got piano?

2008-01-22 piano

today nana and i played piano! she knows the good songs and when i play she even knows the lyrics! i thought that my music was so good that i even had to taste the piano too see if it was true. i have learned a lot in my first 11months! it is fun to grow up!

our little lady bug

2008-01-21 ladybug

it is not everyday that you get to dress up like a ladybug! nana and papa are over helping me get things ready for the trip to kansas city and we are also getting ready for meredith's first birthday party...... can you guess the theme? ladybugs!!! somewhere along the way i have realized that i favor nature-minded toys for meredith and have found some really neat bug stuff. it just seems like the cutest thing for our little girl and for *future* kids too (we hope!) so a ladybug themed first birthday party is the way to go! yes, yes, i know what you are thinking. it is too early for *future* kid talk but someday i will be fertile again and it will be time to make more precious babies! just not yet!

my little fur hat

2008-01-17, 1-17

here is meredith in the cute little spotted jammies that i luv (she looks like a little fawn!) and wearing a fur hat that i got from my godfather when i was little. meredith is starting to feel so much better.....

since the last post we have went through a lot! meredith was to the doctors 4 times or so and the hospital 3 times.... it was all very tumultuous. her week long cough just got more crazy and she started having a fever. it seemed to be bronchiolitis for a few days but she must have picked up something more at the doctors office because she just got more wore out and started loosing her appetite and was only nursing for comfort. it was a difficult time and we ended up at the hospital er and was escorted directly up to the pediatric floor for 24hr supervision and hydration. they found pneumonia in her lungs and she started getting iv antibiotics. it was difficult to see her so sick. she really tried to stay positive. when we first got to her room she was pointing with both hands in two different directions.... just trying to take it all in. the room was very creative. her iv arm was all taped up to a big board and we nicknamed it 'the whammmer' because she could really hit us and herself with that thing! it was something to see! well she ended up getting lots of energy quick and we were sent home to relax without 'the whammer.'

dr. jean visits

2008 01 06 jeans visit

wow last time jean visited meredith was in my belly and now a lot has changed!! she has earned her doctorate and is getting ready to start a post doc at some famous lab in the country......... whooosh!! meredith was so excited to play and show off her new crawling skills. she tried to be on her best behavior for one of momma's dear dear friends :)

happy new year!!!

2008 01 01, new years

we had a fun celebration over at cousin jacob's house! we had fun partyin' and eatin' and i almost stayed up late enough to see the ball drop..... what a great start for the new year to be held all snuggly warm with a belly full of love and family!!!

Up North

2007 12 29 up north

whenever i was little we always went up north at christmas time to visit family. it was a true white christmas every time..... the snow, the fun, the family all around! how fun it was to take meredith up north during a snowy snowy weekend during the christmas time! next year we will get a chance to really enjoy the snow!

the day after

2007 12 26

Merry Christmas! The fun doesn't end on Christmas day! There is still more family to visit! We hope everyone is having a safe Holiday!

Merry Merry Christmas!

2007 12 25 christmas

What a wonderful Christmas! We hope that you and your family also had a wonderful Christmas and enjoyed celebrating Jesus' birthday!

Meredith especially enjoyed her first visit from Santa and having a fun time at Grandma and Grandpa Shooks' house. Wow, baby's first Christmas!

family party

2007 12 23 family party

we got together with family on scott's side today to do some Christmas celebrating and have a fun day out. we started off at the local bowling alley and meredith enjoyed her first time bowling. she was a real natural. she was all interested in the social side of bowling and we thought it was great how the bowling alley had 'bumpers' up so the 'kids' didn't get their bowling balls stuck in the gutters. at first i had meredith in the baby wrap that i am wearing in the photos.... but she much preferred being held by all of her extended family! we celebrated back at aunt linda and uncle tom's house with great eats that included a great Christmas cookie spread and Jesus' Birthday cake. oh yes, and meredith got spoiled with lots of presents tooo..... including her first dolly!

baby party

2007 12 19 beaumont group

what happens when you have 12 babies crawling around a christmas tree????? well there is a lot of fun going on... along with some present opening investigating!

momma's birthday

2007 12 18 birthday

wow momma had a birthday today and she didn't even get any older! daddy took the day off of work to spend with us and he got to goto kindermusik class this morning. it was nice to have daddy dancing and singing with us in class.

