Every Now and Then

Totes

2010-09-04T18:29:00.001-05:00

I spent the afternoon making a couple tote bags for the kids. The puppy one is for Adam and the kitties are for Megan. This will be like our library book, going on a trip, anything bag. The idea is, I won't have to carry around the huge diaper bag anymore and depending on where we are going, just through some snacks, cups and a diaper in there.

The bag actually folds up into the pocket to form a tiny bundle. I'm going to make a larger one for myself.

Family and kids' albums

2010-09-02T22:01:00.006-05:00

I have spent many, many hours trying to figure out how to "scrapbook" our family memories and still create albums for each kid. I haven't come up with a perfect solution, but I believe I am close to having a prototype. Each kid will have a "baby" book that details their first year of life. From that point, each child will have a scrapbook/photo album that includes primarily pictures of them either by themselves or participating in family activities. Most of these pictures will be displayed photo album style, but will include journaling and some elements of scrapbooking. I do plan to do 4-6 regular pages per child that highlights the essence of that particular age, i.e. for Megan's 2 year old section, I plan to do a layout about dressing up, story hour, new traditions we started, etc. For our family album, I will stick to mainly family activities and do mostly scrapbook pages.

Well, the concept seems simple on one hand, but involved sorting a lot of pictures. I I decided to start with the year Megan was one to see if my idea works.

This page is for our "Family" album:

I then created a page for Megan's book. I repeated the title, used the same paper line and personalized the journaling to Megan. Because I had already done all the hard stuff (picking papers, embellishments), this page came together in about 20 minutes:

Here is another page from the family book:

For Megan's book:

Yet another entry on scrapbooking...

2010-08-26T14:00:00.003-05:00

I finished this page today and it marks the completion of Megan's one year album. (This did not scan well due to the flowers being too bumpy to lay flat on the scanner.) I started it probably 2 years ago and after picking out the paper couldn't figure anything else. I feel like I've gotten into a major scrapbook rhythm. I've been working faster and using a variety of materials. My pages are tending to be a little more diverse than in the past. It is difficult to describe, but it is kind of exciting to me. I think the main reason is because we turned off our tv for the summer. We have Dish Network and they let us put it on "vacation mode." We kept everything we had recorded so Megan still has her shows recorded and we could watch re-runs when we wanted (and most tv shows are on the internet now too). In the past, I used the tv for "background" noise and have now realized how much of a distraction it was. I've also discovered "Adventures in Odyssey" this summer and have been listening to it while I work. Chad and I have both enjoyed not having tv so much we are seriously debating turning it off permanently. Our main hang up is whether we can get football games on the computer and if we can hook a cable from the computer to the tv to view it.

This past year has been a little crazy. Adam is a great baby, but there were some serious adjustments. I think getting back in the scrapbook groove has helped me to feel like I've gotten a bit of myself back.

Okay enough rambling. If you want to see all of Megan's album in one spot, visit here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=208774&id=591839532&l=3d13731907

The Village People

2010-08-25T23:12:00.004-05:00

Megan received the "Village People" set for her first birthday and like all toys, it has gone through cycles of being a favorite to being ignored. I thought about putting it away for a while recently and I've been very glad I didn't. Both kids have been playing with it a ton. Adam likes to put the people into and out of the cars (and any other container he deems suitable) whereas Megan's play is quite a bit more complex.

This is an example of what I overheard the other day:

"Oh, Katy, do you smell that?" said Donna. *she actually said, "said Donna" and "said Katy" etc.

"Yes, I do," said Katy.

"Lynn, come here, do you smell that?" said Donna.

"Yes," said Lynn.

"It's your favorite breakfast," said Donna.

And so it goes on. She was pretending that the people were my family and it was hilarious to realize what her perspective of life is. Later on, she invited me to play because she didn't know "how Suzy should act." I told her I'd play but refrained from telling her that my sister would probably have picked on me and bossed me around. We also had a major incident last night because the boy with brown hair who is Uncle Tim could not be found. Don't worry, she is equal opportunity and the boy also plays Daddy. She has even included Chad's cousins, Rebekah and Rachel, his Uncle Dave and Chad's 4-H animals, Bam Bam and Wild Thing into her village.

The two of them were playing quite nicely together which is what inspired to picture although it appears that Megan may have been hoarding all the people to keep Adam from taking them from her.

Delgrosso's

2010-08-25T22:46:00.004-05:00

A very nice lady who works with Chad gave us free passes to a semi-local amusement park. We went a few Saturdays ago and had a great time.

Here is my new favorite picture (although it was the last one taken that day).

The park is fairly small in comparison to say, Cedar Point, but it was perfect for our foursome. They have a cluster of 8-10 kiddie rides and Megan rode almost all of them. Adam rode quite a few also. You may have to zoom in to see it, but Megan's face while she "drove" cracked me up. She had this serene, just going about my business look that was trying to mask the excitement of driving.

I had my doubts about whether Adam was ready to ride anything, I mean, he doesn't exactly like to sit, but I was wrong. He LOVED to ride the rides and was spinning the wheel and everything.

On a side note, he is really growing up. He's walking great, but there have been lots of other little changes. Things are starting to click for him. If he finds my phone, he holds it up to his ear (well, really it's behind, but the idea is there). He loves to put objects inside other objects. I was loading the dishwasher the other day and realized he was taking forks and spoons and putting them inside the watering pot I keep in our mudroom. He also likes to find the largest or most cumbersome object in the room and carry it everywhere with him. He leaves a little trail wherever he goes. I picked up the house while he was napping and within about 15 minutes of him waking up I had several trails. He picked up the baby doll potty in Megan's room, carried it to his room where it was replaced for a more interesting toy, which I found downstairs by the open cabinet door. I then found a bowl and a spoon on the stairwell where he left it when it just got to be too much of a hassle to get all the way upstairs. This is constant. He always has something in his hands. Oh, and at 14 months, he's the oldest kid in the world to have NO TEETH.

Megan insisted on funnel cake although neither Chad nor I suggested it.

2010-08-25T22:35:00.003-05:00

So, I guess if I can get Adam's first birthday scrapbooked before he's 3 then he and Megan will be even. We won't mention that the rest of her album was complete by her first birthday...I started this page at Thanksgiving 2008, which is basically the last time I scrapbooked before this past month. I was feeling a loss of momentum with Adam's book, so I decided to take a look at the works in progress pages. I knocked off 5 others too, they aren't stellar, but I'll call them done. I realize there is a reason I probably got them half finished and then quit working on them.

21 Pages

2010-08-23T21:43:00.001-05:00

18 pages

2010-08-17T19:04:00.002-05:00

Mama's School

2010-08-13T14:22:00.001-05:00

Just so you don't think I've been neglecting my children so I could scrapbook, I'll show some other things we've been doing.

Though Megan is technically old enough to attend pre-school this year, we've decided not to send her (and may not send her next year either). I've decided to start doing some more guided activities once a week. I checked out an ABC arts and craft book and have been researching some other materials to purchase. On Wednesday, I told Megan we were going to start, "Mama's School" soon and we needed to buy some craft supplies. She was super excited and spent the rest of the day talking about "Mama's School."

When Adam took his nap on Thursday, we had our first class. We made a "Macaroni M," read a book, made Miguel the Mouse, made an M collage and had M & Ms for our snack. I think she really enjoyed it although I think it wore her out. She acted a little out of sorts for the rest of the afternoon. We may have to split it up a little bit more next time.

When I was a girl, my mom always said that I went to "Mama's school" instead of pre-school, so in a way I'm carrying on a tradition.

Family Heirloom

2010-08-13T14:14:00.002-05:00

The verdict is still out on this one. I'm not 100% sure I like it (the colors are better in real life).

Here's another one:

Pretty in Pink?

2010-08-12T18:34:00.002-05:00

Chad wasn't too thrilled with my color selection initially on this page, but I figured it was my only chance to use pink in this album. (It also scanned a lot brighter pink than it actually is).

Tubes

2010-08-10T20:52:00.004-05:00

Adam has had chronic ear infections for the past 6 months. I delayed going to a specialist b/c I hoped that warmer weather would clear up the problem. This did not prove to be true, so last week the little guy had tubes in and seems to be feeling much better. This is pre-surgery.

The whole thing took less than 30 minutes. He was pretty upset when they brought him back to me, but after about 10 minutes he calmed down and seemed to perk up. He had just started walking the week before and both Chad and I thought he was walking faster by the end of the day and was quite happy. He is always a pleasant little guy, but I don't think we realized how much his ears bothered him. I'm glad that we had them taken care of and hope it will cut down on the number of future infections.

Splash Universe

2010-08-10T15:32:00.005-05:00

We made a wedding weekend in Indiana a little mini-vacation and stayed at an indoor water park in Shipshewana. The kids enjoyed it although Chad and I underestimated how much work it is to take 2 kids to a place like that!

These rocking horses were in the lobby.

Chad had Adam almost asleep on the lazy river.

Megan was all about the water. The first day she rode on all the slides (except the 2 for much older people) and loved it.

Adam was an absolute wild man at the pool. He wasn't real steady and after falling would prefer to crawl. The water was 8 inches deep and so he'd try to crawl, but he'd prefer to kick and splash. This usually ended up with him taking in mouthfuls of water. He came up smiling every time though. He loved it, but was out of control.

A little Blue moon in the afternoon...

10 pages

2010-08-10T14:33:00.002-05:00

Adam now has 10 pages in his album, only 34 to go (so he has the same as Megan)...I'm not sure I even have that many pictures of the little guy.

A Little Time for Scrapbooking

2010-07-31T17:55:00.002-05:00

I found myself wondering what quiet activity I could do since the kids were napping and the attic counters were actually cleaned off enough to do a little scrapbooking. Granted, I only had about 30-40 minutes before interrupted, but I am trying to come to terms with interruptions being my life nowadays. It was long enough to come up with the concept and after bed time I was able to execute. Over the last couple days, I've done 2 more pages stealing minutes throughout the day and after bedtime. We put our dish on vacation for the summer, so it also helped that I didn't have the tv (which always starts out as background noise) distracting me.

Popsicles with Pop

2010-06-26T22:31:00.002-05:00

Just couldn't resist.

Story Hour

2010-06-26T21:35:00.002-05:00

I tend to be a little crazy about reading. I read all the time and always have stacks of books beside my bed. I essentially run our church library, which is exceptionally time consuming when done correctly (and I don't always have the time). I'm even thinking about becoming a librarian when I grow up...All this to say, when Megan became old enough to attend story hour, we signed up. I took my camera numerous times to take pictures, including the first day, but either forgot or was too embarrassed to get it out to take pictures...I finally overcame all obstacles and got a few pictures the last day.

Touch your elbow...

Touch your chin...now it's time to begin.

I'm not sure who enjoyed it more. I remember going to story hour with mom and doing fingerplays like "Where is Thumb-kin." Chad even got me a shirt for Christmas that says, "Books make me happy." Megan loves to read though, so I must be passing on some good things.

Adam is along for the ride. Hopefully, he'll learn to love books too, although I find it hard to find a good time to read with him.

The summer reading program at the library has a water theme and they had an "Under the Sea Princess Party." I saw this material (the night before the program of course) and decided to make Megan this little dress. I hung it in her room as a surprise and the first thing I heard that morning was, "Beautiful...(long pause) beautiful, oh, it's so beautiful" and then she ran in to tell me about it. It was definitely worth the effort.

And again, Adam along for the ride. Here he is playing in the "ocean."

New Skates

2010-06-03T18:21:00.003-05:00

Megan got new skates for her birthday from Uncle Tim, Aunt Mindy, Uncle Nelson and Aunt Suzy. She did pretty well, but has been a little reluctant since the initial outing.

