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.

Making Oatmeal Cookies - 3/25/08

I'm sorry it has been so long since I've blogged. I've actually received quite a few emails asking why I haven't updated.......I guess there really are people reading this blog out there. Great! I'm going to try to catch everyone up on our latest...............

I have come to realize that Megan's behavior directly correlates to the amount of stimulating activity in her day. Little organized activity = one mischievous toddler and one tired mommy. On this day, I decided to have Megan help me make oatmeal cookies. I found a recipe that sweetens the cookies with applesauce instead of a ton of sugar. I was skeptical but they were quite yummy. Megan absolutely LOVES to be up on that stool helping mommy cook. It was a bit of a struggle to get her to understand she could not taste the raw cookie dough with uncooked eggs. (She seemed bored with my salmonella lecture so I shorted it to a firm NO!)

She's wearing the necklace and Cookie Monster hairclip she got in her Easter basket. She loves to accessorize, just like her mommy! I think it is adorable how she watches and imitates me.

Pouring the applesauce.

Not so patiently waiting for the cookies to bake!

Are they done yet???

Finally, yummy (and healthy) cookies!

'Twas the Night Before Easter

First we had to visit with the Easter Bunny. Wonder why she wasn't smiling? She just heard the lady tell daddy it cost $19.95 for a picture. She's looking at the camera thinking, "This is truly ridiculous, mom and dad. I can tell you're first-timers at this parent thing."

Did I mention we waited in line for almost an hour?

Next, we were off to GG's for some festivities. This is her special "egg decorating" outfit, complete with a matching purse to carry her eggs home.

Here is Megan coloring on her egg in her "special outfit," which was carefully chosen to match adorable scrapbook paper I found. About thirty seconds into the egg dying process, Megan pulled an entire cup of egg dye onto this outfit, thereby thwarting my plans for a perfectly coordinated scrapbook page. That's what I get for putting my child in a brand new outfit to dye eggs!

The grandkids, minus Megan (who was getting cleaned up after the "egg dye debacle.") By the time Megan was cleaned up, there were no eggs left to color! I think Brianna had about 6 eggs going at once.

Cutie pie Colin, having a great time coloring eggs too. Notice his undershirt? He had a similar problem with egg dye, and his clothes were in the washer next to Megan's.

Bunny Cake

The "bunny cake" is another special tradition. After we cleaned up the egg mess, the grandkids worked together to decorate the cake, which we will eat for dessert after Easter dinner. This year, Megan's job was to place the nose on the bunny.

Megan threw the nose at the bunny and it landed PERFECTLY! Bravo!

The finished product (minus the mouth, which we will add tomorrow with the icing we forgot to bring to GG's house.)

Having some fun with mommy! We can't wait for the Easter Bunny to visit tonight.

Maggie Moo Hears a Who!

A person's a person, no matter how small!

-Dr. Seuss

Horton Hears a Who . . . what a fantastic movie! It was Megan's first time at the movie theatre and she behaved wonderfully. The giant screen was a little scary for her at first but she ended up really enjoying the experience. The animation was incredible! I really loved the story itself....Horton was so lovable, selfless, and brave. The movie contained so many life lessons and the potential to spark really interesting conversations. (In the car on the way home, John was like, "Uh, Lisa....you want me to have a DEEP conversation about a children's movie? Yep, I do actually. I think the movie is really a (social and) political commentary. It was written during the McCarthy era. Doesn't anyone want to talk to me about this???) I remember reading the book as a child but I don't remember finding the story as fascinating as I did tonight. I found myself wondering........if I were a character from the movie, which one would I be most like? Interesting thought to ponder...............everyone in the world should be a little more like Horton!

One of the only people actually taking pictures at the movie theatre!

First time at a theatre? Yep!

Megan wasn't heavy enough to hold the seat down and

it kept folding up on her.

Megan seriously loved the popcorn! She's busy eating while we're keeping her seat from swallowing her up.