...and Meredith's milestones

Meredith at, let's see, six weeks shy of five years old:

Likes to:
--make intricate art creations with cut paper, glue, and crayons and/or markers.
--brush her own hair. (Sometimes she needs help with the back.)
--watch the PBS show "Wordgirl," which features superhero-with-vocab lesson storylines.
--talk about science. Recent questions: Do germs have eyes? How long after the dinosaurs did people live? Why does Daddy have to flip the circuit breaker all the time? (All our air conditioners appear to be on the same circuit in our 100-year-old house.) We continue to play the "animal game," an animal-only version of 20 questions that she is astoundingly good at, usually while I am doing dishes.
--play with the dog, who is remarkably tolerant, especially of being used as an "air guitar."

Is working on:
--swimming! She has recently begun enjoying going underwater and jumping in. She continues to work on actually swimming, i.e., not sinking when she can't touch. Derek and the girls had a chance encounter with Mer's swimming teacher from school at the beach yesterday, who was impressed by how much she's learned this summer!

--helping around the house. She is expected to clear her plate when she's done and help clear the rest of the table.

--her birthday. She is very excited about her party, and friends are immensely important to her right now. I appreciate how much she enjoys and remembers the friends she sees less often, as well as her neighbors, who she sees almost every day.

Derek, any additions?

-JRR

Elly is 16 months old!

Hard to believe Elly is 16 months old. We're still waiting for her to decide to walk, but here's a roundup of the rest:

Elly's favorite things:
--making the sign for "more" - when she's hungry, when she wants something, when she wants something else, and also at other times.
--talking (babbling) to us and to herself, almost non-stop
--pressing buttons, especially the toys that play a song, and also turning the TV on and off. (This makes Meredith VERY frustrated if she's trying to watch her one show a day.)
--climbing stairs when we look away for just a moment
--looking at pictures of her family

Elly is working on:
--her vocab! She has perhaps 15 words and 4 signs.
--walking...she's seemed so close for so long. She stands up by herself, but has yet to realize she can move her feet. She's also not crazy about walking holding onto adult hands - she'd rather drop to her knees and crawl there herself.

Mid-summer pictures

Below are some highlights from this past month. We traveled to Missouri to visit grandparents. We hosted the other grandparents in Minneapolis. We've had a lot of swimming fun. Meredith did a week of "art camp" in the mornings and Elaine told her first knock-knock joke, sorta.

Swing time!

Meredith's first shiner

Meredith is a tough girl. Like many preschoolers she gets lots of bumps and bruises, but usually doesn't let injuries get in her way of having fun. Sometimes though a spectacular injury occurs.

The below picture was taken the day after Meredith suffered from a football drill gone bad when she collided with her sister who had snuck on to the drill course. Both girls were howling at first, but Elaine calmed down quickly and suffered no visible injury.

Meredith, on the other hand, had part of her face sticking out. After some ice, a consult with the family doctor (Grandpa Kerry), and some rest, the swelling decreased. It will be a while before the black eye disappears. Meredith assures us that she still loves football.

The Porch: Before and After

We've been in our 100 year-old house for nearly 6 years now. Over the years Jen has voiced that we need to do something with the porch. Apparently using it as storage/overflow isn't doing something.

What did we need to do with the porch? For starters, Jen told me, some decent furniture to sit on. And maybe a carpet to cover the beaten up floorboards.

After a multi-visit Target adventure, we were able to procure some chairs, table, and carpet for 50% - 75% off. After a few frustrating hours of chair construction, the porch was ready to go!

BEFORE
Picture it also with 6 garbage bags full of pillows and stuff from the last (false) lice panic. I put the chair on the curb with a "free!" sign and it was gone within an hour.

AFTER
A place to relax in the early morning or evening with a drink and book.

Next up: Painting said porch...

Missouri dreamin'

Owing to a de-centralized, cooperative method of picture-taking (a.k.a. sometimes my parents' camera was there, sometimes my brother's, and sometimes ours), pictures from our recent vacation are now scattered about the country. I hope that we will have at least ours to post here soon.

In the meantime, I thought I'd share some of the highlights of our weeklong visit to my parents' house in Springfield, Missouri:

--Elly started eating like a toddler! Which is to say, not all pureed, and enjoying feeding herself macaroni and cheese and such. And last night she ate spaghetti and meatballs with gusto - both brand new foods. What a change from two weeks ago!

--Meredith learned to jump in the pool, and is working on her swimming. It's amazing how much more comfortable she is after swimming every day for a week.

--Meredith got to sneak down early in the morning and snuggle with her grandparents. To hear her anticipation, this is a top-priority activity. Very sweet.

--I only billed one hour the entire week. Hooray! I did check my Blackberry frequently, though.

--Derek and I got away for a 4-course, 2-hour anniversary meal at a nice Italian restaurant in Springfield, Gilardi's. Check it out if you're in the area - it's delicious northern Italian fare in a beautiful old carriage house in the historic district. Evidently the Italian owner-chef married a woman from Springfield. Nice way to import talent.

--We drove back overnight on the fourth of July and enjoyed spotting fireworks throughout central and northern Missouri. Many kudos to Derek, who proved himself an able overnight driver both ways, with only post-4 AM help from me. The girls slept, as planned. Lovely, but a 2-day recovery from staying up all night.

-JRR