Update

Well, after a long and tiring several days, Chris is on the mend. He was quite miserable for the first 48 hours for sure and then just very uncomfortable since then with the help of some good pain meds. On Monday he had his post op appointment and I won't gross you out with the details of the splints coming out of his nose, but it wasn't pretty. The doctor was just so matter of fact about the whole thing and just yanked those things out like it was no big deal. I guess my thing with doctors lately is that yes, I understand that they have done this procedure a million times or seen a croupy kid a million and one times, but don't make me feel like my situation is less than important because it is new to me even though it is old hat to you! (I'm stepping off of my soapbox now..) Anyway, since the splints came out, he is doing much better. Still very sore, but at least I feel like I have my husband back!
I pretty much had a meltdown the other morning when Meredith woke up with that nasty croupy cough again, which meant I truly had two sick children to care for! Yes, it is the same thing she JUST had at Christmas. I took her right in to the doctor for meds because I'm just not messing around with that nastiness. The doctor we saw at Christmas may have been in the room for a total of 3 minutes and basically just wrote out the script, while the doctor we saw on Monday was one of those that went into too much detail and had me scared into thinking we could be in the ER at 3am. Amazing how different they can be when diagnosing the exact same thing. Don't think I cared for either, but they have the magic pen. The cough isn't nearly as croupy as it was, but I think it's breaking up and she's actually coughing quite a bit now. Ah, the joys of passing crud back and forth at daycare.
In other major Meredith news. She is doing incredibly well with potty training. (Warning to non parents: you may want to stop reading!!). I can't even believe it, but she did #2 in the potty last night! I was kinda annoyed with her because I had just gotten her night time diaper on and gotten her into her sleeper, when she announces that she needs to go 'pahyey'. Since she quite frequently just sits up there and does nothing, I told her that if she needed to go that bad, she could figure out how to get out of her diaper. Well, she was naked in a quick minute (I also think that she uses this as a ploy to take her clothes off since that is by far much more preferable than clothing these days! Apparently, every lick of clothing needs to come off to go potty!) Anyway, the next thing I know, she has produced quite the results and I was in total shock. Now, I'm thinking this may have just been a random act of kindness from the good Lord above to keep me somewhat sane, but I'm thinking we are on our way! Yeah for my big girl!

Prayers

Well, thanks to wireless technology, I'm sitting in the waiting room of Rex Surgery Center while Chris is having a septoplasty and bilateral something. So, he's basically getting his nasal passages straightened out. He (we) has recently been really struggling with his snoring and breathing, so he finally decided to get it taken care of. Basically, one of his nostrils doesn't work. Like if he closes one side and blows, nothing comes out. It is a minor day surgery, but it still isn't fun seeing your best friend wheeled down the hall to the OR. It didn't help that they started about 3 hours late. At least the waiting room has really cleared out and it's just me, 2 guys and the lady at the desk...and a great coffee pot!
Anyway, say prayers for swift healing and good results!

Ok, the doctor just came out and said it went really well. Chris earned the title of 'really oddly shaped septum', but now it should be much better!! Yeah!

Latest Vocab

So, Meredith's words are coming more and more every day. It seems like over the last month she has really transformed from just saying lots of words to putting them together and really understanding what she is saying. She uses so many facial expressions and head tilts and is so serious about some things. Chris and I just try not to laugh and answer the question we think she just asked.
Favorite words of late:
Picca = Pizza. Still a major favorite word and food.
Beggel= Bagel. A new one that she repeats over and over, she also loves to eat them! Chris went out to Brueggers on Saturday morning and she was quite upset it took him so long to get back with her 'beggel'.
Cuppie= Cup. Awhile back she switched from saying cup to cuppie. Not sure why, but it has seriously stuck.
Pi= Paci. I think around the same time as she started with cuppie, she started calling her paci a Pi. I don't think she really called it by a name before, guess she just whined for it.
Peckel= Pretzel. This has to be one of the funniest. One of Chris' favorite things to do after school is have a beer and eat some pretzels. She cuddles up with him and nibbles on 'peckels' quite often :)
Keem= Cream, Ice Cream. Just ask Nana about this one :) Just kidding!
Poyey= Potty. Just have to say we are making progress! Apparently she does awesome at school, but not so much at home. Still a long way to go, but we're getting somewhere.

Yes, I think Chris and I are mastering the language of Meredith :) Btw, her 2nd birthday is about 2 weeks away! WOW!

Pictures!

Lots of pictures from over the holidays. Enjoy!

Hello!

It has been entirely too long since I have posted, so I'll try to get caught up without being too boring! I am lying in bed at 9:30 on Friday night (isn't wireless wonderful!) next to my husband who is sawing some serious logs! My goodness our Friday nights are wild and crazy these days!

So, Christmas has come and gone. It was wonderful, but boy am I glad to get back to boring every day life! The weekend before Christmas, we had Chris' mom, step dad, sister and brother in law stay with us for a few days. So we did our Christmas with them and also had his step brothers and their wives over. Then went into Greensboro to have the big family Christmas with his mom's family that Sunday. I have to give huge props to the white elephant this year. In years past, we have had to buy gifts for everyone and it is an utter nightmare. We have resorted to really puny giftcards for the past few years and we come home with some terrible dollar store junk. This year the powers that be in the family finalyl decided to do the white elephant gift exchange and it was fabulous. We still came home with a cheese ball talking Santa, but we will be bringing it back next year. I guess my point is that it shouldn't be ultra stressful to buy gifts since that shouldnt' be the focus of the gathering.

We went to Christmas Eve service, which was just lovely...after Chris took Meredith out and let her run wild in the nursery. I was hoping she would really love all of the music etc of the service, but she just couldn't sit still. She looked just adorable in her beautiful dress and I might even say angelic if you could have gotten her to sit still long enough. I hear this sitting still thing might happen one day....

We did a small family Christmas with just Chris, Meredith and I that morning. Her big gift was an awesome pink tricycle and she was so cute when she saw it. She jumped right on and thought it was pretty cool. Then we went to my parents house for breakfast and stockings. Then we went over to Chris's step-sisters house to have the Elliott Christmas. I thought it was going to be nuts because there are so many kids, but there is also divorce in almost every family, so most of the kids were already off to see their daddys by the time we got over there...interesting stuff on that side of the family :) Meredith got some good time with her great grandparents and her other Nana & Papaw.

Between Christmas Eve and Christmas day, Meredith seemed to develop that cough that whwn you hear it makes you say, "Oh my goodness, that kid needs to go to the doctor!" It was that nasty croupy cough that sounds just terrible. It wasn't ER worthy, so we waited until 12/26 and called our pediatrician and went to their urgent care office in Wake Forest. The doctor saw her for maybe a total of 2.5 minutes and gave us a prescription. The good thing was that Meredith never seemed very bothered by the cough and it disappeared quickly after she got the meds.

