Get Ready!

We are sitting in the airport here in Orlando waiting on our plane to come home. Internet access was expensive at Disney, so I didn't connect there except to log in for some school work a time or two, but I did journal each day. I'll be posting those when we get home, so get your reading glasses cleaned off. I'll be posting a book for your viewing pleasure (and lots of pics too!)

I will just say that we had an absolute blast!!!!!! A sneak peek....

Sailing Adventures

Yesterday we embarked on a totally new adventure.....sailing. It was, well......an adventure. We learned a couple of very important things about sailing. #1, never be in a hurry or on a time schedule when sailing, you'll end up late. #2, you cannot get from Point A to Point B, you must learn how to track (I think that's what it's called) across the water back and forth to get to where you want to go. #3, stalling stinks! And #4, you need to carry extra boat parts with you somewhere on the boat, because if you lose a pin that connects a something major to the main sail, it makes it very difficult to sail. But, all in all, it was fun. Meg really enjoyed it, and probably would've even more if Nervous Mommy would've let herself on the shoreline, but I just couldn't help it. It will take some getting used to. Being at the mercy of the wind was a totally new feeling and I will admit to feeling powerless, even though I was in charge of the jib (I know you are totally impressed by the use of my sailing lingo!) which helped to steer the boat. I'm sure as time goes on and we get more practice sailing, Nervous Mommy will relax and Meg will have even more fun. When I asked her at the end of the day which she like better, kayaking or sailing she said sailing was much more fun because it was faster. What a lucky kid to kayak and sail in the same day!

Oh....and tomorrow's the big day....we head off to Disney World. The debate is still on as to whether or not I'll be taking my computer. I may, so check back later this week, as I may update from there if I get online for class.

Summer **Rules**(both meanings of that word)

Meg was oh so excited to kick off summer vacation yesterday morning that she woke up at 5am. Ummmmm...that is NOT gonna work for this teacher on vacation so I decided that I must implement some summertime rules. She isn't really into napping, but she really needs a rest time still, so I decided to tell her that if she's up before 8:00AM she has to take a nap, if she's up after that, NO NAP! That sounds reasonable, doesn't it? So, here's how the morning goes this morning:

About 7AM I hear her stirring. She keeps peeking at the clock (it was her one night every two weeks that she gets to sleep in my bed) Finally at 7:23, she groans and says, "It's NEVER say 8:00 on that clock!" Then she proceeds to tell me that she has to pee but she won't get out of bed to go because if she does she'll have to take a nap. Ummmm...that's not the way that work. Peeing in my bed would void out any deals I'd made! I guess the point is that we have some work to do. Slowly her body will adjust to sleeping later, right???? Until then, WE, yes WE, will be napping from about 1-3. DO NOT CALL OUR HOME PHONE and if you call my cell phone, it will be on silent and I will not answer. I love summer vacation! :)

On the loose!!!!

It's really happened...after having "loose" teeth for over a year after Cousin Claire started losing them, it has happened for real. Meghan really does have a loose tooth now. She was shocked beyond disbelieft this morning when she discovered it. She told me she had a crack in her tooth and couldn't figure out what was going on. It's one on the bottom (her first one to come in) and she is sooooooo excited. Now....the waiting begins for it to fall out. She's debating on eating an apple. Greg told her not to because it would fall out, so she's thinking that she might want to. She wants that money from the tooth fairy so she can take it to Disney World. Smart kid!!

I can't believe my baby is old enough to really have this happening. :( Another bittersweet milestone....it seems like an avalanche of them lately. Ear piercing, preschool graduation, kindergarten starting soon. Man time flies! Gotta cherish each moment as they come.

One more

I missed this photo and it was too sweet not to post...Meg and Kate...

Preschool Graduation!

What a neat ceremony it was! Meg has been singing most of the songs for a while, so I was pretty well versed in them, but it was still cute to watch all the little kiddos performing. They sang the ABC's, a counting song, the five little monkey song and even a song which they signed. Meg got really into that one, really belting it out. =) She was all primped up for it. I think she put on every piece of jewelry she owns this morning. Earrings, necklace, and two bracelets. She even put on her ruby red sparkly shoes for the special event. She looked like a beautiful graduate and I was quite proud of her!

How cute are the caps on gowns on preschoolers?

The monkey moves

With her favorite assistant Miss Jody

Notice that blingy necklace?

