Christmas

Meredith ended up with not one, but two Hannah Montana dolls - actually Miley dolls since they have dark hair which looks far better on her anyway. The problem is one of them came with a little blue comb and Stephanie is prepared to fight for it. I probably should just toss it into the box I have for "small things that they are really too young for and that the baby may eat if left out." But we'll just see how it goes.Maybe we'll have a cage match for it.

School Bus Trip

I forgot to mention - on November 21st, Meredith had her first ever school bus ride. The kindergarten class got to go on a field trip to the SAC Museum. She was so excited to get to ride the bus. And she sat next to Juwlien. Of course.

A Thank You

This is M's thank you letter to Taylor Swift. I finally found it again and am mailing it today. That is Taylor in the picture - see the curly hair!

A Winter Picture

"Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow!"

You would not believe how many pictures she has with Juwlien's name written on them. I don't know what the numbers are for but she writes numbers on a lot of pictures too.

Letter to Santa

Meredith just wrote a letter to Santa. It just looks like a bunch of wavy lines to me but I'm sure Santa can decipher it.

She wants....

a Hannah Montana doll and 2 dolls of her friends which she doesn't know the names of but she wants them anyway.

a pink car and a purple car for Stephanie because those are Steffi's favorite colors.

a toy phone for Philip. (because, apparently, the 47 we have aren't enough)

a green car for Hayden and Philip to ride in it but it must have a car seat for Philip.

a big pink car for Stephanie and Meredith to ride in.

another black car for only Hayden.

Christmas

Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle all the way. Oh, what fun it is to ride in a one-horse horsey sleigh!

I got to decorate a Christmas Tree yesterday. For the store. There are even pretend presents to put underneath it. It looks so pretty! And I helped Mommy hang up some lights in the windows. Why, oh, why haven't we decorated our apartment yet?!?!

Speech

The speech therapist had a chance to go in and listen to Meredith today. She called me and advised that the only sounds Meredith has trouble with are the "developmental" sounds which means the sounds that they learn as they get older. They don't expect all children to be able to properly say these until they are 7 or 8. Like the 'r' sound, for example, a lot of children don't get that until they are 8. (Come to think of it, I believe that was the last sound that Hayden got as well. Although he still says aminal.) Anyway, she said we could work with Meredith on the sounds in a FUN way but no need to constantly correct her because her mouth muscles just aren't that developed yet.

Basically, she told us to lighten up and relax - the kid is fine.

Unless she still talks like this when she's 7. Then we can start worrying again.

School Pictures

Look how big my baby is! (But WHY didn't they get the hair out of her face!)
Look how much older she looks than just 6 months ago.

She's growing up too fast. I think this school thing may be a bad idea. Just last night I caught her "reading" a story to Stephanie. It was really too sweet!

I Need a Playhouse

Take a look at this site and tell me my girls don't NEED a playhouse like this.

Sleepwalking

Oh, dear. My little Meredith apparently takes after her Auntie Netter. Which is surprising considering we're not actually related.

I was sitting on the couch watching tv and John was playing on the computer. It was after 11pm and, all of a sudden, Meredith walks out of her room. She starts to walk over to me but veers off. I asked if she was ok but John shushed me. She circled around me and walked over and sat down in the chair next to John. He picked her up and carried her back to bed. Apparently, she has done this before. She was sleepwalking. Sleepwalking! It makes me nervous to know my 5-year-old could be up sleepwalking. I don't know what I'll do if she starts doing the stuff Annette does in her sleep!

Anyway, she got up again later and I made her go to the bathroom. Apparently, that is what she got up for in the first place, she was just too tired to remember.

Family Night Video

This was from Family Night at school last month. I thought she was "super cute."

It was her first ever 'recital' and she was so excited for me to come see her perform.

Medal

This is Meredith's soccer medal. On the back, it says "Avalanche 2008." She's very proud of this medal since it's her very first one.