Sorry for the 3 videos, I couldn't decide which I liked better.

Megan and Adam's playset

2010-05-03T21:11:00.002-05:00

After a visit to my sister's in April, and Megan spending as much time as possible on her swing set, we decided Megan might be ready for a "play set" of her own. I shopped around and found the best deal and ordered it.

Here we are on Day 2. I knew I wasn't able to do a whole lot as far the major construction, so I decided to make it as easy as possible for Chad. Thursday and Friday, I weatherproofed the wood. I spent 1-2 hours Thursday sorting hardware into paper bags by page number and I spent 2-3 hours sorting the wood and other parts on Friday. A crazy amount of parts. Chad should win father of the year or something, he worked 70 hours that week and came home Friday and started working on the swing set that evening. Saturday, I got up early (which definitely means I'm excited) to finish sorting. When Chad and I could work together, it went really well. Chad was the braun and I was the brains. While he did the labor, I'd be getting the next parts ready. Unfortunately, there were children to be tended, so the process was slow.

After about 15-16 hours, everything is finally together although there is some more tweaking to be done. Megan and Adam really love it.

Here is a picture of my slightly over the top organization.

Tiny trouble

2010-05-03T20:54:00.002-05:00

I went upstairs to check on Megan and left Adam in the kitchen. In the few minutes I was gone, he managed to open the pantry door, get the oats out, shut the pantry door and spill oats everywhere. He even tried to eat a few.

I think he was pretty proud of himself.

Please let it be spring...

2010-03-17T08:12:00.002-05:00

I am hoping that days like yesterday and today are a sign of things to come. I know in my head that spring should follow winter, but at this point, I feel like winter wasn't planning on stopping this year. We had nice weather last week too, but it still took a week of days in the 40s and 50s to melt all the snow that had accumulated in my yard over the past several months.

Yesterday, we took advantage of the beautiful weather and ventured to the park. In addition to it being our first outing of the year, it was also the first outing of the Radio Flyer we received for Christmas.

While Megan ran around, Adam manned the wagon. He was happy to sit and play and take in the sunshine.

He also liked the swing.

Lily, Ella and Tracy met us there. It's amazing how being outside cures the girls of their desire to squabble with each other. We spent 3 hours at the park and even had an impromptu picnic.

Our friend Dopey

2010-03-08T21:37:00.004-05:00

This is Dopey (the penquin). It is actually Adam's toy that he received for Christmas, but Megan named it and has adopted it as her daughter. She carries her all over the house along with her son, "Elephie." She loves to play mom. She cracks me up when she plays mom. She calls them, "hun" and "sweetie" and their bedtime routine is remarkably similar to what we do.

The other thing she does while pretending to be "mom" cracks me up is talk in the third person. Even when she was learning to talk, she used the proper pronouns. I, however, narrate what I'm doing in the third person, "Mommy's getting your drink" or "Mommy will be right back." So whenever she plays mommy, she uses the third person. It amazes me what she picks up on. I guess I'll chose to be flattered that she imitates me and be grateful that she isn't threatening to spank them or put them in timeout!

The other day, Adam and I stayed home from church, so he actually got a chance to play with his toy. He doesn't talk, but he seems like he and Dopey are having an interesting conversation.

Hi, I'm Adam.

Wanna dance?

I'm a little shy.

Mom, this girl is laughing at me...

Happy Valentine's Day

2010-02-15T10:21:00.002-05:00

Happy Valentine's Day! Megan had a valentine's party with her friends and had a blast. She made Valentine's for everyone and helped make brownies, chocolate covered marshmallows and jell-o. It was a fun time and the above picture was the end result of the party...chocolate smeared all over, pigtails falling out and sunglasses to hide her eyes so you can't tell she was high on sugar...actually, she ate more of her homemade pizza than the sweets. It was a fun time.

Come on Ring Those Bells!

2010-01-05T16:15:00.002-05:00

Megan loved almost all of what comes with Christmas. She loved the songs, the presents, the cookies. She keeps asking when it will be Christmas again. This is a video of her singing, "Come on Ring Those Bells." She got a book for Christmas of Christmas songs from Grandma and Grandpa Gorrell and it has been a favorite at bedtime ever since.

O Christmas Tree

2009-12-11T23:27:00.002-05:00

This is our rent to own Christmas tree. I was complaining to my friend Tracy about not really wanting to put up a Christmas tree and she mentioned that she had a 7' prelit tree they weren't going to use. I offered to buy it and she said we could take it home on trial to see if we liked it and then decide. In the past we have always used a hand-me-down 4 foot tree, but were planning to try and find something bigger (and pre-lit) after Christmas. I am glad we have it because Megan is enthralled with it.

Megan and Adam (but who are we kidding, Adam has no clue) have their own Christmas tree this year. Last year, I re-decorated the tree daily and let me tell you, I don't really like decorating the tree the first time. When I found the little tree for 2 bucks after Christmas, I decided to let her have a tree to do as she pleased with and it has worked out great. We made a paper chain and several ornaments for it and I also gave her some unbreakable ornaments from the stash. When we had 4 of her little friends over the other day, the tree got completely stripped and shown below is the "after" picture. It was apparently lacking an array of foam blocks (but no one touched my big tree).

The Year without Christmas Cards.

2009-12-08T21:57:00.003-05:00

I give up. I made 2 valiant efforts to get pictures of the kids in matching gingham outfits. Well, matching considering they are different sexes. I got this dress for Megan after Easter last year for a ridiculous price and a few months later found a matching shirt for Adam for $2. I then spent the next 6 months (yes, I found the shirt before Adam was born) trying to find black pants for him. I was finally successful on Black Friday. I also found the red vest.

Back to the point, I got everything set up, Chad helped me bathe and dress the kids and from that point, nothing else went smoothly.

Megan started out sweet.

Adam wanted none of it however.

Then, when Adam finally got into it, Megan got squirly. In addition, since Adam is too little to sit by himself and Megan is too little to really hold him, I ended up having them lean up against a pillow on the couch. Well, static electricity took its toll on Megan's hair.

This is the best I got and Megan looks pretty weird still.

Today, I tried again. The sun was out and I put out a blanket and dressed them in their very cute winter coats. By the time I got the idea and got everything ready, Adam was overdue for a nap and crying bloody murder.

Thus, I have admitted defeat and have decided not to try and do cards this year. So here it is, Merry Christmas!!

The true meaning of Christmas...

2009-12-08T21:30:00.003-05:00

The Christmas season has taken on a whole new level of interest now that I have a 2 year-old trying to make sense of it all. Up until now we really hadn't given much thought to the whole "Santa" concept and so we've developed our stance on big S.C. and tried to talk about the real meaning of Christmas, you know, the birth of Jesus, not scads of presents, as much as possible.

Even though we have tried not to empasize Santa, the dude is unavoidable. Megan has become obsessed with Santa. She is torn between thinking he is fun and thinking he is scary. He seems fun during the day, but apparently scary at bedtime. She lays there saying, "I don't want Santa to come." Tonight, after repeatedly saying he wasn't coming and he was just for fun, I finally said, "Why don't you pray about it?" As I left her room, I overheard her praying, "Dear God, please help me not to worry about Santa." Later, she needed a potty break and she told me, "I prayed to God and Jesus to save me from Santa."

She also interrupted the Christmas story several times to make the story a little better, when I talked about them not finding a room and sleeping on straw on the ground, she interrupted with, "and then a little girl came and said I have a bed for you." She also said, "maybe when Adam grows up he can save me"...Somehow I think we are missing something, but I guess it's a start...

What we are up to...

2009-11-10T16:54:00.002-05:00

Adam is busy growing and rolling. He seems to crave mastery as every time he is on his back he almost immediately rolls to his stomach where he squirms for about a minute before he fusses to be flipped over. He continues to be the best baby ever. He doesn't need to be rocked (probably b/c I never really had time for him to develop the habit) and easily (usually) goes to sleep with a bink and a minimal amount of fuss. He is incredibly happy and has a very hilarious chuckle that makes you want to laugh when you hear it.

Megan continues to astound with her imaginings and vocabulary. Here's a little Megan story for you. My dad was here this weekend and he likes to teach her a new word. She apparently mastered it.

Megan: I have to go potty.

Me: Okay, let's go. (We go downstairs and she proceeds to go.)

Me: Oh, you're going poop too?

Megan: Yes, I'm defecating...(pause) and I'm urinating, too.

Lovely.

In addition to her usage of words that I have to run through spell check, she almost never answers to Megan. All day long, I hear the following, "My name's not Megan, it is_____insert one of the following: Amy, Leah, Angela, Soda, etc. Sometimes, I have to tell her that I miss Megan and can she please be Megan for awhile just for the sake of my sanity. I don't say the sanity part outloud.

Trick or Treat

2009-11-10T16:42:00.003-05:00

Here is our family at Halloween. Megan was dressed up as a ballerina/Fancy Nancy. She skipped her nap that day and refused to wear any of the accessories and thus looked more like a ballerina. She absolutely loved Trick-or-Treating. She skipped up to the houses and knocked on the doors. I was expecting her to be shy, but she yelled hello to anyone on the street (unless they were dressed scary and then she said, "I don't like that scary boy in the mask).

We only went to about a dozen houses, but she thought it was great.

This is Chad and I at a Halloween party. We represent the classic battle between good and evil.

He is dirty laundry and I am a washing machine.

A little bit of family history

2009-11-10T11:08:00.011-05:00

I recently started a little project for my family. I offered to convert all of our family slides to digital files using a slide converter. My dad, and I later found out, my Grandpa Warner, took all of our family pictures on slides. There are 5 big boxes that each hold 16 little boxes of slides each holding about 20-30 slides. For those of you doing the math, I'm guessing there are at least 2000 slides...I'd complain about the drudgery, but I am actually really enjoying it. My parents visited this weekend and I feel like I learned more about my family history in one weekend than in 20 years. I'm sure bits of it I knew, but it is different to learn these things as an adult.

Here is just a sampling of what I found.

This is my mom at probably about 25-26 years of age. Younger than me now and no kids yet. My sister looks so much like her.

This is my Great Grandpa Warner whom I found out was a farmer who raised pork, corn, and wheat in Hicksville, OH. That is my dad's childhood pet, Happy. Never knew my dad had a dog.

This is the car my dad learned to drive in a 1960(?) Chevy Impala 4-door hardtop. He told me that about 3 times this weekend, but I'm pretty sure I still got the year wrong. My dad is standing by the passenger side door.

This is a picture of my dad as a boy with his Grandma Warner (my great grandma). I've been told I favor the Warner side of the family, but I could never really see it. Probably because I've never seen pictures of my dad as a boy. I have a picture of myself making an almost identical expression. I couldn't find it, but I found another that the resemblance shows.

This is my dad and his brothers. My dad, being the youngest, is either being squashed by his big brother or acting squirly. Either one is possible.

I think this is one of my favorites. It is my dad, his brothers and my grandpa Warner. When my dad saw this he said, "Oh yeah, my dad always took us on hikes on Sunday afternoons" like I totally should have known that. I was 6 when my Grandpa Warner died and have very few memories of him, it was cool to learn more about him and my family.

Below is a photo of my 2 brothers. My brother Andy (the older boy) died when he was 6. I was only 5 months old. Over the years, I've heard bits and pieces about him, but I'd not seen many pictures. Since he was the oldest, there have already been about 100 pictures of him in just the first box. Seeing his pictures bring out a whole wealth of thoughts. I was obviously too young to have any memories of him, but it makes me wonder how my family would have been different had I had 2 big brothers especially since my mom says we were a lot alike. As a mother now myself, it also makes me think in a new way about the painful time it must have been for my family. Such a sweet little face.

