Delivering Elijah: October 2012

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Delivering Elijah

October 2012


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Table of Contents

Delivering Elijah The Places You ll Go Naming Question Simple Diaper Change Four Categories of Children when it comes to fastening them into car seats Happy Halloween 26 Weeks Selfie

Comments Notes about Halloween


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The Places Youll Go

We spent Saturday afternoon inside Babies R Us looking at the gear that we re going to need

to get before you re born. Don t take this the wrong way but, dude, you re going to require a lotof gear! Much of it was old hat stroller, play pen, car seat, bath tub, etc. We tested out two carseats in your mom s car just to see how they will fit. It s going to be a wee bit cramped in thebackseat, but we ll manage. The Windstar was nice, back when your older brother Josh was ababy, but Kayla rode in the backseat of the Cavalier for the majority of her babyhood, and thingsworked out.

As I thought about our time out in Saginaw, it occurred to me that it was a lot like shopping forgifts for your very first birthday.

This reminds me that there are going to be a lot of places and stores to introduce you to. Yourbrother and sister are getting older, so they can t take as much advantage of certain things. Likethe play areas at the malls. The mall in Midland has an area set up where you can climb aroundon a gian t bed, television set, and (I think) toothbrush. They re all padded, as is the floor, so itssomewhat safe if you fall. Your brother became really good at jumping across the gaps inbetween the play furniture. Not something I ll recommend until you re at l east four.


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Babies R Us is one of those stores which sound like they re perfect for babies, but when youreally think about it, they are actually for expectant parents and parents of babies. Why isn t itcalled Parents R Us, then? I don t know. Toys R Us will probably be closer to your speed. Iused to love going to this store because, of course, each one seemed like it was the size of awarehouse and had aisle after aisle of every to you could ever think of. For example, if you

wanted to find a Star W ars toy, you could be sure that Toys R Us had it. Now, the stores havedownsized quite a bit. They are more like a typical store than the magical land o toys that theyseemed to be when I was nine or ten.

And, of course, there are a lot of fun attracti ons around here which don t also happen to be retailstores. The kids had a fun time at the Detroit Zoo and at Greenfield Village, and I hope that afteryou ve grown a little older that we ll be able to take you to these places too. For several years ina row, we went to see Thomas the Tank Engine at Greenfield Village in April. It probably won tbe too long before you learn who Thomas the Tank Engine is from your older siblings, althoughJosh and Kayla both swear that the charm has been ruined by the updated cartoons. Somethingabout the mouths actually moving.

Your brother still has the train table that he got when he was two years old, but I think that hegot rid of most of his train sets. Josh has since moved on to Star Wars (my influence),Pokemon, and Nerf guns.

So, anyways, on the days when you ride Thomas the Tank Engine, this is a weekend whenThomas gives kids a ride around the edge of Greenfield Village.

Another big part of the day was also spent inside the Thomas the Tank Engine gift shop, whichwhen you think of it would give Toys R Us a run for its money except it only sells Thomas andFriends merchandise. Toys, t-shirts, tents, whistles, hats, videos, bowls, plates, spoons,

shoeswell, I couldn t possibly remember everything they sell there. Your Grandma Morgan will probably want to take you to the water park in Milford when you reold enough to go down the slide. Even your brother Josh doesn t mind riding the slide, althoughfor a while there he was a little intimidated. Your sister, Kayla, took to it pretty quickly.

It s been a while since we ve gone, but I want to take you to the Balloonfest in Howell sometime. Your sister and I actually rode up in a hot air balloon when she was around five or six. Theballoons are actually pretty cool when they re being filled and launched.

Being born in February, you will probably experience a lot of these events during those first fewmonths. Like Country Fair Days. Every year, my cousin throws a Fourth of July party back at thelake, and holds a fireworks display.


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Naming QuestionTheresa Morgan

Naming Question: In general when looking at baby names, I tend to naturally veer awayfrom names that begin with the same letter as our last name. It just seems an odd flowto the name to me. For example, Matthew Morgan or Michael Morgan (not in our choicesBTW) Am I odd? Or maybe over thinking things (as usual).


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Simple Diaper Change


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Four Categories of Children when it comes to fastening theminto car seats


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Happy Halloween


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26 Weeks Selfie

26 + 2 weeks. And my hernia sticks out further than the monkey.

Comments

Nancy Boyne there s monkey Lori Rae Draper Linder awwwwwwwwww.sooo cute!! Josh Alan Morgan my little monkeyRebekah Grippen Bump!Amelea Volz awwww awsome aunt theresa


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Notes about Halloween

I ve been so busy these last couple of months that I ve fallen behind on my messages to you.Hopefully this one will help to catch you up on what s going on.

Your brother and sister are both dressing up as Harry Potter characters for Halloween this year.(Who is Harry Potter? Don t worry, it won t be long before you know everything there is to knowabout Harry Potter) Kayla is dressed up as a Slytherin student, and Josh is dressed up as

someone from Gryffindor.

With the weather turning so cold this week, its a good thing that they had a chance to wear theircostume at least once over the weekend. Kayla wore her costume to a Middle School dance onFriday (Halloween themed), and they were both able to wear their costumes on Saturday whenwe stopped by Walmart and the skating rink in Mount Pleasant.