In the Manger

2007 12 12 christmas card photo

Meredith enjoyed playing with our nativity scene. She seems to fit right into the manger and had fun 'pointing' to baby Jesus as I snapped photos for our Christmas card. I almost had to send out the one with her pointing to baby Jesus. The caption was going to read, 'Got Jesus?'

bushels of citrus

2007 12 09 citrus

when nana and papa came back from texas they came back with bushels and bushels of citrus fruit and they let me have some toooooo! here i am enjoying the view from in the baskets!

annalise's party

2007 12 07 anna's party

today we got all dressed up and went to my friend anna's birthday party. it was fun to be a part of the fun. my friend anna really knows a lot and she is fun to play with too. she sharred some toys with me and even gave me a cool musical bee toy at the party. wow. birthdays are fun.

They are back!

2007 12 03 grandma grandpa

Nana and Papa were away in Texas for a while and today I got to play with them again at my house! They were so excited when I showed them my new play area and toys. They like to play with me and I like to play with them tooooo!

visit to akiko's

2007 11 29 visit to akiko's

we ventured over to grand rapids to visit with some dear friends.... i think we kept pretty busy because i didn't even get photos of both boys! we need another visit! meredith really enjoyed her new girlfriends but was really jealous of me holding the baby boys. it was frustrating for me because the babies smelled sooooooo good! the girls luved reading books and were concerned about meredith's habit of putting everything into her mouth.

furry vest and shoes

2007 11 28 fur shoes and vest

okay i guess the matchy furry vest and shoes didn't show up well in the mall photos from the other day and i just had to get a few more photos. you can tell from the first photo that meredith isn't too shy of the camera yet....

'oh you are getting that thing out? so you are going to make silly faces and put funny things on your head to get me to crack some smiles eh??? OKAY!!! you so funny momma!!'

i got one of her standing with a little help from me. lately when she stands up she likes to start swaying right away from foot to foot like she hears a great song start up. she likes her music!

today we went to the nice little bookstore downtown rochester. meredith enjoyed looking at the books with me and she got really excited when the lady there started reading from a few (to give us ideas for gifts.) what a nice bookstore!

meredith may be getting some crawling ideas. when she is propped up on her knees she will linger there for much longer time periods and when she is propped up on her knees in a crawling position she will hold it for longer periods also. it is pretty neat trying to figure out what she thinks. in the past she didn't seem to focus on the position of her legs/knees like she does now. she has even gotten her heiny off the ground while in a laying position...... so we KNOW she is thinking about her whole body position now.

the old carseat

 
 
how did our little punkin outgrow her carseat soooooo quickly??? nine months might have something to do with it...... but whenever someone asks me how old our little girl is i always stumble because it seems like she is just a couple of months old :)

fyi... i did remove that warning tag on the carseat that was next to her head. i know it might be tabooo but i have removed some tags from some of the baby items along the way. am i just weird like that? yeah.

casual saturday

2007 11 24

here is a little peak at some saturday fun. we enjoy pierogies, potstickers, and eggs for breakfast lately. meredith is interested in feeding herself organic rice puffs.... although we have some cereal and bannana to also eat today. zoo zoo kitty is usually not too far out of the picture napping...... but today he seemed to get right up to the table!! he was pushing his luck because we don't allow kitty at the table......

the weather was so chilly today. our thanksgiving snow still stuck around. we got some precious smiles of meredith in her baby swing as daddy played peek-a-boo from around my shoulder. meredith likes to sit up in the swing now. zoo zoo watches us dote on meredith from his perch up on the chair. i think these kitty pictures show off his nice sparkly pink collar that meredith got for his birthday. we both think that boys look cute in pink toooooo

the self portraits of daddy and meredith are so cute. i love to upload pics like these because they are often a suprise for me to find on the camera!

what i can do

2007 11 23

today mom took photos of me doing some of the things that i can do. she started off taking 'happy' pictures of me in my baby carseat because we just upgraded to a big girl seat for me. i am so glad that mommy didn't take too long taking the carseat photos...... geesh, i would rather play with my toys!

i just got this musical band toy. i like to get the music going and sway back and forth to the jazzy sounds that it makes.

i like to read to mommy and daddy from my books. this ladybug book is pretty special. it has different textures for me.

happy thanksgiving

2007 11 22 thanksgiving

today we celebrated thanksgiving at our house with uncle mike and miss shannon. daddy grilled a turkey outdoors in the snow. that 10lb turkey was almost as big as me! i liked showing off my jumping skills on my jumperoo. i couldn't believe my eyes when daddy brought out the rocking zebra toy for me. it is really a big girl toy but i already know how fun it is!

there is so much to be thankful for. i am thankful to celebrate my first thanksgiving ever!