Too end on a less melancholy subject, the picture below shows my dad during his, "misunderstood artist phase." He actually was an art major in college and apparently felt the need to look the part. He is in the far right hand side of this photo. Yep, the guy with the fu-man-chu looking goatee and the beret.

Another fall tradition

2009-10-14T20:07:00.006-05:00

Two years ago, in October, Tracy, Kim and I thought it'd be fun to take pictures of the kids with the fall foliage. Little did we know that we were establishing a tradition or that in two short years there would be six kids in the picture or that it would be a little sad and a little happy to look at the old photos.

The kids did amazingly well this year. There was no crying (well, not much) and only a few escape attempts.

I think Adam is actually smiling in this one.

i'm not even sure what to say about the old pictures. Part of me wants to cry and ask what happened to these babies? But part of me is really proud of what amazing little people they are becoming. It is like my own little psychology study group. Each one of these kids has such a unique and defining personality. Looking at these pictures makes me realize again that I am so blessed to get to share this experience of parenting with Kim, Tracy and their families.

2007

2008

Here are a couple of shots of Megan and Adam. I didn't get any together in their regular clothes because Adam had had enough. He was woken up twice in order to get these pictures. Did I mention he is the most amazing baby?

After the pics, we went inside and painted.

Something productive

2009-10-12T17:53:00.002-05:00

My life seems to be full of never-ending tasks: laundry, dishes, picking up toys. Many days, at the end of the day, I feel as though I have accomplished nothing. I was in JoAnn's a few weeks ago and something about the jewelry making supplies called to me. I think it was the pretty colors...anyway, I have the basic supplies from 5 years ago when they started doing beading at the scrapbook store where I worked. There is something rewarding about starting and ending a project in a relatively short time.

Fall Frolicking

2009-10-11T15:40:00.003-05:00

I think we are establishing some fall traditions. Last weekend, we visited Cooper Farms and all the festivities it has to offer. Megan is going through a phase where she is scared of trains and loud things, so the only thing we rode was the hay wagon. Visit last year for a comparison: http://ckgorrell.blogspot.com/2008/10/trip-to-cooper-farms.html

Yesterday, we had a gorgeous afternoon and since Megan refused to nap, we decided to tempt fate by taking a cranky two-year-old hiking at Parker Dam. She did great and the weather was perfect. A little chilly, but otherwise great.

This was the view from our hike.

When we got home, Chad carved Megan's pumpkin while I made a seasonal favorite: pumpkin bars...

This is Jack.

Storytime

2009-10-11T15:25:00.002-05:00

I am starting to feel slightly safer leaving Adam on the ground when Megan is around. Usually, I ask her to play in her room, but last Friday I asked her to "read to" Adam while I was in the shower. When I finished (very quickly, I might add), this is what I found. She had "read" through about 10 books and made a little pile. She kept running back and forth to the tote we keep the books in to find another. She doesn't actually show him the pictures, but it goes something like this, "This book is called (whatever picture is on the front cover)" and then she names each picture and occasionaly describes the color or other detail. It is pretty sweet and I hope she continues to be such a good sister when he gets big enough to steal her toys and chew on her crayons.

Fancy Megan

2009-10-09T10:12:00.003-05:00

Megan has been especially imaginative lately. She has a very intricate network of imaginary friends. They include her sisters Amy, Fancy Nancy (from the book series), Leah, and Angela. She also has her "neighbor" that is imaginary.

Fancy Nancy is a character in a book series we have been reading. Nancy is very fancy (obviously) but her fanciness is often her own creation (and not fancy by adult or fashionable standards), such as a blanket tied around her neck or waste as a robe/dress. Megan started wearing her own "blanket dress" several weeks ago of her own accord. I did help a little after she spent some time walking around trying to hold her dress on and still play. Megan has been very into dressing up lately, so I thought for Halloween she could be Fancy Nancy. I made a little pink skirt, bought a set of "fancy" shoes that came with a tiara and wand and waa-laa, "Fancy Megan." We will add some additional accessories (which is Fancy Nancy's fancy word for "extra little stuff).

Any given day at any given time, it is likely Megan will be wearing something out of the ordinary. She likes necklaces and her pink skirt. She would wear a dress everyday if I would let her and only wants to wear purple clothing. She also likes to change her name. Last Thursday, she was Uniqua (from the Backyardigans) and she spent the day calling me, "Tyrone" and Adam "Pablo." The following day, she announced she was, "Leah" and if I called her Megan, she very quickly corrected me, "No, I'm Leah." She spent some time that day calling me, "Babe" until I told her that I preferred to be called "Mommy." At least once a day, she adopts one of her alter egos. Everything in our house has at least two functions. Our red couch is not only a couch, but a bathtub, a car, and a house all in one convenient package. The brown couch is "Pittsburgh" and also grandma's house. The carpet in Adam's room is a beach and it's a nude beach at that. One second, I was playing with Adam and Megan was fully clothed, the next moment I turn around and she's naked (well, she had a shirt on b/c she can't get that off herself), laying on the floor, pulling herself around by arms "swimming."

Yep, it is always an adventure.

Adam's Room

2009-09-30T10:10:00.004-05:00

Now that Adam is 3 months and 1 week old, I figured it was time to finish his room...I bought supplies about 5 months ago for this project, but somehow the time evaded me. The picture above the changing table I had done when he was about 6 weeks, but it took another month and half to put up.

The pictures above the bed were a major hang up (no pun intended). I am really happy with how they turned out. The only thing I don't like is that they don't have any transportation elements. I spent many hours trying to continue the transportation theme, but I didn't like what I was coming up with, so I decided to use something else.

This is the only picture of me with Adam (well, there are several other pictures, but they are all from the hospital.)

Labor Day

2009-09-23T21:52:00.002-05:00

Over Labor Day weekend we drove to LaPorte for a few days. Tim and Mindy flew from Colorado to Elkhart so we spent Monday with Mindy's family at their lake house. It was great to see both of them.

Friday, Chad and I went on a date and played golf.

Saturday, Suzy, Nelson and the kids came up and we went to the Michigan City Zoo. It was pretty fun. It's not a big zoo, but Megan thought it was great.

We climbed the watchtower.

After the zoo, we went to my all-time favorite restaurant, Carlson's Root Beer Stand. As always, it was fabulous. Megan liked it too.

Sunday we went to church and went swimming at my Aunt Joyce's house. We also got together with a few of my old high school friends which was fun. I only keep in touch with a few people from LP, but it's always fun to see them and see that things seem to be going well for them.

Adam Smiling

2009-08-31T15:23:00.002-05:00

Here are the best pictures we've gotten of Adam smiling. They were taken yesterday.

2 month picture

2009-08-30T22:19:00.002-05:00

Here is a snapshot of Adam at 2 months.

He

weighs almost 12 lbs (as of 8/26) which is 50th percentile
his head is in the 75th
is a good eater
has acid reflux, but the medicine seems to work
grunts a lot
smiles
is happy most of the time
is definitely the second child (poor guy gets none of the attention his sister got)
has slept a few 5 hours stretches, but not consistently
has finally started to go to bed before midnight

A Daddy Date

2009-08-30T21:49:00.003-05:00

In the beginning of August, Chad and Megan went on a "playdate." He took her to a local restaurant and mini-golf place. The place had lots of "bouncers" and you can bounce as much as you want for $1. Megan thought it was great.

He asked if I thought she was ready for put-put and I looked at him for a moment and hesitantly said, "If there is no one else playing..."

They apparently had a great time, though from his description, it wasn't exactly golf. At each hole, he'd say, "Go find the hole" and Megan would run around until she found it. Then, he'd hit the ball to her and she'd put it in the hole...

The evening ended with vanilla ice cream and sprinkles.

For such a time as this...

2009-08-30T21:36:00.003-05:00

Hundreds of hours of little league, pony league and previous softball seasons, all led up to this crowning moment of leading the First Baptist A team to the championship game.

This was Chad's first summer to pitch and apparently he is fairly good at it...I wouldn't really know because my knowledge of softball could fit in a thimble and we had to sit 150 yards away from the action to make sure none of the kids got beaned.

The tournament took place August 7 and 9th with one game on Friday and 5 (yes, 5) on Saturday. They ended up losing the final game, but it was a fun day that culminated in Chad saying something like, "Just think, all my life, I've been working toward this moment..."

And Adam, he really didn't care.

Adam's Hospital trip

2009-08-30T21:18:00.002-05:00

A few weeks ago, Megan (and all her little friends) shared a virus. I didn't think Adam would get it (all those special antibodies from nursing and all), but about 3 days after Megan got rid of it, Adam had a fever. I had just read a few days before that you should call a doctor if a newborn runs a fever of over 100 degrees. I called expecting an answer of, "Give him tylenol and bring him in tomorrow." Well, the doctor said, "I'll call and have them ready to admit him." So, Adam and I drove over to the hospital at 11:30 and had a whole plethora of horrible things done. They drew blood, inserted a catheter, hung him by his arms to get an x-ray and then spent half an hour trying to insert the iv. Each thing seemed worse than the thing before. It was horrible to watch. Needless to say, neither of us really slept until 4:30 in the morning. The only symptom Adam really had was a fever. Anyway, they were erring on the side of caution and checking to make sure it wasn't a bacterial infection or something serious. Plus, I guess it doesn't take much for a little guy to get dehydrated. We stayed for 36 hours until the blood work came back to show that he didn't have a bacterial infection. By that point, Adam was in pretty good shape again. He was fever free, hydrated and happy to not have an iv in his head (or maybe it was me that was thrilled to have a wire and tube free baby.)

Overall, it was a very exhausting several days. Chad took the day off and Chad's mom came over for the day to help with Megan and so I could go home for a few hours to take a nap. Megan came up to visit before bed on Wednesday and played with the hospital bed and read a few books with me. She also came up on Thursday morning with grandma before we were finally released.

I'd apologize but...

2009-08-30T21:01:00.004-05:00

I'd apologize for my lack of blogging, but I doubt that anything changes to make me a better blogger...I'll try to recap the last month through the next couple posts.

The kids looked especially cute today (I'm 100% biased), so we borrowed the neighbor's yard for a photo-op.

Here is the outtake:

Here is a smile photo of Adam this past week:

Megan adores Adam. I am constantly trying to keep her from squishing or waking him. She loves to grab his hands and say, "He's touching me!" and I think, "well, not exactly..."

Adam's First Month

2009-07-23T10:10:00.003-05:00

This past month has been busy and a little crazy, but for the most part, it has been a smooth transition. We should install a revolving door for all the company we have had coming and going.

My parents were here from about 2 hours after he was born on Sunday until the following Saturday. They were an amazing help. I didn't have to do anything except take care of Adam and Megan. Megan thinks he is the greatest thing, but she did have a rough time at first with all the extra people in the house.

Todd and Hilary came to visit Saturday morning and then Chad's aunt and uncle stopped in for a few hours. Sherry came the following Tuesday and left Thursday. She helped with Megan and did some projects for me. She left on Thursday after getting the call that Hilary was going to be induced.

Tyler Nathan was born early Friday morning and was 5 lbs. and .5 ounces. All was healthy, he was just small (he was about 4 weeks early). On July 10, we drove to Ohio to meet Tyler and introduce Adam to his great-grandparents.

Adam looks giant compared to Tyler. Adam was about 8 lbs in these pictures. He gained a pound by his 2 week checkup (they just want them to get back to birth weight by 2 weeks).

I love this picture of the four of us. You can imagine how upset I was when I turned on my camera last week and got a card error and couldn't retrieve them. I called Kodak (and got redirected 3 times) but finally they gave me an "image restore" program to try and I got about 1 out of 3 pictures saved. After many hours of frustration, I finally got some of them working.