Soccer Party

Meredith had her soccer party yesterday at the park. It was windy! Very, very windy. And the wind was quite chilly. I didn't even take any pictures because I decided to play instead. Sorry, but too bad. Hayden requested to watch over Philip and he took him down every slide in the playground. Meredith hung out with her friends on the swings so Steffi and I climbed and slided and ran around. I did not let her go in the sand pit because...well, because our washer is broken and I don't know when it will be fixed and she may have to wear those pants again before I get to Mom's to use her washer.

We had a good time. We got cupcakes and CapriSun drinks. It would have been a better time if it hadn't been so windy that I decided we were leaving soon after the party ended. Meredith got a medal that says "Avalanche 2008" and she is happy about that. Her coach will be coaching again in the spring so we'll see about that. I was kind of thinking about putting her in t-ball instead though. I don't want to just limit her to 1 sport after all. I mean, who knows, she might be a home-run queen instead.

An Incident at School

I went to pick up my little Meredith at school on Tuesday. She did not come out with the rest of her class. Her teacher told me another lady would be bringing Meredith out because there was an incident. So I went inside to make sure my baby was alright. She was fine.

Apparently, she and another kid bonked heads earlier and her teacher asked her if she would like to go to the nurse's station and Meredith said yes. However, she did not go into the nurse's station. She also did not go back to her classroom. She just sat down on the floor. Three adults came up and asked her where she was supposed to be and if she was ok and she would not speak to them.

She would not speak to me either when I got there. In fact, she refused to say anything. Period. Fortunately, for her, I recognized this behavior. She was upset and trying not to cry. So I asked her if she was scared to go into the nurse's office and she nodded. I then asked her why didn't you just tell one of the people who came to help you and she wouldn't talk.

I figured she had a shyness attack and didn't want to go into the nurse's office but she knew she was supposed to be there so she didn't want to go back to her class. And she knew she shouldn't just be sitting in the hall so she was scared to talk to anybody.

I told her the next time she's scared to do something, she should go back to her teacher and tell her because her teacher would have gone with her or sent someone with her to the nurse if that was the problem.

Wednesday morning was a pain also because she didn't want to go back to school and she was irritating the crap out of everyone. But she was fine when I picked her up that afternoon.

A Little Girl's Take on Keith Urban

So Meredith and I were driving around the other day just listening to the radio. I always wonder exactly how much she is picking up as she listens to these songs. And, believe me, she is listening - she loves to sing along to just about anything. We were listening to a country station and Keith Urban starts singing.

After just a little while, Meredith asks me, "Why is she wearing his shirt anyway?"

Ummmmm.....Hey, Keith, you wanna field this one for me?

M: "I guess she must have thought it was pretty."

OK. Let's go with that.

Teachers

Let me say a few words to all the teachers out there....

THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

I have never in my life wanted to be a teacher. It took just 2 minutes of one tutoring session when I was a Junior in high school for me to realize I was not cut out for such a profession.

Yesterday, I was reminded of this.

Yesterday, I went with Meredith's kindergarten class to the Capital.

It was like herding cattle, only not quite as relaxing. Although, to be fair, none of the kids jumped the fence into the neighbor's field.

OK, it probably wasn't that bad, but there were 20-some kids and only 5 adults. Quite frankly, I think they should have been shackled together so they would have had to stay in line.

They actually were pretty good but I don't normally like kids who aren't mine or my friends'. Probably a control thing, I'm sure. Meredith was pretty good, I was pleasantly surprised by that. Hayden always got over-excited whenever I was around - he basically morphed into a hyperactive spider monkey so I eventually learned to not go with him on field trips. Meredith is a little more sedate. Plus she got to be a co-line-leader with her boyfriend and even held his hand and whispered with him. Oh, dear.

Anyway, to make a short story even longer - I walked away with tremendous respect for the 2 teachers and the 2 aides involved. I am so glad that there are people in the world who enjoy teaching small children. They even still seemed in good spirits when we returned to the school.

