Megan update

Time for a Megan update!

Megan knows patterns/routines and she generally doesn't like deviations from the norm. And she notices little details. For example, one day we put a picture up on a wall during naptime. Guess what the first thing Megan pointed out was when she got up from nap. Yup! The picture. Luckily she accepted it without too much issue. Other examples of changes she hasn't liked include removing the humidifier from her room when she's no longer sick (she thinks it is hers and should stay in her room always) and moving the nightlight (we moved it closer to her bed to give her more light so she ultimately decided it was ok). Honestly, there are so many examples of this.

Megan has a long attention span for her age and is very methodical. She also has a lot of stamina to keep at something until she succeeds/finishes. For example, tonight she went page by page through a long princess book (like 100 pages) and she was not ok with the idea of going to bed until she'd completed her task. Also, as she tries to figure out how something works, she will really keep at it. And she is so observant. For example, one day, U asked me if I ever opened a door using my shirt as a grip. I told him I do occasionally. He said that Megan was trying to open a door with her shirt. There is both a good and bad side to this attention and stamina part of Megan. It's good when it comes to reading books and building with Duplos. However, it is not so good when it comes to throwing tantrums--she can really keep at it for a long time. There was one time that she was upset about something and was crying and screaming at my feet in the kitchen. I left her there and went into the family room and she kept at it for 15-20 minutes.

Megan likes reading books. It is really cute to hear her "reading" a story to herself. A favorite of hers lately is a Mickey Easter book. On one page, Donald Duck's eggs are missing from his basket and he says, "Hey! Where did all my eggs go?" When Megan reads the book, she says this for every page of the book. She often has quite the pile of books in her bed and it is not at all unusual to find her reading books on the couch downstairs.

Megan loves dancing to "Shall We Dance?" and riding the daddy or mommy train to bed. It's really cute--she will say "choo choo" at the appropriate times in the song and pull the whistle string.

Megan loves being a mommy to just about anything she can. Her doll is a big one, of course. In the morning when I get her out of her bed, she has often wrapped her doll up in a blanket and she says she is sleeping. A big favorite of hers the last fews days is the cowboy puppet. She must put it to bed (complete with the Megan train) before she goes to bed and then goes and gets it first thing in the morning from its bed (the cowboy isn't allowed in her bed--it causes problems with sleeping). Oh! And she has decided the cowboy is Woody from Toy Story.

On the communication front, Megan is getting better all the time. She's pretty good about communicating what she wants through a combination of signs, words and gestures. She signs quite a bit still, which is helpful since I sometimes have a hard time understanding her words. There are occasions where she just starts chattering away--she has something to say and she wants to get it all out. It's fun to hear even if I sometimes have no clue what she is talking about.

One of Megan's favorite signs is "share." When does she use it? When someone has something she wants. "Share! Share!" she signs. Sometimes, she will have just given the item to the other person (generally Matthew) and she'll come over to me signing "share" as if it should be her turn right then. Basically, it is her polite way of saying "give it to me now!" or "I want it." My favorite is when she will come up to me and tell me to "share" my iPod....

Megan gives the best hugs! I love getting snuggles from her. She is really good about giving them to others who may be having a hard time. Just tonight, Sarah got a little hurt and Megan went right over to her to make sure she was ok and give her loves.

Sarah was telling Megan all about her hard day. Megan was a good listener!

Megan loves riding her bike and is really good on it. She can glide for long distances--just a few pushes and she is set! She also likes riding down the little "hills" we have around here.

Megan is compassionate. Like I mentioned above, she gives hugs to people when they are having a hard time and will just be there for them. This includes people or other characters in books as well. For example, when Grover is scared about the monster in "The Monster at the End of the Book," Megan will give him a kiss and a hug, sometimes on every single page. U was gone when we watched "Monsters, Inc." When he got home, Megan described the movie to him like this: "Rarrrrr!" followed by saying and signing "sad." Yes, she's very sensitive and wants to help people feel better.

Megan loves playing with her phone and filling up her backpack.

Seriously, who can resist such a sweet face???

Big smile!

Megan was super excited to take a picture to send to mommy while mommy was gone.