We had a short lull for about a day and a half after Christmas until my sister Elizabeth, her husand Chris and her two girls Abigail and Jessica arrived from Michigan. I was very fortunate to have the whole week of Christmas off and didn't go back to work until Jan 2. We had a great time with Elizabeth. Meredith had an even better time with her cousins. They were absolutely wild. We all went to the Angus Barn for dinner the first night and mom kept the girls (she swears she's rather babysit than go with us!). She said that Meredith kept making the other girls dance with her (dancing consists of jumping up and down and waving her arms for the most part!). If one sat down, she'd drag the other one up to dance. Mom said she was just like the energizer bunny. She did not sleep well at all that night and Mom was up with her several times, so we didn't do anymore slumber parties with her cousins after that night.

We did all kinds of fun stuff. We went to the NC Zoo in Asheboro one day. It was really quite warm and we had great views of lots of the animals. I hadn't been there in at least 10 years, if not more, and it was really nice and it wasn't crowded at all. We also did a wine tasting at this little winery right in the middle of RTP, Chatham Hill. We went to JCPenny for a cousin picture. They really do a great job there and all three girls were wonderful. We decided that we just need to stick them in front of a camera to behave! We went to Allison's boyfriend's restaurant one night, Casa Carbone. Unfortunately, restaurants just don't work with Meredith, so we left Casa Carbone early and we left our favorite Chinese restaurant (Imperial Garden) almost as soon as my food arrived. Meredith definitely had me pretty stressed out at times, but overall she just had a blast with her cousins. Side note: They did manage to bring a nasty northern stomach bug with them from Michigan that managed to work it's way through the entire family....thanks!

So, I think that at least covers Christmas. I know I forgot stuff, so I'll post more later. I have lots of new pictures from my awesome new camera that I'll post tomorrow. The camera was Chris and my present to eachother. Now I think it's time to go to sleep :)

Happy Birthday to my Dad & Joey Z!

Milestones for Mommy & Meredith!

Meredith's favorite hangout, the fridge. (she is also waving a stick...don't ask)

It was a miracle I got this amount of clothing on her, and the sweater didn't last long.

What a better thing to do on a slow day at work than update my blog! I have been terrible about posting anything lately. As usual, life is busy as ever.

I finally accomplished a huge milestone on Saturday with the official commencement ceremony where I received my MBA! It felt a bit odd considering that I finished everything this summer, but it was good to see some classmates and feel a bit more energized knowing that I really did this. There is something about seeing your name in print on a diploma that makes it feel more real! It was a nice little ceremony since it was the December graduation. There were only about 100 graduates total, so it didn't take long either! Our speaker was terrible, but then again, I can't remember the last time I heard a really great commencement speaker. There were also student speakers, one undergrad and one grad. Maybe I'm just old, but the undergrad was horrid. I guess the things she talked about may have been poignant when I was 21, but ten years later it just sounds trite! It was one of the coldest days of the year and it was spitting rain, so there weren't a ton of photo opportunities. Of course, I don't have any uploaded yet.

After a nice lunch at mom's house, Chris and I headed off to Kure Beach to stay at the cutest little place, Darlings By The Sea. We had been there many years ago and have always wanted to go back, so this was the perfect opportunity to spend a beautiful winter day at the beach. Mom kept Meredith and she decided to become little Miss Independent this weekend by crawling out of the pack & play that mom has at her house. We all thought it was funny and cute and never thought she'd be able to crawl out of her crib at home. Well, that must have been the spark that made her want to give it a try and now she ever so gracefully climbs right out of her crib. I watched her from the hallway and she is a pro. The first time it happened, I didn't even here a thud when she jumped down, but all the sudden I heard 'Mommy' and it sounded very close and it wasn't coming out of the monitor. Chris and I just looked at eachother and ran up the stairs and there she was! I tried again and I met her again as she was rounding the corner in the hall. So, we let her come downstairs for awhile since it was obvious she wasn't staying put. It was so funny because she was so full of herself since she knew she really wasn't supposed to be up. You could just tell by the way she was walking around that she knew she was something! Finally, I ended up rocking her for awhile and she gave in and went to sleep. I was really hoping we wouldn't have to deal with this for awhile longer, but looks like we are going to have to make the bed transition soon. Of course, she doesn't have the best timing since I have in-laws coming this weekend and then my sister & brother-in-law next week. She is going to be screwed up as it is with all these extra people around, so the last thing I want to do is throw in a huge transition that would surely be miserable all the way arouund. She has been good the past few nights, mostly because she has been staying up late so she is really tired when she goes to bed and just wants to sleep. I know I can't stick with that tactic for too long, but I'm hoping it gets me through the holidays! So, 2008 will definitely bring a big girl bed to Miss Meredith and more headaches to mommy! We've been trying to start talking it up, but I don't think she quite gets it. We shall see! I welcome any tips on handling this transition from my other mommy friends!!

We should all watch Sesame Street

So, I really think we could all learn something from Sesame Street. We have been taping episodes so that we can just click play at whatever necessary time. I was cooking dinner and decided to keep Meredith occupied since she has given up her little afternoon nap she used to take when she gets home. She was really into the show and I was halfway listening while getting dinner together, enough to know that a main theme was our skin and how important it is for protecting us and we need to keep it clean and it might get a booboo sometimes...etc etc. Then my ears perked up when this segment started with a little boy narrating and they were showing a preschool classroom. It went something like this....
"Some of us have dark skin and some of us have light skin and there are colors everywhere inbetween. My skin is dark and Molly's skin is light (pan across the Benetton ad of colors of children). We decided to look at our skin under a magnifying glass. (Teacher passes out magnifying glasses). We noticed that we all have hair on our skin. There is more hair on the front of our arm than on the back of our arms. There is no hair on our palms. We all have little holes in our skin. So really, there is no difference in our skin at all."
I certainly didn't give this little segment justice in my paraphrasing, but I thought it was especially well done....not just for preschoolers, but for everyone! I have been really busy with work, year end assessments and the usual busy holiday season, but that just kindof made me stop and think for a minute. Big shout out to Sesame Street for such a great message!!

Forgot one

I forgot the cutest thing she is doing these days...
We have really been working on the whole please and thank you thing and she definitely figured out please first, since it results in getting what she wants. The thank you has taken a bit longer, but persistence has paid off. Now she regularly says 'tankew mommy'. Oh, it is so adorable!

Fun stuff

I just wanted to post some of the things my funny little 22 month old has been doing lately..

