Meighen

Tomorrow is Meg’s 2nd birthday. It was two years ago she made her very long and stressful entry into the world, our lives and hearts. Surprisingly, even though it was a difficult delivery none of that has affected her and she’s such a happy joyous little girl. Ben and I are thankful and grateful that she’s in our life every night when putting her to bed.

Yesterday was Meg’s birthday party. I stayed up late on Saturday night to decorate and do what I could to reduce what needed doing on Sunday. I bought these Cars wall decorations. It was a huge plastic sheet that you hung on the wall. I cut it in two cause we don’t have that much wall space available. Meg was so happy Sunday morning seeing the giant Lightning McQueen above the couch. We had a small gathering for her (since a lot of people were unavailable) and it worked out great. It tried raining a couple of times but the sun came through and we were able to eat and open gifts outside. We’d like to say thanks to everyone who came out.

Having the party during the afternoon disrupted Meighen’s nap and she didn’t go down till 5:30 pm. I woke her up around 7, gave her a snack, played with her toys and came to bed with us. Too bad she didn’t fall asleep till 11, ug. Needless to say we’re all very tired this morning but at least Meg can nap at daycare. Thankfully it’s a short week since we get both Canada Day and the day after off, yay! We’ll be hitting Downsview Park for Canada Day and maybe a couple other places over the weekend. Lots to do in the city now that G20 is over.

What an amazing weekend. It was packed full of family fun.

Early Saturday afternoon Ben had to go into work to do some emergency server stuff so Meg and I tagged along. The MMVA’s were prepping for the big show this past Sunday and we got to check out Miley Cirus practice Party in the USA. Of all the performers, one of my least preferred but it could have been worse – it could have been Beiber mania. Meg seemed ok with it all. She sat up on my shoulder and watched the show, listened to the tunes and didn’t seem fazed by the loud music. We were well across the street so I wasn’t worried about earplugs for Meg. After that we went over to the AGO and played in the playground. Meighen loves playgrounds. She thinks she’s all independent and climbs all the way up to the slide by herself and goes down, but only if we’re waiting for her at the bottom (good girl!). After spending a couple hours downtown we headed to Pere’s for a Father’s Day BBQ with M’oncle Chad, Auntie Steph and the girls. This time Meighen wasn’t too shy and started playing with Corrine. She’s been waiting a long time for Meg to come around.

Sunday was another busy day. Ben said he wanted to wake up to a Tim Horton’s coffee on Father’s Day, so while he was sleeping in Meg and I zipped off to make his dream come true. Meg is so cute at Timmie’s. She knows the way to the store and gets concerned when you turn the other way. When we pulled up she said “Timbit please”. When the lady passed me the bag I passed it to Meg and we get the sweetest “Oh! Thank you Mummy!” She’s too adorable and has great manners. After coffee and a homemade breakfast of French toast and strawberries we got ready and went over to the Beaches Ribfest. We had a nice lunch (chicken and ribs), picked up some sauce, ice cream and walked around. Meg noticed the two race cars right away and went running over to them (although not long enough to take a picture). After spending a couple hours there we picked up Auntie Julie at the spa and went back to her place for a yummy turkey breast dinner. Meighen loves her Auntie so, it’s cute.

What a weekend! And it’s just the start of things to come. Next weekend is Meg’s 2^nd birthday party. Grammy and Grampy are heading down on Saturday while I do the running around, well what I can anyways. Sunday will be more running around (cake and balloons) and then the actual party. It’s a smaller group this year due to availability but it’ll still be nice. I think next year we’ll move her party up a week so more people are able to come. When we’re past next weekend we head into the long weekend. Ben and I both get Thursday/Friday off for a four day weekend – bliss! Theres lots I want to do and hope Meighen can stay up long enough for fireworks at Downsview Park. There’s also the CHIN picnic and another Ribfest  that weekend too – so many choices.

