Life with Meredith and Jillian

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Rock Stars Don't Sleep in Cribs

As many of you know, Neal loves the XBox game, Rock Band. This has started a love of the game for Miss Meredith too. Typically, while he plays, she calls out "Mama - dance!" and she and I stand off to the side of the TV and turn in circles, throw our legs in the air and just generally look like dancin' fools. The other night though, Neal turned the mic over to Meredith - holding her up to it and prompting her to call out the names of her favorite people. She loved hearing herself say "Gigi! Papa! Bubbie!" come over the TV speakers. She even seemed to change up her normal inflection just for effect. Neal put her down after doing a thorough roll-call, but she would have none of it! So, he bent the stand so that it was about the right height and let her take the stage like any true rock star!

Finding her inner Janis Joplin

Shortly after her first big living room concert, Meredith decided she was much too cool for her crib - much to our dismay! She had been hiking her leg like she was thinking about it for awhile now, but truthfully I did not give her enough credit. I really thought she would be too chicken to go all the way - this is the same girl that is terrified of dirt! But Monday during her nap with Gigi, all my mom heard was Meredith talking to herself and then "THUD!" She went back to find her in tears on the floor. I was a little concerned about what we would do because I was really not prepared for her to sleep anywhere but her crib. Luckily, I was able to cheat and take off the outer side of her crib and then bought a rail to keep this busy little girl from falling out in the middle of the night. The first night was pretty tough - I ended up laying on the floor until she fell asleep, but last night and tonight were a bit easier. Naps are still more of an issue (we have only had 1 nap this week - but who is counting?)

Meredith's first night in what Neal calls her "medium-sized girl crib" - probably just to keep me from crying that she is growing up so fast!

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

"Sandcastles in the Sand...

...thought I could fly when you held my hand." -Robin Sparkles

Ahhh - there is nothing I love more than the beach! The Geurin family spent many, many summer vacations at some beach in Mexico or Texas, making me long for the sound of waves and the smell of salt water - even the cackle of seagulls makes my heart jump. This year for my mom's birthday, my dad rented a beach house in Galveston for us all to have a big family vacation. My last trip to Galveston was a spring break trip my senior year in high school, which is where Neal and I first really got to know each other , so it was fun to take our little girl back there 10 years later.

Before going, we were not really sure what to expect. Meredith is proving to be quite the princess despite Neal's best efforts to convince her to use her height to pursue sport-star dreams. She cries any time she even imagines a speck of "diwt" on her - and even insists we clean her shoes if they get dirty.

This pose is affectionately known as "The Meredith" to many close to us - varying reasons can bring out our little drama queen - this of course, was all because of some "diwt"

I was determined to teach her my love for the beach, so I thought I would give it a shot! We progressed slowly - starting with her clinging to us for dear life even just as we walked along the shore but ending the trip playing in the waves with mama and daddy and even helping to make sand castles.

Showing Daddy a favorite shell.

Thanks to some encouragement from her beloved Pinkie, and some demonstration from Mom and Gigi, sandcastles were pretty fun to make.

After seeing Uncle Neil play in the water, we almost couldn't get Meredith out! Of course she had to sit on my leg so she wouldn't feel the sand - and if you look closely, Pinkie is tucked behind me because he needed to join us too - this was the best I could do to keep him with us and not soaked!

We took a break from the beach at Moody Gardens in the Rainforest Pyramid - Meredith was so excited to get to see "amals" with 3 of her favorite people - Uncle Neil, Aunt Katie, and Baby Landon. She just perfected Aunt Katie's name this weekend (sounds more like Tatie) but she loved calling it out every time she saw her - don't think Katie minded either!

Landon and Meredith as frogs - Landon is a little model - posing anytime a camera is around - and for these pictures it was even more pornounced - especially when there was an audience who all thought he was the cutest thing!

Meredith's favorite part of the trip (and a highlight for us too!) was performing for her fans on the porch each night - she loved dancing, singing, and making everyone laugh before bedtime - I think she was sad to come home to where she just has Neal and I to watch her every night - of course that doesn't keep her from dancing for us or making us laugh at all her silliness!

After bath-time fun with Daddy tonight - Daddy is sure this will be one of her favorites when she is older!

Monday, July 7, 2008

Softball Princess

So tonight we headed out to watch FBCA Red, the team that Neal has played on for about 5 years now - I used to go to all the games, but now I have to limit myself to the games that don't push too far into Meredith's bedtime. I took my new camera just to play and luckily in addition to getting to take some pictures of the guys, Meredith's friend, Hannah was there and we got lots of great ones of the girls! They especially loved playing with their mom's sunglasses - Meredith would put hers on and say "cool!" then Hannah would do the same and shout "Hollywood!" too cute!