Meighen

Yippee!! It’s been almost 5 months since my last vacation and I can’t wait for the day to be over to officially start my week off. It’s going to be a busy one!

Ben was off this week to hang out with Meg. They did Daddy/Daughter coffee/Timbit runs most of the week with the exception of one McDonald’s run. They watched lots of ‘101 Dalmations’ together and went to the park. One day was spent in Oshawa with her cousins and another afternoon downtown visiting me at work. The week went good and we’re moving into a busy weekend.

Tomorrow is our 8th annual Richard bbq. We’re expecting around 15 people throughout the day. Meg has some of her little friends coming so last night I was cleaning out her pool, wiping down the ball pit and mowing the lawn in preparation. Tonight/tomorrow will be cooking/baking then we can chill when people arrive. Those with kids are coming in the afternoon and the child-free adults will tricking in throughout the evening.

Grammy & Grampy arrive tomorrow to spend a few days with me and Meg. The weather looks promising so we’ll be doing the Zoo and Centreville. There’s talk of spending an afternoon at the ROM as well (it’s free Wednesday afternoons). Unfortunately Grampy won’t be able to join us for many of the activities, too much walking involved. We’ll be sure to work in some Grampy-friendly activities too. I don’t think they’ll be around later in the week when we go to Buskerfest and try to get to the Ex. Meg’s in for one exciting week. Oh, we’re still waiting to hear if she’s doing the modeling gig next week too.

In other news, we’re still doing great with potty training. Not much progress since the last update but we’re still having success. She’s been sleeping awesome too. It’s been good to get some solid sleep.

This weekend wasn’t what I hoped it would be. Meg came down with a cold from daycare so she had a rough start. Ben came down with it on Saturday so he had a rough end. I stayed healthy (knock wood) so I tried to get out and do a little bit.

Friday we had a chiropractor appointment downtown so after that we went over to the St. Lawrence Market for lunch. They have yummy peameal bacon sandwiches. We also grabbed some chicken skewers and tatziki for the bbq. What a great dinner, I miss working in that neighbourhood. We also had our roof done that day. They started early, finished early and Meg slept through quite a bit of it, crazy kid.

Saturday we did a lot of shopping and went down to the Oshawa beach after supper. We picked up my girlfriend on the way and went for a walk on the pier and along the boardwalk. Meg had fun, she loves my friend Rhonda.

Sunday was a semi-lazy day. We did some shopping, hung out by the kiddie pool and had a nice dinner.

Monday Meg and I went back to Oshawa to go swimming with my friend. We checked out a different pool that had lots of spouts, jets and different sections to play in. I think this one was better suited for toddlers.

On the potty front we had a good day yesterday but not so much during the rest of the weekend. With Meg feeling so crappy I didn’t want to push the issue but last night she was smokin’! She used it twice after dinner and kept a dry bum all evening. She even did her first poopy. She’s catching onto the treat jar and she gets a lollipop after each successful use. My goal is to have her pretty much trained by the end of August. She doesn’t seem to be as comfortable going potty at daycare but I don’t think our caregiver sits with her for 10 minutes reading stories till Meg till she finally goes. Ah well, hopefully over the two weeks Meg’s home, she’ll clue in to being dry and it’ll be easier at daycare in September. Fingers crossed!

and it feels good! As Meighen grows up I pack away the things she no longer needs. I recently did a big clean up in the kitchen. The bottle sterilizer, bottles, kiddie forks and other assorted items are gone! The highchair was put away around Christmas so there’s a lot more room in the dining room. Meg sits in a booster seat at the table now that she’s a big-little girl. This weekend I decided to tackle her toy shelves. We had too many toys downstairs and she doesn’t use them all. I packed up all the “baby” toys – rattles, little stuffed things, plastic linking rings, stroller and car seat knick-knacks. With her birthday coming I’m sure it won’t be long till she’s swimming in toys again.

Meg surprised me the other day in a big way. We stopped at the grocery store on the way home and she waited in the car with Ben. When I opened her door to get my purse she said, “Mummy, bananas”. She knew I was getting groceries and was putting in her request. Crazy! Apparently the whole time I was in the store she was asking Ben “When Mummy come?” over and over. Also, as I mentioned in the last post (or two) Meg points on the apple sign we see every morning on the way downtown. This past week she’s been saying, “Mummy, cat!” but I never saw what she was talking about. Well yesterday we found it. There’s a cat hospital with two pictures of kitties on either side of the lettering. That’s what she’s been seeing, what a kid. It’s like a messed up version of eye-spy. Meighen tells us what she sees and we have to locate the image, hah.

