Maighan was born 30 June 1997 after over a week stay in the hospital due to preterm contractions.  She was born at 35 weeks weighing in at 6lbs 5.5oz and with a length of 19in.  She was a beautiful healthy pink, and perfectly healthy.  And she's been a joy to her family from day one. 

Maighan has always been a very independent stinker.  She's never really liked being held close or snuggling of any kind.  There's always been something she couldn't miss.  But she has always been a great sleeper.  And started sleeping through the night at 8 weeks old...plus an average of 3 naps in the day. 

Maighan started life on the smaller side.  But she quickly caught up and surpassed the averages for her age.  Now at 2.5 years, she's well on her way to do great in her life.  She loves to learn.  We figure that mentally she's at a 4 year old level.  She knows her ABC's verbally, and can now recognize most of them visually.  She can now almost count to 30 - with only a little trouble around 14.  And she's getting better at counting objects.  She can name all her colors.  When given a new challenge, it only takes her a couple of tries to figure it out. (She's definitely her Daddy's girl!)  The computer is quickly becoming her favorite toy. 

It's so easy to get caught up in thinking that she's older then she is.  But emotionally and socially she is still 2.5 years.  We call her our Crisis Girl, because when things don't work the way she wants she falls apart like it's the end of the world.  She's also our little Drama Queen.  She loves to ham it up with phrases like "It's just not fair!" "I just can't do it any more!" and "I a stinky skunk!".   But she's also got a heart of gold, and often tells us how  much she loves us.

Maighan loves to sing.  She and her Daddy have been making up songs long before she could talk.  Now she sings many of her favorite songs from memory - often reminding Mommy of how they go.  Her favorite character is Winnie the Pooh, so any song Pooh sings is the best.

Maighan became a big sister on the 26th of October.  Her brother Mikael was instantly accepted by her - even to the extent that she wanted to share her O's with him.  There have been a few little trials as she adjusts to having a baby around, but she often shows her great capacity to love.  She's always asking to hold and help him.  And even gets upset when he cries.  She has decided that reading to him is great fun, and Mikael loves the attention.  It will be great when he is able to play with her more than he can now.

This years Christmas was great fun for Maighan.  She wasn't too thrilled about sitting on Santa's lap this year, but she loved all the presents and toys.   She even loved all the clothes she got.  One of her favorite toys has been her interactive Pooh Bear.  She loves the fact that it'll sing all her songs with her.

Maighan is finally getting into her baby dolls.  This is probably because it allows her to imagine her own baby.  She has really gotten creative, and will often follow behind Mommy changing her baby's diaper, feeding it like Mommy does, and patting it when it's mad. 

Maighan has taken on the new challenge of potty training.  She always goes when asked, but hasn't gotten the hang of catching herself before she wets in her diaper.  But she is getting better, so there is progress.

Life is always a joy with Maighan - of course there are trials and frustrations as we all learn to grow together, but Maighan can always make her family happy and proud of her. 

Maighan is growing into a little Lady.  If you were to ask Mommy and Daddy, they'd say she was 2 years old going on 25 years old. She loves to help with her Baby Brother Mikael. She's so fun to watch her with him.  Maig's growing so fast - she had to get new shoes last week!

Maighan's nicknames are "Monkey", "Maig" and "Maiggers".  She loves to sing.  And she loves playing at Church Nursery.  Being one of the oldest in her class, she loves to lead her classmates.  Unfortunately she hasn't learned the difference between being a leader and being bossy.  But she is learning.

Maighan loves to have her hair done up pretty - even if 10 minutes later, she's pulled everything out of it!  She loves to wear dresses - often insisting that everyday is Sunday :-).

Maighan is potty training still.  One of the problems is that Mommy often forgets to remind her to go every 3 hours.  But Maig is still excited about learning.

Maighan is too smart.  She is constantly surprising Mommy on the speed with which she picks up new skills.  Her Grandma Van gave her a couple of wood puzzles (ABC's and 123's).  Within 5 minutes of opening them up, Maig had dumped the pieces and replaced them in their proper places - with no help from anyone.  Auntie Trrish was absolutely stunned!  Maig's recognition skills is amazing!  Her Grandma Bonnie and Grandpa Ron sent her a Pooh Preschool computer software for Christmas.  She now knows most of her ABC's by name and some of her 123's as well.  Mommy's fear is that she won't be able to keep her entertained and learning!  Mentally Maig seems to be about 2 years ahead - Mommy doesn't want her to loose that.

Maighan loves to watch Pooh movies and Beauty and the Beast!  She now has a couple hours of quiet time in the afternoon.  This replaces her nap time.  Maig had decided that she didn't need to nap, and it became a huge frustration for everyone.  Quiet time seems to work much better.  Because she is often exhausted by 6pm - her bedtime is now by 6:30.

Maighan is a happy learner.  She picks up on things so quickly.  Especially if it has anything to do with letters, numbers, or puzzles. She has been trying hard to learn the alphabet and numbers.  Now she knows most of these by sight.  And is learning to write them!  She has memorized her phone number and her full name.  Maighan is a huge amazement to her mother a lot of the time :-).

Maighan got to meet his Daddy's family over Spring Break in March.  It was so much fun visiting everyone.  Maighan loved all the attention.  She especially loved Charcoal (Grandma Bonnie's dog) and Wally (Great Grandma Campbell's' dog). Because they live in California, we were able to play outside.   Maighan loved playing with the flowers and playing ball with her Daddy :-).  While we were there, Grandma Bonnie took us to see the California Living Museum.  That was a whole lot of fun!  Maighan got to see a lot of different animals.  And she even got too see dinosaur bones! 

