Meredith Meets Chef Boyardee!

So, last night was one of those nights where I just didn't have anything great to fix for dinner, so that can of ravioli in the pantry came in handy....she had a blast. It was just easier to let her go at it while wearing only a diaper than fight with her about a bib!

Birthday pictures...late

I'm feeling quite unproductive today since I finished my last exam last night, so here are a bunch of Meredith's birthday pictures. I think most of you have seen them, but wanted to get them out here anyway! Her hair is a little longer since this, but she doesn't look too different!
She'll be 15 months old next week! Hard to believe.

April

Let's see. What's going on? First of all, my baby girl isn't a baby anymore. She really is turning into such a little kid! She said what I believe is her first sentence last week. Now, mind you, this is with mommy ears, but she said "I go outside". It came out more like "Ah go oussie", but she was standing at the storm door pointing outside while she said it. Which also leads me to say that she is totally an outside girl. If you have the door open, she just bolts for it so that she can run around in the grass. We really need to invest in a fence because she just wanders/runs between our yard and the neighbors yards on both sides (don't worry, she is under supervision!). She would definitely take off around the front of the house and head for the road for sure if we weren't watching. I'd love to let her just run around, but without a way to keep her corraled, it makes me nervous. She has so much energy that it just makes me tired!
We went to her first baseball game this weekend out at the Mudcats in Zebulon. The whole Smith clan went and we had a really good time. Meredith quite enjoyed climbing underneath everyone's chairs and going up and down the stairs many times. She also found a water fountain with her Nana and she thought that was the coolest thing ever. Got a little wet, but that was the least of our worries! She kinda started falling apart towards the end of the game, so we left a little early and had dinner at Knightdale Seafood, which I highly recommend. I'm an NC girl and have had a lot of bbq, but this place was the best I've ever had! Meredith also enjoyed her first taste of fried okra. She still isn't digging much meat, but we keep trying!
She is working on getting two more teeth on the bottom. One has just popped through and the other one isn't far behind. Her gums have been so swollen lately, that it has to be a relief for these to come through, but once again she has handled it really well.
She's getting better with feeding herself with a spoon. We sat outside on the patio last night for dinner, so I just let her go for it. My goodness she was a mess, but that's what it's going to take for her to really figure it out! I haven't been all that willing to give her free reign to make a disaster (well, more of a disaster) in the house by feeding herself with a spoon, but now that it is nice out I'm just going to let her make a mess when we sit outside! Still not much luck with milk out of a cup. I even tried putting a couple of drops of chocolate sauce into it and she still wouldn't drink it. I just bought two new cups last night, so maybe that will help! I'm going to have sippy cups coming out of my ears soon!
One more bit of excitement is that I am done with school for the semester after tonight! I have a final exam tonight and then I'm off for about 2 weeks before summer session starts. Then I'm on the official 6 week countdown!! This summer class should be a lot of fluff, so overall the meat of my program is OVER!! Yeehaa! I had a presentation on Thursday that just beat me up, but overall it went well. So, my final MBA class will be on June 21st my friends!

Funny girl

We have had several successful teeth brushings this week. I have been trying for awhile, but Meredith just clamps those lips together and nothing is getting in. I decided to try to other night again with her pink toothbrush and Dora pink toothpaste and she actually did pretty well. Only on the bottom teeth though. It must feel funny when I brush the top teeth because she immediately turns away. Hopefully this will improve with time. Her bottom gums are so swollen that I'm sure we'll have more teeth to brush in no time.
On another note, still no milk from a cup. She might take a sip or two, but she pretty much still makes a face and wants nothing to do with it. We are at least completely on milk now, but only out of a bottle. Hopefully this will improve with time too.
She also loves taking my shoes off, attempting to put them back on and then immediately wanting to take them off again. She also loves playing with her own shoes and acting like she is putting them on. Of course she can't get them on, but I think it's funny that I have a little shoe lover already!