I, on the other hand, went home for a beer and a nap.

Soccer Game #6

Here are pictures from the last game. These girls were big! Hayden thought they were probably 3rd graders. I think maybe they were just 6+.
Here is the coach telling Meredith how to do something. She kicked the ball in.
Here is the whole team. I think everyone was there. Meredith is standing beside the coach.

Yay, Avalanche!

Meredith can't wait for next year. Neither can Stephanie.

Soccer Game #5

Our girls got creamed this week! Oh, my. The other team got 4 goals and we almost got 4 goals. We scored none but the ball just skimmed by the net 4 times. Oh, well. No one tells our girls the score anyway. They just know they played hard and ran all over the place and they did a good job. And, in Kindergarten, that's all you need to know.
My Little Meredith was being kind of ditzy this game. She hardly ever tried to kick the ball. But, the coach said she was doing very well at defense so what do I know? I need to try to learn something about soccer before next season.
Some of those girls on the other team were really tall. John chastised me for this, "I thought you said Meredith was in the top percentage of her height?!" I had to remind him this team is for Kindergarteners, not just 5-year-olds, so some of them could have been a little older.
Here's a picture of my next soccer star. I think she'll be old enough to play next year. Look at all those bruises on her shins! I may need to get her the shin guards for everyday play!

Buy this CD!

Guess what? Mommy entered my picture in a radio contest and we won! I'm going to be inside Taylor Swift's new CD when it comes out! Well, my picture is going to be inside anyway. She sings "Picture to Burn". I. Love. That. Song.

The Safe Seat

My baby had to sit in "The Safe Seat" at school for the first time today. To those of you not in the LPS system, that would be like the time-out chair. She's still quite upset and won't talk about it other than to say she had a bad day. She didn't tell me she had to sit in the seat either, I just guessed at that part. She even refused to go to dance class after school. (The class is actually in the school so I guess she just wanted to get away from there.)

Soccer Game #4

The girls won their 4th game: 3-2. It was a very good game. Very close. Hayden came with us and he remarked later that although Rose is probably our best player and the fastest, Meredith is more accurate. He was complaining because Rose's kicks to the goal kept going wide. I advised him she was 5 and when she learns not to kick so hard, she will be awesome. Meredith didn't get a goal this week but she was right in there with the best of them. She played almost the whole 2nd half. Poor baby. It was hot out and she slurped her water down when she did come out.

Meredith loves her soccer shoes so I had to be sure to get a picture of them on her site. They have gold on them. She first wanted the white ones with pink stripes but they didn't have her size. Then I showed her these and we were happy again. Mommy was happy because they were on SALE.

I'm not sure I love this picture. When I first looked at it on the computer, I had a glimpse of her as a big girl (like, high school). It made me both happy and a little sad at the same time. I hope she's still playing sports then. And, I hope she won't mind her parents coming for all the games and snapping pictures like crazy people. OK, well, she'll probably mind but, hopefully, she'll still indulge us. But I doubt she'll still let me put up her hair in those crazy pigtails!

sigh. My chubby cheeked little baby is growing up.

Video of 3rd Soccer Game

Here is something for your viewing pleasure. Meredith actually scored a goal in this game! It's not on this video, of course. Hey, I was watching that! I forgot about the camera. I know, bad Mommy. This video was taken right after that which is why she's a little antsy at the very start.

We did win this game. I forgot the score but it was pretty bad.

Family Night

Last night was Family Night at school. We got to do some singing for our parents and then we got to go to our classrooms. Our teachers told our parents what we were going to learn for the year. This is posted outside my class. It's all about ME!

A Cinderella Story

Right now I am little and I am trapped here doing lots of work. I have to put my shoes in the box and my dirty clothes in the hamper and pick up toys and be nice to my sister and brothers and put clean clothes in my drawers. ...But one day I will get married to a prince. And I will kiss him through my veil because that is how I think it should go.

Mom: Who are you going to marry, Meredith?

