I appreciated that very much.

Tiny Tumbler - 3/26-08

Megan's little friend Anna had a birthday party at "The Little Gym." (For those of you who don't know, "The Little Gym" is a gymnastics studio for toddlers and children.) At this birthday party, I somehow became convinced I was depriving my child of crucial social interactions and opportunities to develop gross motor skills because she was not yet enrolled in a gymnastics class. The parents of the children who attended "The Little Gym" were convinced their children followed directions and played better in a group than other children. Call it peer pressure. . . call it whatever you want . . .but I promptly enrolled Megan in the Wednesday night class with her friends Anna and Cooper. (The tuition for this class almost prompted me to choke on my own saliva......but I bit the bullet and paid praying this class lived up to the hype. Then, of course, it was off to find a leotard and matching hair bows for my little Maggie Moo. And people wonder why they call my husband St. John?!?)

Well, guess what...........I HATE GYMNASTICS CLASS!!! Every Wednesday night, I have to fight rush hour traffic. Once there, I literally chase Megan around the gym trying to convince her to participate in whatever organized activity the class is doing. She screams, goes limp when I pick her up, and basically just refuses to cooperate. Many of the tots in her class are older than her and seem to participate quite willingly. My friends Kasey and Andrea are able to chit chat with each other while their children practice their skills. I'm sweating and running around like a maniac, worried my child has ADHD or something. Megan marches to the beat of her own drummer.......which would be just fine if I hadn't paid a small fortune for her to follow the crowd!!!

She loves to play on the mats, especially when her teacher has everyone sit in a circle on the other side of the gym! Notice no other children in the background??

Megan only walked on the balance beam the first few weeks. Then she figured out that is what she was SUPPOSED to do. She hasn't walked on it since. ha!

If she wasn't so stinkin' cute............

I think my friends should pay me to teach their children gymnastics. I could run around in a circle, blow some bubbles, do a somersault (oh, sorry...forward roll) and laugh all the way to the bank......just like they do at "The Little Gym!"

Sad to say, but John and I are counting the days until Megan "graduates" from gymnastics class. Seriously, what in the world did I expect from a 21 month old??? I think we'll take the summer off from organized activities.........that is until the next mom raves about the excellent music appreciation class her child is taking!!!!! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.