Author Archives: metamegan

>Thanksgiving

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Last year on Thanksgiving, I was so overwhelmed with emotion during grace that I almost started to cry. I was so thankful that baby Jack had finally arrived. And so, so,so full of crazy new mom hormones. But I feel the same way this year. I am so thankful for my wonderful family, friends and neighbors. Thank you!

And I was looking for a wonderful picture of my family, and I decided on this one because of that joie de vivre!

>Circle, Star, Star, Star

>The Target toy catalog has been floating around the house lately, and I told Luke it would be a big help if he circled a few ideas for me, so I could share them with relatives. He pretty much circled everything in the book that wasn’t pink. Then I said, “OK, how about this? Put a star next to the three things you want the most.” Minutes later, in anguish, he turned to me and said, “I have already starred 10 things I just JUST got to the Star Wars Lego page!” So I said, “Put two stars next to the three things that you want the most.” Long story short, everything in the book (that isn’t pink) now has three stars next to it. Three stars and some initials. The initials (D, J, M) stand for things that Luke would like, but that aren’t worth one of his precious three stars.

I started a conversation about picking a family charity by saying, “What are you concerned about? What do you want to fix in the world? Are you worried about animals? People not having enough food?” He said, “I am worried about kids not having enough toys.” So he wants to donate some baby toys. I think we have a ways to go with this philanthropy thing.

>529 Plan

>Sadly, although it was caught on video, the video was not saved. So only Dave and Grandad and 20 cheering spectators witnessed Luke’s stunts in the terrain park at Copper today.

I’ve been filing all the investment statements, including the college funds, without even looking lately. But I just decided not to worry because maybe Luke will go to college on a skiing scholarship!

>Um, yeah. So Jack is walking. A little.

>I had big plans to have a splashy, exciting title, and a video to match to announce the precious baby steps. But Jack and his walking can be very elusive. I have yet to capture one tiny little wobble. Two weeks ago Dave said, “Jack took a bunch of steps. He was holding on, but only to the hair on my legs.” And since then, Jack has progressed from a half step to a step. Then two steps. At his birthday party, Jack tried to go from the chair to the ottoman with a quick break wrapped around my legs, but I stepped out of the way and he probably took four steps to show off for his guests.

At our house he seems to have the whole crawling thing down, but if I had taken my camera out with me on Saturday night, I would have videoed steps galore, because I think Jack felt the need to work on running in order to keep up with Luke, Scarlett and Stella.

>Momtrepreneur

>Jack has a booger situation. Just lots of boogers. And he doesn’t like to have his nose wiped. If he sees you coming with any form of washcloth, tissue, or even napkin he hides his face and it’s all over. The best method is usually to hold him in one arm, and sort of trap his hands and wrestle him to the ground with the other arm wielding a wet washcloth. But if I miss, which I do about 80% of the time, then I get a shoulder full of mucus. My latest invention idea (said as if I have ever before come up with an invention) is a terry cloth shoulder/arm band that could act as a secondary mucus receptacle. Or could at least protect my clothing.

In fact, the other day at work someone was talking about which of their kids had the highest fever, and how bad they felt, when I moved as far away as I could in a tiny conference room and then refused to use their pen. I tried to make light of my germaphobia by saying, “No seriously, I just decided I didn’t really need a pen after all! I have a little Howard Hughes thing going on. And I probably even have boogers on my shirt, ha ha.” Hair toss, non-crazy smile.

“Yeah, you do. I can see it from here.”

Eww.

So today I put a warm wet washcloth over my shoulder and went after Jack with a kleenex. He nuzzled right into the washcloth, yanked his head back and then burrowed into another, unwashclothed covered part of my arm, spreading the wealth all over the place. And I had a wet shoulder. So now I just have to go for plan C: wear t-shirts and do a lot of laundry, and brace myself for a long winter.

>Namoblopo

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I don’t think this whole posting everyday thing is for me, since I am just putting up a lot of pictures, and I rarely have time to write anything. But this is a really cute picture, right?

>Attack of The Killer Babies

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I found out on Thursday that my dear, sweet Jack has been attacking other babies at the daycare. Apparently he picks one out and makes a bee line for him/her, and, if he can make before anyone gets to him, he climbs on top of the other baby and bounces. The teachers have been encouraging him to climb on top of a teddy bear and bounce on it, which I guess isn’t as fun because there is no screaming, crying, and general mayhem. I would be freaking out about having a bully instead of a baby, but we went through the exact same thing with Luke and he turned out to be a nice, little gentleman.

But we do need to tone down the horseplay at home, I guess. And no more hysterical laughter when he attacks his brother. But they do look so cute together when they wrestle.

>It’s Not That He is Jealous, It’s Just That He Doesn’t Want Luke on Your Lap

>Today after dinner we were all playing with this cool shake-up car. Dave and Jack were at one end of the hallway and Luke and I were at the other. We took turns shaking up the car and watching it go, then sending it back to each other. New batteries really turned things up a notch with that car. At one point, it went careening down the stairs, shook itself up on the way, hit the landing and took off again. Hilarity ensued.

And then Luke sat on my lap. And from across the room there was this ungodly yell. A roar almost. It came out of a one year old that was crawling like the wind, at speeds never before clocked in our living room. And that one year old was coming straight at us. He climbed right up Luke’s body, over his head and onto my lap where he started pushing Luke as far away has he could. Which wasn’t far, because Jack has short arms, and Luke wasn’t going anywhere, so there was lots of yelling, pushing, and laughing. Luke and I were shaking with laughter. When I got my breath I said, “Jack never struck me as the jealous type.” And Dave said, “It’s not that he’s jealous. He just doesn’t want Luke on your lap.”

All this took place under wafts of pumpkin cake aroma. I took a picture, but why bother getting it off my camera, when it looks exactly like this?