So Lonely...

Well, Meredith is spending the week in Tennessee with my mother-in-law and my house is BORING. I know I need to enjoy the peace and quiet and all that good stuff, but it's just plain weird. I got home after work last night and just kinda sat there like, now what? It sounds like she is having a good time up there. She is way too busy to talk to her old parents on the phone, but we've gotten a few words here and there.
Chris and I went up to the DC area this past weekend to see a really fun band, Great Big Sea. I would describe them as Celtic with a Rock twist. We went with our friends Brad and Stephanie and surprisingly Randy came too (they have a month old baby, so didn't think he'd get out of the house). We had a really good time and I went to Ikea for the first time on the way home...wow, that is a cool place!
I've been pretty bad about posting lately, but nothing too thrilling has been going on. Oh yeah, turned 32 last Monday... see, nothing too thrilling.

Big Girl Bed

About a month ago we finally got Meredith a twin bed. We had transitioned her crib to the toddler bed in May, but the girl is so tall that she almost looked cramped on such a small mattress. It also did not come with a rail, so I was constantly worried she was going to fall out. I think she only fell out about three times in the two months she slept in it, which I thought was actually pretty good!

Anyway, it's been up and down with the new bed, but overall she has done really well with it. She has been spoiled this summer by being able to sleep in so late, which I suppose is a consequence of her slack parents not getting her to bed at a good time. It was kinda nice to not really worry so much about a schedule since we knew she didn't have to get up early to go to daycare. Chris started back to teacher workdays this week and let's just say that sleeping beauty is not happy to be awakened so early. Re-establishing a more normal bedtime has not been easy this week, so I'm taking the small wins of 10-20 mins earlier every night!

Here is the progression of beds over the past 2 1/2 years!

Meredith has a big weekend this weekend. She is going to spend two nights with her grandparents in Thomasville (High Point/Greensboro area). This will be the first time she's spent the night, so we'll see how it goes. Tony, Chris' dad, just had a birthday and he said that all he wanted for his birthday was to have all of his grandkids for the weekend! I think he's a little nutty, but sweet! I'm sure Luann (Chris' step-mom) will do most of the work, but it's still a nice gesture. Chris and I are excited to have a kid-free weekend...I might get crazy and stay out past 10:00!!

Two and a half is beautiful!

Recent pics from JCPenny. I wasn't too confident in the photographer, but they ended up turning out quite well.

Mama Bear

I won't go into details, but I had my first real experience with the Mama Bear in myself today. It's kinda like I can make fun of my sisters, but if anyone else does, the claws come out. Don't say totally unecessary stuff about my kid if you want to continue to be my friend. I am probably being overly sensitive, but it really hit me hard today. Just had to get that out.
Ugh, do I really have to go to work tomorrow?

Better cousin pic

I just found a much better picture of the girls. All happy and hair mostly out of faces!

More beach pics

Here is the whole Smith Crew

This is the best one of the three cousins: Abigail, Jessica & Meredith...my child was the one that would NOT cooperate for pictures at all....see above. (You can't really tell, but I got them adorable matching outfits)

Beach

At first, Meredith HATED the water at the beach, but by the last day she was totally loving it. Her Aunt Hillary managed to do something to finally get her to like it.

Here is beach day 1-6....'Nana, don't take me one step closer to that water!'

Here is beach day 7 (yes, that is a big wooden spoon...)

Con-artist..

This summer we have been sending Meredith to daycare about one day a week since Chris is out of school. It is really nice because we save some money and she still keeps the connection with her daycare provider. We had been on vacation to the beach, so she missed a week and then last week Chris went to pick her up and Prissilla commented on how we must be doing a great job with potty training at home because Meredith told her all day long when she needed to use the potty and they never even needed to change her pullup because she was dry all day! WHAT??? I mean to tell you that when we are at home she wants NOTHING to do with going potty. So, yesterday I just went ahead and put her in training pants with some rubber pants on top to see how it went if she got wet with a lot of proactive asking and putting her on the pot. Well, she wet through twice, I mean really wet, not just damp...and she could care less! We also have been trying the m&m rewards, which hasn't helped one bit. So, all you child psychology folks out there, tell me what this means??!! Is it the peer pressure at daycare because 'the other kids are doing it', she just feels safer and more at ease at home? or is she just the ultimate 2 year old con-artist? She was 2 1/2 yesterday, so it is prime time to get this done, but I'm afraid we have a ways to go!!

I'll try to post some beach pics soon... just getting them uploaded today.