What pretty flowers!

These last two pics are for a comparison of the year....the first is from her first day of school and the second one is from today. My how fast a year goes......

Ugh....

This is the part of parenting that is not so fun and enjoyable. Meg has been battling pneumonia since February. She had chest x-ray number three last Friday. We got a call that is was clearing, which made me feel better, but....as all things go, when I picked her up from the sitter's just yesterday, she informed me that the cough was back. Dang! I really was hoping it was gone for good, but no such luck. We went back to the dr today and he put her on an inhaler for the mean time. I guess if you want me to look on the bright side of things, I didn't have to give them her name. They already knew it and Little Miss Thing walked back to the room shaking her butt, so they wouldn't forget her anytime soon. They made a comment about what a little diva she is. Uh huh...you got that right! I asked the receptionist if they had any kind of punch card where I could buy five visits and get one free, but apparently there is no such thing in the medical world. Shucks! Hopefully we'll be in to see a pediatric pulmonologist in the next week to get some more answers and help to kick this once and for all!

Preschool graduation is tomorrow....apparently they'll be wearing little caps and gowns. How cute is that gonna be???

Whatta Weekend!

Whew...I'm exhausted! So much for weekends to be for catching up on rest, huh? Here's our recap:

Friday after school, Claire and Kate came home with us. We had to make a quick detour for Meg to have yet another chest x-ray at the hospital. (Pneumonia is still not all gone....grrrrrr!!!) That was fun, three young girls in tow at the hospital, everyone just gave me a polite smile like "Gee woman, have you ever heard of birth control??" I just smiled right back...I can't tell you how tempted I was to start swatting at imaginary flying creatures or doing some nervous tick just to make people think I really was crazy. HA! They were all very good and my sweet little darling even shared her Hannah Montana stickers with her favorite cousins when she was all done. I was quite proud of her.

Grandpa came down and ate pizza with us before the whole gang headed out to Meg's soccer game. And by whole gang, I mean WHOLE GANG! We loaded up in Grammy's van...all nine of us...I even had to sit of the floor because the big 'ole van didn't hold us all! HA! Meg was pretty fired up that she was going to have such a big audience for her game, unfortunately, it didn't last too long. The game had just gotten under way (she had already had three or four big kicks) when lightining struck and they called it. We all rushed back to the, only to sit in the parking lot for 20 minutes during a pretty fierce storm, hail included. A trip to Dairy Queen helped to calm everyone's nerves afterwards. =)

Saturday, baseball was cancelled, so we decided to head out camping for the night. The boys and Meg headed over early in the afternoon, while I worked. I picked up Meg's friend after I got off work and we went over later on in the afternoon to meet up with everyone. The two girls had a blast playing on the playground, in the sand and we even all went fishing today. We even managed to keep all five kids spread far enough apart today that no one's lines got tangled. That in itself is a victory! Kyle was the only one to catch a very tiny bluegill, but they still had fun. Meg had a bit of a problem Sat. night before going to bed. A small black bug was on her pillow. She flipped out and is now refusing to use that side of her pillow. It's her favorite pink pillow, so she can't sleep without it, so she just flips it over and is using the other side. Silly girl! I would be happy to wash it for her, but my washing machine broke on Friday night. (Yep.....just what I need another problem at my house.....I'm thinking about setting up a Homeowner's Repair fund at the bank so if you read this and would like to donate to it, please email me for information! ;)

We came home this afternoon then had to head to the rescheduled baseball games. Meg was thrilled to be able to go and watch, although I think she was much more interested in the concession stand. She at a bag of candy, nachos and a couple of cheese sticks, then drank an entire bottle of water that she was supposed to share with me. And yes, we had just eaten lunch before we got there!

The last big news of the weekend is that she has been able to change her earrings this weekend finally. She is making sure that everyone knows this and to be honest, she's driven me nuts asking me 3,000 times what earrings she should wear next. She also asked the boys tonight if they wanted to see her earrings one more time before we headed for home. They told her no, but she ran over to them and showed them anyways, and they of course looked at them. They are much too nice to her to really tell her no!

Preschool graduation is in 4 days.....pics coming soon!!!!!!!!!!!!

That Bad?

