When you open my phone it plays a video of Anna pushing Megan on a swing. Anna opened it up this morning and energetically proclaimed: "Awww. Sooo cute! Megan's on the swing!" The funny part was that she's seen that video on the phone at least fifty times. Her enthusiasm for it made it seem as if it was a new surprise. I love waiting to hear what sweet words are going to flow from her mouth.

It's almost Thanksgiving, so I thought I'd finally post our Halloween pictures. Sorry, I forgot about them - oops!

Anna Quotes:
On the intercom waking up from her three hour nap: "Jennifer, come back! Jennifer, come back!"

I told Anna she had to share with Megan the yogurt snacks that I bought for Megan in the first place. Walking up to Megan, she cocks her head, offers the bag, looks in Megan's mouth and says, "Meggie Moo, finish your Mum-Mums. Your mouth is too full." Anna never did give her any, kept walking up to Megan using the same excuse, and ate the whole bag herself.

Proud Parents of an Honor Roll Student

My experience as a teacher tells me that every parent thinks his or her child is the smartest one in the class. Of course, I hate to lump myself into that category and I certainly don't want to brag....However, Anna is well on her way to earning us a bumper sticker shouting the title of this blog post.

A few days ago, as Anna was swinging with her baby doll, I asked her what the doll's name was. As usual, she replied, "Dolly." Once again I tried to explain to her that her doll could have a name just like she has a name. I asked her, "what is your whole name?" She said, "Anna Gabrielle Zumbiel, Z-U-M." I was shocked. I have made an effort to teach her how to spell Anna (I think it's quite easy being that it's only two letters to learn - for those of you who didn't know :), but we have definitely never worked on spelling Zumbiel. Many phone conversations of me spelling our last name for doctors or phone orders or billing inquiries flashed in my head. This little girl listens to everything. This little girl listens to EVERYTHING!? (hmmm...time to start censoring for sure...)

While Anna was swinging, I went ahead and encouraged her to say her name again and this time I just completed the spelling of our name for her. I didn't really emphasize it, but just let her know there were more letters. We went upstairs, went back inside, and she went to sleep for her nap. Later that evening when Matt came home, I told her to tell Daddy her name. THIS time, our little college scholarship earner said, "Anna Zumbiel, Z-U-M-B-I-E-L." AND the crazy part was that she remembered it from hours earlier. When she says it, the last few letters blend together, but she definitely spells it.

Aren't little baby brains the most amazing things?! It is so incredible to watch them just take it all in. It's wonderful to hear or witness Anna or Megan achieve something, but the best part is probably watching them feel so proud of themselves. I'm sure I'll experience the same proud feeling when I put the bumper sticker on my car one day :)

Megan Updates

Megan is now a little over nine months. I can't believe she's already older than the amount of time she was in my belly. Did this time fly with two under two? No, actually. And that's a very good thing.

I can remember looking at Megan when she was a few weeks old with 18 month old Anna demanding so much of my attention. I remember thinking that Megan's baby days could fly by all too quickly if I wasn't careful with how I spent my time. I made a conscious decision to take time and live in the moment with each of them as much as I could. I didn't want to wake up one day and realize that I was just going through the motions. So we spend our days creating a lot of memories and just trying to enjoy each little moment, monumentous and mundane. Are some days crazy when I want to scream and call in sick? Absolutely! But the point is that I've really taken time to enjoy my crazy life and not take these baby days for granted. It's the BEST to have a baby in the house again! (and no, that doesn't mean we want another too soon :)

So with that being said, Megan has grown into a little big girl right before our eyes. She has the sweetest personality you will ever meet (second to your own children I'm sure). If you've ever read "The Five Love Languages" by Gary Chapman, Megan's love language is 100% touch. She is a snuggler, a cuddler, an I-just-want-you-to-hold-me-close-and let-me-rub-your-face kind of baby. Now she is also a mover so unless you're mommy, she might not let you hold her too close these days.

Megan is pulling herself up on everything. She has started walking behind push toys. She has also started climbing which is a real treat when I'm trying to keep my eyes on our other little 27 month old climber. The coffee table has officially retired to the basement by the way. (The picture below is Megan on top of the breakfast table that Anna eats at sometimes. I turned around for probably 10 seconds and this is what I found.)

Megan just learned "so big!" this week and she says "da da" (daddy) on command.

We started signing around 6 months. Since we already know over 50 from doing it with Anna, we pretty much do them all for Megan and I think she is catching on a little quicker than Anna did. She definitely responds to the Indi sign, milk, eat, change diaper, swing, and Anna which is just the sign for the letter 'A'. She has even started doing the Anna sign which is so darn cute.

Megan loves bathtime. I think she finds it to be relaxing since it means she's by herself and away from her big sister.

She's starting to eat more and loves the whole experience. Our next mission is to work on some new finger foods for her. (It's so funny how much I forget about infant eating even though it seems that I JUST went through it.)

Within the last few weeks, Megan's first two teeth have popped through on the bottom. I just noticed this morning that her top left is about to break through too.

It's quite funny to watch Anna and Megan interact with one another. They definitely have started fighting over toys already. They will both grab something out of the other's hand if they want it. They make each other laugh which is pretty cute. Anna has started bossing Megan around by politely (and of course, impolitely) saying, "no, no Meggie Moo." And Anna is now getting a bit jealous of Megan using her toys -see picture of Megs on the car.

Finally, some of Megan's nicknames: Megs, Meg, Meggie, and Anna's favorite, Meggie Moo.