08.23.2008

David was out of town this week, and while he was gone, Meridian and I decided to go to our favorite pizza restaurant, just the two of us. Over dinner, we were playing various little games back and forth and thinking of fun mind stretchers. So, I got it in my head to have her close her eyes and describe her mommy, as if she were describing me to someone who doesn't know me. Her description was heart-meltingly beautiful! I actually grabbed a crayon and wrote it down on the spot, so that I could preserve it perfectly.

Meridian: She looks like she has brown hair. She smiles a lot. She loves her kid, and she likes to play with her.

Could a mommy want any better description?

08.22.2008

Jokes with preschoolers are so funny because they mostly don't get it. Case in point:

Mommy: Why is six afraid of seven?
Meridian: Hmmmm, I dunno.
Mommy: Because seven ate nine.
Meridian: Why?
Mommy: Why what?
Meridian: Why did he eat him?
Mommy: Well it's just a joke because the number eight sounds like the word ate, so when you're counting 6, 7, 8, 9. It sounds like you mean that seven ate nine up.
Meridian: But why did he?
Mommy: Well, he didn't actually. Okay, next joke. Your turn.
Meridian: Why is one afraid of six?
Mommy: I dunno. Why?
Meridian: He think she eats him. But sje doesn't actually. It's a joke!
Mommy genuinely laughs out loud, but for all the wrong reasons.

And some fun for your little ones. Here are some jokes that she really does get and loves:

What did one octopus say to the other octopus?
I wanna hold your hand, hand, hand, hand, hand, hand, hand, hand.

 

What did one squirrel say to the other squirrel?
I'm nuts about you!

 

Why should you not tell an egg a joke?
It might crack up!

 

Knock Knock
Who's there?
Howard
Howard who?
Howard you like a big fat kiss?

 

Knock Knock
Who's there?
Lettuce
Lettuce who?
Let us in! It's cold out here!

08.02.2008

A friday a couple of weeks ago, I decided to take Meridian to Cape Henry to see the lighthouses. She was excited and asked all manner of questions before we arrived. She hoped to meet the lighhouse keeper, was excited to climb to the top, and wondered whether the light would be on. Sadly, she met the lighthouse keeper in a manner complete unbefitting to her vision: he was the one to measure her and tell her that she was too short to climb to the top. By a measley quarter inch too. She burst into tears, poor kid. I scooped her up and whispered reassurances and told her it was okay to feel sad about it. Everyone looked on in a mixture of empathy for the poor girl with the dashed hopes and anticipation for me to tell her to bring her temper tantrum to a close. I could tell people (there were maybe six others in the little shop with us) were a bit surprised to hear me tell her that it was okay for her to cry about it, that it was okay to be sad. People are so uncomfortable hearing children cry that we tend to want to silence it as soon as possible, forgetting that crying is a healthy and good release of emotion. Just as she has no notion of privacy while going to the bathroom with her friends in tow, she has no need of privacy for her emotions. They are raw and real, and overwhelming in the moment, and they are okay to feel.

We had a similar experience recently at the post office. Meridian was beside herself because I'd declined to buy her a snack at the pharmacy, telling her she could eat any number of the snacks we had in the car. Beside herself. The whole way from the pharmacy to the post office. Arriving at the post office, I told her that I needed her to pull herself together. And she did, four about three minutes. And there we were in line, when she remembered the perceived injustice and melted all over again. I got down on her level and asked her to settle down. "I just can't," she said. And it was true. She was past the point of being able to collect herself. She was sunk into the abyss of self-pity and feeding on the perpetual negativity it provides.

I told her that she needed to let it go. That the snack back at the store didn't happen, but that that was only 5 minutes of her day. That she could carry that all day and let it ruin the rest of her day, or she could let that go and get onto looking for other possibilities for joy. Like going ot the beach, etc. Then I told her to catch her breath, think about her feelings, wait until three minutes had passed on the clock and then tell me how she was feeling. She thought about that, but decided sobbing felt better. Just in front of us was a little girl (maybe 12 year old). She seemed amused with the situation, in a "I know just how you feel kind of way." We had this conversion while Meridian cried.

