A Guy, Two Girls and a Pup

I thought I remembered writing a blog at some point… Sorry for the lack of updates — things get busy and then get away from us, as usual. We girls have said goodbye to Kevin again for over a week this time, so we are trying to keep ourselves amused. (For Meredith, this mostly means dragging me around the backyard by the hand. :>) We can tell that Daddy is still on Meredith’s mind, though — the very first words out of her mouth this morning were “Daddy go?” Yes, Daddy went to Australia…

New little things here and there: Meredith is starting to read along with us when we sit down with her favorite books at night. Well, she’s still not very patient about the books and flips forward many pages while we’re trying to read. But when we reach a spot she likes, she’ll say the words with us! She’s also becoming a champion puzzle-solver — where just a couple of months ago, she couldn’t even match one shape, she can now get them all pretty much on the first try, and quickly! She also goes gangbusters on her shape sorter. She’s starting to get the idea about singing — she often wants Kevin and me to sing for her (especially “Tingle-bye” — Twinkle Twinkle Little Star). While we’re reading her Mother Goose book (which has lots of nursery rhymes and songs), she’ll talk her little Meredith language but do it in a sing-songy way that’s obviously meant to be a song of some sort. Hopefully she’ll be able to carry a tune better than her daddy. ;>

Otherwise, not much new here. After more than a year of looking, I finally found a replacement for my old office chair, which is now sitting at my desk. It’s black leather and looks very similar to the (fake) Eames chair in our front room. And the best part? NO CASTERS. So now anyone who sits at my desk doesn’t go rolling toward the front window as soon as they sit down…

So the girls are counting the days until Kevin gets home safe and sound — I know that, halfway around the world, he’s doing the same. Maybe if we’re lucky, he’ll log in and post an update if he gets bored…

So, Dad’s back from Europe, his camera is in with Canon for repair/replacement. San Francisco was nice enough, but rather more spread out than we all expected. Dad has a summer cold, which is miserable and unfortunately coinciding with what might be the hottest day on record in Seattle - EVER. Little M has had a drippy nose already, so she’s probably been through it and gave it to dad. Mom is so far immune, but Esme is snifflely… oh, and Dad’s off to Australia in a little more than a week, shortly after a neighborhood block party next week for the Seattle Night Out.

Whew.

-K

Kevin and M’s 365 project is on temporary hiatus. Long story short, the camera’s busted.

Boo.

It’s official: Meredith is now sleeping (probably — it’s quiet anyway) in her new rail-free non-crib big-girl bed. She’s been having a blast all evening climbing in and out of it all by herself! The past few nights we’ve been shutting her door (which we never have before) in order to prepare for tonight, so that she wouldn’t be roaming all over the house in the middle of the night. She’s been crying less and less since we’ve been doing it — tonight, success! No tears at all. We’ll see how the night goes, but from here on out, it’s a whole new world…

(Pictures of the new bed soon!)

It was a Monktastic day. Monklicious, even.
There were readings of curious George, monkey master extraordinaire. Playing with monkey dolls. A brand-new monkey backpack, whose tail is a leash for mom or dad to hold. Much discussion of “mahn-gees” by little M. And the crowning monkey moment of all: Monkey M’s first escape from the crib… followed immediately by a loud thump and lots of crying.

She’s fine, or course, but it’s scary to fall from that high. So, it’s time to change up the routine, start closing her door for security and then… no more crib. Later this week, I’ll be taking down the rail and putting up the stubby sides. It’s time not only because she’s able to climb out, but today while out and about, M discovered small tables and bed that were just here size and was completely enthralled.

So. Almost two. Graduating to a big girl (sort of) bed. Just started facing forward in the car like a big girl. Things are really starting to move for little Miss M.

