My baby is FIVE

Five? Is my baby really already five? How have five years already gone by? If only time would slow down, it's going by too fast.

I feel like it was just yesterday that we welcomed Megan into the world. She was born at 12:45am (after 27 hours of labor) and weighed 7lbs 11.5 oz and was 19.5 inches long. She had a beautiful head of brown hair that the nurse put in a mohawk. It was adorable.

I remember the first few months, just letting her lay in my lap and watch her sleep. Meg was such a GREAT baby. By the time we came home from the hospital, she was sleeping six hours a night and was on a pretty good schedule.

***Meg laying in my lap at the hospital*** ***so adorable***

Before I knew it, my baby turned one. She was into so much at one. She was walking, climbing, running, getting into anything and everything she could get her hands on.

***my 1-year old***

At two, she was the sweetest thing in the world. We never had the "terrible twos" thank goodness. She a was kind, sweet, loving and caring toddler who had never met a stranger.

***Meg and Poppy***

At three, my child became someone else's child. She became head strong, defiant, and a temper-tantrum throwing queen. She still had her moments of being sweet and loving, but only when it served a purpose.

***Meg at her 3rd b-day party***

At four, Meg turned a corner. She was sweet again, with very little tantrums, although she started whining and whining and whining.

***Meg at 4***

***4th b-day party***

This morning, she turned FIVE. I still can't believe it's already been five years. She seems so grown up. She's in kindergarten (hopefully her year will be better than her first week was). She's totally into HSM, her iPod shuffle, playing with her friends and being a girly girl. I can't wait to see what this year holds for us.

I'm going to go eat lunch with her at her school. She knows I'm coming, but doesn't know I'm going to bring her a happy meal :) She'll be so excited.

***Meg on her 5th b-day***

We celebrated Meg's birthday this past weekend, I will do another post about the celebration!

Did I miss something...

When did you go from this... to this...

UGH!

I'm not ready for you to grow up.

I'm not ready for you not to want to spend every waking moment with me.

I'm not ready for you to spend the night away with your friend...

but, I guess it doesn't really matter that I'm. not. ready.

The fact is that YOU'RE ready. You're ready to grow up, you're ready to play with your friends (without me watching you're every move), you're ready to spend the night away...which is what you did on Friday night.

I couldn't believe my ears when you came barrelling thru the door with Kinzie asking me if you could spend the night over at her house. I was actually shocked because when I heard the door open, my heart fluttered because I knew that you were home for the night. Oh how wrong I was...you were only here because you wanted to ask permission to spend the night away. When the words came out of your mouth, my heart skipped a beat - probably a few beats. My gut reaction was NO, you're only FOUR...but the excitement in your voice and the sparkle in your eyes told me that you were more than excited about the opportunity to spend the night with Kinzie. So, I paused before answering. During that pause, you looked up at me with those beautiful brown eyes, a smile still plastered on your face, and I couldn't say no. So, I said yes (and silent tears began to fall).

Your first sleep over - I can't believe it. These past four years have gone by so quickly that I don't want to miss a thing.

Meg, please don't get mad at me because I'm constantly taking pictures and hugging you and picking you up for no reason. I know that sooner or later, you will no longer welcome these things...I'm just trying to steal as many precious moments from you now...while I still can!

It's nice.....but

Meg had spent a few nights with Boompaw and Nawnaw, so yesterday I met Nawnaw to get Megan. We ended up meeting in a McDonald's parking lot. As you can imagine, my sweet little angel wanted to go in and eat. Well, I wasn't exactly dressed for eating in public (I had my house shoes on). So, I had to pick her up kicking and screaming, put her in her car seat and strap her in. She cried and cried and cried. She's usually pretty tired after spending time with Boompaw and Nawnaw, so I was just going to let her cry it out.

When I couldn't stand it any more, I mentioned to Meg that I had a surprise for her at home...

...fast forward to the minute we arrive home.

Meg: Can I have my surprise?
Mommy: As soon as I get you unstrapped and we get inside.
Meg: Go faster.
Mommy: I'm trying
(enter house)
Meg: Where is my surprise?
Mommy: Here it is...
Meg has this look of total disappointment on her face...
Mommy: What's wrong? Do you not like it?
Meg gives me a blank stare
Mommy: Honey? Do you like it?
Meg: It's fine.
Mommy: I can return it if you don't like it.
Meg: It's fine...I just thought you were going to give me a puppy.

I can understand her disappointment - if I thought I was getting a puppy and my mom gave me a stupid hello kitty Halloween basket, I would have been crushed! The basket is cute though :)

But, seriously - A PUPPY???? Why would she think she was getting a puppy? She's out of her mind.

p.s. to the grandparents reading this - this is not code for "buy Meg a puppy for Christmas (or any other holiday...or, for that matter a puppy at all)"

What we've been up to!

Sorry for the hiatus in blogging. We've been out living, with no time for blog updates. However, I have started another blog. check it out. I post there almost daily, because all I have to come up with is a title :) no words needed.

