I'm working my butt off to raise a sweet, respectable little girl. In the meantime, my husband encourages her to sing, "Plop plop, fizz fizz, oh what a relief it is," when she poops. I can hear it going on in the other room right now...

I didn't put on my list of needs that I need a nightstand cleaner-offer because Daddy-o cleaned off his nightstand yesterday! We had no nightstand issues today - not one single problem...with the nightstand of course. Megan had to compensate by having other issues, such as a plum to my dining room wall, but hey, it wasn't the nightstand. Whoo hoo.

a personal chef
a carpet cleaner
new lipstick
a Citrus Squeeze Jamba Juice
gas in my van
earplugs
a toilet bowl cleaner
Chapstick
a good book - tired of reading crap lately
comfortable shoes
call blocking
a new Scrapbook magazine
motivation
more popsicles

these are not wants, they are needs!!

Megan just made a huge mess on the kitchen table - on purpose - knocking over a bowl of cereal and splashing in the milk. Of course I overreacted with "STOP!" and "NO NO" at volume 10. She was disciplined and had to help me clean it up. But I just heard her telling Baby Little:

"Did you know that mommies are mean anytimes (her word for sometimes)? They go grrrr grrrr and stop the fun. I wanted to paint with cereal and mommy said NO NO NO."

We woke up this morning to a surprise rain shower - one of those that even surprised the weather guys. Megan was beside herself wanting to get out in the rain so why not? I let her loose in the backyard, pajamas and all. It only lasted about 15 minutes, but it saved me from watering the garden and got the kiddo some fresh air. Hope it doesn't make it steamy today. Yuck!

Ever since I can remember, Megan has not been able to keep her grubby little hands off of our nightstands. While most people are able to use them as a catch-all for miscellaneous things, we can't. There is always something enthralling, waiting for her to touch, eat, grab, throw, or lose. Long ago I started keeping my side to a minimum, but Daddy hasn't quite caught on yet. He leaves his change, little colorful papers (like ticket stubs), pocket knife, etc, etc, etc, out for her to confiscate. It is a daily battle with her that I am left to fight. I have tried everything and even cleared off his nightstand in one sweep of the arm one day (in a moment of fury), but nothing works. She still manages to find something to get into. This morning she "brought me" two pennies and two McAlister Deli mints. It may not seem like a big deal because by 2 years old most other children have quit putting objects such as pennies and mints in their mouths. BUT not ours. Everything goes straight to the mouth - including everything found on Daddy's nightstand. Today that meant me digging out two pennies and two mints, in the wrappers, from a screaming, clinched-jawed, stubborn little scavenger. I'm thinking that the nightstand will soon disappear....

I wasn't feeling very well yesterday, so Uncle Scott and Kelci came over to provide some relief and help. They were extremely helpful with Megan, and I got some much needed rest. They even braved the ridiculous heat and took Megan to the pool. Of course I didn't take any pictures...I was busy being miserable. I wish I had some though because it was so cute! And THANK YOU, THANK YOU.

It was 104 today with no relief in sight! HOT! Grandpa, Uncle Scott, and Grandma came down to swim with Megan. She's been doing so well in the water - even going under and opening her eyes - that Grandpa wanted to come see it. We had such a good time. Thanks for making the trip to come see her tricks.

Jumping back and forth between Grandpa and Uncle Scott.


Motorboat with Grandpa


Relaxing with Grandpa


Whoa...what a cute Daddy!


Splashing with Uncle Scott

For the past several weeks, Megan has been petrified of something called a "peetree" at Grandma and Grandpa's house. We, being everyone who knows about it, could not figure out what was scaring her so darn bad. She said it was in a basket, and had eyes, and just mentioning it would literally make her panicky and go into a crying fit. She wouldn't go to their house, and it was getting to be an issue with Grandma and Grandpa! Well, yesterday we just casually made our way over there without much to-do. We pulled into the driveway and she exclaimed, "I'm not scared of this house anymore! The peetree is gone!" Whew...to whatever it was...

