My little climber, part 2

Seriously, this kid is a climber. I took the kids to the library yesterday to look for some books on stranger danger/what to do if you get lost in the store kind of stuff. I had been having a hard time finding anything good and was talking to the librarian about it. I put Meg on the floor and she proceeded to then find every bench, chair and stool, climb on it and then STAND on it. I had to eventually hold her and when that didn't work, let Andy practically sit on her for the 10 minutes I talked to the library staff. And after all that, I never did find anything really age appropriate. Any suggestions?

Meg was up three times last night, at 10, 2 and 5 before waking up screaming at 7:15. It was a long night. I first thought this morning that it was constipation, easily helped by some prune juice. But after a trip to the park and the swing, I got a good look in her mouth and realized her upper right molar is only half way through. Well, no wonder she's cranky. She's got two pieces of tooth pressing through some flesh. I plan to give her a good dose of Motrin before bed tonight and hope that was it.

She's still not walking, but standing on her own more confidently ever hour it seems. It's been amazing to watch.

Oh, and I'm almost done with Breaking Dawn. I am somewhat ashamed I have read all four books because the characters irritate me so. Then again, I'm not a 12 year old girl so what do I know.

Standing!

Meg is now standing everywhere. It's been amazing how quickly she's picked it up. I turned around yesterday to find her standing in the kitchen holding on to the kid drawer with all the sippy cups in it. She then proceeded to stand there while she took each top out, licked it and threw it on the floor.

She has also figured out how to climb the landing step on our stairs and is already turning the corner gunning for the rest of them. Although I do have one baby gate that I keep at the top of the stairs, I had borrowed the others I used with Andy from a friend who has since relocated to Missouri. I am thinking I need to invest in a couple to put at the bottom of the stairs in the living room. Otherwise, I'm going to spend my time defending against the stairs.

The Christmas march is on and I am loving watching Andy really get into it. Some things he still finds a little hokey, like the 'Twas the Night Before Christmas special from 1974 narrated by Joel Grey. I can't say I blame him. It was pretty bad. We also watched the Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer claymation show from 1964 (I know, 1964, and it still holds up). We liked that one a lot although Andy was really scared about the Abominable Snow monster to the point that he cried he was so scared. That prompted a nice talk afterwards about how monsters aren't real and it was just a TV show.

Meanwhile, I am a little confused how I'm going to pull off this Santa business. The theories just don't hold up -- I tell him the monster isn't real, but then he's to believe Santa and Rudolph are? That doesn't even touch on how to react when we see Santa in the mall. Is that the real Santa? What about the Santa that just drove through our neighborhood on a firetruck? Good thing he's not doing any logic theorems on this or I'd be busted in a heartbeat.

Hester Prynne

Little Miss Margaret can stand. Problem? She can't sit down. Last night, as we entertained Vickie and Christian on a Monday of all remarkable things, she was having trouble settling down. After Andy came down tell me, "Mom, um, Baby Meg is crying," I went up to find that she was indeed sobbing -- real tears, no less -- as her arms were stuck over the side of the crib and she couldn't figure out how to get down. It was tragically adorable. She did sort of remind me of Hester Prynne there in the stocks. Wait, did the Scarlett Letter actually have anything to do with that or am I mixing my classics?

I believe we are days, if not hours, away from the cruising stage. Heaven help us.