Girl: We have two four year olds and a three year old at home.
Me: Hmmmm, so this looks familiar to you then?
Girl: Yep. Is she going to get spanked?
Me: Spanked? No.
Girl: Oh, will you just put her in time out?
Me: Well, sometimes she goes to time out, but not usually.
Girl's Mom: Tell her what we do when the boys won't get their act together.
Girl: They have to stand with their noses touching the wall and their hands on their heads.
Me: Hmmmm.
Girl: So if she doesn't do time out then what do you do?
Me: Well, I usually just talk to her and try to figure out how she's feeling. She's sad now, so she's crying.
Girl: Oh.

It strikes me as sad, but also kind of interesting, that we don't want our kids to emote in public. I must admit that when the girl told me about her brothers' punishment for expressing their feelings, I thought sarcastically to myself "I'm sure their future wives will thank you for that." As adults we all wish we were better in touch with our feelings, better able to express ourselves. But it seems logical that we have such difficulty if as children we're taught not to express our feelings, not to even explore them, but just to put them away because they are inconvenient for the other people at the post office or lighthouse.

Meridian cried for several minutes at the lighthouse, and then succumbed to the lighhouse keeper's attempts to cheer her up. He offered her one of those smashed pennies that now has the lighhouses etched on the front and his signature on the back. She calls it her badge. So, she took her badge and we went to the Cape Henry beach and had a great rest of the afternoon swimming in the bay water. We even had some dolphins come to visit. They swam about 50 feet from where we were, right outside the roped off swim area. Some older kids were right there within stroking distance. Later I realized that the water there was not deep and we could have gone over. Oh well, chalk it up to a lesson learned for next time.

07.09.2008

Last night, Meridian selected Tikki Tikki Tembo as one of her bedtime books. This is one of my own childhood favorites, and one I hadn't read to her in months. So, as I'm about to read it I'm telling her how it was a favorite of mine when I was a little girl because I loved trying to remember his whole great long name. I asked her if she knew it, and was shocked to hear her rattle off, "Tikki tikki tembo-no sa rembo-chari bari puchi-pip"! She left off the last part "peri pembo" and altered one syllable (ruchi became puchi), but MAN! She hasn't heard this story in at least a month, and even then it's not one that we read over and over, and she knew the whole name! I was impressed.

Of course, I'd intended to share the accomplishment with David, but it slipped my mind. It came back to me for some reason over dinner tonight, and surreptitiously I tried to set it up for David to witness the feat.

Mommy: Which books are you going to read with Papi for bedtime tonight?
Meridian: Hmmmm, ...I don't know.
Mommy: Maybe you could read the one we read last night about the brothers that fall in the well. What were their names?
Meridian: Tikki tikki tembo-no sa rembo-chari bari puchi-pip peri tembo.
Mommy: Wow! I can't believe you remembered the WHOLE thing! And what was the little brother's name?
Meridian: I don't know.
Mommy: Really? Oh, the little brother is named Chang.

Irony while bragging. I love it.

06.30.2008

Meridian: Mommy, will you tell me a story?
Mommy: I don't really want to tell a story right now.
Meridian: Pleeeeeeeeease - I just hafta have a story.
Mommy: Once upon a time there was a story that had a "The End". The story came to the end. The End.
Meridian: Mommy, that is *not* a very good story. It needs to be longer, and have something scary happen. And it needs to not be about the end of a story just inside a story. Actually, that wasn't a good story at all.

06.18.2008

We're down to two baby robins. Boy have they developed though. They're eleven days old in these shots from yesterday:

Today they flew from the nest! We watched Mama Bird and Papi Bird coaching them, encouraging them, watching out for them as they took in the world from their new vantage points. We didn't get to actually see them in flight. Boy did we try. We watched them from the upstairs windows for about two hours this afternoon, but they just stayed perched on their respective spots while Mama and Papi flew around getting worms for them and keeping an eye out. Here was the best shot I could get of one of the babies today on our neighbor's porch. I had to take it from the upstairs window of our house so as not to spook the bird family.