Megan stayed at Grandma's after we left. I missed her, but it was nice to sleep in for once. Well, sleep in if you count that I fed Adam at like 5:30...

This is Adam before his Daddy's softball game.

On July 15, Suzy, Ariana, Jonathan and Grandpa Warner came out for a visit. It was nice to see them.

We took them out to Parker Dam on Thursday. We went swimming and then for a hike to the bottom of the dam.

Adam had his one month checkup yesterday and weighed in at 9 lbs. 6 oz. He is definitely growing.

This is just a brief overview of our last month. It has been very busy, but good. I was very nervous about the transition, but overall it has been very smooth. Megan loves Adam and has never acted mean or jealous toward him. She has struggled with her pottying a bit. She was doing great for 2-3 months, then relapsed back to having multiple accidents for a month or so. After Adam was born, she started doing well again, but this week she started having accidents again. It has been ridiculously frustrating, because I know, without a doubt that she can do it, but for some reason chooses not to...This week I just let her go back to diapers b/c I got tired of the extra messes and laundry and I was out of ideas to motivate her...I'm open to suggestions...I thought we were done with this, but I can tell it is an attention thing. This is our first normal week in a while without extra visitors and Adam has been needing more attention.

First couple weeks

2009-07-08T08:46:00.004-05:00

Here are some pics of Adam during her first couple weeks. I started this post on July 8 and didn't finish it until July 23...that should say something about my month...

6/25/09

6/29/09

7/1/09

7/7/09

Details

2009-07-01T13:54:00.004-05:00

On Sunday morning, I woke up at 6:30 and felt like something wasn't quite right. After getting up to use the restroom, I realized my water had broken. I came in and woke up Chad, who responded to the news with something like, "but we have 3 weeks still."

We called our friends Phil and Tracy to come over to watch Megan. They took Megan and got her ready for church and we went to the hospital. Now, any given Sunday, we usually have some kind of responsibility at church. This particular Sunday, Chad had a solo in the Men's Choir, was one of two people in a skit and his quartet was supposed to sing. Once I was checked in and they verified that my water really had broken, I convinced Chad to go ahead and go to church. I wasn't having any contractions at this point and I wasn't dialated yet. With Megan, it took hours to get things started, so I figured he wasn't likely to miss anything. My friend Tracy came over to walk the halls with me. I wasn't in any pain or having regular contractions, so we had a good time.

Chad got back to the hospital at about 11:30 (he stopped by his work to get things arranged so he didn't have to go later) and we walked together. At this point my contractions started to become regular and more intense. At 12:30, I decided it was time for the epidural. I think I finally had it around 1 or so and then I spent the next hour relaxing. The epidural slowed down my contractions, so the nurse decided to use a little pitocin to get things progressing again.

I think around 3:30 or 4 I started to feel uncomfortable again and the nurse started to get things ready for delivery. Adam arrived at 4:56. The nurse said I pushed for 11 minutes, but I think she counted the time the doctor was actually there. Not that I pushed before that, but I think if the doctor had been there earlier, I was ready.

All said and done, this delivery went much smoother than Megan's. With Megan, I got to the hospital at 8:00 pm, this time, it was 8:00 am. A full nights sleep before was wonderful. I was in labor 16 hours with Megan and pushed for 2+ hours, with Adam, it was 9 hours. I still managed to throw up before, during and after delivery just like with Megan. I'm not sure if it was the medicine or just the intensity of labor, but it's a lovely side effect.

Megan came up to the hospital at around 7:15 with my parents. She was very excited to see Adam. She has responded better than I thought to having a new brother. Not that I expected horrible things, but I expected some jealousy. She was actually very protective of him in the hospital and would ask people to give Adam back to me. Her behavior has been better since he has arrived.

We decided to go home after the first night. We had to stay at the hospital 24 hours after he was born and had the option to stay a second night, but I wanted to get home. I felt restless at the hospital and I wanted to get Megan into her normal routine. My parents were staying for the week, so I knew that I wouldn't have to do anything other than take care of Adam and love on Megan, otherwise, I might have stayed the extra night. I'm glad I went home when I did, I felt much more comfortable at home.

Chad's Father's Day present

2009-06-22T21:37:00.003-05:00

Chad had a pretty good Father's Day being as he received this little bundle.

Adam Matthew Gorrell decided he didn't want to wait until July 10 to be born and arrived instead June 21 at 4:56 pm. He was 6 lbs. 7 oz. and 19 inches long. We are all doing great, I will fill in more info later, but it is time for bed.

I will leave you with a picture of Megan, Mommy and Baby Adam. She is quite taken with him.

Megan's Birthday

2009-06-16T13:44:00.003-05:00

Megan turned 2 on May 28th and I realized today I didn't take enough pictures...we started the day with a "play date" party. It was supposed to rain, so the day before I got finger paints and an enormous pad of paper. I think Megan liked feeling the squish of it on her hands. She never seemed to have enough paint.

For lunch, we ordered "bambinos" which are little personal pizzas from our favorite pizza place. Caden spent the afternoon and evening with us and they played great together.

After a dinner of noodles and hot dogs (the current fave), she opened up her presents. She got a few books and another "Snap N Style" doll. I think these dolls are fantastic. She has been playing with them a lot lately. They are so cute (and innocent looking unlike a lot of dolls) and she can get them dressed up by herself.

Her other favorite gifts from family and friends included a stroller for her babies, a doctor kit, a rocking chair and a barn to go with her village. I need to get some pictures of her with her doctor kit because it is funny. She gives very thorough check-ups. I have never had my blood pressure taken so many times...plus, she likes to check my belly. Oddly enough, she has been interested in checking bellies not because of my pregnancy, but since she had a flu bug this winter. Before we visited the doctor, I told her he would check her belly and a few weeks later she started using random things (tape measures, toy tools, etc.) to "check" her belly. The last month or two she has been coming to my appointments and so now likes to "check" my belly too.

Memorial Day Weekend

2009-05-26T11:24:00.004-05:00

The past several weeks have been a little crazy and plagued with illness of some sort. Two weeks ago, Megan ran a fever for several days which turned into a cold with chest congestion and the works. Normally, she is a Mama's girl, this is magnified by a billion when she is sick and made for a fairly unproductive week. Chad and I both ended up with the cold/cough she had and felt fairly miserable. Last week, I took both Chad and Megan to the doctor on separate days, both ending up needing to go for lab work and a chest x-ray to rule out pneumonia. Both came back clear of anything detectable and an antibiotic seemed to help. In addition to being cranky, Megan decided she didn't want to use the potty anymore and wet her pants 3-4 times a day...Not sure what that is all about...

I was very glad when my parents came this weekend. We all needed a break from the crazy. By Friday, Megan was pretty healthy again, Chad's worst day was Friday, having run a fever of 103 the night before, so it was nice to have someone to help with Megan.

We went to a local festival. Pretty rinky-dink, but Megan didn't care.

She rode the carousel and this bug ride, she sat without much expression, but when she got off, she said it was fun.

Saturday we had cupcakes in honor of her approaching birthday and let her have her birthday present from Aunt Suzy. With the new baby coming, I wanted toys that she could play with independently. She loves dolls, but didn't have any she could dress herself. I found these "Snap-N-Play" dolls by Fisher-Price and it is awesome. The clothes are plastic and snap on and off, she can do it by herself and loves her "hats" and "shoes."

We spent most of the afternoon in the backyard and brought out her swimming pool.

On Sunday, we took advantage of a friend's offer to use his pool. Megan continues to love water and was happy to let Chad toss her.

After the pool, we stopped for ice cream.

Thanks Dad for sharing your pictures.

Smile?

2009-05-07T11:17:00.003-05:00

This is what we get when we ask Megan to smile for a picture...if she sits still at all.

This dress is a super bargain from the Children's Place after Easter clearance. I got the same one in orange for next Easter as well as a matching vest in size 6-9 months...They are adorable and the fact that I got both for $15 makes it even better...

Poor Baby No Name

2009-05-07T10:10:00.008-05:00

I have taken to referring to the baby as: Poor Baby No Name because I can't manage to like the same name for more than 3 days. I think as a result of the guilt I feel about not having a name for him, I have been busy working on his room.

I recovered the chair from Megan's room and put a new cushion on it. It is much more comfortable now. The dresser was extremely cheap from K-mart. I did without one for Megan, but now that I have one in her room, I realize how much of a pain the old system was and I am going for simplicity this time around. The drawers are already full of clean and sorted clothes, hand me downs from Jonathan, new from my mom or clearance deals I have found.

I'm feeling pretty well organized at this point and I still have 2 months to go. I am relieved to have most of this done, because the blue room had become a catch all for months. It was filled with clothes: ones that Megan had grown out of or hand-me downs that didn't fit, maternity clothes, pre-pregnancy clothes, and clothes for the new baby. It was also filled with our books that we took off the shelf/headboard we moved to Megan's room, home decor not being used, extra blankets, extra furniture, as well as toys, books and baby things. It was a disaster and every time I went in there to find something I cringed...

The room was already blue (good planning on our part from 2 1/2 years ago) and the curtains are the same as before, but I added the red tie backs and the cute little wood cut outs. I found the cut outs at Hobby Lobby for 59 cents a piece and the tie backs are made from left over fabric from the chair.

I made the changing table cover with some discount fabric from JoAnn's. I'm trying to come up with something else I can make with the extra b/c it's cute. Maybe some burp clothes.

The only think left to do (other than Chad's projects of adding a dimmer/remote control for the fan and painting the closet) is to create some art work. I plan to recreate some of the designs from the bedding out of scrapbook paper and frame them above the bed. I'm also wanting to use canvas to put his name up above the changing table. This of course will require a name...I can't get away from that...Our friend Phil and his daughter Lily have started referring to the baby as Horatio. I told Chad** yesterday that if I don't have a name picked out by the time we get to the hospital I will name the baby Horatio...

**see note

In case you were wondering, this is Megan's new bed. It is actually mine from when I was about 12 or maybe 14. I asked my dad for a bookshelf head board and this is what we designed. She has been in her big girl bed for a little over a month but we didn't add the frame and bed springs until this weekend. I wanted her to practice with a 6 inch fall vs. 2 feet. Chad came up with a bed rail which is working quite well so far. I think Megan likes her bed even better now that it is higher. She loves to sit on it and read books and she has been going to sleep so easily. The first couple weeks it took a while, but now she stays. I think adding a nightlight also helped.

Bruce and Sherry gave us an old dresser for the room which has come in handy. Eventually, we will probably upgrade to different furniture (probably when a third child is added), but for now, we are in good shape.

**Note:In case you were wondering, Chad does get a say in the choosing of the name, he just doesn't have very strong opinions on it. His list of acceptable names has like 50 names on it...mine has 3 and they rotate. There have been a few suggestions I had that he nixed, like Neal and there are a few he likes better than others. I'd tell you what my current top two are but they would immediately become out of date...I think boy names are harder to come up with than girl names. Any one experience something similar?

Bike

2009-04-13T20:56:00.002-05:00

I have been waiting for warmer weather to get a bike for Megan. She always likes to ride other kids ride on toys, so I wanted to get one for her. The above picture is her running for it, when we brought it out.

Good Friday

2009-04-13T20:22:00.004-05:00

Chad had Good Friday off, so we packed in as much activity as possible. In retrospect, it was too much for one day, but we survived.

First, we decorated Easter eggs.

Megan thought the color pellets were pretty cool, helping to drop them in and watching the change.

She liked dropping the eggs in the cups although she didn't quite understand that eggs are breakable. She liked to add the stickers, too, but was more interested in dyeing over and over.