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There were some departments at Walmart which had decorated their area, so the smaller kidshad some fun walking around and trick or treating. They had also converted a part of the storeup front into a makeshift movie theater, where they were showing It s the Great Pumpkin,Charlie Brown on a huge TV screen. It worked out to meet your mom at Walmart after shefinished her shift. We also met up with Kayla s friend, Kiki, and her aunt and uncle. We invitedboth Kiki and Tyler to come with us to the ice arena, and actually their aunt and uncle ended upgoing to.

The Halloween thing at Walmart was relatively new for us, but we ve been going to the BooBash at the ice arena for three or four years. Your sister likes to go there to skate, and I usuallytake your brother, Josh, around the second level where businesses set up tables and pass outcandy.

So, I don t know if I mentioned this but as a part of the Boo Bash the kids are allowed to weartheir costumes while they are skating on the ice. Tyler probably had the most memorablecostume he was dressed up as a Whoopee Cushion (something else I might explain to you afew years from now, although I have a feeling that Josh will beat me to it). I lost count of thenumber of people who laughed at his custome and asked him to make that sound. And, hedidn t mind playing along.

So, Tyler, Kiki, and your sister ended up skating out on the ice, while Josh and I hung out for alittle bit upstairs. Your mom had gone with us to Boo Bash, so we sat and watch the skaters.Then, Josh, Tyler, and I headed back home. Your mom returned home with the girls around an

hour later.On our way home, we picked up a hot-n- ready pizza and breadsticks. Yes, I m happy to reportthat our technology has reached a state of sophistication which allows us to produce a pipinghot pizza in less then ten minutes. Or, maybe its just that the heating lamps are more efficient.I m not quite sure.

After we made it back home, the three of us watched The Avengers while we ate our pizza.The super hero movie is also one of those things that we will need to introduce you to almost as


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soon as you have enough of an at tention span for an entire movie. Actually, I think that Man ofSteel might actually be released to theaters in time for your birth, but most likely we ll be takingyou to see the sequel, or using the classic movies to introduce you to Superman.

The only thing that we did which was Halloween oriented on Sunday was carve pumpkins.Sunday morning, the kids and I went to church, then stopped at Walmart where your brother gota haircut. (Are you getting the feeling that we spend a lot of time in Walmart? Wait until you reborn and your mom is bringing you in to show to her co-workers!) We spent most of the rest ofthe afternoon carving pumpkins.

Tonight the three of us went to Josh s Cub Scout Halloween Party. We ve gone for the last threeyears, I believe, and the tradition has been that the boys dress up in costumes, and then goaround to different stations in the lunch room and try gross foods. Last year, someone madebaby poo, which the boys were encouraged to try (don t get too excited about next year, because it wasn t real) and our neighbors usually bake chocolate -chirp cookies (with realcrickets that they killed, and then..well, I ll tell you the rest when you re older). This year, there

was alien -poo, and some other gross sounding things that the boys were challenged with. Iwas pretty proud of your brother, because when it was his turn to eat the alien poo he actuallydug right in and tried to finish eating it before the other boys did, but lost the race. He also did agood job reading his lines during the presentation at the beginning of the meeting.

We are heading in to a part of the year which is usually very busy and very exciting for us. Ithink that your anticipated arrival has turned everything up several notches. As it stands, weonly have three solid months before your due date, and your mom has already suggested thatyou might decide to come even earlier.

Your mom has begun converting our closet into a baby nook. This involves moving our clothes

and other things out of the closet and into different parts of the house, and then your mom willbe adding wallpaper to liven up the space a little bit. Its not much, but the house doesn t have alot of space for a fifth person, even though you will be small at first. Eventually you would shareyou r brother s room, although that would only be a short term solution. We will probably want tomove to a different house eventually.

So, tomorrow is going to be a pretty busy day. Your brother will march in the Halloween paradewhich is put on by the school. Because of the intensely cold weather, there is a strong possibilitythat the parade will be held inside the school, but it is a lot of fun to watch the kids when theyparade down Wright Ave and through town.

Your sister will also be dressing up for a Halloween assembly in the afternoon. Then, afterschool we will be taking them out trick or treating. It looks like we will be visiting the dorms fortrick-or- treating. This isn t something that we ve tried before, it will be a new experience evenfor me! I don t even think that I participating in Halloween when I was a college student at CMU,but then again it has been a long time.

During trick or treating, kids stop at each house around the neighborhood, knock on the door,and then say Trick or treat. Literally, that means that they are asking for a treat or they will


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pull a trick as revenge, but in modern day terms it just means, please give me some candy.Usually, when we ve gone around Shepherd, the residents will be waiting on their front porch s oit doesn t take very much effort to ask for candy.

Another tradition related to Halloween is the haunted house. Your sister went through a hauntedhouse put on by the Shepherd High School Art Club last Friday. People basically walkedthrough the art room and were scared out of their shirts. I walked the Haunted Trail behind SaltRiver Park. On Halloween night, kids have the chance to walk through the Haunted Train car,and I red that there is going to be a haunted bus.

We always remember that you are on the way, no matter what the conversation is. Today I toldKayla that she will have lots of opportunities to go trick or treating during the next ten years (giveor take a few) considering that she will have another brother to watch over. Not that she willhave to do it alone; I wouldn t want to miss a single one of your Halloweens.

Delivering Elijah: October 2012

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