Meredith 7 Months

Meredith’s 7th month on the planet was a busy one. She perfected sitting up, rolling over (and over…and over) and experimented with the crazy world of solids. She fully lived up to her “happiest baby ever” moniker as she brought smiles and joy to everyone she met!

The kids and teachers at Samantha and Amelia’s preschool were especially smitten with her and flocked over to say hi at drop off and pick up. I constantly sang “You Are My Sunshine” because it’s a very fitting theme song for her!

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7 Month comparison with Samantha, Amelia and Meredith. This was literally the only forward facing, smiling photo of Samantha I could find… such a grump at this age!

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Most of Samantha’s photos at this age looked like this:

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Back to our happy girl…

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From the moment I hear her babbling to herself in the morning, to talking herself to sleep at night, Meredith seems to be rehashing whatever she’s heard from the twins that day as she’s constantly jabbering to herself. She especially loves coming with me to wake up the twins from their nap and squeals in delight when they get up to play again.

On the days the twins are at preschool, Meredith naps and then we go on a walk together with Bandit, which she enjoys, but the excitement she shows when we pick up the twins is pretty obvious. It’s her favorite part of the day! She gets so excited, she flails and wiggles her little arms and legs around in the Ergo, to the delight of all the kids and teachers.

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Shortly after her 6 month birthday, Meredith graduated to a convertible car seat… bye bye infant carrier! She had nearly reached the weight limit and was extremely uncomfortable in the car seat, but now rides in style and comfort in her convertible one.

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Meredith finally got the hang of rolling over and starting sleeping on her tummy (like her sisters) shortly after she turned 6 months. This created quite a few problems at night for the first few weeks as she’d wake up a little frightened on her tummy, wondering how she got there! Watching on the camera, she rolls and twists all over her crib at night and during naps. She will be a sleepwalker, this one.

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Silly like her sisters at this age.

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Her hair is finally long enough to put up in a little elastic. I call her my Cindy Lou Who!

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A recap of Meredith’s month…

Beach baby days.

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This month was considerably easier as far as keeping her entertained. Once she mastered sitting up, she was content to sit on the floor and explore toys, lunge forward, or roll around exploring. She also loved to hang out in the exersaucer or in her high chair with toys. Much easier than carrying her everywhere.

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Meredith’s favorite pastime… hanging out at the park and swinging.

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Pool time with pals and family.

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Dinner poolside.

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First (and maybe last?) time at the circus. Meredith was not a fan.

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Loving fruits and veggies.

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Lots of chewing, but still no teeth!

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Best big sisters Samantha and Amelia adored cuddling and playing with their doll.

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Sometimes they adored her too much…

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Happy 7 months, cutie pie!

Lots of love,

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Allison’s Baby Sprinkle

We are so excited for Allison’s baby girl, on her way here in October! Baby Girl made it easy on me and co-hostess, Auntie Lynn, by approving the pink and gold decorations; perfect, since I saved them from the twins’ first birthday party!

The morning of the Baby Sprinkle, the twins helped me with a donut hole emergency. I had requested simple donut holes with sprinkles from a local bakery, and while I wouldn’t have thought this would be a complicated matter, the donut holes were not only not round, there were only about five sprinkles per donut “oval.”

We made an emergency stop at the grocery store to buy *round* donut holes and the twins helped dip them in sprinkles before the party started. Continuing with the group effort, Jake’s amazing feat of the day was going to Party City with the twins and Meredith to pick up balloons for me… no idea how he made it in and out alive with all three girls and balloons, but that’s why I call him Super Dad! Thanks girls and Jake!

On the day of the Baby Sprinkle, social butterfly Meredith joined me at the party, while Jake and Zack took the kids swimming.

Baby Love for her soon-to-be-here cousin!

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Meanwhile at the pool…

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We put a copy of the twins’ favorite book of all time, Pinkalicious, out the entry table for the guest sign-in. I’m guessing their new cousin is going to like pink too.

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Cutest preggo mama!

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Meredith was a little overwhelmed by the hoards of people kissing and pinching her cheeks, but happily hung out in the Ergo with me most of the time. She loved seeing all the cute presents and clothes her new baby cousin will be getting.