After eggs, we made a pizza. Megan enjoyed sprinkling and tasting.

After the nap, we made some sugar cookies but Megan didn't stay as interested for the duration. We also attended a Good Friday service and had a few people over afterward.

Delicious...

2009-04-13T20:00:00.004-05:00

So I didn't capture the original moment, but the re-enactment is cute. We were playing outside, so I gave Megan a juice box (a special treat). She took a big first drink and said, "Mmm, Delicious."

She found a piece of newspaper that had blown into our yard and carried it everywhere for the next hour. She was cracking me up holding it like she was reading while swinging. (Note, it is difficult to snap a picture of a child swinging.)

She apparently wanted to eat her morning waffle in her box.

One of Megan's newest things to do is to tell "Knock Knock" jokes. Her favorite episode of Backyardigans has Uniqua telling two such jokes and she started asking repeating parts of it. The above video is a combination of her jokes. The first is the classic:

Knock knock

Who's there?

Banana, then you repeat all of it again, the punchline is "Orange you glad I didn't say banana?"

Well, she usually starts the joke with orange and keeps saying different parts as long as the laughs continue.

She ends up with "Don't Cry" in this video, which is a completely different joke...

Family Fun Night

2009-04-05T15:18:00.001-05:00

A couple weekends ago, we went to a parenting conference by Tim Kimmel. The conference was great. He basically helped build a framework/worldview for parenting. The basis of his approach is to treat our children the way God treats us, with grace balanced by truth. For any of you parents out there, I'd definitely recommend trying to find a conference near you. Here is his website: http://www.familymatters.net/Page.aspx?pid=183

Anyway, what does this have to do with this post? After the conference, Chad and I decided to set some specific goals related to what we learned and we decided to have a regular family night. 2 Friday nights a month we have Family Night, 1 night we have a date night, and 1 night a month one of us will take Megan on a date (the other parent gets the night off).

Phase 1: Because Megan is pretty easy to please, we decided to have a "picnic" in the foyer. She thought this was pretty cool.

Phase 2: We spent about an hour playing play-doh, which is one of her favorite things to do.

Phase 3: Ice cream!

Megan Sings

2009-03-23T14:33:00.002-05:00

Here is a little video of Megan singing "Jesus Loves Me."

Kids say the darndest things...

2009-03-10T19:58:00.004-05:00

So Megan is talking all the time and makes us laugh with the things she comes up with. Here are just a few examples of what she has said recently.

My parents were here this weekend and mom had brought a sucker for Megan. She gave it to her after breakfast and dad and Megan were sitting together at the table. She turns to my dad and says, "I'm having a sucker, Lynn." Mind you, I only refer to him as Grandpa, but she must have heard Chad or my mom saying, "Lynn." Dad thought this was hilarious and repeated it, so for the next 5 minutes she said it over and over, laughing wildly at her joke.

Later that day, we had a picnic lunch. She was eating turkey and cheese in her booster seat, looks out of the pavilion at the van and says, "I'm going to get in my car, drive home and have a bagel." What? A bagel?

The past several days, I have noticed her saying something after Mommy. I wasn't quite sure what she was saying and tonight I finally realized what she was saying. When she wants my attention, she says, "Mommy Elizabeth." Apparently, she has made that connection that when I say, "Megan Elizabeth" I want her attention, thus she pulls it out when she needs my attention.

Here are some pictures from our hike this weekend. It was a little rainy, but it was warm (for the first time in months). Megan actually walked a majority of the way herself with Daddy for a hiking buddy. It was a nice little adventure.

Potty training

2009-03-10T09:40:00.003-05:00

So, I sat down to do an entry on potty training. I had been delaying doing one because there have been several days in the last month or so, that I came very, very close to giving up. I didn't want to jinx the process by blogging about it. I think I did anyway, because as I logged into blogger, Megan peed her pants. First time in 3 days and I'm positive she knew she had to go. Why am I positive? Because twice in the last 20 minutes she said, "I have to go potty" and as soon as I moved toward her and asked her if she had to go, she said, "No!" as in, no, I don't have to go. I have learned in the past that it will get ugly quick if she says she doesn't have to go and I make her, so I decided to wait until she told me again...that didn't happen...

We started the training on Feb. 3. This was at least a month before I really wanted to, but she did well in a little experiment I tried and it seemed silly to delay.

I had bought a potty and all the other items suggested for potty training. One book suggested leaving the potty out for her to get used to it. After dinner the night after the potty appeared, she asked to use it. I removed her diaper and let her try. Nothing happened. I was working on something on the second floor which has all wood floors, so I figured it was no big deal to clean up a little puddle, and I left her diaper off. About a half hour later, I asked if she wanted to sit on the potty. She sat down a minute or two. I told her if she went "pee pee" I'd give her a piece of candy. She went immediately. An hour later, she repeated this with the promise of an M&M. After this performance, I decided it was silly to have her wear diapers for another 2 months until "the books" said she might be ready.

The next morning, I ran to the grocery store before she got up and got an array of snacks (for rewards) and juice boxes (it was recommended to offer her as much to drink as possible to provide more practice). After breakfast, I gave her a special present, a doll that could go potty. After giving the doll her bottle, we taught her how to go potty on the big girl potty. This was supposed to teach Megan the concept of how to do it. It worked, sort of, but kind of backfired. After teaching the doll, you are supposed to put the doll aside and have the child do it. Well, Megan did not want to put the doll away and the first accident occured while I was trying to convince her that the doll needed a nap. The rest of the morning did not go all that well, we had 4 accidents and 4 successful trips to the potty. She did go poop on the potty (I'm sorry for the use of all the graphic terms, but this entry is really intended for those who might have gone through or intend to go through a similar process...)

By naptime, I was exhausted and tired and not so sure that starting potty training was a good idea. I think I had somewhat unrealistic expectations because all the books I found were like, "Potty Training in a Day."

I think the saving grace for the process and my big recommendation, was having a portable dvd with a potty training dvd right next to the potty. I thought it was a silly idea at first, but I found one for 3 bucks at Baby Depot and decided to try it. It turned out to invaluable because she loved watching it. It helped keep her sitting on the potty and I think seeing "big kids" was a good motivator. The second half of the first day was better with no more accidents. Chad's mom came over that afternoon and I think the double team helped.

Since that time, we have gone through several phases, but at this point I think she gets it. Initially, I was trying to get her to pull her clothes on and off, but she just doesn't have the coordination for it and it led to frustration. It took about a week before she would tell me that she "had to go." She gets very, very mad and yells, "No!" if I ask her if she has to go (even if she probably does). She went through a phase where she was very resistant to sitting on the little potty, but would happily go using her fold up seat (another potty training necessity) when we were out of the house. To avoid a meltdown at potty time, I started using the removable seat on the big potty. This somehow made the necessary difference (and made the clean up easier) and there were no more freakouts.

A few funny stories:

Once I was down in the basement loading laundry. I heard Megan shreak and then nothing. I continued what I was doing and then went upstairs to investigate. I found her in the bathroom, saying, "I go potty, Mommy." Sure enough, she had gone upstairs, sat on the potty and done the task. I should have been thrilled, she got it. Unfortunately, she hadn't pulled her panties down...

A few days later, she was in her room playing and found the "step stool" I had gotten to help her get to the potty. It was upside down (and also filled with papers!) and I heard her babbling about her "potty." Before I could stop her, she sits down and goes. Again, her heart was in the right place, but again, her pants were still on...

Anyway, I consider her mostly trained. I still put her in a diaper for naps and at night (she is waking up dry more often, but I'm not ready to wake up in the middle of the night to change sheets). We are going several days at a time with no accidents and I figure we can work on the whole undressing herself after the other parts are more mastered.

So, that is the update. And here she is today:

Any good ideas or tips that worked for others, let me know...

The results are in...

2009-02-27T10:46:00.002-05:00

Baby #2 (who still doesn't have a name or even a list of possible names) is a boy!

After the ultrasound, we went to Penney's and got a few little boy things.

I ordered the bedding the other day. I didn't get the mobile or the crib quilt but you get the idea.

Pizza Anyone?

2009-02-20T16:05:00.003-05:00

At the museum last weekend, Megan really like the play food and she loves her tea set. I'd like to get her some play food, but I am waiting for a special occasion. Anyway, today she was talking about the Backyardigans and how they make pizza when I got an idea. I made "pizza" from felt and she really enjoyed playing with it. So much so, that I made a hamburger, grilled ham and cheese and an oreo. Very simple and I used felt I already had (and felt is like 10 cents a sheet!) She's 20 1/2 months and to her it is cool. Plus, the felt naturally sticks together making it easy for her to play with.

The grilled cheese is kind of pathetic.

The hamburger has the works, tomato, ketchup, mustard, lettuce, pickle, cheese and onion.

The pizza is also supreme, complete with cheese, pepperoni, sausage, onion, green pepper, and mushroom.

Back to scrap

2009-02-17T23:48:00.002-05:00

So I completed my first layout in 3 months. I'm actually not sure when the last time I completed a layout, but I know that I haven't touched my scrapbooking things (except to move them off the counter) since Thanksgiving. I have been spending every "free" moment working on library stuff for church and I decided today I would work on my stuff.

Cleveland Children's Museum

2009-02-16T21:52:00.002-05:00

Saturday morning we went to the Cleveland Children's Museum with Todd, Hilary and Adisyn. Megan thought it was great.

Here we are in the "Big Red Barn" exhibit (based on the book "Big Red Barn" by Margaret Wise Brown of Goodnight Moon fame.)

Every farm has a jeep of course. Megan was driving to Grandma's house.

Taking care of the chickens.

We had a minor breakdown over this exhibit. We tried to walk by it with the plan to come back later. Megan spent the next 5 minutes crying to "go swimming" and we had to convince her it wasn't a pool. She did like playing in it, but I think once she realized it wasn't a pool part of the thrill was lost...

She liked driving the bus

and having the chance to work a mouse and play with a keyboard without getting in trouble.

The last exhibit was "Sandstruction" which was a giant room filled with construction type elements and sand.

She basically wandered back and forth all over checking things out.

Adisyn was content to stay in one spot and play.

There were several other exhibits she enjoyed, but we didn't get pics. She loved the toy kitchen and made daddy a sandwich and cake. The grocery store didn't hold much appeal but I think that was during the swimming phase of the morning.

After the museum, we headed back to Grandma and Grandpa's house. Chad and I went out Saturday night and enjoyed a quiet evening.

Bathtime

2009-02-16T15:34:00.002-05:00

Even at 20 months, Megan is still a cutie in the tub.

This is her new favorite way to bathe. (The bubbles are from Johnson & Johnson's new bubble bath that is safe for little kids.)

This weekend, we went to Grandma & Grandpa Gorrell's and Megan got to take a bath with Adisyn. She liked it so much, they did it a second time while Grandma babysat the next night.

Goodbye Snow! (At least for now)

2009-02-08T19:03:00.003-05:00

We got a ridiculous amount of snow this past month. I'm not sure the exact total, but it was a record type of year. I like snow, but I didn't like the fact that it never melted. We had like 20 inches of snow on the ground for the past 20 days. It just kept coming. It would pack down to like 15 inches and then more would fall. We did get to take Megan sled "riding" (as they say in PA) once, but for the most part it was too deep to take her out.

It finally started to melt yesterday and hopefully it will disappear before we get more.

2009-01-29T14:51:00.003-05:00

I keep seeing this on different people's blogs and I may have been tagged on it once, so I thought I'd do it. I felt like I did okay, but then I counted 38 out of 100, I'm not sure...but seriously, all the France and Rome things. If you've been to Italy, wouldn't you have done ALL the things listed?

