Category: meredith lately

meredith lately

I tried to get her to wear something cute for these photos. She resists.

Meredith: Mommy, why are you in the bed?
Me: because I’m exhausted, you guys have worn me out today. I just want to hide for awhile.
Meredith: you want to play hide and seek?
Me: no I just want to play hide.
Meredith: how do you play hide?
Me: I go hide and you two leave me alone for awhile. How about that?
Meredith: no.

at the dinner table…
Meredith: look Mommy!
Me: please get your hand out of your milk.
Meredith: but I like it there!
Me: stop, that’s messy. You’re supposed to be drinking it.
Meredith: (a moment later, as the milk drips down her arm) aaaahhh!! Look!!!!
Me: well–
Meredith: –that’s what happens when I put my hand in there.

I told her to pose and this is what I got.

about to serve me “breakfast” from her play kitchen…
Meredith: hey, you get what you get and you don’t frow a fit, okay??

on our anniversary before we took the kids to be babysat…
Meredith: (accusingly) why are you so pretty?
Me: well thank you.
Meredith: why are you wearing that?
Me: because it’s Daddy’s and my anniversary.
Meredith: (narrows eyes) why are you wearing lipstick??
Me: because we are going on a date.
Meredith: (cries) I wanna come!!

Pops: (to Meredith) you tooted!
Meredith: what, like you don’t toot?

Liam starts to fuss…
Meredith: stop it Liam, you know better than that. You’re not a baby, you’re a toggler!

scolding me when she sees that her toothbrush isn’t suctioned to the mirror…
Meredith: every day I told you to keep this up here!!
Me: well I had to take it down so Liam couldn’t get it.
Meredith: you need to keep it HERE. And if you don’t, you go in time out. (pause) And then you’ll be in jail.

handing Liam a tic-tac…
Meredith: here you go Liam! You can have this.
Me: thank you for sharing, Meredith! That’s very sweet of you.
Meredith: well, it was in my mouth. (pause) And then it fell on the floor.

out shopping and Lauren holds up a super cute black dress for her…
Lauren: ooh, Meredith, don’t you love this one?
Meredith: but it’s not pretty!
Lauren: yes it is! It’s SO cute.
Meredith: but it’s not pink and purple.
Lauren: well I’M wearing black, am I pretty?
Meredith: (disdainful look at her clothes) um, no.

If your day needs some more perking up, I highly recommend the archives of my conversations with Meredith, here.

January 11, 2016
meredith lately

Me: Meredith, what do you want for your birthday?
Meredith: ummm…a dinosaur, a vacuum, carpet, grass, and a big ole truck.

crying when we had to leave her cousins’ house…
David: you don’t have to be sad because when we go home we still have each other to play with.
Meredith: (sobbing) I don’t WANNA play with anybody. I wanna go to jail!!

while reading to herself in her room and I came in to join her…
Meredith: hey, stop looking at me and talking to me!
Me: I wasn’t talking. Can’t I be in here with you?
Meredith: okay, but if you say anything I’m gonna have to go to another room.

while playing in the kiddie pool with her cousins she ran inside to find me…
Meredith: mommy, Lucas got water in my eye!
Me: well, that happens when you play in the pool and it’s okay.
David: and you don’t have to tattle tale.
Meredith: I didn’t tattle tale, Lucas did!

while hovering dangerously around a birthday party favor baggie…
Meredith: what’d you say, mommy?
Me: um…be careful? (I hadn’t said anything.)
Meredith: no, what did you say?
Me: (confused face)
Meredith: did you say treat?

while sitting on my lap playing a game on my phone and I bumped her arm…
Meredith: hey you keep messing me up! I’m trying to work here.

Me: can you bring me your cup of water so Liam doesn’t spill it, please?
Meredith: I can’t, I want you to.
Me: why can’t you? Your legs don’t work?
Meredith: no I can only walk a little bit. Because I’m old like Pappy.

on a walk…
Me: when you’re in the street you need to walk fast because a car might come.
Meredith: and hit me? And make me into a pancake?
Me: exactly. And I would not want you to be a pancake.
Meredith: why not?
Me: because then you’d be in heaven and I would miss you a lot.
Meredith: but…you could eat me. If I was a pancake.

After putting on all my rings, one for each finger…
Meredith: now I’m married to a boy.

carrying over some dried fruit bags she found in the pantry while foraging…
Meredith: what are these Mommy?
Me: those are dates and those are prunes.
Meredith: (wrinkling her nose and putting the bag down) I don’t like dates.
Me: they’re sweet.
Meredith: (immediately grabbing the bag back) okay!!

August 31, 2015
meredith is four!

Yesterday my girl turned four. I’m so happy to see her growing up! I wanted to make the day special for her, so I took off work and we had the best day.