Remember the post a while back when Meghan was calling me Mother? That really kinda bugged me, but lately she's taken to calling me something worse. She calls me Miss Hannigan....like from the movie Annie. She and I rented this movie and watched it this winter so now when I ask her to do something like pick up her toys or dirty clothes, she'll respond with "Yeeeees, Miss Hannigan." Geez...am I really that bad????

Oh.... and I must share this too so you get a chuckle. We met a friend of mine today after school to visit. She's expecting a baby in early September, so she was telling Meg and me that her doctor said she'll want to find a pool to hang out in this summer to stay comfy. She was asking Meg if she could come join us in Mamaw and Papaw's pool. Meg told her that would be ok, that she would probably fit ok in the deep end with her big belly. We about fell off of our seats laughing. Ahhhh....sweet innocence of a preschooler.

Blogger Slacker

Yeah...that's me.....a blogger slacker. Life's been nuts lately. We've been kinda homeless for the past week or so (maybe temporarily displaced is more of the right term, since that nice neighbor we have we have took us in for a few days) due to a sewer problem. The weather's nice so we are outside as much as possible playing and I am in the last week of a class, so I worked really hard last week to finish all my work early to give myself a self-imposed much-needed vacation from Master's work. That means I've actually not been tied to this computer which has been a nice feeling for once! :) Anyways, enough about me...I know no one really comes here to read about me and wacky life. One of my faithful followers emailed today reminding me that she hadn't read an update in a while and made a friendly reminder about posting pics too. **Don't worry, you'll get pics too tonight!!!!**

Guess I'll share some funny Meg stories from lately.

1) My last post was about kindergarten round-up, so I must share this. On our way to school the morning she was to attend this she was asking me question after question about what to expect. She wanted to know what kinds of things they were going to ask her. She even wanted to practice counting. (I stopped her at 140-something and told her that if she got to 10 they'd be happy!) When I mentioned that they may ask her to identify colors, she got very quiet so I knew something was up. A couple of seconds later (that's all the longer she can be really quiet!) she said, "Uh, Mommy, I forget what that bluish-greenish color is called....is it teal?" I told her yes, but then I also explained that only easy colors would be asked like red, blue and yellow. Can you say OVERACHIEVER-TO-BE? Ha!

2) We were eating dinner the other night and for all who don't know Meg doesn't like potatoes. She spit out mashed potatoes at me as a baby, which about freaked me out, what kind of weird kid did I get that doesn't like mashed potatoes??? But, she's never looked back. She will not eat any kind of potatoes really, even french fries aren't a big hit for her. Yeah....weirdo, I know. Anyways, for dinner I had made cheesy potatoes. I put some on her plate and told her she had to take one bite, as I usually do to encourage new tastes and not have a super picky eater. She took a bite and ended up eating them. I also had some on my plate, but I got full and didn't eat many. She was being a big helper and clearing our plates off of the table. When she got to my plate she told me she wouldn't take my plate. When I asked why, she told me it was because I hadn't finished all my food. I told her I was full, but then she said in a voice that souned waaaaaay too much like mine, "You need to eat one more bite!" She got me!

3) For Mother's Day, she had made all kinds of special things for me at school and at the sitter's. One of the picture frames she'd made at school had plastic jewels glued all around the outside. I was gushing over how beautiful it was when she explained that she had picked out all jewels for my frame and no plain buttons because I was a "fancy" person who wore "fancy" clothes. If I were Miss Jody (one of her teachers at Preschool) she would have put buttons on there because she doesn't wear "fancy" clothes like her mommy. I will take that as a compliment! I also loved what her card read....she loves me because I let her watch Supernanny and sleep in my bed on Friday night and play with the boys on the weekends.

4) For Mother's Day the three of us took our bikes to a local state park and rode around for the afternoon then played at the park for a while. It was a gorgeous day and we had a blast. She made sure to keep telling me that she loved me and told me Happy Mother's Day at least 10 times. We stopped to grab lunch on the way home and got a big cookie to share. Meg finished her meal first and started eating it. I told her that she needed to share some with Greg so she tore him off a bite the size of a chocolate chip. He told her that her challenge was to break it into three equal pieces. She thought for a minute, then broke it apart. Two of the pieces were about the same size, with one piece being bigger. She looked at it, looked up at us, then looked back down at it. As quick as she could she tore off a hunk of it so it was even with the others and popped the extra into her mouth. She then declared, "Now they are all equal!" She got us again!