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars- in the Grand Canyon
3. Played in a band – does sang with a band count?
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disney World
8. Climbed a mountain -I'm not sure I've climbed the entire thing, but I've been on lots of peaks
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris-I went to Canada once...
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch –it's probably not an art form to most, but I have learned and tried a lot of new things through scrapbooking
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables -tomatoes
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France (if I'd been to Paris, don't you think this would have been covered)
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill -I prefer to think of it as a mental health day
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset - both the best being in the Grand Tetons
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person - Yes, the Canadian side
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors- Hillbilly-land, OH, 3 of my cousins liked my sister, 2 liked me (and I'm not kidding, but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt b/c I was 13)
35. Seen an Amish community -yep, school, house, sawmill, maple sugar camp
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing- Montana, thanks for all the cool experiences Tim...
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris Enough with Paris already!
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check – but it was a bank error
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person -Twice, once from the top, once rafting through the bottom
80. Published a book- so I haven't published a book, but one of my scrapbooks was published in a magazine
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club - we started a reading club for our church library
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Read an entire book in one day-too many times to count

Megan Update

2009-01-22T15:30:00.003-05:00

Megan at 19 1/2 months:

still loves shoes, any shoes really
is also into hats, she has 3 main hats: a orange fisherman style hat with a hawaiian type hat that she refers to as her "cowboy" hat, a knit hat made by cousin "Rub-a-beka", and a white snow hat, she will gladly wear mommy's or daddy's hat too.
knows her colors, which I think is weird, but she is right 95% of the time (black usually throws her off).
talks in complete sentences a lot of the time, "I want to hold you mommy," "I want more juice," "Mommy have cookie, too?" (she regularly adds too on the end of phrases, sometimes it makes sense, many times it doesn't), "Megan has stripes on shirt." They aren't always that clear, but for the most part she is understandable.
She will repeat about everything. We were at dinner the other day and she overheard us say, "appetizer" and the next thing I hear is "app-e-tiz-er." At breakfast yesterday, she said, "Pablo says, 'Poppycock' and (pause) 'bal-der-dash.' This caused my jaw to drop because she had watched that episode of Backyardigans 2 weeks ago and hadn't mentioned it since.
She remains obsessed with the Backyardigans. She has her own Tyrone and Pablo stuffed characters and they are regular playmates. We may have to quit watching though because of questionable comments. Last week, they had an episode where one of the characters was "Madame Tasha." Well, Megan just says, "Dam Tasha"...

She loves to play with her village people (not the group that sings YMCA). She has started to imitate pretend play, I'll regularly overhear her saying, "Fireman want donut?" followed by "I love donut, mmm" and lip-smacking. Then, she'll move onto another person, "Grandma want donut?" or she'll give everyone a bath or have everyone take a nap.
Loves to take baths and help wash dishes.
Regularly call people in succession on her toy cell phones. It goes sort of like this, "Hi Tracy" click, "Hi Phil" click, "Hi Grandpa" click. Recently, she has started to add additional comments or questions. I think she asked Grandpa, "How a you?" yesterday and then replied with something like, "playing with toys." He must have asked what she was doing...
Loves markers, crayons and play-doh. Might I add, those color wonder markers are amazing!! They stay in the diaper bag on all occasions and regular come out to make visits to the doctor, restaurants, etc. much more peaceful.
Is starting to move away from board books. We go to the library almost weekly and last time checked out all "regular" books. She would sit for an hour and let me read to her (that might just be because she knows naptime or bedtime is coming, but I'll pretend it's because she loves books). Her favorite books right now are, "If You Give a Pig a Pancake" (which I love), "Brown Bear" and "If You Take a Mouse to the Movies." I thought she was a little young at first, but then she'll say, "agin" (translation=again) at the end and will point out things in the book or talk about them later. I, for one, enjoy the change because our library doesn't have near the selection of board books as regular books and the stories tend to be more interesting than a picture of a bear and the word "Teddy Bear" on the page.
So far, she seems like a wonderbaby, but here are her flaws. She refuses to eat any vegetables. She ate all of them at first, but now there is no amount of convincing to get her to eat a pea. Fruit tends to be in the same category.
She is particular about her clothing and will throw fits if she doesn't like what I pick out. Lately, she has been better about this, but I think it's because I have started offering her choices and not because she is less picky.
Can throw a mean fit about unexpected things. She doesn't do it often, but the infrequency has made it difficult for me to formulate a game plan for dealing with it.

All in all, she cracks us up regularly. She is easy going and pleasant almost all the time unless she is tired or hungry (just like her daddy). It is especially nice that she is so verbal because it makes it easier to figure out what is going on in her little head. She is a true blessing.

Baby #2

2009-01-22T15:08:00.002-05:00

So we made the announcement between Thanksgiving and Christmas that we are expecting our second baby. The official due date is July 10 (although I don't put a whole lot of stock in due dates since only 3% of babies are born on them). We will find out if it is a boy or girl on February 23.

I am starting to feel a lot better. I didn't feel great for the first couple of months, but my energy is starting to come back. Now my only problem is that I try to get too much done and wear myself out.

Megan should be 25 months old and I think she'll be a good big sister. Verbally she is very advanced so I feel like being able to communicate with her will make the transition easier. I'm also currently researching potty training and hope to have it done before the new baby comes. If anyone has any miracle advice, let me know...

So here are my excuses...

2009-01-22T14:51:00.002-05:00

My camera broke during Thanksgiving and I didn't find time to replace it until the first part of January.
Now I can't figure out how to use/download pictures from my new camera.
We were gone like 14 days over the holidays.
We are expecting a baby in July and the first trimester hit me hard. I spent the last two months feeling pretty gross and extremely exhausted.
I finally feel better but now I am playing catch up from all the things that got neglected over the past 2 months.
I am in charge of a project to automate our church library that started in November and will probably take another 5 months. Any and all free time (and a lot of time that isn't free time) seems to be spent in that direction.

Now that the excuses are out of the way I will try to include some interesting things from the last 2 months. Don't expect many pictures though.

(Drama) Queen of the Snow

2008-11-20T22:04:00.001-05:00

Here is Megan's first snow experience of the year. She really liked it. She spent 15 minutes or so and went in when I felt like she was getting wet.

So what is the Drama Queen part about? It took 2 hours to get dressed and ready to go outside. I asked her at breakfast if she wanted to go outside. She said yes and after getting down from her chair, stood by the door waiting. It took some work to convince her that she couldn't go out in her pjs. We finally made it upstairs and I got the first layer of clothing on. I then put her footie pjs on over her clothes thinking her boots would fit over the feet (they are 3 sizes too big). Well, that didn't work, so I started to take the pjs off. This produced a crying fit because she liked that the pajamas had a mouse on them. I let her wear them for a minute, but then she got mad because she didn't like the footies. But, do you think she would let me take the pjs off? No, she couldn't connect that the footies were part of the pajamas that she didn't want taken off. Another crying fit followed. Once I had successfully (if a child walking around crying can be called successful) removed the pajamas, I decided we needed to take a break and watch Pablo. It didn't take much to convince her to watch Pablo. As soon as the show ended, she came over and said "side" (translation=outside) and "boots" (translation=boots). So we started over. I put a pair of jeans on her which led to more crying because she doesn't like wearing jeans currently. Then, we tried the boots again but she couldn't walk in them. She fell over and this led to again, more crying. She didn't want her coat on because she was still mad about the jeans (I've found it takes about 10 minutes for her to forget what pants she is wearing). Finally, I walked to the mudroom and told her I was going outside. At this point, she happily let me zip her coat, don her hat and put on the mittens that had all been detestable moments before...

No, she didn't build the snowman, but she liked it.

She liked making paths through the snow.

The Joys of Scraplifting

2008-11-10T15:57:00.003-05:00

I got another picture out of my stack of "I'm going to scrapbook that someday pile." This one if for my Fifty States Album. Chad and I decided that we want to visit all 50 states together. To prove that we did it, we have to take a picture of us somewhere or doing something state specific and that picture goes in the album. So far, I have 9 pages, but we have visited at least 5-10 others that I haven't scrapped or haven't gotten the required picture. As a scrapbooker, it is an interesting experiment also because it shows how much trends change.

This page was a scraplift from the July CK. I thought I'd scan the original to demonstrate how I "scraplifted."

The

Politics...Oh, wait, no.

2008-11-08T20:53:00.003-05:00

I have been reading lots of blogs and facebook entries on politics and it has been enlightening and confusing to see where different people stand. Part of me wants to talk it out and part of me does not want to impose on others and part of me feels like maybe I'm just missing something. There are obviously a lot of parts of me today...

So instead of politics, I bring you another page that I did today. It is again out of the "been holding on to this photo forever" pile. (And no, I didn't pick blue paper as a subliminal message).

My name is Katy Gorrell and I approved this page. I promise to continue to fill my blog with cute pictures of Megan and the occasional scrapbook page.

Christmas...2004

2008-11-08T16:31:00.002-05:00

For my birthday, Chad is letting me take the day off (via his mom coming to watch Megan) and a friend and I are going to go to the scrapbook store. In preparation for this, I decided to spend today getting organized to make the most of my time. I pulled out my "to be scrapped" file and found this picture above that has been waiting almost 4 years. When I saw it, I grabbed my December Creating Keepsakes Mag and found the inspiration I had apparently been waiting for and my organizational plans flew out the window.

Megan saw me get out a jar of buttons and immediately started asking, "Please?" At first, I thought no, but then I decided to give it a try. She played with the buttons for 1 1/2 hours. She put them in and out of different containers. For the most part, she stayed in one area, but I'm sure I'll be finding red buttons for the next 6 months...

Scrappin'

2008-11-06T19:29:00.002-05:00

Two weeks ago, I spent a few days in Ohio with the in-laws and got to spend some time at the scrapbook store. I didn't get a lot done, but these are the two pages I started and two weeks later finished.

This is a new thing I'm trying on some of my 12 x 12 pages. When I have extra pics to include, I'm going to use a 6 x 12 page in the middle of the double page spread. In the picture below, the insert is to the left.

Here is how it appears in the album:

The cutest lion

2008-11-01T20:55:00.005-05:00

Megan was an adorable lion for Halloween thanks to Grandma Gorrell's smart shopping after Halloween last year. She was a little reluctant about the costume at first, but once it was on she was okay with it. I had left the lion mane out with her toys for weeks trying to get her used to it and every couple days I'd ask if she wanted to try it on, she always said no. Lucky for me the photo crazed parent, the mane snaps to the body of the outfit. We slipped it on, snapped it in place and the poor thing couldn't get it off...

We took her across the street to the neighbors who had M&Ms just for Megan because they know Megan loves M&Ms.

She didn't want to take pictures, she wanted candy.

She was trying to discover how many licks it takes to get to the tootsie roll center of the tootsit pop.

If candy weren't bad for her, I'd give her a sucker everyday. She sat still for 15 minutes working on the sucker. There are days where I would do some crazy things to get her to sit still for 15 minutes.

After the local trick-or-treat night ended, Chad and I went to a costume party. For those of you none locals, our costumes need an explanation.

Everyone in DuBois refers to the plant Chad works at as, "the Cheese Plant." The strange thing is, they don't make cheese there. When the plant was being built there was an article in the local paper about it and it said the plant would make cheese, which at the time was true. The cheese business never really took off and so instead they make coffee syrup for duncan donuts, beverages, mayonnaise, ketchup and anything else that seems like a profit could be made. The community still refers to it as "the cheese plant." We have received many a blank stare when we say, "Chad works at Giuseppe's Finer Foods." We follow that with, "it's part of ICP?" When the confusion still exists, we resort to, "the cheese plant on Oklahoma Salem." At which point a lightbulb seems to come on and the person usually asks something about cheese and what the plant makes and we have to explain that, "No, they don't actually make cheese."