June is here which means Meighen is turning 2! I’ve been planning things in my mind and just waiting for time to pass before I can start taking care of things. We’ll do something similar to last year at our place. We have a new bbq so Ben can cook up a storm. Hopefully the weather will be nice and the kids can play outside. Unfortunately we’re more equipped for little ones vs. the older kids that will be coming. There’s Meg’s slide/playset, ball pit, pool and sidewalk chalk. Since Meg’s totally into Cars right now I’m thinking of getting a Lightning McQueen piñata. She’ll have fun whacking it and the older kids will enjoy it too. I’m kinda at a loss for gift ideas. I sort of want to upgrade her pool into one with a slide. It’s amazing the blow up things you can get these days, it’s crazy! She always needs clothes and loves McQueen so maybe something Cars orientated. Auntie Julie ordered Meg a play kitchen and it arrived yesterday. Was a challenge to get home but I managed. Food sets are another bday idea.

The long weekend was good. Meg had a fever for most of it but we were able to get out to the Circus Festival. It wasn’t as good as I hoped, Busker is much better, but we still had a good time. Ben’s buddy came with us and ended up coming back with us for a bbq. The rest of the weekend we just hung out at home and played in the kiddie pool.

Meighen’s sentences are coming along really well. Yesterday while kicking a ball across the yard she said, “Mummy, watch me!” When she was throwing her balls down the slide she’d say, “Ready, set, go!” Her favourite has to be, “Mummy/Daddy stop it!” She’s usually giggling when she says it which gives us the go-ahead to continue the kisses or tickle torture. Our little parrot, picking up and applying so many words and ideas every day.

Yay, the long weekend is here. Four days of sleeping in and chilling with the doopy. Being in the advertising industry here in TO, it’s almost the norm to get extended long weekends in the summer, which officially starts tomorrow! Unfortunately the weather doesn’t look too promising but we’ll still make the most of it. I mowed the lawn last night so we could go home tonight and start enjoying the back yard.

Tomorrow Ben’s taking the car in to get the windows tinted. He says it’s for Meighen, it’s true she will benefit from it but I still think it’s more a Daddy thing. Meg and I will make the most of the weather and hopefully get up to something. I think we’re visiting with Pere this weekend and will be seeing Auntie Julie on Sunday for a belated Ben birthday. Monday, if the weather’s nice, we’ll be taking Meg downtown to the circus festival. It’s at Harbourfront and looks a lot like Buskerfest. Meg’s turning into a total monkey so I’m sure she’ll love watching the acrobats and tumblers. As much as I was hoping to do the zoo this weekend we’ll hold off for another weekend. It’s only 5 minutes away and we’ve got all summer.

It seems the terrible-twos are upon us. The past few weeks Meighen’s been having minor meltdowns on a regular basis. She doesn’t take ‘no’ very well. She’s been so awesome and well behaved the last two years so she hasn’t been denied much. These days it’s a daily event. Sometimes she’ll be easily distracted by something else but other times she just won’t let it go. She’ll throw herself to the ground and cry. Not the most pleasant scene in the world so I just leave her to it. I tell her what’s going on and why and let her know where I’ll be when she gets over it. It can last 5 minutes or so and she eventually gets over it. She’s still a great, sweet kid but is turning out to be a bit strong willed (just like her Mum).

Meighen’s getting really good with her manners. She almost always says thank you or will do so with a short prompt. Please is another story. We almost always have to remind her but she’ll say it. She’s learning that the quicker she says please, the sooner she’ll get what she wants.

On the milestone front, Meighen can go down the stairs upright like a big girl while hanging onto the wall with one hand. She thinks she’s so grown up. We don’t let her do it without supervision, don’t want her to tumble. We have total confidence on her going up/down the stairs on her knees and bum but not quite there with the standing up thing.

I’ve been trying to get Meg to accept ponytails. It’s either that or keep her hair cropped. It’s aweful the way it hangs in her face but she keeps pulling out the elastic. Ah poopy nu, you’re girly in so many ways, please get used to a ponytail, you’ll be amazed at all the things you can see.

This past weekend was my second Mother’s Day and it was a good one. As Meighen gets older she has more ways to show me love and appreciation. She always says “Thank you Mummy” and gives the best hugs’n’kisses. She is still a sweet, kind, funny little girl.

