3 Years Old: A Retrospective

Yeah, a retrospective because I'm a slacker: the last entry was two years ago! This will likely be the biggest entry ever (perhaps
even Guinness-worthy). This is a work in progress and may continue to grow & change.

3 Years Old

June 24, 2009
- Megan begins reciting one of her Beauty and the Beast books from memory... she slurs a lot of it, but some sentences sound bang on.
- Megan is eating raisins at bedtime. She swallows a raisin and says "I'm trapping the raisin in my belly so it can't get out." Then she touches her chest and says "I trapped the raisin with my booby traps!" Apparently she learned about 'booby traps' on Backyardigans.

June 2009
- Megan has started wiping herself after no. 2 and she says "there are no more poo crumbs"
- When Megan wants Daddy to pick her up but he's holding Reznor, Megan tell Daddy to "Give! Give!" [Reznor to Mommy].
- One day last week she was excited that she pooed and peed at the same time and I said, "you killed two birds with one stone!" and then spent 5 minutes explaining to Megan her first metaphor. Last night at a family gathering she did it again and ran around telling people "I killed two birds with one stone! One bird is the poo, the other bird is the pee, and I'm the stone!!"

Mommy's forehead crinkles - Megan has deduced that when mommy is angry her forehead crinkles in a particular way. So now when Megan sees the expression she asks mommy why she's angry. She also tries to mimic the expression herself: "Mommy, I can't do it. How can I do it?" as she frowns anc scrunches her nose, trying to crinkle her own forehead.

May 21, 2009
It's breakfast time but Megan's not eating. She's totally zoned out watching Enchanted (a movie). I remind her repeatedly to eat. Eventually she says, "Daddy, you make me soooo angry!"



May 20, 2009
Megan notices a small statue of La Pieta (Mary holding Jusus in her arms after the crucifixion).
Megan: Who is that?
Teta: That's Mary holding her son.
Megan: Why is Mary holding her son when he's an old man?
Later Megan falls on the asphalt later and says, "I fell and hurt myself like Jesus."

In the bath Mommy asks Megan to sit down. Megan retorts, "Okayyyyyy!" as only a teenager could. Mommy asks her where she learned to speak like that and Megan replied: "I said it because I'm angry."



April 29, 2009
Megan crawls into bed with mommy and Reznor.
Megan: Did Reznor want his momma?
Mommy: Yes, Megan.
Megan: Take a picture of us! Get my camera! You push the red button to take a picture!

April 22, 2009
Daddy calls Megan, who is staying at Julie's.
Megan: Daddy, are you at work?
Daddy: Yes
Megan: You can hear me at work?
Daddy: Yes, because I have a telephone at work.

April 19 2009
Mommy: Goodnight - I love my princess
Megan: I love my Queen too!

Meganisms (April 13, 2009):

1. Megan: When I'm four years old will I be big like Mommy and Daddy?
   Daddy: Sure you will.
   Megan: [with resignation] Oh... that's going to take a hundred years....



2. Megan and Daddy are chasing each other. Megan beckons Daddy over to the edge of the carpet.
   Megan: Ok Daddy, you stand on the big line and I'll stand on the little line. We're doing a race, not a chase, because I'm just a human.
   And her races always begin with "on your mark, get set, go!"



3. "teta, I love this cheese but I love you even more"


4. Daddy asked her "what's the difference between a square and a rectangle?" and she replied, "daddy, I have short turn memory loss" which she explained was what Dory has in Finding Nemo.


5. "poo looks like sausage"


6. "my poo looks like a dog"


7. Megan is into princesses and evil queens these days (watching lots of Snow White and Sleeping Beauty). The other night when Daddy was putting her to bed she said, "I'm going to dream about being a princess and a prince is going kiss me and take me to his castle and we'll live happily ever after". Then she asked me: "Daddy, what is your dream?" And Daddy replied: "I'm going to dream about being a prince. I find a princess and take her back to my castle and we live happily ever after." Megan exclaims, "Daddy, is that princess me??!!!!"

Jan 2009

Megan anecdote #1: She came into our bed this morning and asked me to tell her the story of Aladdin. I started to recite it (poorly) from memory, then she said, "no daddy, don't read it from the ceiling, read it from the book."