M: My boyfriend.

Mom: Julien? Isn't he your boyfriend?

M: No! He's my boyfriend at school but I'm not marrying him. I'm going to marry Harry Potter.

Mom: Harry Potter - your invisible friend?

M: Yes. And who is the girl?

Mom: Hermione.

M: Hermione is my friend too. She's invisible too. And she's going to be at my wedding.

(I hope she'll be wearing a DRESS under her veil!)

Soccer Game #2

Meredith's 2nd soccer game was last Sunday. It was windy! And, I'm sorry to say, our girls got creamed. The other team was big and fast and knew what they were doing. They got 12 goals on us and one of our girls did kick a goal - for the other team. Ah, well.

I was impressed with Meredith though. She's starting to get the idea of what she should be doing. Her body doesn't quite have the follow-thru yet but I could see the wheels turning in her mind and she tried, she really did.

I bet next year, she'll be awesome!

1st Soccer Game

The team name is "The Avalanche". They actually lived up to their name on Sunday. We scored 4-5 goals before I lost count and the other team didn't get any. But they were sure cute!

This is practice before. She had to dribble the ball around and between the cones and then kick it into the goal. (Forgive me if I get the soccer terms wrong - we've never played this before! Feel free to correct me.)
This is Hayden watching intently.
Aren't they so cute! That little girl in the middle is really good. So is the even smaller girl on their team. There were 7 girls there and 4 of them are really good.
My baby is just learning.
She mostly stayed on the outskirts. I accused her of being too considerate of the other kids.
Oh, wait! There she is by the ball. Kick the ball, Meredith!
She's right there in the pack again. Go, Meredith! ...You'll get the hang of it, Baby. We watched some older girls do drills after the game. I'm all for getting the little ones to emulate older kids when they're doing sports.

Grow Up

Stephanie was making me mad. She kept saying she was going to go back to the baby room at church and I told her she had to go to the 3-year-old room now. But she kept saying it so I finally had to tell her....

"You don't grow LITTLE!"

Soccer

I got to meet my soccer coach and some of our team last night. We are the Avalanche! We had a pizza party at the park.

Here I am kicking the ball. The coach told Mom I'm good at ball handling. I know how to get the ball moving and to stop it with my feet. Mom has no idea how I learned that. She also has no idea what that means. She doesn't know much about soccer but she's going to have to learn now. I also have some really cool soccer shoes. They have gold on them.
Then I got to play on the playground stuff. It was really fun.
This is just a small part of the playground equipment. There was lots more and I can't wait to go back. We have practice at this park again soon and, hopefully, we'll get to play some more too!

First Day of School

Last Wednesday was the first day of school. I get to go to Kindergarten this year! I was very excited to go and even made some friends on my very first day.
Stephanie doesn't get to go to school yet but she likes to be in pictures. See my new glasses? Aren't I pretty in them? I got a new Hannah Montana shirt for my first day of school. She's really cool. I don't watch her show but I know she's famous. I have some shoes of her too but they're too big and Mommy won't let me wear them to school.
Mommy bought me this new backpack for school. I LOVE TinkerBell. There is another girl in my class with a TinkerBell backpack but it's not the same as mine. Mine's cooler!

Eyeballs

I took Hayden & Meredith to the eye doctor yesterday. It was kind of a last-minute decision since they had their eyes checked at the dr's office but both John & I have bad eyes so, luckily, they could get us in before school.

My little Meredith is far-sighted. She can see up close for now but the doctor said her eyes were working 2-3 times harder than they should be to do so. So she will be getting glasses next week. She did find some frames she likes - we actually had to pry them away from her because she wasn't understanding that the frames she was looking at only have fake plastic lenses and she needs to wait until her real glasses come in before she can wear them. Luckily(?), she had to have her eyes dilated so she got some disposable sunglasses to wear home.

