My Pesky Left Arm

Hey guys - I just wanted to give you an update on how I'm doing developmentally. All is well, as far as a I can tell. I'm getting really good at rolling over on one side. If it weren't for my pesky left arm, I would have rolled all the way over days ago. Really folks, how am supposed to get over that thing? It's not a very ergonomic process, if you ask me. But hey, I can make lemonade out of lemons and I'll figure it out one of these days.

I'm also teething. It's not so bad. It makes my appetite kind of weird and sometimes I don't feel so hot, but it's no big deal. And if it means I can start eating french fries like my friend Virginia and cheesy toast like my friend Walt, I'm willing to take the pain.

Life has been good the last week or so cause we've been visiting a lot of friends. Apparently these visits have something to do with the fact that mommy melted some of my bottles and the house doesn't smell very good. Whatever. I haven't minded, cause I've gotten to hang out with lots of great people and their pets. I spent half an hour this morning staring at cat named Sophie. Mom says it was a stare-off.

Anyway, we'll be home again soon and I think mom and dad will be relieved about that. Just between yall and me, I would say that I've handled this whole thing with a bit more grace than they have. But they're young. They'll learn.

So that's about it from the Meredith Lareau front. I'm pretty sure I have to go to the doctor this week for my 4 month appointment. Mom tries to keep quiet about these things, but I know who pokes sharp objects in my thigh and it's the D-O-C-T-O-R. I'm sure mom will tell yall all about that later this week. Not really newsworthy material, if you ask me.

Love yall!
Meredith

P.S. Here's a picture of me and dad.

Hard Day's Work

Meredith works very hard while she's at school and isn't too crazy about taking naps. Unfortunately, this means that she crashes pretty hard when she gets home and mommy and daddy do a lot of watching her sleep. But hey, there are worse things to do.

From the looks of this picture, you'd think even the sleeping was hard work. Poor thing.

Pic

Two Babies?

Not for a good while.

Tonight I babysat Walt while I was also on Meredith patrol. Chris was on Taurean and Robert patrol at church. It went really well, except for one detail. I wounded Walt. Oh the guilt. Oh the agony. You see, the boy likes to put boxes on his head, like any good one year old. For evidence that this is true, and not merely the invention of a guilty Aunt Kate, go to www.spickler.blogs.com. So anyway, the boy likes to put boxes on his head. So he was playing with this box and I was helping him play with this box and it slipped from my hands and the world slowed down as the corner of the box careened toward his head and then, yup, sure enough, WHAM. And then he cried and then I cried and it was all quite pathetic.

But the following picture was taken AFTER the traumatic event, so you can see that we all came through relatively unscathed. Walt was teaching Meredith how to talk on the phone. They also had fun coughing together -- really quite a charming pair.

January

So far our big events for January are a lovely MLK Day weekend and Meredith's first snow. Grandpa Rick came to visit for the weekend and we played lots of games, ate lots of food and went to the National Civil Rights Museum on MLK Day.


Big Chris, Meredith, Robert and Little Chris in front of the Lorraine Motel.


You probably can't see the snow in this picture, but mommy and Meredith tried very hard to capture it. We had a good time trying, since Meredith is always happy to be outside and doesn't seem to mind the cold as much as her mom does.

Crazy Baby

3 Months and Counting

Well, we didn't really do a 3 month birthday post since it was right in the middle of the holidays. So here are a couple pictures that show how quickly she's growing and how precious she is. It should be noted that today, January 9, 2006, Meredith figured out how to manipulate a combination of her hands and mommy's hands in order to move the bottle in and out of her mouth. She wasn't hungry in the least, but she was so pleased with her new skill that the bottle game went on for several minutes. This made mommy laugh and guess what Meredith did in response? That's right folks, she laughed. Two firsts in about two minutes.


Another First -- Shoes!


Thanks for letting us borrow the Gymini, Waltie. And good luck with that walking thing!

Christmas in Ar-Cali - PART II

So here's some more pics of our lovely holidays...

Our Favorite Present

The View from the Aforementioned First Mountain Climbing Experience

Dear Old Uncle Dan

All Gone!

First Stocking

Meredith Loves Napping with Great Grandma Poo

Meredith with Grandma Karen

Meeting Tia Sarah

Christmas in Ar-Cali - PART I

Oh Christmas Tree -- Note How Uncle Dan Humors Chris and Kate

We spent Meredith's first Christmas in Arkansas with the Suggs and ended 2005 in California with the Lareaus. We like to call it The Best of Both Worlds. We're still recovering from our 14 hour day of travel on Monday, and we're also watching Texas kick USC's butt (please please), so we'll make this a post of pics. HAPPY 2006 YALL.(We're having technical difficulties, so the rest of the pics will be posted tomorrow.)


The Lovely Lareaus - Chris and Kayle


An Expedition in the Family SUV


Meredith's First Mountain Climbing Experience


Aunt Carol Charms Meredith