Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was wild and crazy, but good. We had around 30 people at our house. It was a combination of our family, Joey's family (my new brother-in-law) and the wedding party. Meredith did really well and thankfully had lots of people who were more than happy to keep an eye on her while mommy ran around like a chicken with her head cut off!! This picture is from her Aunt Allison....she can take those stairs like lightning now!

Wedding

Quick picture from the wedding this past weekend. We are downstairs at the church before the wedding....more later.

Walking?

Well, Miss Meredith is certainly on the go these days. She kinda sorta took her first step last night. We had gone over to our neighbor's house to drop off her birthday present and Meredith was standing next to the ottoman and she reached out and stepped over to the chair. Now it may have been considered more of a fall forward type thing, but there was foot movement and she wasn't holding onto anything, so it kinda counts. She totally loves her little walker and last night when I got home from class she was just scooting all over the house with that thing. I definitely had one of those moments where I said, "my baby is so grown up!". The walker seems to have become somewhat of an obsession actually. She will make laps of the house over and over (with some steering help of course!). I guess the good thing is that it wears her out big time and she sleeps well!!
On the flip side, she hates to wear bibs! I can usually sneak it on her without her noticing too much, but as soon as she figures out that she has it on, she starts pulling and pulling until the velcro or snap gives way. I had one on her the other night that is the kind that just goes over her head with no snap etc. I had to actually take it off of her because I thought she was going to hurt herself by pulling so hard! She just gets mad when she can't get it off! Interesting little phase here.
Ok, this was just a quick note today since I am home from work to be cleaning and getting ready for the big Thanksgiving and wedding events! Meredith is sleeping, so back to work!

November

It has been forever since I have posted! Life has been really crazy the past few weeks between work, school & Meredith. I only have a few weeks left in this semester, but that also means case studies and final exams...fun, fun. Hillary's wedding is a week from tomorrow and family starts arriving early next week for Thanksgiving. Let the fun begin!
Meredith is all over the place. She had her 9 month pediatrician appt last week and weighs 21 pounds and is 28 inches. She is in around the 80th percentile with everything. She had a finger prick so they could check her blood for anemia, flu shot and two other shots. She did well with her finger and just kinda watched as the nurse squeezed her it to get the blood out and she was especially fascinated with the bright blue bandaid she put on her finger and of course tried to eat it. She screamed as loud and as sustained as she ever has with the other shots. She even kinda glared at the nurse as we passed her on the way out of the room! She took a Tylenol induced nap when we got home and then she was totally fine the rest of the day (I took the day off to be with her). She has to go back next month for the second dose of the flu shot since babies under a year only get a half does the first time.
One of her favorite things is climbing the stairs and she bolts for them constantly now. She just kinda looks up at me and then takes off crawling toward the stairs and she giggles and squeals the whole time she is heading towards them. She gets to the landing and turns around and waves! It is the cutest thing ever! She also loves her walker and she can take off across the room pushing it and walking...we try to hold on to it since it goes too fast otherwise, but she is walking well with it. I don't think it will be too terribly long before she takes her first step by herself!
She's eating all kinds of good stuff. I just gave her yogurt for the first time this week and she got a little weirded out by it, but ate it up! She also likes cheese as well. Chris got her some biter biscuits (these little gerber cracker/cookie things that are shaped so she can hold it easily) and she just chowed down! Last night for dinner she was a bottomless pit! She really doesn't need the bottle nearly as much any more and she often doesn't even finish them anymore, so I don't think we are going to have too hard of a time weaning her from the bottle when the time comes. She loves her sippy cup and does well with that too.
So, that is the quick Meredith update :) I'm sure there is more going on, but since I'm stealing time at work to type this, I better get back to it!
This picture is the day before Halloween at the pumpkin patch!

8 month pictures

These are two of the pictures from Meredith's 8 month portraits. I have to credit her grandma Simpson (Chris's mom) for the idea of doing all white. I think they turned out awesome!!
Yes, she is 9 months today, but these things take time!

9 Months

Meredith has been a busy girl lately! She has now climbed both sets of stairs (meaning she got to the landing and made it up the next set as well) and she can do it quite quickly I might add! She is now officially wearing 12 month clothes and is about to pop her feet out of 12 month sleepers already! I bought some 18 month sleepers yesterday and they just seem huge, but I guess they won't be for long. She has been doing incredibly well with eating her finger foods. She has had all kinds of stuff like cauliflower, peas, beans, potatoes, pears, apples, carrots and she seems to like it all. Actually she seemed to really like the cauliflower a lot, but it doesn't seem like she has a clear favorite or dislike. She does make a HUGE mess now because I just put the food on her highchair tray and let her go to town, meaning that it gets dropped all over the floor and all over her! She definitely prefers feeding herself over being fed, so getting the pureed baby food in her has been a challenge...especially since she likes to grab the spoon as it's on the way to her mouth!
She had her first weekend all by herself with daddy this past weekend when I went down to Wilmington for Hillary's bachelorette weekend. They seemed to do really well other than Chris never changed her out of her PJs all day Saturday! I thought that was hilarious! He did admit that it was a tough job all by himself.
Meredith is standing all by herself now. She has stood for at least 30 seconds if not longer without any support. She just loves being on the move and doesn't want to be slowed down by anything...especially silly things like diaper or clothes changes! One night it took me almost 15 minutes to change her diaper and get her in her pajamas because she was wiggling and wanting to crawl off to something more exciting. I have learned how to put a diaper on her while she is standing up....that's sad! Her bath is a whole separate challenge. Since Randy is living with us right now, I have been bathing her in our big garden tub in the master bath. She loves it, but she feels the need to stand up all the time, which worries me because she could slip, so I bought one of those anti-slip mats. It definitely helps because she is no longer content just sitting calmly in the water!
I wanted to upload some pictures, but it won't seem to let me right now...seems like that happens a lot!