When I was in high school, I was on the speech team one year. My speech was in the category "Great Speeches" which involved reciting parts of a great speech, with my own commentary in between. I never did win -- though the Frederick Douglass speech I used was amazing, I don't think I was an amazing speaker.
It looks like we may, however, have a future public speaker in our family. This video was taken after at least 10 minutes of performance had already elapsed, at which point we went to get the camera assuming we would likely have missed everything by the time we started taping - happily, we were mistaken!
We'd love to know what you think Meredith is talking about - please make a comment!
Monday, March 30, 2009
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
our quirky girl
Here are just a few of Meredith's latest antics and quirky skills....
* She has learned a new word. Is it something really useful, like "yes", "no", "eat", "ball", or "outside"? No. The word is frisbee. She says "BEE!" Clearly she has been to the disc golf park with her Daddy a few times :)
* Both the dog and - strangely - the frog say something like "vow! vow!", spoken in a very growly voice. The cow says "boo".
* Whenever she is presented with a door, she is happy to knock on it. She also knows the part in the book "Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You?" that says "He can go like a hand on a door - knock knock!" We don't even have to say the "knock knock" anymore - she fills it in by knocking on the book. Same with the goldfish kiss - she blows a little kiss to the book!
* There is nothing that cracks her up more than someone standing a little ways away facing her and then coming towards her saying "I'm coming to get you!"
* She has a little book that says "Rhinoceroses snort and snuff" and has learned how to make a little sniffing noise. We knew that it had fully sunk in when she made exactly the same sound when we were reciting "Dr. Seusses ABC" and got to the part where "Rosie's going riding on her red rhinoceros". I say reciting, not reading, because we were doing this in bed in the dark with her last week at 1:30am - we were trying to get her to sleep the first night of our vacation (we had driven from 8-11:30pm and she had slept most of the way, only to discover her second wind when we arrived....). You can imagine our delight when we made it all the way to "R" and then heard our little rhinoceros sniffing to show she was 100% awake.
* She has her front set of teeth (4 on top, 4 on bottom) and one gigantic molar. Another molar is now coming in on the other side. There is a lot of drool and hand-chewing. She also chewed on two crayons yesterday.
* Rob was looking for his slippers this morning. Meredith had been hanging out in our room while he shaved and got ready. He found his slippers in the wastebasket, along with some other socks and my comb.
* She loves book that have flaps to open and see things underneath. One book about Jesus and the loaves and fishes has a page where the people are looking for something to eat. There is a flap you can open to see a man looking behind something and finding a sandal, with the words "No fish here, just an old sandal." This is by far her favorite part of the entire book. She flips it open several times, and if you don't say the phrase, she waits and stares at you, holding the flap open, until you do.
* She can do a set of actions to "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star". For the "like a diamond in the sky" part she is supposed to put her two thumbs together and two pointer fingers together to make a diamond shape, but she has decided that just the thumbs will do, making it more of a u-shape.
* Any picture of a kitty in a book gets a kiss! Little bears sometimes do too.
* She is starting to shake her head for "no". If you ask her to say "yes," she does a big nod with her signature fake sneeze. We have no idea how to stop her from doing the sneeze.
* She still enjoys a ride in the sling once in a while, which I love. It is supposed to be good up to 35 pounds so we've still got a long way to go (she is about 22 pounds now).
* She is starting to occasionally sing a little tune or pop out a few high notes.
* Yesterday Meredith put some of her snack crackers on the floor when she was done eating. I told her she needed to pick them up and put them back on the plate. Later I looked at the plate -- it contained all of the picked-up snack crackers plus a dry leaf that had apparently been on the floor nearby.
* We are working on her identifying "shoulders" and "knees". It is really funny when you ask her where her knees are and she points proudly to her shoulders. We'll get there...
* If her glasses get bumped out of place, she straightens them back out. She only takes them off when she's in the carseat in the back of the car where no one can stop her.
Well, hope that gives you a glimpse of Meredith's developing personality (or at least, her developing revelation of it to us)! We are having a great time as her mom and dad.
* She has learned a new word. Is it something really useful, like "yes", "no", "eat", "ball", or "outside"? No. The word is frisbee. She says "BEE!" Clearly she has been to the disc golf park with her Daddy a few times :)
* Both the dog and - strangely - the frog say something like "vow! vow!", spoken in a very growly voice. The cow says "boo".
* Whenever she is presented with a door, she is happy to knock on it. She also knows the part in the book "Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You?" that says "He can go like a hand on a door - knock knock!" We don't even have to say the "knock knock" anymore - she fills it in by knocking on the book. Same with the goldfish kiss - she blows a little kiss to the book!
* There is nothing that cracks her up more than someone standing a little ways away facing her and then coming towards her saying "I'm coming to get you!"
