PHOTO DUMP - Part 1

Sometimes, when your name is Megan McKarns, you take a WHOLE lotta photos. And when in your own biased opinion you have quite the gorgeous child, it's hard deciding which ones are worthy of sharing. I mean, when you're that beautiful of a baby, ALL of your photos are good. So that's what this post is going to be. Just some photo dumping. Enjoy scrolling through a million photos of what I claim to be the cutest girl on earth.

Well, that's just precious. Learning from Daddy.

"That was some good food." - Maeve 

This picture makes her look so tiny. Love it.

Seriously, she's better dressed than I am. I'll have that outfit too please.

Serious trouble maker. Every stinking day.

Uh oh

Aaaand a mother daughter selfie because why not?

"If I could fly all day long, I would!!!" - Maeve

Don't let me get in your way, crazy lady. The table was designed for crawling on, after all.

Aaaaaaand another mother daughter selfie. Our outfits were just on point, ya know?

I'm watching you!

Always by my side, no matter what.

She looks like she was dressed for Christmas, nevermind the fact that it was March. When a dress is that cute, she's wearing it no matter what.

What I get to walk in and see three times a day, everyday.

You had me at hello in that onesie. She just may look her cutest in just a onesie. She just may.

Buuuut then there's this outfit... so I dunno. You tell me. 

That hood though!

Her legs may look terrifyingly blurry, but that ecstatic little face and hand... love her to pieces. 

And that dress, too!

"Excuse me, ma'am, both hands must remain on the bar at all times."

On a walk after church, the best kind. I'm in love.

I'm in love again.

Just digging for her cheerios in her bumbo. Best activity yet.

She's so funny sometimes. That face.

Mmmmm, yummy little body

She doesn't really look like herself in this picture, it's killing me how skinny she looks, ha!

Those shorts... they were falling off of her all day! Hilarious.

"Feed me daddy, feed me! I need breakfast more than you!" - Maeve

That little coat and that little tongue!

Getting psyched for some fettucine and steak with friends!! Those pursed lips... she does that all day long!

In the mornings, we like to play in bed for a little bit. Give me a bed and a baby and I'm good. Except I'd be even better if she wouldn't try and crawl off the bed the whole time! Wishful thinking.

"All you need in life is a phone" - Maeve

Happy freakin' Birthday

I turned 27 about a month ago now. I must say, just hearing "27" vs. "26" makes me sound a lot older. My brother hit the nail on the head when he said that it's at 27 when you realize 30 really is getting much closer. I guess that's why. So basically, if you round up, I already am 30. Wait, WHAT? I'm getting ahead of myself.

If you saw my instagram post from that day, you really saw all the good from the day. What I spared you from was the bad and the ugly. It came in the form of a present from Maeve. She was so thoughtful to think of me on my special day. Her delivery though... now that's a different story. Alright, I'll cut the crap (no pun intended) and tell you what she gave me. Oh wait, that is what she gave me... she gave me poop. And not just any poop, my friends, it was poop in tub. Lucky for me, it quickly spread all over the tub... shortly Maeve was surrounded by millions of little "pooplets" is what we'll call them. She had also been kind enough to knock down every single bottle of shampoo, conditioner, soap, etc. into the bath water so all of it was also covered in the lovely pooplets.

Long story short, one thing led to another, and I soon was on a deep cleaning rampage. I could have just stopped at the tub and the bathroom, but once I got going, well, there was no stopping in sight.

Thank goodness for dinner at Chuys, phone calls from my family, and present opening, because if it weren't for that stuff, my day would have stopped at poop in the tub and a whole lot of cleaning.

Happy 27th to me. Luckily I clean up real nice.

The many positions of Maevie

It always astounds me the crazy positions that Maevie girl not only gets herself into, but stays in. See for yourself.

Exhibit A - Kicking it back with both feet up on the bar in the stroller:

Exhibit B - Kicking it back with one foot up on the bar in the stroller:

Exhibit C - Lounging with both feet up in the shopping cart:

Exhibit D - Sitting with one leg up in the shopping cart:

These three especially crack me up because you can tell they are all taken on different days!

