Meggie!

Photo by NannyJo!

Beautiful in Brown

Max and Margaret play together in their matching outfits. Mommy is very happy!

Margaret takes a turn at chewing on the magnifier. You can't see the red ruffles on the butt of her tights, but now you at least know they are there...

Max shows Meg how it is done, but she is a busy baby with busy baby things to do and can't stick around to learn such things...

Meg plays on Christmas

In this picture you can see she is busy cooking and making tea. The bacon is cooking on the grill pan.

Getting ready to do more cleaning.

Holding Max's teddy and wearing her bow. She can't find bows when you put them on the left side of her head, so I can get a couple of pictures through strategic bow placement. She seems to have inherited her mother's lack of skill with her left hand.

Meg's Christmas Meals

Doing a little Quality Assurance on the practice birthday cake.

Trying to stuff an entire Belgian Waffle into her mouth.

After her Christmas dinner! She ate peas and carrots and broccoli and a roll.

Walking!

Margaret is walking all over the place now! She just gets up and walks. Sometimes she pulls up on something. And sometimes she just pops up. And she walks and walks and walks. Sometimes with the zombie hands (out in front) and sometimes after she puts her hands up in the air as if she has just completed a gymnastics routine and is looking at the judges. Yesterday she went up the two stairs from the living room to the kitchen. She will also stop to pick up toys to carry them around.

Margaret also slept throught the night two nights this week. Last night was not one of those nights. But at least we know it is possible!

First Official Haircut

Margaret in the tiny baby cape before Karen gave her the first official haircut!

Christmas Card Sneak Peek

Halloween!

Here she is in her glowing skeleton pajamas. You can't really see the frankenstein socks, but know that they are there...

Margaret fell asleep in the car and slept through the entire trick or treating experience.

Here she is before we headed out to socializing before the main event of going door to door to get candy.

Meggie is Batty for Mommy!

The bib says First Halloween.

Angie's Wedding

Margaret and Daddy. Thanks to Granny for the hand knit sweater with beautiful rosettes.

Weddings are a serious business.

Daddy getting Meggie ready.

Squirrel baby.

Hanging out with Papa at the reception.

Thanks to Auntie for the shoes!

All the speeches at the reception wore her out...

A new discovery

Yesterday Margaret learned how to flush the toilet. Daddy told me about the new milestone. :) Luckily she is too little to reach the handle on her own!

Reading is Fundamental

Joanna provided the photo and the title and all I did was share it. Awesome!

Mama!

Amidst much babbling, Margaret did say "mama" several times last night while looking at me!

9 Month Stats

Height: 27 1/4 inches -- 40th percentile
Weight: 16 pounds, 5 ounces -- 10th percentile
Head: 17 1/2 inches -- 50th percentile (aka ideal)

She is down on her weight and so although we are not going to force feed her we are all going to try to offer her more food, and specifically 3 real meals a day plus milk and snacks.

Meg is Moving Fast

Last night Julian sat on the floor with me and we let Margaret take a few steps between us. She was definitely loving it. Julian got up and let Mark help me for a bit and she kept going! She got up to about 2 steps at a time. She was also doing better at balancing before she started walking. And when she got tired she would balance and then squat down and sit on the floor. She was laughing and smiling and just generally loving life. It was wonderful!

Margaret is on the move!

Last night, on her 9 month birthday, Margaret stood by herself, and then lifted up one foot and took one tiny baby step forward! And then she fell. But she still took one tiny little step (towards me) and that delights me! When she stands by herself and balances for a moment she gets very excited and laughs and laughs.

She is also VERY fast at her scooting/crawling. And she can make it up the 2 steps from the living room to the kitchen. And after she gets up the two steps she turns around and gives me a giant grin. She is so proud of herself!

She is pulling up all the time on everything! She's cruising around. She's sitting down. She's not letting anything stop her!

9 Month Meg!

Here is Margaret having fun at MyGym! This is also a picture of her AFTER I cut her bangs. :)

Cheers Baby

When Shawn went to Boston she got Margaret this little onesie. On the front it has the Cheers logo, in pink, with the word "baby" underneath. On the back it says "I don't even know my name." It is pretty difficult to get a picture of the back of Margaret since she is a little poser like her brother, but I did manage to get this picture to photo document Shawn's gift. Thanks Shawn!

