Sailing Into My First Independence Day! (6 months, 2 weeks)

I hope everyone had a very happy Independence Day (also known as "The Fourth of July")! I had a fantastic holiday weekend. I'll tell you all about it but first I have to update you on the rest of my week!

My daddy put together my high chair so now I'm eating at the table like a big girl. I like this much better. I don't feel so left out of meal times anymore. My new food this week has been yogurt. Mommy mixes it with my fruit in the morning and it is soooo delicious! The good bacteria seem to be helping my nighttime tummy troubles as well just like my doctor thought. Speaking of..I totally forgot to tell you about my 6 month doctor's visit last week. I was so busy talking about all of my visitors that I forgot! Here are my stats-- Height: 26.5 inches (75th percentile) Weight: 15 pounds 9.5 ounces (45th percentile) Head circumference: 16.5 inches (35th percentile). My doctor told me I was a "lean mean machine." Apparently I also have gotten the Vance small head gene! I had more shots again. Dr. S said, "Run Megan Run!" again but I still can't run! I tried to roll away but Daddy caught me before I got too far. My next visit is in 3 months and I don't have to get shots so I'm excited!

Back to my high chair..you not only can eat in the high chair but you can also play! It's a lot of fun! I also started drinking out of a sippy cup this week. I'm still getting the hang of it. Mom took video of it but forgot that you can't adjust the videos so you'll have to twist your head to look at it. Video is at the end of the blog. This week I also got to finally meet my friend Bella! She is still in the sleepy newborn stage so we didn't really get to play together. Mom forgot her camera in the car but Bella's mommy took a picture of us. Bella wasn't really in the mood for a photo shoot so we will have our modeling session another day. So now I have two friends that are girls--Stella and Bella. I feel a bit left out since my name doesn't rhyme. Mommy told me that I probably will never have a friend with a name that rhymes with Megan unless I meet a girl named Reagan. Reagan....are you out there?

On Thursday night Mommy, Daddy and I went over to Nolan's house while Nolan's mommy and daddy went on a date. I haven't seen him since his birthday party. Nolan can walk now! I am always so far behind!

Daddy was getting nervous that Nolan was going to give me a big kiss! That would be sooooo embarrasing if I got my first kiss from a boy in front of my Dad!

Nolan thought he was in the clear when Daddy went in the other room but I had to put a hand up since my Mom was right there. Having my mom there at the big moment would be just as embarrasing! The big excitement of the night was hearing all the fireworks. Nolan's neighbors like to set off fireworks. They must have an old calendar because Thursday was only July 2nd not the 4th. Mommy and Daddy weren't so impressed with the fireworks since they kept me from sleeping. Nolan apparently doesn't have my keen sense of hearing as he was not bothered by all the loud pops!

On Friday we packed up our things and headed south for the weekend. This is opposite of most people as heading "up north" is very popular with Minnesotans. Our family cabin is south and very convenient to get to! Usually it takes about 1.5 hours to get there from our house but we had a bit of a delay on the way. Warning: If you are squeamish or eating lunch or something you might want to skip this paragraph and go to the next picture! I was crying in my carseat so Mommy reached back to put my pacifier in as it was time for me to take my nap and sucking on my pacifier in the car usually puts me right to sleep. Mommy had to dig around my carseat to find my pacifier and when she found it she got more than she bargained for. This is a bit embarrasing but I had an "accident" that spilled out of my diaper which means that my pacifier that was between my legs was full of...well you know. Mommy was a bit grossed out and was very happy that we were still in the metro area and close to an exit ramp. Luckily there is a Target on every corner in Minnesota and we headed straight there. Mommy had the job of cleaning me up and Daddy worked on cleaning up my car seat. Thank goodness for anti-bacterial travel wipes. After a new outfit and diaper for me, and disinfecting the carseat we went into Target to buy more travel wipes and a new pacifier for me. Mommy and Daddy learned an important lesson: Don't feed me prunes the night before a car trip!

Onto happier things... I got to go to my first parade! It was a 3rd of July parade! Here I am with my cousins Paige and Austen. They were in the parade with their 4H group. Paige was the flowergirl in Mommy and Daddy's wedding and now she is almost as tall as Mommy!

The craziest thing that happened during the parade was this silly dragon. See the smoke coming out? When it came up to us it puffed a big puff of smoke in our faces!

This is me watching the Shriners in their little red cars. My Mommy's grandpa used to drive these cars in parades. Mommy said that if Great Grandpa Kelley was alive he would be so excited that I liked watching the little cars zoom by.

I really liked getting into the patriotic spirit with my American flag.

This is Grandma, Mommy and me at the parade. I really enjoyed it a lot and can't wait for the next parade!

This is me in my 4th of July outfit. We started the day at the cabin. Great Uncle Dave and Great Aunt Judy joined us at the lake for lunch. Daddy wanted to go sailing but was unsuccessful. Last time it was too windy but this time there was not enough wind to actually go anywhere. Daddy looked a bit like Chris Farley in the movie Tommy Boy when he was in his sailboat not going anywhere and saying, "I could use a little wind here!"

This is me on the dock with Mommy. I love being at the lake. They had a boat parade where people decorated their boats and drove around. Maybe next year I'll help Daddy decorate the sailboat and we can be in the parade. I told Daddy my idea and he was a bit worried that manuevering the sailboat in a parade might be a bit difficult. I say that life is boring without a few challenges! Later in the day we headed to Mommy's cousin Jim and Lynn's house for dinner and fireworks. They live on the lake in Albert Lea so they have a perfect view of the fireworks show. Unfortunately the show doesn't start until 10:00 p.m. which is WAYYY past my bedtime so we didn't stay for fireworks. Maybe next year..

Today we got up and went to a pancake breakfast. I got to get my picture taken with the county sheriff while there. I would post it but Uncle Steve took the picture and I don't have it yet. After breakfast we went back to the cabin again. This is me reading one of my favorite books Snuggle Puppy. There's just nothing better than relaxing at the cabin with a good book. While I read my book Daddy tried to finish War and Peace. Daddy has been reading this book since before I was born. Between doing school work and playing with me he hasn't had much time for reading these days I guess.

This is Grandma and me on the dock waiting for daddy to come back. There was just enough wind to sail today!

This is my Dad looking like a sailing champ! Mommy said that once he has a few more of these successful (and by successful she means not tipping over) trips, that she'll go out with him. You see Mommy is a bit afraid of sailing after a bad experience with Grandpa when she was a little girl. Apparently Grandpa took her out on a sailboat at family camp and he didn't really know what he was doing and instead of going slow, whatever he was doing was making the boat go really fast and Mommy got really really scared.

This is me in the lake. Well I wasn't really in the lake but you know what I mean! Daddy wanted to make sure that I mentioned in my blog how well his sailing went today after last week's post that mentioned some of his..well.. challenges. All in all..it was a great weekend! Now I'm super tired and looking forward to sleeping in my own crib tonight.