What's in a Name?

Morgan has caught on to names recently. We used to ask her what her name was and she'd answer "name!" Then one time a few weeks ago she suddenly started saying "Morgan" when we asked her. Yay! She could also tell us our names, Mama and Daddy and Piper.

At school this morning Morgan was delighted to discover a new "friend" in her class, a mouse! She saw it before I did and excitedly exclaimed, "mouse!" and ran over to the glass-enclosed "house" the mouse lives in. I hate to admit it, but the little thing is pretty cute. It was such a busy little thing, scurrying around and eating it's food. I asked one of the teachers what the mouse's name was and she said, "Pinky." I kept telling Morgan this as she checked out the mouse, though she never said it's name herself.

Fast forward to lunch today. As we were finishing up and I was wiping Morgan's face she mentioned the mouse again. I asked her "what is the mouse's name?" I was glad when she answered correctly "Pinky!" Then I pointed to Piper and said "what's her name?" She said "sister, Piper!" Then I pointed to her and said "what's your name?" She said "Morgan!" Then I pointed to myself and said what's my name?" She said happily "Mama...Meg!" Too funny!

Naked Girl

My little "smart cookie" is currently in her room, completely naked. She is supposed to be napping.

This has been a common occurrence lately. It started just with her naps and bedtime. As soon as she us put down and we leave the room, she undresses. At night we usually have to wait (a while) until she is mostly asleep before we put her back in her pajamas for the night. Otherwise she will just keep getting naked.

During the day she sometimes decides to strip down and run around. Sometimes, with the weather getting cooler, I get concerned about her being cold, but I figure if that's the case she'll want her clothes back on. Lately I've just let her run around and play, indoors of course. I'm also using it as an opportunity to work on some potty training. I know she won't randomly pee or poop on the floor. If she has to go she heads over to our supply of Pull-Ups and goes to a particular corner of the room to put them on. I always try to tempt her to go on the potty by telling her she'll get a sticker. I don't push it too much, but I want to keep reminding her. Someday she'll take me up on it, right?

The other day, during her "naptime" she attempted to put her clothes back on. Her Pull-Up was on backwards, her pants inside out...but all in all it was a great attempt. She had quite a bit of trouble with the shirt which elicited all sorts of frustrated noises from her room. I finally decided the naptime must be over and helped her get her shirt on. I made sure to praise her for her success with putting on her pants and Pull-Up.

As other things, this phase will pass. I hope. It's really cute right now, but in a few years? Not so much.

Wordless Wednesday: Smart Cookie

Greenbluff Fall Festival 2010

We finally made a trip up to Greenbluff this weekend. This is usually a really fun time of year with the Apple Festival events and pumpkin patches. Unfortunately it didn't go so well this time.

The last few years we went earlier in the season. Well...we learned that going earlier is better because it was so CROWDED! It overwhelmed us as well as the girls. I don't know where the saying comes from, but I hear it a lot lately. This trip was an "Epic Fail."

Everything was overpriced and we had to wait in lines for everything from train rides to food. I've mentioned how much Morgan loves the bouncy houses. After waiting (not very patiently) with Daddy, she finally got in one another little girl fell on her before she even got to jump! We managed to get out of there with a few pictures and a lot of wailing.

Checking out the pumpkins with Daddy

Jumping her way through the patch

Taking a rest

Piper strolling

Is that a good one over there?!

This brought a few smiles. Pumpkin doughnuts. Yum!

Today I got a tip on another farm we can try that is closer and less crowded. Maybe we'll try that one before the season is over.

Baby Curls

Piper's hair started growing faster just about a month ago. The same thing happened with Morgan, right around 12 months. Morgan's has a slight wave, but Piper has surprised us with CURLS! Her hair is so soft and the hair in the back and over her ears are curling all over. I love to play with it any chance I get.

Had to add this gap-toothed grin. Still only six teeth.

Getting blonder too

Curls on the sides

Dora Play-Doh

Morgan's favorite new activity is Play-Doh! Gram B. got her a Dora the Explorer set that she just loves. I usually sit down with her and help her roll the dough out and make sure the "cookie cutter" pieces are properly pushed down...but more and more she is doing it by herself.

The Dora set has all kinds of fun stuff in it. Right now I'm just giving Morgan the basics, the dough, roller, cutters and one mold. The additional items in the set are more molds, a whole "forest scene" with backdrop (I have her use the bottom part of the scene with the water and places to put the cut out shapes). We'll get to those eventually, but for now they are a little much.

Morgan knows where to put the shapes when they are cut out. The dough colors are fun, yellow, lavender and a bright blue.

See the blue "Boots" character on the picture of the bridge? That is the one mold I am showing her how to use. This particular time I had some things to do and when I came back to the table she had put the correct amount of dough in the mold and pressed it together all by herself! All I had to do was help her get it out. She was so proud of herself.

We mostly do Play-Doh when Piper is napping. If Piper is awake she wants to play too, unfortunately she just wants to put the dough in her mouth and they fight over all the cutters and other pieces. I try to keep things even. Morgan usually takes a longer afternoon nap than Piper, so I have activities especially for Piper during that time, like coloring and blocks.

