The Varner Family

You would think I would have all of this baby stuff down since this isn't my first rodeo or anything, but with little Miss Meg I have had to learn a whole new set of rules!

Rule #1-Chafing can and will happen-Lots of rolls combined with heat equals a lot of chafing which leads to.....
Rule #2-Check rolls often-It is essential to check underneath all of those rolls daily to take care of any chafing that may have occurred which leads to.....
Rule #3-Bathe daily-It is important to wash often so that you can get all the junk that gets stuck in the rolls clean. A bath is just the trick to getting rid of that slight odor that is usually milk or spit up that got stuck down around her neck.
Rule #4-Baby powder is your friend-I know that they say not to use baby powder on babies anymore, but this rule does not apply to chubby babies. Baby powder is to Meg what Gold Bond is to Bryson....relief. Baby powder underneath the armpits and in her diaper makes Meg a happy girl.
Rule #5-Never buy clothes that you anticipate them being able to wear in a few months-You might think to yourself, "My baby is 6 months surely a 12-18 month outfit will fit her come this fall." Yeah right. Come to find out that fall outfit fits her now and that does a lot of good in July!
Rule #6-Never be in a hurry-People LOVE a rolly poly baby and so it is important to never be in a hurry to get anywhere because it ain't gonna happen. Walking out of church usually takes about 15 minutes because everyone wants to come love on her.

So Meg will be 6 months in two days and so I thought I would give an update of what all she is up to and share a few of my favorite pictures. I remember 6 months as one of my favorite ages with Brody so I bet we have a lot to look forward to this month!

• She continues to have an outgoing personality. She is able to sit up like a big girl in her stroller and she just loves this. It gives people more of an opportunity to see her which she also very much enjoys!
• She weighs about 17 lbs 8 oz. This seems like a lot to me, but looking back at Brody's baby book it is about what he weighed at this point.
• She wears 9-12 month clothes for the most part, but these are quickly getting too small. I certainly didn't have to buy so many clothes for Brody. With Meg I am going to spend a small fortune!
• She is sitting up great and will pull up when she is holding on to someone's hands. She can put her feet her in mouth (really, is that an accomplishment?).
• She is still just eating rice cereal. Usually about once or twice a day. She loves it but certainly lets you know when she is done
• Always has a finger or toy in her mouth. She is always looking for something to chew on and will even aim for your face. I pretend that she is just trying to give me kisses
• Is officially "playing". She loves to sit in the floor with Brody and play with her toys. She enjoys watching him and Rosco play even more though
• Still sleeps from about 8 to 5 or 6 in the morning each night. Thankfully she is easy to get to sleep and when she wakes up she is just as pleasant as can be. I love having kids that are happy in the morning because that is my favorite part of the day
• Loves when we sing to her and enjoys reading books
• Her nickname with my family is officially Meggers. It is certainly not something that we really love, but all of the kids are stuck on it. I still call her sugars a bunch.
• One of the most frequent things we hear from people (besides that she is so big) is how happy she is and how when she smiles her whole face lights up and that she smiles with her whole body. And really, could anything make a mommy happier?

There are so many things that Brody has done lately that I want to be sure and remember....so here goes! He is such a good big brother and just a complete delight to be around. Bryson is worried about how Meg will be when she is a little older because Brody is just so easy and fun! We are very lucky that is for sure!

• He cracks us up how he looks at his underwear to determine what superhero he will be that day. The other day he looked at his underwear and they had trucks on them. At first he wasn't real sure what to do because he was ready to fight, but then he decided he would be trucks for the day!
• He loves video games. Thankfully we don't have any video games at our house but his Gran B has been keeping him on Tuesdays and so he gets to play her Wii. At first he just played Mario Kart and Monster Trucks but here recently he has been doing skiing, soccer, hula hoop, and others that I can't remember. His daddy was nice enough to download some motorcyle and car games on his phone and so that is the first thing he asks to do when Bryson walks in the door!
• He is totally into maps and wanting to know where people live! I spotted a map placemat at WalMart the other day for $1 and knew he would love it! Who knew I would create a little map monster....he is obsessed with wanting to know what each state is and where every person in our family lives. The bad thing is that he asked me where Wall-E and Eva live and wants to be on Clifford. Deep down though I love that is enjoying learning!
• You can see from the pictures below that he is really loving the fact that Meg is so alert and active now. They can play in the floor together and he is so attentive to her needs. He always pulls the shade over her in the car as soon as we back out of the garage and if I don't get to her quick enough when she is crying he lets me know about it!
• Bryson and him recently went to Lake Eufaula with some people from work and had a great time. He swam and rode the tube. I know that the two of them will probably go on a lot more guy trips in the future, which I know is great, but I get a little jealous that Bryson gets to spend all of that one on one time with him!
• He loves playing games right now. His current favorite is the memory game and he is pretty good. He also has started to loving singing songs and dancing and he even will make up some random songs too. He can sing his ABC's and points out letters everywhere we go and does the same thing for counting. He counts everything. One day I pointed out that he had missed a car he was counting and that didn't go over very well. He put all of his cars back in the bucket and said that he didn't want to play with me anymore. Later that evening he told Bryson and MiMi that his mommy hurt his feelings.

Despite all of the fun things to do at MiMi and Bumpy's all of the kids end up fighting over who gets to push Meg in the swing!

Yesterday the kids were just being pretty cute together and so I snapped a few pictures! Once again, I swear they do wear clothes some of the time (at least Meg does).

Little Miss Meg continues to get bigger and do more things even though I have no desire for any of this! I had planned on waiting until 6 months to start foods, but last week she started waking up once in the middle of the night to eat and so I thought I would see if a little bit of solids would do the trick.....and it did!

We had a wonderful holiday weekend! Friday night we enjoyed a great dinner at Matt Allen's house. Brody enjoyed hanging out with the big boys and Meg enjoyed the special attention from Matt's mom. Saturday we headed up to Tulsa for the 4th of July festivities at the Downing's. It was a special treat for Brody because I arranged for us to stay in a hotel that had a small indoor kiddie waterpark and he loved this. Sunday I enjoyed getting to eat breakfast with my college friend Christi and then we ate a second breakfast with Mike, Libby, and Uncle Nick. We headed back home and that night enjoyed dinner at IHOP with GG and Gran B (yes I ate at 3 different breakfast joints all in one day). Then enjoyed the Norman firework show with Gran B and our friends Katie, Kennedy, and Finley. I think the babies were more into the fireworks than the big kids. We are exhausted from all of this activity and our goal is to not go anywhere this week. Let's see how we end up with that one!

And on with the enormous amount of pictures......

Meg with Matt Allen's mom