Easter 2007

I am having such a blast with Meredith. She cracks me up every day. She has started this silly toothy grin and she squishes her face up at the same time and just giggles. She will just run through the house hollering happy noises and waving her arms around like a crazy person. She has so much personality! We got her a one of those kid size soft chairs with Dora on it for Easter(I decided that dark haired Dora was a better choice than blond Cinderella for my brunette baby!) and oh my goodness, I think we may need to take it back. The acrobatics that have ensued since we got it have made me quite nervous. First of all, she had her first meltdown in the toy department because she couldn't take everything she saw and then when we put the chair in the cart she about vaulted into the back part of the cart from the front of the cart, so we had to shove it underneath. We should have know that this thing was going to cause problems! She now climbs in it so she can climb into the couch and chairs easier, but then she likes to bend the back of it over and flips the whole thing. She is quite amused by it, so we'll see if the newness wears off.
She was a pretty good girl for church yesterday, mostly because she spent most of it in the nursery! She was just being wiggly and squirmy and we were trying to get her to make it to the children's sermon, but Chris and I both smelled something, so thinking she was dirty I went ahead and took her out. Turns out it was the kids in front of us with real hard boiled eggs in their easter baskets that we were smelling! Oh well, she seemed to have a pretty good time in the nursery anyway.
We did a little Easter egg hunt too. She immediately locked in on the colorful eggs in the yard, but it took her a minute to figure out that she should put them in her basket. At first, she would pick up one, then another and then drop one to pick up another since her hands were full. It was pretty cute. I just filled them with goldfish and cheerios since we aren't doing candy yet and she thought that was pretty cool too once she figured out that they opened up.
Meredith will be home with Chris all this week for Spring Break, so I'm jealous, but I'm thinking of taking Friday off too.
No pictures again. She barely sat still to take any decent pictures yesterday, but I'll try to get some uploaded soon.

Not a fun first

Well, we have had our first fun bout of vomiting all night. Meredith must have eaten something that didn't agree with her on Monday, so she puked all night. Poor baby, I think the feeling really scared her since she hasn't ever really done that before. Fortunately, I was scheduled to work from home the next day, so I could keep a close eye on her. She never got a fever and was just sleepy the next day because of her eventful night and seemed to be back to herself for the most part. I hadn't pulled the 2-4am shift in awhile, so I was exhausted too. Chris was a great help with changing the sheet and starting laundry, while I changed her and got her settled down, which was a big help.
All of you mommies out there can now breath a sigh of relief because my baby girl that I was determined wouldn't be a picky eater, now is a picky eater. Maybe it's just a phase, but she is not eating like she used to and pushes everything away. She is very much into shaking her head no and clamping those lips super tight so that nothing will get in! The other big challenge is that she hates milk. I waited to give it to her until she was a year old, like all the dumb books say, but she will not drink it out of a bottle or cup and if she even takes one sip, she quickly figures it out and drops the cup onto the floor. She just loves her formula! I've been trying to mix a little milk with her formula and I'll gradually increase the ratio of milk to formula. She seems ok with that so far, but I think she can tell because she doesn't suck it down like normal. I don't want to take her bottle away since she will only drink juice out of a cup and I need her to get enough fluid that isn't all juice, so I'm just going with it and trying not to stress about it. So, any of you mommies out there that have suggestions on how to get her to transition to milk only, go for it! I'm listening! I've heard a lot of people say that their child never noticed the difference. Well, apparently mine has a very discerning palate! Ha!

It's been awhile...

Wow, it has been a long time since I have posted anything. Life has been flying by at warp speed and I'm barely keeping up! Meredith is spending the weekend with my mother-in-law, so I have a few minutes to post. What has been going on? Chris is into his Spring sports season after a whole week between last season & this season, so his game nights are the same nights as class nights for me, so we've been calling on my mom a lot lately to help out with Meredith. Meredith is just wonderful. She doesn't slow down for much and is almost always in a good mood :) Her new favorite thing to do is to give you a chin nod. Yes, like she's saying 'wassup'? She kindof grunts and pops her chin out like she's taking a second to acknowledge you, gives a grin and back to whatever she is doing. She's getting a little better and saying dada every now and then, but it's mostly still mama and A LOT of babble. She definitely is getting the cadence of speech down, it just happens to be in Meredithese. I try to play along like I know what she's telling me, and she is just so serious about what she's saying. She also loves this electric sweeper thing I use to 'sweep' the kitchen floor. The thing is twice her height, but she lugs it around like it's a toy! She still likes things that are far too big for her, like when I picked her up one day from daycare, she was carrying a bouncy seat across the room. Yes, my daughter has that strong Smith blood in her! We had a few very nice warm days this week, so she was able to play outside during the day, which she loved. Oh yeah, she has also figured out how to kick a soccer ball. She does a really good job with it! Do we have a soccer player on our hands? If it can get her any sort of college scholarship, I'm all for it! I went to a college planning seminar this week and we are going to be opening a 529 account for her soon. With 17 years until college, I hope we are starting soon enough!! It's a pretty depressing thought to know how much college will cost when she is ready to go. Hopefully I will have my own college loands paid off by then!! Ok, now I'm just babbling. Nothing too exciting has been going on other than the normal stress with school and work and baby. Oh, I have had quite a few doctors appointments lately trying to get me to feel better. I just started on blood pressure medicine yesterday, so maybe that will help. I think a major blood pressure reducer will be graduation....only around 90 days left!!!
Sorry, no pictures. Just writing a post is a feat for now!

