9.02.07

I'm a little late on this blog entry but I can't believe a whole year has gone by. I can't believe that I've been blessed with the most wonderful little girl in the whole wide world. I must be the luckiest mom ever!

After about about 28 hours of labor (15 hours of active labor) she arrived at 8:37 a.m. on September 2, 2007 weighing 6 lbs. 8 oz., 19.5 inches long.

This is the very first picture of Meredith!

This is what we call the 'baby burrito'.

Holding my sweet pea for the very first time!

I love this one. It looks like she is waving hello to her grandma.

Daddy's little girl.

teething again - finally

I know this is a horrible picture but it's the best I can do. Meredith is finally getting some more teeth - all four of her upper incisors. I was beginning to wonder if those suckers would ever come in. I just knew she would cut a bunch at once.

She was also nursing another black eye this weekend.

Awww...my cute little sweet pea. Black eye and all!

Have I mentioned that she is a champ at walking?

And have I mentioned that she is a budding photographer? She took this one all on her own.

friday at the fair

Greg and I always look forward to the fair. We plan well in advance when we are going, take a day off of work, buy advance tickets to save money, plan which free park and ride lot we will park at, etc. Normally I hate being in crowded places but I LOVE the fair. It's mainly the food that I love but it's just fun to do some good old-fashioned people watching too. Last year at the fair I was 38 weeks pregnant. I kept telling Meredith that last year she was at the fair inside my belly. She's going to grow up looking forward to the fair every year. Her favorite part about the fair was the Miracle of Birth barn. If you read my blog, you can see how much she loves getting close to animals in my zoo post a couple down. She must have been the most excited kid in the whole barn with her arms and legs flapping up and down, panting like a maniac, and jumping up and down. It was pretty darn cute. I love it when she can make other moms smile with her cuteness!

Our menu consisted of:
mini doughnuts

fried pickles

fresh french fries

sweet martha's cookies

shredded turkey sandwich

cheese curds

Meredith had some mini doughnuts for breakfast, a few of my pickles, and almost a whole turkey sandwich.

I'm contemplating going to the fair again this coming Friday. I seriously didn't get to eat everything I wanted to eat.

We found some time to toddle around. We actually were just looking for a place to change her diaper. Some of the restrooms at the fair don't have changing tables.

Something caught her eye here.

I just thought this was a cute picture.

This is her breakfast - mini doughnuts.

And this is her lunch - turkey sandwich.

Of course we had to pose by the Snoopy statue.

And just for fun, I thought I'd share these. We were eating our french fries and this ride happens to whirl right over our heads...even though we were a good 50 feet away from it. You couldn't pay me to EVER go on one of those rides.

baby steps

Meredith has started taking steps. Last week it was 2 or 3 at a time and now this week she can toddle across the whole room. I don't call her a walker yet though because she isn't quite proficient yet and the preferred method of transport is still crawling. I have a feeling it's coming soon though. I know this picture isn't terribly exciting but there she is doing the Frankenstein walk.

We had a fun weekend and I got lots and lots of cute pictures. She had fun in her crib. That seems to be the go to place when we need to contain her for short periods of time.

Then we went to the zoo and met up with Shannon & Renee (& company). We've been to the zoo many, many times this summer because we are members. Meredith is pretty much oblivious to the animals except when we are at the farm area. She goes nuts when she sees the goats. There are little goat food machines where you can put in quarters and get goat food. Then you stick your hands through the holes in the fence and the goats come up and eat out of your hands. She LOVES to pet the goats. She was jumping up and down, up and down. She had a blast.

Poor litle thing was all tuckered out after a couple hours.

On Sunday, we headed into downtown St. Paul for the farmers market. We got all sorts of goodies like potatoes, raspberries, corn, kettle corn, and a smoked chicken.

This is my first attempt at Photoshop. This picture was dark and full of shadows so I attempted to lighten it and play with the colors. Please don't laugh. I really need Photoshop for Dummies. But in my defense, it comes with absolutely no instructions whatsoever. Zero, zip, zilch, nada.

weekend summary

If you ever wonder how things go down in the Carlson household, get out the popcorn.

