Easter Happenings

Boy, these weeks sure do fly by!  Chad said yesterday that Meredith seems to learn something new everyday and I believe it.

• She is now becoming quite the walker.  It's very weird to see her toddle around, when it seems she learned to crawl just yesterday.  Over the past few days, she has really begun to advance in her walking abilities.  She can now squat down to pick up objects and get back up unassisted (e.g., without falling back down and crawling).  She also seems to enjoy walking more now, so we imagine she will be walking fairly well by her first birthday. 
• She can also now kind-of-sort-of wave!  It's quite funny - when we wave to her, she raises one or both hands straight up over her head.  It sometimes comes with a squeezing of her hand, but it's most funny when her arm just shoots straight up :)
• Okay, this isn't exactly a milestone, but I think it's funny and proves her awareness of surroundings.  I was at Fazoli's this week with a friend and as I was preparing to order, I noticed that she kept looking past me and opening her mouth really wide.  She then would close her mouth, look at me, and look past me and do it again.  I finally looked over my shoulder and could see why she was doing this....there was a picture of a girl eating spaghetti and she had her mouth wide open!  Ha!  Meredith was just trying to copy what she looked like.  I got a good laugh out of that.  This is a reenactment she did later of that face:

• Finally, this wasn't exactly the milestone I wanted, but we have moved her to the kitchen sink for bath time.  She seems quite content here and though it is weird to think I wash her body in the same area I wash her dishes, it works and is much better than our bathtub disaster (see previous Blog post, Milestones)!  I'm sure this solution won't work for long, though, since she will be too big soon.

For Easter, we invited both of our sets of parents over to help us celebrate.  Also, this year Easter fell right in the middle of Chad and my birthdays, so that was another reason to celebrate.  I was kind of excited to be able to cook a nice meal for everyone, since my cooking skills have increased substantially since my single-hood days.  Plus, I LOVE crockpot meals.  I made pot roast in the crockpot (my Mom provided the recipe - the BEST I have ever had, and no I'm not just saying that because I made it), green bean casserole, mashed potatoes/gravy, and rolls.  Yummy!

We realized that this was the first time Meredith's grandparents have all been together since the day she was born.  Here is a picture:

Chad and I decided not to do an "Easter Basket" for Meredith.  I guess we just feel that she won't remember it now anyways, plus I think it kind of takes away from the true meaning for the Holiday.  We were talking about how we can kind of understand Santa and his purpose (gives out presents to children that are good), but what is the purpose of the Easter Bunny?  I mean, they don't even lay eggs that the kids hunt for.  We think most of the Easter Bunny's in kids pictures are a little freaky looking.  Not to mention it's around $20 for the cheap picture package at our local Mall.  What a rip off.  So, we instead let our parents get her gifts - she got a few books about Easter, an Easter dress, and a stuffed Easter bunny.

Fun New Toys!

Miss Meredith in her Easter dress

Milestones

Over the past week, Meredith has had a few important milestones to put under her belt.  Both good and bad! - I should probably start with the good:

She is now a walker!  Though she is still unable to fully stand up on her own, that is, without the aid of a couch or pushing off of mommy and daddy's bodies, she is a MAD walker when she is up.  At times, she even appears to run.  She really is a fearless little girl.  She still stumbles quite a bit and can't fully figure out how to balance (kind of reminds me how I look on roller skates), but when she does fall, she just gets back up!  I wish I had that courage.  She still prefers to crawl most places, but I know it won't be long before she walks/runs everywhere. 

Another good milestone, at least in my mind (not too sure whether she sees teething as this eventful), is that she is cutting her first top tooth!  This will be tooth #3.  With each tooth, I think she is beginning to look more like a little girl and not like a gummy baby anymore!

With good, I suppose there is always a little bit of bad.  So here it is - we had our first "bleeding" incident, as Chad coined the phrase.  One of our favorite times of day with Meredith is when she wakes up from a nap.  This is when she is at the peak of happiness - she is well rested and loves seeing us enter the room to pick her up.  She gets so wound up in the crib and is a hoot during this time.  Well, I was getting ready in the bathroom and heard a terrible cry and heard Chad say, "Oh no".  I rush in to find Meredith bleeding from her mouth!  Not exactly the site I wanted to see.  Of course, I had to take her away from Chad and hold her to console her myself.  She apparently lunged her head forward into the crib railing and her bottom teeth hit her top gum line.  She had a small cut that looked like a paper-cut on her gum - surprisingly, after just a few minutes, she was back to her old self. 

