A little bit of Meredith . . .

Meredith changes daily. Things that she liked last week, she does not like this week. She is learning at amazing rates and I am constantly hoping that we will be smart enough to keep up with her.

Here is some of Meredith.

1. Meredith started crawling the last week of her seventh month, on Saturday. Then Sunday she started pulling up on her crib and by Monday she was standing in her crib and waiting for us to pick her up. And, honestly, she has not stopped since. Over the past few weeks she has become an expert crawler. She likes to talk (babble) a lot when she is crawling and she is quite expressive even without words. Her favorite past times are to 1) Chase after the cat and pounce, poor Mable has not gotten a break since Meredith started crawling and 2) Crawling away from us as fast as she can when we say, “ Meredith” and giggling uproariously about it. She is hilarious. She seems to prefer standing to any other position, so she will pull herself up on anything and everything; furniture, appliances, walls, the cat, my hair - whatever is at arms reach – she will try to pull up on it or with it.

2. Meredith is also becoming a great eater. When we started Meredith on solids in March she did great with the vegetables, but was not all that thrilled with the fruits. Now, she is doing great with veggies and fruits and every three days we introduce something new and so far (knock on wood) everything has agreed with Meredith. Some of the new foods that she has tried and seems to enjoy – oatmeal with apples and bananas, plain yogurt with some fruit mixed in, chunks of - mango, banana, pear, really ripe peach, mozzarella cheese, crackers and cheerios.

3. Likes: Meredith is definitely aware of what she likes and what she does not like. Meredith likes water – taking a shower, a bath, sitting in her baby pool, the beach – loves it; she likes the swings in the playground, playing with anything that makes noise (which is really anything), sand, the cat, dogs, her books.

4. Dislikes: Meredith does not like having her face touched, her diaper changed, MaMa’s homemade food (I have tried twice, but she keeps gagging), the feel of concreted on her feet or having her clothes changed.

5. One thing which I find really funny right now, but I am sure I might not later on, is her attempts at expressing her temper. Right now when she gets mad and I am holding her she starts to jump up and down, which is just hilarious because when she is not in her jumper, her jumps are not as smooth, which frustrates her.

There you have some of Meredith.

She gives laughs, learning opportunities and unconditional love, even when she is mad. So far having Meredith in our lives is more and better then I ever expected.