- Meredith loves pizza, but it comes out as 'picca'. She can see it on tv and claps her hands and says 'picca' at the top of her lungs. I promise that we really don't order pizza every night, but here and there on a Friday night or for a football game we get it.
- Lately when she has a blast in the tub, but when I start letting the water out, she lays out on the bottom of the tub until there isn't any water left and she doesn't want to get out. She just lays there all wet on the bottom of the tub...I often have to drag her out.
- She totally ate edamane the other night! A friend of mine had mentioned she added it to mac n cheese, so I thought I'd give it a try since it is so good for you. She ate it up! Love it!
- She has been saying what sounds like 'mer' for awhile, but it comes out more like 'meyo' (can't think of the best phonetic spelling!), so thought it was just her little way of saying Meredith as in possesive...or bratty. Well, in talking with our babysitter, we figured out that she is saying 'mio', as in 'mine' in Spanish!! I guess at school they often say 'mio' (mine) and 'tuyo' (yours) and she has definitely picked up on it. Chris doesn't really believe it yet, but I think I'm sold that she is just being bratty in spanish!
- She's started paying more attention to tv lately and her favorite by far is Elmo. She can see him in a commercial or anything and she screams 'emo'. She actually sits through the majority of a show now, which totally amazes me! My favorite is the Wonder Pets on Nick. The little duck with the lisp is just the cutest ever!
Ok, just a few fun things :)

An attempt at Christmas pics..

We went to Homewood Nursery thinking we could get some good Christmas shots with all of their beautiful poinsettias....not so much. The best pictures are when she found this water fountain/ball thing and got soaking wet! Oh well. Thanks to Mom for the pics!

It's been awhile!

So much has been going on and I haven't posted about any of it! Last Wednesday I got the dreaded call from the babysitter saying that Meredith had puked all over and she emphasized that it was 'a lot'. So, I had to drop everything at work (which by the way is majorly hectic right now) to go get her. She seemed a little quiet, but not too bad, so I was hoping she had just gotten herself overly excited about something and lost her lunch, but before I could even get her home she puked in the car. Now, there isn't a much more helpless feeling than seeing your child vomiting in the rear view mirror and not being able to pull over. I got her home, cleaned up and in bed and in an hour there was another showing and this process continued all evening. Poor thing couldn't keep even the smallest amount of liquid or food down. Of course, the other fun part of this was that Chris was out of town for the night. He had planned months ago to go down to Charlotte to see Carolina's first basketball game versus Davidson with a friend who works at Davidson. He felt so bad that he ended up driving home right after the game to help. It took several days for her to be back to normal, but we were thankful to say goodbye to that nasty bug; however, the snotty, coughing bug quickly entered and got the whole family. I went to the doctor this week because I thought I was getting strep, but didn't have it thankfully. Overall, there has just been way too much snot and coughing in this house. We are just now recovering from this mess, so I think we are back among the living again. It just makes me mad that I was sick for almost the entire time I was off of work for the holiday (not to mention dealing with my big baby hubby!! Why again are men so impossible when they are sick??)

I also was able to meet up with several friends last week. I had dinner with Stephanie, Ashley, Molly & Deanna on Thursday and then on Saturday I saw Kelly & Heather. All of my friends have kids, so we all pretty much did the mommy talk and hubby talk. It was lots of fun to be able to have some fun adult time even if we talk about our sweet kiddos :)

Thanksgiving was lots of fun. We went to my parents house and my Aunt Marcia & Uncle Les came down from Michigan. We just had a nice big dinner at my house tonight and Chris and I are both off work tomorrow, so we are going to try to get some Christmas shopping done. We hardly left the house this weekend, so we managed to get almost all of our Christmas decorations up, which may be the earliest ever for us. Meredith is super cute with the tree. She thinks everything is 'pwey' (pretty). I think this Christmas is going to be lots of fun with her :)

Finally Pictures!

Big Milestone!

Well, my baby girl has officially used the potty! She's been sitting on it for awhile now, but yesterday at the babysitter's she finally made the tinkle music! (I'm a little bummed that I missed the first time, but I'll live) I realize this is a long way from being potty trained, but it's our first big step. I can't believe how grown up my baby is getting (21 months old)!

I never posted about Halloween, so I'll do that now. I had been having an exceptionally bad week that week for many reasons, including work being a bear, Meredith being a very whiny toddler and dealing with an invalid husband (stitches are now out and he is healing nicely). I think some good ol' hormones may have been playing a small role as well (I HATE to admit to that). Anyway, I decided to take the day off from work at the last minute because it was Allison's birthday and I just needed a break in a bad way. I still sent Meredith to the babysitter because it was already paid for and as much as I love her, I needed a break from mommy time too. It was a lovely day of sleeping in, brunch with Hillary and Allison at the Mad Hatter in Durham, some shopping and a pedicure with Allison & Mom and some dessert and coffee at Zest before heading home for trick or treating.
Meredith was a butterfly and was very excited about getting her costume and going outside (she always loves to go 'oussie'). Almost all of the kids in our neighborhood are close to Meredith's age, within a year or two, so she was so excited about seeing all the other kids and didn't even care about going to houses at first. She quickly figured out that she was getting stuff from people just for being cute and she loved it. She did get scared at the one spooky house that had the scary music playing and the fake graveyard in the front yard. Otherwise, she was totally excited about going up to the houses. She even got a little grumpy when we skipped a few houses because their lights were off. We probably went to around 15 houses, which was more than I had expected she would be up for. Overall, her first time trick or treating was tons of fun and I can only imagine what next year will be like!

We attempted to go to her first movie this past weekend, which didn't go so well. Through work, there was a movie morning where a family could see the Bee Movie for $10 and some canned goods, so I thought it would be a good time to try since it was cheap and a friendly environment! She did quite well for the first 15 minutes or so, but quickly decided she didn't want to sit still, so it was back and forth between Chris & me and standing in her seat, so we finally left after probably 30 mins or so. It appeared to be a pretty cute movie, but I don't think we'll be going to another one for awhile.

I got to see Mama Mia last week and then Rent this week! I have gotten some serious culture in the past week :)

Maybe I'll have pictures someday....

Peeaas!

So, we've really been working on Meredith saying please and thank you lately. I guess I often put my finger to my ear, indicating that I need to hear her say please. Well, now she's putting her finger to her ear when she says 'Peeaas'! I just crack up every day :)

Cheerios..

Thank goodness for cheerios. I finally resorted to giving my child cereal for dinner after she refused everything else I put in front of her and a full cup of applesauce splattered all over the floor. She is now on her second bowl of cereal. At least she drinks the milk out of the bottom of the bowl. That's good, right? Lately, her two favorite foods are cheese and cereal....turns out that a 21 month old can be very picky, despite my grand illusions of believing I'd never have a picky eater. So now everyone can go ahead and say I told you so!

