Little Ladybug

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Megan was a Bumblebee the past two Halloweens. I wanted to continue with the bug theme until she has interest enough to pick her own costume, so this year we went with a Ladybug.

We didn’t take Megan to go trick or treat-ing, but we did go to our ward “Trunk or Treat” on Wednesday. Megan didn’t enjoy one second of the activity (which we FULLY expected).

Okay, that’s a little untrue… She was excited when she received a box of “Dots”. She has a book about a character named “Dot” and she was so thrilled when she saw that there was a box with “Dot”s written on it. She held onto it the entire night.

Any other time anyone offered her their candy bowl, she just pushed it away. I guess I shouldn’t complain. It was fun to see the other children get excited though.

We took her to the park tonight and took these pictures. She had such a good time running around in her costume even though we got there a little too late and it was as dark as could be.

We sure love our Little Ladybug. She is as sweet and as fun as they get. We hope everyone had a fun Halloween!

A Glimpse of Megan’s Morning

Yesterday was a long day for me. From 7am to about 9pm I was just dead on my feet with no option but to keep moving. I had a to-do list that was forever long. Everything got done, but by the end of the day I was exhausted. Adam and I ended our day with a much needed episode of “30 Rock”, and then I was in bed around 10.

This morning, it was almost as if Megan was totally aware of how taxing my day was yesterday. She has been nothing but a sweetheart, and not only have I been able to cross several things off of another long to-do list (this time just things that need to be done by the time the baby arrives as opposed to by the end of the day) but she has also allowed me to get in some much needed rest and relaxation. She spent much of the morning entertaining herself in her playroom – without even destroying it!

Since the day we found out we were expecting a second baby, I have been concerned about how it would affect Megan. With each passing day, however, I feel like the transition will be a smooth one and Megan will be a great big sister. She sure is growing up…and she becomes more and more of a delight each day.

WARNING: Failure is NOT an option!

Megan has her own little “laptop” computer that she just LOVES. She gets so excited when I offer it to her and asks: “couch? chair? mommy’s bed?” and runs around skipping and laughing until I get her situated with it.

It has a lot of fun activities that she is capable of doing, and many that she doesn’t quite understand just yet. Some days she wants to do the same activity over and over again. Other days she just likes to switch the cartridges in and out without doing any activities at all. Still other times she just likes to turn it on and off and just listen to the “start-up” music.

Some of the activities ask questions about numbers or animals or letters…etc. When you get an answer correct, it says: “Yea! Good Job!” or “Whoa, cool!” BUT if you get it wrong it says: “Try again…” It only gives you three chances to get it correct and then it says “Uh-oh!” and tells you the answer.

We had NEVER seen Megan get so upset so quickly until she was told to “try again” and then after three tries just given the answer. She literally loses it and cries and screams – which is VERY uncharacteristic of her. It is pretty heart breaking. Apparently this girl DOES NOT appreciate criticism!!!

At least she’s willing to try again after each meltdown. This is when mommy or daddy puts her on their lap and makes sure that she gets the answers right!!

UPdate!

So here is a little run down of our life these days:

Megan is just as cute as ever (okay, much cuter. Let’s be honest.) She is HILARIOUS and she is hitting a big stride as far as comprehension goes. She is also becoming quite the little parrot. She likes to mimic EVERYTHING we say. She has also recently decided that she has to be touching one of us or climbing on us or hugging us or kissing us…pretty much every chance she gets. Here she has climbed up on daddy’s shoulders.

I try to get out of the house and do something fun with her everyday (the key word being “try”. There are many days we go nowhere.) I feel bad on the days we are stuck in doors all day, but Megan is a great sport about it.

She loves to play on her “computer”, play with her “ABC Books”, play with play-doh, and watch game shows: among other things. Naps are a thing of the past for Megan, but she still takes a “rest” in her room for 2 hours during the day. Basically she reads books and sings songs at the top of her lungs.

In pregnancy news, I am 35 weeks along. I have 5 weeks left, but was ready to be done…let’s see…about 23 weeks ago! 23 weeks of pain = not so fun (if I count the morning sickness, which seems like a cakewalk now, then I was ready to be done 29 weeks ago). Pretty much I am in pain every minute of every day and the worst pain comes when trying to lay down. The ONLY comfortable/pain free position is on my back; which is a “no-no” during pregnancy, so I don’t get much sleep at night. During the day I just try to ignore it the best I can. Seriously, only 5 more weeks.
I think I can…I think I can…

School is going good for Adam. He is really enjoying his research, and it looks like we are definitely on schedule to be done by August at the latest. I don’t know how he does it. There are so many days when he spends more time at home then he should and yet he is still getting things done. The other day I was making my way home after grocery shopping with Megan. I had a trunk full of groceries and I was actually getting teary eyed as I wondered how on earth I was going to survive all the trips it was going to take me to get the groceries up to our apartment. I turned down our street and saw Adam (I had dropped him off at school only an hour and half before) making his way to our apartment. When I caught up to him I asked him what he was doing and he said he felt like he was needed at home. He said that while at school Elder Holland’s talk from the most recent conference came to mind. The talk mentioned being an “angel” for someone else and he felt like he needed to be an angel for me that day.
And he was.

I guess that’s it for now. Oh, one more thing. It’s cold here in Iowa. This is what I woke up to the other day:

Oh, and one more thing (again). Gas is $2.34 here.

Now that’s what I’m talking about!

Adam’s Research

Adam is currently working on research for his Master’s Thesis. Below is an image that Adam actually put together using a series of pictures taken by the Spitzer Telescope (a telescope very much like the Hubble Telescope.)

The difference between the Sptizer Telescope and the Hubble Telescope is that the Spitzer takes infrared images and the Hubble takes photos just like a camera.

He’s pretty fired up about his research. I wish I understood even half of what he is doing. I guess that’s why we can’t all be “rocket scientists!”

(Adam and I like to play “what does the image look like?” you know, kind of like seeing shapes in clouds. Let us know what you see!)