mother's day

I am so thankful to be a mom. It really, truely is the best thing in the whole world - nothing compares. I love you Emmy!

I'm also thankful to have a wonderful mom and mother-in-law. I love you too!

We spent my very first Mother's Day visiting relatives for Ben and Angie's wedding shower. We had such a great time. It was good to see everyone!

I love this picture of Mary Jo and Meredith.

pictures

We took Meredith to the mall on Saturday to get some pictures taken. I feel like such a horrible mom because I haven't had pictures taken since she was 3 weeks old. She's 8.5 months now. She did pretty good though and was all smiles during the first outfit as you can see. She wasn't quite as smiley once we changed her into her dress though. Here are some of my favorites.

is she crawling yet?

People always ask me if Meredith is crawling yet. I thought this photo would shed some light on her current ability to crawl.

blonde baby

The one trait I really wanted Meredith to inherit was my blonde hair. I have always wanted a blonde baby for as long as I can remember. She may appear to be bald in pictures but she's starting to grow some beautiful white hair. She gets cuter every day and I can't wait for her to have a head full of fuzzy, white hair.

lock your sons up part II

It seems that Meredith has found her true love when it comes to kissing. Never fear, it is NOT your sons. It's not even Mom or Dad for that matter. We're chopped liver nowdays. Her favorite thing to kiss now is her dolly.

lock your sons up

Meredith knows how to kiss (and hug). I'm going to regret thinking this is cute when she's a teenager. She was feeling particularly amorous one night and I got these great pictures.

She gets all serious and still while she slowly leans in.

Then she keeps her lips open with her tongue hanging out just a bit.

And finally she slowly presses her lips to her victim (this time it was daddy).

This is her kissing face with the open mouth and tongue hanging out.

And finally, the classic 'I'm so cute' obligatory picture.

i'm a cyber mom

It all started when I was planning my wedding. I found a really cool online community that was full of brides planning their weddings. Not only was it a plethora of fascinating information, it was also a place I would go to entertain myself by following the lives and times of all my newfound cyber friends.

Well, after you got married, the site automatically pushed you over to another site where all the 'marrieds' would hang out and chat. Stemming from the 'marrieds' community, there was a pregnancy community. After pregnancy came the babies community. I visit on a daily basis and it's full of mothers from around the country. I have become friends with a lot of these moms even though I've never met them or even talked to them in person - up until a few weeks ago.

I found one mom that is my age and she lives in Burnsville and we met up for lunch a few weeks back. She has a little girl named Erin (she's a doll!) who is about 3.5 months older than Meredith. I've attached a couple pictures of the girls during our lunch date (ironically, I ran into Jenny and Dick Berquam during lunch that day but that's a whole different story!). It was a lot of fun and a big milestone for me. My first cyber hookup! I can't wait for another playdate.

I've learned pretty much everything one could ever want to know about pregnancy/babies/baby products/parenting from my cyber friends. That statement sounds a little scary but I think I'm a better mom because of it. My knowledge is never ending.

first trip to the zoo

These pictures were from a few weeks ago when Meredith went to the zoo with Grandma, Jennifer, & the Bairds. I think she had a good time but didn't quite 'get' that you go to the zoo to look at animals. I can't wait to take her there this summer!







Chillin' with Janis

I love my second cuz!

Looking like a tourist with Jennifer and Mary Jo.

Chillin' with Grandma now.

Thanks for taking me to the zoo Grandma. It was lots of fun!

it only gets worse

This is what I deal with now when taking pictures of Meredith. I know, I know ~ it only gets worse.

Mom, what's this I see?!?

Is this a new, expensive toy you bought for me?

Mom, I wanna play with it.

I'm cute enough to be a troublemaker.

big girl carseat

We officially have transitioned Meredith from her infant car seat to her big girl car seat. And it certainly is a big girl car seat. Having the infant seat has been wonderful over the winter months as to avoid having to bundle her up but it sure gets heavy. Carrying around a 9 pound carrier along with a 20 pound baby gets pretty old after a while. We've moved on to high chairs at restaurants and shopping carts at stores.

Now, I don't have any pictures of her in the car seat but I do have some pictures taken that day from our trip to the mall.

get together with friends

Justin and Michelle (and Owen) were kind enough to invite us over for dinner; along with Pat & Anne (and Ryan), and Jeff and Deana (and Ethan & Andrew).

Meredith did great! She was a tad skeptical but she didn't cry and even showed off how she can sit like a big girl. She made a few new boyfriends considering that no one I know has girls (except Shannon).

It's amazing and fun to see how fast all the other kids have grown.

Ethan just celebrated his 4th birthday.

Andrew is 13 months and is mobile. He was walking around like Frankenstein wobbling back and forth. It was very cute! Thanks to uncle Justin for his new nickname.

Ryan is almost a year old now and mobile.

Owen is about 16 months in this picture.

Could this picture be any cuter?!? Looks like Meredith and Andrew like each other!

Last but not least, I have to include a picture of my kid :-)

the next face of babytalk magazine?

This is the photo of Meredith that I entered in the Babytalk Magazine and Good Morning America contest. I love this picture because it shows so much personality and it's dang cute. I mean, they would be stupid not to pick her, right? After all, she is the cutest baby EVER.


I'm actually going to cheat and submit this picture under a different e-mail address. Shhhh...

What's wrong with this picture?!?

Uncle Scott decided to come down for a visit a couple weeks ago, and in honor of returning to my pre-pregnancy weight, I decided that a trip to CiCi's Pizza Buffet sounded like a great idea. Without me knowing, Greg snapped this lovely picture of me. He thinks it's pretty funny. Since I'm the subject matter, I don't find it quite as amusing. Seriously, I have three plates of food on my tray. And this was seconds. And I hadn't had dessert yet. Yikes.

Meredith sat on uncle Scott's lap and played on the computer for a little bit. She loves the keyboard. One day, she managed to put it on standby all by herself.

Last but not least, here's a family photo. Besides the fact that I look hawt, aren't we cute?

6 months old!

I can't believe the first six months have come and gone. It seems like just yesterday that she was this little six pounder. Now, she's an alert little person who can do all sorts of things. At six months, Meredith weighs 17 lbs. 13 oz. Happy half, Sweet Pea.

caught red handed

I only have to leave Meredith's door open a crack and Tabitha jumps at the chance to get near her. One morning I was getting ready for work and Meredith was playing in her crib and this is what I walked in on. Is it just me or do both subjects look guilty or something?!? I think there's a conspiracy going on.

who do i look like?

Do I look like my daddy?

Maybe just a little bit.