I Have Two Teeth!

I have two teeth, right in the middle, on the bottom. Do you like them?

Change of Heart

Remember my post about Megan's hatred of the baseball toy I bought for her? Well, she's had a change of heart.

Now she actually claps when the toy makes a cheering sound! And she loves the bat too, which pleases her daddy!

In other news, we've added lots of new foods: cooked carrots and peas (as opposed to canned, mashed ones), muenster cheese, mozzarella cheese, pinto beans, macaroni and cheese, and whole-wheat bread. She especially loves the peas--they are just the right size!

Here she is, eating carrots and pasta. She definitely prefers to pick things up herself, as opposed to being fed. No passivity for this kid!

I took a great picture of her banging pots and pans for the first time, but it's a nude shot and I didn't want to get arrested for posting it! She loves banging the pots, although sometimes she bangs really loudly and scares herself...

And, of course, she is always modeling the latest fashions...

Safe Travels, Maya's Granny

(Photo Credit: http://mayagranny.blogspot.com/)

If you go back into this blog and read people's comments, you might notice a poster named Maya's Granny. Maya's Granny is the nom de plume of a woman I've "known" online for years as the wise sage of an online group I've belonged to for 13 years. She has always given amazing advice, which she gained through a very interesting life, which she talked about on her blog, http://mayagranny.blogspot.com/. She also posted her opinions on everything from politics to food (and size acceptance) to feminism to her favorite television episodes. As she said in her blog intro, "This is where I share the wisdom that a granny, as an elder of the tribe, accumulates in her journey through life. The reach of my mind is wide, and sometimes even a little deep. Sometimes, like Whitman, I contradict myself. Sometimes I wax eloquent. Sometimes I fall on my face. Why not do it in public?"

MG loved her granddaugher Maya so much. Click here to read the story of when Maya was born. By the end of it, I was so teary and touched that I sent it to both of Megan's grandmothers, and they were moved by it too. (And it is a perfect example of what an amazing writer MG is.)

I met MG in person in November 2003, when a bunch of us "online folks" met in Las Vegas for a weekend. I told her that I respected her opinion so much that I wanted to take her into a quiet room and tell her all my problems so she could solve them.

In a blog posting right after Megan started eating solid food, I was writing about how all Megan was eating was cereal and applesauce, and that I needed to be patient. Maya's Granny wrote, "Apple sauce, oat cereal, and apple sauce stirred into oat cereal. See, she already has two items and a recipe."

After another post about infant Megan, MG wrote, "She is so beautiful. Makes me want to hold her and smell her sweet baby smell and feel her soft baby skin and hear her soft baby breath -- and kiss her belly and her arches and nibble on her toes. Do that for me, OK?"

When I was on bedrest during the in vitro that led to beautiful Megan, MG wrote, "Enjoy your bedrest and know that there are folks out there with you in our hearts."

And in a post where I was talking about how I couldn't describe what it felt like "to have a child look at you and really, really LOOK at you and trust you and love you, even though she's too young to know what any of that means," MG wrote back that when her son, Richard, was born, "My ex-husband told me, when Richard was just a few hours old, that if I ever looked at him the way Richard did, I would have him as my slave for eternity. That gaze that doesn't know there is anything else in the universe and wouldn't look away if it did."

Maya's Granny passed away this morning after an illness that started in February. The world is a little emptier without her, but if there is a Heaven, oh boy, did they just hit the jackpot.

Safe travels, Maya's Granny. Megan's Mama loves you, misses you, and will always carry you in her heart.

10 Months Old!

It's been so long since my last post...

Megan turned 10 months old on May 2. She loves to stand up, and it looks like she might bypass crawling altogether! That's fine, and the doctor isn't concerned, but I must say it's a little intimidating when we go to Gymboree and all those kids are crawling around...but as long as Megan is at the right pace for Megan, that's all that counts!

Megan loves to play peek-a-boo.

She's also added lots of foods to her repertoire. Yogurt, cottage cheese, macaroni and cheese. We're pretty sure that tomatoes upset her tummy right now. And she's not a big watermelon fan.

Check out the groovy new (well, gently used) highchair!

Here's a silly picture of Megan in a Minnie Mouse dress her cousins gave her. She did love all of the layers in the skirt!

Megan also loves to blow raspberries and is becoming very vocal. It's amazing how much she changes day by day!

Happy June!

Lots to Tell!

Megan had her 9-month checkup last week. 28 3/4 inches long (90th percentile), 20 pounds (74th percentile), head circumference: 18 (91st percentile).

She's added lots of food this week: Cheerios, Puffs (which are a Gerber finger food), a couple of fruit and veggie combinations, and a Gerber turkey-rice-carrot-pea dinner that actually tasted better than it looked. She's also added another solid food meal (making a total of three) and cut back on the formula. Fun!

We also went to the UCLA baseball game with Aunt Nancy, Cousin Miri and "Cousin" Nathaniel (the son of Nancy's brother-in-law on Matt's side--confusing enough?) ...

... took a nap in the stroller...

... and woke up ...

... and we learned to clap!

Have a great week!

Oh...and Pauley was wiped out from the heat. It was over 100 degrees this weekend!

Happy Mother's Day!

I wish I could express my gratitude adequately today. I am so, so grateful to be a mother on Mother's Day--a dream I never thought I would realize. I am grateful for my mother, who set an amazing example for me to follow. Most of all, I am grateful for Megan, who is the greatest blessing of all.

Here are some pictures from the weekend.

Here is my gift that Megan (and an adult or two, I suspect!) made at daycare. It says, "Mama's Little Love Bug," and the wings are Megan's hand prints.

This weekend, Megan tried on Gram's hat.

She also played with her toys, and demonstrated her skill for dumping them out of the crate.
Megan also played in her Exersaucer...

...played with bubbles after playing with them at Gymboree...

...tried Cheerios for the first time (Score: Megan, one Cheerio eaten. Pauley: eight Cheerios eaten off the floor.) ...

...and had a relaxing Sunday, after going to Mother's Day breakfast with Gram and Uncle Andy, and seeing family at the bris of her cousins Theo and Noah. All in all, a very satisfying weekend.

Mother's Day Show

Megan's daycare had a Mother's Day show yesterday. Despite my daughter's enormous talent for tap dance and opera :-), they had all the infants hang out in the buggy during the musical number. Here's Megan, trying to steal the "Mom" crown from the girl next to her before the song started. (She actually stole the crown a few times, but I couldn't get it on video.):

The next video is of the actual, well, performance. They were supposed to play "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star," but for some reason the CD didn't work, so they played "Stars and Stripes Forever." The toddlers "danced" while the infants just sat and looked cute. We left early, so I missed the talent agents that surely wanted to sign Megan for her stellar performance. :-)