When we first got to the eye dr, the kids were acting all paranoid and Hayden kept saying, "Please, I don't need glasses!" so Meredith was saying it too. Hayden felt kind of bad later when he realized that she would need glasses after all.

Right now she's thinking it will be kind of cool to get to wear glasses. Yeah. We'll see how long that lasts. I just hope she doesn't get self-conscious about wearing them. I don't think it will be a problem with her but we'll have to see...

Kindergarten

I have Kindergarten Kickoff tonight. I get to meet my teacher and other kids in my class. The best part is it's at The Children's Museum which is a lot of fun. And Mommy and Hayden and Stephanie and Philip get to go with me. The bad part is that means I have to go to school soon and I'm not sure I want to.

Vacation Church School

Hayden and Meredith got to go to Vacation Church School this summer. They really, really enjoyed it.

Meredith is my little artist.
And my gardener. Did I tell you she's growing grass in my bathroom. No really - real grass - like a lawn - only in a plastic cup - I think she wants another dog.

Back to VCS - they had a program for the families on Thursday night. First they got to do some races outside. She and Hayden did the potato sack race and even tried the 3-legged race. That was funny. Then we went inside for the program. First of all, she was mad at me earlier because I wasn't at the program - Hayden had to explain to her that was just the PRACTICE not the actual program. So we made it to the actual program and, apparently, they forgot to tell her that she had to sit with me for the first part until it was time for her to sing so she was mad about that. They did that because they figured the younger kids might be scared to sit the whole time in front of all those people. Well, they didn't ask Meredith and she DID NOT want to sit with me, she wanted to be up on stage with Hayden. Finally, she got to go onstage. Luckily, I managed to catch Philip and Stephanie before they went up there with her. My cousin's husband Steve was sitting with us - I'm sure he's glad his kids are older and he doesn't normally have to put up with a 1-year-old and a 2-year-old in a church pew. To be fair, the accoustics in the church are really good and I'm sure yelling at the top of your lungs in that environment is a lot of fun for that age group. Anyway, at the end of the program, the younger children were supposed to leave the stage first. Well, Meredith stayed and wouldn't leave until Hayden got up to go too, then he grabbed her and brought her along to me.

Apparently, she's going to be my little performer too.

And just to finish off the story, on our way out of the church, the VCS leaders were standing outside. They had been in the skit too and were all dressed up including one guy who had a small crate of potatoes with him. Stephanie took one of his potatoes and had all the skin chewed off if it before we made it home.

Haircut

All together now.... Ahhhhhh! Isn't she cute?

Sing-a-long

We were in the car today listening to the radio when that song "She's in Love with the Boy" came on. My little Meredith loves to sing just about anything. When the song was over, she remarked, "He must have been very cute since her wanted to marry him." I always wondered how much she was picking up on when she listened to music - now I guess I know.

Finally - the 5-yr-old pictures

Girl Talk

I got to talk on the phone to my Grandma today. I miss her. We used to play games on the computer every day and now I have to hang out with Mommy and she doesn't play what I want. I was glad to get to talk to Grandma. Hayden and I go over to her room sometimes. Mommy set up the Wii in there for us to play with. That way Stephanie and Philip can't bother us.

There have been some guys coming over to our house. They are going to build new bedrooms for us in the storage area. I can't wait. I wonder what color my room will be. I hope it is yellow. Yellow is my favorite color because of Baby Bear. And Mommy said she will get me a Tinkerbell picture for my room! YAY! It will be the best room ever!

I'm kind of scared about going to school. Hayden gets out of school in a few days and then I will be going with him when it starts again. So Mommy says we can go to my new school on Thursday to see where my class will be. And then we will eat lunch with Hayden.

