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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
calming ideas for intense kids

I think I’ve mentioned about a hundred times that Meredith is a spirited child. :) As so, she is particularly intense with her emotions, which can be so cool and fun but also…not! Today I wanted to share a few ideas that we use to calm her down when she is getting worked up. (First tip: try them BEFORE reaching epic meltdown level!)

1. Walk it out

Changing her surroundings is always a good idea, and going for a walk usually does the trick. When I’m trying to head off a tantrum I try to steer her towards riding in the stroller or walking rather than riding her balance bike because she can get frustrated easily with the latter. If there isn’t time to go for an actual walk I might just take her outside instead.

2. Water

As long as it’s not washing her hair (which is torture, obviously) anything involving water is soothing. She particularly likes “washing” the dishes, but playing in the kiddie pool or the bath is good too.

3. Touch

If I can get her calm enough to sit in my lap, she loves it when I run my fingers lightly over her skin. She might get tickled at first, but she’ll get used to it and ask me to keep going. I do her arms, legs, back, and neck.

4. Just start talking

This is a distraction technique. When I’m desperate I will start talking about something – anything – random, and just keep going, and going, and going. Eventually she might become absorbed in my babble and then we can come back to the problem at hand a little more rationally.

5. Playing baby

I use this one especially when she is refusing to do something I want/need her to do. She is 4 years old, so I will start acting like she is a baby. Maybe I need her to change clothes – I’ll lay her on the changing pad, pretend to change her diaper, and put her clothes on there. Sometimes I’ll even swaddle her! It’s silly, but it can really work.

Anyone else out there want to chime in with your ideas? Where are my parents of spirited children? Let’s have a moment of solidarity!

July 15, 2015
project life 2015 : may 2

Here is another Project Life spread for you! This one is from the second half of May. It was made using a combination of the Project Life app, the Collect app, and Paislee Press templates.

Once again I didn’t distribute my handwritten journaling very well! All on the left side this week. I’m learning!

This first side documented kind of a tough week when Liam had a terrible virus and David was out of town for a few days. But book club and a fun 5k with a friend were high points!

The right side was more of a mixed bag of random life photos.

I want to mention again that the quality of prints from the Project Life app is SO great. I have loved making the switch!

July 13, 2015
link roundup / 29

photo credit

>I love this idea from Miranda for teaching kids about healthy eating. We’ve started using it with Meredith and it seems to be clicking with her!

>I’m in love with this girls’ room. Makes me want to really finish up the kids’ shared space.

>Meredith turns four this month, and we are just having family meet us at the park for pizza and cake. But if I had it in me to do a themed party, I might choose one of these adorable literary ones.

>A cool website that pairs a YA audiobook with an adult classic title and gives them both away each week during the summer. I haven’t heard of a lot of them, but hey, free audiobooks!

>Benefits of having a cat. Lol, and so true.

>Nicole has such gorgeous outfit photos these days. I love the dress in this post.

>I really like my Internet pal Amanda‘s weekly emails about parenthood. It’s called Madame Ovary, so that’s awesome. Sign up for them here.

July 10, 2015
instagram hashtags i use & love

Like the rest of the world, I’m in love with Instagram and it’s definitely my favorite social media platform. Over the past year I’ve realized the power of the hashtag. I don’t like it when there are more than a few hashtags used, but one or a few can be really helpful! Here are some that I personally use or love to look at.

personal

These are the hashtags I created myself so I can look back on certain categories of photos grouped together later on.

#meredithforbes & #liamcforbes – The kids each have their own.

#forbeskitties – It’s impossible to own a cat and not post pics to Instagram.

#kapachinoreads – These are updates on what I’m currently reading or reviews of books I’ve just finished.

crafts

third photo by Leanne Coppola

#projectlife – I use this when I post photos of Project Life spreads, and I also really enjoy looking through it for inspiration and new people to follow.

#crossstitch – Cross stitch is one of my favorite crafts so I use this when I post photos of what I’m working on. It’s also a great one for finding new people to follow, and getting new followers. I’m in the middle of my first stitchalong – the #mysweetiepieabcsstitchalong – and that’s been so fun.

#yarnalong – I haven’t used this personally yet, but people post photos of what they are knitting & reading so it’s fun to look through. When I get more into knitting I hope to use it.

lifestyle

second photo by Ali Edwards Design, third photo by Naturally Leah

#toddlerfashion – I sometimes document Meredith’s outfit choices using this tag, and it’s kind of fun to see what other toddlers are wearing. Although I think we need to move on to #preschoolfashion!

#weekinthelife – This is one of the documentation projects I like to do with Ali Edwards. You can find photos of everyday life on this tag as well as scrapbook projects.

#wycwyc – This one is based on the podcast “What You Can, When You Can” which I’ve listened to occasionally. It’s about cultivating a healthy lifestyle by doing, you guessed it, what you can, when you can.

Hashtags are so great for personal photo projects, too. I’m currently dreaming up my next one! I’d love to hear how you use hashtags, and which ones are your favorites!

July 8, 2015