* She has a little book that says "Rhinoceroses snort and snuff" and has learned how to make a little sniffing noise. We knew that it had fully sunk in when she made exactly the same sound when we were reciting "Dr. Seusses ABC" and got to the part where "Rosie's going riding on her red rhinoceros". I say reciting, not reading, because we were doing this in bed in the dark with her last week at 1:30am - we were trying to get her to sleep the first night of our vacation (we had driven from 8-11:30pm and she had slept most of the way, only to discover her second wind when we arrived....). You can imagine our delight when we made it all the way to "R" and then heard our little rhinoceros sniffing to show she was 100% awake.
* She has her front set of teeth (4 on top, 4 on bottom) and one gigantic molar. Another molar is now coming in on the other side. There is a lot of drool and hand-chewing. She also chewed on two crayons yesterday.
* Rob was looking for his slippers this morning. Meredith had been hanging out in our room while he shaved and got ready. He found his slippers in the wastebasket, along with some other socks and my comb.
* She loves book that have flaps to open and see things underneath. One book about Jesus and the loaves and fishes has a page where the people are looking for something to eat. There is a flap you can open to see a man looking behind something and finding a sandal, with the words "No fish here, just an old sandal." This is by far her favorite part of the entire book. She flips it open several times, and if you don't say the phrase, she waits and stares at you, holding the flap open, until you do.
* She can do a set of actions to "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star". For the "like a diamond in the sky" part she is supposed to put her two thumbs together and two pointer fingers together to make a diamond shape, but she has decided that just the thumbs will do, making it more of a u-shape.
* Any picture of a kitty in a book gets a kiss! Little bears sometimes do too.
* She is starting to shake her head for "no". If you ask her to say "yes," she does a big nod with her signature fake sneeze. We have no idea how to stop her from doing the sneeze.
* She still enjoys a ride in the sling once in a while, which I love. It is supposed to be good up to 35 pounds so we've still got a long way to go (she is about 22 pounds now).
* She is starting to occasionally sing a little tune or pop out a few high notes.
* Yesterday Meredith put some of her snack crackers on the floor when she was done eating. I told her she needed to pick them up and put them back on the plate. Later I looked at the plate -- it contained all of the picked-up snack crackers plus a dry leaf that had apparently been on the floor nearby.
* We are working on her identifying "shoulders" and "knees". It is really funny when you ask her where her knees are and she points proudly to her shoulders. We'll get there...
* If her glasses get bumped out of place, she straightens them back out. She only takes them off when she's in the carseat in the back of the car where no one can stop her.
Well, hope that gives you a glimpse of Meredith's developing personality (or at least, her developing revelation of it to us)! We are having a great time as her mom and dad.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Where is Meredith's __________ ?
Rob started working with Meredith on identifying her body parts a while ago, and she's proven to be very receptive. She was looking very cute yesterday in her diaper (had to take off some wet clothes) and one sock, so I thought I'd ask her them and take some photos.
Where is Meredith's nose?
Where is Meredith's ear?
Where is Meredith's belly button? (this can be hard to find sometimes!)
Where are Meredith's toes? (two-photo action shot)
Where are Meredith's teeth?
Where is Meredith's tongue?
By the way, Meredith likes taking her socks off and playing with them, that's why she was only wearing one. This has caused me to speak in sentences I never would have imagined, like yesterday when I heard myself say "Do NOT put the sock on the plate!"
You'll notice that Meredith looks healthy but not very chubby - it seems her new skill of walking is really wearing off the calories. She has only gained about a pound in the last 3 months. She is still fine though, we are just continuing to cram that food in! And, thankfully, she is cramming some of it in herself now! Some favorites are goldfish crackers and diced cooked carrots. Hooray!
Meredith has one other new joy - she seems to really like wearing mittens, and outdoor gear in general. She brought the stuff over to me yesterday and we put it on! Luckily it was chilly out, so we followed it up by going outside and utilizing the gear.
That's all for now!
Where is Meredith's nose?
Where is Meredith's ear?
Where is Meredith's belly button? (this can be hard to find sometimes!)
Where are Meredith's toes? (two-photo action shot)
Where are Meredith's teeth?
Where is Meredith's tongue?
By the way, Meredith likes taking her socks off and playing with them, that's why she was only wearing one. This has caused me to speak in sentences I never would have imagined, like yesterday when I heard myself say "Do NOT put the sock on the plate!"
You'll notice that Meredith looks healthy but not very chubby - it seems her new skill of walking is really wearing off the calories. She has only gained about a pound in the last 3 months. She is still fine though, we are just continuing to cram that food in! And, thankfully, she is cramming some of it in herself now! Some favorites are goldfish crackers and diced cooked carrots. Hooray!
Meredith has one other new joy - she seems to really like wearing mittens, and outdoor gear in general. She brought the stuff over to me yesterday and we put it on! Luckily it was chilly out, so we followed it up by going outside and utilizing the gear.
That's all for now!
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