Megan anecdote #2: Megan was watching a program on TV where they asked kids "what would you wish for?" So Helen asked Megan. Megan looked up at the ceiling, deep in thought, and said, "Ummmm, I wish for... a million bucks!"

Nov 2008

1. When Megan was still in utero we used to read Dr Seuss to her (I doubt she remembers). We read Oh, The Places You'll Go! and Fox in Socks.
   
   This week we're training Megan to go to sleep without a backrub. The first two nights were tough. She bawled for 15 minutes before falling asleep on her own. (Actually, that's not bad, I've heard about a girl that bawled for four hours!). Last night I told her I was going to leave. She said, "No daddy, rub my back or I'm going to cry." I explained that she was a big girl. She said, "No I'm not a big girl." I pep-talked her a bit and then asked her to hug her bear. Then I said goodnight and walked toward the door. Usually at this point she's bursting out of bed screaming "no daddy!!" but she just snuggled with her bear and simply said, "goodnight daddy."
   
   She's 2-and-a-half and so much trouble, but such a joy. A few nights ago I took her to the potty and while we were waiting for something to happen she said, "I want to be Megan Doctor" so I said, "you mean you want to be Doctor Megan?" "Yeah," she said. "Hi, Mister, where's your booboo?" I told her my head was hurting (which it was) and she said, "I'll give you a band aid" and she extracted an imaginary bandaid from somewhere in her belly and stuck it to my forehead. "Do you feel better?" she asked. I told her it still hurts so she extracted ten more band aids for me. Other times she'll spontaneously compliment us on something, like "Daddy, your hair is beautiful."

Retrospective under construction...

Retrospective: November 2008


Retrospective: October 2008




Retrospective: September 2008



Retrospective: August 2008



Retrospective: July 2008



Retrospective: June 2008



Retrospective: May 2008


Retrospective: April 2008



Retrospective: 2 years old!


Retrospective: 23 months old - March 2008



Retrospective: 22 months old - Feb 2008



Retrospective: 21 months old - Jan 2008




Retrospective: 20 months old - Dec 2007



Retrospective: 19 months old - Nov 2007




Retrospective: 18 months old - Oct 2007

Daycare reports that Megan is speaking at a two-year-old level.

Meganisms:

1. Megan begins asking the question: "what is [insert name here] doing?" She is also responding to the same question...
   Daddy: What is Megan doing?
   Megan: Making mess! (referring to messes of crumbs on the floor or sofa)


2. Early in October Megan altered the way she sings Old MacDonald. She began referring to a "farm" as a "sharm", as in "Old MacDonald had a sharm, eieio!" I think it's because of the line "...and on his farm..." which Megan may be hearing incorrectly as "and on hissharm"


3. On the other hand, she also refers to "frogs" as "shrogs" and "elephants" as "eleshits"


4. Megan started referring to "poo" and "pee" and actually meaning it, sometimes.


5. In September Megan started saying "I want it!". Now, in October (Oct 11th), she said "want that?"


6. New animals she recognizes and vocalizes in Sept/Oct: walrus, mole, cheetah, anteater, octopus

Retrospective: 17 months old - Sep 2007

Meganisms:

1. Megan started saying "sorry! sorry!" if we hurt her (for instance, accidently pulling on her hair) because that's what we say when we hurt her.


2. Megan started expressing her wants, saying "I want it!".

Retrospective: 16 months old - Aug 2007



Retrospective: 15 months old - July 2007

2008

August 2008

Megan is 2 yrs old and tells her Teta:

"My mommy is huggings.
My mommy is smart.
My mommy is cuteness!"

Megan is 14 months old

Always time On May 13 as Mommy lifted her cup of coffee to her lips, Megan turned to her and declared "ahweh!", which is the Arabic word for coffee. Reportedly, Megan's been trying to say 'coffee' for a while, but usually she just says the first syllable: "ahh!"

Who? Another word Megan's saying this month appears to be "me!" However, this should also be her attempt at saying "Megan" or "Meg", as she sometimes says "me-me" which could be imitating our term of endearment, "Meg Meg".