So, what have we been up to? We've been busy busy busy.

A few weekends ago, Meg was invited to her friend, Brylie's 5th birthday party. It was a "Fancy Nancy" party. Darla rented "fancy" party dressed and shoes and jewelry for the party. It was a very fun party. Meg wasn't in a great mood that morning, so only dressed up for a short period of time, but still had a great time at the party.

***Brylie opening presents***

***Meg's Fancy Nancy Feet***

The day after Brylie's party, we hung out all day with daddy. When Jarrad is home, Meg loves to hang out with him. Doesn't matter what he's doing, she just wants to be with him. So, we headed to the gun range with him on Sunday morning. We met Unc and Boompaw there so they could shoot their guns. Meg and I stayed in the car, but still had fun. Meg decided to take some pictures to make the time pass. She needs to work a little on framing her subject, but got better as the day went on.

***top of mommy's head***

***The gun range***

***Boompaw***

***Daddy***

Meg was so sweet that day. here is a picture of her when I was finally able to get the camera out of her hands. I love this girl!

So, you know after a perfect day, how children just love to keep you on your toes. Well, that's exactly what Meg did. Meg and I had to go to the mall to pick up a few dresses for her for Stacy & Bryan's wedding (more on that in another post). So, off to the mall. She was being an absolute angel. Holding my hand in the parking lot (without being asked), walking beside me in the mall, not running 40 yards in front of me, using her inside voice, etc. The perfect child...until it all came tumbling down. It was horrible. After we picked out the dresses and tried them on, she saw a cheap plastic sack (shaped like a guitar) with crap make up in it. You can guess where there melt down came...I wasn't about to pay 15 bucks for that "stuff", so I firmly told her no. And then told her again and again and again (you get the picture).

To make the situation worse, on top of the crying, she started throwing a fit (right in the store). Of course, I had to pull out my camera and snap a picture. After I paid for our merchandise, she started running from me - darting in and out of the clothes racks. I finally caught her and held her wrist for the rest of our trip to the mall. I even grounded her for the night. She wasn't allowed to go out to play with her friends or watch any TV. It worked out great because when we pulled in our driveway they were all out playing...talk about adding salt to the wound. I stood my ground and Meg had to come inside and sit in her room. All she could do was read books or play with her toys. I feel like I definitely won the battle.

Meg now has a new saying "Don't throw a fit, get whatcha want."

***Meg throwing a fit at the mall***

***She cried for over 1.5 hours***

The rest of our week was plenty uneventful. Last weekend, Stacy & Bryan were married, I will post more about that tomorrow.

It happened...

...Meg ditched me for her friends last night!!!

That's right, I've been replaced as her favorite person to play with by the neighborhood kids. It's so bitter sweet. I knew one day it would happen, I just didn't expect it would happen when she was four...I thought I had at least 10 years before I became second.

Meg & I were loaded up into the car to run to Target. As we were backing down the driveway, she saw her friends out playing...she asked me as nice as possible "Mommy, can I play with my friends and you can go to Target tomorrow?" I reluctantly agreed since Target could wait. We pulled back into the garage and she couldn't wait for me to unbuckle her. As she ran down the driveway and over to her friends house, it hit me - my little girl is growing up. and fast.

Build-a-Bear

Every year on Meg's birthday (or as close to her birthday as possible), I take her to Build-a-Bear. She loves going. This year, she picked out a cheetah and named it after one of her friends, Brylie. We were also lucky enough to have Uncle Kyle & Aunt Sheryl with us.

Dear Megan

Dearest Meg,

Happy Birthday sweet angel. You're FOUR - I can't believe it. These past four years have been amazing. I remember the day you were born like it was yesterday. After a week long stay in the hospital (because of me, not you), we were both ready to get home and start getting settled. You were such a great baby. You only cried when you were hungry or had a dirty diaper. The first night home from the hospital, you slept for 5 hours - it was perfect. After that, it was six hours a night (every night) for the first five weeks, then you jumped to 8 hours. I couldn't have been happier.

Since then, you have turned into such a sweet little girl. Of course, you have your moments with temper tantrums and attitude, but for the most part you're a sweet girl. You're always willing to help me around the house and you love to clean...which, works out for me because I HATE cleaning. While you may like cleaning, you aren't very good at picking up after yourself! Your play room looks like a tornado lives there.

You are so loving and kind to your friends and family. You adore everyone around you. However, you can be pretty bossy at times. If things aren't going your way, you can get pretty mad. You'll pout for a few minutes, but as the time passes, you are back to your sweet self.

Your imagination is incredible. Since you were about 16 months old, you have had an imaginary puppy, named Puppy. He goes everywhere with us and is always acting up. Most of the time, you handle punishment of Puppy yourself, but sometimes I have to get involved (at your request). On more than one occasion, I have had to scold puppy in public for running off, taking things off shelves, or "biting" you.

Megan, I want you to know that I love you and everything about you. You are my sweet angel!

Love,
Mommy

***Megan over the last year***