And finally, Exhibit E - Both legs up in the shopping cart:

Leave it to Maeve to sit in a seat in as many different ways as she can besides the way it's intended. Truth be told, she probably gets it from me. I always put my feet up on the dashboard in the car in the passenger seat and I even have started to put one leg up, resting one foot on the seat whenever I drive. Probably sounds so weird, but to me it's comfortable. Maeve and I both. I get ya girlie, even if no one else ever does. Like mother, like daughter!

Recorded

Because we all know videos are even better than pictures, here's some of my favorite videos of Maeve over the last month or so. They're awesome because some show how busy she is and some show her funny little mannerisms and such that are hard to explain in words.

That laugh!

Don't worry, she peed on the carpet right after I hit stop and then started to poop. Luckily the poop didn't fall out of her bum until she had crawled into the bathroom, but she did proceed to put her foot right into it once it landed on the ground... 

I love how she examines the sock for a minute and then decides it's no good and flings it too, ha!

That arm whip though!

Her tongue and hands in this one seriously kill me... and of course how hardcore she is cheesing it.

This entire video embodies her little personality so perfectly.

"11 months" baby

It's been too long since I've posted. Things have been a little busy and out of the ordinary. Which is why these "11 month" pictures were taken and are now being posted way too late. Maeve and I were just gone on an almost two week trip to Louisville and Atlanta to see two of my sibs families. She turned 11 months while we were gone (right at the beginning of course) and because I've wanted my pictures to be uniform all along I just decided to wait until I got back to take the pictures. Well, we've been back a week now and I just barely took them yesterday (oops, didn't make it enough of a priority) so here Maeve is at "11 months" but really, 11 days shy of being 1 whooping year old. Excuse me, what???? We're not even going to talk about it. 

Anywho, it's probably not even that big of a deal these pictures were taken so late because it wasn't exactly what you would call a smashing success of a photoshoot. I mean, let's look at these outtakes... The captions may even better than the photos. 

Sure, go ahead, immediately try and rip your sticker off. See if I care.

Okay, you can go ahead and be completely focused on anything but me, that works too I guess.

Alright, so now we're smiling, but you're looking the wrong direction sissy. Not exactly what we're going for, but close. 

Great improvement, almost looking at me, except perhaps you could sit down instead? 

No? You don't want to sit down? That's cool too, I guess. 

Alright so now we just took a million steps backwards (no pun intended). I promise I'm more interesting than the bookshelf.

Artsy, I'll give you that, but still not exactly what I'm after here.

Okay, so blowing bubbles is cooler than smiling! Check. 

You blow those bubbles, sister.

You've backed yourself into the corner and you're looking pretty cute, I'll give you that.

Go ahead, just tell me how you feel.

Back to blowing bubbles I see.

Bam! Mom finally wins with the sunglasses!

The real magic has happened people. This is the real deal.

Something about that facial expression is just really cute, that's all.

Still happy and we can even see all 4 teeth!

I spoke too soon, suddenly the world has ended. Sunglasses no longer mean anything to you. Got it.

Crying and blowing bubbles at the same time? Impressive.

I decided enough was enough at that point. Point taken, Maeve. Anyways, enough of the nonsense, here's what Maeve has been up to at 11 months (I'm just going to touch on everything up until this point, even though she's well past the 11 month mark):

1. She has 4 teeth now, her middle two bottom teeth and middle two top teeth. The middle two top teeth came one after the other almost right when she hit 11 months while we were in Kentucky. I think she had her first real "teething trouble", if you can call it that, right before those teeth came in. She went to bed normal, but then woke up at midnight and would not stop screaming. She didn't even want to nurse at first, which really threw me off. She finally ate and then when I put her back in bed she still screamed for a little while, which has honestly never really happened in her whole entire life. So that really threw me for a loop. The funny thing was, once I got her back out of bed she was the happiest girl you've ever seen. She just wanted to play on the floor. She stayed awake playing until 3am, which was excellent for me, since I could really only slightly doze off during that time. I couldn't trust that she wouldn't get into anything she shouldn't, like Tess's little butterfly clips that she tried to eat. Nope, not food. I nursed her again at 3am and after a little whimpering she went back to sleep. I can only attribute it to teething since her teeth came in right after that, but she didn't show a whole lot of distress over the matter, so it really was just an interesting experience to say the least. 

