It's tough being the mommy

So, I've had evening obligations every night this week, which has meant that daddy has been in charge. I left after dinner Monday night and he had to get her bathed and in bed, then last night I had a work dinner, so I didn't get home until after 8pm and tonight I got home at a more reasonable 5:30 and Chris was about to pull his hair out. He admitted to the fact that I usually do 99% of everything for Meredith and it is hard work. I laughed and said, "it's tough being the mommy, huh?" He just sheepishly shook his head in agreement and left to go play poker with the boys.
Are all you other mommies out there nodding your heads in agreement too??

Nice Weekend!

We had a really nice weekend. I got to visit with good friends Kelly & Pamela on Saturday and Meredith got to play with Kelly's son, Jamie. They played really well and it was fun to watch them together.
Chris got new golf clubs while we were gone on Saturday. He swears that with gift cards and discounts, he didn't have to pay anything out of pocket for his new TaylorMade irons...he is such a shopper it isn't even funny! He is pretty excited because he is going down to Pinehurst with his best friend Randy next weekend and he gets to play Pinehurst #2 (for all non-golf enthusiasts, this is a big deal bc it was the site of the 2005 US Open). The other great part about it is that Randy won this package from work, so it will be minimal cost. He's like a little kid in a candy store :)
Sunday we went over to my mom and dad's for Meredith's birthday celebration with them since we were out of town last weekend for her real birthday. We had a yummy 2 year old friendly meal of homemade mac n cheese (YUM), cheese bread (YUM), cottage cheese (are you seeing the carb/cheese theme?). My ever health conscious sister Hillary made some good kale and a really intersting and tasty orange, red onion and green olive salad with a citrus vinaigrette (sounds crazy, but it was really good!). Cupcakes and ice cream topped it off. I've decided that Meredith must be really sensitive to lots of sugar because both last weekend and this weekend about 5 minutes after diving into the frosting on her cake, she got all dazed looking and started rubbing her eyes like crazy. I really don't give her much sugary stuff at all, so maybe it's just a sugar rush from not being used to it. It was a fun afternoon.
We're in for a busy week....off we go.

Dinner tonight...

So, Meredith's self proclaimed dinner tonight consisted of a bowl of cereal, a turkey dog and baked lays. That's a grain, a meat, and a dairy right? Almost all 4 food groups! Oh wait, she had orange juice too, does that count as a fruit?? I won't even pretend that I'm counting the chips as a potato. Hey, at least she ate.
Isn't two fun!?

My favorite babysitter ever!

We have been so blessed with our wonderful babysitter. There is such comfort in knowing we are leaving Meredith in such loving and competent hands every day. God really sent an angel our way :)


This is a picture of Prissila, Meredith and Prissila's daughter Monsi (short for Monserath. It was a new one for me too!).

The big TWO!

My baby girl is 2! We spent her birthday in Tennessee with Chris' mom, step-dad, sister and brother-in-law. Meredith really enjoyed the horses on their farm. She helped Kaci feed them and take them out of their stalls to the pasture. We literally had to drag her inside because she loved being up at the barn so much. She had an Elmo cake (by the way, Elmo is like crack for little kids!) and got lots of nice gifts. Chris and I also were able to go out to dinner and a movie while we were up there. Date night is a very good thing for parents of a two year old! We stopped through Thomasville on the way home to see Chris dad, step-mom and grandparents. They gave her one of those yellow and red little tike cars. To say that she loved it is an understatement! We had to put it right next to her in our car so that we could get her in the car to go home. She is a bit obsessed at this point!

Today was Meredith's 2 year well check and she came through with flying colors! They had to prick her finger, which made her go ballistic, but otherwise she did really well. She weighs 31 lbs (92nd percentile) and is 36 inches tall (80th percentile).

Wall O' Diplomas

Chris and I finally have all of our diplomas up on the wall in our office. We are a fairly educated duo...too bad we don't make any money!
Top left: Chris- Masters from University of Georgia
Bottom Left: Chris- Bachelors from NC State (we had to re-request a copy since he had no clue where it was)
Top Right: Jessica- Masters from Meredith
Bottom Right: Jessica- Bachelors from Meredith

Tantrum anyone?

Oh my goodness. Meredith is testing my patience to the extreme! She has started having these tantrums where she just screams like a wild animal to the point that she is almost growling at me and her voice goes hoarse. Tonight it was over getting in the bathtub. She has given me little tastes of this behavior recently, but this one was over the top. She really scared me with how crazy she was. I'm really at a loss as to how to handle her when she is like this. The other fun part is that she only does it for me. Example: Chris had picked her up from daycare today so that I could go straight to the gym from work since I am really trying to take some time to do something for myself. So, she was just fine and dandy with him until I got home. She ran to the door to greet me and it was on from there. She completely lost it about 30 seconds after I walked in the door and it didn't end until I put her to bed screaming at 8:15.

Is this what having a two year old is really like? I've always heard people say, "I have a two year old" as if it was some sort of automatic excuse or a shared understanding between parents. Do I have to go through this to join the two year old club? Help!

On a good note, I had coffee with some great friends this weekend. Kelly, Heather and Jessica. I love hanging out with them and we aren't able to do it often, but when we do we can talk for hours.

We also had Meredith's 2 year old pictures made on Sunday. She did pretty well, but the stubborness came out again, which didn't make it the best time, but they still came out with a few good ones. I'll post them soon.

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....