Megan is 13 Months old

It's been a very busy month for Megan, and mommy and daddy too. Megan is blissfully unaware that she will never again see her car seat, stroller, or orange Florida Mickey Mouse. She doesn't seem to care that we're now driving a Nissan Sentra instead of the usual Toyota Corolla. Nor does she seem to wonder why we keep hanging out at car dealerships! For those of you who haven't heard, our car was stolen a week ago. Things are looking up, I guess. We have secured a new Toyota Matrix and we should be picking it up in a week's time. Please please let May be an uneventful month!

Megan has been busy, as usual. She is enjoying the nice weather and she's been babbling nonstop for the past few weeks. She's got so many random syllables coming out of her, I can't even begin to approximate half of them! However, she has also started to mimic in earnest. This month she's discovered a lot of her favourite things begin with the letter 'B': Balloon, Ball, Bus, Baba!(Daddy in Arabic). Of course she's mostly just saying "Baa!" to all of them, but it's a start. Actually, her "balloon" pronunciation is closer - it at least has two syllables: "Baa'ooon!"

Megan took her first steps last week (only one each time). She stands very steadily but is very hesitant to step forward unless we are holding her hand. She bolts full speed ahead when securely holding the hands of her grandparents, parents and aunties. We know she can do it, its just a matter of time and to our delight earlier this evening she took 4 steps forward!!!

Events this month included Megan's baptism (lots of pics for you), Norman & Robyn's wedding, and Luiza's 2-year birthday party.

Megan is One Year Old - April 7, 2007

Well it's finally here. This is the big blog everyone's been waiting for: Megan's first birthday!

On her birthday Megan weighed in at 22.5 lbs (75th percentile) and 31 inches tall (95th percentile).

Of course, there were lots of photos taken prior to the Big Day, so I'll start with some comments about those.

Performance Art. Megan likes to drink her milk with gusto. At the same time, she doesn't let milk get in the way of other activities. Tonight we actually witnessed her crawling towards her giant teddy bear with the bottle in her mouth, which means she was crawling on her elbow as she held the bottle to her mouth!

Standing up for herself. On March 20 Megan reached that auspicious two-legged milestone: she stood on her own! She still has quite a way to go before she can walk, but in the weeks since that first two-legged balancing act we've watched her grow bolder and learn how to balance her chubby little feet.

April 7, 2007: One Year Old. Megan was joined by some of her little toddler friends for the festivities, which included a singing telegram, Barney busting out of a giant cake, and a vodka luge. OK OK... perhaps I'm fibbing just a little bit. Some genuine memorable moments included: Megan crying when we sang happy birthday, playing with all her friends (Maya, Sienna, Amalia, Neveen, and Luiza), playing on her new zebra & wagon. Oh yes, and then we lined up all the kids on the sofa. A chain reaction of crying ensued.

 

Megan is 11 months old

Megan is eleven months old and daddy has survived his month of indentured servitude at home. It's back to the old grind for daddy and a life of being passed off from grandparent to babysitter for Megan. February was a busy month for Megan - she kept herself busy challenging the will of her new keeper.

Stair Crazy. This month Megan discovered the stairs. Although we barricade her in the family room and kitchen, sometimes we chase her around the rest of the ground floor and every time Megan passed by the stairs she grew a little more curious, until one day she started climbing. A few weeks later she completed her first climb to the second floor, with Daddy following behind. The look on her face was one of pure victory. She immediately headed for the bathroom to play with the toilet paper. Although I have no photos from this month, I will steal a few from next month to show you what she's like:



Poo On You. Megan used her potty a fair bit considering she was 10 months old. According to our records she peed a total of 10 times and pooed four times in February. We apologize for the frank discussion of human waste management, but really that's all new parents talk about.

Standing for it Megan has been experimenting with free-standing over the past month. On March 7th she almost stood up... teetering for a few moments before falling back on the sofa in a fit of giggling. She still doesn't quite understand what walking is, even when we hold her arms and guide her forward.

