Mother's Day Gift, 2009

Megan took her first steps on Mother's day 2007. We were totally excited. She hadn't been mobile at all at that point, even though she was over a year old. She was a proficient walker by Father's day a month later.

This year she gave me a pretty good present, too. She's been interested in letters for a long time--probably since she was about 18 months old. She knows all of her letters and can even read some words. Her latest thing is trying to write letters. She impressed me yesterday by writing the letter M on Mother's Day cards for all her grandmas without any help. This morning she wrote MOM on my card with no help other than Todd telling her what letters are in the word.

What better gift for a proud mommy who happens to also be a teacher!

That's worth 5 points

We're in Hour 44 of Trivia 40 here in Stevens Point, and it has been a little more than a day since Megan got her first question right!

We were at home listening over the Web during the kids hour on Saturday morning, and they asked a question about Handy Manny's newest tool, which doesn't speak English.

Since we saw the commercial advertising his arrival about 30 times in the span of a week, of course Megan knew his name was Flicker.

So that was Megan's first correct answer at Trivia. I'm sure she'll be better than us soon enough.

Megan's first (real) haircut

Megan was born with a full head of hair. Other than the bald spot she developed from being on her back too much at her old babysitter's house, she's kept those gorgeous locks ever since.

(Sidebar: That bald spot she got still burns me to think about it. Not that it's the vanity of having to wait for a bald spot to fill in that bothers me. I just think if we would have had Megan at a better babysitter from the beginning, she never would have needed physical therapy last year. I suspect she was just left to play on her own--on her back--most of the day while we were at work...)

Around the time of her 18 month portraits, I started trying to cut her bangs myself. Like my bangs, hers NEVER looked even, no matter what. Her 18 month portraits, while still adorable, are my lasting reminder to never go near my daughter's head with a pair of scissors again. I'll leave that to the professionals.

After the bangs debacle, we let her hair grow. She has always been good about letting us comb it and keep it looking neat (as neat as a toddler's hair can be, anyway). She was ready for it to get evened out, though.

Last weekend we decided to go in for her first haircut since Todd had to get his cut anyway. I've heard other people's horror stories of their children's first visits to the salon, so I was a little nervous. Megan never knew that though. We previewed what would happen for her before we went. She was excited about the bright colored fishy smock she got to wear. Her hair was so long that it folded into a crease in the smock, so she had to stand throughout the cut. She didn't move a muscle the whole time. The stylist, while not very friendly, was quick and efficient. She ended up cutting off 2 1/2 inches from the back.

Megan thought it was the greatest thing! They gave her a sucker for being so good. Now she tells everyone they ought to go get a hair cut so they can get a sucker, too. :)

Like all of our "firsts" with her, this one wasn't drama at all. She's got to be one of the most laid back kids of all time.

It's Potty Time!

Potty training seems to be a journey. We started out a long time ago...Megan was "interested" when she was about 18 months old, so we bought a potty seat. She had a few successes that surprised her as much as they did us. Then we kind of forgot about it for a while.

We tried to start things up again here and there, usually when our daycare provider suggested it or when Megan happened to notice she had to go. We really didn't push too hard though, no pun intended. :)

Then she really started to get the hang of things. Megan's inherited a dislike of being messy or dirty from her dad. Because of that, she had started using the potty every time she had to go poopy. (Come on, you knew what this post would be about when you read the title, so don't roll your eyes that I'm using that word in writing...I'm the mom of a toddler, after all!)

She's had a lot of success with that, but every time we tried to leave diapers, she'd have an accident. Now, with her dad's aforementioned dislike of all things yucky, that wasn't working out well for any of us.

When Winter Break rolled around this year, I was determined that we'd get through potty training, once and for all. She was doing great, but we were still putting her in a diaper for sleeping and if we were going to leave the house. Of course, as soon as she had a diaper on, she took advantage of it. We were really holding her back, I guess.

Finally, with one weekend left to go before the end of break, we decided it was time. She's transitioned with flying colors. She's very motivated by being able to choose which panties she wears each day and that we're more willing to let her wear dresses and tights when we don't have to change diapers. Other than a few accidents, we're ready to declare Megan officially potty trained at 2 3/4 years old.

(Hooray!)

The Baby Sea Witch & Other Amusements

Megan has an active imagination. A few months ago, she told me there was a "baby sea witch" living in her mouth. On and off the rest of that day she spent time with her mouth open as wide as she could for the baby sea witch.

I have no idea what the baby sea witch is, or where her idea for it came from.

She has since elaborated on her sea witch idea. She tells us what the baby sea witch would like for a snack and reminds us to clean it when we brush her teeth. She asks other people to open their mouths wide so she can see if they have a baby sea witch. Sometimes they do, but sometimes they don't. I'm not sure how she decides.

Then there's her jokes. Her favorite one by far goes like this:

Megan: Mommy, guess what?
Mommy: What?
Megan: Chicken butt!

She'll haul that one out at the most random times like the middle of dinner or during a story.

Her other joke is this:
Why is 6 afraid of 7?
Because 7 ate 9.

That one started with the Bare Naked Ladies song called 7,8,9. But she really got the joke from the first time she heard the song.

Never a dull moment with a silly kid.