5) We spent tonight at Grandpa's playing with the horses. Meg and Kate rode Belle (the Palomino mini) for a while. Meg did a great job learning to control her on her own and was very excited about saying "Whooooooaaaaaa!" and making her stop on a dime. She even got up on the big horse June for a little bit and rode her. Uncle Ryan even hopped up there and they loped together. She told us it felt like being on a bunny rabbit and hopping. One might think that as a parent I'd worry about her falling off the horse in this situation. I tend to be a worry-wart mother, but falling off the horse doesn't concern me too much. However...I should have been concerned about her falling off the gate tonight. She had climbed up on a gate to watch Ryan ride, while I led Kate around on Belle and she fell backwards off the get. I just heard a big thud, Ryan yell "Oh Meghan!" then a loud scream. She ended up being ok (the pics below are post-fall) but it scared the crap out of her and me. Note to self....remind child to stay off gate!

The next big thing in life is that next Sunday is the big day that her earrings can be changed. She is anxiously awaiting this time and is counting it down on her calendar in her room. The first pair that she is going to wear keeps changing, so that is TBA....

b

Ready for Round-up!

Kindergarten roundup is this Friday. Meg is so excited and ready to go to school, and I'm excited to see her go, but yet a little sad too. I can't believe how quickly 5 years has gone. I know I already posted about that so I won't continue. It's just that I just picture her in 5 more short years and she'll be a 10 year old! YIKES! Those are the age kids I'm looking forward to getting away from after next year. HA! I'm sure she'll stay as sweet as ever though, right???

Anyways, back to round-up... I know they do a screener to see what strengths and weaknesses kids have. I discovered another "strength" of hers this morning. We were in the kitchen getting ready to leave this morning and I hear her singing letters in what I thought was a random order. I was in the process of packing my lunch and it was still dark outside since school starts at the crack of dawn, so I wasn't fully paying attention. She kept doing it and I finally told her that she was being silly and she better not sing those crazy ABC's for Mrs. Stevens on Friday. She looks up at me and tells me that they are not crazy ABC's, but that she was singing the alphabet backwards. I didn't believe her so I told her to sing it again....sure enough she knows the freaking alphabet backwards! I even had her do it a second time so I was certain. She said she heard it as a song at school the other day and just learned it. Man! I wish I had half the memory she did. I'm still convinced that while I was carrying her she sucked all my memory out of me! Here's proof of little-miss-know-it-all new talent...

So my daughter....

We just finished up dinner a little while ago. I asked Meg at the end if she had had enough. Here's her response word for word- "Uh, no Mommy, I haven't had dessert yet!" HA! What meal is ever complete without dessert...what was I thinking???? Ice cream to the rescue!!!!! =)

What a "Pig" Time It Was!

Meg has been obsessed with pigs for a long time. When she was only two she helped to convince Papaw to get a pet pig after watching Charlotte's Web. It was no surprise to me when she decided upon a pig theme for her party this year. It was the first time in a couple of years that a princess theme wasn't chosen, so I was kinda glad it was different. We found very cute pig plates, cups, napkins a pinata out of a catalog and I had some great help at school create a giant pig for Pin the Tail on the Pig. This is when being a teacher with a creative assitant really pays off! :)

Meg's cousins and friend came over about noon. One friend was unable to make it because she was sick. Meg's big concern with this was that she wasn't going to get her present from her. We've got a little work to do in that area yet.....:/ We ate Pigs in a Blanket, cheese puffs and apples for lunch. Mud Puddles were our dessert (a brownie with some hot fudge in the middle...mmmmm!) Then we painted pig noses and a pot to plant a flower in a little later outside on the deck. (I forgot to tell that the weather was absolutely PERFECT! It was about 70 degrees and completely sunny. I couldn't have asked for better weather!) After that we played Pin the Tail on the Pig where everyone won a book....why wouldn't that be the prize since Meg's mom is a teacher right???? Then we went to the basement to bust the pinata. It was supposed to be a pull string one which didn't work out quite right, but that didn't matter. We eventually busted into it and the girls had just as much fun picking up all the stuff and putting in their bags. I'm sure the little horns were parents' favorites. HA HA! After that, they went back to jump on the trampoline and play on the swingset for a little while to wait for the pig noses to dry. Then, we had a pig snorting contest which was pretty cute. They all planted sunflower seeds to tend to and take home too. It was a fast couple of hours and I think it was lots of fun. Meg was pretty tired afterwards and took a nice long nap.

