Another birthday!

Today is Meredith's birthday! She is a five year old. Five years ago, almost to the hour, she looked like this:

Of course, now she's in kindergarten! Meredith loves football. She makes all sorts of artistic creations with paper, crayons, glue, tape, and ribbons. She loves learning about weather and animals and dinosaurs. Meredith can skip and dance and do a mean air-guitar. (Sometimes she can do air-guitar at the same time as air-drums and air-trumpet!) Meredith loves playing with her friends and has become a kind and fun big sister to Elaine. She's so much bigger than the 7 pounds, 3 ounces she was five short years ago.

Last night we celebrated Meredith's birthday early with the family. I made her a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and raspberries on top. She unwrapped her presents, which included science books, a light-up globe, a pirate hat, Connect-4, a pretend cell phone, a piggy bank (since we're starting an allowance), and a Meredith-sized broom. Yes, she had asked for a broom.

Next weekend we'll have a party with Meredith's friends and classmates at the Como Zoo. It will be reptile themed per Meredith's request. We'll be sure to take pictures and post them here!

Jen is 30

Last Saturday we celebrated Jen's birthday party. Believe it or not, she is now a bona fide 30 year old!

We had a nice get together on the Minneapolis Queen paddle boat and a picnic at Boom Island Park afterwards. The weather cooperated perfectly. It wasn't a surprise party, as Jen knew the basic parameters, but I had kept her in the dark on most of the details. At one point during the festivities when we were trying to figure out some small detail Jen exclaimed to me, "You haven't told me enough for me to be helpful!"

The biggest surprise was the arrival of Jen's brother and sister-in-law, David and Olga, from Tulsa. (She was wondering why I had gotten so much steak and corn on the cob for Friday's dinner.) I suspected that it was going to be a worthwhile surprise when she lamented a week before how she had been hoping her brother would call her to tell her they could make it for her birthday.

We also had cake from Jen's favorite bakery, the Franklin Street Bakery. A couple of days after I had ordered the cake, Jen asked if she could count on some cake on her birthday. I said, "Oh, oh, sure. It'll be taken care of. You like chocolate?" The response reportedly did not put her at ease. Latter, she followed up and made helpful suggestions where some good cake could be procured. I simply told her "not to worry about it," which put her at even less ease. Note to readers: It's generally not a good idea to just tell Jen not to worry about anything. Actually, it's probably good not to say that to people in general--and definitely not to Jen.

It probably didn't help a couple days before that I said to her that I'd get around to figuring out some food for her birthday.

In the end, we all had a fun time. Meredith loved running around with her friends at Jen's birthday party. Elaine got lots of good grandparent attention over the weekend and is getting ever more comfortable with people who aren't her mom and dad.

On Sunday, we had a relaxing rainy day. The most exciting thing was Sadie catching a squirrel in the neighbor's front yard at the end of the walk. The dumb animal actually fell out of the tree after successfully getting away from Sadie the first time. Meredith saw the whole thing and wasn't too traumatized. I don't know if I could say the same thing for all of the adults present. Now there are two former squirrels buried in our garden. Here's hoping for a couple more before next spring's planting season!

PICTURES!

Drool and Birthdays

It's begun. With Elaine's second bottom tooth poking through, the girl has begun to drool. Each morning I greet her in her crib and she has a big "drool goatee" hanging down. It's precious. The new teeth also mean that food is getting more messy for now. She spits out her formula and dribbles out her pureed baby food. Glorious.

On Saturday, we had a little celebration to mark my 30th birthday. It feels like a milestone. We had a wine and cheese theme and friends generously brought great wine and cheese selections. The party included a fair amount of crazy four year-olds loudly chasing each other through the house. Eventually, they were largely relegated to the upstairs, where a suspicious spot appeared in the carpet. Meredith, after cleverly covering it up with a piece of paper, admitted its cause to be "moon sand" and water that "accidentally" spilled on it. "Moon sand" is this particularly treacherous substance. It's like sandy, foamy play-do--but messier.

Several days into my 30th year, I do feel older. Still, the moments I truly feel old is when I awake to crying at 5-something AM to deal with a messy diaper. Birthdays or no, I'm hunched over and stumbling as a I drag my aching body around the house, eyes open just enough to navigate around physical hazards. I don't, however, feel wiser quite yet. It's hard to feel wise when a four year-old is beginning to out-clever you.

Meredith's Birthday Pictures, and more!

Last week, we celebrated Meredith's 4th birthday with 13 of her closest friends at ArtiCulture, where a teacher led the kids on a special art project. The messy project was followed by cake and juice. What could be better?

PICTURES

The kids work diligently (sort of) on their animal creations.


Controlled chaos


Meredith's cake featured noisy dinosaurs and volcanoes


Opening Meredith's birthday presents. Don't all of them look excited?


Elaine loves her bouncy seat





Early morning reading (coffee within arm's reach)



VIDEO

Sweet baby in her bouncy seat