Two Guys, Two Girls and a Pup

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…

Sunday I took part in my second 5k race, the Furry 5k, a fundraiser for the Seattle Animal Shelter. Kevin, Meredith and I all got up bright and early Sunday morning and headed down to Seward Park in south Seattle to pick up our registration materials and get ready. It was cloudy and slightly cool — nice weather for running, since the sun wasn’t beating down. There were hundreds of people there already, most with their dogs, ready to walk or run. (We left Devi at home for obvious reasons — Devi + other dogs = not fun.) Meredith was fascinated by the people in dog and cat costumes walking around greeting the crowds.

At 10am sharp, we started. I started my run, getting passed by tons of people, of course, since I run verrrry slowly. The nice thing about running with people with dogs is that, eventually, they have to stop to let their dogs go to the bathroom. Woohoo! Kevin and Meredith were supposed to start the walk 10 minutes later, but apparently everyone just went all at once, as they were only behind me by 5 minutes for the whole way. Had I known that, we could have gone together! Oh, well.

I was able to run almost the entire race — there was one huge hill that I had to walk, but it couldn’t have been more than 1/4 or 1/2 mile. Otherwise, I did the whole thing, which was a great feeling — much different from the St. Patrick’s Day race! I finished strong and actually sprinted at the end when I saw I might be able to make it under 45 minutes. My final time was 43 minutes 49 seconds!

All in all, it was a fun time — I would absolutely do that one again. Not sure what my next race will be: I might try to do one in the fall. Stay tuned!

Hugs for everyone! Meredith is really into hugging right now: Baby, Devi, random people on the street. (Well, maybe not that last one. YET.) Which is just so cute it makes your teeth hurt. :>

Kevin and I are both working hard the last few weeks — I have a big project that is keeping me occupied all day, every day. It’s fun and challenging, but hard work that keeps the ol’ thinker ticking. Kevin is likewise working on learning the ropes and finding out more and more every day about how Cray is put together. His Australia trip has been pushed back to August, which is kind of nice, since he’s in the middle of building our fence for the backyard! It’s coming along really well — I’ll take pictures when it’s farther along.

Meredith is doing better and better and getting to bed and falling asleep by herself, and she’s even getting back into her sleeping-through-the-night routine. Yay! I’m sure part of it has been a veritable explosion in vocabulary — that will disrupt anyone’s sleep schedule, for sure.

Otherwise, things are good here. Kevin and I are looking forward to date night tomorrow, going to dinner and the Experience Music Project. Sunday, we’ll be doing the Furry 5K race (me running, Kevin and M walking). And summer has finally come to Seattle — temps climbing steadily (today was almost 90!) At least it’s a non-humid heat — add some wind and it’s almost pleasant! (Almost.)

Meredith had a big day with Daddy today, accompanying him in the truck (in a big girl car-seat turned FORWARD, no less!) to get his emissions test and licensing done, to buy groceries and go to Best Buy. Apparently it was so exciting that a nap was simply unthinkable — when they got home, I tried to put her down for a nap, but an hour later, she was still alternating crying and laughing.

But after bathtime and having some nice lotion rubbed on, we made it through one book and had just started into Curious George Goes To The Hospital when BAM. She was OUT. I can’t even remember the last time I put her to bed asleep. As Kevin said: “Hopefully it lasts”.

Nothing much planned for the weekend. I got my hair cut, wooo. We might wander around the zoo at some point. I was also thinking about going back to the rhododendron garden we went to last year, since when we got there last time, lots of the blooms had already fallen off. We’ll see what the weather brings…

So, obviously, Sunday was Mother’s Day, so there was a lot of thoughts about not only my own mother but about being a mom as well. It seems like I always have been one, even though it’s only been about two years.

Watching a little person learn about life and how to do things new is so fascinating. Earlier this week, Meredith had her very first pudding! She really got into it! This evening, she spent several minutes at bathtime pouring water into my cupped hands and laughing with delight when it pooled there. Do you even remember what it’s like to discover that water can collect somewhere new? Inconceivable.

She’s added several new words to the repetoire, including “monkey” and “boy” — much of evening storytime is pointing out monkeys and boys (especially when we’re reading about Curious George!)

And, last but not least, she’s FINALLY popping out the 4th bottom tooth in front — lopsided no more!

It always feels a little hard to get back into the swing of things after having visitors! We very much enjoyed having Grandpa and Grandma B. here with us last weekend — I still need to go through the pictures from their visit and upload them to Flickr. This weekend.

Among other things! Tonight, we all went to an exhibition that Esmerelda (Meredith’s nanny) was holding at a coffee shop up in Shoreline. She is a terrific photographer in addition to being a terrific nanny! Very pretty pictures of her hometown in Mexico! I can’t wait to see more of her stuff. And it makes me want to print out some of MY pictures!

Tomorrow we are going to go to the annual artwalk up on Phinney Ridge: businesses from 60th to 87th street will be featuring artists’ work. We went last year while we were considering buying our house and it was one of the reasons we fell in love with our neighborhood.

And then, of course, it’s Mother’s Day on Sunday! Hard to believe that this will only be my second Mother’s Day (third if you count the one while I was pregnant. I don’t, really.) Meredith continues to fascinate us and everyone around her — we got so many compliments while we were at the photo exhibit! Yesterday, she was putting her baby doll into the high chair and feeding her eggs! Monkey see, monkey do. She continues to beg to go outside at every opportunity and is repeating pretty much everything we say. AND it feels like she’s packing on the weight — she’s certainly eating like a horse. She is definitely taller, too — the overalls that we had to roll up just a couple of months ago now fit just fine. Our little goober is growing up! That’s especially apparent after the 20 minutes I just spent going over pictures of her as a tiny baby — hard to remember when she was so small… :}

It’s been a rough couple of days for Meredith: she finally succumbed to the stomach bug that Aurora had at the beginning of last week. 3:30am on Friday she started throwing up and kept it up for a good (BAD) 3 hours. The strange thing is that in between bouts of puking, she was apparently her normal monkey self, climbing on the furniture and running around playing. So it definitely isn’t slowing her down much. Since then, she’s thrown up a couple of times here and there and had some SUPER runny poops — she’s drinking tons of water, although not eating quite as much as we’ve been used to lately. But I’m sure in a day or two she’ll be back to her old self.

In the meantime, she’s been surprising us with new words and behaviors all the time. She’s becoming more insistent about having things done: if she can’t do it herself, she’ll grab one of our hands and drag us over to do whatever it is she wants us to do. While it’s been nice, she’s be DESPERATE to be outside, grabbing our hands and pulling us to the door to open it, all the time saying “SIIIDE” (outside). This is even after a full day at the park with Esme and Aurora! She’s learned that she has an outfit with a monkey on it, and can point it out saying “MAHN-KEY”. Also, every beverage now is “milk” (MOOK).

We’re looking forward to having Grandpa and Grandma Bingham visit on Thursday! Much cleaning happened today, so we in good shape — it doesn’t look quite so much like we live in total squalor.