2. She's eating anything and everything, including tasting a few too many sweets in my opinion while we were gone thanks to her Aunt Rach, but what can you do. I drew the line at Diet Coke when we were with Tiersha. Ha, just kidding, she wouldn't have really given it to her anyway. She loves peanut butter now, and had no issues with it thank goodness! There are more finger foods she's feeding herself now, which is really nice. She loves munching on veggie straws now and it's the cutest thing I've ever seen.

3. She went through a period of waking up closer to 7am, but now is back to sleeping in until 8am for the most part. For my sake, I'm glad that was just a phase. 

4. She's making different babbling sounds than she used to, I think she's starting to learn more consonant sounds but of course still no real words besides mama and dada, although I still wonder if she really knows what she's saying when she says those. I'll really believe it once she points at us and says mama and dada. 

5. Speaking of pointing, she does love to point at us if we point at her. She's also really good at waving at people consistently now when they wave at her, as well as clapping when someone else claps. It's so cute to see her really pick all of these things up. 

6. She still blows bubbles, so intensely sometimes that I wonder for a slight second if her head is going to explode... She really gives it all she's got sometimes, ha! She especially loves to do it while she's eating which is real fun when food starts flying all over the place out of her mouth. 

7. I knocked some sense into her (appropriately of course) and she's doing better with staying still for diaper changes and not freaking out quite as much. Though she still loves to bolt away from me as fast as she can once it's all done. 

8. Just after she turned 11 months, she started standing on her own here and there. It's sort of random, and she walks well with her walker, but I'm still wondering when she's ever going to get brave enough to try it on her own. I had hoped she'd pick it up by her birthday, but it's not looking like that's gonna happen. She's definitely strong enough for it, I think she's just lazy. 

9. I probably said in her last monthly post that she was getting into everything, but now she's REALLY getting into everything. Opening every drawer and cabinet on her own, opening the toilet lid and sticking her hands in the water, messing with the toilet paper, pulling every stinking tissue out of the tissue box (once she's on a roll, there's no stopping her), and messing with the garbage in the kitchen. She can open the lid and if it's full will start taking stuff out. There's always a disaster waiting to happen when she's around and I can only imagine what it's going to be like when she can walk. 

10. Sometimes I shower when she naps, but there are times she'll be awake when I want to and I'll just close the doors to the bathroom, get everything off the floor she could make a mess with, give her some toys, and hope for the best. She's now figured out how to get herself up by the tub and move the outer curtain so that she can stand there and see me through the clear inner curtain, haha. It's pretty funny. Except that now she's realized she can also mess with the clear curtain and will try and open that curtain too and get water everywhere. Probably best if I reserve showering for nap time now... 

11. She transitioned from her infant car seat to the next kind of car seat. She still looks just as big in this new one though as you can see below, which is kinda weird to me, but we're gonna roll with it. 

12. She LOVES to admire people from a distance and seriously smiles and flirts with everyone she sees, but the minute anyone tries to hold her but her parents she immediately reaches back for mom or dad. Ain't nothing like your parents. 

13. She LOVES to play peekaboo, thinks it's the funniest thing ever. She will hide from us all the time and when we say "Where's Maeve?" she will laugh and reveal herself, over and over. She'll hide behind her bib, curtains, her blanket, really anything. It is so funny! She loves when we hide from her too. 

14. We've recently discovered that her lamb has sort of become a binky for her. She goes to sleep so easily because she immediately starts sucking on her lamb's tail. As you can see in my last post, there are even times she falls asleep with it in her mouth still. As long as her lamb always stays in her bed though, I see no problem with it!

15. Last, but not least, she's literally got the best laugh I've ever heard in my life. Her daddy can get her going like no one else and there's a little clip I should share because it's pretty insane how loud her laugh is considering her age. I almost died when I heard it. Music to my ears!

And now for the sappiness, she's still our sweet, happy, funny little cheeser of a goofball who gets funnier by the day and I just love her so much!