Family Day at the Zoo

Neal and I celebrated President's Day with a great trip to the zoo with Meredith. We told her last night that we were planning to go, but when we woke up to chilly temperatures this morning, we were second guessing letting her in on our plans! We decided to just bundle up and go since we knew it would be hard to convince her to do anything else - and we were so glad we did. It turned out to be warmer than we anticipated and there were very few people there, which made it seem like a private day for us!

I have decided we should rent Meredith out to be an official zoo tour guide - as we walk around from animal to animal, she announces "Penguins next!" before I even remember that the Penguin house is right around the corner.

After seeing the elephants, she made sure we knew that "I ride little elephant next."

One of Meredith's favorite things to do at the zoo is to feed the fish by the giraffes, she loves it so much she didn't even notice that the giraffes weren't out today - as long as there is fish food, we will always be fine.

This proved a little closer than she would have liked after the bird got spooked and flew off - Meredith came running to me and decided we were all done with the bird feeding.

Meredith forgave the birds long enough to pose with Daddy.

Can you tell Meredith loves the train?

Swing Batter Batter!

Meredith has been loving playing catch with Daddy lately so we surprised her with a tee-ball set to celebrate her being our favorite Valentine. She has gotten several pretty good hits but Neal thinks she is also trying to see what it would be like play pool (see the first picture to see what he means!)

Daddy, the coach!

Field Trip

Today was a fun day - the photography class that I am taking had a field trip to the Botanical Gardens, so we decided to all go as a family. Even though the assignments were more focused on things like leading lines and composition, and were probably meant to focus on the beautiful scenery, there were several classmates that used Meredith a time or two and I definitely decided to get a few too.

At least this one I got some "leading lines" from the bridge to point to the perfect photo subject!

Meredith's favorite part of the field trip was helping carry the tripod. Then she decided that the tripod was her camera, so she would have to get Daddy to set it up when I stopped for other shots so she could take pictures of the water or the rocks or whatever else her little artistic mind found appropriate. Her photography technique of course included reminding her subject to say "Cheese!"

The little patient

I came down with a very un-fun stomach bug Monday night, so was staying pretty close to the couch or bed all day yesterday and today. Meredith was so sweet, she knew that I wasn't feeling very well, so she would come over to me throughout the day and kiss my tummy, then proclaim that I was "All better!" She did really well with me not cooperating with our usual play routine for awhile on Tuesday, but luckily, my mom and Neal's mom really came to my rescue by keeping her for me as much as they could (plus Neal's mom brought some great homemade Chicken and Rice soup which really hit the spot!)

Today when I started feeling better, Meredith and I were playing and she got out her doctor kit, which includes a Bert thermometer. She grabbed it up and said "I play with this!" then ran to her bed, climbed in, laid her head on her pillow and put it in her mouth (modeling what she saw me do a few times yesterday.) So it seems now that she thinks the only way you take a temperature is while lying down in bed. Luckily, after taking her own temp she also said she was "all better" so it seems like we are heading in the right direction at our house - hopefully she and Daddy won't catch whatever I had!

Picture Practice

I am taking an intro to photography class so that I can learn to use my fancy new camera - I still have lots to learn, but I got a couple of cute ones of my sweet little girl that I thought I would share!

Meredith enjoying one of her favorite past-times, the mall carousel! We had a fun day at the mall for her friend Katie's birthday. She got to ride the ostrich, the tiger and the lion all in one trip on top of visiting Build-a-Bear to make a ballerina puppy! What a fun day for the girls.

My sweet friend made this adorable hat for Meredith and she loved wearing it for almost 2 days straight!

A girl for all seasons with her jacket, knit hat and umbrella!

Crazy Texas Weather

Last week we had a textbook case of Texas weather - ice storms one day and beautiful sunshine the next! Because of the ice storm (and an achy tailbone for me after taking a slip on some of the ice - ouch!), Meredith and I spent lots of time in the house, which meant we had to find lots of fun things to keep us both busy. We made cookies for a friend that had a baby, and she loved helping me scoop out the dough.

Later we made other cookies to keep - we had a super cute set that Meredith's friend, Isabelle gave her that included a magic wand and color-changing cookie mix. Meredith's favorite part was adding the sprinkles (and of course eating the cookies and lots of frosting!)
When we weren't baking up sweets, Meredith was so excited to pull out her "tent" (which is really a playhouse made out of tent fabric) and her tunnel that she could crawl through. We had lots of tea parties in the tent over the several days we stayed in, we might need to look for a bigger tent if she keeps wanting me and baby Jillian in my tummy to join her!