Pictures

Note from Mom:

Yes, I KNOW Meredith's birthday was last month. Yes, I DID get her pictures taken. However, I STILL do not have them. We just went to the place in WalMart and we've never had any serious problems with them before. I mean I am aware I have to sacrifice a little in quality, but you can't beat the price. But this time, I don't know what the heck they are doing. I actually got the pictures taken 3 weeks before her birthday. We placed the order and when it came in, we found out the picture I selected for the intro package had something wrong and they couldn't print it. Fine. But why didn't they then just use one of the other poses I selected for additional pictures? Why did they have to pick out the ugliest one - the one I definitely did not want and they knew it since I didn't select it? So I sent it back and picked out a different pose. I stopped to pick this up today. Why does my pale-faced little baby now have a ruddy face? And it's bad - the shadowing makes it look like I hadn't washed her face for a week before we took the picture. ...I had a little bit of a fit.... Luckily it was the same girl working there who I dealt with the last time and we finally decided it would be best to just retake her picture. So we will do that next week when I also take Philip in for his birthday pics.

My Birthday Banner

My Auntie Netter made this just for me! I LOVE IT!

I'm 5 now, you know. And I don't like boys anymore.

The Birthday Card

Tomorrow is Meredith's birthday. Hayden made her a card and I am going to "read" it to you because I think it is really cool.

Happy b-day
I hope you ingoy the doll I got you
Love Hayden
You are a grat sister sometimes

I love it!
(However, I do hope his spelling improves!)

Meredith

What Meredith Means

You are confident, self assured, and capable. You are not easily intimidated. You master any and all skills easily. You don't have to work hard for what you want. You make your life out to be exactly how you want it. And you'll knock down anyone who gets in your way! You are friendly, charming, and warm. You get along with almost everyone. You work hard not to rock the boat. Your easy going attitude brings people together. At times, you can be a little flaky and irresponsible. But for the important things, you pull it together. You are wild, crazy, and a huge rebel. You're always up to something. You have a ton of energy, and most people can't handle you. You're very intense. You definitely are a handful, and you're likely to get in trouble. But your kind of trouble is a lot of fun. You are balanced, orderly, and organized. You like your ducks in a row. You are powerful and competent, especially in the workplace. People can see you as stubborn and headstrong. You definitely have a dominant personality. You tend to be pretty tightly wound. It's easy to get you excited... which can be a good or bad thing. You have a lot of enthusiasm, but it fades rather quickly. You don't stick with any one thing for very long. You have the drive to accomplish a lot in a short amount of time. Your biggest problem is making sure you finish the projects you start. You are a seeker. You often find yourself restless - and you have a lot of questions about life. You tend to travel often, to fairly random locations. You're most comfortable when you're far away from home. You are quite passionate and easily tempted. Your impulses sometimes get you into trouble. You are truly an original person. You have amazing ideas, and the power to carry them out. Success comes rather easily for you... especially in business and academia. Some people find you to be selfish and a bit overbearing. You're a strong person.

What's" Your Name's Hidden Meaning?

I Get to Go to School

...in the fall. Mommy signed me up at the kindergarten registration last week. I get to go to Hayden's school with him. I'm so excited.

Mommy's Note: I don't know if I've mentioned it before but Meredith has an invisible friend. His name is Harry Potter. He's not THE Harry Potter because this one doesn't know any magic. He is just Meredith's friend. Normally, we don't even know he is around. He doesn't talk to me like "Pretend Guy" used to. But sometimes, when she is playing tea party or train, I notice that she will leave a space for Harry Potter. When we went to registration, she buckled him in beside her and informed me that Harry Potter is also 4, almost 5, and I needed to register him for Kindergarten too. However, she does know he is pretend because she didn't really make me register him, in fact she forgot about him in her excitement to talk to the lady at the school.

Napping

My sister and I get along approximately 1.02% of the day. Mom caught us getting along in this picture. We were resting on the couch and watching cartoons.

Our Castle

This is our Castle. Isn't it so cool? Mommy taped 2 boxes together to make it and I put the circle things on top to make it a castle. We play in it all the time. Especially when the other kids come over. One day we had almost every toy we own inside the castle. It was really hard to move around in there. And then Mommy made us put them all back before those kids went home.