-K

By the way, if you hadn’t caught on yet, April’s Flickr stream is no longer your most prolific source of pictures of M. I’ve upgraded to a Pro account myself, and am attempting a 365 (that’s a picture a day for a year) for myself and also for little Miss M. April’s stream is still the place for prettier pictures, and hopefully mine will improve (that’s part of the point of a 365 project, after all), but sometimes Grandparents prefer quantity over quality…

Come join the fun at http://www.flickr.com/photos/kevinbingham/ and wish me luck in this endeavor.

-K

Kevin’s post about Corduroy reminds that part of the fun part about watching someone learn how to talk is the oddities she gets WRONG as much as how fast she gets things right. So far, we have things like “seegert” for “music” (no idea where this comes from), “Coy-ya-ya-ya” for “Corduroy”, “duhbeese” for grapes/cherries/strawberries (it’s actually how she was saying “strawberries” and now it’s for every fruit), “baydie” for “baby”…it requires some concentration once in awhile to figure out what she’s actually saying, but it’s fun to see how her brain is working…

First of all — congratulations to Christi and Nick, who finally made it official and got engaged during their camping trip this week!!

We took Meredith for her first visit to the wading pool at Greenlake Park this afternoon; she finally got to wear her Little Swimmers diapers after all this time (we were a little worried they wouldn’t fit anymore, but no problem.) They’re actually pull-ups, so she got a little taste of big-girl-style pants. We put her in a little sunsuit, her hat and her flip-flops, slathered her up with sunscreen and headed off.

There really weren’t as many people there as I had expected for being a beautiful warm sunny day — not a cloud in the sky! There were lots of kids, true, but definitely lots of room to move and splash around. Meredith was very hesitant about stepping into the water, despite the fact that we do it in the bathroom at home. So we walked around to the other end where there’s a gentle ramp into the water. We walked around holding her hand for awhile until she got used to it, and then she was good to go! By the end of the day, she was even running around a little, splashing around and pouring water on herself! We were all pretty soaked by the time we had to get out so they could put some chemicals in the pool, but it had been about 1 1/2 hours — a good long time. Meredith walked around waving and meeting new people and learning how to share toys with others. (A good skill that she can help Kevin with. ;>)

There was much sadness and tears when we had to leave, but I think that was partly hungriness, too — she chowed down on some grapes while we sat and dried off in the sun. Then off to home to have some dinner and crash (Meredith was doing the thousand-yard stare already at 7pm…)

Pictures as soon as I can sit down and pull them off the camera!

M: “Cor-ya-ya-ya?”
A: “Yeah, have you heard that one yet?”
K: “No, what does it mean?”
A: “Corduroy, her book.”
M: “Cor-ya-ya-ya?”
K: “Hmm… M? Can you say ‘Cor’?”
M: “Cor.”
K: “Door?”
M: “Door.”
K: “Roy?”
M: “Roo.”
K: “Cordordoy?”
M: “…”
K: “…”
A: ”…”
M: “Cor-ya-ya-ya?”
A: *snicker*

This weekend, we spent most of Kevin’s birthday down in Fremont (aka The Center of the Universe) attending the Solstice Parade, the biggest event of the year there. Most of Seattle, it seems, congregates to take in the sites of colorful floats, eccentric characters…and yes, naked bicyclists.

Meredith did great for pretty much all of the parade — there was a little crabbiness about 4/5ths of the way through when she started getting hungry and sleepy, but otherwise she was content to sit with us, watching everything that went by. And there was a LOT. (Including the big beach ball above.)

Saturday night I went for my usual run, with one big change: for the first time ever, I was able to run all the way around Green Lake without stopping, which is HUGE. I haven’t been running since, so it may have been a fluke, but we’ll find out next time.

Sunday was, of course, Father’s Day, so we celebrated with some chocolate-stuffed french toast and bacon, and then Kevin finished up work on the fence, which turned out really great! Now Meredith and Devi can run around the backyard to their hearts’ content. The rest of the afternoon/evening was Kevin’s D&D game, so Meredith and I had a girl’s-only dinner, just the two of us…