Momentous Day!

Big news, Meredith slept through the night last night without a pacifier!! We haven't really been pushing it and had given ourselves a July cutoff date (our friend's are having a baby in July and she was going to 'give' the baby her pacifiers since that baby will need them since she will be so little.) She really only has it at night most of the time now, not much during the day unless she uncovers one that was randomly in a bag or under the couch etc. I have been wondering if she really needed it at night anymore (well, I know she hasn't actually needed it for awhile now) and last night it really kindof happened on accident because when I went to lay her down there was no pacifier in her bed like usual. So, she asked me to go get it and basically I just never came back with it. She never called out for it one time and slept beautifully through the night. It did probably help that she was really tired since it was past her bedtime (we went to the 8th grade graduation at Chris' school). She asked about it this morning and I just said I didn't know where it was and she totally dropped it. We just laid her down for her nap and she is jabbering away, but not asking for it. So, I know it is too early to call, but we are making major progress!!

We just got home a little bit ago from the Sesame Street Live show and she had a blast. We had great seats and she only had two fairly minor meltdowns. It was awesome to see the amazement on her face as all of the characters came on stage. Priceless.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend! Keep your fingers crossed on the 'pacifaser' (the latest pronunciation).

Happy Memorial Day

I have been terrible about keeping up with the blog lately, oops. Suffice it to say that we have been busy with a little diarrhea here a little puke there, a lot of overall funkiness, several trips to the pediatrician, one false diagnosis of hand foot and mouth disease and another 'the puking and pooping is going around' diagnosis. It is just very frustrating to never quite know what is going on with your child when all I know is she is a miserable little thing and I can't do much to make her feel better. I did one of those crazy days Wednesday of going into the office super early, coming home to get Meredith to bring her to the ped, back home until Chris got home, back to the office oh and I fit in a dentist appointment for myself too. She is doing much, much better now, and I have been very thankful for a nice long break from daycare to detox. She'll go back tomorrow and she only has one more full week after that until Chris is out of school for the summer (and my jealousy begins).

I also had my 10 year Meredith reunion last weekend, which ended up being a lot more fun than I had expected. I really didn't plan on going, but a couple of friends talked me into it, so I wrote my $65 check (ugh) and went. I sang in the alumnae choir, which was actually pretty fun since I sang in the Chorale in undergrad and we even sang one of the songs I sang back then. I won't be booking any singing gigs or anything, but it was a nice thing to do that I haven't done in a long time. Our big event was Saturday night at Prime Only downtown and there were probably 60 people that came. Good to see a lot of faces I haven't seen in 10 years. Most everyone had put on a few pounds and most everyone had kid(s). Maybe successful people are the ones who go to reunions, but it was interesting to hear how many people had gone on to get their Masters degrees and have great jobs etc (not that I'm really including myself in the 'successful' crowd). I don't think I really rekindled any major friendships or anything, but I think I may go in 5 more years without as much kicking and screaming. Here are a few pics with Meredith girls class of '98.

Hope everyone has had a nice relaxing Memorial weekend. I got to see my good friend Kelly and the kids played, which was really nice. I always love chatting with her :) We had a cookout yesterday with my sisters (Mom and Papa are in Michigan), but otherwise, we haven't gotten anything done we had planned on doing this weekend. I'm sitting on the patio enjoying the gorgeous weather, dreading returning to work tomorrow...at least it's a short week.

Mr. Rogers

Meredith hasn't really been very interested in Mister Rogers in the past, but she just watched an entire episode. I was quite surprised that I was singing along with the songs word for word. Guess some things never leave you!

Busy weekend

We had a nice and very busy weekend. Friday night was spent preparing for Randy & Katy's baby shower. I cooked up a storm and the best decision ever was that we didn't have it at our house. I am such a total stress case when I have stuff here. I love doing it, but between cooking, cleaning and all of the setup for something like that, I just become an unbearable mess to be around. So, the shower was at the Adams house and it went really well. It was actually a surprise for Katy and she seemed genuinely surprised and didn't go into labor or anything. They got lots of cool stuff and it is really amazing to see how much things have already changed in two years since we got baby stuff! I bet registering now would be lots of fun because I know what I needed and didn't need at all.

Meredith decided to get feverish and clingy while we were at the shower, so we made a quick exit and got her home. She still REFUSES to take medicine, so I managed to forcefully squirt some Tylenol down her throat and I left her home with her dad. I went to this very interesting event at the Unitarian Church for a group that supports a small Nicaraguan village. One of the men who spoke only spoke Spanish, so I did my best to grasp his accent and I managed to understand bits and pieces before the translator confirmed or denied if I was on the right path. I have to say that I was quite unaware of the travesty that our country has imposed on this country over so many years. I guess I was one of many who has fallen victim to believing what you see and hear in the media and from our government....This is a group that my mom has gotten very active with and my sisters and I wanted to go and support her and we all learned a lot at the same time. Hillary, Allison and I went out for dinner afterwards and it was really nice to have some girl time.