New Adventures Near the end of February, Daddy took Megan to visit her future babysitter, just to test the waters and get Megan used to her new surroundings. The visit went well, Megan played with Gopa (a cute 4-year-old who is distressed that she can't remember what comes after three) and Koji (1-and-a-half-year-old bundle of energy), but she was pleasantly surprised to see me return after a few hours. When Lori took her for real the next week (Tuesdays and Thursday) she was less than thrilled. She cried, moped and Lori was looking for alternatives, but the second week she was adapting better and the situation is looking up.

The Pincers I will quickly mention--mostly as as excuse to show another photo--that Megan has tweezer-like fingers that can find any object, however minute, on the floor or anywhere. On the right is a photo of Megan picking up a Cheerio with those pincer fingers.

Well that's all we've got for this month. No video, either!! I promise more surprises for Megan's REAL first birthday next month.

Photo Slideshows

Go to https://www.flickr.com/photos/thefaziltons

Megan is 10 months old (plus notes about climate change)

As you all know by now, these blog entries are written by Daddy, who is now on Day Four of his month-long paternity leave. This all-day caregiving stuff is exhausting! I should have done this before Megan learned to crawl in December. She's been into everything this past month--everything!!

Crib transformations. On January 2nd, she sat up in her crib for the first time. This changed the nature of her naps and sleeps. Once she knew she could get up and go, she was no longer quite as content to just lie there and sleep. So now there's more crying herself to sleep. The very next she turned on her mobile! She had woken up after an hour-long nap. Usually we hear her crying or babbling happily, but this time we heard her mobile start to play! The very next day we found Megan sleeping on her stomach. This happens now when she cries herself to sleep. Usually she has her bum in the air and her head is nestled into the bumper that surrounds the crib. Yet another first occurred the next day--Megan woke up from a nap and we entered the room and found her standing up, peeking over railing, and gripping the bars in her hands. Since then her primary motivation is to use anything to get up on her two feet --- her crib, playpen, coffee table, or television (which she now can turn on and off.. and attempts to do so 50 times a day).

Potty fluke. We have a morning ritual wherein we sit Megan on her potty. We do this so she gets used to the idea of potty-sitting, even if she doesn't know what to do next. Well, on February 5th as I sat Megan on the potty, I heard a tinkling noise! Although I'm sure it was a fluke, it's still pretty exciting (as is the concept of one day not needing to change diapers!) And then, just cuz I'm sure you wanted to know, on February 8 Megan pooed in the potty!! It's another fluke, but we're very pleased Megan is comfortable enough to do her business on the plastic throne.

Manual dexterity. Megan started feeding herself (cheese, Cheerios, small fruit) on January 17. She prefers to pick things up with her thumb and forefinger, very carefully and deliberately, and chomp it in two with her two bottom teeth. She also uses those same two fingers to turn off lights around the house (with our assistance and permission, of course). She is also getting into some kitchen drawers, pulling out the cup towels she finds inside. Time to child proof the kitchen!

Crawling update. Megan has become a holy terror on four limbs. And she's really fast. Turning your back on her for more than 30 seconds is not advisable. She crawls even faster when we're chasing her... she toddles ahead of us, then sits up and looks back to check out our progress, screams, then starts toddling faster.

Climate Change

There is no Megan video this month, but I would like to use this space to appeal to all of you to start thinking about your carbon footprint. As you've all noticed, climate change is in the news again. The reason it's in the news is because once again scientists from around the world have publicly declared the connection between human activity and climate change. Canada's carbon emissions have increased by 25% in the past 10 years alone, despite the fact that we signed the Kyoto Accord and promised to reduce our emissions by 6%. Not only are weather systems becoming more unpredictable, the polar regions are melting at an unprecedented melting rate. Lori and I went to see David Suzuki and Stephen Lewis speak last night. Suzuki has been an environmental activist for decades, but in the early 1980s he believed it would take centuries to see the results of global warming. Change is happening much faster and in a few decades we could be facing flooding in coastal regions, drought, and shortages of fresh water.