Saturday my folks arrived for a surprise visit. It was good to see them again and Meighen always has fun with Nelson (the dog). They stopped by while we were at the dentist and left some flowers for me and a bike for Meg. She’s really interested by it and has fun sitting on it while we push her around, she hasn’t really got the hang of peddling yet. Sunday I woke up, opened my cards and made a nice breakfast for the three of us. My folks and sister came over for a visit and we had a nice lunch at the restaurant our wedding rehearsal dinner was held. Later that night we met up with Grammy and Grampy at the hotel and took Meg for a swim. She had fun in the kiddie pool and going down the mini water slide. She’d pop her head up and wave to Grammy in the hot tub yelling “Hi Grandma!” It was cute. I also took Meg into the big pool. It was nice being able to stand upright in the water and swoosh her around. Can’t do that in a kid pool when you’re up to your thighs in water. Meg really loved it and kept saying, “I get down Mummy” but yeah right, like I was going to let her drown. Meg’s a thrill seeker, she has no fear. She’d push me away, climb up the stairs, get out of the pool and try to jump in where I was standing. Little monkey, totally freaked me out. She’s too little to be jumping into the big kids pool. My gosh. We negotiated a little and settled on her sitting on the edge of the pool and kind of plopping in to the water while I hung onto her. We’ll see how long that lasts.

This weekend looks like it will be a busy one. We’re hoping to meet up with Ben’s Aunt to give them an extra TV we have, our KIA dealership is having a bbq that Ben wants to check out and we have theatre tickets to Rock of Ages on Sunday. We haven’t been a while and the show caught both our interests. Meighen will be spending the afternoon with Auntie Julie. Hopefully the weather is good and they can go outside and play.

That’s about it. Time flies when you have a kid(s).

Well we didn’t make it to Dave & Busters as we hoped. Meg came down with a fever from daycare so Ben and I each took a half day off to stay home with her. Ben was able to meet up with his buddy but the ladies had to stay home.

Saturday we did a bunch of running around/shopping. Meg’s a pro at grocery shopping now. She’ll put things in the cart, request things as we go down the aisles and this time when we were cashing out, she passed me the bag and said “Mummy, need bag.”

Since Meg was feeling better and the fever had passed we met up for dinner with Ben’s friends. We’ve wanted to go to Chili’s for quite some time so thought this was a good opportunity. We arrived around 7 and saw a line. Since we were half an hour early we grabbed a pager and waited. An hour and a half later (yes, 90 minutes) we finally got a table. It was ridiculous. Thankfully Meighen was having a ball running around outside on the grass and visiting other little kids who were waiting too. I was sure after being so good waiting for a table she would have fussed big time during dinner (another hour) but she didn’t. She asked to get down a couple times and just a simple nice little “No Meighen” did the trick. She had fun colouring, playing with straws and nibbling off our plates. A two-year old sitting through a late supper for two and a half hours – unbelievable. Best doopy ever.

Sunday Ben and I started coming down with a cold. We were supposed to do dinner with friends but we didn’t want to bring the germs around their twins. Instead I took Meg over to Auntie Julie’s for a visit. She’d been asking about Julie all week. We all went out back and played with the bubbles Auntie bought. She also picked up sidewalk chalk and Meg had a blast drawing all over the balcony. What a great Auntie.

Meg’s been on a movie kick lately. When we went up north in March we brought a few dvds for her to watch in the car. Since then she hasn’t shown much interest. The other weekend I put Toy Story on for her cause it was rainy and I had some work to do. She loved it and watched it twice that weekend. Since then she’s picked both Toy Story and Cats & Dogs out of the dvd rack and brought them to us to put on for her. Very cute.

After almost two years, everyday I’m amazed and in awe of our little doopy.

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.

I think it’s really my lack of understanding when it comes to child development but Meighen continually blows my mind.