Another funny thing....if anyone watches the show "2 1/2 Men", you'll know that between scenes and going to commercial, they sing this little chord "Men". I guess we watch a lot of the re-runs that come on in the evening and now Meredith sings along every time. We thought it was a fluke the first few times, but now it's consistent! Very funny kiddo.

Oh yeah, "I can't" has entered the vocab. She says it whenever she has to put any effort into anything.."I caant". Fun stuff.

It's still there!

Every morning Meredith goes to the back door and looks out in the yard and sees her little house and she squeels with absolute delight and says 'hou, hou'. It's like she is so amazed that it is still there and it's like Christmas every day! It is awesome to see her sweet face light up with such excitement over a plastic house in the back yard :)

Another update: Chris got 14 stitches Sunday evening after a golf accident. How in the world would you need stitches after golf you might ask? He was on the 18th hole and his ball had landed in the woods, so he was less than thrilled with his shot to say the least. He got out in the woods where his ball was and there was a big tree limb in the way, so he picked it up to toss it out of the way and it had a really sharp edge on it and it sliced his hand wide open as he threw it. The doctor seemed to think he was fairly lucky that he didn't get the muscle, but he is in quite a bit of pain and it is also his right hand, which makes every day life quite difficult. Poor guy isn't having the best string of luck these days.

October Updates

Wow, I feel like a lot is going on lately, so I'll try to catch up. We spent last weekend in Tennessee with Chris' mom and step dad. It was actually quite a nice trip. Chris and I rented an adorable cabin up near Gatlinburg on Friday night and quite enjoyed some peace and quiet away from our precocious little one and her grandparents were thrilled to get some one on one time with Meredith. We stopped through High Point on the way home and saw Chris grandparents, dad and step-mom. We didn't get home until after 9:00 pm on Sunday, so it was a really long day, but we managed to see all of the Elliott contingent in one weekend!

We were all exhausted to start a long week, but Monday turned into a fabulous day at work. I had checked our Biogen stock online when I got home Sunday night and saw that it had skyrocketed in post-market trading on Friday. I had been out of the office on Friday and missed an email from our CEO telling us that the board has approved shopping the company around for purchase. This rumor has been going around for awhile and now it appears to be coming to fruition. So, based on this news our stock went through the roof to a 5 year high. I had a bunch of stock options that I didn't have much hope would ever make me any money and as a matter of fact, quite a few of them were so far under water that I had basically written them off. So, I jumped on it and set up my options to sell on Monday and I ended up doing quite well. It is like an answer to our prayers because we have been working so hard to get ourselves out of debt and this will get us a lot closer. The taxes on the sale makes me physically ill, but I figure that it is money we never expected to get, so I am thrilled about it. The word on the street and the net is that Merck may be a frontrunner right now, but supposedly everyone from J&J to GSK have perused the option of buying us. The sale may not even happen at all because a lot of analysts are saying we are already overpriced, so we'll see. If we do get bought out, our stock should go up even more and I'm surely going to dump even more stock!! Yippee!

The day after the good news about the stock, Chris got into a car accident and really messed up our Endeavor. He rear-ended a little Nissan pickup truck and their car fortunately had very little damage and he was fine, but our car is not. Thankfully, he didn't get a ticket, but we now have to pay our $500 deductible and our insurance will go up :( The silver lining is that when he sat down with our agent to see what the increase will be, they discovered that we were coded as Durham City & County, but we are really Raleigh City and Durham County, which makes a big difference in our annual payment. So, he is going to get it corrected 4 years retroactively, which should basically make up for how much our insurance will increase over the next 3 years.

Meredith is as busy as ever. A co-teacher of Chris' gave us a Little Tykes playhouse that her kids had outgrown and oh my gosh, Meredith is absolutely in love with it. Her OCD father is painting it the same colors as our house (with that paint that adheres to plastic) because it has definitely faded in the sun, so it should be really cute when he's finished. If anyone could have seen us the other night, it was quite a sight because Meredith dragged both Chris and I out to her house and made us both get in there with her....needless to say, it was a tight fit!

Another weird thing she is doing is she has gotten really picky about her cups. She'll just stand and point up to the cabinet where her cups are and just whine 'cahp' and I'll go through the whole cabinet asking her which one she wants and inevitably, she doesn't want any of them and just keeps pointing and whining. We may be buying a few more cups this weekend for variety!

All 4 teeth have made a lot of progress pushing through, but they still have a bit more to go. She is constantly drooling and chewing on things and I can tell she is uncomfortable. She's been a bit more whiny than usual lately and she isn't eating well, but doing well with them overall.

Her vocabulary is certainly growing these days. She still doesn't make a lot of sense a lot of the time, but it is really starting to come together. She most definitely understands what we tell her. Today we got home and we usually go get the mail together and she looked up at me and said 'geh mai', ie get mail! I was quite impressed :) She also knows body parts like eyes, ears, nose etc and she knows a couple colors and shapes. Oh yeah, her favorite is saying please. She kinda sticks her behind out, bends over a little, scrunches her face up and says 'Peeees'...it is quite adorable, although not sure she quite understands the reasoning other than she gets what she wants when she says it....we're still working on thank you since the attention span is gone once she gets what she was asking for!

Ok, if you're still with me, sorry about the novel of a post.
Still no pictures. Now our camera battery is dead, so I'll have to work on that soon.

Teeth

I totally forgot to mention this in yesterday's post, but Meredith has 4 teeth coming in at once. They are the inscisors ( I think that is the name). She has had a gap between her first molars & her front teeth, so these teeth will fill in that gap. She is doing a little better with brushing teeth. Usually she is chewing on one tooth brush while I am attempting to scrub with another tooth brush. I'm thinking about getting an electric one so that she would be excited to brush her teeth since it is still quite an ordeal to get it done. She's been a little grumpy with these teeth coming in, but I guess since it is four cutting through at once she is entitled to some bad moods!

A few pics

These are from my cousin Becky's wedding that was at Lake Michigan courtesy of Hillary's camera.

The whole Smith crew...yes, we have officially doubled in size. There are 12 of us now!

The Smith girls....hard to get us all in one place

The Elliott's

Endless summer

So, is it ever going to feel like fall around here?? A little rain would help too. I can deal with 80s in October, but they are saying we might hit 90 again! Come on! We have lost like 5 azaleas and several other shrubs because of this horrid drought and our front lawn looks like a hay field (although our backyard looks great because it is bermuda grass, which my husband preaches about the fabulous attributes of this type of grass all the time...he doesn't understand why people don't like it....he loves his grass) Enough about this weather.