The most tragic thing is that our children and grandchildren have no choice but to inherit our mess. All of us need to act now to reduce our carbon footprint, which is a measure of the amount of greenhouse gases each of us is responsible for each year. Here's a very small list:

• burning gasoline in our cars
• using electricity generated by burning of coal
• heating our homes
• purchasing imported food (which gets transported on boats, planes, and trucks which burn petroleum)
• flying in airplanes

David Suzuki has embarked on a 40-city tour of Canada on a campaign he calls "If You Were Prime Minister..." He is collecting ideas, enthusiasm, and the will of the Canadians and taking it all to Ottawa to present before the Harper government the fact that Canadians are willing to back (and vote for) environmental policies that combat climate change. He has also asked people to submit 30-second videos to YouTube. Here is the video I submitted:



Watch more videos (220 at last count)
Add your vote!!
Learn more about carbon footprints and how to reduce yours

Still Unconvinced?

1. Buy Al Gore's documentary (click for info)
2. Buy Al Gore's book
3. I own the DVD - I'll loan it to you.

Let's Start Talking

No one seems to be talking climate change and what each of us can do, which is why I'm bringing it up now. Let's start talking about what we're doing to reduce our footprint. In our household we've replaced 95% of our incandescent lights with low-energy alternatives. Our appliances are mostly natural gas instead of electric. We keep our heat at 21 degrees C (usually drops to 19 degrees C at night these days). We recycle and will soon be buying as much local organic produce as we can find.

Please leave comments on this blog with your thoughts, ideas and contributions to carbon reduction. Thanks!

New Photos

Megan's latest photos are here - as you look at these photos, think about Megan, your children, nieces and nephews, and the rest of the world's children whose lives will be very different than the ones we live today.

Megan is 9 months old

The past month has been quite eventful. Megan experienced her first Christmas and New Years as well as a number of 'firsts' of her own. It was also a phlegmy month. I'll explain what I mean:

Flu Poo Poo. On Dec 20th 2006 Megan received her first flu shot. Flu shots are free for Ontarians. They're supposed to reduce your chances of contracting serious flus. I'm quite dubious of the controversial "let's guess which flus are going around and inject them into babies and the elderly" flu shot, so I wasn't completely surprised when Megan comes down with a serious cold shortly thereafter. Megan was coughing and hacking for days and days afterwards, right through Christmas, so we took her to a walk-in clinic and discovered she has twin ear infections. So onto antibiotics she went. We struggled to administer the amoxicilin for days, at first by injecting the bright pink (watermelon) viscous liquid between her clamped shut jaws, then later by hiding it in her formula (which also turned pink) and food. A few days before the end of the treatment Lori discovered Megan was more than willing to take the antibiotics on a spoon!

Holiday prep. Before she got sick, we kept Megan quite busy leading up to the holidays. We took her Christmas Tree shopping at a nearby nursery. In the end we picked a gorgeous Frasier Fur that cost us only a small fortune. We also took Megan to Canadian Tire to buy some LED Christmas lights.

Baby Chompers. Megan's first tooth broke through on the 21st of December, following on Christmas Eve by her second tooth! They're sharp little buggers, too! Unfortuately we don't have any tooth photos to share with you. However we can share a few teething pictures! Teething Pic 1 | Teething Pic 2

She crawls to conquer. After weeks of trying and trying and trying, on December 23rd Megan crawled for the first time! (In a case of not-too-subtle foreshadowing, she was trying to reach out to a boy at the time.) Note to Nova Scotians, in Ontario what you call "creeping" they call "crawling". It's linguistic differences like this which have alienated the east coast from Upper Canada for so long. Although crawling was her Christmas gift to us, lately we've been regretting her newfound mobility. She still treats crawling as a means to an end, a way from Point A to Point B, or in Megan's world, from Point A to the Christmas Tree. Her initial motivation certainly was to reach the dangling ornaments. In the days prior to crawling she would roll and roll and roll until she reached that tree. She also enjoys crawling to the TV and watching Star Trek and Jeopardy.

Critical Mass...er...I mean, Christmas. I cannot express in words the number of gifts Megan received. Many of them are in the basement waiting for their turn - there is simply no room! Megan had a great time tearing at the wrapping paper, eating wrapping paper and cards, and chewing on the boxes. One of the many gifts she received was a stuffed bear who sang Jingle Bells. Megan liked this bear's singing so much, she would cry whenever the bear stopped singing.

