Sunday, February 14, 2010

XOXOXOXO

Valentine's Day 2010 started with heart shaped pancakes!

And then Morgan "helped" Mommy make a cookie for daddy.

Daddy gave Morgan a pink teddy bear...

And Mommy gave Morgan a stroller for her dolls. Actually gift cards given during Christmas purchased these "Valentine" gifts but Morgan doesn't care :)


Daniel had to go to work that afternoon so Morgan and I headed out to play with bubbles. It was a beautiful day!






Saturday, February 13, 2010

I HEART YOU - PREVIEW

My husband has already scored major points this Valentine's Day! Daniel had a bouquet of tulips delivered to my work Friday. I was so impressed! Thanks honey!


My surprise for him was a couple's massage Saturday morning. This is a picture of us before we left for the appointment. He still had no idea what we were doing.
After our massage, Daniel, Dusty, Chase, Morgan and I went to the park for a Valentine's picnic equipped with chocolate covered strawberries and presents!

Below, Morgan is sporting her heart shirt she wore to daycare on Thursday. So fun!

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Sweet Reflection

Apparently I’m in a reflecting mood lately. Just last night I was thinking about how thankful I am for my life right now. I remember people saying how different my life would be after having a child. They said that I wouldn’t have time for the stuff I used to and things would be so chaotic for me. Yes, they were right in some ways but not in others. Before Morgan, I’m ashamed to admit that I had gotten in a horrible rut. I would come home exhausted from work every single night. Daniel and I would barely eat dinner before I would pass out on the couch. I HATED it because I felt like I was wasting my life away. On weekends I would bum around the house and I remember thinking that I wasn’t living my life to the fullest. Now that we have Morgan, I come home and Daniel and I take turns making dinner depending on our work schedules. We work as a team to get dinner on the table. We sit down every night as a family and listen to music and relax while eating dinner. Sure our nights are hectic with the hustle and bustle of diaper changes, cleaning up Morgan after dinner, cleaning up the kitchen after dinner, baths, book reading, teeth brushing, packing lunches for the next day, taking care of the miscellaneous chores that need to be done for the next day, etc., but we find ourselves each night spending quality time together as a family. Some nights are visits to the dog park but most nights we end up on the nursery, living room or office floor. We sit there smiling, laughing, rough housing and just enjoying each other. After we put Morgan down at 8 pm, Daniel and I really value that time. We often try to watch a TV program or movie together. We cherish our time to have adult conversations and get caught up. I actually accomplish things during the week now. Last night, I dusted the entire house and switched out the cd’s in my car. It just feels good because I finally feel like I’m living my life to the fullest and I have Morgan to thank for that.

January Highlights

It’s hard to keep up with all the changes lately. Occasionally, I’m reminded of cute stuff that Morgan used to do when she was younger and I’m saddened by the fact that I’ve already forgotten about those details. That’s why I think I’m going to start a “highlights” blog at the end of every month. I hope to capture all the little things about Morgan that make my family’s life so bright and rich.

I think the biggest thing I’ve noticed about Morgan during January was her ability to show me that she’s really starting to understand the world around her.

She’s started speaking a little more. She’ll put a cell phone up to her ear and say “hi” in such a sweet little voice. She continues to really enjoy peek-a-boo and loves to point at things while whispering sweet little baby gibberish. You can tell she’s really trying to tell you a story by the way she looks into your eyes and spills out all these different little sounds. She’s even got the cadence and head bobbing down. I can’t wait until she can really tell me what she’s thinking.

Morgan is definitely learning what she wants and doesn’t want and just the last couple of days has really got the “scream” down. When she gets frustrated, she relieves that pent up stress by screaming in the loudest, most high-pitched scream she can muster.

Morgan has started feeding herself with utensils since Mom and Dad finally starting giving her some to try. She continues to love bath time, dancing and music in general. We have a little cd player in her room and the first thing she points to upon entering her room is her cd player to let you know that she wants to listen to music. She even went over and turned it on herself the other day. Daniel said she knew exactly what button to push and she knew to sit there and wait until the music started playing.

She loves when mom recites “Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed” to her and she knows the hand gestures that go along with every part in the story. I made up hand gestures and movements to the story and she’ll anticipate the next part by doing the hand gesture right before I start that part of the story.

Daniel and I have only taught Morgan a handful of signs but the ones she’s mastered is the one for “dog” and “more”. We really need to continue to teach her more signs because we love it when she communicates with us.

Daniel and I were blessed with the fact that Morgan has slept in until 9 or 10 am every single morning for the last several months but just the last week or so, 7 am is her new wake up time. At first I was desperately disappointed about this until I realized how much longer my day feels when we get up earlier. I think I’m actually enjoying it!

Morgan loves when her daddy plays with her, which he does often. He’ll chase her, throw her up in the air and catch her, he’ll jump around and play-dance with her in his arms. It’s evident that she loves every second of it by the shrieks and shrills that come from her giggles and laughter. I think she’s already figured us out. When she’s hungry, needs a diaper change or wants to cuddle, she’ll come to me and when she feels like playing she goes straight to her dad and gives him a big smile to entice him.

Morgan’s biggest thing at the moment is mimicking everything we do and I’m surprised about how much she soaks up. It’s definitely a wake-up call for me. Just the other day, I was giving myself a pedicure and Morgan would scrub her feet like Mommy and would pretend to push down on the lotion pump and put lotion on her hands. She wasn’t actually getting any lotion but she sure had the movement down.

I don’t want to forget a moment of any of it!

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Beautiful Masterpiece


There's a very sad occurrence that happens with Daniel and I from time to time. Let us use tonight's incident as an example. This weekend I purchased Morgan some crayons because I've never let her try coloring. Tonight after her bath, Daniel and I decided to let Morgan color for the first time. We got the table all set up, strapped her into her highchair and let her go! She pulled out a crayon and knew exactly what to do with it. She put the right end to the paper and immediately starting coloring. It was at that moment that Daniel got a silly grin on his face and said, "This isn't her first time coloring." We realized that Morgan must color at daycare because how else would she know exactly what to do? She would put one color crayon down and pick up another to use for awhile. She knew to only color on the white paper. Basically she knew everything. I'm going to ask her daycare provider if they color often but even if she says yes, I can still pretend this was her first time, right?



Awww...our first refrigerator art.

Monday, February 8, 2010

Who knew?

Daniel and I missed the memo about Morgan being old enough to use utensils. We started giving her a spoon last week and to our surprise, she's already feeding herself. Again we underestimated her abilities but I think we'll eventually catch on.


Just had to add these...

For some strange reason, she didn't sleep well that night.

Bubbles!


I love that there is a first for everything!