Mer Rocks to Sister Wife

My cousin Sarah lives in Seattle. She and her boyfriend extraordinaire, Rob, started a band. Sister Wife. They played on a an internet radio station this week. We listened, and rocked. SARAH WE LOVE YOU! Here, Mer dances and her parents provide geeky commentary.

Lareau Home Movie Series: #3

On a recent Saturday, we couldn't think of anything to do. So we had a little dance party.

Mississippi Camping

We had a really good time at Wall Doxey State Park in Holly Springs last weekend. If you ever want a quick trip, it's only 45 minutes away. It was really cold, but all the kids rolled with it. Thanks to Keddi and Papa for coming along. Everything is better with Keddi and Papa. Next year we'll plan better, and Mamoo and Ninny will come too, right?

Aunt D - the mushroom pics are for you.

Lareau Home Movie Series: #2

After filming the first movie in our series (see previous post), Mer said she wanted to do a dancing movie. I had no idea what she had in mind. The little clicking noise is her--making her own music, I guess...

Madeline at 6 Months and Birthday Checkups

The girls got to go to the doctor together today. They each got 2 shots and they were both champs. Madeline cried for about 10 seconds and has now been mostly asleep for 4 hours. Meredith didn't cry a bit, even though I could see she was struggling. Total champ. And it's been raining for 400 days straight and I'm not crying, so we're all strong in our own ways.


Here's our stats. Guess which is which.
26.5 inches 85th%
15# 3.5 oz 50th%

39 in 40th%
31# 25th%

Lareau Home Movies Series: #1

We've discovered that we're better at making movies than we are at watching them. (Recent attempts at cozy family evenings in front of a new movie have not gone well).

Here's how Mer acts for days after seeing a new movie.

imagination

Mother and daughter are pretending to be snorkeling, wearing ski goggles. There has been much discussion about when the sharks wake up and whether or not we're safe. It is decided that the sharks awake at 11:30, so we've got an hour left to swim. Suddenly, Mer decides that we're in the desert, and she forgot the water bottles. I declare that we're obviously doomed. Mer asserts "No, we're not doomed at all! There's a store really close by with brand-new...ice-cold...Hello Kitty waterbottles!"

And so the mother and daughter were saved from imminent disaster.

Thoughts on Meredith at 4

We're all sick. I'm not well enough to finesse these sentences, so just roll with it and don't leave any comments telling me I missed a comma. This is just a collection of thoughts on my firstborn.

The birthday cupcake.

Mer says thank you for things that I wouldn't even mind if she took for granted. Like when she saw the birthday cake I made her...or when I switched out her summer for fall clothes, and put more clothes within her reach (watch out world). She said thank you many times, in many ways, and then (to be sure I was listening), grabbed my face and said "thank you so much for doing all this." I find this impressive, considering I'm pretty sure I was under the impression that my parents were my servants 'til I was about 18.

I love the way kids her age latch on to words and phrases. First, I love it from a learning standpoint. We could be half listening to NPR on the in the car, and she'll call from the back, "Mom, what in the WORLD is 'Minnesota'?" Or any other unfamiliar word that she hears. Then she makes it her own. I'm not sure where she picked this one up, but when I asked her to hand me some clean onesies yesterday, she clasped her hands to her heart and said, "Mother, I would be HONORED, I would be HONORED to hand you those onesies." Well, alright.

Surprise bike!

She's sick right now. I was busy helping Chris and Madeline with various things. I walked by the living room to check on her. She was sitting quietly, throwing up into bowl, watching her show. Not a peep. Tough. Sorry--gross story--but it broke my heart the way she was just coping.

I'm starting to see her as a peer, of sorts. I really love talking with her. Granted, she insists that many of our conversations focus on her favorite topics: firefighters and their jobs, what happens when you go to the doctor, what happens when we go to the airport. But still, they're always pleasant and insightful exchanges.

First ride, with wardrobe change.

She has some strongly held opinions about fashion (she hates it when I wear black). In the above picture, you'll notice the ensemble is quite different from the previous picture, when she received the bike (10 minutes before). All we told her to do was to go put some shoes on so she could ride. She came down in the dress. She also wears the helmet as frequently as possible.

She loves her sister and her cousin so much. And her helmet.

Meredith is a huge fan of Taco Bell. When we're running errands, she's always angling for a cheese roll-up. She'll also still eat anything else we give her. Last night I convinced her that four is the age at which you eat soup, so she ate spicy white bean soup with us. Weird. While I will continue my nonchalant attitude towards trying new foods and hope for the best, I do not expect Madeline to continue in this vein. In fact, she threw up on Chris when we introduced pureed green beans last night. But that's another kid.

Another new word: I finally introduced "tacky" the other day. While I generally avoid judgmental words, I felt that we needed some clarity on the issue of socks with sandles. So a few hours later, I plopped myself down on the floor next to Madeline. We were eye to eye, and my rear was in the air - I'm just silly sometimes. Meredith promptly looked me up and down and said, "Mom, that's tacky." True, true.

Sometimes, out of the blue, she says how much she likes to be with her family. Couldn't agree more, babe.

The Birthday Party!

We had Meredith's 4th birthday at the Shell last Saturday. It was a "Pirates and Princesses" birthday, because the kids' show at the Shell that evening was "How I Became a Pirate." Folks, I love themes. They make life easy and fun. So we ran with it. Hopefully, I'll get around to posting some thoughts on what Mer is like as a four year old. However, I'm feeling swiney right now, so we're just going to show you what happened and plan to wax sentimental later.

Before the party had even begun, Mer had eaten enough watermelon to turn her cheeks pink. And get a somewhat crazed look in her eyes.

Chris dressed up as a pirate and, with a wee bit of encouragement from me, ran out of the trees and surprised the kids. It was great. A few kids were a little scared, and some kids that we didn't even know were NOT scared and wanted to tackle Chris, but overall, it was fun.

Pinata time. Again, kids I didn't know were in line for the pinata. Luckily no one was injured. As predicted, Mer took a purely symbolic swing at the thing and then was perfectly happy to let Walt, Miles and the other boys beat the stuffing out of it.

Clara seemed content to be a beautiful fairy princess, but didn't particularly want me to take her picture.

Miles was very effective in his efforts.

Serious pirates.

Apparently, Walt needed some quiet time. Well, we all did. That's the nature of a four year old's birthday party.