06.17.2008

We had a great Father's Day. We let David sleep in, and then had a pancake breakfast with chocolate chips mixed in, per Meridian's request. Then we gave David his present and headed out to put it to good use:

The two of them had fun on what we hope will be the first of many father daughter fishing adventures. Meridian wanted to assist in each part, from baiting the hookright down to cleaning the fish. We went pier fishing down at the beach because Meridian had watched the fishermen there before, so it matched her schema for fishing. When we arrived, no one had had much luck all day. After snapping some pics, I left the two of them alone to fish while I got to enjoy some beach time. After about an hour, the two of them came running up. Meridian was filled to brimming with excitement over the "slobbery fish" she'd caught on her own pole! So I ran back up with them to check it out. It was a 10" flounder, but sadly you have to thrown flounder back if it's less than 26". Since they didn't have a pail of water ready in advance to throw caught fish into, the flounder had died in the time it take to come and share the joy with me, so rather than throwing a dead fish back, they cut it up to use for more bait.

Later in the adventure, Meridian's pole went over into the water, when it caught yet another fish. Luckily, some more seasoned fishermen were able to fish it out of the water, and there were not tears to contend with. We ended up staying until well after bedtime, and decided to grab a pizza at a local place before heading home, sandy and satisfied.

06.12.2008

Oh the brutal honesty! Our dressing room conversation when I took Meridian swimsuit shopping with me:

Meridian: I like that one, Mommy. You look pretty.
Mommy: Thank you. So, you like this one best?
Meridian: Yes, because that one shows your nice fat belly.
Mommy: Oh! I see. You know, Meridian, "fat" isn't really a good word to use to describe people. We can call animals big and fat, but not people.
Meridian: Oh, but I like kissing your fat belly.
Mommy: Yes, all the same, "fat" might hurt someone's feelings. I don't think you should use that word to describe people.
Meridian: Okay, well... I like kissing your big, chubby belly.
Mommy: Yeah, that's fun because it's mushy. I like kissing your belly too. But, chubby is another word that means fat, so we don't call people "chubby".
Meridian: I love your big, round belly, Mommy.
Mommy: Thanks, baby. I love your big, round belly too. And I love your long curly hair.
Meridian: I love your long, straight hair.
Mommy: I love your big blue eyes.
Meridian: I love YOUR big blue eyes.
Mommy: I love your little nose with freckles sprinkled on it.
Meridian: I love your BIG nose with black holes on top of it.

Yeah, we better quit this game before I suffer an injury to my pride.

06.11.2008

Our robins are six days old now, and it seems like they've grown quite a bit. Their wings have developed and begun feathering. Their little fuzz is dwindling away. Their eyes are open. They have considerably more strength to lift their heads for worms. Even so, it's hard to imagine that they will be leaving the nest in roughly eight more days!

We're enjoying watching them, and we feel a bit as though we're members of the extended family. Mama and Papi bird are always around somewhere, hunting for worms or bathing in our vegetable garden. We watch them feed the babies, and we use the side entrance to give them their privacy. Observations:

• The parents plucked one from the nest, so we're down to three. I wondered if they might. When I took the photos on the first day, there were four birds, but you only really see three because the fourth one was too weak to lift it's head. I was hoping it was just that since the photos were taken on the day they hatched, maybe he was the last hatchling, but he's gone now.
• Mama and Papi seem to have invited their friends and family to celebrate the new arrivals - several pairs of robins have been noted in the yard lately.
• The baby birds eat slowly, often leaving worms hanging from their mouths for an hour!
• Mama bird sleeps soundly at night. One evening, coming home from a dinner out, I was able to walk right up to the nest before I realized that mama bird was in it. I quietly backed away before she awoke, fearing she might get into a scared frenzy and peck me silly.

06.10.2008

Meridian has been hankering for a pet for a while. We've talked about it on and off, and tossed around whether or not we really want the responsibility of a dog or cat. That coupled with my relatively new allergy to them led us to "no" each time. After a trip to the petshop though, I started to come around on the idea that a rat might be a good first pet for her (an idea David had long been championing). And so, as a fourth birthday gift to Meridian, we invited Ratsy into our family.

