Morgan Dahl

First concert

Morgan went to her first concert yesterday — Jimmy Buffett.  Not wanting her to have a false impression of a Jimmy Buffett concert, we of course took her about 4 hours early for some tailgating.

Everyone had a good time.  She was quite popular in the parking lot, especially among men who usually quipped, “I wanted to bring my x-year-old, but my wife wouldn’t let me.”  Morgan got a little freaked out when they closed the gates in front of us for a medical emergency, trapping us in a bit of a mob, but we quickly extricated her and all was well.

New clothes

In anticipation of daycare, we’re trying to build up her clothing stock a little.  We got some nice (pronounced: expensive) outfits, and a few silly ones.  You see both of these in the videos below, but here they are.

P.S. Her “treehugger” shirt reads “I <heart> <tree>”, “I <heart> <flower>”, “I <heart> <earth>”.

Laughs

She’s been laughing and smiling for a week or two now, but very difficult to capture on film (usually you’re entertaining her to make her smile, so can’t get a photo).

Since we haven’t posted a video in a while, here’s a montage of our best attempts.

Milestone: Furthest from D.C.

As Molly noted below, Morgan went the furthest ever from D.C. this weekend, down to Richmond VA to stay with grandparents Wetzel.  Yahoo! Maps reports it’s 96 miles from the beltway to Richmond, her furthest excursion by far.

Note also that the grandparents’ place in Richmond is somewhat more… rural than anyplace Morgan has ever been.

Parent’s Weekend Away

Jim and I attended a wedding celebration in Fargo last weekend, sans Morgan.  She stayed with Grandma and Grandpa Wetzel in Richmond.  We flew out on Saturday morning and back on Sunday evening, leaving her alone with the grandparents for about 36 hours.

I think this was much harder on us than it was on her.  We both missed her tons. But, the grandparents loved it and Morgan ate well, slept well, and didn’t scream her head off the whole time we were gone.  So, all in all, a rousing success!  Plus it sets good precedent for future babysitting/visits to Grandma and Grandpa’s.

2 month “well” visit

Morgan got some pretty tough immunizations today.  We had to give her Tylenol before the appointment, and she was already screaming when the doctor announced, “she’s really not going to like the next one.”  Molly said that shot brought about a wailing we’ve never heard before.  Unfortunately, it looks like she gets the same series a couple more times:

Immunization Schedule (pdf)

Her growth remains great:

• 10lbs 7oz (50th percentile)
• 23″ (75th percentile)
• 15 3/4″ head (80th percentile)

Her head’s flat spot remains a problem and we’re supposed to switch from trying to move her to the right side some of the time to never letting her rest on the left side, so are beginning using wedges to prop her into place for sleep.

Next “well” visit isn’t until 4 months, but the doctor wants an ultrasound to make sure her hips are developing correctly, so will get that in a couple weeks.

Push Ups!

Morgan has been putting in some serious time on the tummy, working on the muscle control needed for eventual crawling. She has managed to increase her chest/arm strength and coordination so she can do a little push up. You can tell by her face, she’s working hard!

When it rains it pours (daycares)…

In all fairness to the craziness that is infant daycare in DC, we did get a call from another daycare provider yesterday. They had a slot available for Morgan starting in mid-September. This daycare (which will remain unnamed) was in no way superior and in several ways inferior to the daycare we have with Small Savers. So, obviously we’re sticking with Small Savers. I just thought it was interesting that we did, in fact, get another slot offered to us. (I applied to 19 different daycares. Small Savers was always a favorite and I feel extremely fortunate that we got in.)

Shortly after Morgan’s birth, my least favorite daycare came through with a slot for Morgan as well.  We actually turned that one down without any other options available to us at the time.  It was a depressing place.

Facial expressions / a few photos

Morgan is definitely starting to make meaningful, instead of random, facial expressions.  She smiles quite a bit now, though we haven’t yet managed to get a great photo of such (below is our best, which is nowhere near as good as it gets in real life)

Announcement posters

Everyone should have received one of these by now.

Full size PDF

We’ve been working on this for a long time (quite a few months before her birth).  The Godfather theme, quotes, photo editing, and design of this particular poster came from me; the layout/idea of the movie poster, including things like director/location/9mo. in the making, and printing came from 5starbaby.