To The Store

Morgan is now wearing Pull-Ups instead of a diaper. I swore I wouldn't do this, but I had to give in. We were having epic battles over diaper changes, she just didn't want to lie down and let me change her. It would become a game where she would run into the kitchen and want to play "I'm gonna get you!"...which means I'd have to run into the kitchen, tickle her and carry her back into the living room. Ugh! Exhausting. Now that she wears the Pull-Ups, she can take them off herself and only needs a little help to get a new one on. No more battles. I hope it's worth it, because it kills me how expensive these things are. Hopefully it's a short phase until she decides she wants to use the potty on her own.

Now, these Pull-Ups are also fascinating to Morgan because they have "Princesses" on them. Disney princesses, to be exact. In fact, we don't call them Pull-Ups, we call them "Princess Pants," (thanks Gram). She has learned all their names. Tiana, Belle and Cinderella. This is different from Cinderella, Snow White and Sleeping Beauty who are on her sneakers. Her overnight Pull-ups have Sleeping Beauty on them too, appropriate.

There are two patterns on the Pull-Ups, one with Belle alone and another with all three princesses. The other day Morgan looked at the one with only Belle and said "Tiana and Cinderella went to the store." Huh?! I was puzzled for a second, then I laughed. There was one time we went to our neighbor's house to see if their little girl could play. They were not home. Morgan got upset and didn't understand why her friend wasn't there. So, in the moment I decided to say "Mya went to the store," (this is how we say we are going to the grocery store). That seemed to make sense to her and she stopped being upset. A few times that night she looked out the window, didn't see her friend and said "Mya went to the store!" So, now that she noticed Tiana and Cinderella weren't on that particular Pull-up...she decided that they must have gone "to the store." OK, I can work with that. No, princesses probably don't need to go to the grocery store, but that is beyond her understanding at this point. Its just nice to see her thought process.

It's all about the "bribe"

The last two weeks after preschool I've had to deal with HUGE meltdowns trying to get Morgan in the car to leave. She loves to run up and down the grassy hill right next to the school. Two weeks ago she ran and ran and ran and just didn't want to leave. Last week it was raining and she refused to listen when I told her it was too wet.

This week I figured out how to get her in the car without screaming and tears. The bribe. Morgan LOVES these Kashi granola bars that I buy for myself. She doesn't get them very often, and when she does it's a special treat. I snuck one in my purse this morning. Once she had run up and down the hill many times and all of her friends were leaving I decided to test things out. I said, "Morgan, I have a granola bar for you in the car." She immediately started saying "Granola bar! Granola bar!" and made her way right over to the car. When we got there I pushed it further and told her she had to get into her car seat before she could have it. There was no messing around...she got right in her seat! I gave her the granola bar and once I packed Piper in we were on our way in record time!

This didn't used to work for Morgan...she usually would ignore me and keep doing whatever I wanted her to stop doing. This is encouraging in that she is understanding what I am saying. I'm sure this won't work in all cases and her stubbornness will prevail, but for this purpose it worked well. Maybe I should consider giving her pieces of granola bar if she uses the potty? Hmm...

Swiffer Sisters

Morgan and Piper have suddenly become fascinated with our Swiffer mop! I don't know why, since I don't use it a ton, but they certainly get the idea that it is used to clean the floor. We keep it in our garage, so most days Morgan asks for the "swifter" and I help her get it. Then she both pushes it in front of her and drags it behind her all over the downstairs. Piper likes to try too when Morgan is not using it. Maybe I should recruit them soon to help me clean the kitchen floor!

Band-aids

Morgan has discovered band-aids!! Fortunately there are no boo-boos involved (or "ouchies" as we call them). That would be confusing to call them "boo-boos" because that's what we call her!

Of course she loves them because they have Dora and Hello Kitty on them. At one point last week she had six of them on, three on each arm! Even with baths she managed to keep them on for several days. Lately she's started to take them off herself, so they don't have much longevity anymore. We've run into problems here and there where she keeps trying to put more on..up to a few times a day. We tell her we need to "save the band-aids for the ouchies." I think she kind of gets it... and tells us every once in a while that the band-aids are "all gone." We just nod our heads and agree with her.

Postponed

I meant to post about this earlier this week, but now it's suddenly Friday and I'm just now getting a little time to blog.

We postponed Morgan's evaluation with the child psychologist. It turns out that this particular doctor is not in-network and cannot be approved as such quickly. We would like to avoid paying out of pocket for this evaluation. It will take up to 90 days for her to be added to our in-network plan, but hopefully it will be faster. She told us she will contact us as soon as she receives approval and will get Morgan scheduled for her next evaluation slot.

I really wanted this to happen and considered forking over the money. I just want to know where she is at so we can move forward with whatever the diagnosis is (or isn't). Of course, patience has never been one of my strengths, so this is hard on me. So we will spend a while longer not knowing quite what we're dealing with, but the psychologist assured me that it wouldn't make much of a difference. Morgan has a good therapy plan in place now until she's three in December. Hopefully we'll be able to get the evaluation done around that time anyway.