Nothing too exciting has been going on and it has been wonderful! Meredith has recovered from her stings, although you can still see the stinger marks. Funny thing happened last week while she was staying with my mom. They were in the front yard while mom was pulling some weeds. Well, Meredith decided to play with her stroller and somehow she crawled into the basket part of the stroller and got her head popped out where the foot rest part is! Mom said she looked over bc Meredith started screaming at the top of her lungs and she couldn't believe how quickly she had gotten into such a predicament. She got her out with a little effort, but I must stress that this is not a small child. This is a 27 pound, long legged toddler who somehow fit herself into the basket of a stroller! Mom says she still has no idea how she got in there!

Lately she has been saying 'kay' to everything. She used to answer everything with 'yeah', but now everything is 'kay'. I guess I say 'ok?' to her a lot to make sure she understands what I'm telling her and she has definitely picked up on it. "Meredith, do you want some milk?" she answers, "kay". Also, while she is still speaking mostly in her own toddler language, I swear that she said 'mas' the other day...as in the word more in Spanish. She was holding an empty cup and said 'ma' while she was holding it out to me. She hears both English and Spanish from her babysitter, so her little brain is working on processing two languages and out came Spanish this time. It may have been a total fluke, but I want to believe it's sinking in :)

Oh yeah, we are starting to think about the big potty training. No major pressure, but I've been sitting her on the big potty every now and then to get the idea. No tinkles so far, but just trying to get her really interested. It truly is amazing the things that are now fun topics to talk about now that I have a child. 2 years ago, I never would have believed what a big topic my child's bodily functions would be! The joys of motherhood never cease to amaze me!

She has these bright pink cowboy boots that we got on clearance at Target last winter and she just loves them. I'll have to get a picture posted soon because there has been more than one occasion where she is just wearing a diaper and her cowboy boots (only at home!). It is so redneck, but it makes me laugh watching her clunk around in her boots! The other crazy part is that they are a size 7 and I can barely get them on her feet...this child is 20 months old and has the shoe size of a 3 year old!

Sorry I haven't posted pictures in awhile. We are hoping to get a new camera soon. The one we have is fine, but it just doesn't take the best quality picture. We also have been looking at computers since the mother board on ours died. At least the hard drive is still good and we can copy that over to a new one. So, right now I guess the computer is the priority since we can't get both at once.

Kay, think I have rambled long enough. Maybe I'll get some pictures up soon.

Yellow Jackets :(

Well, we thought it was shaping up to be a very boring, uneventful weekend, which is just how we like to spend our weekends these days. Yesterday afternoon we were outside talking with our neighbor and Meredith went over to her front porch and climbed up onto this old fashioned desk that she keeps on her front porch as a decoration. Well, Meredith managed to shake up a yellow jacket nest that was inside the desk and out came the swarm all over her. Chris was right there and managed to pick her up quickly and get all of them off of her and I suppose she was lucky to only get stung four times, two on her neck, one on her shoulder and one under her eye. Poor baby was screaming her head off and I was scared to death. We actually called poison control because the sting is literally a poison and they were actually very helpful ( SO happy that we were smart awhile back and programmed the number into our cell phones, although I don't want to call ever again if possible!) and advised to give her benadryl, but the pediatrician would have to tell us the dosage. Of course, we didn't have any benadryl in the house because we haven't needed it yet. Meredith had actually calmed down quite a bit and was being such an incredible little trooper, so we loaded her in the car so we could get the medicine to her as soon as we got it. The pediatrician called us right back while we were in the car and told us the dosage amount. That was a very nerve wracking 30 minutes to watch my little girl swell up and pray that she wouldn't have an allergic reaction. Thank goodness she was ok, but it was really scary. I actually left work early today to take her to the doctor because the swelling around her eye just hasn't gone down like I thought it would. They were also very helpful and advised that the only option would be a shot of steroids, which I really didn't want if not necessary and neither did the doctor. She wasn't too concerned about the swelling in her eye since the other stings had no swelling, so we'll just watch it for another 24 hours. It is probably just because it is such a sensitive part of the skin. Poor baby looks like she got punched in the eye!

We had just been to the pediatrician on Friday for her 18 month well check (she's 19 1/2 months old, so we're behind again!) She weighs 27 lbs 13 oz (85th percentile) and is 33 inches tall (75th percentile). She got her Hep A shot and got an overall A+ from the doctor. Chris took her and said he was very impressed with the doctor who is a Nurse Practioner. I'm getting increasingly more confident in non-MD healthcare providers. I go to a Physicians Assistant for my primary care and I totally love her and this NP was great with Meredith and did a great job talking with Chris too. Yes, Med school is very important, but bed side manner and personality make such a difference! So, hopefully we won't be back to the pediatrician again so soon!

My little dancing queen!

Well, out of state wedding #2 has come and gone. We left early Friday morning only to be delayed out of RDU and then we spent a lovely 6 hours in Chicago-O'hare airport because of bad weather. Our flight to Grand Rapids was completely cancelled and then we couldn't get on another American flight, so we ended up on a United flight instead. After spending that much time in a crowded aiport with an 19 month old, I was thankful to be on any flight at all. So, our plans of having a relaxing afternoon to hang out at the hotel pool were totally shot. We got to the hotel around 9:00pm, ate dinner nearby and went to bed. Meredith did get to see her cousins briefly that night, but after such a long day, we all needed to sleep.

We got up on Saturday and did a little pool time for the kiddos, coffee for the adults and then before we knew it, we had to get ready to leave for my cousin Becky's wedding. The wedding was outside on this huge deck overlooking Lake Michigan. It was a warm, but beautiful day and the wedding was very nice. Once again, short and sweet, which was good since my little one was heading downhill already. They had a nice reception and provided a babysitter on-site as well. I was very happy to deposit my wiggly, grumpy, tired little girl with the babysitter for awhile so that I could actually have a full conversation without being cut off by chasing a child! Then after awhile, we went and got her and brought her upstairs thinking we'd probably be leaving shortly. Well, the dj was playing by this point and she ran out to the dance floor and just starting dancing like crazy! She was totally the life of the party. It was the funniest thing I've ever seen! She just kept going and going like the energizer bunny! She'd stop to take a drink of water or take a brief intermission to go run back out to the deck area, but then she'd head right back in to beebop some more. I think someone actually took a video of her, so I may post it if I end up getting it. Anyway, she stole the show from her dad , who usually does some pretty silly stuff on the dance floor. I almost had to drag her off the dance floor to head back to the hotel, but she fell asleep within 2 minutes in the car. Fun stuff :)

Then Sunday the whole noisy family had breakfast at the hotel and then we had to get packed up and head to the airport again. Thankfully, everything was totally smooth for the trip home. I don't think I could have handled any more delays. Overall, Meredith did very well on the plane. She only slept for one short leg, but all in all, she did well. We only got a few dirty looks from other passengers (by the way, please take mercy on parents travelling with young children- they are doing the best they can in very close quarters!!). I'm not saying that I will fly with her again any time soon, but it worked this time. I was also thankful that my mom and dad were there to help entertain and chase her! I'm relly tired today and already looking forward to a nice quiet weekend at home....no more travelling for me for awhile!

