Walking

Megan took two steps on Tuesday. Then two steps yesterday. Woo hoo! She's still got a long way to go, but at least she's on her way!

She loves standing up by herself. I say, "Get your balance," and the steadies herself, then lets go of my hands. Then I count to see how long she's able to stand by herself. The record so far is about 25 seconds...

It's only a matter of time before I miss the days when you could plop her down in the middle of the floor and know she wasn't going to go anywhere.

Halloween

Megan's daycare teachers made fish costumes for all of the kids. Then they participated in the Halloween parade. I've learned something very important about Halloween this year--15-month-old kids just don't care about it!

Megan was fine during the parade, but afterwards, it was "get me the heck outta here, Ma!"

We dressed Megan as a ballerina that night and rode up to Nancy's house, but no trick-or-treating for us. It was sleepytime!

Why Daycare and Photo Day Don't Mix

When we received the order form for Photo Day at daycare, P.C. wanted to order the biggest package we could get, so we could give everyone copies of Megan's "school picture." Personally, I would have been fine if they didn't take Megan's picture. I understand that the daycare also has a preschool, so it made sense to take pictures, but I couldn't imagine that this photo of my baby would turn out to be one for the photo album.

Well...here it is. Oh, it makes me so sad to look at it. You can see that she was crying before they took the photo (look at her sad little eyes), and her arms are out like she's saying, "please get me out of here." And this is just the internet version--in the live photo, her eyes look even sadder. P.C.'s mom was so troubled by this picture that she came to the house after she received this just to get a glimpse of "happy Megan."

It did make me feel better, however, to realize that hardly any kids at this age take a good photo. I mean, look at the class picture.

Cute kids, but they all look like toddlers who have no clue what is happening!

I suspect these pictures will be brought out years from now to embarrass Megan...luckily, we'll have plenty of originals. I don't think we'll be giving out her class photo this year (although P.C. did take one for his wallet).

Photo of Me at 28 1/2 Weeks

I realized that I hadn't taken any pictures of myself during this pregnancy, so I asked Nancy to take a picture of me tonight.

Good thing I don't look pregnant, huh?

:-)

Actually, I feel pretty good. Huge and uncomfortable, but pretty good otherwise. If I deliver when I delivered Megan, I'm only about eight weeks away. Wow! (I'll try to keep him baking for as long as possible, though.)

Silly Pop Culture!

We found out yesterday that Britney Spears' children, Sean and Jayden, are now attending Megan's daycare (see picture, courtesy of tmz.com). I find this really, really odd. Don't get me wrong: we're having a really good experience at daycare, but if I had Britney's money I'd hire a really great nanny! I'm not really sure why group daycare is something that Britney or her ex, Kevin Federline, want, but okay...

In any case, it's been a little wild outside the daycare fence with paparazzi. But as long as they leave my kid alone (she's not in either kid's class), I'm okay with it.

Can't wait for that Halloween parade at daycare next Friday...will Britney be there with her posse?

I thought I'd seen it all when Ashton Kutcher became the freshman football coach at the school where I work, but this might top it...

New Moves

Well, we're over the strep throat (although Mommy got the stomach bug!), and on to happier things.

Megan loves books. Here she is reading a Sesame Street book that is part of a set that Aunt Missy, Uncle Hans, and Siena gave her.

She's also learning to use a spoon by herself. It's messy, but she's doing well! (Except for when she stabbed herself between her two front teeth with the handle of the spoon--ouch!)

Oh, and she has her front teeth! We're now up to a total of seven teeth. Megan is really getting the hang of biting off pieces of food with her chompers.

New words this week:

Elmo (pronounced "Melmo")

bite

uh-oh

cookie (right now it's just "cook")

It's Different When It's Your Own Child (Warning: Graphic Content!)

When I was pregnant with Megan and would tell people about how I was afraid I'd be grossed out by poop, spit up, and other bodily fluids, everyone said, "it's different when it's your own kid." And I thought, "no way." My mom said that when I was little she would hold my hair back while I was throwing up into the toilet while she did everything she could not to throw up herself. (But I suspect if it had been someone else's kid, she would have thrown up for sure.)

And these people were right. I've changed countless poopy diapers, and they really don't bother me, but I'm slightly grossed out at the thought of cleaning someone else's kid's poopy diapers. I pick Megan's nose regularly, and I joke that it's my favorite hobby because I just can't stand when she has a snotty-looking nose. But I'm totally grossed out by other people picking their noses.

Well, the other night, the true test happened. Megan woke up in the middle of the night, and as soon as I opened her bedroom door, I could smell it. Vomit. Vomit in her hair, on her clothes, on her hands. She'd thrown up in bed and rolled around in it. And this wasn't breast milk or formula--this was real, honest-to-goodness vomit. Her dinner from a few hours before was easily identifiable in all its glory. Oh. My. Gosh. Disgusting. So what did I do? I cleaned her up, washed her sheets, and held her tight. Poor P.C. held her tight too--and was rewarded by Megan throwing up all over him. But did he freak out? No. He just held her and said, "It's okay, baby. You can throw up on Daddy. Daddy's here." Very impressive, I must say.

So, the stomach bug moved on and two days later she had strep throat. She's on the road to recovery now, although she'll stay home again tomorrow. But you know what? I think P.C. and I passed a very big parent test this time around--but we know deep down that we might not be as tough down the road!

In other news...I'm on week 26 of my pregnancy. Sprout seems to be doing okay. Being home with Megan when she's sick definitely makes it tougher, because the more I pick her up to comfort her, the more uncomfortable I feel. But I'm taking it day by day and feeling pretty good.

Megan is cruising like crazy and standing on her own a little bit. She knows lots of words, too--here are the ones I can think of:

ball (of course)

bat (of course)

book

bath

more

all done

mama

daddy

banana

Megan

milk

nose

eye

hi

bye-bye

no

dog

Bert (her stuffed dog)

duck

And, she's discovered that toys are great, but an empty diaper box is just as much fun.