The Chair

One addiction I have picked up over the past few years is going to yard sales!  I really like the Bloomington/Normal area, because there are soooooooooo many sales that it's almost necessary to go Thursday, Friday, and Saturday in order to hit most of them up.  I get way too excited about them.  Chad is okay with my addiction, though, because I have saved us a TON of money with Meredith's clothes, plus he likes driving us around on Saturday to look at all the different neighborhoods and get to know the town a bit better.  Also, we like going to the ritzy neighborhoods and seeing what goodies they have.  It still cracks me up that these $300,000+ homeowners have yard sales, but I guess maybe that's how they got into their position by being so thrifty!

So, I had a high on Friday after I attended one of these yard sales.  I ended up with a smile on my face and chills all over!  I could tell right away as I drove up, it was a big one and they had a ton of kids toys (which also meant they probably had a ton of kids clothes).  It didn't take me long to see tote after tote of pink/purple clothes, so I knew they must have had girls.  All clothes were $.50 unless otherwise marked.  Hallelujah!  If I didn't have one arm full of Meredith making sure she didn't run into the busy road, I would have picked up more clothes for her.  My only regret is that I didn't bring Meredith's stroller so I could have a free hand :(  Nonetheless, I came across the cutest little foam chair for $2.  We had wanted to get her a chair of her own for our living room around her birthday, but I refused to pay full price at the store (most prices started at $35).  So, here is my prize find:

Nothing fancy, but in perfect condition!

So, I sat Meredith in it at the yard sale to make sure she fit and her feet could touch the floor.  It worked perfect!  What I wasn't expecting was what happened when I brought it home.  My poor little girl couldn't figure out how to sit in it by herself.  She's a really good walker, but has not mastered climbing yet.  I think if she could have climbed into it and then turned around and sat down, it would have worked.  She couldn't figure out that you need to first turn around, then sit back.  Instead, she tried one of these two moves:

When we tell her to sit in her chair, she likes to put her face down in the back of it.  As if this will help her to sit :)

Or, as you can kind of see in this picture, she turns around and acts like she is going to sit, then misses the chair totally and ends up on the floor!

After a little help from Mommy, she can sit in the chair like a big girl!

Play-Dates

We have had a wonderful week full of play-dates!  Three to be exact.  While pregnant with Meredith and realizing that I would soon be a stay-at-home mom, I couldn't wait until she could do play-dates with friends.  I've realized though, that it hasn't been until recently that she has enjoyed them and really been able to entertain herself well.  My friend, Theresa, and I talked today about how it was so nice that we were able to talk for about 30 minutes or so while our kids played by themselves.  Ah, the joys of motherhood!  It's really fun to see her interact with other kids, especially since I can't volunteer in the same room she is in when I take her to church nursery or Bible study nursery.

Here are some pictures of Meredith's play-date with Lauren today at our house.  She also very much enjoyed playing at his house yesterday.  It's always fun when she plays with new toys.

Okay, this isn't from today, but from July of 2011.  See why their play-dates are so much more fun now?

This is what I call one of Meredith's "drive-by" dropoffs.  She loves to hand me things all the time and then will take them to other people when I ask her to.  Well, she was walking really fast across the room, giving things to Lauren, whether he was ready for them or not!

My friend, Julie, invited me to go to the Children's Discovery Museum in Normal, Illinois earlier this week with her twin boys.  We had a great time and I highly recommend this museum.  I've wanted to go before, but I thought Meredith was maybe a little too young.  I found that she was actually a pretty good age for several activities and it will be even more fun to take her there as she gets older.  It's such a nice place and a relatively short drive from our house.  It reminded me of the St. Louis Science Center on a small scale, which was a much further distance from my hometown when growing up.

Of course, whatever he was playing with, she wanted to also play with, even though her hand was already full with another toy :)

Once again, see why play-dates are so much more fun now?  They don't need to sleep ALL the time.  This was from June of 2011. 

She was barely tall enough to reach this table that had vehicles and a track on it.  Maybe she will be tall enough next time we come.

Meredith and Drew playing with the whatchamacallit toy ;)

This was a really fun water toy exhibit for the kids.

We decided to put a vest on them so they wouldn't be soaked.  Meredith kept tripping over it because it was so long.  She looked like my little baby scientist working in a lab!

This reminded me of the piano scene in the '80s movie, "Big".  Except for the fact that the kids didn't weigh enough to make sounds.  At least the adults had fun!

Chess anyone?

I want this for our living room!  It was the neatest contraption EVER!  The kids could put a ball or handkerchief in it and the wind would shoot it out the opposite end.  Awesome!

"Why can't I get the ball, Mommy?"

Meredith learned about farming with this activity.  She loved to take the balls and put them in the bucket.
 

And here is the bucket!

Flamingos, a Porch Swing, and Little Toot!

What an interesting title:  "Flamingos, a Porch Swing, and Little Toot" for a post.  If you're not from my hometown of Flora, you may be perplexed, especially by "Little Toot".  We went to Flora this past weekend to attend my Mom's (the Reed side) family reunion on Father's Day.  I think it had been four years since I last attended; Chad and I were just dating at that point, so needless to say, it's been a while!  My frustrating moment of the weekend was when we got back to Bloomington and realized all of our pictures from the family reunion were lost due to a formatting issue with our camera.  So, I don't have any pictures of extended family members, but thankfully my Mom shared her pictures with me, but of course they are mainly just of Meredith.  That's what Grandma is for!

Okay, so let's start with the flamingos.  In Flora, there is a popular fundraiser in which groups will "flock" a yard by putting little plastic flamingos in a certain yard and in order to have them removed, the homeowner must pay a certain price.  It's actually a pretty neat idea and from what I understand, a pretty successful fundraiser.  My Grandma Perry called us on Saturday and said we should bring Meredith over to see the flamingos.  We did, and she loved it!  If I ever figure out how to post a video to the blog, the cutest video in the world will go right here.  In the meantime, here are a few pictures:

Hmmm...not too sure about this, Mommy.