Another bad milestone we have hit is with bath time.  When Meredith was very small and still a bit colicky, bath time was one of the few relief moments for us because it always got her to calm down!  Chad even thought she was going to be the next Michael Phelps and we had big dreams of her Olympic debut.  For 11 months now, we have all loved bath time!  Well, this past week, she decided it would be more fun to stand up in the baby tub.  This caused us a bit of nervousness, since we know she can't stand up on her own in the tub without slipping, but she doesn't know that yet.  We moved her to the big tub, hoping that would change her behavior, but it's almost worse now.  We are hoping she gets over this phase soon, because she may soon be the dirtiest kid on the block if we have our way (we are thinking of boycotting bath time).

Here is how we both look/feel during bath time.

I hate to end on a bad note, but there is one more bad milestone that happened.  I thought we still had another year or so for this one, but apparently not.  We think we entered the "terrible 2's".  What, you may ask, has happened?  Drum roll please.....Meredith threw her first temper-tantrum yesterday.  I was babysitting Meredith's little playmate, Lauren, and that's when it happened.  She actually did really well playing the first two hours or so, other than the occasional 'I'm going to steal your toy, even though I'm already holding one in my hand and there are a dozen others on the floor'.  I chalk that up to kid stuff and the fact that Meredith is pretty outgoing and aggressive when it comes to toys.  After some time, she must have realized I was not providing her 100% one-on-one time and she threw a fit.  Anytime I would hold Lauren or talk with him, she would want to sit on my lap too or would come walking/crawling towards me hysterically crying.  She also wouldn't let me leave the room without wailing.  She did fine when Lauren's parents watched her on Saturday, so I'm thinking it's because she is not used to me being in the room with her and another child or because it was at our house, where she is surrounded by her toys and has her routine.

Meredith wanting the basketball hoop AND Lauren's bat.

Well, I just can't do it - I can't end on a bad note.  It wouldn't be fair to Meredith and her normally good demeanor :)  We have gone walking quite a bit over the past week, since this normally crazy, unpredictable Illinois weather has been absolutely lovely.  Now who couldn't be happy when looking at this little girl in her stroller....surely, this precious baby couldn't throw a temper-tantrum, right?:

Bringing Up Girls

Last week, I spent a grand total of three days reading Dr. James Dobson's, "Bringing Up Girls" book.  This is a great accomplishment for me, since I normally start a book and never finish it or just read a chapter here and there.

I was going to wait to read this in a few years, since I still consider my little Meredith a "baby", not  "big girl", and to be honest I wish I had waited a while before reading it.  While it had a lot of good information, the stats about sex, drugs, etc. amongst pre-teen and teen girls was very alarming.  I'm sure Dr. Dobson didn't mean to overshadow this wonderful book with scare tactics, but I think he did and I wish he would have focused more on providing practical advice for raising daughters.  Nonetheless, I still gained a lot of insight and here are some of my takeaways from the book:

• VERY IMPORTANT POINT!:  Dads are VERY important for their daughters.  I never really thought about it too much before, but it makes sense.  A girl's self worth usually depends on their relationship with their Dads; Girls are more perceptive, sensitive, and relational than boys and many experience a lifelong sense of inadequacy.  Dads should spend one-on-one time with their daughters.  I liked his idea of Dads taking their daughters out to breakfast once a week.

• Here are six steps to having "healthy" children:

1. Have dinner with them, as a family.
2. Take them to church weekly.
3. Check their homework nightly.
4. Demand the truth from them.  Don't just chalk their lies up to "kids will be kids".
5. Take them on a family vacation for at least a week at a time once a year.  Turn off all electronics and really connect with them!
6. Encourage them to participate in a team sport.

•  Dr. Dobson was very adamant about this point - if at all possible, women should stay home with their children, especially during the early years.  There are critical periods during the child's early years of learning that must be grabbed or forever lost.  He used the reference of the "river of culture" that will sweep your child away if you are not careful.  My task as a parent is to be intentional about teaching chastity and common sense to my children while they are still young.  This was reassuring to me, since I made this decision to stay at home nearly a year ago and reaffirms that my influence will be very important in Meredith's life.

• We should teach girls to be ladies.  Unless you have been living in a cave for the last 50 years or so, you would know this to be true.  Manners should be restored (as well as modesty!).  I should also expect her future gentleman callers to be well-mannered also.  If I don't teach her morals, then she will inevitably learn it from peers and the public school system.

• Dr. Dobson also pointed out that though many believe the teen years evoke independence, children actually need more attachment, not less.  When everything has gone topsy-turvy in her world, attachment is key.  Even when she is unlovable, she needs love.  I need to be calm, mature, and a voice of reason (hopefully I will remember that in 13 years!).

• Lastly and most important, one task in parenting outranks all other in significance:  The responsibility of Christian mothers and fathers to introduce their children to Jesus and cultivate their understanding of Him at every opportunity.  Here are practical ways to do this:

1. Talk to my children about the Lord and His mercies continually.
2. Teach my children to pray as early as possible.
3. Memorize key Scriptures and favorite Passages with my children.
4. Pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17).

