6 Months!

Happy half-year to Jubilee (that's her celebration name -- every kid should have one). We haven't had the 6 month check up yet (and anyway, we all know that "check up" is just a euphemism for "shots" at this age) so I don't have any stats for you. Basically, though, she's still long and skinny and she still has a bald spot on the back of her head. Her eyes are really dark blue-grey. It's a very cool color, and we're not entirely sure from whence it came. Marme Lareau and Papa Sugg both have blue eyes, but--if it sticks--Mer's got her very own hue of blue. Her hair has a reddish tint -- and that's obviously from her mom (who we think got it from her childhood neighbor Amber, cause red hair ain't exactly common in the Sugg clan and Kate's didn't even have a hint of red when she was young. It's a coiffure mystery and I'm sure I've already gone on far too long about it). No freckles have developed yet, but for her own sake, we hope they do. Cause everyone knows that freckles get a girl out of trouble.



What else can I tell you? She's working hard on sitting up, but would still really prefer to stand. She still focuses a lot of energy on stripping her feet of anything that might possibly keep them warm. She's taken to chewing on her lower lip -- just in case we weren't absolutely sure that she was teething. And she's still making those baby monster noises that I've mentioned before. She laughs sometimes when we sing to her and sometimes she seems to realize that she's being tickled. BOY is her dad ready for some serious giggling in reaction to his tickle attempts. She continues to (for the most part) go to sleep when we put her in her crib and not wake up til 5:45 the next morning. Sure, we'd prefer 6:30, but we're not complaining. Meredith is fascinated with our food but still doesn't really want any for herself. And finally, we think it's worth noting that she loves to be read to and seems to be paying a weird amount of attention both the pictures and the stories (I mean, for a six month old). Of course, sometimes she also wants to chew on the book -- but she waits til the end to get vehement about it.

So that's the news from the land of Jubilee. Thanks for checking on her.

Virginia and Meredith

Thanks to Casey for babysitting and for taking this precious pic. Are these the most beautiful baby girls in the history of the universe? And not only that, but we can vouch for the fact that they can both be charming at 9pm after a day full of fun, play, learning, and itsy-bitsy 45 minute naps. Incredi-babies.

She's Gonna Be So Much Smarter Than Us

Not to sound like an old fuddy duddy, but you can imagine how technologically savvy this chick is going to be? In the meantime, we'd like to give a shout out to Mac's slide show capabilities, cause Mer loves to watch slide shows of anything. So far we've put snow pictures and spring flower pictures in the regular rotation, but she also enjoys the shows of the trips to Chicago and Puerto Rico. I guess that's fun since she was present for those trips but in utero, so she couldn't really see what was going on. I know, I'm a geek.

Speaking of Puerto Rico: that trip was this time last year. Can you imagine?
THIS WAS MEREDITH, THIS TIME LAST YEAR:

Happy St. Paddy's Day!

In this picture, Meredy is recovering from a bit 'o anger over a delayed (meaning more than 3 seconds prep time) bottle and mom is recovering from a doozy of a day at work. But we wish you the luck 'o the Irish nonetheless.

Toofers

Toofers are kind of like toesies. Ridiculous words that parents begin using and never look back. So Mer is working on her toofers. In earnest. Working hard. 8 days a week. Like a trojan.

Her work involves putting everything in her mouth and gumming it, but that goes without saying. An additional task that she has taken on is that of screaming when the bottle is removed from her mouth, even if it's empty and she's full. Her Uncle Matthew says that the sound is like that a pterodactyl might make when being stepped upon. We're not sure how he knows that, and yet somehow, we're sure he's right.

Golf Girl

So, Meredith played her first round of golf. Actually, dad and Mer mostly just watched mom play a really awful game of golf. But it was a beautiful day and a good time was had by all.

A Day with Aunt Beth

Meredith was a bit under the weather on Monday, so she got to have a lovely day with Aunt Beth. How wonderful is an aunt who is willing to babysit on the first day of her spring break? Pretty wonderful...

So then on Tuesday, we took Meredith back to school. At the end of the day, I picked her up and, as usual, Ms. Madie (Mer's teacher) and I discussed such topics as Meredith's brilliance, kindness, and problem solving abilities. Ms. Madie said "Auntie must have spoiled her yesterday, cause she wanted to be held all day long!" And here's what I say to that: if lovin' Meridy is wrong, we don't want to be right! YEA BETH!

Note: Ms. Madie didn't mind a bit.

5 Months!

It's well established that our birthday posts come late, so here's the 5 month and one week post. Meredith is as lovely as ever and more fun everyday. She's starting to laugh more and more -- her dad got her a giant green frog in Nashville and she giggles when the frog says her name and kisses her. She's also darn close to sitting up. Right now it's more of a bending at the waist than an actual sitting, but she CAN pull herself up. So she talks, she laughs, she sits (almost), she rolls and she makes zubbert noises with her mouth. We give her an "A" on her infant skills report card.



This week, Gran was in town to help with Meridy while Chris was in Nashville. So we took a trip down to the river with Waltie and Ginger. It was a beautiful day. If you notice an unusually blank look on Mer's face, it because we're relatively sure that she was using all of her faculties to figure out the wind. You could just see the wheels turning as her hair tickled her face. Needless to say, she slept well after THAT adventure. And speaking of sleeping, many of you know that the combination of Christmas travels and starting day school threw Meredith off her "sleeping through the night" game. We are proud to say that after a few weeks of changing our eating patterns, Meridy sleeps through the night again. If it were possible to love her anymore (and I'm sure it is), we do now!

Baby Blessing

So, in the dear old C of C (that's Church of Christ for you heathen) (I'm ABSOLUTELY kidding about that) anyway, in the dear old C of C, we don't have baptisms or christenings or any of that fun stuff for the infants. We DO however, have baby blessings. This morning there was a baby blessing at church and Meredith and Parker and Julia were blessed -- and so were all the parents.

It really was a lovely morning -- Dr. Dan said a prayer and then Chris (the preacher, not Meredith's dad) talked about how the only thing that REALLY matters is raising a child that loves to worship the Lord. Sports are great and grades are important and it's wonderful if your child is successful...but in the end if your kid loves God, you've done your job. We did, indeed, feel blessed.

Of course, you know we had to get dressed up for it. Meridy wore a dress that was mine and a lovely softer than spun cotton jacket that her Gran made for her. The danger of making something so soft and lovely for Mer is that she will REALLY want to squish it into her face. She also spent much of the morning snacking on the satin ribbon that tied under her chin. All this to say that capturing the preciousness was a challenge.

Then, this afternoon, Mer and I went to a baby shower for our soon-to-be-here friend Lydia White. And just for the fun of it, here's a picture of another soon-to-be-here friend -- Nora and her mom Angie. Aren't they beautiful?

A lovely Sunday, all in all. And yes, this post is being made later in the week cause Daddy took the computer to Nashville. As if it's not bad enough to be Daddy-less for a week, we're also Mac-less. The agony.



NOTE: NORA KATE CONWAY WAS BORN SOMETIME IN THE EARLY MORNING HOURS ON 3/1/06. YEA ANGIE! YEA NORA! WE LOVE YOU!