After dropping Liam off with my mom (he was sick again – story for another day), we had breakfast at IHOP where she looked through a book I had given her, then she asked to go to Target to “look at things.” Guys, she didn’t want to look at toys, she wanted to look at “grown-up clothes,” kitchen stuff, and soaps. She’s like a little woman already, except she also wanted to give every mannequin a kiss.

Next we met my sister-in-law and niece Lily at the splash pad, and they had so much fun they could hardly contain themselves. A quick clothes change and we were off to the mall where we grabbed lunch and saw Inside Out. The first time we tried to see it with her it was too late in the evening and we had to leave after 20 minutes or so. This time she was well-behaved the whole time.

MEREDITH: We saw the whole thing!
ME: Yes, you were very good today.
MEREDITH: And I didn’t even toot!

After the movie we got frozen yogurt and rode the teacups inside the carousel. Then we met her cousins at a bounce house and they all played hard there for at least an hour. Sno-cones next, then Meredith fell asleep in the car on the way to my parents’ house. She was slightly grumpy when we got there, but she came out of it and enjoyed cake and a present that she and Liam played with in the bath.

At home, after reading a new book in bed, she fell asleep on my lap and I dozed off cuddled up with her. I couldn’t have been happier.

I can’t tell you how much this bonding day meant to me. Age three was very difficult for us, we butted heads a lot and there were times I feared for our relationship. Everyone told us it gets better with age four, so I have been really looking forward to it. Although I know there isn’t a switch that flips, it’s an occasion to celebrate anyway as I can see her maturing. To have such a lovely day with her on her fourth birthday almost makes me want to cry with gratitude.

An Interview With Meredith On The Occasion of Her Fourth Birthday:

1. What is your favorite color? Pink and purple.

2. What is your favorite toy? Neighbors.

3. What is your favorite fruit? Orange.

4. What is your favorite tv show? Frozen and Ariel.

5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? Pasta.

6. What is your favorite outfit? My Friday shirt. No no my Ariel shirt. And another pants Frozen.

7. What is your favorite game? Lava and hide and seek.

8. What is your favorite snack? Mix.

9. What is your favorite animal? Ja-ja (a stuffed jaguar) and a pony.

10. What is your favorite song? Birds. Little birds.

11. What is your favorite book? Ladybugs.

12. Who is your best friend? Amani and Layla and Arriya and Christian.

13. What is your favorite cereal? Cheerios.

14. What is your favorite thing to do outside? Play on the playground. On Cameron’s playground.

15. What is your favorite drink? Coke and Sprite and water and milk.

16. What is your favorite holiday? Going to Chris’s house! (Her uncle)

17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night? Ja-ja. (She never takes this to bed.)

18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? Eggs.

19. What do you want for dinner on your birthday? Hot dogs. And I want Lucas to have hot dogs.

20. What do you want to be when you grow up? Ariel. I wanna be silly as Ariel.

But what do you want to do for work? I want you to pick. No I wanna be a nurse like you. Because you’re gonna be my best friend. And I’m gonna nurse people who are babies and I’m gonna have big boobs.

And there you have it. My boob-obsessed, intensely emotional, people-loving, crazy silly, beautiful four-year-old.

July 21, 2015
meredith lately

while she was trying to climb into the crib on her own and I gave her a boost with my hands as a “step”…
Meredith: (giggling) remember that mommy? Remember that?
Me: yes I remember that from two seconds ago.

Meredith: what’s that mommy?
Me: that’s your wart.
Meredith: is that from Jesus? Did Jesus put that there?

when we were picking her up from the grandparents’ house after a date night…
Meredith: where’d you go, guys?
Me: we went to the movies. We’ll take you to the movies one day when you get bigger.
Meredith: ok! I will go and you guys stay here and then I’ll come back.

driving to church we pass a hospital…
Me: that’s a hospital like where I work. Do you remember what I do at work?
Meredith: you’re a nurse! What are you Daddy?
David: a paralegal.
Me: Daddy helps people with their money.
Meredith: what is Liam?
Me: he’s a baby!
Meredith: what am I?
Me: a kid!
Meredith: no I work!!
Me: ok what do you do for work?
Meredith: play on the computer. I want to buy a pink one.
Me: you want to be a blogger?
Meredith: no a nurse! Because I’m gonna feed my baby because I’m gonna get big boobs. Right now I have little boobs.
Me: that’s right, but you know mommy doesn’t feed people with her boobs at work. It’s a different kind of nurse.
(had to clarify THAT misunderstanding real quick.)

while on a walk we saw a pizza delivery car with a sign on top…
Meredith: look!! he has something on his car! that is SO silly.
(we walk a few more minutes and then the car drives by us again on its way out)
Meredith: he’s back!!! (sighs) I’m SO glad he’s back.

