Aunt Lisa handmade a sock monkey for Megan for Christmas. It is SO cute! Today, Meg and I went to Joann's Fabric Superstore. Megan brought in Ms. Monkey, and they rode around together in the cart. Pretty soon, Megan began swinging and flinging Ms. Monkey about her head. Not long after that, she started "singing" (yelling for those who know her), followed closely by bouncing. So here I am at the store with a bouncing, singing, monkey-flinging 10 month old. Two old ladies told two other old ladies about her, so they followed the noise to the spectacle. They had such a laugh! It wasn't 2 minutes later that 2 employees from the back had heard about the show and came to watch. Meanwhile, Megan - never missing the opportunity to dole out cheesey smiles - was just LOVING the attention, so the moves became quite exaggerated. The noise only subsided long enough to give a cheesey smile. She is such a hoot!

We won't be together for Christmas, so we had our family gift exchange on Sunday, in Memphis, before all going our separate ways. It was slightly unconventional, but 45 minutes in the Courtyard by Marriott did the trick. Each of the married siblings drew a name and bought for that person - Matt and Jeff exchanged Polos (great minds...). Megan got a Cabbage Patch newborn, a caterpiller pull-toy, a very neat sock monkey handmade by Aunt Lisa (I can't find a picture of it, but maybe someone else has one on their camera), and a fleece jacket which will come in very handy tonight!

A family picture was top priority on this trip. We wanted something special, casual, and fun. A nice old man and his family loaned us their driveway and trees for the picture. With three babies, it took forever, but we are happy with what we got. Thanks to Matt, our esteemed photographer, for the use the of the tripod, camera, and for Photoshopping expertise!

Megan had a great time in Booney-ville, but she's glad to be home! She got the grand tour of Grandpa's hometown, played with her cousins, picked up foreign objects and put them in her mouth, got sick, and ate lots of food! Now we're home with a fever and the same-type cold we just got over a week and a half ago. It was inevitable with 50+ people around....

As if Megan didn't have enough cousins already, she met some new ones this week! My sister, two cousins, and I all had babies born within three weeks of each other. There are six within six months of each other. And they really don't have much to do with each other right now. But we're looking forward to about 2 years from now....that ought to be a blast!

Our house is a wreck, and we have company coming in a few hours. Where's my help? Sitting in the recliner with Megan - asleep! Did I mention our house was a wreck? But how can I be mad? They look so cute there together on the chair....I love it! So, I'll run around like a chicken with my head cut off (while I'm not blogging) so they can snuggle.

If I ever mention having my carpets cleaned again, please, somebody slap me! We had to move all of our furniture off of the carpets to have them cleaned today. Oh, and we had a little helper. I am WORN OUT! The highlight of my day was when Megan and I had a picnic on the playroom floor. Her highchairs were somewhere in the pile of furniture, but I had to feed her somehow...I figured the carpet was about to be cleaned anyway, so why not? We spread a little blanket out on the floor. I sat down with my plate; Meg sat down with her Kix, Veggie Puffs, and Yoplait. We ate and watched Days of our Lives. What a fabulous lunch!
I had a few pictures to choose from, but I chose this one for a reason. First, Megan got her bangs trimmed the other day. It wasn't her first haircut but just a little snip-snip. At least they aren't in her eyes anymore. Secondly, she has a new bruise to add to her poor little bruised up face. She has 3 right now! Two on the right side; one on the left. Her poor little head just takes the brunt of her walking practice. A coffee table here; a #3 magnet there (for real, she got the bruise under her eye from falling on a Playskool #3 magnet!). She looks abused, but she really is loved!!!
(Yes, those are her Halloween pj's...they still fit!)

Meg and I went to watch Uncle Scotty wrestle tonight. He pinned his guy in less than a minute! Way to go, Uncle Scotty! We're so proud of you!

I guess Megan already knows that two negatives cancel each other and make a positive. Double negative. She knows! For instance when I say, "No, no," she gives me this smile and apparently hears, "Yes," because she continues with whatever she was doing. Drives me batty. So I'm going to start saying, "No." Then what'll be the excuse?

She's finally feeling better. Know how we knew? She started "Whhhheeeeee"ing today (if you've been around Megan for 3 minutes you know the sound). She hasn't done that in about a week. Cheesy smile is back, too. We missed that happy girl!

Meg has a sinus infection and a horrible cough that just won't go away. It's been rough on all of us...

Apparently, she is more like me than I thought! The girl can eat and conduct business on her cell phone at the same time...just like Dr. G says, "She's a mover and a shaker like her Mama." I'd rather her pick up things from her Daddy, like patience.

Oh, I've started to work from home. It's just a few hours every week, but I love it, and I have the best boss ever! For those that feel the need to gossip about me, let me set it straight (I'm flattered, really). I am working because I want to work, not because I have to. My house is clean, and yes, I can cut it as a stay-at-home-mom. Oh and no, I didn't get a boob job, but thanks for noticing. Anything else I can clear up for you?

Megan and her daddy are a little under the weather these days. They both have the congestion, runny nose, sore throat, feel-like-crap crud. Megan has a rough time sleeping at night, so she caught a little nap on her daddy today.

Please don't look too closely at her...she looks like we don't care about her! Her face is bruised (from walking and falling), scratched (from rubbing her nose and mouth), and raw (from drool and snot). Poor thing. But even when she was snotty and drooly and coughing, she looked up and gave the cheesiest smile. Happy baby!

Thanks, Matt, for helping me fix my video link. Should've known not to be TOO proud of myself.

As many of you know, I had to stop breastfeeding. It was hard for me because I liked the convenience and getting to spend time with Megan. Perhaps the most difficult part about it was that I wasn't in control of the decision to stop - I was told to (yes, that's me admitting I'm a control freak). But it's been a week now, and quite frankly, I'm liking it! Formula and bottles aren't that bad of a deal. Feeding time is now just for feeding. All I have to do is simply make the bottle and stick it in the mouth. I'm no longer a jungle gym, and the feeding session takes under 10 minutes. Not only that, but Daddy gets to spend special time with her now. I really noticed the difference last night when I went to scrapbook with a friend of mine. I got to work on Megan's book for the entire time! I didn't have to stop to pump! Having said all that, I am so glad I got to feed her for 9 1/2 months, but I'm also glad that we've both "grown up." I'm not sad that I can't breastfeed her anymore...I'm happy for the time I did get to spend with her.

Megan was playing with her pumpkin, and it got stuck on her sweater. It was very traumatic.

For those that may not know, Aunt Krissa is a soccer super-star. She played soccer in college and coaches a select team. Megan is trying to make you proud, Aunt Krissa. While she leads me around the house all day, she stops to kick everything. If she misses she makes a circle around to try again. She kicked a pink balloon around for about 10 minutes at play group today. I realize this is a very blurry picture, but it's the only one I have of it.

Whew....Halloween was a busy day! First of all, Megan cut her first tooth. My little Jack-o-lantern! It was nice of her to pick a day that I'll likely remember.

Megan got all dressed up as a spider. It was pretty chilly outside, which I had not planned well for. She didn't have black tights, so we opted for the long-sleeved purple outfit. We went to Gran and Papa's house to trick-or-treat. She went to three of Gran's neighbor's houses, too. After showing off our walking skills, we went to see Grandma and Uncle Scotty. We went trunk-or-treating in the church parking lot. Megan "walked" (holding onto my fingers) the entire parking lot for over 30 minutes without stopping. I can't believe she walked that much since she had walked all over the house several times earlier in the day. She's non-stop! (Grandma's hair doesn't normally look like that...it was for Halloween.)