She has a pretty good vocabulary already and she has a good number of mini-sentences put together. Every now and then she spits out something I didn’t know she could say. We have a few birdhouses and feeders around the yard. Meg loves to see the birdies come and go. The other day she ran up to the deck to see the bird pecking at the ground and it flew off. She turned to me and said “Mummy… birdy come back?” She had to repeat it a couple times but I figured it out. Wow! Around the same time she brought a couple of her toy cars outside and said “Mummy… truck go down slide.” She wanted me to shoot the cars down the slide to her. I’m loving it, makes it much easier knowing she can communicate her wants and needs. If you don’t understand, pick her up and she’ll show you what it is.

We’ve had an amazing turn in sleeping patterns. She slept great from birth to about 18 months (December). Since then she’d get me up a couple times a night and I played the “guess what bed I’m in” game when I wake up. Not sure what changed, maybe it’s the change of seasons and the additional fresh air she’s getting but she’s been sleeping amazing the last few weeks. She rarely gets up and half the time it’s just her calling “Mummy” out in her sleep and she doesn’t need me. Ben’s away this weekend and Meg didn’t nap yesterday. She went to bed super easy at 9 pm and came into my room around 5 am. I lifted her into bed and she slept till 9 am. Awesome! Yesterday she didn’t get up till 8:30 am. Ah, the good ol’ sleepy doopie has returned.

It was a long weekend and quite a busy one too. Friday morning Meg and I got up early and drove out to Kingston to visit with my friend from the states before she moves down to Arizona in June. We had a nice (but short) visit and the kids played well together. Unfortunately Meg threw up about 15 minutes before we arrived. Although this is the second time in a few weeks that she’s done this I don’t think she gets carsick. The sun was on her most of the way Friday morning and even though she had her sunglasses on I think she was overheated. Poor thing. I didn’t even have a change of clothes with me. I did what I could to clean her up but she was still a bit stinky. When will I learn? I’ve since put a change of clothes in her diaper bag. Maybe I’ll hide one in the trunk too just to be double safe. On the way back we stopped at the Big Apple in Colbourne. Meg wouldn’t remember being there last year before Grammy & Grampy moved but she enjoyed herself this time. We looked at all the fresh cooked pies and picked out a good one to bring home. She enjoyed checking out the lamas and running around. There were no bunnies this time, maybe later in the season. For a someone obsessed with apples, she didn’t notice the giant apple beside the building. Crazy kid.

My folks ended up coming down for the weekend so we had a family dinner at my sisters Friday night. It was nice. Meg’s even more comfortable at my sister’s since having spent a day there. She went for a walk with Grammy & Grampy and had fun playing with Nelson. She looked super cute in her blue dress, I even got barrettes in her hair!

Sunday morning was Meg’s first East egg hunt. She was too little last year to understand let alone walk around and collect eggs. This year she clued in quick and found all 12 eggs (with a bit of help). Since then she’s been hounding us to unwrap the chocolates so she can eat them. She learned that quick – you need to unwrap them before popping them in your mouth. The dogs were good considering there was food all over the main floor. I bought some plastic eggs that succeeded in protecting the chocolates overnight. Instead of going crazy with chocolate I added a colouring book and wood puzzle in her Easter basket. Grammy & Grampy gave us some a bit of money that went towards her Meg’s new picnic table and they showed up with a portable DVD player for her!! That was a total surprise and a good one at that. The “df”, as Meg calls it, was crucial in a smooth road trip with Meg, a total lifesaver.

The rest of the weekend was pretty lazy. We played out in the yard and raked out the gardens. Meg likes to help collect the yard waste and bag it. What a good little helper. I can’t wait till we start planting and she can dig me a hole and pat down the soil. She’s such a Mummy’s girl  – always wanting to help.

It was just under a week but man it was a long trip. I think there was too much driving, next time we’ll do less. Meighen was awesome. I can’t believe she travelled so well.

