Oh, Wow

Our little Megan Leigh is officially TWO YEARS OLD!

My, how time flies. Two years ago today, I had my simplest birth experience (and that's no understatement!). Our kid count doubled in just one moment. Then:

And now:

 (They were having tummy time with Ben. Funny how perspective makes Megan's head look huge...)

In the last two years, Megan has:

• grown 1 ft. 3 inches taller
• gained 20 pounds
• had surgery
• broken her right arm
• moved to a new city
• become a big sister
• learned how to crawl, walk, and talk
• eaten enough fruit to fill a small lake

Megan got to open her presents from Mom and Dad early in the morning before Chris went to work. It took her a minute to figure out what to do.

She was pretty funny to watch, though she did get it in the end. Her most common phrase lately, uttered repeatedly while discovering her new toys, is an intensely whispered, "Oh, Wow!" It's just about the cutest thing she's ever said. It has to be whispered every time.

This was her gift, in addition to a Lady (from Lady and the Tramp) dog.

I would like to make a side note that I put that all together myself. It started like this:

Go me.

I don't know that Ben really enjoyed the festivities, but he at least enjoyed the swing. I think.

After presents, Megan enjoyed her ultra fancy, super complicated breakfast of choice...

A Nectarine

Jane was struggling with the whole "It's Megan's birthday, not yours" thing, so we made some compromises so Megan could have her present but Jane could have fun, too.

Megan doesn't have friends her age yet, so we had planned to have a fun family outing to the zoo. Then it started snowing. I can do cold, but I'm not willing to brave freezing rain and downpours with small children, especially a baby.

In place of that, Lisa and I came up with an impromptu birthday party with cousins, complete with pizza,

dollar store presents,

a craft,

balloons,

and the ever-popular sugar cookies and fruit.

Megan was too occupied with eating the fruit to smile for the camera. Have I mentioned that she loves fruit? After the party was over and before I cleaned up the table (wait, who am I kidding...it's the next morning now and I still haven't cleaned up the table), I found her eating blueberries by the spoonful. That's my Megan.

Upon later reflection, I have determined that I would have planned something extremely similar to this had I done it all intentionally instead of last minute. Last minute was better, though. No stress. Even if my counter was covered in dirty dishes in all the pictures. And those dollar store presents were just about the best party investment we've ever made (except maybe those blueberries)--she's still playing with all of them, pretty much at the same time. Thanks for all the inspiration, Lisa.

We are having a joint party with my family on Sunday, as my dad's birthday is Monday. Look forward to that post.

We also had something of an early party last week when Chris's parents passed through town on their way to Cincinnati. They gave Megan two books, "The Pout-Pout Fish" and "The Pout-Pout Fish in the Big-Big Dark" (absolutely adorable books, by the way! read them if you have small children! the first one is especially hilarious if you read it in a gangsta' rap voice.):

and a matching fish that Janet made. Ah! Megan loves it.

She carries it around, sleeps with it, and fondly calls it her Putt-Putt fish.

For interest's sake, here are Megan's two-year stats.

2 ft. 10 in.

27 lbs. 14 oz.

75th percentile on each

I wonder at what age it becomes socially unacceptable to post our children's weight for public scrutiny.

Happy Birthday, Megan Leigh!

Gymnastics

Some of the best Family Home Evening activities are spontaneous.

MY Conference

Can I just say, I LOVE watching general conference at my own house? I get way more out of it when I'm not trying to keep my kids quiet so they don't distract every other person in the chapel. And sitting on the couch in my jeans instead of on a pew in a dress doesn't hurt anything, either.

If it weren't for the wonders of satellite technology, my husband surely would not have done all the laundry--sorted, washed, dried, sorted again, folded, hung up, and put away. Three kids produce an impressive amount of laundry. Something of a conundrum to me--their clothes are significantly smaller, why do they still take up so much space?

Chris's comment at the end was that our girls certainly have a lot of pink pants.

I had conference packets for the girls to color, keeping them at least in the same room for chunks of time during the sessions. Jane especially enjoyed practicing writing the names of the First Presidency and the 12 Apostles.

Megan just did whatever seemed amusing at the moment.

Ben pretty much slept. He was rather helpful in his part of letting me listen for the majority of each session. And I have no picture because I didn't want to wake him up.

There were a few talks that stood out to me. I loved Elder Scott's suggestions on and reasons for memorizing scriptures. Elder Perry's talk on proclaiming the gospel through social media spoke directly to a project Lisa and I have in the works. Sister Thompson's talk on scriptures was refreshing. Two particular moments, though:

Sister Elaine S. Dalton's talk was about what fathers can do to raise righteous daughters in today's world. She said the most important thing a father can do for his daughters is to love their mother. Chris, who was sitting next to me on the floor, said, "Done. That was easy." Ha.

The #1 talk I enjoyed is the same that I've heard many people mention already--Elder Andersen's talk on children. I have been quite disappointed by the fact that Ben was born by c-section. Honestly, it feels like someone else had my baby for me and I missed out. Elder Andersen's talk bore strong witness to me that I am fulfilling God's commandment to multiply and replenish the earth, regardless of how it all played out on that one particular day. I still have some ground to cover before I'll really be ok with it all, but I'm certain this talk has already been and will continue to be very helpful in that process.

I remember watching Conference as a kid and thinking about how insanely boring it always seemed, even if we were playing Bingo with m&ms. I'm glad I'm finally old enough now to really enjoy all that Conference is and can be for months to come until the next one. Thank you, Mom, for making us watch even though we were bored and for setting the example of appreciating Conference and listening to and following the prophets. I hope I can teach my kids something of the same.

P.S. He has a name now.

say hello to 

Ivan Tyler Wampler

the cutest baby born last Friday