Arizona!

Well, after spending 4 days in 110+ temperatures in Arizona, I am happy to be home to my happy little 96 degrees! We went to Phoenix for Chris' best friend Randy's wedding. We flew out early Thursday morning and got to Arizona about 10am (the time change going out there is great, but not so fun coming home!). The flight there and back was flawless, I have to give lots of kudos to Southwest for a great experience!

Chris and I just spent most of Thursday driving around Scottsdale. We had lunch at one of our favorite places, Oreganos, the best bbq chicken pizza ever and just did some shopping and nothing of major importance, but it was great to just not have anywhere to be! We checked into the hotel late that afternoon and it was a pretty cool place. It's called the Wigwam and it is a sprawling resort that is completely done in the old adobe style. I spent the majority of my time baking in the Arizona sun at the pool and yes, I am a nice golden brown! Well, maybe a little crispy, but I quite enjoyed being at the pool with the girls while the boys braved the heat and golfed.
Thursday night we went to Katy's parents house for dinner and drinks, which was nice and her parents are really sweet. Then Friday after golf and pool, was the rehearsal and dinner. Then Saturday after golf and pool (see the theme here?) was the wedding. It was short and sweet, which we were all thankful for since it was outside, yes, I said outside in Arizona. I think it was 112 on Saturday....need I say more? Chris was in the wedding, so he was sweating buckets in his tux. The reception was tons of fun, great food, great music, great friends! Then Sunday morning they had a brunch for everyone before we headed back to the pool. It really felt like a 4 day party with all of the different dinners, cocktail parties, pool parties and since no one had their kids, we could all just relax and enjoy eachothers company.

We flew out at the crack of dawn on Monday and got home around 4:00, which totally stunk since we had just gotten used to the AZ time change. Meredith did well with her grandparents and they seemed to totally enjoy the time they spent with her. She does seem to be a bit spoiled, but what do you expect?

Now, we are back for a few days before we fly out on Friday morning for Michigan. Whew, I'm already tired.

She strikes again...

I went to pick up Meredith from daycare yesterday and found out that she bit a little girl :(
Apparently this girl had a doll Meredith wanted and the little girl didn't just let her have it (imagine that!?), so Meredith dealt with it by biting her. I was in such shock when I found out that I almost started crying, especially after I saw the teeth marks on the other girl...on her upper cheek :(
I know this is very common at this age and it could very easily be reversed and she could be the one being bit, but I feel completely terrible about it. This is the same girl she has had issues with before. They are almost exactly the same age and Meredith is much bigger that she is, so maybe they are similar developmentally, but since Meredith is physically bigger she thinks she can push her around and be in charge. Maybe a little power struggle at 1 1/2?

Chris had gotten a free ticket to the Def Leppard concert last night, so he wasn't around to vent to (he said it was a great show). So, I called my mom last night mostly to hear a reassuring voice (Thanks Mom!!) and she did just that, reassured me that it's not my parenting or my fault. It's still hard not to feel responsible though. So, I'm saying a lot of prayers today that she behaves and we don't get another bad report. How can this sweet girl be such a bully? I also pray that her words start coming soon so that she can communicate more easily, which I think is also part of her problem.

At least this is a short week for her at daycare. We leave for Arizona on Thursday and Chris' mom and step-dad are coming in to keep Meredith while we're gone.

On another much better note, we had a fabulous weekend. We went to a first birthday party for Reagan (Drake & Lisa's little girl) and had lots of fun. Ironically, Meredith played beautifully with all of the little kids that were there. Then later that afternoon we had Kelly, Pat, Heather, David and their kiddos Keira, Jamie & Reese over to our house and overall, Meredith did great with them too (she did try to tackle Reese a few times and she stole Jamie's sippy cup non stop, but no bad stuff). Had a really nice time catching up with Heather & Kelly while the boys drank beer outside most of the time. Mom, Papa and Allison came over for Sunday dinner too. Nice weekend!

August fun

So, the book thing was just a temporary fluke....we're back to getting through maybe 2 pages before she is wiggling to get down and get into something else.

She hates getting her teeth brushed. She doesn't even really care about eating the toothpaste anymore, so I basically wrestle her every night to see if I can get one or two good brushes.

I don't want to make my sweet girl out to be some devil, but there are certainly challenges with her. She really is a good girl most of the time. She has recently started to really like one particular doll. She wraps it in a blanket and carries it around then lays it on the floor, covers it up and says 'nigh nigh' and pats/hits the baby on the back.

She is also completely enthralled with buckles, i.e. the one for her high chair, the buckle on the shopping cart strap, restaurant high chairs etc. She actually is really good at snapping them together, but then she gets super mad when she can't get them apart. As you can imagine, there are times when you really want to keep them buckled, like in the middle of the grocery store when she does not want it buckled anymore and wants to stand in the seat...so, once we determine that she is NOT sitting back down in that seat, she either ends up in the basket part of the cart or pushing the cart. Shopping is loads of fun now too :)

My 31st birthday was on Saturday and it was quite a lovely day! I went to Skin Sense and used a gift certificate Chris got me like a year ago for a massage and hydrotherapy(just a fancy bath) and it was a wonderful morning of pampering. Then I met Mom, Hillary, Allison and Barbara(Allison's roommate and another adopted sister) for lunch at Michael Deans. Chris cooked dinner for my whole family and invited a few of my Meredith friends over as well. It was a really nice night (it was finally nice enough to sit outside in the evening without sweating!) and a great birthday overall (other than the turning 31 part).

This is a pretty rambling post, so thanks for sticking throuhg it!

Books!

This may sounds like a small feat, but I am thrilled to report that my child has let me read her an entire book two nights in a row! Now, mind you, these are not the longest books in the world, but they are more than a board book with two words per page. We actually have a ton of great hardback books because a lot of Chris's co-teachers gave us books. Teachers always give the best books :) I have to admit that I haven't read most of them, but now we can read them together. It's really cool because she actually lets me turn the page (most often in the right direction) and she has great responses to pictures. Last night the book had pictures of a mommy and baby and she kept pointing at it saying something resembling baby. I just have to express how excited I am about this because there was a point when I was sure that she would never sit still for anything. Friends have told me that 18 months is a magical age, but I wasn't so sure. We are making progress people!

I have to mention that it was 104 degrees today and my brilliant husband and his friends played golf today...tee time was at noon...he said he only felt like he was going to pass out twice...nice. Men will do anything for free golf at a country club.

(oh and p.s., she has done much better at the babysitter lately!)