Cousin Jana brought some foot treatment stuff to do pedicures. We've been telling Megan we'd do pedi's for a few days, but time has just gotten away from us. We FINALLY got to it today. We soaked our feet in peppermint water, scrubbed them with peppermint scrub, and lathered them with pretty smelling lotion. Our feet are very lovely now.

Our friends gave us a wonderful art desk for Megan. Daddy picked it up this weekend and just dropped into the middle of the playroom - where it has stayed until this morning (hey, motivation is not the word of the week). So this morning I decided to move it against the wall, a logical choice, right? Well, not to Megan. She threw this huge fit about me moving it. Apparently she liked the freedom to move behind it, which the wall does not afford. This fit was already 3 minutes into the making before I grabbed the camera.

There's a section on starfall.com where it shows the letter and the sign for the letter. Megan thinks that's pretty nifty and likes to make her hands into the signs. She and cousin Jana did all the letters, sounds, and signs together. She crawls up to Jana and says, "Let's do letters!!"

10:00 a.m., living room

Megan: Mommy, let's go to the pool (as she's squirting out sunscreen on her hands).

Mommy: We can't go right now; we've got things to do.

Megan: But I thought you loved me! (dramatic fall to the floor with fake tears)

I'm not even really sure what to say about this other than, "Great." Her new trick. Kinda resembles 'downward facing dog'.

We went to library storytime today. I put a new pair of brown capris on Megan, in a rush, and could tell the the waist was a little big. Luckily they were adjustable, so I cinched them pretty good. But apparently not good enough...about half-way into storytime, her pants were way down around her booty (probably wouldn't happen if she would sit still). The top picture is actually more panties than shirt. So what does she do? MID puppet show, when all 40 kids are enjoying the show, Megan stands up and goes into this huge "hiking up the pants" routine - legs up, jumping and all. I was quite embarrassed. As soon as I could get her to come over towards me, I cinched those suckers up to the last hole on each side.

Cousin Jana, the fun elementary school teacher, is here visiting for a week. She has shown us some awesome learning stuff to do, especially with ABCs and phonics, but the best is http://www.starfall.com/. She and Megan have visited the site twice a day (at least) and have "practiced" letters over and over. Megan even told me today that there is a "fun in F". Okay, so maybe the concepts aren't all there yet...Anyway, if you have a toddler or a new reader, I'd highly recommend the ABC section. Enjoy!

Uncle Scott is home for three weeks between Leadership training and college. We are so excited! He came over last night to see Megan, and she was absolutely attached to him. They were precious together.

I am not out-of-town, as originally planned, hence the doctor appointment and such today. I was scheduled to leave this morning on a flight to Michigan to meet Aunt Karen. Sadly, Aunt Karen's father passed away yesterday morning, so our trip is postponed. I wish there was something we could do from here to help her...

Megan caught something while we were in Utah that has decided to live and breed within her for the past 2 weeks. I waited and waited, thinking for sure this gunk would leave her alone someday. Nope, but she was nice enough to share it with Daddy too. Between the two of them coughing and hacking, I haven't slept in weeks! I finally decided that the green snot, green matted eyes, the cough from hell, and throbbing ears were never going to go away alone. We went to our new pediatrician today, and bottom line - Megan's head is one big infection: ears, eyes, nose, and throat. He armed us with meds and drops and wished us well. Daddy has his appointment this afternoon. Perhaps I'll get some sleep tonight??? Oh, I hope so.

Okay, so Megan has this annoying habit of reaching stuff on the kitchen countertops. Today she grabbed a sippy cup right off of the towel (where I put them to dry). It had a spider on it, which proceeded to run up her arm. Both of us squealed like stuck pigs! I managed to swat it off of her arm onto the floor where it scuttled off behind the dishwasher; by this time Megan was hysterical. We both calmed down and had a laugh, although we were a little nervous that the thing was still alive and probably stalking us. Sure enough he ran back out by Megan's feet - again squealing. I jerked Megan out of her Cinderella slippers and used one as a weapon. Click-clack that spider was a goner. Megan, in full princess garb, turned to me, threw herself at my feet and said, "Mommy, thank you thank you thank you for saving my life from the terrible spider!" She kept saying it over and over again but would add other little dramatic comments or gestures. Like one time she said she wanted to bow to me to thank me. A little while later I dropped something and said, "Uh, silly mommy!" Her reply, "You're a great mommy cuz you saved me from the spider!" Maybe, just maybe, I'm back in her good graces.

