Happy 1st Birthday Megan!!

I am attempting to write this almost a year later. I guess I totally forgot about the blog and that I wanted to try to keep track of our lives here. We had Megan's first birthday at our house with our families. Grandma and Grandpa Noland came down and Grandma Elgin and Great Grandma Elgin came. Grandpa Elgin didn't come because he was sick and didn't want to spread what he had...Thank you!

We did a basic 1st birthday party. No theme. We served a burger bar for lunch with cupcakes for dessert. I wanted to buy a smash cake for Megan from the wonderful bakery in Fergus Falls, but I didn't think she'd eat it. Glad didn't, she pretty much just stared at the cupcake. For her birthday she got a little toy car, books, clothes, an outdoor car to ride, water bottle like her big sister. She wasn't real sure what to do with the presents, but big sister sure enjoyed helping her out!

Here are a few pictures to remember the day. I guess I forgot to give the camera to Nate while we opened gifts, I don't have many pictures.

Me and my Birthday Girl!

Big Sister helping with gifts.

The grub!

Happy Birthday to You!!

Thinking this might be ok, but....

Nope, don't want anything to do with this cake stuff.

 90 years difference here!!

We have a 1 Year Old!!

Megan oh Megan....where did 1 year go? You came into this world just hours after your due date and now you are a walking, "talking," smiling, temper-tantrum throwing toddler. You have brought more to our lives than we could have imagined. You can't get enough of your sister and although she likes to try and play it cool...I think she loves you just the same. You know exactly what you want and you go for it. We are so excited to see what another year will bring for you and our family!!

Sleep:
We finally have done it! You are sleeping through the night and do not have to be rocked to sleep. This is amazing for me!! February 23 we put you to sleep wide awake and let you cry it out...which only took 5-10 minutes. When you woke up during the night, we let you cry until you fell back asleep. Again, that just took a few minutes. I think you sleep better because of it and so do I!! You are now sleeping from about 7:30 - 7:00. When you wake up in the morning you just lay there and talk to yourself until I come get you. You don't whine at all. If/when you wake up in the middle of the night, you put yourself back to sleep. Although I do miss rocking you at times, it sure does make bedtime easy and I really think you sleep better! Naps are also going great. You put yourself to sleep around 12:30 and then wake up by 3:00 usually. You no longer really cry when you first go down, you just talk a little or you don't make a peep.

Feed Me:
Well, this is still a difficult and somewhat stressful thing for me. You just got over the stomach flu that the whole house got and now have been better about eating. You will finally hold your own bottle and actually drink most of it without a distraction, but now it's also time to try to get you to drink out of a sippy cup, uhg! You only eat what you want to eat and sometimes I really don't know what that is. You love fruit/vege pouches but really don't want anything to do with "baby" food. I still have you eating baby oatmeal, but I have to sneak that in with your fruit/vege pouch. You absolutely LOVE yogurt. You will sometimes have cheerios, puffs, and graham crackers. Right now, you love goldfish. You didn't even have a bit of your cupcake on your birthday you stinker!! I have tried putting food from my plait on your tray, but you just play with it a little bit and throw it on the floor. I have a feeling this will continue to be difficult, but hopefully you realize food is good!! In a normal day you have a bottle at 8, 12 and 7 for sure with a smaller bottle around 4 some days. You also have whatever you will eat with each of those bottles. I try to get fruits, veges, and yogurt in in a day, but that doesn't always happen.

Milestones:
2/23/15 - started sleeping all night
2/?/15- got another tooth on the top right

Favorites:
Jade, yogurt, Daddy, reading books...basically the same as last month

Dislikes:
Has started to be a little scared of Duke and isn't a fan of me leaving her places.

Length: 28 1/2"
Weight: 18.5lbs
Clothes: I have finally pretty much moved her into all her 12 month clothes. She still wears some 9 month stuff, but the 9-12 month stuff finally fits and I'm sick of seeing the 6-9 month stuff so I'm retiring a lot of it.

Knight for a Princess

A few months ago, my Dad called to ask my oldest daughter on a date! He wanted to take her to a "ball" that his put on by the Grand Forks park district called "A Knight for a Princess." Of course I said yes without hesitation! This is one date she can go on any time and I will always be ok with it!

Leading up to the big date, I was a little nervous that Jade wouldn't leave my side and go with Grandpa to the ball. Little did I know, she'd actually be waving bye to me as I buckled her into her car seat!! I had prepped Jade for a couple weeks, talking about the ball and how much fun she would have. The week of the ball she figured out that Grandpa would be taking her alone...that I would be staying at Grandma and Grandpa's house. She wasn't sure about that at first, but quickly changed her mentality and was ready to go.