My sweet bully

Well, I was kinda waiting to get the report and it finally happened....I picked Meredith up from the babysitter yesterday and she told me that she was being 'rough' with another little girl. This little girl is only one month younger than Meredith, but she is significantly smaller than Meredith and apparently Meredith doesn't want to share with her and she starts swatting at her when she doesn't get her way. In the words of my mother, she has the 'classic first child syndrome'...which I suppose she should know about since she has 4 children and 3 grandchildren! Meredith just doesn't play with a lot of other kids when she isn't at daycare and since she hasn't gone much this summer, I think she has forgotten how to share. Also, she doesn't know her own strength! She literally towers over this other little girl, so if she just even pushed her a little, the other girl would probably tumble over. No excuses though. We have to get better about not playing rough with her at home. I'm as guilty of wrestling with her as her daddy is, so I'll take part of the blame. She also just gets so excited that she doesn't know what to do with all of her energy. Sometimes she just looks like she's going to pop because she is so excited, so she ends up swatting at you or doing something semi-aggressive to get rid of that energy. Once the words start coming more, I'm hoping that will improve because she'll be able to use words to express herself instead of her fist!


She went again today and the babysitter said that she did much better and even gave her little friend a hug even though she was kindof afraid of Meredith!


We had a great weekend. I got off early on Friday for our summer hours (work an extra hour Mon-Thurs and then work half day on Friday) and went to pick her up from Mom's house. Then we went to our favorite Chinese restaurant up at Greystone and had lunch....well, we traded Meredith back and forth and walked with her around the restaurant and then took most of our food home with us, but it was still nice. Then we had my grad school friends over for dinner. Jennifer graduated in May and Meredith finishes this week, so we were celebrating being finished! We just had a cookout at our house, but it was a lot of fun.


I met my good friends Kelly & Heather for coffee on Saturday morning and ended up at a park for Kelly's kids to play. We didn't stay too long, but it was good to have a quick catch up session with my old buddies from Big Blue.


Saturday was the big fence day....we are attempting to put up a white vinyl fence in our back yard by ourselves because the labor is so crazy expensive. Well, Saturday morning Chris rented an auger to drill all of the holes in the backyard and we had a stream of people in and out all afternoon helping, supervising, pouring the next pitcher of beer etc. Chris's friend Mark helped a lot and we also broke in Allison's new boyfriend Matt...he was quite willing to help out and he seems to be a really really nice guy and he and Allison seem to be getting pretty serious pretty quickly, so stay tuned... Also, my friend Jennifer had left a set of keys at our house Friday night and when she and her hubby Brad came by to pick them up, they ended up sticking around for awhile and helping out too! Mom and Papa came later and brought pizza for dinner, which was much appreciated! Then, we pawned our daughter off on Nana & Papa for the evening so that we could go to the concert downtown with Night Ranger (yes, the only song I knew was 'Sister Christian', but it was still a lot of fun) Then, we even went out after the concert and met back up with Allison and Matt and a few others at Blinco's. I haven't done that much in one day in a long time! It was just a really fun weekend :)
Btw, as of last night we had only gotten about 3 panels of the fence up and I was feeling pretty worried about how in the world we were going to get this thing up in under a year, but as I look out my back door, I am seeing almost an entire side of the yard fenced in!! Our neighbor's son has helped Chris a lot today and we have fence!! There is a reason why having professionals install a fence costs so much! Sweat equity baby :)
( I just re-read this post and apparently I have forgotten how to use punctuation, so all you english majors out there, please forgive my terrible run-ons and general lack of grammar!)

Meredith & Daddy

What a difference a year makes!

Summer 2006

Summer 2007

July 2007

Ok, it has been so long, I hardly know where to start, so this may be a bit choppy and long.... sorry.

We spent the week of July 4th down at Myrtle Beach. I really haven't ever spent any time down there except one quick trip in college, so it was interesting to explore a new area. I personally am totally fine with parking myself on the beach for the entire week except to sleep and shower, so since we weren't staying on the beach, it was a little different for me. We were in a rather small condo several miles from the beach, so we ended up spending a lot of time at the pool because it was just easier. It really bummed me out, but it was still fun. Meredith did really well in the pool, but she wanted nothing to do with her float, so I had to just hold her in the water and she acted like she just wanted to take off, which made things interesting. We went to the beach one evening to have a photographer take a family picture of the whole group and Meredith was wearing this sweet little while sundress...yes, you can see where this is going. She wanted to be IN the water. We could barely keep her out long enough to get a few pictures and then we were back to the waves. She was totally obsessed, so needless to say, she was soaking wet and so was I. The pictures the photagrapher took were so-so, but we got some really neat ones on our camera that I'll post. The funny thing was that the next day when she was in her bathing suit, sunscreen, hat etc, she wanted nothing to do with the ocean. I guess there is something to that whole thing of something being more appealing when you're not supposed to be doing it! She did some digging in the sand, but we didn't spent a lot of time on the beach with her. Oh funny story...Chris's dad and step-mom were also down there the same week, so we went over to their place and went down to the beach on the 4th. The beach was swamped, so people were practically right on top of eachother. So Meredith goes over to the cooler next to our tent and pulls out a bottle of water. The people were very nice, but thought it was so funny that she saw a cooler and decided it was hers! Overall, it was still nice to get away for a week, but it wasn't my ideal beach week, plus I had to send my baby off to TN instead of bring her home with me :(

Meredith spent the next week in Knoxville with her grandparents while I spent the week in Nashville for traning. The plan was for Chris to spend a few days at home getting things done and then drive up to Knoxville, get Meredith and come spend a day or two with me in Nashville. Well, that didn't work out, so I flew home on Friday night and turned around Saturday to go meet them half way to get Meredith. At that point, I think I would have driven anywhere so I could get my little girl! I did really well until about Thursday when I just started missing her so badly. She looked like she grew and inch and her hair got longer and curlier!

So now we're all home, in the same house and very happy to be there! I'm done with traveling for a little while at least. Our next trip is to AZ for Randy's wedding over Labor Day weekend (w/o Meredith) and the very next weekend to Michigan for my cousin's wedding (with Meredith).

