Baby Palmer!

Congrats to Randy & Katy Palmer on the birth of their baby girl Ryan! She was born yesterday evening around 9:30pm, weighing 6 lbs 14 oz. She was a week late, so mom & dad were really ready for her to be here! Chris and Randy have been best friends since middle school, so this is really special. We can't wait to go meet her when we get home.

The beach has been great. The first day and a half were kindof a mess from tropical storm Cristobol. Since then it's been good weather, fun times and family. Life is good.

EI

We are off to Emerald Isle in the morning. My sister, Elizabeth, and her family are en route from Michigan as I type. It's going to be a fabulous Smith family extravaganza with my entire family for the week! Last time we went, Meredith was just learning to crawl, so this time will be quite different to say the least. I can't wait! I am hoping that the weather forecast improves, but we'll have fun no matter what. I wish bags could pack themselves too, but guess that's out of the question :) Off I go to pack!

Mommy, I stopped crying

I realized that I haven't really done a good post on just Meredith lately. So, here are some of the funny things about Miss M these days.

-The funniest one lately is that she tells me when she is done crying over something. One minute she is having a total meltdown and then she tells me 'Mommy, I stop crying' and then she is as happy as a clam. It is like someone flipped a switch! It makes me laugh every time because she is so darn upset and then she just decides she is done.

-Back in May, Meredith was sick several times and we made a couple of trips to the pediatrician within a very short period of time. We talked a lot about how we go to the doctor when we don't feel well, but also when we feel fine so that we can be sure we are healthy etc etc. Now, she will just start spouting off things about the 'dodor' now about how they look in her ears, and eyes and mouth, all while pointing to each thing and using the funniest inflection in her voice. You can see the Ped office from 70 (it's in Brier Creek) and she points to it and starts talking about the doctor. Funny kid.

-She has a baby doll that she has randomly named baby Lucy. I have no idea where that name came from because we don't know anyone by that name and I'm not aware of any characters on tv with that name either. I'm guessing it came from someone at daycare, but it cracked me up when she was asking for baby Lucy and I had no clue what she was talking about until she went and got the doll. Random.

-She recently got her first Barbie doll courtesy of her Mimi and she calls her 'Bahby'. I guess it's the 'Bahston Bahby'.

-She has some play money at my mom's house and then she'll drag out some index cards at home and call them her moneys. She has decided that everyting costs $2.99. I'll ask her how much something is and she quickly replies with $2.99...where did that come from??

- She plays in her pink tent that is in her playroom a lot. She often wants you to get in there with her, but that is a different story. She always wants to zip it up, but she can't say 'zip', so it comes out as 'Mommy, Yip it'.

-No matter what store we are in, she will find a backpack and put it on while we walk around the store. Of course, she thinks she is Dora with it on, but it is hilarious because they are always huge on her and it will hit her on her calves while she struts around the store talking about how she is going to get on the bus with her 'packback'. Hey, it keeps her occupied for awhile. We've only gotten roped into buying one so far and it had a beach towel in it, which she needed anyway!

- There are two horses by our house in two separate fields that we drive by every day. Chris decided to name them Pinto and Bean, which I thought was hilarious. So, every time we drive by we wave at Pinto and Bean...she loves it! If they aren't in the field we'll make up a story about how Bean is taking a nap or Pinto is eating dinner. I think one day we'll have to knock on the owners' doors and tell them how much Meredith looks forward to seeing Pinto and Bean every day :)

Ok, that's enough for now. Off to Emerald Isle next week! Hope the forecast improves!!

Pictures

I finally got around to uploading our recent pictures. I'll post Hilton Head first and probably put more up over the next few days.

Back to the grind

We had a great trip to the Hilton Head and I think the only thing keeping me going is knowing that we go back with my family in 2 weeks to Emerald Isle!

Chris and I ended up going into Savannah on Monday, which is only about an hour from Hilton Head. We ate at the Paula Deen restaurant, The Lady & Sons, and it was just wonderful. We actually went there in 2005 when I was pretty newly pregnant and I remember feeling like I wanted to pass out or puke the whole time we were there, so needless to say, it was a better experience this time! On the way back to HH we stopped at the outlet mall and went the the Coach store to get my anniversary present...yes, I am the proud new owner of my first Coach bag! Trust me, there was a reason we went to the outlets and don't believe for a second that my husband would ever pay full price for something. It really turned out to be an excellent bargain and I'm pretty pleased :)

The rest of the week we pretty much just baked in the sun at the pool and watched my little water baby swim. We got her some water wings and it was the best dollar I've ever spent! She even has a little tan line where her wings were! We ate some good seafood, relaxed a lot and I got to finish a book and a half (reading just never seems to happen at home for me and I LOVE reading at the beach. This was the first year since Meredith was born that I actually finished a book on vacation!)

Meredith ended up doing quite well on her little blow up mattress. Her bedtimes were late all week long, but hey, we were on vacation! We also found out that she *HATES* fireworks. We walked down to the harbor, which was just on the other side of our condo, just in time for the fireworks to start. It is a really neat area called Harbour Towne and there are all kinds of restaurants and shops right along the marina, but it gets really really ultra crowded on the 4th, which is why we waited until the last minute to go down there. Chris put Meredith up on his shoulders and the first two went off and at first I thought the look on her face was excitement, but it quickly turned to shear terror and tears soon followed. She just kept saying 'I don't wanna, I don't like it' with tears streaming down her face and reaching for me. We decided not to force it and just went inside and she loved watching them on TV! She quite happily said, 'I like fireworks' while comfortably sitting on the couch...that's my kinda girl :)

That pretty much summed up our vacation. Now I'm back to work and I'm not all that thrilled about it. Hopefully the next two weeks will fly by and I'll have my feet in the sand again before I know it!