Chatty Cathy. After editing Megan's video for this month I realized I'd left out one important thing: she is turning into a real chatter box! She's also been giggling lots and becoming a lot more interactive. When you watch the video you'll see what I mean.

Megan wishes you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Megan is eight months old

Bad Cop, Bon Cop. On November 9th we decided it was time to stop bouncing Miss Megan to sleep. (When I say "we" I mean "Lori"... this holds true for a lot of Megan-related policy.) At first we couldn't deal with the wailing and crying, so we rocked her to sleep for a few weeks. This worked quite well, until one day mommy found daddy asleep at the wheel, so to speak. Operation: Tough Love commenced shortly thereafter. The new routine was: 1) read two stories, 2) say goodnight to Megan's chair, butterflies, window, and lamp, and 3) put Megan in bed and turn on her singing fish mobile. It was agonizing, of course, because Megan would wail and cry heartbreakingly. The first few nights we caved, but soon we toughened up and after a few days Megan would cry herself to sleep within 10 minutes. Lately it's been even shorter! It wasn't so hard after all.

Sounds effects. The past month has been a very vocal one for Megan. She started with heavy use of "ba ba ba ba" and then tried some other sounds: ga ga ga / ka ka ka / pffff. In the past two weeks her babbling has become more complex and polysyllablistic (is that a word?). Some of here phrasing is reminiscent of Cantonese, which is a bit upsetting to Lori's parents, who have been speaking Arabic to Megan for the past seven months. Perhaps there are some Chinese babies out there somewhere inadvertently speaking Arabic..? She's also been talking to her dolly and various other toys. Megan has also learned that different sounds can be made by obstructing her 'noise-maker'--her mouth--with someone else's fingers or even the bottom of her sippy cup. (In this month's video you'll see her in action in Chapter 2: Wa-wa-wa-wa-wa.)

Catching the next wave. Megan started waving 'hi' round Nov 23. However, it's not always a "hello" wave. She'll wave at anyone about anything, virtually any time. It's adorable. (See Chapter 4 in this week's video.)

Here's looking at you, kid. Megan loves photographs. She also loves looking at all the photos of herself and her other little friends on our fridge and her grandmother's fridge. There are also some photos of Venice and Stockholm which she enjoys studying. She also loves watching videos of herself on our camera and babbling to her reflection in our hall mirror. She usually tries to kiss the little girl staring back at her by leaning forward toward the glass surface. She also has a new smile - it's kind of a scrunchie smile. You'll see what I mean.

Megan Merchandise. Megan has gone commercial. Check out her new line of merchandise!

Dancing queen. Two weeks ago Megan started dancing to music. Virtually any music! She dances when she's sitting, bouncing her bum and bobbing back and forth. We have lots of video, don't worry! And for a different kind of Megan dance, check out this little jewel Sandy put together.

Speaking of video, since Megan's done so many fun things this month, we've combined all the videos into one single montage. It's approx 8-9 minutes, so it may take some time to load, but it's worth it. The latest photo slideshow is below the video.

All Megan Videos
https://tinyurl.com/y5llzdh6

All Megan Photos
Check out https://www.flickr.com/photos/thefaziltons (login may be required)

Megan is seven months old

Second Wedding. Megan attended her second wedding this month, the joining of Rodney and Natalia. She didn't quite understand that she wasn't supposed to be the star attraction! She was babbling and screeching, no doubt offering helpful suggestions to the officiating clergy.

She who claps last. Megan learned to clap this month (Oct 19 was the first time). She started out tentativey smacking her palms together, though often only one hand would be in motion, the other stock still, ready for the impact. As the weeks go by she seems to be associating clapping more and more with happy emotions. Also, her clapping is now consistently audible as her little baby palms come together.

Swimming with the fishes. Mommy has been taking Megan swimming, getting her used to the water. At first Megan wasn't sure about the whole pool business, but she enjoyed watching the other babies and the ceiling fans. She only cried when Mommy dunked her head! With each passing week she has grown more comfortable and no longer cries when dunked. One day Daddy got to take Megan swimming. Daddy almost cried when Mommy said "ok - dunk her!"

