Busy!

Life is just a crazy mess lately. Class is keeping me super busy two nights a week, plus at least one study group night and homework as well. We had some drama with one of my groupmates from my huge strategy class. He quit our group because he wasn't happy with the decisions we were making and the schedule we had mapped out for meeting wasn't planned enough....whatever. He is taking this way too seriously and the unfortunate part is that all 4 of us have gone through the past 3 years all together and had become friends, but he has chosen to sacrifice that. Trying to move on, but I am having some serious anxiety over this semester because of that issue and because he left our group, we have a lot more individual work to do now... Ugh, I could go on, but I won't.

Meredith is wonderful. Her birthday is Friday and we are having a party on Saturday, so we are looking forward to that. She has both teeth on top and 4 on the bottom now. It's funny because now she liked to scrape her graham crackers on her teeth so she can hear the noise! She just started this hilarious thing the other night of holding the phone up to her ear (well shoulder really) and acting like she's talking. She'll walk around the house holding the phone (or remote control on occassion) and talking. I guess this is the first blatantly obvious example of mimicking, but it also made us realize that we both need to be careful about what we say and do around her!! I certainly let a bad word slip every now and then around her, so I don't want her first real word to be a bad one! Her favorite thing to say lately is 'eh' really loud and repeatedly. She especially likes to hear herself echo in a room with a high ceiling. I've decided that she reminds me of my grandpa because he couldn't hear for anything and would always would yell 'eh?'. Have I mentioned that one of her favorite toys is also the nasal aspirator that we got at the hospital? I think that the rubber feels good on her gums(yes, it is clean!). I know, weird huh? She has just started to actually play with toys. The other night we both watched in awe as she sat on the floor for probably 2-3 minutes and just played. This child NEVER sits still, so it was pretty amazing!

We went to Tennessee this weekend since my in-laws can't come down for her party this weekend. It ended up being a pretty good trip. Chris & I got to spend most of Saturday out and about Knoxville doing some shopping, dinner and a movie while Mimi watched Meredith, which I know is all she wanted to do anyway! I will be very happy to turn her carseat around after her birthday because I think that her legs were a little cramped on the 6 hr trip and she wasn't all that happy on the way home. Also, I won't have to break my back reaching back there to pick up whatever she has dropped.

More teeth- #4 and 5

No new pictures...we're really bad about uploading pics.
This has been a big week for Meredith. She sprouted two new teeth over the weekend, her 4th on the bottom and her first tooth on the top. She has woken up at night for a couple nights, so I think they are bothering her a bit.
She also started a new daycare yesterday. It is an in-home licensed daycare and there are several other children there for her to play with. I specifically note that this is a licensed day care, which really does seem to have its benefits in comparison to just having the neighbor watch her and cart her all over the place, regardless of the convenience of her living next door. Chris and I both dropped her off yesterday and she was really excited to see all of the toys and immediately started playing. Apparently she didn't sleep much at all, so she was pretty grumpy when she got home, but sounds like she had a great day otherwise. Chris dropped her off this morning and he called me to tell me that as soon as Prissila opened the door, Meredith gave her a huge smile...so, something went very right yesterday :)

Tooth #3

I'm not exactly sure when it happened, but sometime in the last few days Meredith sprouted her 3rd tooth on the bottom right. I have been so busy looking at her top gums (which are sooooo swollen) that I didn't even think to look for another one on the bottom! (It is not an easy event trying to get a look!) The top two really can't be far behind considering what her poor gums look and feel like. She has also had a pretty runny nose the past few days, which I hear is a sign of teething, but then again it could be the freaky weather we are having too! Overall, she has been in great spirits though. She woke up several times last night, but never seemed to upset. She is home today with daddy for MLK day. Teaching doesn't pay much, but man it's a nice schedule!
She went to church with Nana & Papa on Sunday because she spent the night with them so that we could go to a party Saturday night. Apparently she had a great time in church and was clapping and moving to the music, but decided to make lots of noise when it was quiet, so she went to the nursery during the sermon and had a great time with the other kids. Graham crackers were also something to keep her quiet, but she still isn't the cleanest when it comes to eating and it ended up on her and her Aunt Hillary!
This weekend went way too fast :(

January

Well, seems like we are back into our routine. I have been sick with a bad cold for the past week or so and am just feeling like I'm back to normal. Thankfully, Meredith has managed to stay well. I was home from work Friday and Monday, so I feel totally off kitler.
I started class last night and it seems like it's going to be a bear. This one is my final Capstone, so I expected it to be a lot of work, but it is never fun when the syllabus has a table of contents!!! We'll see what my other class will be like on Tuesday. I'm nervous about the semesters, but also just want to get going so it can be over!!
Meredith is walking more than she is crawling now. She still needs to pull up on something to standing, but I don't think it will be long before she figures out how to stand up on her own. Oh, she started clapping last night! Chris said she did it for the first time while I was at class, but he kept her up late so I could see her yesterday and she did it for me too :)
Her latest really odd play thing is the lint roller. We keep it in the bottom drawer in the kitchen and she come over, opens the drawer and pulls that thing out all the time. She likes to walk around with it waving it around. She still loves to carry her dad's tennis shoes around by the laces. The coasters still rank up there, but the remote control has lost a little luster lately.
She seems to be putting together more gibberish that sounds like she's talking, but not any real words to speak of yet.
We were at Kohl's the other night and it was totally dead, so we let her walk around a little bit in her new shoes and she walked right up to these two ladies that worked there and started pushing the cart that one of them had. They were very nice and thought she was adorable and Meredith just got the biggest kick out of the whole thing, she was making very happy screaming noises the whole time. She is just awesome and is so happy all the time. She makes us laugh every day :)

Wagon

Meredith loves taking rides around the house in her new red wagon :)

Here Comes Trouble!

Walking while licking the lid to a pot!







Standing in the laundry basket.







This is my wonderful child :) Note her shirt says "Here comes trouble"....too true!