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After swimming, the boys and kids came for leftovers.

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The twins gave Noah some practice in baby sister comforting.

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Love Noah’s smile!

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Cutest cousins.

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The after party.

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Super Dad ready for a nap.

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We can’t wait to meet our new cousin!

Lots of love,

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Raspberry Picking in Oak Glen

Since we don’t really have a true “fall” here, we have to make up our own autumn traditions to get our fall fix. While it’s not even close to the beauty of fall in Utah where I grew up and Alaska/Idaho where Jake grew up, Southern California has its own fall goodness, albeit an hour and a half drive from Orange County.

Last weekend, we drove to Oak Glen, an adorable little town with country stores, diners, and apple orchards galore. We stopped at Snowline Orchard because we’d heard they had amazing fresh apple cider and a U-pick apple orchard. While the U-pick orchard ended up being closed that morning, the girls had a blast picking fresh raspberries instead and gorging themselves on apple donuts before working hard in the fields.

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Pretending to pick apples.

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Hooray for fresh, homemade mini apple donuts and hot apple cider!

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So cute and kid sized.

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Meredith was disappointed in the baby food selection, as always.

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Out to the raspberry fields.

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I never knew raspberry picking required such hard work and diligence. They weren’t right in front of you… you had to get down low and really dig to find the juicy ones. I was happy with my five raspberries after about ten minutes of picking, but the twins surprised me– they were occupied for over an hour searching for berries.

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It was like a treasure hunt for them!

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Jake and I switched off wearing Meredith, who was sick and tired of having her face smushed into the raspberry bushes.

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We didn’t end up bringing any raspberries home because the girls ate all of them before we left the orchard.

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Showing off their pickings.

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After getting our fill of raspberries, we stocked up on apples, apple butter, apple jam, apple cider and apple cider vinegar from the farm store. This is about as close to fall as we get around here!

Lots of love,

 

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The Latest Twin Shenanigans

Unfortunately, there was no shortage of labor on Labor Day. This is what happens when I leave the girls downstairs to play while changing a Meredith blowout…

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Apparently, they helped each other grab the step ladder over to the shelf in the garage where I keep their finger paints (washable, fortunately) and decided to channel their inner Jackson Pollock.  I should have known something was up since it was awfully quiet down there, punctuated with giggles.

When I viewed the destruction downstairs, it was like a horror show. Paint in every room, on every conceivable surface. Even poor Bandit was not left unscathed!

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It was hard to get mad since they claimed, sweetly, that they were “making a card for you and Meredith.” Yep. They know how to play it right.

To their credit, after handing them washcloths and spray bottles, they cleaned it up cheerfully and then we had a productive discussion about the natural consequences of getting the paints out without permission. All of the ideas were theirs:

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The Cinderella addition was from Amelia… not sure she fully understands the whole evil stepmother thing (she always says Cinderella was cleaning and couldn’t go to the “ballgame”), but I’ll run with it. Life lessons!

This week, the girls’ shenanigan involved chocolate. The twins were in their room while I was helping Meredith settle into her last nap of the day. When I came out 10 minutes later, the girls were nowhere to be seen or heard. I ran to the garage and outside yelling for them, only to be met with silence (a foreboding sign at our house).

I looked at Bandit for clues, who just gave me a look like, “Your guess is as good as mine.” Freaking out a little bit at this point, I sprinted back upstairs where I heard the faintest of giggles coming from the master bedroom, which  had the door shut.

When I burst through, I saw two little lumps under the covers of the bed, moving slightly. I threw back the covers to find the little sneaky squirrels cuddled up together with none other than a bag of chocolate chips!

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Who knows where they got it from as I have locks on the cupboards (they never divulge their secrets), but boy, were they happy with themselves! Again, it was hard to get mad since I simply felt relieved they were safe and hadn’t run away or gotten hurt beyond the epic stomach ache they had that evening.

The take away: Samantha and Amelia are lightning quick, team players (with each other– ha!), and always keep me on my toes/laughing at their shenanigans… if I don’t have a heart attack first, that is.

Lots of love,

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