But Where's My Cookie?

We tried to add some arrowroot cookies to the repertoire the other day. Thanks to Holly and Virginia for leaving those at the house. They were good fun for the sore gums. The little angel girl was innocently gumming her cookies and making her mess when her Uncle Matthew and her dad decided to mess with her. They realized that the gumminess of her cookies could be used against her, and they did so. Sick. Sick guys.

The Best Dads We Know

Happy Father's Day to the all the dads in our lives. We love you.

The Age at Which It's Fun to Throw Things on the Floor and Then Look at Mom and Implore Her (Silently) to Pick Them Up

Game One: Czechs vs USA

First, let me say that Tivo-ing the game to watch it 7 hours later didn't really work all that well. Let me give a shout out to long-time listener, frequent commenter Kevin Conway for being my unsought source of game info--by posting game results on this blog. Thanks KC. But really it's okay, cause it was good to have a heads up on the results of such a depressing game. From this point on, I'm just going to watch World Cup games for the love of the beautiful game. America, despite our gains in the last 10 years, is still the baby of this sport. These countries have been playing football for hundreds of years. Yes, hundreds. So we'll just love the game for the game--root for the boys in the upcoming games--and cheer for England and Brazil when the time comes. (Disclaimer: These opinions are those of Kate Lareau and Kate Lareau alone and are possibly/probably not endorsed by Chris Lareau or any Lareau/Sugg relatives).



Anyway, as you can see, Mer was all decked out for the game. Uncle Matthew came up with the tag-line for her shirt, since our hope was that Giant-Man Onyewu might be able to slow Nedved a bit. Turns out that wasn't the case.

The evening wasn't a total wash, because earlier in the day, we tried out swinging for the first time. Below, you'll see Meridy looking unsure (at best) about the whole thing and Walt demonstrating how simple and, in fact, almost boring it is. Needless to say, he's an old pro.

World Cup Mania

It's World Cup 2006 and Meredith is appropriately excited. Her Papa Sugg bought her a soccer outfit before she was even born and she and her little mate Ollie (Timothy Charles) Cogan were all decked out for the England/Paraguay game. Never mind that watching it with Dad's soccer team meant a 7am drive out to the farthest reaches of outer Collierville. It was worth it. (It usually is when bacon is involved--thanks Cogans!). Not surprisingly, England took that one. America makes it's first appearance on Monday--Tivos will be working overtime to capture the game for we schmucks that needs must go to work despite such an important event. The Ecuadorian presidente gave his country a half day off when they won--you think Bush will hook us up? GO USA!

Where's Meredith? (AKA Peek-a-Boo)

As mentioned in a previous post, Meredith has become aware that she can play an active role in our "Where's Meredith?" games. She lifts a cloth over her head and waits for us to ask where she is -- sometimes there's quite a long pause while she makes delighted little sounds -- and then she brings down the cloth and waits for us to say "There she is!" Sometimes she forgets to bring the cloth down (funny). Sometimes she forgets which direction to look when she brings the cloth down and looks expectantly to an empty corner of the room (sad). But it's usually a pretty good time. Awww...our first game.

Harbortown 5k: Baby's First Race

Friday night was the Harbortown 5k, and the Lareaus decided to take it on, armed as we were with a new jogging stroller and a desire to introduce our daughter to the joys of road races. Right. She did great for the first 2 miles. But then it was dinner time. And we all know that dinner time waits for no race. So after a detour through a sprinkler to see if that would cheer her up (decidely not), we realized that the only answer was a pit stop for a bottle. Said bottle was concocted on the side of the road, and sweaty daddy carried Meredith and fed her, while mom pushed the empty stroller. It was stunning how many people thought it would be funny to say "Can I have a ride?". Those who weren't asking for rides or laughing with (at?) us, were glaring at us as if to say "You maniacs, take your kid home." Oh well. We finished the race...together. And by the end of the bottle, Meredith thought 5ks were fabulous, especially if you run them on your dad's shoulders.