Overall, it was a good read and really hits home to me that parenting goes beyond just providing for a child's physical needs (food, shelter, clothing, etc.), but is really about making the child a good citizen and steward for God.

Family Visits

The past few weekends have been very busy in the Prentice household.  Two weeks ago we visited my hometown of Flora, I attended a Mom's conference last weekend, and this weekend we visited Chad's hometown of Macomb.  We find travel difficult, or at least more trying, than before we had Meredith.  It just seems like there is so much "stuff" we need to bring for her, even though we rarely use all of the toys and extra outfits we pack!  These trips were made easier with our new minivan;  It allows us to bring even more "stuff" with us without cramping our space.  Because of the difficulty of travel and the fact that both of our families live in different towns (opposite directions in the state, as well), we don't make it back home very often.

Here are some of the highlights of our trips:

• Meredith had a chance to get down and play with Grandma and Grandpa Perry's cat, Miss Gray.  Right after this picture, Miss Gray took a swat at Meredith, so that was the end of cat time.

• Meredith had a chance to play the piano for the first time.  I hope to one day be able to give her lessons, that is, until she surpasses my very basic piano skills.

• Meredith had another first in Flora - she used the swing for the first time at the playground.  Can you tell she loved it?

• Here is Meredith with Grandpa Perry.  I wonder if this is where she gets her blue eyes from...

• Meredith likes to "spit" back and forth (making funny sounds) with Grandpa Prentice:

•  Chad and I feel so blessed that Meredith has several Great-grandparents still with us:

Grandma Perry, Mommy, Meredith, and Great-Grandma Reed

Meredith and Great-Grandma Perry

Great-Grandpa and Great-Grandma Prentice (Great-Grandpa Prentice's 92nd birthday party)

Meredith, Great-Grandpa Ross, Daddy, and Grandma Prentice

Overall, we had a great time visiting family and we loved this unseasonably warm March weather.

Yes, I'm Alive...

So, here it is, nearly a year after I started this blog and I'm just now writing my second entry.  How embarrassing!  Oh well, I guess that's what happens when you have a baby.  Of course, when I was writing my first and only blog entry, I was on bedrest and didn't have a baby (yet!) to distract me.

Well, needless to say, the past year has been a whirlwind for the Prentice family.  Our little girl, Meredith Grace, arrived about two weeks after I was put on bedrest.  She has been such a blessing for our family and I can't imagine life without her.  She is now 10 months old and really beginning to take her first few steps and babbles like crazy.  She has got daddy's personality and looks (except for her newly developing curly hair...she gets that one trait from me!).  Complete strangers gravitate towards her fun-loving spirit and big blue eyes, which she uses to stare at people (especially at restaurants and at the grocery store).

Here is a picture of Meredith from just a few days ago.  I am so excited because her hair is long enough for pigtails! 

I feel compelled to keep up a blog because of the Hearts at Home conference I attended this past weekend.  There were a ton of fantastic speakers that encouraged me very much.  The headliner was Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar.  Chad and I watch their show regularly and are amazed that they are raising 19 children who are giving, polite, and respectful.  You don't see that too much in today's culture!  I listened to them speak, as well as Marianne Miller (Crown Financial Ministries) on "How to Raise Grateful Kids in a Culture of Consumerism", and Julie Barnhill on "Confessions of an Imperfect Mother".

My big takeaways from the conference were that all moms struggle with guilt, I am not alone in this journey of motherhood, and I have one of the most important jobs in the world.  For the first few months after Meredith was born, I really struggled with being a stay-at-home mom.  It may sound odd since many women would do anything to stay at home with their kids, but I somehow still had this attachment to my job (since I was still technically on leave) and struggled with the colicky bouts from Meredith's struggles with sleep.  It's probably because I had been working full-time ever since college and had never known anything else.  Or, maybe because I realized I didn't have a routine or a "boss" like I did in the professional world.  However, once I began to get Meredith established on a routine and also get myself on a routine of having various set engagements throughout the week, I began to have a different attitude.  I now love staying at home with her and honestly, could not imagine any other way of being a parent.  Not to condone those parents who wish to work full-time and place their children in daycare, but I just couldn't do it with Meredith.  I don't trust anyone else to do this very important duty of raising my daughter.

This conference reiterated to me that though this may be the hardest job in the world and there may be days I don't feel like I accomplished anything, it is worth it and I am appreciated.  This is my job!  Sure, I don't receive a paycheck, performance reviews, or promotions, but once I realize and start treating it like a job, I will be more productive with my time and my family will feel the effects.  I want this blog to be a keepsake for Meredith one day, so she can look back at funny stories, trials, and hopefully learn a bit more about her mother at this stage in my life.

Stay tuned...hopefully it won't be another year before my next entry! :)