Keddi and the Big Backyard

Keddi was here this week (thank heaven) as Chris was in South Carolina learning how to put bad guys in jail more effectively. It was fabulous, and a highlight was when she took all the girls to the Botanic Garden -- and My Big Backyard. I knew it would be cool, but it is amazing.

Spike and the Shoe Eater enjoy the lawn.

Queen Lyndi and Princess Meredith wave from the tree house.

Cool.

Cousins.

Thank you, Keddi.

Clash

Chris is out of town this week, so this picture is for him. I had a CD on in the nursery the other day (Old fashioned, right? I like my CDs). Anyhoo, Mer heard The Clash come on and came screaming in from elsewhere in the house and immediately started dancing like this. Rock n roll, my sweet baby girl.

Also, if you've been as annoyed as I have by various comment spammers promoting fancy shoes or saying brilliant things like "me like your site very much. you should check mine" then you can breathe a sigh of relief, 'cause I've enabled the word verification feature now for comments. Carry on, carry on.

Long Walk

It's snowing in Dallas. It's rainy and cold in Memphis. BUT: we will dwell on the fabulously warm and long walk we took this week. It would have been more fabulous if Meredith had not insisted upon wearing flip flops and then tripped every 3rd step that she took. But it was still fabulous.


Every year I think, "Wow, it's kind of trite to take so many pictures of the flowers and the flowering trees. You should reign it in." But every year I'm just as excited to see them, and I take way too many pictures. And I'm okay with that.

Weather Report from the Drama Queen

As reported earlier, Meredith is ready for summer. She asks regularly how long it will be 'til summer, and it's hard to explain how spring teases you and summer is still a long time away in 4 year old weeks. So to try to give her hope, I go to weather.com and see what the 10 day forecast holds for us. Then I can usually tell her that there will be a few days in the 60's, so that she will be able (and this is what it's really all about) to wear a skirt and/or short sleeves. 'Cause it all comes back to fashion.

Anyhoo, tonight she got on the computer and reviewed the forecast before I had checked it.

"Hmmm. Monday: partly sunny, partly cloudy." Long pause. "Tuesday, earthquake."

Still not entirely sure where she got that. It would be funnier if the world hadn't been ravaged by said natural disasters in the last few weeks. Also, if Memphis wasn't on a massive fault line. Still, amusing.

11 Months

Madeline Jane was 11 months old this week. She also had at least 2 different illnesses this week, with a distinct possibility of 3. My baby is sick. Praise God, not sick in a life threatening way. But my baby is sick. A lot. And the doctor says that's normal for a second child. And her most distinctive characteristic is still her cheerfulness. So it's all going to be okay. But I'd say that our health to sick ratio on the year is at about 30/70 and I am tired of my baby being sick. I'm tired for her and I'm tired for me. Poor duck.

Enough of that! She IS cheerful: smiling at all, reaching for everyone, dancing to anything, laughing when others laugh. And so cuddly. Most parents of more than one kid have an uncuddly kid, right? Meredith was that way - never had time for snuggling, always using me as a springboard, pushing on to the next activity. (Now it's different). But Madi has time to snuggle. She crawls around the sofa or bed, always crawling back to me to rest her head near mine. Pretty endearing, to say the least.

Can't believe we're on the last lap of the first year.

Phonetically Yours: Peabody Elementary

Meredith is pretty excited about going to Peabody Elementary. It's in the Cooper Young neighborhood, and since we're in the Snowden district, we (by we I mean Chris) are going to have to stand in line at the crack of dawn on April 6th (Chris' birthday) in order to have a chance at getting Meredith into Peabody. We had no idea she was aware of this medievally torturous process, until she prayed about it before dinner "Dear God, please let Daddy be able to stand in line so that I can go to Peabody Elementary." She's also highly offended if anyone refers to the school as Peabody. It is Peabody Elementary.

Quotes

I just appreciate the random nature of these, and wonder what brought her to these statements:

Mer: "Hey Mom, did you know that in England in the 40's and 50's, they used to have Christmas every day?"

Wow. No I did not. And what informational planets aligned to give you that idea?

This was followed shortly by:

Mer, running in the back door: "Mom, you have to help me find my bathing suit because the mouses and I decided it's warm enough for a splash day."

Did you now?

So Close to Spring

It's not official 'til the 20th. And we've been around long enough to know that there are still lots of cold, gloomy days to come. But at least we're getting some spring sprinkled here and there. The cherry tree on the corner of Avalon and Poplar that always blooms early is blooming. I wore a skirt yesterday without tights. And we ate Bluebell Banana Pudding ice cream on the front porch this weekend. A few days ago Meredith said "That's it winter. I'm done. I'm not doin' this again next year." Well, at least we're done for this year.