5 Years!

Meghan's first comment to me when she woke up today was reminding me that she was now 5 for two whole days! I'm wondering how many days she'll keep track of this and remind me about it! :) It's an amazing thing to think back over the past five years. So much has happened in life that some of seems like it was an eternity ago, yet when I think back and remember lying the hospital bed holding my sweet baby girl for the first time, it seems like it was just an instant ago. I remember the feeling of joy and also the fear of thinking I'd have no idea what the "right" way to raise a child was. Being a teacher and a believer that learning as much as you can about things is the best was to prepare, I'd read as much as I possibly could, but I still didn't feel prepared and ready to raise a child. Some how, as everyone said it would, you just know what to do and how to do it. There are so many things I never thought I'd be able to do. I had a fear that I wouldn't know if her cry was because she was hungry or or had a dirty diaper. I knew, instantly. I had this big fear that I'd never be able to give her a "fever kiss" like my mom did and know when she had a fever or was sick. Somehow I do. I had a fear that I had no idea how to get her potty trained. That was pretty easy.

If you know me at all, you know that there were a million other things I worried about, but somehow, it's all worked out ok so far. I still have fears, my most recent one is that I'm never gonna be able to teach her to ride a bike without training wheels. I'm sure soon enough though, she'll be whizzing around everywhere. Five years has passed by so quickly and thinking about all of the changes she's gone through is fascinating. I can only imagine what the future holds for this amazing little person who grows up more and more every day right in front of me. I feel honored to be her mother, even if sometimes I still feel like I have no idea what I'm doing and don't deserve the title. Not everything can be found in those silly books, you know?

I've got pictures to post from birthday party #1 and from soccer, which finally started tonight in freezing cccccold weather. That's for another night though. As much as I love this little angel, she's destroyed my house the past day with all of her new toys and such. I've got some picking up to do! G'night for now....

Easter Celebration

We had our Easter egg hunt and celebration with the family on Thursday night. It was a great time. Meg got lots of candy, some $$ that will be put in her Disney souvenir fund and some other little toys that she just loves.

role reversal

Meg was all set and ready for bed tonight. We'd picked out books and were just about to read (which is the very last thing in the bedtime routine), when my phone rang. I was getting a soccer update and then had a little chat about some other stuff that maybe wasn't so important, but you know....Meg was apparently very ready for bed. She looks up at me and says, "You know Mommy, you need to get off the phone and read these books to me. I'm supposed to be in bed by now!" Ahhhhh...getting parented by your child. What a great feeling. I quickly told my friend that I'd better go, I was worried at that point that I might've gotten grounded or something! :)

Magical Powers Shared!

For a while now, whenever we are sitting at stoplights in the car, I have claimed to have magical powers to Meghan. I yell out Bippity! Boppity! Boo! while watching the other light, just waiting for it to turn red. As soon as I say Boo! our light "magically" turns green. Meg just loves it and thinks it's truly amazing. If Meg wants me to do this when it's too early, it's easy to stall for a few seconds and she's been completely clueless and has truly believed that I have magical powers. (Who wouldn't, as I am pretty special, don't ya think! **wink, wink**)

While sitting at a light yesterday, I decided it was time to spill my secret. We had timed the stop lights in town just right so they were all going to be red (not usually my favorite thing, but I thought I'd make the best of it for the day!) I showed her how to watch for yellow and start the saying. She caught on quickly, but doesn't quite grasp the concept about stop light timers and such, since she is after all 4......well, she'll be 5 in seven days in case you are still counting down with us! ;) Anyways, she now believes she has these powers. We were at a light tonight and she did it. She yelled out afterwards, "It's so cool that I have magical powers too!" Yes, that is a pretty neat thing. Now, as soon as I figure out how make money grow on trees....we'll be set! That secret I will not be sharing with blog readers, you'll just be noticing our ever growing shoe collection and the crumbling retaining wall that will be finally be fixed at my house!

Finally! Something to post!