Saturday

We had a house showing scheduled at 11:00 a.m. so we took off and went to Toys R Us to shop for a birthday present for Meredith. Being in there is mind boggling to say the least. Really, is there a necessity for all those toys? It took us over an hour to pick out two things. It seems like a lot of the toys are so similar to one another and Meredith is a been there, done that kind of a kid. We also got her some jammies for the fall in 18 months size. They are gigantic!

As you can see, I picked out some boy dinosaur jammies! I had to do some convincing with her dad but this is her first official piece of boy clothes. To balance that out, we had to get a girly pair too.

We got home and I don't think the people even showed up for the showing. There was no realtor's card and the house showed no signs of intrusion. That's irritating to say the least.

Sunday

I decided that it was a good day to go to Goodwill. I will admit, I love to shop there. Today I came home with a like new looking J Crew cardigan, a like new looking argyle vest from The Limited, and a nice wrap around blouse (not quite new looking but nothing a good wash and iron can't fix) from The Limited all for $10.99. I was very excited to find out it was 50% off green tags today! When I left the house, I told Greg that I would be back soon. Well, 1.5 hours later, I proudly stumbled through the door with my new possessions and he was shocked to hear that I didn't even look through half the store. While I am talking thrift stores, I stalk Once Upon A Child. I've gotten some great toys and clothes there and but since I was at Goodwill so long, I skipped it today. On my way out of the Goodwill, some guy spilled his soda all over my foot and sandal as I was walking out the door. I didn't even get as much as an apology from the guy as he watched me take my dripping sandal off and walk barefoot to my car. I mean, I understand it was an accident but he could have AT LEAST APOLOGIZED! I gave him a really dirty look but decided to hold back my bitterness...yelling at some guy at the Goodwill really wouldn't have been too effective I decided.

When I got home, I washed my feet and sandals and we put Ems down for her nap. Then we attemped (for the third time) to fix our ceiling. For those that don't know, one of our POS bathtubs sprung a leak this winter and our ceiling was damaged. After Ems woke up from her nap, we took a quick trip to Target. When we got home, Ems and I went outside to play so Dad could clean up the mess with the ceiling. I for the life of me can't figure out why this kid will not crawl around in the nice soft grass, but instead wants to crawl on the sidewalk and scrape up her knees.

Once everything was cleaned and babyproofed again, we went in and started dinner. I made Ems a beautiful looking taco salad. I was so proud of this masterpiece and all she did is sit in her highchair and whine as if it were the grossest thing she had ever seen. Doesn't it look delicious?!?!?

And there you go folks.

our anniversary

Today is 8.10.08 which marks our 3 year wedding anniversary. I can't believe three years has already come and gone. Three years ago today (at approximately this exact moment in Hawaii time as I wright this), we were married on the Big Island of Hawaii.

Today was not nearly as exciting. We spent the day running errands, doing chores, and of course taking care of Ems. Her babysitters were were out of town spending the weekend partying it up (yeah, you know who you are) so babysitter #1 has agreed to come up next weekend so Greg and I can go out on an actual date!

Visions of Hawaii have been dancing in my head all day now. I've attached a few pictures to bring back some memories. What a fabulous vacation that was. I'm so glad so many people got the chance to be there! I can't believe how much our lives have changed since then.

This was actually the day before our wedding. I was spying on another wedding in the chapel here.

Getting ready.

This is some point during the ceremony.

We celebrated with cake and champagne after the ceremony.

Oh yummy, yummy, lilikoi cake. What I wouldn't give for another piece of that. And get your minds out of the gutter.

And finally, we took a very hot and sweaty boat ride around the resort.

cast your vote

Just for fun I thought I'd do a double post tonight. Since Em is almost one year old, I thought I'd compare pictures of all three of us. Who do you think she is looking like these days?

This is Dad at 12 months old.

This is Mom at about 15 months old I think.

And these last two are of Meredith taken today at 11 months old.

some favorite no good photos

I'm a horrible photographer. I really am. I've read books on how to take better pictures and I've read books on how to use my camera. I think I understand more than the average Joe out there but I still suck. But I'm sure even the best of photographers get pictures like these. Sometimes I get a picture that just makes me laugh. Here are some of my recent favorites.

I love how I managed to get the background perfectly focused but somehow the subject is blurry.

"Mom, are you sure you can't see down my dress?"

This needs no explanation.

And this one is just plain weird. Bad timing I guess. It's hard to take a good photo when the beast is whizzing by you at 5 mph.