Work in Progress

Hey folks. So I've switched the site around and it's like I have a whole new baby! Such fun! So bright-shiny and new! I'm sure I'll make lots of important decisions in the next few days. Should I use all caps here? Should I change this shade of green? Should I make a list of my favorite books and albums so that you can see that and debate about whether I have any taste or not? It's still a work in progress, so tell me if I've messed anything up for the viewing public. All 4 zillion of you.

16 Months!

Because I was too lazy to switch to the new version of blogger for a LONG time, some of you haven't been able to post comments. And heck, I haven't been able to post at ALL the last few days. So I got my act together and finally made the switch. Here's the delayed birthday post. Now comment away!

Look at me, actually doing a birthday post on her birthday! Trust me, it's not indicative of me getting my act together or anything along those lines. Anyway, you're not here to hear about my organizational skills. You're here to hear about the exploits of one Meredith Lareau, 16 month old.

For those of you still keeping up with Meredith's potential as a fly-weight boxer, here's her stats: she's in the 50th percentile for length (I guess we call it height, now that she's a toddler) and she's in the 25th percentile for weight. Her head still weighs in at a massive 90% of her body weight. Kidding, kidding. But that's the boring stuff. Let's talk about fun stuff. Meredith continues to show a lot of interest in music. She loves to play the piano she got for Christmas. It was entirely her idea to pull her little step stool up to the piano so that she could really get after it. What I really love is when she reaches behind her, while sitting at the piano, to start other noise making toys, and then continues playing the piano. Our own little one-woman band. What do you think, Tia Sarah? Does she have what it takes to follow in your musical footprints?


She's becoming a better eater. Stop the presses -- she actually ate some chicken today. The picture below is of Meredith eating her first peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Since I existed primarily on PB&Js for the first 13 years of my life, I felt this was significant. The bottle is officially a thing of the past, and it only mostly broke my heart when I realized she was completely done with the bottle and I would never get to give her another bottle before putting her to bed. Her first word every morning is cookie. I usually give her a banana instead and hope for the best. She is acknowledged, even by her adoring teachers, as being the most frequent begger in class, but she does have serious eating genes when you consider her mom and her Uncle Matthew.

So that's the news. Now that we have the fancy new Blogger, we'll try to keep your comments posted and the pictures fresh. Love to all!

A Year Ago

Meredith looks about 10 feet tall to me. Sorry I didn't get a pic. Trust me, there's not so much time for picture taking these days. Nor is there the requisite pause in the action. In the last few weeks, I've taken several pictures of her back as she ran away. So here's a picture of her almost exactly a year ago. Crazy.

Apropos of nothing, guess what Mer can do that I'm told most one year olds cannot? Unzip and remove her jacket. Of all the ways to be advanced...It's finally cold outside and she won't keep a coat on for more than a minute and a half. Why couldn't it have been early spelling or stunning silverware-use skills? Oy vey.

I promise to try to take some pics this weeked.

Accepting Your Fate

It's been a good week for a few reasons. First of all, life is always better when you accept your fate. And this week, Chris and I accepted that our daughter doesn't sleep worth a hoot. Our fate doesn't involve consistent sleep. At least for now. In her defense, she goes to sleep very well. But that's the end of the list of positives. The girl wakes up early and often. When she wakes up, she is usually irate. Zero to irate in about 5 seconds. We're working on this problem: trying various child rearing techniques, and spiking her milk with Nyquil. But in the meantime, we're accepting it. Sleep is not a guarantee in this house. It's a gift.

So, once you accept your fate as a non-sleeper, you're free to wander through life in a slightly emotional and incoherent daze. You stop thinking about how tired you are, because it's the norm. At this point it is sometimes possible to start enjoying life again. And so, this week, we enjoyed life. Auntie Beth came home from Europe, and there was much rejoicing.



Daddy came home from work, and there was much rejoicing.



This is a picture of Meredith performing her ceremonial sprint away from the door as soon as Chris walks in the door. She stands and waits, and then when it opens, she turns and runs, knowing that he's going to chase her.

Here's all of us -- tired, but happy.



Well, actually, Mer's not tired. That's the incredible part about all of this. The kid is seriously not getting much sleep, but she's seems fine with it. Maybe she's one of those genius folks who only requires 4 hours of sleep a night and spends the rest of their time studying and experimenting and curing cancer. Right.

Anyway, that's all for now. I leave you with this. Snack time while waiting for Daddy.

MLK Day

The weather on MLK Day in Memphis is always horrible. It seems appropriate. Every year I feel compelled to make a trip down to the Civil Righs Museum and the Lorraine Motel. Having done that last year, in the cold and the rain, we decided to forego the trip on this miserable winter day.

It was a good day, despite the weather. So relaxing...a blessing.


First, we woke up. Things were still out of focus.


We went to our favorite weekend breakfast spot, Otherlands. Where everybody knows your name, the service is always sketchy, the bagels are always toasty, and the kids are allowed to roam free.



Then we went to return Daddy's clothes and let him pick out some new ones. Have you ever been shopping with Daddy? Not sartorially speedy, this guy. We girls entertained ourselves.





Then we went to get barbeque with the Huddlestons. We took off Mer's pink sweater, because of the aforementioned barbecue. The girls ate masses of food and drank out of cups with straws and generally thought they were hot stuff. They were incredibly good.



Believe it or not, this is a picture of a one year old being incredibly good.

Happy Birthday to Olly -- and Bathtime Fun

This weekend we went to Olly Cogan's first birthday party. A good time was had by all. And I do mean all. Lawsy that kid has a lot of friends! It was everything a first birthday should be -- dozens of kids walking and crawling around and the requisite big kid to annoy all the moms and scare the young ones to death (pictured at right!).


The sweet little blonde girl behind her spent most of the evening pushing Meredith around on the little car. She (blondie) kept telling me things that were obviously very important, but I couldn't understand a word of her precious British accent. Not a word. I think she thought I was quite dumb.

Here's a pic of Olly eating his cake.



And a pic of Olly's hands, during the eating of his cake.



And for fun,here's a pic of Mer in the bath.



And a picture of Meridy's current favorite face. I turned around in the car today to see her entirely alone in the backseat, making this face. Apparently she liked the song? God bless the girl.