I drove with the girls up to Grand Forks by myself, leaving Nate at home to sheet rock the basement. That's a whole story in itself! In a nut shell, Megan sleeps for 30-40 minutes in a car...even at nap time which is usually 2-3 hours. So, Saturday...day of the ball Jade wakes up in the morning ready to put on her pretty dress. Yay!! We are at Grams and Gramps and she's still excited to go! After her nap, I get her to let me curl her hair. We prep and get ready, she looks sooo pretty! I am one proud Mama!! My Dad equally excited as Jade is! He gets dressed up and looks very handsome himself and off they go! Our goals was to have Jade last at least a half hour, they didn't get home until after 8...it' started at 6.

Upon their return, I got to listen to my 3 year old princess tell me all about how wonderful the ball was. She got to dance with other girls, dance with Grandpa, eat chicken nuggets with ketchup and ranch, get a t-shirt, get a prize bag, have pictures taken, AND best of ALL see queens!! The park board does a great job putting this on as far as I can tell. They had the Grand Cities Queen, Twin Cities Queen, and one more there in their ball gown and tiara's. Jade absolutely ate that up!! That is the one thing she continues to talk about. She got a tiara from the queen...and the queen asked her what her name was!! This was a big deal for a 3 year old!! I wish I could have been a fly on the wall at the Alerus Center that night!! I think this was a huge hit and something my Dad gets to continue to do with Jade...and maybe Megan for years to come! Good job Dad for starting such a fun tradition!!

Here are a couple pictures from the fun night. We have to get my Dad on the smart phone band wagon so he can take good pictures with his phone!

Megan is 11 months old!!

I can't believe that we will have a 1 year old in a month!! The first year really does fly by! Megan is a spit fire! She has a mind of her own and really does know what she wants at 11 months! She already throws back arching tantrums if she doesn't get her way. She even has to pick the books I read to her. There are a select few books she will let me read at nap/bed time! She is going to keep Nate and I on our toes a little more than Jade did/does!

Sleep:
I think we have finally turned a corner with sleeping! We still need to work on the self soothing and having her put herself to sleep BUT as of about a week ago, she no longer needs to be swaddled and isn't eating at night anymore. She still wakes up once-ish a night and I have to put her back to sleep, but that will change too right? Some nights it takes me 5 minutes to get her down, others it's like 45 minutes. We are still putting her to sleep around 7/730 and then she has been waking up around 6:30/7. She just naps one time a day around 12:30 - 3:00. This is a much needed nap, but I have a really hard time getting her to go down for 2. And 1 nap really does work better for us as a whole. Then Megan is able to keep the same routine as far as sleeping goes. I'm happy to not be doing bottles at night anymore, but am excited to get her to self soothe. We will enforce this the next time we will be home for a couple weeks so we don't ruin it during a weekend.

Feed Me:
Megan is a horrible eater. We struggle feeding her everyday! If I let her be done when she was "done" with a bottle she would only eat 3-4 ounces. I can usually get her to eat about 7 ounces with some distractions. She is a very tactile kiddo and needs something else in her hand when eating. She needs distractions! When it comes to solids, she eats really good for a day or two and then it's a struggle again for a week. It's hard to tell what she likes and doesn't like because she will gobble something down the first time but want nothing to do with it the next 2 times. I've been trying more "real" food and she just plays with it. When I try to put it in her mouth, she turns her head and pinches her lips together. This is very frustrating! She seems hungry at times, but won't eat anything. The only thing she eats every time without reservation is yogurt. I think she could eat a gallon of yogurt a day!! As for a daily routine, she gets bottles when she wakes up, at noon, 4:00, and 7:00. The 4:00 bottle is just a small bottle (4oz). The other 3 are at least 7, I've been trying more at 7:00. For solids, she gets something around 10, 11:30, and 5:00. I try to get her to eat anything so how much and what she eats is always changing. I'm debating on even buying her a smash cake since she won't put "real" food in her mouth. Maybe she would if it's sweet...who knows.

Milestones:
2/3/15 - gave up a night bottle and being swaddled
2/7/15 - prefers walking over crawling
2/13/15 - started getting another tooth on the top. She doesn't handle teething well at all. She's a lot more whiny and needs a lot more attention. We do give her tylenol which she responds well to. She gets diarrhea, has a decreased appetite to her already limited appetite.
2/??/15 Started signing "more." I thought this was a lost cause, but I guess she was paying attention.