We'd hoped to get a tiny baby, but after calling every pet shop in our area, Ratsy was the youngest to be found. In preparation for owning a pet, we told Meridian that she would be the rat's mommy, and that she would have to care for her, name her, talk to her, sing to her, read to her, etc. We discussed how mommies and daddies have to pick the very best name in the world for their kids, so that she should make a list and then look it over each day until she settled on the perfect name for her rat. She asked David and I to contribute to the list as well, and alternately approved entries or eliminated them. The potential name list included: Ratty, Ratsy, Mousie, Cleo, Linda, Lisbet, Meh-Meh, Ug, and Ethel. Ratsy was both the early front-runner and the winner.

In a stroke of genius at the pet store, I told Meridian that Ratsy was a German rat and only understands German. This was brilliant because: 1) it gives her someone else to speak German to, and 2) since most of the animal care will be overseen by David, it makes sense for her German to be the rat's primary language, and 3) I get to speak to Ratsy in German too, and this is one of the only times Meridian will "allow" me to speak German.

So far, she's enjoying her pet. She's not terribly fond of the way it feels when Ratsy crawls on her bare skin, and she was very unhappy when Ratsy chewed a few holes in my bedsheet while Meridian played with her on the bed. But by and large, she's a girl in love, plastering the poor rat with endless, noisy kisses, trying to feed her little bits of everything, packing her into a travel cage to carry along on play dates. Ratsy is a smash hit birthday gift!

06.06.2008

Last year, we were so pleased to find a pair of nesting robins in the hanging plant on our porch. Sadly, we lost the two baby robins to a mean ol' neighborhood cat. Luckily, Mama and Papi bird are back this year. After an unsucessful clutch of four eggs, all but one of which were tossed from the nest, another robin pair laid four additional eggs in the nest. Today they hatched! (The old egg is still in there under them, but all four of the new eggs hatched.) To use Meridian's words, "They're just so sweeeeet!"

We plan to follow their progress over the next two weeks until they fly off. :) Check back for pics as they grow!

06.01.2008

Meridian's last day of school was this week, and now it's summer break. Long days at the water park and the pool and the bay and the beach. This summer will mark her first ever ice cream from the ice cream truck (much anticipated), her first time going down the BIG slide at the water park by herself (not at all aware of this pending accomplishment), her first away-from-home sleepover (she was ready way before mommy was), and many other fun things that neither of us knows to look forward to. Until then, we have some housekeeping to do here. Busy days of late have kept me from diligently updating here, but to reward you for checking back often, I've updated loads of picture fluff with more on the way (keep your eye out for a 4 Year Gallery soon.)

At school, the movement education teacher hosted a field day, and it was a blast! Lots of pics in the 3.5 year gallery, but here's one of the teachers having a grand ol' time!

The class also took their first (and only) field trip of the year, to the library and the fire station. At the library, the kids got to go back into the faculty offices, and even into the room behind the book drop to see how the books come into the library and get sorted. Then the librarian read the kids a book, and gave them fire hats to prepare for the next stop. Meridian wore her fire hat backwards like a baseball cap. I told her it was backwards and she said she liked it better that way, so it could keep the sun out of her eyes. She's a practical kid, I'll tell ya that! We walked next door to the fire station, where we watched a fire safety video and saw a fireman get dressed in his suit. After that they let the kids climb into the fire truck and squirt the fire extinguisher. Meridian enjoyed really herself. And we had a picnic at the park with her class when it was over.

Lastly, Meridian's made a few career choices. Most recently, she says it like this: When I grow up I will be a president of the United States and also a teacher, and on the weekends I will be a photographer who takes vacations. A bit ambitious, but all achievable. Anyway, she's honing the skills for the last job first. She snapped this pic of me after school on her last day.

05.31.2008

We celebrated Meridian's 4th birthday with a party today at Red Wing Park. We were joined by her friends: Cai, Millie, Landon, Blaise, Nicholas, Anna, Grace, Skyler, Gauge, and James, and her cousins Michael, Andrew, and Lauren. The party was very low-key and perfect. I had to laugh because David said early on (but after invitations were sent) something about whether I'd checked to see that the park wasn't hosting a big event that day. They usually host enormous events like the Pow-Wow, etc, so it wasn't an implausible problem. I promptly put on horse-blinders and insisted that the chances of that were so slim that there was no point in checking. So, I had to eat a large dose of crow when we arrived thirty minutes before the party to find several huge tents erected with large inflatables and a PA system going at full tilt. After a quick re-evaluation, we found a quiet corner of the park and managed to get in touch with all the attendees to ensure they all knew where to find us.

