11 Months!

Ah, the penultimate month of the first year of life. We've been thinking lots of thoughts about what we were doing this time last year. I was starting to become seriously uncomfortable and women all over Memphis were telling me that the baby would come early. They were wrong. Chris was sanding Meredith's changing table for the 5th time. We spent a lot of time standing in the nursery staring at the blank walls. We started going out to eat as often as we could afford to and renting movies at an alarming rate. We felt that we had to squeeze in every last possible moment of "couple" time.

Now we just want to squeeze in every possible moment of Mer time. Taking her to the nursery for worship AND Sunday school seems like a ridiculous demand. I tap my toes and twist in my seat for the last 10 minutes of class like a kid at the end of the school day, desperate to go get her. Sometimes I laugh in the face of maturity and decorum and leave class early to go get her. Do you know how often I've left a church gathering early for ANYTHING? About twice in 31 years.

Work is, blessedly, very busy. And I make sure it stays that way. Otherwise I just sit there contemplating the absurdity of pretending to be busy instead of being with my daughter. And every week is just a rhythm of waiting for Thursdays and the weekend for some pure, unadulterated Meredith time.

And what does Meredith time consist of these days? Well, I've started Tivo-ing Sesame Street. There can be no denying that I enjoy it more than she does, and I feel kind of guilty when she obviously wants me to chase her and I turn and say, "But wait, I gotta see how Grover solves this problem." But I've always been a Grover fan, and she will be too, given time. We do a lot of reading. Mer is great at turning the pages, and she usually waits for the appropriate time. She likes to point to the words and the pictures and she seems to be paying a lot of attention.


We're still doing a lot of walking, but she's still holding on to our fingers. She's started doing the furniture walking, but that'll only take her so far...and so our backs still hurt from laps around the house in cromagnon pose. She's obviously going to completely skip crawling, cause the hermit crab scoot is still the independent transportation method of choice. And she can get around much more quickly than you might think, so don't turn your back near the stairs.

She's still having a grand time with Magnolia (Maggie), the cat. They take turns tormenting one another and turning to me as if I should do something about it. Then I separate them and they show their appreciation by sitting on opposite sides of the dividing door and whining piteously 'til I let them continue their intermittent playing and whining.

At school Meredith loves painting and naptime (what makes the nap acceptable at school and not at home?). She's eating solids like a champ. (I know, it's about time). She even ate cold, mushy pureed peas the other day, which I wouldn't do in a thousand years. So that's something. And her dancing skills are progressing. She did some pretty risque moves at the Redbirds game the other day, but we think the extra loud music and the fresh air just went to her head.

That's about it for the month 11 update. In closing, here's a pic of Miss Meridy playing video games with the boys. I won't even tell you how long this keeps her entertained because I know it's probably turning her brain to porridge. But she's so content...