Oh, I almost forgot that right before we left for the beach, I finished school!! It hasn't really sunk in until this week when I was at home after work and hardly knew what to do with myself. I actually cooked dinner this week and feel like I may even have some time to clean too (gasp!). I may actually have some time to be somewhat domestic now! The actual graduation ceremony isn't until December, so it will be weird to walk then, but my friend Meredith will be there with me, so I think I'll still do it. I'm waiting on my last tuition reimbursement check from work and am so thankful that practically all of my graduate degree was 100% paid for by Father Biogen! Now, I can finish paying of undergrad...I'm really almost there :)

Chris is off to Pinehurst for a golf/bachelor party weekend for Randy, so I'll get some quality time with baby girl. Let's see, what is she up to lately. She is talking up a storm, but still not a lot of true words. She says mo for more, bye bye, uh oh, mama, bobo for dogs and a lot of things that are really close to words, but not quite! She has almost let me read her a short book, but it is more fun to just pull them all off of the bookshelf! We're still working on brushing her teeth. As soon as we get to the top of the stairs at bedtime I tell her 'let's go brush your teeth' and she immediatly runs right into her bathroom, but she still mostly just eats the toothpaste and I have to do some serious work to actually get the toothbrush in there to do much brushing. She is doing a really good job of understanding directions, now the following the directions is another story! Her new favorite food is raisins. The girl LOVES them. She'll finish a little box and come up and say 'Mo' because she wants more. I figure that's ok because her other favorite food is still cheese, so all you mommies out there know what that means! They balance eachother out nicely :) She also ate more cantaloupe and cheese than any child should at Chris's step-sister's wedding, but I was quite proud when she chose green beans over french fries when given the choice!

Ok, well I think this thing is long enough! Adios.

Still here...

I haven't fallen off the face of the planet, I'm just in Nashville for work all week.
We were at Myrtle Beach all last week with Chris's family- yes, both sides were there. Mom, step dad, Dad, step mom, sister & her husband, step sisters, their kids, etc etc....it was a good week, but draining. Meredith is now in Knoxville with my mother in law this week and the plan was originally for Chris to go up there and then bring her to Nashville to see me for a day or so, but not sure he's going to make it up here now afterall, so I'll have to go all week without seeing her. I miss her so much already :(
I'm going to go get some dinner and maybe I'll post more when I get back to the hotel.

Where to start?

Maxine R. Pergler

May 31, 1923- June 8, 2007

After getting the news about my grandma, we had to quickly move into planning and logistics on how to get us all to Michigan (while there are 50+ teachers at my house for the last day of school party). My sweet Mom already had previously booked plane tickets to fly to Michigan the day after school got out for her, so we quickly decided that she would have a little person named Meredith join her. This is not quite how I envisioned Meredith's first plane trip, but it was a necessary thing because the rest of the Raleigh crew rented a big van and made the 17 hour trip a day later. Mom said that she did really well overall. She was totally fascinated by everything on the plane, especially the tray table (she wasn't happy when that had to be 'stowed'). Sounds like she provided some entertainment for other passengers as well, mom assures me that it was the good kind :) So, Elizabeth and Abby & Jessie were all there to greet Mom & Meredith in Traverse City and Meredith got to have some unexpexted quality time with her cousins.

The rest of us left early Sunday morning in the big ol 12 passenger van (trust me, we needed all that space for 6 adults!) and the trip went very well overall. We got to Michigan and were able to spend Monday resting and processing the events that would come. Tuesday, June 12th was the funeral at Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Cadillac, which was my grandma's lifelong church and where my parents, aunt and sister were all married and my two nieces were baptized. I am very fortunate that I have had to attend very few funerals in my life, but that doesn't make it any easier. It was good to see all of my family and the service was nice...what else can you say?

The best part of the whole thing was when my amazingly strong mother spoke about both grandma and grandpa and their lives together and the wonderful family they have created. I will never forget her grace and strength as she spoke.

Meredith obviously had no clue what was going on and was her normal squirmy self, so Chris spent most of the service with her in the nursery. There was the good Lutheran luncheon to follow in the fellowship hall.

The church is set way back off the road and the little girls had a blast just running through the field and it was really special to see those kids having so much fun together. We knew grandma would love that.

Later that day we spent some time at the lake and Meredith totally loved it. She was a little hesitant at first, but once she got past that initial chill (this is northern Michigan afterall!) she was just a little waterbug.

Early the next morning we headed south towards Battle Creek to the cemetary. My grandfather is buried at Ft. Custer National Cemetary, so that is where grandma would join him after 15 years. It really is a beautiful place and there is something comforting about knowing they are together again after so many years.

After lunch, the Raleigh crew got back in the van to head south again. Meredith was with us this time since Mom was still staying for a few more days. I have to admit that I was quite worried about how she would do on such a long trip, but she did amazingly well. At one point we all sang to her because she was getting a little fussy and she stopped and just looked at all of the silly adults around her and just grinned. It did help that a lot of the trip was late at night so she could sleep, but I was totally impressed (the new addiction of Doritos did help us through a few rough spots though!). We arrived home around 3:30am on Thursday morning and Allison and I both had class that night, so we slept as much as we could that day and headed to class that night.

Oh, I forgot to mention the fabulous way our trip started. There was a terrible thunderstorm on Saturday night that knocked out the power at our house. Well, we assumed it would be back on soon, so Chris and I headed out to grab some dinner since Meredith had left that morning with mom. Well, as we drove we saw that all of the Leesville area was without power, so it was really big. Let's just say that packing by candlelight isn't ideal, not to mention it was hot as heck without the AC on. So the lights still weren't on the next morning and we left for our trip hoping everything had made it into the suitcase, having a terrible night's sleep and showering in the dark. We had to call our neighbor to come over and make sure things were turned off and reset the thermostats bc it didn't come back on until noon the following day. It was just the icing on the cake at that point.

Sad news

I have some very sad news. My grandmother in Michigan passed away early this morning. I can't say it was a total surprise since she had been in declining health, but that doesn't make it any easier. We are still trying to figure out logistics, but we will likely be driving to Michigan at some point this weekend and will be there for most of the week. Keep our family in your prayers.

Restaurant, what's that?

We have officially entered the no-restaurant zone with Meredith. We've been pushing it for awhile to where we could scarf down our food and somehow keep her fairly content through the meal by shoving goldfish at her, but she fully confirmed last night that there is no more sitting in a restaurant high chair for her. I actually made quite a lovely meal last night, but it was to take over to a good friend who recently had pretty serious surgery, so we decided to go out after we dropped it off. We were over by one of favorite old hangouts, Buffalos, and decided that wings sounded awesome. We barely sat down and got her into her chair before she was squirming and wanting out. She chewed on a few crayons, ate a few bites of her dinner and she quickly moved to the no way in heck am I staying in this chair phase, immediately into the I'm going to scream my head off if you make me sit here any longer, oh and by the way, I want to stand in the chair, not sit. It is a family restaurant, but I'm not going to let my child scream while we eat. So, Chris and I took turns taking her outside to let her run around since I had taken approximatley one bite of my meal when she lost it.
She did the same thing at the Mexican restaurant last weekend and my mom was nice enough to walk the child around outside while I finished eating.
Nothing apeases her...no toys, books, food, drink, nothing. I guess our days of attempting to go out as a family on occasion (mind you, we hardly go out as it is!) are over until she can calm down a bit more.
Oh, well. I guess that's life as a parent, right?