while trying to put a sticker on and it got crumpled and she was frustrated…
Meredith: (crying) now I can’t use this one anymore ever!!
David: I can fix it for you, okay?
Meredith: but it’s crapped!!
David: huh??
Meredith: it’s crapped!!
David: cracked?
Meredith: (nodding seriously)

Meredith: when I go to school I wanna show my best friends that my nails are painted.
David: who are your best friends?
Meredith: Kayla, Arriya, Samani, and Layla!
Me: what about Caleb and Hunter?
Meredith: no I’m not friends with boys! Only girls!
David: since when are you only friends with girls?
Meredith: for five weeks.

while watching me eat yogurt in the car as we rushed to a kids’ birthday party…
Meredith: (sighing) I don’t have any food in my mouth and I’m sad about it.

Meredith: Mommy, you were a baby?
Me: yup!
Meredith: and you wore a diaper?
Me: yup!
Meredith: haha!! Oh mommy, you’re so cute. You are my favorite mommy.

June 11, 2015
meredith lately

getting ready for bed she puts on her “nursing tank” and grabs two baby dolls…
Meredith: I need two babies because I have two nursers!
proceeds to pull down one side of her tank top and stuff a baby in her armpit.

after hitting her head on a chair…
Meredith: dangit!
Me: what was that?
Meredith: the chair say dangit.

during a discussion about how she is going to go to a different school when she is old enough for kindergarten…
Meredith: and Imma get BIG boobs and get milk in them and I’m gonna feed my baby!
Me: sure!
Meredith: (seriously) I’m GONNA get milk in them.

while doing a floor puzzle and Liam keeps interfering…
Meredith: he keeps messing it up!!!
Me: I told you it’s not going to be easy to do with him around.
Meredith: but you can put him in his cage!
Me: that’s not nice!
Meredith: well I’m not nice.

Me: alright let’s sit down for dinner.
Meredith: I don’t wanna eat dinner tonight!
Me: we have to eat dinner every night.
Meredith: (sigh) but it’s HARD for me.

while brushing my hair and simultaneously playing with her baby doll…
Meredith: I’m right here by my baby because she’s crying.
Me: oh, you’re such a good little mommy.
Meredith: I’m not a mommy, I’m a princess.

while doing a puzzle and a piece fell on the floor…
Meredith: pick it up!
Me: can you pick it up please?
Meredith: but I can’t!!
Me: yes you can.
Meredith: but I just want you to pick it up because I love you.

while reading a book about Michaelangelo (who she calls microphone and insists I do the same) and studying a picture of the Pietà…
Meredith: why is Jesus broken?
Me: because he died. Some bad men killed him.
Meredith: but he will get fixed?
Me: yes he came back to life because he is God!

while telling her a story about her older cousin…
Me: one time when Lucas was a little baby-
Meredith: but where was I?
Me: you weren’t born yet.
Meredith: I was in heaven?
Me: well God knew you would be born soon but you were only in his mind and heart, you weren’t alive yet.
Meredith: I was in Jesus’s tummy?
Me: …

I want to remember…

…her continued mispronunciations. She says “lose” for “use” and “gotfor” for “forgot” and “holding don” for “holding on” and “tector” for “protect” and “Chick-er-a” for “Chick-fil-a” (although that one is ending; I’ve heard her say it the right way a few times and I correct her.)

…the way her eyebrows go up and she looks so earnest when she is singing; how her eyes turn to slits when she is really smiling; how her face seems to get flat when she is crying.

…how she still talks about our old dogs Eddie and Cleo all the time. How the place on the carpet we covered with a small rug because Eddie ripped it up is “Eddie’s spot” and she is afraid of it. How she used to ask to be carried over it but now she is brave and will run across it.

…how she wakes up in the middle of almost every night and needs to locate whatever toy or item she took to bed with her, usually her monkey.

…that she has rituals of asking me the same questions over and over, expecting the same answer like: “Why does Liam have a diaper?” “Because he’s a baby.”

…that she asks David to “read” her a story every night, but she really wants him to tell her a story about our lives before her. I want to remember how she asked to hear the story about our honeymoon every night for weeks, and how every time when we tell these stories she asks where she was and why she wasn’t there.

…that she prefers to eat all her food cold, no matter what it is. (Ew.)

…our many trips to the little park down the street and that she is always delighted if another kid is there. I want to remember how she wants to swing on every swing and that she loves it when I swing with her.

…that she is confused by her own strong emotions and needs help learning how to handle them; that I need to retrain myself to feel compassion instead of anger in the midst of her meltdowns.

…that she is desperate for time alone with me (and that’s why she can be so difficult sometimes). I want to remember the way that she copies everything I do.

Love this little girl. She is the great challenge and joy of my life.

April 2, 2015