We left Saturday morning and made the trek to Smooth Rock Falls (10 hours). We stopped a few times to let the ladies pee (Sprocket, Mum, Meg) and stretch our legs. We borrowed a portable dvd player from Ben’s brother and we couldn’t have done it without it. Meg loved watching movies in the backseat. Between Sprocket and movies, it was smooth sailing. We did lunch in North Bay and we left Sprocket in the car while we went into McDonald’s. When we came back she had climbed into the front seat to eat the left over muffin that we forgot about. Man, the front seats were covered in hair and crumbs. Mistake #1 – don’t underestimate a scent hound. After that we stopped in New Liskegard and let Meg play for a half hour. We ran around the giant cow and posed for some pics on  the antique farm machinery at the museum. We piled back into the car, stopped for curds at Thornloe and booted to Smooth Rock Falls.

Sunday we hung out with Mere and Pere. It was pretty cold while we were there but I bundled Meg up and took her to the local park. She had fun running around and going down the slide. Depending on the set up she can climb up to the slide and go down all by herself, it’s pretty awesome. Meg wasted no time making herself comfy at Mere’s, she turned into a colouring addict. Mere bought her some awesome mini-markers and Meg wouldn’t give it up. She’d pass us a marker, say “open peees”, we’d open it and pass it to her, she’d say “dank you”, scribble a bit, put the lid on, and put it away. She’s so sweet when she says “peees”, how can you say no?

Monday we went to Kapuskasing to visit with Ben’s aunt, uncle and cousin. We were there a few hours and Meg loved the left over toys they had from their granddaughters and we ended up bringing them home. I took her for  a walk to break up the visit and she had fun checking out the neighbourhood. After a fantastic dinner, Mere and Meg nibbled on chocolate Easter eggs. I don’t think Meighen’s ever been that hopped up on sugar. My lord – she was hilarious! Eventually she crashed (around 10 I think) and slept like a log all night. She slept really well at Mere’s. A solid 11 hours each night.

Tuesday we packed up and made the drive to Elliott Lake (7 hours). That was a boring drive, sort of. Meg was snacking on grapes and ending up throwing up all over herself a few times. That was gross. Being on the 144 there were no shoulders to pull off on so we couldn’t stop right away but I did what I could to clean her up from the front seat. Thankfully we weren’t too far from Sudbury and we were able to get her changed and settle her tummy. Nothing a few chicken fries from KFC wouldn’t fix. Another 2 hour drive and we were in Elliott Lake. Not much happened that night, just visited and had supper.

For some reason while in E.L Meg thought it was a good idea to get up between 4 and 6 am.  Holy cow, that was crazy. We got up early both mornings. Wednesday was my birthday so we went into town and Grammy bought me a new pair of sneakers and took us all out for lunch. We also went to the park by the lake and Meg had blast. After that, I helped with some yard work and we had my favourite dinner – turkey with stuffing, mashed potato and gravy. Yum! After dinner Grammy, Meg, Nelson, and I took a walk. We played in the park and Meg got to walk Nelson all the way home. She was so proud marching along holding onto his leash.

We decided to head home a day early so we packed up and moved onto Sudbury Thursday morning. We stopped in to visit one of Ben’s high-school friends. We had a nice visit and lunch with his wife before heading home. We made a couple stops on the way, hit the 407 and got home before 6. It was a good trip but it was nice to be home.

Friday I took Meighen to the Pickering Rec Centre to swim. Man she’s a fish! She can now touch the bottom of the toddler pool so she’ll walk all over. Once in a while she slips and goes under but it’s only a dunk cause I’m right there to rescue her. She takes it like a champ – no fussing or crying. We were there about 2 hours before I was done and even then I had to pick her up and carry her out. She did not want to go!

This weekend Toys’R’Us has a super sale on and I hoped to get Meg a play kitchen for her birthday. They were sold out by time I got there but we still ended up with a toddler picnic table for the back yard. Thanks Grammie! After a nap, we went to Red Lobster with Auntie Julie for my birthday. I’m a sucker for shrimp. Although Meg’s still good in restaurants she’d rather get up and wander around. We each took turns walking around with her. After dinner we went back to Julie’s for coffee. Thankfully Meg is comfy there because she’s spending all Monday with her. Our daycare is still on vacation but back on Tuesday.

Not much going on today. We’ll likely play in the yard and maybe go to the park.