Megan

Here's Megan the soccer player. She pretends to like soccer but she only plays for the snack at the end. She's posing with her trophy that has her name engraved on it. Now I know why it cost $40 to play and had volunteer coaches and no referees. But she loves that trophy so much that she sleeps with it.

Megan always comes out with some comment that makes me laugh. A good one from this week was when she was asking for a drink because she was "as thirsty as a turkey." The turkey part is right! She's funnier when she is angry. She growls (real growls) then says emphatically, "THAT'S HOW I FEEL!" Picture her arms straight at her side, slightly hunched forward, and scowling from under her bangs. (I don't know where she gets those traits!) The other day she was folding a book in half and I told her that we don't do that to books. Well, apparently that's what she felt like doing to me and I should be happy that she chose the book instead.

When Megan isn't asserting her independence, she likes to help me. She always wants to help with housework, but only things that don't really need to be done. And I can't go into the kitchen that she isn't dragging a chair over to help. I know that it's only to lick whatever bowl we're using, but maybe she'll pick up some cooking skills along the way.

I frequently find her curled up in a nest that she has built. She layers all kinds of things in her bed every night. She likes to set up camp in a corner of the living room either behind the chair or the couch. And she likes to pack. I think that she's going to be a speech therapist when she grows up.

Megan is on a bit of a school strike. She doesn't want to read and only wants math sporadically. She's big on art and I found her working on Soduko puzzles yesterday. Since she is only 4, this is OK. But she likes when I read to her. In the past month we've read 3 Ramona books, 2 Magic Treehouse books, Matilda, Dr. Doolittle, The Mouse and the Motorcycle, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, The Hundred Dresses, Mr. Popper's Penguins, The Reluctant Dragon, several books about birds, a few about knights and we're in the middle of Pippi Longstocking and The Door in the Wall. I'm not sure that Pippi is the role model that Megan needs!

My favorite thing about Megan is the way that she sings outside. She pumps her swing as high as she can make it go and belts out some TV theme song at the top of her lungs. I hope the neighbors appreciate her as much as I do. I'll have to remember to video tape that from a bedroom window some day and hold it for blackmail at some future date.