First Day at Mustard Seed Preschool

Miss M is all grown up, or so she likes to think.

One of the items on my agenda that occupied a vast majority of my time our first week here in South Korea was finding and registering Meghan for preschool. Fortunately, they had one slot left for four-year-olds at the non-denominational Christian preschool here on base.

Here is Meghan on her first day of school about three weeks ago:

Her father's daughter, when I ask for a smile, this is the best I get.

But....I am sure this smile is thinking about all the playing she can get in after school

She fits right in here in South Korea....Hello Kitty.

An idea that grew out of control....

As many of you know, my hero recently left on a 15 month deployment. He starts his journey at Ft. Polk in Louisiana to do combat skills training. Due to Army (he is Air Force, but will be working for the Army for the next year) regulations he will get the opportunity to return home for about a week before shipping out to his final destination in Afghanistan.

To help mark the days I decided to make Miss M a paper chain that she can remove a link each day. The bulk of the chain is red, white, blue, and yellow. However, on the guesstimated dates of his return home in July and then again for mid-tour R&R I placed a green link. I can move the green links as needed.

The chain quickly grew to such great lengths that there is NO WHERE in my home to hang the entire length without cutting across doorways and stairways. So I draped the tail end across the bay window in my dining room and put the rest into a laundry basket on top of the nearest kitchen cupboard.

Each morning we remove a link...each morning we are one day closer to having him home.....

Military Child Syndrome

Military families go through this phenomena called "Military Child Syndrome"...no not really but that is what I am calling it. It can be similar to the "you know you are a redneck if..." jokes.

Today Miss M exhibited the classic "Military Child" trait. I needed to go pick up prescription refills at the clinic on base. As I was getting Miss M out of the car seat, a young female airman was waiting for me to finish so that she could get in her car. When Miss M noticed the airman in her uniform, she exclaimed, "Daddy!"



Trait number one of the "Military Child Syndrome" is assuming all male members of the armed forces in uniform is daddy. Today Miss M proved that you don't necessarily have to be a male in uniform to be confused as "daddy".

A Party at the Wheeler's

Last Saturday, April 4, 2009, we had a birthday party here at the house to celebrate Miss M's second birthday. It was a funfilled party with family.

We did a pinata for the kiddos, it was supposed to be the kind with the pull strings. Miss M pull all the strings out, but the candy didn't fall out.....so Mama remedied that. My quiet niece Kenzie had the perfect method for gathering candy, so the quiet girl who is not supposed to eat a lot of candy ended up with a full bag. I sure hope she shared with her sisters!

Meghan received many awesome gifts to include a baby doll and accessories from Mama & Hero....she loves her baby. All three girls enjoyed jumping on the the trampoline from Nana & Papa. Gramma and gamppa showered her with a big bag full of goodies, but the Jr. Mints had her at "Hello". (Gramma knows the way to her Miss M's heart.) Her cousins gave her a cool movie and some totally adorable hair accesories...she has to wear her new beanie cap at least once a day now.

When all the festivities were done we had one tired little girl that didn't put up too much of a fuss over nap time.

There are so many pictures from the party, so I made this slide show to share them. Hope you enjoy!

Happy 2nd Birthday!

Today I took Miss M to have her two year old pictures taken. (For you copyright nuts, I own the disk the pictures below come from.)

I can not believe how much she has changed from birth to now!

Taken the day she was born....April 8, 2007

I made those blocks at a RS craft group get together, and was thrilled when they were willing/able to work them into the pictures.

Our baby is turning into a little girl right before our eyes.....

Mama's Shoes

Miss M LOVES to try on Mama's shoes. I caught her last Thursday trying to sport my favorite pair of red shoes.













Makes me think of Dorothy...."There's no place like home, there's no place like home...."

Moments that melt your heart

Today I was upstairs vacuuming our bedroom and the hallway. When I was done I quietly peeked in on Miss M to see if she was sleeping in her bed or on the floor behind her door. Imagine my surprise when I saw this:




That chair is the chair we bought the day after we brought her home from the hospital so that I would have somewhere to sit and rock her. As it turned out she is not a child that likes to be held or rocked unless she is sick, hurt, or super tired. When we moved into this house I decided to put that chair into her room so that I would have someplace to sit and read to her, or comfort her when she needed it. She has not shown much interest in that chair...until today.

