{"id":87,"date":"2011-07-07T14:03:36","date_gmt":"2011-07-07T14:03:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/10.131.168.108\/wordpress\/?p=87"},"modified":"2011-07-07T14:03:36","modified_gmt":"2011-07-07T14:03:36","slug":"dear-megan-nine-months","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/elhogue.com\/shannah\/2011\/07\/07\/dear-megan-nine-months\/","title":{"rendered":"Dear Megan: Nine Months"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Dear Megan,<\/p>\n<p>Today, you are 9 months old. &nbsp;I suppose I should be amazed at how time is flying. &nbsp;But really, I&#8217;m more amazed that I&#8217;m actually writing this on the day you turn 9 months old! &nbsp;Yay for both of us!<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/x60.xanga.com\/70ae346215537277679907\/s221199605.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Your list of accomplishments is growing by the day. &nbsp;You have mastered crawling, standing and cruising. &nbsp;You&#8217;ve started walking behind push toys. &nbsp;And you&#8217;ve managed to stand unassisted for about 3 seconds before falling over. &nbsp;So basically, you&#8217;re on your way to walking. &nbsp;You also learned to climb the stairs. &nbsp;The day we discovered this new talent, I was running a bath with Erin, and Daddy was downstairs with you and Alex. &nbsp;Hearing a grunting noise, we both wondered what the other was doing with you. &nbsp;As it turned out, you were climbing the stairs without any help at all. &nbsp;Yikes! &nbsp;I found you about 4 steps from the top and nearly had a heart attack. &nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Actually, your primary talent seems to be keeping me on my toes. &nbsp;You have no fear. &nbsp;Dogs, heights, new challenges&#8230;nothing deters you. &nbsp;You climb over anything in your way. &nbsp;You chase your brother and sister around the house. &nbsp;You even played at the mall play place today, crawling all over by yourself. &nbsp;You hate to be kept from the action. &nbsp;You are the most determined little thing I&#8217;ve ever seen. &nbsp;You stood against the wall at your Grandma&#8217;s house, stretching to reach the chains of the cuckoo clock and getting angry because they stayed just out of your reach (never mind that pulling on them would have dropped a clock on your head!). &nbsp;And worst of all (for me), I cannot keep you from putting anything and everything you find in your mouth. &nbsp;I&#8217;m sure at least half of our interactions during the day involve me fishing something out of your mouth. &nbsp;I just can&#8217;t stay ahead of you.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>So, for that reason, I decided to try a &#8216;baby corral.&#8217; &nbsp;At least that&#8217;s what Daddy called it when the twins were your age. &nbsp;It took some effort, but here&#8217;s what I came up with:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/xd3.xanga.com\/784e336273634277679608\/s221199423.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/>&nbsp;&nbsp;<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/xc6.xanga.com\/c26e136626032277679610\/s221199425.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Needless to say, you hated it. &nbsp;And it&#8217;s already gone. &nbsp;Which means that I guess you won that battle. &nbsp;Or not. &nbsp;Because actually, I moved it while the twins have been potty training to keep you from diving into the potties (which didn&#8217;t deterred you one bit, I might add). &nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/x21.xanga.com\/790e1b6a26035277679612\/s221199427.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>But don&#8217;t worry, I haven&#8217;t given up finding a way to balance your love of movement and Mommy&#8217;s sanity. &nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>You LOVE real food. &nbsp;You eat cereal and baby food still, but you are starting to really love flavors. &nbsp;And anything we give you from the table is definitely your preference. &nbsp;You will sometimes sit and and flip the pages of books as if you are already reading them, which I just love to watch. &nbsp;Your favorite toy is whatever you can reach that fits into your mouth. &nbsp;And you are already totally taken with the remote controls. &nbsp;You and Alex are definitely cut from a similar cloth in that regard!<\/p>\n<p>On the other hand, you are still the jolliest little thing I&#8217;ve ever seen. &nbsp;You are talking up a storm, and you&#8217;ll definitely give Erin a run for her money one of these days. &nbsp;You still have your sweet, low laugh that always makes me giggle. &nbsp;You love your Daddy immensely. &nbsp;You are definitely going to be a Daddy&#8217;s girl! &nbsp;You still think Alex and Erin are the best of the best. &nbsp;Any time they stop long enough to talk to you or give you a toy, your smile lights up the room. &nbsp;And well, you&#8217;re certainly my favorite little thing these days. &nbsp;I love watching you grow. &nbsp;I love watching you learn. &nbsp;I love snuggling with you in the dark and using your most ticklish spots to get you belly-laughing until you&#8217;re breathless. &nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>But mostly, little Megan, I just love you. &nbsp;Your smile. &nbsp;Your laugh. &nbsp;Your bright blue eyes. &nbsp;It&#8217;s all just part of the wonderful little package that we got when you joined our family nine short months ago. &nbsp;And we are so glad you did!<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/x5d.xanga.com\/587e016273635277679613\/s221199428.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dear Megan, Today, you are 9 months old. &nbsp;I suppose I should be amazed at how time is flying. &nbsp;But really, I&#8217;m more amazed that I&#8217;m actually writing this on the day you turn 9 months old! &nbsp;Yay for both &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/elhogue.com\/shannah\/2011\/07\/07\/dear-megan-nine-months\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-87","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/elhogue.com\/shannah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/elhogue.com\/shannah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/elhogue.com\/shannah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elhogue.com\/shannah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elhogue.com\/shannah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/elhogue.com\/shannah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/elhogue.com\/shannah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elhogue.com\/shannah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elhogue.com\/shannah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}