It’s been a quiet week, I’ve been swamped with work. Ben was away this weekend and Meg and I did lunch with Pere and Tom. Tom hasn’t seen her in a while and man has Meg changed. We went to Kelsey’s and Meg decided she needed her own table. She sat nicely at the table beside us and ate her lunch. Very cute.

Not much going on in the near future. Next weekend Ben’s friend from Sudbury is down and they want to go to Dave & Busters on Friday. We haven’t been in a while and it makes for a nice night out. I don’t think Meg has been so she’ll love it.

This week is March break but due to cheaper flights after this week our daycare is taking next week off and flying south. We were going to take it off (since we have no daycare) so the change in schedule doesn’t affect us too much so come Saturday we’re off! We’re packing up Meg and Sprocket and heading north to do the “grandma tour” as I call it. We’ll be spending a few days with Mere in Smooth Rock Falls then moving onto Elliott Lake to see my folks for a few. This should be interesting. 7+ hour in a car with a toddler. It wasn’t so bad when we went up last time, then again she was only 4 months old. So in order to prepare we’ve borrowed a portable dvd player and are downloading the Wiggles and more. I’ve already got a stack of Treehouse theme songs on my iPod so now I’m adding some of Meg’s fav pop songs (ie: Hedley).

I feel like there’s so much to still do before we go. I’ve gotta do a bit of shopping and get our trip snacks and special Meg items (banana, yogurt, mini-Ritz sandwiches). Then there’s the house – man I gotta mop, do laundry, vacuum and change the sheets/towels so everything’s fresh when we get back. I also want to get our rings cleaned. We bought our wedding bands at Spence Diamonds and they offer free cleaning for life! I try to get them done a couple times a year but it seems as the years go by so does the time between cleanings. That brings us to packing! Ben and I are the easy part but packing Meg is another thing. There’s the kitchen stuff (sippy cups, plates, etc), bathroom stuff (Tylenol just in case, shampoo, soap, lotion, diaper cream just in case), bath toys, regular toys, clothes, blanky, dum dum…. the list is endless. Ah well, vacations are good for her as is seeing her family.

Otherwise, not much has happened this week. Just slowly prepping for the trip. I got a new cell phone on Sunday. Ben chipped in to help bring me into the current decade. It’s a LG Xenon with camera, video camera, mp3, internet and more. It’s pretty cool so far… except Meg already knows how to unlock and access things on it. What’s with kids and technology!?

I don’t know why it hit me but I realized I had never done “this little piggy” with Meg’s toes before. I did it a couple times and now she’s obsessed! I’ll do one foot and she’ll hold it out and say “again”. This goes on and on. When we say we’re done she tries to do it on her own feet or grabs ours. It’s pretty cute.

Last night I had Meg repeating ‘I love you’ back to me. It was one word at a time and really sweet. I had her say ‘I love you’, ‘I love Mummy’, ‘I love Daddy’, and ‘I love Julie’. It was super awesome.

Tonight we get our entertainment stand and I can get the living room back in order – hooray!

A little bit of info from my Pampers e-blast.
“Potbelly Blues – Concerned about your child’s potbelly and arched back? Don’t be. A toddler’s posture does look odd from an adult perspective, but it’s perfectly normal. Your child will have that swayback posture with the protruding tummy into her third year. Then she’ll gradually straighten up, and her belly will tighten.”

I find this useful since we always look at Meggy and her “gros bedin”. Thankfully it’s common and there’s no digestive issues.

As for the cycle being broken, I’m referring to Meg falling asleep with us. This was our routine for many months, bring Meg to our bed with her nighttime bottle, let her fall asleep then move her to her bed. Well about a month or so ago I thought, let’s get her to fall asleep in her bed. It didn’t take long for that to become the norm. I lay with her in her bed till she falls asleep and she stays put most nights. I know a toddler having a queen size bed is a bit ridiculous but man it sure comes in handy.

I’ve said it before and I’ll probably say it a million time more. Meighen is such a good little helper.

Last night while I was making dinner she wanted to play with her sponge painting kit. I gave her just the sponges and let her play on the floor. She took them out of the plastic wrapping, went over to the garbage can, took off the lid, put the plastic in the can, put the lid back on and went about playing. I’m astounded! I knew she loved to clean and tidy up but now she knows what’s garbage and how to get rid of it.

Later on, when the fridge was open Ben asked her to get Dad a wa-wa (her word for water, she knows the difference between milk, juice and water). She went over, grabbed a bottle of water and took it over to him. She’s so eager to help out – what a good girl.

