A Guy, Two Girls and a Pup

As you may (or may not!) know, Meredith was a little bit of a preemie: 5 weeks early, born at a wee 4lbs. 11oz. As you can see, she’s doing GREAT now, but it really underscores the fact that medical technology has come incredibly far, even in the last 20 or 30 years! Babies are able to be saved younger and younger, and much of that is due to the efforts of the March of Dimes, which supports medical research to support the health and well-being of all babies!

So, in honor of Meredith and all those babies who need a little help to be given a fighting chance in life, I (and Kevin and Meredith) will be participating in this year’s 6 MILE(!) March for Babies on April 26 in Appleton. Please consider sponsoring me with a donation! Even if you can’t make a monetary donation, please support the cause by doing what you can for your local March of Dimes chapter. Meredith says so.

Sponsor me!

OK, friends and relations: it looks like we will be traveling March 6th through the 14th. I have my interview on March 10th (wish me luck some more!) So here’s the scoop: Kevin, Meredith and I will drive to Pennsylvania starting the 6th. I will fly to Seattle on the 9th. I’ll interview, then fly BACK to Detroit on the 11th in time to meet Kevin there, spend some time with Lora and Christi and then up to Dad and Mom C.’s place, before heading back to Wisconsin.

Whew!!

So it feels like there’s a lot going on, but I’m sure it won’t look like so much once I write it all out…

Meredith has been needy the last couple of days, crying if anyone puts her down for awhile. (Although, contrary thing that she is, she’s rolling around here on the floor seemingly content and having a grand old time.) She’s progressed from gurgling to hooting like a little owl. Every once in awhile, when we’re talking to her, I can see her mouthing along with us as though she’s absorbing every syllable. Soon…

So my latest phone interview with Zillow went well enough that they want me to come out to Seattle (again!) to interview. In other travel news, Kevin would like us to go out to Pennsylvania the weekend of March 8th to see his grandfather. I’m thinking these two events have to coincide somehow…

Kevin is currently stuck at work slogging through the latest email crisis. He’ll be missing yoga and is particularly unhappy about it…Devi, meanwhile, is hoping that dinner will soon be landing in her bowl. She’s got that hopeful look on her face.

Let’s see, what else…I’m still looking at at trip to Michigan toward the end of March/early April for Meredith’s Spring Lake Tour! Stay tuned as travel plans are finalized…

For anyone wondering if we still have any snow on the ground…

So as long as I’m awake and have a hand free, I’ll try to put together a coherent update!

Meredith had her 6-month checkup on the 20th — on Wednesday already! Time sure flies… :} Anyway, little girl is going for the gold on that dream we have for her of being an Amazon supermodel: although she’s only gained a couple of pounds since her 4-month (she’s at 12lbs., 12oz. now), she put on 2 1/2 inches, for a grand total of 25 1/2 inches. So THAT’S where all that food has been going!

I had another phone interview with Zillow on Friday that I think went pretty well! Clearly they’re not TOO put off by all the noise Meredith makes in the background…
We had a really nice visit yesterday with our friend Marty, who was in town for a quick weekend visit from Chicago. It was the first he’d been to the house since M. was born; it was great to see him again!

Kevin has resolved to start running one morning a week with Christie(sp? Sorry, there’s only 8millions ways to spell it), a friend from work. I don’t know WHY he’d rather run with someone who doesn’t complain about wanting to die with every step, but, hey, his loss…

Well, since yesterday, we’ve gotten 10+ inches of snow, at least, and it doesn’t seem to be letting up for the night. This morning, it took Kevin and me furiously shoveling for 15 minutes in order to remove the 4 foot wall of snow off the end of the driveway so that I could get to work. I wish I were kidding. And it was that grey, crusty, icky snowplow snow. Ew. Here’s hoping we don’t have to do THAT again.

Did you watch the Daytona 500? If so, you might have caught a glimpse of Dad and Mom C. soaking up the Florida sun (and getting 2nd degree burns, according to Dad.) They’ll be returning to the Great White North soon, and hopefully they’ll be able to get into THEIR driveway.

We are waiting to hear if there will be any sort of memorial service for Kevin’s grandmother before deciding when to make the trip to Pennsylvania. It could be this weekend or it could be in a couple of weeks. We’ll know for sure soon. In the meantime, please continue to keep the Binghams in your thoughts.

Meredith is officially a Tummy Time Rockstar. She is hanging out on her stomach, playing with her toys and taking in the world like nobody’s business. (The fact that she can see the TV better that way probably doesn’t hurt.) Dr. Roloff will be super-happy to see her progress!

More pictures coming soon, I promise…

So when I went to go get the Divine Miss M to eat breakfast this morning, she was hanging out on her stomach in her crib! Kevin says she’s done it before, but I’ve never seen it, so it didn’t count until now. :>

Meredith is going to be crawling before we know it! She’s started rolling overandoverandover multiple times and is starting to move around the floor! Pretty soon, we’ll be looking around saying “Where’s Meredith?” and she’ll be stuck bumping around in a corner like a Roomba vacuum that’s lost. She’s also started doing crunches while she’s on her back; she obviously wants to sit up, badly! She hasn’t quite gotten the hang of sitting up by herself when propped against a cushion (she becomes the Leaning Baby of Pisa), but you can see the little gears working already. And she has her SIX MONTH checkup next Wednesday already: can you believe it??

Be sure to hug your favorite person/people!

This is a little bit of a subdued Valentine’s in the Bluehouse. Kevin’s grandmother died yesterday; please keep him and his family in your thoughts. And his sister Lora has a cold, so that means we won’t have her here with us this weekend. BUMMER.

We don’t even have any super-cool plans for the day. Kevin made carrot cake yesterday, and that’s enough celebration for me.