Halloween. Megan's first halloween was this month. If you haven't seen the pics, visit the previous posting for links and hijinks.

Sitting up and taking notice. Over the past month Megan has progressed from tentatively teetering on her tush to totally dominating her derriere. She is now a sitter-upper par excellence. Her fascination with mirrors is also growing. When she sees a reflection of herself now, she jumps for it, wanting to make contact with that cute other baby. Mommy has also played a fun game with her, peering through a plastic ring and calling for Megan on the other side. Megan coos and peers back through the ring.

Crawl space. Although Megan's first flip onto her tummy occurred during her 3rd month, only in the past month has she started to test her ventral mobility. Presently she has mastered the backwards crawl, of which I hope to post a video shortly.

Do yo hear something? Megan has truly discovered her voice. She learned to let loose piercing screams all over the place. She is also mimicking our vocal inflections, especially with a utterance which we like to think is her attempt to say "hiiii!"

7-month birthday disaster. Everything was going fine - we lit the candles, sang happy birthday (pic), and then... Megan (attacked the cake!! She ripped it apart and had chocolate icing all over her hands... all over the coffee table... all over everything! And then she popped her hand in her mouth! But the look on her face was priceless... she's not yet a chocolate fan!

New Videos

Beautiful laughter
Megan wakes up looking way too cute - [ extreme cuteness advisory ]
Megan crawls.... backwards
Megan's birthday party
Captain Megan and the Space Pirates - our intrepid space captain awakens to find herself in a holding cell. She gingerly tests the forcefield, then pulls out her emergency rubber ducky. To Be Continued...

Slideshows

Megan during her 6th month - 34 new images (since Halloween had its own post)
Megan during her 5th month - 100 new images.
Megan at four months - 55 images
Megan at three months - 59 images
Megan at two months - 56 images
Megan from birth - 81 images

First Halloween

Megan's first halloween was tonight and she did everything except eat the actual candy. We dressed her up, got some professional photos taken (see above), posed her with our own jack-o-lantern, tossed her into a pile of candy, and took her for a walk around the neighborhood. By next year she'll be a pro!

View More Halloween Photos!

View Megan's Halloween Video!

This entry comes a little late. Megan is now six-and-a-half months old. So - let's begin!

HBC Rewards. We took Megan to The Bay and while mom was trying on some clothes, I occupied Megan by introducing her to mannequins and art deco.

Sleeping with the fishes. Megan's usual modus operandi during story time is to try and eat the book we're reading her. So we usually give her something else to consume and gnaw on while we're reading. On this particular night I had grabbed a plastic fish from a Dr. Seuss book. However, instead of eating the fish, Megan was waving it in the air, rotating it in her hands, not interested in eating it at all. Once the story was finished I took the fish away and lay Megan in her crib, where she completely fussed and whined and would not settle down. In desperation I handed her the fish. Megan grabbed the fish in her left hand and promptly turned her head to the right and nuzzled her head into the crook of her right arm. She feel asleep in seconds! We haven't been able to reproduce this preference, but for that night the fish was everything. Here is a picture. Would you like to see some video of Megan talking to her fish? It's right here.

Cuddles. Not much to say here except that during the past month Megan has begun cuddling on occasion. Not always, not often, but it's a start. Here's a picture to prove it.

Nova Scotia. We took Megan to Nova Scotia for Thanksgiving to meet the other side of the family. We were a bit concerned about how Megan would handle the flight, but for the most part everything went fine. In fact, she charmed all the people around us. However, we probably shouldn't have allowed her to order from the in-flight menu. We had lots of visits and adventures in Nova Scotia. Megan met her other grandparents (pic1, pic2) as well as her great-grandparents! (Pic1, Pic2, pic2). She also got to play firefighter (pic 1, pic 2), play with Aaron's baby rattle, and watch some fireworks on her 6-month birthday (pic 1, pic 2). On the second-last day we went to a family reunion on Aaron's dad's side, and that was when Megan tried to kiss someone for the first time!