A year with Meredith :)

I've been wanting to make a timeline of the major Milestones from Meredith's first year so that when I get around to doing her baby book, I'll have it all set. This probably won't be very interesting for anyone, but wanted to do it for myself :) Thank goodness for this blog because if it was left up to my memory, there would be nothing!

2/2/06- Meredith Grace Elliott, 3:05pm, 8lbs 5oz, 21", Rex Hospital
2/19/06, 17 days old- Baptised at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church
Early April, 8 weeks- spinal ultrasound at WakeMed (all was fine)
Early April, 8-9 weeks- first smiles & laughing
Mid April, 10-11 weeks- starting to sleep 6 hours at night
Mid May, 2 1/2 months -started with babysitter, rolling over
May- 3 months- started sleeping for 12 hours at night
Late June, 4 1/2 months- 1st cereal
Early June, 18 weeks- started being really happy all the time, major changes
Mid June, 4 1/2 months- Sleeping on tummy
Early July, 5 months- first beach trip, up an all fours & almost crawling
August, 6 months- first solid food, sitting well on own, crawling
Mid September, 7 1/2 months- full size carseat, saying mama, standing in crib
Late September, 7 3/4 months- climbing stairs, says dada
October, 8 months- first finger food
Mid October, 8 1/2 months- first tooth (bottom right)
November, 9 months- standing on own, using walker to walk
Mid November, 9 1/2 months- first step
Early-mid December, 10 months- walking well
Mid-late January, 11 months- Teeth 3-5 & clapping

Party Pics!

Finally have a few part pics..mostly cake. We got her a cake of her own and the icing turned out quite a bit greener than we planned on, but it was still pretty :)

Birthday Party

We had a great time on Saturday for Meredith's party. We had a good turn out and Meredith loved playing with all of the kids that came over. Her favorite new toy is this Doramobile (as in Dora the Explorer) that our neighbor Karen got for her. She could hardly wait to get it out of the box before she started sitting on it and attempting to push it along. I was suprised since she doesn't have anything like it, but she has a blast either riding it or pushing it around the house now. Of course it plays music, but it hasn't made me too crazy yet. I did notice that she got a lot of noisy, musical toys and she loves them all! She was a bit tentative about digging into her cake with everyone watching, but it didn't take long for her to get the idea. She didn't make a huge mess, but it was mess enough! The State/Caroline game was on, which provided part 2 of the party. A lot of people stuck around for that, but UNC lost, which didn't make Chris too happy! I don't have any pictures to post yet, but will soon.

My baby is 1!

Happy Birthday to my baby girl! It's so hard to believe that she has been around for a year already, but then again at the same time it's hard to believe that I've only known this amazing little girl for a year. I've been getting a bit emotional today thinking about my life now and my life before Meredith and how this year has been the best and most challenging year of my life! I was holding my tiny baby in my arms last year at this time with no clue about the road ahead of me and now she is walking and talking (kinda) and has turned into such a cool little girl with a huge personality and mommy & daddy have a years worth of parenting under our belts now too :) I'm certainly not wishing away this baby time, but I am just so excited and intrigued to see this little angel grow and develop into such an awesome girl!
I was able to work from home today so I got to spend the day with her. It's so funny how to her it is just another day, no big deal. I know that won't last for long, but it's almost refreshing right now :) We're having a party tomorrow, but I baked a cake for her to have later on her real birthday. Thought I'd post one of her Birth day pictures from a year ago!

Busy!

Life is just a crazy mess lately. Class is keeping me super busy two nights a week, plus at least one study group night and homework as well. We had some drama with one of my groupmates from my huge strategy class. He quit our group because he wasn't happy with the decisions we were making and the schedule we had mapped out for meeting wasn't planned enough....whatever. He is taking this way too seriously and the unfortunate part is that all 4 of us have gone through the past 3 years all together and had become friends, but he has chosen to sacrifice that. Trying to move on, but I am having some serious anxiety over this semester because of that issue and because he left our group, we have a lot more individual work to do now... Ugh, I could go on, but I won't.

