My Super Sweet Second: Volume 3

Neal and I were able to both take today off so we could spend her actual birthday with our little girl. We decided to take her to the zoo, which is one of her favorite things! She talks all the time about seeing animals and Neal hadn't gotten to go on a zoo trip since last fall, so he was excited to see her now that she really enjoys it! We joked that she truly encompassed turning 2 today because everything we asked her, she would answer "No." We would even say "Let's go see the monkeys" and her response would be "No, no, monkeys!" and this seemed to happen with every suggestion - even though she would go and see them very happily once we were there. Yeah - this is going to be fun! :) Luckily she says it in a really cute way that makes it hard to get too frustrated.

One activity she did not say no to was feeding the fish - she loves getting the pellets and throwing them to all the coy near the giraffes. Unfortunately her throw was a little short, which meant the fish were almost jumping ashore to get the food!
She was also very excited to get to give the birds food, but they swarmed her as soon as she walked in with the stick and so she freaked out a little - luckily Daddy took over the food so she could watch the birds from a safe distance.
The bird was getting a little too close for her taste, I think...
Always a favorite is a ride on a carousel!

After a post-zoo nap, I decided to take Meredith up to the mall to ride the carousel up there - even though she had already had one ride that day, I knew if she could really pick her activities that would be the next thing on her list - and, while we were at the mall, she also got to browse at the Disney Store and Build-a-Bear. At this point, I am lucky enough that she is fine with just looking in both places. After that, we met Daddy to eat - she requested a "hot burger and fries" not sure why she felt the need to differentiate that the burger should be hot, but I am sure there is some reason in her 2 year old little head!

We had so much fun with our little girl this weekend - we have been blessed with 2 wonderful years of her growing and learning and we can't wait to see what God has in store for us for the next year and all the years after that!

My Super Sweet Second: Volume 2

We continued the birthday celebration with a family dinner on Sunday night - Gigi, Papa, Great Grandma, Bubbie, Granddad, Uncle Neil, Aunt Katie, Landon, "Aunt" Julie, "Uncle" Marc, and Anna all joined us for fajitas and to celebrate! We had so much fun watching the 3 little ones interact and enjoy the new toys - and of course the cake!

One of Meredith's favorite presents, sent from Great Grandmama in Alabama - a Pluto doll! We can't separate them now.

This was my second cake experience of the weekend - my mom and Katie helped this time - we had fun and most of all Meredith loved her "Cakecake " cake

This time she actually got the candles to go out!
I was a little afraid that she might not like the idea of cutting into someone she loves as much as Strawberry Shortcake, but instead she had so much fun helping me!

Here are the 3 little ones hanging out together - the girls enjoying cake while Landon chomped down on the table!
Looks like the Daddies are having as much fun as the little ones! Neal is playing with a Yo Gabba Gabba Dance Mat he picked out for his favorite little dancer and Marc is working on some art work on a really cool drawing mat Anna picked out for Meredith.
Another gift courtesy of Anna - a really cute pink guitar so she and Daddy can play rock band together!

My Super Sweet 2nd: Volume 1

So maybe there wasn't a shiny new Mercedes or some rap group to perform for her 2nd Birthday, but we still had a great time and maybe went a bit overboard - because really, does a 2 year old a full 3 days of celebration? Well, I think Meredith does - she is a very sweet girl and we love her so much, so we love taking a few days out to make it all about Meredith!

Our first celebration was on Saturday. Meredith began coming down with something earlier in the week and by Friday afternoon, I had her into the doctor - who told me, "Yep, looks like her throat hurts, but nothing to do for it. She will probably feel bad until at least Sunday." I went home a little dejected because I didn't want her to feel sick at her party! She ended up getting lots of rest and lots of tylenol and by the time the party started she seemed to be feeling much better!

The night before, my friend (also Krista) came over to "help me" decorate her cake (I put that in quotes, since she did all the hard work!) And they turned out so cute!

The Minnie Mouse matched her invitation and my favorite part are the cupcakes - they had an icing surprise inside!

For the party, we had lots of friends over to Gigi's to swim in the pool. The kids seemed to have a blast until it started raining. Fortunately everyone had gotten to swim for quite a bit, the pizza was about gone and we had even done cake, so if it was going to rain, we couldn't have planned it better!

Meredith's friends hit the pool!

Swinging with Daddy!

I think Landon must be in awe of the big boys jumping off the diving board!

Meredith trying so hard to blow out those candles!

Looks like the cupcakes were a hit with the birthday girl!

Model in the Making

Meredith has less than a week until she is officially 2, so to commemorate this big birthday, I wanted some updated pictures of our precious little girl! We commissioned a friend of mine who is dabbling in the photography business to do the job. We were lucky to have some great weather that morning (even somewhat cool for August in Texas) so we met out at Southlake Town Square and got some amazing shots that I love - now I just have to figure out where I am going to display all of these (plus the others that I love that I decided not to post today)!

Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep...

One of Meredith's favorite things to do right now is pray - before meals or before bed - it is all great! In fact, sometimes we can't get her to actually get to eating dinner because she just wants to keep saying prayers! Can't complain too much about that I suppose! And I know we will never be able to put her down to sleep without saying prayers with her, because she is quick to remind us that is the next step in the going to sleep process before her head even hits the pillow! Last night, she excitedly reminded me it was time to pray and so I asked her "What would you like to pray for tonight?" Her quick response was "Cake!" I am not really sure if she meant she was hoping God would bless her with cake when she woke up this morning or as Neal predicted, she is praying her cake for her birthday parties this weekend will be tasty, but I decided to interpret that to mean that we should thank God for all the fun treats in life, like Cake. Of course I had to do this through my giggles because I just thought that was too cute!

Little Gym

All Summer Meredith has been going to the Little Gym - which she has loved! It is basically just a place where they sing songs, run around, play on tiny gym ecquipment and end the day with balls and bubbles (probably her favorite part!)

Next week is her last week for the summer so I decided to get a few pictures from today so I could share them with everyone on here!

Last week Meredith finally got up the nerve to really swing from the uneven bars - she saw a little girl's daddy do it and she thought he was funny, so she gave it a try. The best part is after you swing...

...you can let go, fall on your bottom and either applaud for yourself or shout "TA-DA!"

Meredith is one of the more "careful" gymnasts. Some of the other little ones will just fly over the balance beams and jump from the high-up equipment, Meredith prefers to take her time and enjoy the ride!

They have the greatest bubbles - they are tiny and last forever! We finally found the exact kind at Gymboree so get to play with them at home too!

After Little Gym today, we had to run out to try to find some shoes for me - as soon as we got into the store, she kept saying "Shoes off!" and then immediately started trying on. I think we might be in trouble when she is older...

Neither pair quite matched her outfit, so we decided to keep looking.

Girl Time in San Antonio

A trip to San Antonio isn't complete without a stop at the Alamo!

Last weekend, Mom and I took Meredith for her first trip to San Antonio - we of course had lots planned, but some of the simple stuff seemed to be the most fun for us all. There is so much to say, so I am just going to give you a recap of what was Meredith's favorites and some of the best pictures from the weekend.

• The Children's Museum-After going to this museum, I really wish we had one of these in DFW! It was so great to just let Meredith explore. They had a room full of all different ways to blow bubbles, tree houses to climb in and around, a huge room with a Brio train exhibit, and all different types of stores, cafes, etc.
  

Meredith's favorite part of the museum was the trolley that you could sit in and drive. It happened to be at the front of the museum - I thought we would never get her to leave it to go see what else there was to offer!

• The Riverboats- Meredith was so excited to get to see the water, the ducks, and the boats on the river each time we left our hotel. The first night we waited too late to get tickets, but the next day after much begging from Meredith, we grabbed a boat after lunch. She loved it - so much it rocked her to sleep!

A tuckered out little girl lulled to sleep by the gentle movement of the boat...or maybe the boring over-rehearsed speech from our boat driver.

• Dancing in the Market-We headed to the market for dinner and shopping one night - which meant we took a bus - she thought that was the greatest and begged to go on buses the entire time we were there! Meredith found a fun wooden tamborine that I am sure she will want to play with Daddy during Rock Band and helped me to pick out a tortilla basket. We also stopped in the Farmer's Market but didn't get beyond the doorway - immediately she found a stage and it was over. She entertained herself and us for the rest of the night dancing - and loved it when some of the older kids joined her to do cartwheels. What a ham!

Demonstrating the moves she has learned this season on So You Think You Can Dance.

• The Rides at Sea World- My little dare devil begged me to take her on every ride she saw - unfortunately she is too little to even ride the kiddie coaster. We did get to do a ferris wheel and another small ride, but I think she will be ready for the real thing as soon as she has a growth spurt!

This was the closest we could come to a roller coaster - regardless, she had fun!

• Shamu-Meredith loved all the animals but was so excited to see Shamu. I dressed her in a shirt that had a whale on it and when we went to the first Shamu show, she looked down at her shirt, then to Shamu and was so excited! She was mesmerized by his jumps and flips - she didn't like it quite as much when he started splashing the audience, but all in all he was probably the highlight of the trip!

Meredith loved Shamu!

• Great Mexican food- So maybe this was more of a highlight for me, but she loved the Mariachis that we saw at both of the restauarnts we visited. She would clap and dance along - and even broke out her tambourine for one number.

Keeping the beat to her new favorite song

• Just the basics of traveling-Like any kid, some of Meredith's best moments were hanging out in the room, the pool, and of course pushing the elevator buttons. One of her newest tricks is associating letters with her favorite people's names, so we would tell her to push the Dada button when we wanted to go down and the Papa button for up (she hasn't mastered U yet, but she loves P for Papa!)

Another picture to show off our little diva after swimming.