Favorites:
Jade!!! Jade gets the most hugs, kisses, laughs, etc. She truly does LOVE her big sister. If only Jade knew just how much. She loves yogurt, Mickey Mouse, walking, "cleaning" out the pantry, bath time, Megan is a Daddy's girl! When he gets home she rushes to the door to see him and doesn't leave his side for very long once he's home. Megan loves being naked. I wish it was summer so I could just let her run around in her diaper all day. She screams when I get her dressed! I think she would pull her clothes off if she knew how to!

Dislikes:
Being dressed, having her diaper changed, having toys or something she wants taken away from her.

Weight:18.6lbs
Height:???
Clothes: We are still mostly in 9 month clothes, but they are finally starting to get short. I have been getting more 12 month outfits out.

Cheese!!

Play dough is a good distraction!

Megan's 10 Months!!

Megan is 10 months old and it seems like time just keeps flying! She is becoming more and more playful and her own personality is really coming through.

Sleep:
Ugh, to everyone who told us we won't have another sleeper like Jade...I hate to admit it, but you were right. She started sleeping the whole night when she was about 8 weeks old and I thought we had another sleeper, boy was I wrong. Megan continues to get up 2 times a night. There is an occasional 1 time a night, but that doesn't happen very often. Most of the time she is up around 11:30 and then again anywhere from 2:30-5. I try to feed her more during the day so she doesn't get hungry at night, but it doesn't quite work. Megan is in bed around 7/7:30 and wakes up between 7 and 8.  We had a couple nights where she would just lay awake as we tried to rock and rock and rock her. We think it might have been because she took bad naps those days. Those nights were horrible. She would just lay in our arms wide awake. If you tried to put her down, she would scream, she wouldn't let you sit down and rock her...let's hope you don't have those nights anymore! We've also had a couple nights that she's been really ornery to get to sleep for the night. Let's hope that doesn't become more regular either! We have completely quit trying to take 2 naps a day. As long as she is kept busy and entertained, she is fine staying up until 12/12:30. She takes one 3 hour nap a day. It's actually really nice to have her take one long nap as opposed to 2 shorter naps. It really works out with our schedule much better!

Feed Me:
Megan continues to be a not very good eater. As of today (1-15-14), she is exclusively bottle fed. I gave up the morning feeding right after the new year, followed by the night feeding, and now it just doesn't seem like I have much during the night to give her. And to be honest, those teeth of hers don't feel good! When she eats, she needs to have something in her hands and be distracted. It's almost like she has better things to do than eat. If I let her, she would eat like 2oz and then be done for a little bit and then eat again. I pretty much force her to eat 4-5oz at a sitting. I have to change toys in her hands, turn on the TV, etc. to get her to finish a bottle. Some go down easier than others, but it's never easy. The same holds true eating table food. She has her own spoon and usually some toy to play with while she eats. She continues to get a bottle every 4 hours or so, eats 2 TBLS of cereal with a fruit or vege at lunch and dinner. Sometimes she finishes the whole container and sometimes she doesn't. She loves yogurt and is really starting to like "real"food that she can feed herself. She likes the puffs, graham crackers, and cheerios. Again, it can be a real struggle to get her to eat at times so it makes it really hard to tell if she is full or just being ornery. I'm trying to teach her the signs for "all done" and "more," but we seem to be going nowhere fast. She's really not into it and screams sometimes when I grab her hands to help her sign. Oh, she has a mind of her own! For her night feedings, I pretty much have to shove the bottle in her mouth to get her to realize what it is and then she drinks a bottle pretty good. Ugh! You test my patience at times Miss Megan!

Milestones:
Nothing new to note here. She continues to call Nate Dada and is doing it more and more. She is getting closer and closer to walking, but still is not walking on her own. She just takes a couple steps before falling. I think she just wants to run and not take the time to learn how to walk first.

Favorites:
Jade, yogurt, Mickey Mouse, playing Hide and Seek, chasing Jade, walking while holding onto something. It's fun playing hide and seek with her! When we hide she gets super excited when she knows Jade and Daddy are about to find us. She kicks her legs and gets a big smile on her face and usually ruins our hiding place by making noise.

Weight: 17.8lbs
Height: 27"??? that's a complete guess
Clothes: She is still wearing 6-9 month clothing and not really growing out of many of them yet. She fits into some 12 month shirts, but the pants are still pretty long.

Pictures get harder and harder to take each month!!

