Fashion Statements

Meredith has been looking pretty adorable lately. Thought you might enjoy a few of her latest looks!

First, her feet finally got big enough to wear the shoes to go with this awesome outfit from our cousins Kyle and Robin!


Second, it has been chilly here (OK, in the 20s, I know that's not too bad). The other day we had to go out and run some errands. I got Meredith all dressed up in her new hat, mittens, and scarf from Grandma and Grandpa. Had to get a picture before I covered it all up with her coat...her outfit was very color-coordinated!


Finally, you may be aware of the important football game that happened recently - the Gators won ANOTHER national championship! We are pretty sure it was because Meredith was cheering them on in this outfit. The top is actually a Vikings jersey (from our cousins Katie and Craig) and the skirt was made by our friend Krista - it is an official Gator print (see close-up below).

I have one other photo that is off-topic but it cracks me up. How crazy is our daughter? She is so crazy that when attending her first wedding (congratulations Anita and Saul!) she walked around so much that when we got home, we discovered one shoe had been rubbing her wrong and, even though she had thick tights on to protect her, the back of her heel was just about bleeding! She had to wear a bandaid for a week. Look at that poor little foot! And I thought she'd be older before she started having to deal with this...

And for those interested in updates of what's going on, here are some highlights:

* Meredith is getting better at putting food in her mouth - still quite behind, but making progress. She is also a scavenger - if we are eating anything while she is walking around, she comes over to try it out! She's very open-minded about food, which is fantastic. She just really likes to be fed by someone else. We are on a waiting list to see an occupational therapist to get some hints to help with fine motor skills.

* Meredith really started walking a lot on her own this month. She loves walking anywhere - doing laps around the different parts of the house, walking around the block, and sometimes almost running! She also can turn in circles and make herself dizzy, which she seems to enjoy.

* Meredith is doing really well with her glasses. People are very curious about them and think she is so cute! We have a follow-up appointment this week so we'll see if we get any new information. I am guessing they will just want to know if she is wearing them regularly (yes) and if we notice anything different about her apparent eyesight (not really).

I'll post another update soon - thanks for reading!

Christmastime!

We had a wonderful time up north for Christmas. We spent several days in Minnesota, then several days in Ontario, and also a couple of days in Michigan for my dear friend Anita's wedding. The trip was very relaxing, though I've now learned that little ones do need to be watched even while I'M on vacation :)

Here are some favorite photos from our trip. I'll start with our trip to my parents' place in Minnesota.

Ready to open presents on Christmas Eve!

Meredith figured out how to open gifts pretty quickly. Especially the bagged ones!

My mom made Meredith this amazing fleece blanket with ducks and frogs on one side, and gators on the other! Meredith LOVES ducks (it is still one of the two words she says - "duck" and "balloon", along with some additional names like mama and dada). She also, as it turns out, loves sucking and chewing on fleece fringe. So this was a real winner!

We had to take a "halftime" to let Meredith get ready for bed. We thought she might fall asleep, so we were going to save the rest of her presents for later. However, she had other plans. So she came back out to continue in the festivities! She sat on Grandma's lap in her new fuzzy pajamas. She was only sort of interested in the clothing she got...

...but was VERY interested in my brother's cat, Nora!

My brother (Benny) got a book on cats, and Meredith was very interested in reading it with him. I love this picture!

Though she doesn't understand Santa yet, Santa knew that Meredith was a good girl this year. He brought her something he knew she would love: balloons, balloons, and more balloons! I think there were about 30-35 of them. She had a great time batting them around! I'll try to post a video if I can later.

I love this picture of Meredith all dressed and ready to start the day!

Daddy couldn't resist demonstrating static electricity with the balloon and Meredith's hair.

Meredith really loves puzzles, and since we are trying to work on fine motor skills, we got her another one for Christmas. It has provided hours of entertainment since then! She really likes it if you let her throw the pieces and you try to put them back in before she has them all out again.

Our coy little girl...still loves to tilt her head to get a response.


We were excited that Meredith would get to go out in the snow, probably for the first time in her life (given the amount of bundling of babies in Russia in summer, we don't think they probably bring them out in winter much). My dad and Rob got her all bundled up for a fun but short outing to the yard, while Mom and I were having our annual day-after-Christmas shopping fun :)

We went to my extended family (Mom's side) on the Saturday after Christmas. Meredith liked the other kids, but most especially loved the dog Sammy!

Kissing a new Christmas bear!


After all of our fun in Minnesota, we hopped on a plane to Buffalo (thankfully non-stop). The next night we had Christmas Eve all over again!

Ready for present time!

Meredith had mastered the art of gift opening by now (sort of).


Me and my girl.


You can see the shock in my eyes in the picture below as Meredith opened a special gift from her Oma (Rob's mom). It is a crocheted duck! This is special because Oma re-taught herself how to crochet after 20 years and managed to find a duck pattern to make this for Meredith. So cute!

Meredith likes the duck a lot - she can play with it for a long time....

....especially if she is giving it kisses.

What a happy girl!

Daddy helped open some presents too.

Along with spending time with Rob's immediate family, we saw some cousins. Below is Meredith with our cousin's little girl, Jenna. They are about the same age (Jenna was born in September, which is when Meredith would have been born if she hadn't been a preemie). We had a great time at their house, and also a groundbreaking discovery. After a whole month of trying to get Meredith to walk without anyone hanging on (the magic sweater lost its touch) we learned that what she really needed was (a) a little cousin her size who was walking everywhere and (b) a hallway with a full-length mirror on the end so that she could watch herself walk toward it! She started walking within a few minutes of our arrival and hasn't stopped since!

We also visited with our cousin Matt and his wife Sarah Jane. Matt picked out a special gift for Meredith - a toy robot! Let's just say he knows Rob very well.


Well, hope you enjoyed the photo fest! Sorry it took so long to get it posted. I will leave you with a really adorable shot from my parents' house. Who could resist this smile?

P.S. As you can see in the photos, Meredith wears her glasses most of the time but does sometimes take them off for a bit. On the whole, though, we think it's going very well and are excited that she is so cooperative.