Ever since Daddy saw this on Jon and Kate + 8 he's been waiting for the perfect opportunity to play this joke on Megan. He told her he would get her out of her booster seat if she could lick her elbow. What I didn't catch on video is her first meltdown when she was begging me, "Please show me how to Mommy!"

It's a question I often ask myself...like where did all the time go, and what was I doing when it zoomed past? Well, Megan is gone tonight, so what did I do? Did I clean my house? Do the laundry? Pack for my trip? Write my narrative for a project due on Tuesday? Cook a spectacular dinner? Go on a romantic date with my main squeeze? Catch up on my beauty sleep? Purge my pent up emotions by watching a romantic movie and snotting into a tissue? No to all of the above. I slipped into my pjs, shut myself in my scrapbook room, and got my creative groove on. However, tomorrow when I'm panicking because none of the above was accomplished, I am the only one to blame (at least I hope I remember that).

Megan and cousin Mandy went to the Rangers game with Gran and Papa last night. Daddy and I got to go as reinforcements (potty trips and extra laps), which was fine with me! The girls spent most of the game on Gran's lap, and occasionally graced the rest of us with their presence. It was so fun to listen to their conversations because they were so two-year old...silliness? I don't really know what else to call it - maybe random? They both cleared out my snack bag and ate the ballpark junk food.

Should I be worried? My kid is playing hide-and-seek with herself in the house. While it is quite humorous to hear her count to ten, say ready or not, run into another room, and pretend to find someone, isn't there an element of sadness to that??? Or should I just be extremely proud that she can entertain herself with a game designed for at least 2 people? Oh, and why am I not playing with her? She didn't invite me. I offered to play, but she said she was good.

Thanks to Sesame Street this morning - the whole show was about ballet and dancing - Megan has to have her tutu on and dance. We put her hair up into a ballet dancer bun (like on Sesame Street), brought in her "princess music", and she changes between her pink tutu and her blue tutu depending on the song (notice the absence of any other clothes?). This has been going on for over an hour. We're never going to get out of the house today...well, without a tutu and princess shoes. Hey Aunt Lisa, her "technique" is improving, huh? :)

To reward myself for making it through today (I'll spare you the details), I made a Jello No-Bake Cheesecake to inhale after dinner - heck, maybe even in place of dinner! I dare anyone else to touch it. Anyway, I used my mixer and decided to let Megan lick the bowl and spoon (since this was a rare time there weren't any raw eggs to worry about). She had a blast. She was covered in cheesecake filling from head to toe. I turned my head for two seconds while "monkey feet" scaled the cabinet and grabbed a handful of the graham cracker crust to go with it. I won't even notice it missing later when I eat it, I'm sure. Oh, notice today was clothing optional again?

Daddy and I both had to work on Tuesday, so Hanna came to play with Megan (we don't dare call it babysitting). She woke up and we were both gone so that led to a huge crying fit. I called to talk to Meg and she said, "You want to come back to my house?" She quieted down, and they did have some fun times, but then she went a little weepy again. She wanted to call her Daddy at work, so Hanna called him for her. Megan cried, "You want to bring Erica back to my house?" We had a wonderful little (dramatic) reunion when we walked in the door that evening. I swear I saw relief wash over Hanna's face!

I spared you the picture on this one, but Megan decided that today was clothing optional day around the house. I could not keep clothes on her to save my life! Every time I turned around, she was naked - oh wait, but she always had a pair of shoes on her feet. I asked her why she kept getting naked, and she said, "Because." Hey, that's my line! I've managed to keep her Elmo undershirt and matching panties on her for about an hour. That's the longest span of time she's been dressed today. Oh, and while I'm on the subject of Megan and clothing, she is on a dress kick. Yesterday she threw an absolute fit because she wanted to wear a dress instead of shorts and a shirt. Daddy and I were shocked at her behavior over a dress! Whose child is this?