mcdonalds fun

2007 11 20 mcds fun

today we had a fun playdate with aunt kerry and cousin jake at mcdonalds. jake did lots of playing on the fun stuff there and meredith couldn't help but admire all of the cool stuff that he could do. boy is she going to have fun when they both can run around in the jungle gym together!

holiday shopping

2007 11 19 shopping

today we ventured off to do some holiday shopping and fun with friends from one of our mom's groups. we had some fun romping around the holiday north pole display. we went to the sommerset mall..... it is filled with fancy stores and fancy people. meredith wore her fancy pink fur boots and matchy pink fur vest. she fit right in!

we had fun with daddy when we got home. meredith loves greeting daddy right away after work and she loves to go right for his chest hairs. she is mesmerized by them. it was fun to try to capture that on film to share....... chest hairs beware!

the winter coat

2007 11 18 the winter coat

okay so i had no idea it would be difficult to pick out a winter coat...... that worked! i picked out the first one because it had a detachable hood (for carseat comfort) and its wonderful pink color combo and fluffy warmness. well i should have tried it on her at the store because i had no idea that it would prevent her from putting her arms down........

insert the cries from the classic christmas story movie "but i can't put my arms down"

so i searched a little on my current favorite store (ebay) and found this lovely pink wool coat that is warm and cozy...... but in a less fluffy sort of way. and it works! meredith is warm and she can put her hands down!

go blue

2007 11 17 family thanksgiving and game

today meredith is feeling allllllll better and nooooo rashys so we head out to have some u of m fun and thanksgiving celebrating with family. it is fun to see the kids getting ready for christmas....... aunt linda had them suprise us with the antler/angel holiday message that christmas is coming up quick!!!!!!!!!

daddy cheers me up

2007 11 12 daddy cheers me up

it is nooooo fun being officially sick for the first time.... or probably ever. we realized how lucky we have been that our little almost 9mnth old girl hasn't been sick.... yet. well somehow she developed this crazy craZZZy fever and she is having a hard time with the crankies, the poopies, and that sort of thing. is it from going outside? is it from going to the doctors for the well baby visit? is it from this? is it from that??? ahhhh just make the fever go away and our little girl return to normal. and why does everything happen so fast at night?

well as many of you know i usually write these blog entries usually days after they happen...... so we have some idea what was happening now. she had roseola! it is a common childhood illness that typically has 3 days of high fevers followed by 1-3 days of a full body rash. well meredith got the full effect. AND we survived. we are waiting for our parenting badges to arrive in the mail any day now.

autumn fun outside and inside

2007 11 10 stroller and playtime

today was a fabulous warm day here in michigan. you could say it was an 'indian' summer day it was so warm. we are dressed up pretty cozy because sometimes the sun ducked behind a cloud or the wind was just trying too hard to rustle off some leaves from the pretty trees. today was the first time meredith did not protest being in her stroller for our entire ride. she just took every bit of color in through her tiny little eyes and admired everything on our walk. usually she lets me know that she misses me and we cuddle up in the sling or baby wrap together for the rest of our journey. there are advantages to being held up close to mamma you know :)

wow this must have just been a photogenic day. it just seemed time to take pictures of meredith and some of her toys too. she does like to play with her grasshopper toy enough to consider it a favorite. i would have picked the lady bug..... but she picked the grasshopper. when i look at these photos i can hear her talking to it and i wait to hear her 'holler' into the hole on the bottom of the grasshopper. she seems to prefer the different sounds that she can make with it. she is also 'caught on film' with her first dolly. she is attracted to dolly's little curls of hair. she also likes to talk to dolly while she points to dolly's facial features. awwwwww baby and her dolly!

yates family trip

2007 11 04 yates cider

today we went to the local cider mill for some autumn fun. there was of course the best cold cider that you can possibly find..... along with yummy donuts, pie, and fudge. meredith absolutely loved drinking out of the 'little apple' and juice jugs. she really knows when she has something good! she watched the pony ride with daddy and had some fun with the signs that they have up on display. it was just starting to get a little chilly and you can see meredith has a little red nose from being outdoors on our family outing.

autumn fun

2007-11-04, autumn woods

we ventured out into the woods behind the house for some autumn photos. hopefully we didn't get into any poison ivy..... don't worry, meredith stayed away from direct contact with any suspected areas :) by the end of the photo session she was ready to nurse and you can see how she is just trying to cuddle right in. our yard is in full color right now and most of the color is yellow. the pics of meredith down at the bottom of the hill are where we usually have the deer come and nap.

happy halloweeeeeen!

2007 10 31 Halloween

meredith was a cute baby ducky for halloween! she gathered a good little stash of candy for mommy and daddy to eat! we hope everyone had a safe halloween tooooo!