Meg’s been a bit moody lately, nothing we can’t handle, just a bit more irritable than usual. I think I saw why, she’s cutting her back molars. I see the huge bulges forming under her gums. Poor kid. Almost done after these come in. Her eye teeth have all broken through and are almost in place.

My friend at work took her daughter to the Bunch Dance Series party last weekend at the Guvernment nightclub. The group rented out the club and made it a dance party for kids. All ages were there but it was better suited for 5 and under. It looks and sounds like a lot of fun. There’s dancing, lights, glowsticks, arts and crafts, a snow room and much more. If I knew about it I would have loved to go with Meighen. But now that I do know, I’ll keep my eye open for upcoming events.

Meg’s been sleeping awesome this past week. While it’s been nice having her fall asleep in our bed with us I’ve decided it’s time to have her fall asleep in her room. She’s been going down earlier, around 8:30, and it’s been great cause it gives us a bit of time to do our thing before bed. She’s been sleeping through the night and staying in her bed. I think kids have magical sleeping powers. While Meg drinks her milk before bed I start getting sleepy. Then she rolls over and snuggles into me to fall asleep. By this point I’m nearly asleep with her. I have to pry myself out of bed to finish whatever it is that needs doing.

Otherwise, not much is going on right now. It was Auntie’s birthday on Wednesday so we’re taking her out for dim-sum tomorrow. Yum-yum! I’ve been saying for months we don’t do it enough anymore and now I’ll have had it three times in a month. Yay!

It occured to me a while ago that the “theme” to this page really didn’t suit Meighen anymore. Gone are the baby days and now we’re onto sweet little girl. It took a little while to actually activate it but ta-da, here it is. I’m hoping to add more pages in the next little while and beef up the video section. Most people can see photos and videos on Facebook but I’ll showcase the special/extra sweet things here too.

It’s been an uber busy week. I won three different movie passes! We had to pick and choose to avoid messing with Meg’s schedule too much. Monday we skipped “High Life”. Tuesday Ben was doing his DnD thing so it was just Meg and I. Wednesday Ben dropped Meg at my sisters while we went to “The Lovely Bones”. It’s amazing how things affect you differently once you have kids. The content bugged me a bit but really took a toll on Ben. I think it was because the storyline was more about a father-daughter relationship vs mother-daughter. We stuck through it and were very eager to get our little doopy afterwards. She had a good time with Auntie but was happy to see us. Thursday Ben and my sister went to Book of Eli while we had another girls night at home.

Meg is such a joy. I can’t believe how unbelievably happy and sweet she is. I’d love to know what we did to deserve her, although I’m sure things will change when she gets older. I think a lot of it us her natural personality with some influence from us. I think another huge part of it is the wonderful daycare we have for her. Robyn is super sweet and has three wonderful boys. Meighen’s companion Ewen adores her and you can see the two of them flirt with each other. So adorable. They’re very sweet to one another.

Now that she has words it’s easier to give her what she wants. She can tell me she’s thirsty, wants a snack, wants to go out or upstairs to play. She still plays by herself quietly and is content for long periods of time. She’ll flip through her books, watch tv in her playroom (turn on, flip channels and all), play with her dollies and puzzles. Meighen’s turning out to be such a big help too. She’ll carry things around for us, take things to Dada in the living room, put her toys away when finished with them and wipe up when she spills her drink. Yesterday she tried to let the dogs out to the back yard. I asked them if they had to go out for a pee and she ran over to the patio doors and tried to slide them open. An impossible task right now but we’re hoping to replaced them in the upcoming months – the doors that is. She loves her naked baby time (bath time) and is great in the car. She loves to go shopping, be out on the town and see all the lights. The new car comes with Bluetooth so when I called Ben the other night I was able to talk to Meg through the car, she even talked back, it was cute.

We don’t have much going on this weekend. Laying low and spending some quality time with the Meg. When I was out Wednesday night cruising the Eaton Centre I found a great bathing suit I want to get her at Old Navy. The one she has now is getting small and I want to start taking her swimming again now that the weather has improved. It’s three degrees in TO (above zero!) and things are green! Gotta love it. Snow is pretty but life with a baby is easier without slush, snow piles and tons of layered clothing.

Oh yeah, while we had snow last weekend we took Meg tobogganing at the school. She had a great time and caught on quick. We didn’t want to just send her flying down the little hills so we’d run down the hill pulling the sled with us so she’d get the idea. The giggles wouldn’t kick in till we pulled her back up the hill. Within no time she was on a much bigger hill (well, medium I guess) and went down on her own. What a girl!