Wow!  This is fun!!

One thing we do not have at our house is a deck, let alone a porch swing.  That is one of the things I loved about the house I grew up in.  We always could go outside to sit on the porch swing and watch the cars go by, or just enjoy a nice evening.  Some of my earliest memories are of Derek and I catching lightning bugs while our parents were watching us from the porch swing.  Anyway, Meredith really enjoyed the porch swing!  She loves the regular swings at the park and I think she saw this as a variation of that. 

My big girl!

She loved swinging with Grandma!

Being silly.

So, onto the moment you have been waiting for:  Little Toot!  I'll admit that even being from Flora, I think it's kind of a silly name for it, just because it makes me giggle :)  Anyway, Little Toot is a miniature train that is designed for children to ride at our local park.  It was in Flora when my Mom was a child, then went away for several decades, and made it's reappearance back in the '90s I believe.  Well, since I was too old then to enjoy it, I never thought too much about it, but since having a child I've been anxiously waiting until she could ride it (okay, I'll admit, so I could ride it too!).  We experienced our first age disappointment with Meredith.  She was one month shy of getting the "12 months and under ride free" deal.  My frugal side cringed and hoped they would make us a deal, but they didn't.  I would have thought the price would have at least been reduced for her, but no, we paid $4 for each of us to ride.  

Pardon the pixelated pictures, as these were a copy of a copy from my mom's camera since ours messed up.

This isn't actually little Toot, but a landmark train that has been in the park for as long as I can remember.

All aboard!  Giving our tickets to the "conductor".

She enjoyed the ride very much!  She made a few wimpers at the end, but I think because we stopped and she wanted to go again :)

A few other things Meredith enjoyed at my parents house were the stairs and the music.  We have stairs at our home, but they are blocked off by a baby gate and actually lead upstairs.  My parents have three stairs that lead to their kitchen and Meredith couldn't be happier trying to climb them.  By the end of the weekend, she had mastered getting up them on her own fairly quickly, but was too scared to try going down them on her own.

This became the never-ending "game"!

Meredith enjoyed listening to my Dad play guitar and loved messing with his amp.

It was so funny when we got to Bloomington, because we let Meredith loose in the living room to play with her toys.  Well, it turns out she only wanted to read her books.  She spent a good 30 minutes just looking through all of her books, as if she had missed something from being away for a few days.  

My little bookworm.

Look What She Can Do!

I was thinking just now that there are so many things Meredith can do when you ask her, that I should get a list going.  Several months ago, she learned to clap and then she could put her arms above her head when you would ask to to "put your arms up".  So, it used to just be a few things over and over we would ask her to do.  She learned the latter commands because of her videos ("Your Baby Can Read"), but I'm finding more and more now that she is learning from her books and by watching us closely.  Her favorite book by far is "I Love You Through and Through".  This was a book from Grandma Perry and it tells about how we love her and all the silly things she does and includes different parts of the body.  She will follow right along and show you the body parts at the appropriate page.


Here are all of the things she can now do when you ask her:

1. Clap (She will sometimes do this even without being asked, like when she is excited).
2. Arms Up (She puts one or both arms straight above her head.  This is when it is most fun to tickle her arm pits.)
3. Mouth (She will open her mouth when you ask her where her mouth is, or where her insides are - the latter is from her favorite book pictured above.)
4. Head (She will put her hands on her head and push her hair down on her forehead.)
5. Hair (This is hit or miss.  She will sometimes point to her head when you ask her where her hair is.)
6. Toes (She will touch her toes and even come and touch our toes, also.  We have to be careful, because she's been known to bite Mommy's big toe on occasion!)
7. Fingers (When you ask her where her fingers are, she moves her fingers around.  Sometimes she looks down at her hand while doing it, as to say, 'I can't believe my fingers are moving!')
8. No (When you tell her "no", she will shake her head back and forth.  She used to struggle with doing it and walking at the same time :)  Kind of cute in the beginning, but now it's a bit frustrating, because she will shake her head after you tell her not to do something, then will go ahead and do it anyways.)
9. Picture (If you ask her where her picture is on the wall, she will point to her pictures mounted behind the TV.  She has recently started pointing to our wedding pictures along the stairs when we ask her where we are.)
10. Nap (Our sleep training has paid off nicely.  When it's about time for her nap - around 8:30 am and 12:30 pm - if you ask her if she is ready to go take a nap, she will walk towards you while sucking her finger.)
11. Turn the Page (When we read to her, she will help us by turning the page, sometimes even before we ask).
12. Hug (She will give her puppy and teddy bear hugs and occasionally will come up and give us one).
13. Kiss (This is one of the cutest ones, without a doubt.  When you ask her to give you a kiss and begin to make a kissing sound, she will walk around the room making that sound.  She just doesn't yet know how to kiss our cheek or blow kisses.)
14. Wave (When you ask her to say "hi", "bye", or "wave", she will move all of her fingers in kind of a fist.  It's very cute, especially at bedtime or when she waves while still sucking one of her fingers.) 
15. Pray (Last but not least, this one gets us every time.  When we pray before meals and with her before bed, and you ask her to pray, she puts her hands together and somewhat bows her head.  It is sooooo cute!)

She also knows that when Daddy leaves for work through the garage door and it shuts, she needs to rush over to the window to see him drive away.  She is so intuitive!  I am really hoping her love for books and learning continues.  I have already read her books so much that I have entire passages memorized.  She usually knows what is coming next (for instance, she opens her mouth when the boy in the book has his mouth open, as she is turning the page to that picture).