Okay, now that the background is clear, Chad and I dressed up as superheroes. He was Cheese and I was a Plant and together we combined forces to be, "Cheese Plant."

And finally, this is the pumpkin we carved at the party. I was pretty proud of our effort. We went boys versus girls and the boys made a Steelers emblem and then used a DRILL to write the word "Steelers" into the pumpkin. It was Chad's idea. We ladies made due with our little carving knife.

Meeting Clifford

2008-11-01T20:45:00.003-05:00

Our local library had an event this past Tuesday to meet Clifford and get a free book. We took Megan and she thought it was pretty fun. She wouldn't sit on his lap, but she touched his foot, pointed to his eyes and gave him high-5s (well, low 5s, afterall he's the BIG red dog.) She had a good time.

We visit the library every two weeks. The children's department is nice, they have puzzles, a play house, blocks, puppets and of course, books! She loves "Spot" books and recently has been into the "Thomas the Train" books. Our favorite right now is called, "You and Me Baby" and she will randomly say the first two lines even though we returned it last week. Since I have the book memorized, I tell it to her while she acts out what all the babies in the book are doing. Very cute, very funny.

What a difference a year makes.

2008-10-17T20:41:00.003-05:00

Kim, Tracy and I did a retake on last years photo shoot with the kids. The obvious change was that both Kim and Tracy had a baby this year. I didn't realize though until I went back to look at last year's picture how much the kids had actually changed. Obviously there has been a dramatic change when I stop to think about it. Last year, she couldn't sit up, let alone run, jump and dance. Last year, drool was about the only thing coming from her mouth. Now we laugh, moo, give kisses and say about 75 words. She has also become a blonde...hmm. Enough words, I will let the pictures speak for themselves.

The kids sat down and immediately let us take pictures. We took a brief break to readjust the babies and after that things went down hill. Lily informed us that "it's too cold" and proceeded to cry. It was very sad (and also cute in that weird parent way that sobbing children are adorable).

This is Connor Matthew, he belongs to Kim, Matt and Caden. He was born July 21.

This is Ella Rose. She belongs to Tracy, Phil and Lily. She was born June 24.

Scrapbooking and the Backyardigans

2008-10-17T18:47:00.004-05:00

I made this layout this past week. I know, there is no journaling and I'm trying to come up with some additional embellishments, but I like it otherwise.

Megan absolutely loves the Backyardigans. If you ask who her friends are the list usually includes Caden, Tracy, Macy (who are all real people) and she always includes "Tasha" and "Pablo" who are cartoons from the show. Last week, I decided to make her a little book of the Backyardigans. I was able to print off all the pics from the Nick Jr. website and here is the final (quickly made) product:

A trip to Cooper Farms

2008-10-11T21:02:00.004-05:00

We spent a perfect fall day (or three hours of it) at Cooper Farms, a local farm market. They have a "Pumpkin Festival" every Saturday in October and probably make a killing off of people like Chad and I who want to give their children a country experience. That sounded a little cynical. Megan loved it and so we loved it. There was a lot to see and do and it was a very fair price. In fact, Megan got to ride everything free. I, however, paid two dollars to ride the barrel train below...Megan liked it because we have been looking at books about trains and tractors lately. We also took a carriage ride with "horseys" which was a big thrill for Megan.

They had lots of hands-on activities set up, pumpkin tic-tac-toe, pumpkin bowling, bean bag toss. Megan liked the bubbles.

We went on a hayride.

I just thought this tree was pretty.

They had a petting zoo. Megan was excited but was also too scared to get down or touch anything. She likes animals, but she likes them from a distance which is fine by me.

Eventually, she allowed me to set her on the ground and even patted this goat several times. I think her favorite was the pig. And yes mom, we used hand sanitizer when we were done because I know pet zoos have lots of salmonella or something bad.

After a lunch of hot dogs, we went into the corn maze. Neither Chad or I had done one and I think it was a mistake. Megan was tired by this point and wouldn't let me put her down. It was hot and we had dressed for cool. Plus, once you go in, you have to find your way out (that probably should have been obvious to me).

We bought some of the little tiny pumpkins for decor, but Megan walked among the bigger ones.

Megan was very busy inspecting pumpkins and wouldn't stay still long enough for the photo-op I wanted so I asked her to hug the pumpkin.

She has been very affectionate lately so the hugging quickly led to a kiss. She then walked from pumpkin to pumpkin giving them kisses...

Falling for Fall

2008-10-11T14:38:00.002-05:00

We have had a beautiful week here in Pennsylvania. The trees are turning and the weather has been low 70s with just that touch of cool when the sun disappears. Yesterday afternoon, Chad got home a little early, so we picked up some Subway and went to Parker Dam State Park.

Megan found the whole experience to be so exciting that her hair stood up on end!

After our picnic dinner, we (I say we because we all did take turns crawling through the tubes and going down slides) played at the playground.

Then, we (I say we, but Megan got carried a fair portion) hiked around the lake. She thought tramping through the leaves was great fun and found lots of things to explore including the pine cone seen below. She also thought the gravel path at another point on the hike was great and stopped to eat a few handfuls.

See what I mean about a great fall!

After our hike, we went back to the playground for another round. Then went to the nature center for an up close look at some stuffed animals of both the synthetic and the once living and breathing variety.

Bubbles

2008-10-06T21:55:00.004-05:00

I got a chance to scrapbook the other day and I finished it tonight. I tried to stamp the letters and it didn't work, so I came up with these bubbles which I do like.

Too big clothes and a skinned up nose.

2008-10-01T15:15:00.001-05:00

Megan has been fascinated by the Vista Windows t-shirts that Grandpa Gorrell got for our family bikeride. She likes the ball on the front. Today, she found one of them (he got 6 to send home with us) and she kept trying to put it over her head. I asked if she wanted it on and she said, "Yeah" (another new word).

As for the skinned nose, we had a little accident yesterday. We started to take a walk yesterday, but it was raining by the time we got to the corner and we turned back. Rather than go back, we sat on the porch swing for a little while and watched for buses to drive by (a new favorite pasttime). Megan got tired of sitting so she stood and watched. Well, she got a little too close to the edge of the step and tumbled down. She did quite a job of falling and scrapped up her nose. She was pretty tough about it and quit crying after I gave her an oreo cookie.

The Revised Living Room

2008-10-01T14:30:00.005-05:00

We finally got around to painting the living room (2 times actually, 3 if you count primer). I'm not sure I love it, but I can't figure out what else to do, so for now it will stay this way.

Here is the room as decorated by the previous owner.

The previous owner's curtains.

We removed the chair rail. It was too ornate for the room. We would have removed the top moulding too, but it would have destroyed the ceiling, so we just painted it to blend in a little better.

We used the same lace curtains in the foyer and I think I'll also put them up in the dining room

The photo doesn't really do it justice.

Ready-Set-Go!!

2008-09-29T22:44:00.003-05:00

Megan added the word go to her vocabulary. The video speaks for itself.

Animals revisited

2008-09-29T20:20:00.009-05:00

Here is a somewhat more attentive Megan doing animal sounds.

Note- "Pablo" is her favorite character on the show Backyardigans. She has a stuffed Pablo toy and 2 sippy cups with Pablo on them. She talks about him regularly. On several of the episodes of Backyardigans, Pablo rides a horse, thus the conversation:
Mommy: "What does a horse say?"
Megan: "Pablo."

This is Megan not using her spoon. Last week, she started using a spoon. Before then, she always let me feed her, so I avoided the mess by not letting her use the spoon. This morning she ate about half of her yogurt with her spoon. While she slowly ate a cereal bar and more yogurt, I started unloading the dishwasher. At this point, she apparently decided she no longer needed the spoon and attempted to drink her yogurt. Lovely.

Walking-Talking-Sponge

2008-09-28T16:03:00.003-05:00

I feel like Megan has suddenly started to express everything we've talked about over the last 15 months. She is regularly doing and saying things that I didn't realize she knew or remembered.

Animal sounds are an example. We have been looking at animal picture books for easily the last 9 months. Her favorite books are "Dear Zoo" and a cheap book with cartoon pictures of animals that I got in Target. I have been making animal sounds for months. Then, when we were on vacation she started saying, "moo, nee and do-do (elephant)." Just out of curiousity, I asked her sheep, chicken, cat, owl and wolf and she did them all. The first three animals (cow, horse, elephant) I would show her in a picture and then ask her, but the rest I asked her while playing outside. Anyway, this is just and example of the ways she has been surprising me lately.

Here is a video of her animal sounds, she was really distracted, but I'll try again soon.

She has also started nodding her head empatically. It's pretty funny and a fair amount of the time she will nod yes no matter what the question. Below is a video of her wanting candy (I tried to bribe her to pay attention to the animal sounds. It didn't work).

Scrapbooking again

2008-09-28T15:49:00.003-05:00

I know everyone has been dying to see more scrapbooking...well, so that's not true. I haven't done much this summer. In June, I finished an album for my dad that I started 2 years ago.

July was mostly spent copying old home videos to DVD which is going to count toward my scrapbook goal for the year, b/c the goal was to preserve memories.

In August, I designed this simple project for a church event. We had a VBS follow up and in addition to some foot soaking, the ladies made a similar designed page with a take home plastic frame.

August and September flew by with home improvement and vacation. Monday I ordered all of our pictures since May (over 200) but I decided to scrapbook some old ones just to get back in the swing of things.

Our House-Part zillion

2008-09-28T14:48:00.004-05:00

Yesterday, we had company for dinner which provided the perfect motivation to get some stuff done around the house. We finally added the finishing touches to the foyer. I haven't gotten all the "deep cleaning" done yet, but I want to wait until all the first floor painting is done before I do all the washing and polishing.

Before:

Here is the stairwell with the metal tiles we found at Hobby Lobby. The yellow is more vibrant in real life.

The old curtains:

We got a "new" old piece of furniture. My mom refinished this seat over 35 years ago. My parents didn't have a house at the time so my grandma asked for it. My grandma in turn gave it to my uncle. My uncle recently moved into a smaller house and has been storing it in the attic. None of my cousins wanted it, so she offered it to me because she knew we lived in an old house...so, my moms hard work has made it to Pennsylvania...I bet she never thought that would happen. It has almost been coast to coast, because my uncle had it in Oregon. I feel like I should drive it to New Jersey just to complete it's journey...

The door:

No more roses on the door.

Chad's grandparents spent last weekend with us. I think Megan impressed them with her animal sounds. And of course, after they left they told Chad's parents they thought I was pregnant...again...this is not true, but entertaining to me...

Time travel

2008-09-14T15:41:00.005-05:00

We just got back from our vacation. We not only wanted to travel but we apparently wanted to time travel.

Our first stop was Gettysburg (which is about 3.5 hours from Dubois). We got a guided tour and it was great. The guide drove our car through the park telling us about the battle. He was very passionate and between his excitement and our questions, our 2 hour tour turned into 4.

This is the Pennsylvania monument at Gettysburg, it's pretty impressive, if you look, I'm at the upper left hand corner waving.

We drove from Gettysburg to Lancaster to see a musical at Sights and Sounds theatre which was pretty impressive.

From there we drove to Philadelphia and stopped at Valley Forge just outside the city. Megan was checking out the troops cabin. It's about the size of her bedroom. It was made for 6-10 people to live in, must have smelled great.

Below is Freedom Hall where the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were signed.

Did I mention my parents went with us? We make a pretty good traveling team. We tend to like the same types of things and it is nice to be able to spend a week together since we don't get to see each other that often. Megan also enjoyed being with her grandparents.

