9 month & 3 year

On Thursday, I took the kids to the ped for Quinn's 9 month & Megan's 3 year well child check-ups. Both are doing well - tall and skinny. Megan was 38 inches (90%) and 33 lbs (75%) while Quinn was 29 inches (90%) and 18 lbs 6 oz (50%). The doctor was very impressed that Meg was completely potty trained -including nights. They tried to get her to do an eye exam but she was too busy jumping and spinning in circles to cooperate. The ped was a little worried that Quinn isn't babbling yet. She said they could refer him to get a speech and hearing eval now or wait and see. For now we're waiting to see what happens since he seems to understand when we talk to him. He stops when told no, responds to his name, get happy and excited when we ask him if he wants to eat or wants more. He isn't waving bye bye or pointing yet either, but she said those should be coming very soon.

In typical Quinn fashion he started saying babababa on Sat.and mamama earlier today.  Quinn has done this a few times before.  He waited until I was good and concerned before doing something.  I need to remember that Quinn is his own boy and to stop comparing him to Megan.

Megan

Let me tell you about my Megan.  This funny 3 year old is independent, hilerous, opinionated, willful & just plain sassy.  She is really coming into herself if you can say that about a 3 year old.  The phrases she comes up with and her intonation is jsut too much from someone so young.   Megan has very definate opinions about what she is and isnot going to do and God help anyone who disagrees with her.  Every couple of months we go through 2 weeks where she tests every rule we have just to see if we really mean it.  This is a girl who would rule the world is we let her.  Consistancy is the key to Meg.  She is definalty too smart for her (read my) own good.  ;)

 This has been a very busy year for Megan.  She's learned so much.in the past 12 months including;

1. 
   
   being completely potty trained - including nights
2. 
   
   becoming a big sister
3. 
   
   learning how to count,  recognize numbers & knowing what those numbers actually represent
4. 
   
   knowing the alphabet & identifing upper and lower case letters
5. 
   
   learning how to spell her name and Quinn's name
6. 
   
   leaning how to dress & undress herself
7. 
   
   "reading" (i.e. reciting books she's memorized) to us
8. 
   
   using a book's pictures to try to "read" unfamiliar books
9. 
   
   being able to carry on entire conversations
10. 
    
    start using her imagination to play
11. 
    
    trying to bargain -ex. "Just 2 more minutes."
12. 
    
    able to put at least one word to every letter of the alphabet -"M is for Mommy & Megan!"
13. 
    
    being able to talk on the phone - more or less
14. 
    
    remember & talk about things from a year or 2 ago

How can you help but love this child?  There isn't anyone else who can drive me crazy, test my patience, fill me with love, laughter & pride quite like my baby girl.

Quick update

It's been a busy couple of weeks.  School ended for the summer, Megan's birthday party was last weekend and Aaron came in to celebrate (he left on Tues. afternoon), my friend and her family are coming in tomorrow.  So it's been a flurry of cleaning and activity the past couple of weeks.  I'm posting a quick update tonight and will hopefully get to a longer post soon.

Megan
Megan is 3 and full of attitude.  I now completely understand why my mom has been telling me 3 was worse than 2.  The girl is MOUTHY.  Lots of NO! with her hands on her hips  and stomping a foot..  If it didn't drive me crazy it'd actually be pretty cute.  She is too funny.  Her imagination has really taken off and we always have monsters, alligators, little tiny bears, etc. chasing us or needing some kind of care.  Megan is trying to read and frequently grabs a book and "reads" it to me.  Also she is now completely potty trained.  No more pull ups at night.  WahoO!


Quinn
Quinn has popped his 4th tooth.  (Thank goodness!)  He's generally a happy and agreeable baby.  He is mostly on solid food and LOVES it.  Anything and everything goes into his mouth - including my leg or the couch.  Q is crawling all over the place and will follow me from room to room.  He's also pulling up and cruising along things.  I'm defiantly not ready for the boy to be walking.

The Zoo

Today we went to the Columbus Zoo. Megan was able to actually pet a few animals - a black rat snake, a tortoise, & a flamingo. (Those pictures are on Nathan's phone. Hopefully they'll be uploaded soon.)

Here's Megan in the petting zoo with the goats.




Megan at the new polar bear exhibit, which is amazing by the way. There's one part where you go underneath the tank and can see the polar bear swimming above your head! (Again on Nathan's phone.) Anyway here's Megan holding up some example of what the polar bears eat.

Megan next to an exhibit showing the different sizes of bears.

Megan riding a polar bear statue.

And just in case you think Quinn wasn't there too. Here's a picture of a very sleepy Quinn with his very sleepy big sister Megan.

Circus Week

Daycare had circus week recently. They teachers had face painting and here is Megan my little clown.


On a side note Quinn has started crawling and pulling up on everything. He's become McGrabby. Grabbing everything and trying to get it into his mouth.

Pictures

Megan likes to tell me she's going to be 3 on her birthday. "I 2 now, but I'll be 3 on my birfday."

Is it sad that Quinn already has thicker hair than Megan and me?

Megan's Big Girl Bed

Megan is now in a big girl bed. A little over a week ago she started climbing out her her crib constantly. We put her to bed, she climbed out, we put her back, she climbed out, we put a baby gate up in her door and she climbed over it. This went on for 4 and a half hours. Her normal 7 o'clock bedtime turned into an 11:30 bedtime. So that weekend we made the switch. The first night she did well. Each night after that got progressively worse and again she wasn't going to bed until 11:30. Though I think I may have found the solution. Megan gets put in her bed, when she gets out we take her blankie away for 10 mins. After the blankie time out, she gets back into bed and goes right to sleep. So now her bedtime is back to normal. ...for now.

Meg her first night in her big girl bed. A couple of nights ago Megan told Nathan, "Daddy, this is a big girl bed. You are a boy. Get out."

Megan after a bath. She loves her doggy towel and even had to turn around to show me her tail.