Let me tell you what a long week this past one was! Meg was with her dad all week and I hardly knew what to do with myself. I will sort of admit that I had kind of looked forward to sleeping in and only worrying about myself and not answering 3,000 (or maybe it's 30,000) questions a day, but after about 2 days, I didn't really know what to do with myself. I was productive and got lots of stuff done......school stuff, master's work, yard work, house work, etc...but I know that my primary role in life is to be a mom and I wouldn't trade answering those questions or getting up at the butt crack of dawn because Ms. Thing's tummy is growling and she needs an egg sandwich at 7:30 AM on Sunday morning for ANYTHING!

Alright...enough of that. We had precisely a day and a half to fit in Spring Break fun and that we did! (WARNING-You may want to go get a cup of coffee and settle in for a long read or skip to the end if your one of those who only gets on here for pictures ;)

Saturday afternoon Mamaw, Papaw and Kate brought Oreo, our bunny, back home from his vacation home. I can't remember if I blogged about it or not, but when the weather turned cold in December we lost his friend Belle to the cold and we quickly shipped him off to the farm to winter in the barn to spare him. Meg's glad to have him back and is excited that she now has two pets to "be responsible for!"

After they left, we primped ourselves (She did waaaay more primping than I did! Ring, bracelet, necklace, lip gloss all at the ripe 'ol age of 4...yikes!) for an evening downtown to go see the Sesame Street Live Show, When Elmo Grows Up. We had dinner at the Spaghetti Factory where Meghan walked right up to the hostess station and announced to them that it was only 10 days until her birthday. (LET THE CELEBRATION BEGIN!) They seated us in the train, I assume because of her pronouncement, which just thrilled her. She devoured her favorite food of the moment, Fettucini Alfredo, and even ate the Spumoni ice cream for dessert. Then we headed off to the Murat for the show. She at first didn't know if she'd like it or not because "Elmo is for babies" but she ended up thinking it was pretty neat. I had told her the day before that one of her friends Bryce (who's about her age) had seen it and she said that didn't matter because she was taller than him. HA!

Of course she easily talked her way into my bed last night so at 7:30 it was convenient to tell me that her belly was growling and needed an egg sandwich. I held her off for a little while by reminding her that she wanted to play rummy with her animal rummy cards. I outsmarted her on that one because she hopped out of bed, ran and got them and I got to lie in bed an extra 20-30 minutes playing cards before I had to fix the sandwich! =) She's a smart one, but I'm clever too! Papaw called and told us Mamaw wasn't feeling well, so that made our afternoon plans change. We had bruch with Grandpa at O'Charley's.....which included more primping on her part. She did ask to put on makeup which the answer was "No" to. She then made me explain why she couldn't wear makeup when she's getting ready to turn 5 in just 9 days!!!!! You know...that's almost like an adult....so she says. Ahhhhhh.....I can only imagine her as a 13 or 14 year old. I need to become a Mary Kay lady or something!

After brunch, we headed to the mall for our biggest news. SHE GOT HER EARS PIERCED! This is the single most exciting thing in the princess' life yet. She barely even winced when they did it (both ears done simultaneously which is nice!) so I took her by the cookie place afterwards. She had to announce to the cookie lady that she had just had her ears pierced because her birthday is in just 9 days! I also stopped to look at the Saturn vehicles in the middle of the mall area and she told the workers there the same story. Chatty Cathy would talk to the wall if it would listen, especially when she's so excited about something like her upcoming birthday or these earrings. =) We also made a trip to Wal-Mart tonight and she had the whole conversation with the WM checkout lady who made her day by telling her that the earrings she chose made her eyes sparkle. (She also had to tell the lady at WM that her mommy doesn't do a very good job of playing Barbies and proceeded to tell her all the things wrong that I do when I play Barbies.) She had to see a mirror when we got back in the car to see how her eyes sparkle b/c of the earrings. That lady has no idea what her comment meant to Miss Meg!

When we got home we finished up birthday invitations and ate some dinner. I attempted Barbies again, but failed. Does it really matter that Barbie's pants or shirt is on backwards or that her shoes don't match her outfit????? Geez! I need a handbook or something! Oh well....maybe someday my girly girl will want to go outside and shoot baskets, then she'll see that I can do something right! Until then, I'll play Barbies and House and do it all wrong. =)

I nearly forgot! She told me on the funniest thing on the way home. She said that she knew that she and the ear piercing lady "got along immediately (e-me-dat-ly)" because she had let her have that stuffed bear she was holding in the picture to make her happy. She kept trying to say the word, immediately and finally just gave up and said, "You know what I mean Mom!"