Meredith is wonderful. Her birthday is Friday and we are having a party on Saturday, so we are looking forward to that. She has both teeth on top and 4 on the bottom now. It's funny because now she liked to scrape her graham crackers on her teeth so she can hear the noise! She just started this hilarious thing the other night of holding the phone up to her ear (well shoulder really) and acting like she's talking. She'll walk around the house holding the phone (or remote control on occassion) and talking. I guess this is the first blatantly obvious example of mimicking, but it also made us realize that we both need to be careful about what we say and do around her!! I certainly let a bad word slip every now and then around her, so I don't want her first real word to be a bad one! Her favorite thing to say lately is 'eh' really loud and repeatedly. She especially likes to hear herself echo in a room with a high ceiling. I've decided that she reminds me of my grandpa because he couldn't hear for anything and would always would yell 'eh?'. Have I mentioned that one of her favorite toys is also the nasal aspirator that we got at the hospital? I think that the rubber feels good on her gums(yes, it is clean!). I know, weird huh? She has just started to actually play with toys. The other night we both watched in awe as she sat on the floor for probably 2-3 minutes and just played. This child NEVER sits still, so it was pretty amazing!

We went to Tennessee this weekend since my in-laws can't come down for her party this weekend. It ended up being a pretty good trip. Chris & I got to spend most of Saturday out and about Knoxville doing some shopping, dinner and a movie while Mimi watched Meredith, which I know is all she wanted to do anyway! I will be very happy to turn her carseat around after her birthday because I think that her legs were a little cramped on the 6 hr trip and she wasn't all that happy on the way home. Also, I won't have to break my back reaching back there to pick up whatever she has dropped.

More teeth- #4 and 5

No new pictures...we're really bad about uploading pics.
This has been a big week for Meredith. She sprouted two new teeth over the weekend, her 4th on the bottom and her first tooth on the top. She has woken up at night for a couple nights, so I think they are bothering her a bit.
She also started a new daycare yesterday. It is an in-home licensed daycare and there are several other children there for her to play with. I specifically note that this is a licensed day care, which really does seem to have its benefits in comparison to just having the neighbor watch her and cart her all over the place, regardless of the convenience of her living next door. Chris and I both dropped her off yesterday and she was really excited to see all of the toys and immediately started playing. Apparently she didn't sleep much at all, so she was pretty grumpy when she got home, but sounds like she had a great day otherwise. Chris dropped her off this morning and he called me to tell me that as soon as Prissila opened the door, Meredith gave her a huge smile...so, something went very right yesterday :)

Tooth #3

I'm not exactly sure when it happened, but sometime in the last few days Meredith sprouted her 3rd tooth on the bottom right. I have been so busy looking at her top gums (which are sooooo swollen) that I didn't even think to look for another one on the bottom! (It is not an easy event trying to get a look!) The top two really can't be far behind considering what her poor gums look and feel like. She has also had a pretty runny nose the past few days, which I hear is a sign of teething, but then again it could be the freaky weather we are having too! Overall, she has been in great spirits though. She woke up several times last night, but never seemed to upset. She is home today with daddy for MLK day. Teaching doesn't pay much, but man it's a nice schedule!
She went to church with Nana & Papa on Sunday because she spent the night with them so that we could go to a party Saturday night. Apparently she had a great time in church and was clapping and moving to the music, but decided to make lots of noise when it was quiet, so she went to the nursery during the sermon and had a great time with the other kids. Graham crackers were also something to keep her quiet, but she still isn't the cleanest when it comes to eating and it ended up on her and her Aunt Hillary!
This weekend went way too fast :(

January

Well, seems like we are back into our routine. I have been sick with a bad cold for the past week or so and am just feeling like I'm back to normal. Thankfully, Meredith has managed to stay well. I was home from work Friday and Monday, so I feel totally off kitler.
I started class last night and it seems like it's going to be a bear. This one is my final Capstone, so I expected it to be a lot of work, but it is never fun when the syllabus has a table of contents!!! We'll see what my other class will be like on Tuesday. I'm nervous about the semesters, but also just want to get going so it can be over!!
Meredith is walking more than she is crawling now. She still needs to pull up on something to standing, but I don't think it will be long before she figures out how to stand up on her own. Oh, she started clapping last night! Chris said she did it for the first time while I was at class, but he kept her up late so I could see her yesterday and she did it for me too :)
Her latest really odd play thing is the lint roller. We keep it in the bottom drawer in the kitchen and she come over, opens the drawer and pulls that thing out all the time. She likes to walk around with it waving it around. She still loves to carry her dad's tennis shoes around by the laces. The coasters still rank up there, but the remote control has lost a little luster lately.
She seems to be putting together more gibberish that sounds like she's talking, but not any real words to speak of yet.
We were at Kohl's the other night and it was totally dead, so we let her walk around a little bit in her new shoes and she walked right up to these two ladies that worked there and started pushing the cart that one of them had. They were very nice and thought she was adorable and Meredith just got the biggest kick out of the whole thing, she was making very happy screaming noises the whole time. She is just awesome and is so happy all the time. She makes us laugh every day :)

Wagon

Meredith loves taking rides around the house in her new red wagon :)

Here Comes Trouble!