Meg at the Wedding

Hanging out after the rehersal.

With her Grandad at the wedding reception. Margaret spent a lot of time with Grandad and his brother's at the wedding.

Dress from Judy

Thanks to Mom's friend Judy for the beautiful dress for Margaret. Turns out purple was THE color of choice for the wedding. The groom's mother, the bride's mother, the bride's step mother, and Margaret's mother were all in purple!

More MyGym

Here is Margaret at MyGym. She's wearing the little pink onesie from Mary. And you can just barely see her brown velvet pants with the pink and brown polka dot trim. What a happy girl!

Exersaucer!

Margaret is living it up now, with an exersaucer at NannyJo's house AND one at home. Woo hoo!

She STANDS!!!

My sweet tiny little baby girl stood all by herself for about 3 seconds this morning! Wow!

Meg at MyGym

Photos and hair styling by NannyJo!
Adorable outfit selected by Mommy.
Background provided by MyGym.

Oh she is so fabulous!

Let me just take a moment and pose for you....

Foods...

Margaret is an eating champion. She's been trying lots of new foods and then eating lots of them.

Last night for dinner she had oatmeal, peas, sweet potatoes, peaches, and apples. She ate some avocado during the day with Mark. I have been making baby food for her, for the most part, much like I did with Max. It is quick and easy and cheap and I know exactly what is in her food. Because we have some travel coming up in the future I did buy some store food for her and I have been trying her on some store food for things that Max didn't really care for after the first few tries (mango, for example). I don't want to try her on new foods while we are out of town and I need the portability and shelf-stability of store-bought food.

Her full list of foods includes:
oatmeal/rice cereals
apples
pears
nectarines
peaches
papaya (her favorite)
green beans (store bought)
peas
sweet potatoes
carrots
avocado
mango (store bought)

This weekend I am going to cook her some plums and some butternut squash. And I'll be checking the store to see what else looks like a tasty treat for her.

I bought some turkey for her but she (and I) thought it was gross and would have nothing to do with it. I got 3 little tiny cans of it because the doctor said to get her onto protein before her next check up (in a month) but so far no real luck with that.

Our doctor also said that she could eat cheerioes, etc as soon as she was able to put them into her mouth by herself. It seems far too easy to say that you can put cheerioes on her tray and when she eats them herself she is ready to eat them, but I decided to blindly trust the doctor. And last night she put a cheerio in her mouth and did not then proceed to choke. I think she swallowed it. We will keep trying with the cheerioes.

Margaret's First Haircut

After hearing many complaints about Margaret's Mullet, I took action...

Here she is in all of her mullet-y splendor...

Getting ready... Thanks to Caroline for the tiny little rubber band!

And the "after" picture. I think she looks cute with her pixie haircut. :)

Friends and Family (Julie and Russ)

Margaret with Uncle Russ. Happy girl!

Margaret on the beach with Daddy. Thanks to Tammi for the cute little onesie with hearts. Perfect for a beach wedding.

Margaret learning about walking on sand.

Margaret with Daddy on the beach, after walking at the edge of the water and getting her feet (and pants) a little wet. She was not exactly a fan of the ocean getting her feet wet. Note Daddy's "blackberry" on his hip. Froggy seems to have enjoyed his trip to the beach as well, although he did not get wet or sandy!

And we'll end with an Extreme Cute Closeup!

Elephant onesie from Tammi who sent about a million gifts to lucky Margaret!

In which Margaret attends Angie's Bridal Shower

Margaret posing with Angie, even though she had had a very long day of partying it up at the shower!

Margaret and NannyJo!

Too bad NannyJo just doesn't like Margaret at all... :)

Margaret took a nap during the opening of gifts. I happen to think she is absolutely beautiful in this picture. Not that I would be in the slightest bit biased. Super thanks to Lori Woo for the beautiful outfit for Margaret. It was so easy (being just a super fancy onesie) and yet so light and floating and pink and girly and wonderful.

Margaret is paying close attention during the festivities (before taking the above photo-documented nap).

She was exhausted after all the celebrations and took a nap the whole way home!

But once she got home she was revitalized enough to play with Max in the play kitchen.