Morgan Dahl

MLK Jr remembered

Christmas and singing

Morgan’s first successful visit to Santa since 6 months old, at her school’s Christmas party, making cookies with Grandpa Wetzel, a full set of stuffed Dora and friends from Dahls, a new bike, getting the motherlode from Santa (the apple was her favorite), silly hats with cousin Caroline, and last but not least… the one thing she wanted most of all… an orange soccer ball.

Also, snuck into the Christmas post because of her somewhat humorous command of the song (despite a false apparent disinterest in this particular video) at the end. Those music lessons are starting to pay off!

Thanksgiving at Outer Banks

We invited both families (Grandparents Wetzel, Grandparents Dahl, Aunt and Uncle Angie and Andy and Uncle John) to the Outer Banks (NC) for Thanksgiving this year. A great time was had by all, and Morgan had a blast playing with cousin Caroline; also featured is newborn cousin Ben.

A couple of recent milestones

Morgan can dress and undress herself entirely and easily, though she usually would prefer help.

She has moved to a big girl bed. That was about a week before Thanksgiving and we haven’t had any falls to the floor yet.

And she can write her own name. For a while now she’s been able to do the M and the O. But then she’d ask you to do the R-G-A-N. Then she moved on to just asking for the R-G and then she’ll finish up with the A-N herself. She can do the whole thing herself (I’ve seen lots of evidence on her art from school), but if Jim or I are around she still asks for help with the R-G. My guess is they refuse to help her at school so she does it there, but not at home.

And, in general, she’s just a ton of fun these days.

Canned Goods Drive

They are having a canned goods drive at Morgan’s school this week. The teachers talked to the kids about it last Friday. As we were driving home that night Morgan was adamant that we had to stop at the store on the way home to buy canned goods for the families that don’t have enough to eat. We told her that we had some things at home and that we would get some more at the store over the weekend, so we’d be sure to have something in hand on Monday morning. This was okay.

Cut to Monday morning…Morgan is super excited about taking her canned goods into school for the families that don’t have enough to eat.

Cut to Monday evening pick-up…Morgan wasn’t a great listener at school that day, so we were talking to one of her teachers about that. And she lost at a game of musical chairs mere moments before leaving (this is actually what freed us up to leave). And so on our way out the door she starts balling. I ask why she is crying (it could be any number of reasons) and she says (through tears) that she didn’t get to give her canned goods to the families that don’t have enough food! She misunderstood the nature of the canned good drive and thought that she would actually be giving the food to the hungry families herself that day. And she was distraught that she hadn’t done so. It brought tears to my eyes. Of course, I was also having to tell her about the importance of good listening and to remind her that we don’t hit our friends. But, still, it was very touching.

Halloween

Various Halloween festivities, including:
* What was supposed to be an outdoor block party, turned into an indoor party in our house
* Halloween celebration at school, including trick or treating in her daycare’s office building
* Trick or treating on Halloween night

Dancing at Cox Farms

Much as last year, the highlight at Cox Farms is still dancing with her friends…

Fall Festivals

Morgan has been having fun at the usual array of Fall festivals. Pictured:

• Maryland Renaissance Festival with Grandma and Grandpa Dahl, followed by a stop at the Blob’s Park Bavarian Beer Garden to celebrate Oktoberfest
• To King’s Dominion (amusement park) with some friends
• To Cox Farms twice — once for a birthday party, once with her school

Couple of quick notes

Morgan hasn’t taken a bath since June or July. It is all showers all the time. Now she even washes her own body (though I have to name the body parts to remind her), gets her own hair wet, tries to shampoo her own hair, and rinses her own hair. There have been a few times when I get to hang out in the bathroom, keep an eye on her, and only help with the shampooing. It’s almost relaxing!

And on logic…the other night we were driving in the car on the highway and she was worried that it was dark out (how could we see?). I told her that our car had lights on the front to help us see. She complained that she couldn’t see the lights, so I pointed out the headlights on the oncoming cars and told her we had lights like those. After a moment she said “if I can see their lights, they can see the lights on the front of my car!” Which is true. And surprised me.

She has also discovered that the turning of the steering wheel is associated with the turning of the car. She thought that was quite cool.  It is a little unclear what she thought the driver was doing before discovering this, though she does know the driver turns the red lights on on the back of the car (the brake lights) to tell other drivers to slow down.

Photo catchup – Irish Festival and Labor Day in Ocean City

Morgan has always loved the Alexandria Irish Festival, but this year took on a new appreciation for the dancers. For weeks afterward her favorite game was pretending we were on stage, taking turns dancing, bowing, then having the announcer come out and announce the next act. Even a torrential downpour (not captured well in the waterfront photo) didn’t seem to bother her.

We also returned to Ocean City, MD, for Labor Day. Molly and I concluded that this was our first vacation away from home, just the three of us! We had a good time, hitting lots of new things — rented a bicycle for a ride down the boardwalk, her first time on a boat (a pirate ship, at that!), and building sand castles.