Walking while licking the lid to a pot!







Standing in the laundry basket.







This is my wonderful child :) Note her shirt says "Here comes trouble"....too true!

Christmas 2006

Well Christmas has already passed in a whirlwind! Meredith really didn't care much about it at all. She enjoyed some of the boxes and has taken a particular liking to a talking puppy from her great grandma elliott (she tackles it and giggles when it talks to her), but otherwise she could have cared less! We went into Greensboro on Christmas eve to spend most of the day with Chris's mom, step-dad, sister and brother-in-law. Meredith did incredibly well considering she only got one not long enough nap in that day. She was asleep in the car before we even hit the highway to come home. She woke up long enough to get her cute gingerbread pjs on and her daddy read her The Night Before Christmas and off to dreamland she went. We actually had to wake her up on Christmas morning since she got to bed so late the night before! We went over to my mom and dad's house and had breakfast, opened gifts and Meredith went down for a nap. Shortly after she woke up, we headed over to Chris's stepsister's house, who fortunately lives in Raleigh now. We did the Elliott Christmas over there and Meredith pretty much lost it since she was so tired from all of the action! We got her home and she took a really late nap and when she woke up she was ready to play. Chris's grandparents spent the night and we had breakfast for them and Chris's dad and step mom the next morning. By the time they left on the afternoon of the 26th, I was ready to crash!! Meredith seemed to enjoy all of the attention, but she had 3 very late nights in a row and we are just getting her back onto a normal schedule!
We did a bunch of shopping/returns the past few days and we bought her first pair of Stride Rites since she is a walking maniac lately. She no longer takes only 9 or 10 steps, she can walk all the way accross the room now with no problem. The shoes will take some getting used to, but she seemed to like them (size 5.5!!!) By the way, I can't believe that her shoes cost more than a pair I bought at the mall for me!! She was so cute in the store walking all over the place. She even walked right out into the mall (with daddy close behind). She also rode one of those little rides they have at the mall (no such thing as the penny horse....75cents now!). Chris and I both said how it made her seem so grown up with her big girl shoes on and riding a ride (she thought it was pretty fun!) She will be 11 months old on Tuesday, so I guess she is a big girl!
I am working today, hence the post! I was off the rest of the week and we are closed on monday for new years day, which will be nice. Fortunately, it is pretty quiet. I will post some pictures once we get them uploaded. I honestly didn't take a ton of pictures, but there are a few cute ones.

Oh, on another happy note...My friend Jessica had her little boy today....Miles :) Happy Birthday!

Pictures

I just can't help but post more pics. We had a 'photo shoot' the other day trying to get some good Christmas ones in front of the tree, so these are the many poses of Meredith :) The one with the holly was one that we printed from Snapfish with a border!

Christmas is almost here...

Well, Christmas is upon us! Today is my last day of work for a week and it should be a totally slow day, so I am going to take a minute to write a new post. We somehow thought that now that we have a baby, Christmas would be easier as far as parents coming to us instead of us having to go all over. It hasn't proven to be easy at all. I think we have things worked out now, but I don't think anyone (inlcuding me) is overly thrilled with the plans. I think we are going to go to take a family vacation next year, just the three of us! I just want to make it special for Meredith, even though she'll never remember it.
Miss Meredith is so much fun these days. She is walking quite well now. She can take around 10 steps max right now, but she is getting better every day! Chris and I know that we are in trouble once she is truly mobile. She has no fear and is into everything! The little wicker chair in the pictures is her favorite now. She can crawl up into it and stand up, yes stand in the chair! Who knows what is next?!
She does seem to be working on a little cold. She has been couging a lot at night for the past few days, but I also think it could be the dry air, so we are digging out her humidifier to see if it will help. Plus, every time she coughs, I wake up, so mommy is tired!!
I steamed her some fresh asparagus last night and she wasn't terribly thrilled with it. I think it was just a texture thing though. I have pureed it and given it to her before and she liked it, so I think it was just weird since it can get stringy so easily. We did let her have a bit of gingerbread cookie the other night and she wasn't overly impressed, which made me happy!
I doubt I will make another post until after Christmas, so hope everyone has a great one!
I feel like posting a lot of pics of my beautiful baby :)