The blocks with paper on them are way more interesting than whatever Mom is doing to try to get me to look up.

Huh? I will look just this once, but I'm not going to smile.

Megan is usually so smiley and then I get a camera out and she just stares, maybe next month will be better.

Christmas 2014

Holidays are always busy, crazy, fun, exciting, stressful.... I love the holiday's but am excited for things to get back to a routine as well. This year was no different than the past years, we headed to Grand Forks. We headed up the morning of Christmas Eve with the truck pretty much filled to the max. We had already had my Mom take our presents up north so we didn't know how we were going to get everything home. I think we could rent a small bus and still fill that with everything we "need." This trip, we stayed with Noland's 2 nights and my parents 2 nights.

Christmas Eve:
Church was at 4, so we needed to get naps in quick. We unloaded everything and packed into the basement of the Noland's. Lee, Jenna, and their new baby Levi were already there so we filled the rest of the basement. We met my parents and Grandma at church. This was the first year my Grandpa wasn't able to join us for Christmas as his health has him in a nursing home in Mayville. My brother was also missing because he is working for the second year in Phoenix. After church we went to my parents for the infamous Lutefisk and lefsa Christmas Eve dinner. The girls opened some presents before dinner while we awaited the arrival of Ron and Linda. Megan ended up missing Christmas Eve all together. She didn't nap well and needed to go to bed. After dinner, Jade and I handed out presents and the unwrapping of all gifts began. I think Jade got her hand on every present to "help" unwrap! She had a blast. She wanted all her gifts to be taken out of the boxes right away. There was no waiting. We finished with gifts and hurried back to Noland's to get the kids to bed.

Christmas Day:
Santa came to the Noland's! Once everyone was up, we had breakfast and began to unwrap more gifts. Again, Jade had to have her hand on most presents! Once finished, we had brunch and relaxed for the day!
Present review: Jade got skates from Santa, books, dolls, barbies, Sophia the first stuff, movies, games. Megan got toys and books. Nate got clothes, slippers, money. I got clothes, money, a new coat, cookie jar and apron.

The rest of the holiday fun:
Nate went out fishing the day after Christmas in their new ice house, so I packed up the girls and I to go to my parents and spend some time. Jade had a fever on Christmas and Megan seemed to have a little cough. I was hoping they weren't getting sick, but also didn't want Levi to get sick. Speaking of Levi...he is a great baby. Lee and Jenna got lucky. I don't think I heard him cry once! He seemed pretty content! I took Jade swimming one morning at the fitness center up there. It takes her awhile to warm up to swimming and become daring enough to not hang on to me, but I think she had a great time. Nate stayed one night out at the ranch and then came to my parents house when he got back. We were able to play at the Halstenson's for a night too. I can't believe how big their boys are compared to Megan. They are about 6 weeks older than Megan, but are just huge compared to her!

New Years:
For NYE, we headed to Bemidji to spend it with the Aube's. Talk about a packed house there! There were 13 adults and 4 babies under the age of 9.5 months and Jade at age 3. Almost everyone stayed the night there too! This was our first night staying with the four of us in one room! We stayed with all of us in a room when Megan was a baby and didn't have a bed time...but never have since she's not such a baby anymore. We were nervous about the girls waking each other up all night, but they did great. We got to Bemidji at nap time and of course neither kiddo wanted to nap. Jade ended up not napping and just going to be early and Megan was able to get a short nap in. We aren't sure what Megan's deal was, but she was up from 10:30-2. Neither Nate nor I could get her to go back to sleep and when you're sharing a room and house with a bunch of other people, you can't just let her cry so we had to wait for her to finally fall asleep. The best part of it was that both kids slept until about 8:30. Aube's had smoked a pork roast all day and it was fantastic. The "party" was held in the man cave which worked out great with all the sleeping babies. There were probably 80 games of ping pong played that night! I unfortunately rang in the new year rocking Megan...but I'm sure there were toasts made in the man cave! We headed back home in the morning after breakfast.

It is so good to be home! Christmas decorations are down and the house is back to normal...

A quick year in review:
February - closed on our new house in Fergus Falls
March - Welcomed Megan Grace to our family
Spring/Summer - landscaped around the house, bought a boat, "bought" a paddle board, went to a couple weddings, hung out at Arrowwood Resort while Nate worked
July 4 - Spent the long weekend at the cabin with the whole Noland clan
August - Had our first Noland summer bash party
Fall - Nate hunted, Jade started ECFE classes
Winter...still waiting for snow!