Okay, so I've already been beating myself up over my lack of fashion sense/girly-ness, but today just added to the pity party with a comment, compliments of Megan. She said she wanted to go to Gran's today to get her toenails painted. I said, "Oh, we don't need to drive all the way up there to do toenails. I can do them here." She gave me the most pitiful, sad, "you poor thing, you go ahead and think that" look and said, "It's okay mommy. You don't know how. Gran should do it." Granted, I usually pay someone to do them, but I DO know how!!! By the way, she made that comment early this morning, and she still won't let me touch her toes. What, am I going to make her toes fall off if I touch them???

So we're back from vacation. I have the "back-from-vacation-blues." Now begins the laundry, cleaning, putting away, grocery shopping (we have NO food!), reorganizing the life we left behind, unspoiling the kid, etc. Oh, and catching up on work, too. We spent the day trying to catch up on our lack of sleep from the 22 hour drive - that was only as productive as Miss Megan would allow it to be. Sadly I will admit that we plugged in a movie for her while we caught an hour and 10 minutes of sleep. Then we took turns taking naps after that. We should be back to normal in a week or so! :)

We had an awesome 4th of July fireworks show. It's not against the law to shoot fireworks in the street, in front of the house, in Utah, so Uncle Matt provided a great show for us right at the end of the driveway. After that show, we turned our attention to the sky to see the Thanksgiving Point fireworks show.


"Mommy, will you hold my milk so I can cover my ears?"


Mommy with a cheesy smile, Megan with a glazed over look.


Uncle Dan handing out "poppers" to his gaggle.


"Whoa Daddy, did you see that?


My lap sitters. Jayden was sitting with me; Megan had to join because Jayden was sitting with me. I was chopped liver until Jayden decided to like me.

Grandpa took the kids to the mountain creek to dip feet and throw rocks into the water. They had a blast. Megan loves this kind of time with Grandpa.

I'm testing the new Blog Roll on the side of my blog. I LOVE that it shows the last update on each blog so I don't have to click on them 3 times a day! :) But I'm not deleting the blog link list in case I don't like it. What do you think?

try this again. We tried to have a photo shoot this evening with 3 two year olds and one 10 month old. We needed to take pics in the evening due to mountain light, so we thought ahead and did late naps. HA! They showed us. Aunt Krissa's friend Shannon took 340 pictures, and she's a professional, but we didn't end up with one, single "good one." We finally gave up. Poor Shannon...and poor Grandpa. Shannon dismissed all parents to try to get the kids to focus. Grandpa became the center of attention, and he had to work so dang hard. He said he's tired!

Cafe Rio Pork Barbacoa salad. Period. YUM YUM YUM YUM YUM. I might just have to have one again tomorrow.

We took a trip to the Living Planet aquarium today. Megan really thought it was neat. She jumped from display to display looking for "Dorrie". She really liked the bullfrog, the jellyfish, and the sharks. She did not care for the stingrays in the pool; she preferred to splash in the water.

As many of you know, I do most of my scrapbooking shopping when I visit Utah because they have awesome stuff. I only get out here about every 6 months, so I make a haul when I'm here. Well, today I headed to my favorite store, Pebbles in My Pocket. Here's how the first 10 minutes of my shopping experience went:

Megan, please put that back!
Megan, please do not take the paper out of the rack.
Mommy, this is cute! I need this for my scrapbook. Megan, put 50 of the sheets back, and I’ll buy one of them.
Megan, off the shelves.
Megan, please do not touch.
Megan, come back here!
Megan, off the stairs.
Megan, no one in the world needs 10 yards of aquareene ribbon. Please put it back.
Megan, please do not touch the buttons.
Megan, please quit hanging on the paper spinner.
Potty? Now?

I'm going back after she goes to bed.