Getting her own drink of "waDer"

Yesterday I was sitting at the computer desk in the family room catching up on email. I looked up to see what havoc Miss M was causing in the kitchen as I had heard her push a chair across the floor and then it got real quiet. I look up to catch this....





She had push the chair up against the refrigerator to get at the water/ice dispenser. Guess all those times of watching mama and Hero get drinks of water had caught on. She was taking one of her sippie cups, getting a little bit of water. Then she would try to put the lid on, unsuccessfully. When she would tip the cup to get a drink she would end up with water all down the front of her. She repeated this process about four times as I watched before she screamed, "MOMMY!!!" I got her a cup of water, she wanted nothing to do with it.

Playing house

For Christmas 2008, Miss M's grandma Susu and Pops gave her a doll house. At first we kept it in her room so that Emma wouldn't chew on the pieces. Unfortunately that didn't stop Emma, and the mommy soon became legless. I recently ordered her a new family. We brought the doll house down to the family room to stop her from playing with it when she should be sleeping. Miss M has been playing a lot more with it lately. Last week I caught her playing with her doll house. She kept having the mommy and daddy kiss each other. They'd kiss and then she would giggle like she does whenever Hero kisses her mama. Miss M loves her doll house.

One for you....One for me...

Phillip caught Miss M sharing her Gerber Puffs with Emma...there is not a whole lot these two don't share, much to my dismay.

Taken, Sunday, March 8, 2009

One Sunny Sunday Afternoon....

The Sunday after my surgery, March 8, 2009, was a beautiful sunny afternoon here in Clinton, Utah. Miss M and Emma kept us busy opening and closing the back door as they couldn't decide whether to play outside or inside. Hero got some great pictures that day....

Emma still loves to survey her kingdom from the top of the picnic table.
I am sure Miss M was watching Emma on the picnic table in this shot.

"Go ahead. I dare ya...just try to get my ball from me."

Guess Miss M thought about it and then changed her mind...Emma still has her ball.

Happy buddies

I love watching these two play together!

Busy, Busy Bee

Terrible two's, it is a phrase used around the world to describe the active, curious toddler. It is a phrase I have used, but one that I am not too particularly fond of. It is a self prophesy fulfilled thing. So since it is a phrase that I don't like to use, but definitely describes my darling daughter today I need to come up with a better substitute. Any suggestions?

We have been up and at it for a little over two hours, in that time there has been;

• Two trips to the naughty chair, once for hitting the dog, and once for choosing not to listen to mommy when asked to pick up her spoon and plate she threw off her high chair tray
• Several mini fits, stomping of the feet, short lived cries or whines
• Several, "Don't play in the dog's water!" Both inside the house and outside, in fact as I write this her pant legs are soaked because she decided to take a wash clothe, get it wet in the outdoor dog water bowl and mop up our back patio.
  
• Too many "no's" to count...from her. I try really hard not to use that word so that it won't be thrown back at me. Guess I am not trying hard enough.
• A dozen, "It is not time to feed the kitty. You can feed the kitty when daddy gets home from work." And the fits that follow me putting the cat food back in the pantry.
• A handful of being redirected after being caught playing with the ice & water dispensers in the fridge.
• A couple of "STOP playing with the DVD player!"
• And one HUGE salt mess. She dumped the entire contents of our salt pig (small clay open container on the counter we keep Kosher salt for cooking) all over the counter, stove, and floor.

Sigh...we've only been up for two hours and I am ready for NAP TIME!

Who does she look like?

Ever since the day she was born there has been a lot of speculation as to who Miss M looks like. I am of the tribe that believes that she is a good combination of the two of us. Today while wasting my child free time on the internet, trolling blogs for good reads I came across a blog that had a "Look-alike-Meter."

For all those in the "She's a mini Hero" tribe.....

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Free family tree chart - Geneology

Guess you were right...that's not a bad thing. All the Wheeler and Rowley women have that classic beauty about them.