We had a bit of an adventure on our way home from California.  Our car died on us about 30 miles west of Tahoe - about 1 hour from home :-(.  Maighan and her brother did great - it was Mommy who had a hard time.  Daddy had to walk to a phone, leaving us in the car.  Maig and Mik slept through most of it thankfully.  And luckily a Highway Patrol came along - he helped Daddy call Grandpa & Grandma Van, who drove up to help us get home.  Unfortunately, the car was a goner :-(.  Grandpa & Grandma helped us get another car, which is better and bigger though, so everything has worked out for the best :-).

Something very exciting has happened in our area.  We now have a temple in Reno.  Temples are very important to us, and it's so exciting that we now have one close.  We took Maighan to the open house a couple of times.  She was so very good, and loved to see all the pictures of Jesus.  Her favorite part of the temple, I think, is the Angel Moroni on the top.  She calls the trumpet he is holding a "doodoo".  And because "Moroni" is a bit difficult to say, she calls him "Macaroni". 

Maighan is growing so fast.  I can catch glimpses of the young woman she'll be some day.  I just hope she keeps many of the little girl qualities I love so much :-). She is such a good little girl.  Of course she's still a 2-3 year old.  Maybe I'm just prejudiced, but I think we have the best!

Maighan has a 3 year check-up in a couple of months.  I'm curious as to how she is on all the "charts".  Maighan is trying to learn to jump rope.  It's her new obsession from "Dragon Tales".   Maighan is such a good big sister. She loves to play and help her baby brother.  It's so much fun watching them play.  Their laughter and giggles fill our home with joy :-)!

Maighan is doing very well.  Mommy is hoping to get a bit more vigorous with the potty training by her third birthday.  We're just a bit leery of getting stuck at a very difficult time in the process when we need to go to Utah for Uncle Ron going into the MTC. 

Maighan continues to increase her knowledge of the alphabet and numbers.  She's getting really good at counting objects in a group, so it won't be much longer when Mommy can start introducing addition and subtraction.  Maig is also getting pretty good at coloring within the lines. 

Maig loves her brother, and is getting more confident in her playing with him.  The only difficulty is that she gets really nervous when he spits up.  She also gets a bit nervous when he gets one of her toys.  But this is the beginning stages of learning to share.  She knows the rule that if she leaves one of her toys on his blanket area, then it's fair game for him.  She's getting pretty good at knowing what things she really doesn't want him playing with and putting them away.

Maig is growing so fast.  She's no longer the Toddler that Mommy often misses.  She loves dressing pretty, and often asks when Sunday is - the day she knows she can wear her "pretties".  One of her birthday wishes is to have a new necklace (her pretty pearls went through the wash which washed off the coating-and Mommy promised her she could get another for her birthday - or at least something pretty for her).  She reminds us each Sunday that she gets a new necklace for her birthday in June!  Her birthday will be so much fun this year! :-)

Mommy has worked hard putting together 2 other picture pages for Maighan.  Fingers, Toes, Eyes, & Noses  is a fun page of close ups; and Black & White  is a page of fun black and white pictures.  Mommy hopes to add to these regularly.  And another big surprise!  Mommy figured out how to add sound to the web pages.  So the Hear Me section works now.  Come see!  Come see!  We plan on adding a bunch of new stuff over the next few weeks.

Maighan is such a big help with Mikael.  She loves to play with him, even though she is still learning how to play gentle.  One early morning, Mommy woke up to her throwing her match box cards into his crib.  Mikael wasn't crying, so she must have not hit him, or he didn't mind - after all, he had the toys now. Maig also loves to sit and read him "Once upon a time..." stories, and then they bust up laughing.  It's so much fun hearing them laugh and giggle together. 

Maighan is having a bit of trouble with panic a fears.  She doesn't like anything that is or could be a bug.  At the beach she refused to step in the sand because of ants.  She actually had a intense panic attack.  But she didn't mind playing in the wet sand near the water.

Maighan loves to play outside, and now that the weather has been so nice, she has been able to play in grandma's backyard.  Mommy has to admit that it's been a bit hard letting her do all this by herself - Mommy still sees her as her little baby.  But she's been doing great.  She loves playing in the dirt and blowing bubbles.

Maighan caught an ear infection from her brother.  It's been much more difficult with her now, then when she was younger.  The doc finally ordered us a prescription for some ear drops that numb the pain - what a great invention!!!

Maighan went on a long trip to Utah at the beginning of the month to take her Uncle Ron to the MTC.  Even though riding in the car is not her favorite thing to do, she took the 9 hours in the car very well.  Maig gets to take the long trip again when we go meet her Uncle Ron at the Salt Lake Airport when he flies out to Pennsylvania.  Daddy is going to try to see if we can hook up the little tv and vcr for the long ride - hopefully it will help keep her entertained.

Maighan went through another ear infection just before going to Utah.  Mommy really hates that she was hurting so much - but we're really glad that she is now old enough to tell us what it hurting her. 

Maig got to ride a lot of rides at the Springville Art City Days Carnival.   Her Grandpa Van spoiled her :-).  The first ride was a little dragon roller coaster - Maig (and Mommy who took her on it) didn't like it very much...it was way too rough.  But Maig loved all the other rides like the Merry-go-Round, and even another dragon ride.  She tried Cotton Candy, but the SnoCone was her favorite.  Even though she might be afraid of bugs, Maighan has no fear of any ride at the Carnival!

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