This is the Constitution Museum. It was probably one of my favorite stops. I definitely could have spent more time here.

Of course, we had to see the liberty bell which apparently was almost sold for scrap metal in the 1830s (but no one would buy it) and only became a national symbol when it was adopted by abolitionists as a symbol of their cause.

The famous "Philly" cheesesteak wasn't all that great. We asked a local and he advised against the "cheez whiz" version and we have since realized that we should have ignored him.

George Washington's pew at Christ Church.

Megan's favorite part was this carousel ride. She kept walking back towards it and doing the sign language for "more."

After Philly, we drove to Williamsburg. This is Megan in colonial handcuffs.

Grandpa got Megan a hat.

After two days at Williamsburg, we spent half a day at Jamestown (where I neglected to take pictures) and ended up at Virginia Beach. Dad, a sworn beach hater, did enjoy the fact that our fall vacation meant he beach was empty for kite flying.

Megan liked the sand.

But she wasn't as sure of the water.

Labor Day weekend

2008-09-02T21:15:00.005-05:00

We spent a very busy 3 day weekend with Chad's parents and the rest of the family in Cleveland area. We got into town late Friday afternoon and had dinner w/Bruce, Sherry, Todd Hilary and Adisyn. Then we played Settlers of Catan for the first of three times.

Saturday morning, we met at the Brecksville train station to catch the bike train. Basically, you bring your bike down to the depot, the train comes, they load the bikes on for you, you ride the train to whatever stop you want and when you get off your bike is waiting for you. The train runs parallel (well, essentially parallel) to the Erie Canal that connected Akron (and beyond?) to Lake Erie. The bike trail we rode is actually the old towpath for the canal boats. Of course, it has been surfaced with a lovely limestone chip surface. We rode 11 miles back to where we parked our cars. Megan and Adisyn got to ride in style, although they ended up crying for about the last 2 miles.

Saturday afternoon, Chad and I went to see Mamma Mia, which was a little different than expected but not a bad way to spend some time. We also went out to eat (hey, you gotta take advantage of free babysitting when you can, thanks Bruce and Sherry). Megan went to the pool with Grandma and Grandpa.

Chad and his dad also rode another 12 miles on Saturday before the movie.

Sunday, we went to church, where Megan got kicked out of her class for crying too much. After another wonderful and large meal, Chad, Bruce, Paul, Todd and Hilary, did a 36 mile bike ride.

Megan, Adisyn, Sherry and I went to the park and to the pool to get our "exercise."

Monday, we went to a local park and had a picnic. Megan seemed to especially like Uncle Paul and was constantly batting her little eyes at him. I should also add that after breakfast, Sherry and I rode 12 miles on our bikes.

We took the girls down to the creek. Once again, the only bad part is that we can never get the swimsuit on fast enough.

We ended the afternoon with a popsicle and the drive home.

Doing a little "home improvement"

2008-09-02T21:01:00.005-05:00

We have been doing some serious painting over the past few weeks. I have no "after" pictures, because we have some accesories to put out still, but I'll give you all some action shots.

I was very happy to see this mural disappear.

Me, painting over one of the mini murals.

Bruce and Sherry drove over for the day to help. It was a major blessing or we would have never gotten the foyer primed and painted in one day. As you might imagine, several coats of primer were necessary...Sherry is peeling the fake plastic roses off of the entryway in case you were wondering.

The new color is a yellow/gold color which definitely sets the woodwork off. Like I said, pictures later.

The living room didn't go quite as smoothly. We primed and painted it a green color that somehow morphed into mint green (the lighter color) in between the color card and the actual wall. FYI, mint green is my least favorite color in the entire world. I have been known to throw away perfectly good sheets of paper from a variety pack of cardstock solely because they were mint green. Sage green, great, seafoam, okay, mint, no. At first we were going to add stripes throughout the room, but I didn't like our sample stripe and didn't want to do the hours of labor to add stripes and still hate the room. The entire room ended up being the darker green and it looks okay. I don't love it yet, but I can only paint a room so many times.

Megan worked pretty hard on the whole process.

Bad Blogger...

2008-08-09T21:58:00.001-05:00

Bad Blogger...
So, I essentially have to catch up on the entire summer...I have a lot of reasons for not blogging, but to say we have been busy sums it up fairly well.I will do my best to include some summer highlights...

At the fair

2008-08-09T21:43:00.004-05:00

We went with Phil, Tracy, Lilly, Ella (new addition to the Shenkle family, I know, I should have a picture) and Joy to the Clearfield County Fair. Megan liked watching all the people and thought the animals were okay. She was more interested in running (as fast as her 14 month old legs would carry her) all over.

Helping with the dishes

2008-08-09T21:33:00.006-05:00

As mentioned in previous posts, Megan has a thing for water (bubble). A few weeks ago, before her bath, I thought I'd see what she thought of "helping" me with the dishes. I put a towel down next to the sink, sat her on it and gave her a little cup. She sat for 10 minutes, dipping her bowl, rinsing her bowl, dipping her bowl, rinsing her bowl, dumping her bowl, well, you get the picture. She would have sat longer, but I finished up the dishes. She threw a little fit when I put her down.

The pictures below are from Sunday after church. I had told Chad about her helping me and he didn't believe it, so we took off her dress and she repeated her performance.

The only problem now is that any time I'm at the sink, she starts to point and whine because she wants up to play!

Settlers of Catan

2008-08-09T21:24:00.002-05:00

When we went to Kentucky last February, our friends Kristin and Greg taught us this new game, "Settlers of Catan." It may be the best game ever and we quickly purchased it ourselves and started having Settlers parties. The downside to the game is that it is only for 6 players and with our group of friends, there are about 15 people for any given activity. We felt kind of snooty inviting people in groups of 4. One of our other friends decided to buy the game, so we expanded and had 12 people playing at the same time.

In case you are interested, the game is like a combination of Risk and Monopoly except better because all players can be engaged in some aspect of play on every turn. I won't try and explain more than that because it is a little complicated to explain initially, but if you are a gamer, you should consider this as your next game purchase.

A few of her favorite things...

2008-08-09T21:02:00.004-05:00

I was ironing a few weeks ago and I put Megan's gate up so that she couldn't accidently pull the iron over or do something equally horrible. I checked on her every few minutes and on one of my trips in, the below scene is what I found. She had crawled into her chair by herself (didn't know she could do that) and apparently thought ahead to bring some reading material with her. Either that or she got up the first time and realized she had nothing to do, so she got down, put a few books on the chair and got back up...When she saw me come in, she used all the momentum she could muster to rock the chair wildly. This is just one part of a current chair trend. She likes to sit in chairs of all kinds and tends to sit in said chairs with a grin that seems to say, "I'm big stuff, I can sit in this chair." I'm not sure I completely understand the fascination, but I enjoy the resulting stillness that sitting in a chair tends to bring.

Megan is not into raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens, but here are a few of her favorite words:

Ball (definition is currently being expanded to include circles)
Bubble (which not only means bubbles, but liquid of any kind)
Book
Baby (any person)
Daddy (says the name of whatever parent is not around at the time)
Mommy
Wee (translation swing)
Duck
Dog (which sounds a lot like duck, but I'm going to count it)
Cracker (sounds like cu-cu, but is discernible as cracker)
Milk
Beep (made when she sees anything with buttons)
Hi (but only when she is holding a phone)
Na-na (banana, which ironically she will say but rarely eat)
Uh-Oh (when she is preparing to drop something)
No-no-no (always in multiples and always after I tell her no)

Hocking Hills

2008-08-09T20:36:00.004-05:00

In the middle of July, the Warner family all got together for a long (but not long enough) weekend in the Hocking Hills region of Ohio. A gold star goes to anyone who actually knows where that is...It is a region southeast of Columbus. It's a beautiful area with tons of hills, sandstone cliffs, caverns and forests.

Here is part of the family exploring "Old Man's Cave," so named for a recluse who chose to live in the cavernous area during the 1870s.

Megan, despite the fact that she loves to walk, run, crawl, hop, roll, etc., was quite happy to be in the pack unless I stopped moving.

She loves all forms of water and will walk right in regardless of shoes, socks or possible dangers. After the picture below was taken she threw a major fit because we wouldn't let her in the water.

The next day we got smart and brought her sandals which were much easier to remove and thus she was allowed to play more. The below picture was at the end of a fairly strenuous 3 mile hike. I let her get completely wet because the diaper and outfit were coming off soon anyway,

Here Megan and Jonathan were having a pillow fight.

Mom and Dad very graciously paid for the cabin as dad's "retirement present" to the family. Somehow I'm not sure it is supposed to work that way, but it was a very nice cabin and it had a hot tub.

On Sunday, we spent the morning at Lake Logan, where Megan again ended up in the water. We also went to the pool on Friday, but I didn't get pictures. She has absolutely no fear of water (other than she doesn't like having water run over her head) which is fun on one hand, but a little scary on the other.

Water video

2008-08-09T20:15:00.002-05:00

Just a short clip of Megan playing in Lake Logan.

Pianists!

2008-08-09T20:07:00.003-05:00

So I think Lily, Caden and Megan are all destined to be piano prodigies...They are all so keenly interested in the piano when they come over. This particular evening (July 3), all the "daddies" (Chad, Matt and Phil) went to the driving range while all the "mommies" (Me, Kim and Tracy) kept the kids occupied. The guys were originally going to play golf using their father's day gift certificates, but it was rainy. Instead, everyone came over for dinner and they hit balls at a driving range that has rusted out cars for targets. Yep, that's all I'm saying...

Shoes

2008-07-08T20:37:00.004-05:00

So, Megan has pretty much mastered walking. She still falls a lot, but that's because she's going for speed. She is also a crazy daredevil and loves to climb. Everyday it seems that she can stretch a little further and climb up on something else that yesterday I considered, "safe." She cries when we come in from being outside and loves to play in the dirt, sand and rocks. Two of her most recent words are "ball" and "bubbles." All of this is to preface that in all her un-girliness, she loves shoes. The other day, I was going through some of her old clothes and found a pair of shoes that were too big last summer. I put them on her feet to see if they fit now, and even though her little heels were hanging over the edge of the sandals, she toddled around the room in them, falling regularly because of the illfit. When I took them off, she started to cry, so I grabbed her white Mary Janes and she wore them for the next hour. What made this funnier, was that it was a hot night, so she was only wearing her diaper and her prissy shoes.

Since that night, whenever she finds them, (usually where they last came off) she carries them to me to put it on her. They are a little big, so often after about 5 minutes, she has lost one of them. This doesn't slow her down too much and usually the other ends up some place weird like, the bath tub, her toy box or an empty wipe container...

She is "dancing" in the above photo. Now that she can stand uninhibited, she has added quite a few moves to her dance repertoire including some side to side action, knee bends and the occasional foot stomp. I will have to catch some video of this. Yeah, she'll pretty much stop to "break it down" just about anywhere.

Back on the wagon...

2008-07-08T20:16:00.004-05:00

Sorry to all of my 5 loyal blog readers, I have fallen off the blog wagon. Today, I will attempt to climb back on...

So last month, Megan and I went to Indiana and spent a few days in La Porte with Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Suzy, Jonathan and Ariana. We visited a few of my favorite haunts. The first day we went to Lake Michigan and Carlson's, the best root beer stand ever. Suzy and I also went to Shipshewana one day and I saw a few friends from high school and college although I didn't get to see as many as I wanted (Alisha, if you read this, send my your number via facebook...)

Megan loved the sand, but was not so into the frigid water.

I love this face.

Baby J got a little of Grandma's rootbeer float.