Meredith was still acting a little whonky on Sunday morning, so I went to church by myself and met up with my mom, dad, Hillary, Joey and Allison. I did get Mother's day breakfast made for me, which was nice, but it appears that by the third mother's day, it doesn't warrant any more than that. Our female minister gave an awesome sermon about how the Holy Spirit is really the feminine/mothering part of the Trinity and how the church never talks about it, almost like keeping it a secret. It was nice timing to have Pentecost and Mother's day on the same day. She joked that they would never let her preach if the two fell on the same day again. Funny how her sermon parellels mothers in general...they do all the work and get no glory.

After church, we went over to my parents house and had yummy chinese takeout. We all decided that we were too tired to cook (and that would also mean that the men would be in charge of an entire meal and that would take away from watching golf...hence the takeout) and Imperial Garden is the best chinese afterall! We also combined Hillary's birthday into all of this too. It was nice to be with my family. Came home and resumed all normal mothering duties...now I think I know why my mom may have been slightly grumpy on past Mother's days...because nothing really changes, even for one little day.

Monday morning I had a not so fun procedure. I had an upper endoscopy done, which is where they stick a camera down your throat to check out your stomach and all that good stuff. They did give me some drugs, but I remember enough of it that I know I don't want to do it again soon. I have a nice sore throat, but I also didn't have to work yesterday either. Actually, I would have much rather been at work... I find out next week if they found anything.

Hungry

Meredith has started telling me she is hungry, but when she says it I laugh out loud because I swear it sounds like "Mommy, I honky". SO funny!
Happy FRIDAY!!

Creative!

Meredith loves yogurt, so I often give her a cup while I'm figuring out what to make her for dinner. Last night she had a cup of yogurt and I had also poured her some milk into a 'real cup' and given her a straw. Her creative little mind decided that she should suck the yogurt through her straw! It was so funny to watch and she actually ate/drank most of the yogurt this way! Maybe it's time for those yogurt drinks.

We were in her bathroom last night 'brushing' teeth (I say that word loosely) and she stopped and looked in the mirror and said 'I Mernith and dat's my Mommy'. Not sure who she was talking to, but it made me laugh out loud.

I'm moving offices at work once again (musical chairs around here) and while packing up my desk yet again, I decided that it was time to take home the flip book of baby pictures I brought to work with me when I came back from maternity leave. So, these pictures are from birth to 3 months, so she was really little. She started flipping through the book in the car and she made all kinds of oohs and aahs over the 'tiny baby' and that 'baby is cying'. She was just enamored by this little book and I kept trying to tell her that the baby was her, but she was more interested in pointing out mommy, daddy, nana, beezer etc. The one thing that was so funny was that she was totally bothered by the very newborn picture where she still had the big clip (I'm sure that's the medical term!) on her belly button where they cut the cord. She kept pointing at it saying 'what's dat?' and seeming very confused and almost upset over it! I guess she figured that everything else looked like a baby, but that thing just didn't belong there! I talked to Chris this morning and he said that they had to take the book with them in the car this morning too. So funny!

Weekend

Our weekend was all over the place. Friday was Chris' field day at school, which is probably the biggest PE related event all year long, so he was at school by around 5:30am. So, I took Meredith to daycare, which always throws me off since he takes her 99.9% of the time. I end up getting to work later than I normally do since I can't take her before a certain time, so while it was nice to actually see her in the morning, it kinda threw off my whole day (plus she cries when I leave her since I take her so rarely).

Then Friday night Chris' sister and brother-in-law came to stay with us to get some time away from the hospital waiting room in High Point. Their grandfather is remaining fairly stable, but is actually in surgery again right about now to repair the remaining damage that has caused him to continue bleeding internally. More prayers please.

We had a neighborhood yardsale Saturday morning and I went to the MS Walk, which is one of our company's biggest community events of the year since our two biggest products are for MS. It was at the RBC center and apparently no one felt there was a need to direct traffic, so it was a total disaster trying to get in and park. It was a beautiful day though and it felt good to get some exercise outdoors.

Kaci and Evan ended up staying Saturday night too and then left early Sunday morning. Meredith and I went to Sunday school and decided to skip big church since she was already on her second meltdown of the morning by the end of Sunday School. She did act interested in singing some of the songs this week, but is still more interested in the toys in the classroom.

We put the pitiful amount of money we made at the yardsale towards a new kitchen table to replace the glass top one we had (note: if you have a child, a glasstop table is not a smart thing to have unless you want to buy stock in windex). It is one of those pub tables that sits higher than a regular table. We really like it even though I think it is a little big for the space. The picture shows 8 chairs and the leaf. We put 2 chairs at the island and kept 4 at the table.

Prayers

Chris' grandfather on his Mom's side had an aneurism (sp?) burst in his aorta yesterday. He lost a ton of blood internally and wasn't looking good; however, he made it through surgery and is in ICU fighting really hard. At 87 this is pretty much a miracle to have made it this far. He still isn't out of the woods, so he still needs lots of prayers. So send some good prayers his way!!
Thanks.