A good time was had by all as we wore homemade balloon hats through the customary birthday rituals. Noteworthy:

• Meridian had two identical birthday cakes because I'd intended to make a layer cake. She insisted she wanted them next to each other and NOT on top of each other. Wrapping the cakes up for transport led to the second Father-Knows-Best moment. David, tasked with creating tin-foil tents for the cakes, went in search of tinker toys to build a frame from. Unable to find them, he came to me, wherupon I declared with confidence that he was overcomplicating things. I went downstairs to wrap the cakes myself, struggled for 15 minutes and nearly smeared the birthday message off one cake before going in search of the tinker toys. Point two for Papi.
• There was a minor hiccup when the wind blew Meridian's candles out for her six or eight times, which ended in tears (and burnt fingers on my part!), but the crowd of adults moved in to form a human wind barrier and the crisis was averted.
• The pinata was a pirate who, judging by the patch, had already lost an eye. His gold tooth indicated a similar situation in the mouth, and the additional black tooth was likely to be lost soon. He stood up well to the beating (read: gentle tapping) ten 2-7 year olds gave him, sporting not so much as a dent by the time each of them had taken three whacks at him. Skyler, the tallest and oldest was left to hit last, and sent candy flying with his first whack, and then completely beheaded him with his second hit. I overheard Meridian utter in awe, "Cool, you knocked his head off!" Yikes! I'm not sure that's a good thing.
• We brought a four foot inflatable hamster wheel, and the kids had a blast rolling around in it. (David gets an honorary MacGuyver Award for this one, as our electric air pump did not have a nozzle that fit in the wheel. Thinking on his feet, he pulled off one of the art projects mounted to my dash and used the sticky-tack to hold the nozzle in place and prevent air from escaping.) The stomp rocket was a hit as usual, though we did lose two rockets into the trees. And the smaller kids were completely enamored of the bubble machine.
• Meridian (having received the first piece) finished her cake quickly and asked to open presents. I nearly said no since everyone was still eating, but a lightbulb went off in my head, and I realized that everyone else eating meant an easy way to avoid the frantic all-kids-tearing-the-presents open scenario that gives me heartburn and makes me think opening presents at the party is not such a good idea. So, I quickly said yes and gave her a brief coaching (a reminder to say thank you to each person as she opened their present and a mention of being graceful and kind of the other kids tried to open her presents with her), and then she opened her presents while everyone ate their cake and looked on.
• We very nearly expanded our family by four kids, when a group of four who were apparently lacking parents joined our party and spent the entirety of four hours with us without so much as a glance from an adult outside our party. They were polite enough (but for the inherent rudeness of infringing on someone else's party), and at the end of the day only the threat of jail time prevented me from packing them into the mini-van and heading home.
• Skyler and Gauge impressed me as always with their consideration. A perfect example, the pinata broken open and the mad-kid-dash-for-candy in play, Skyler and Gauge collected handfuls and went around to all of the smaller children to make sure everyone had gotten some.
• Marisa and company were the last family standing as we packed up. Meridian came over with a glint in her eye to tell me that there was still some cake left. Dramatic pause. Hint hint, Mommy. So, I got both Meridian and Cai to stand on the picnic bench, and I held the cookie sheet with the cake up to their faces and told them to dig in. I made sure to mash the cake against their faces a bit as they tried to bite at the entire cake, and they were a giddy mess of frosting and drool. I put the cake back down and they scooped big fingers full of frosting. I got pics of them feeding frosting to each other, and Marisa and I joked that at their wedding we'd have to include those pics in the slideshow as their first cake exchange.
• We gave mixed CDs with artwork by Meridian as a party favor, and it was an all-around hit.
• By the end of the day, we were all covered head to toe in dirt, and felt all the better for it.

After the party, we took our dirty selves to our favorite local restaurant (Neighbors) and ordered pizzas and salad.

05.26.2008

Her birthday party will be next weekend, so we don't lose all our invitees to out of town Memorial Day weekend plans. Today was a great day for just the three of us alone to celebrate. We did Meridian's favorite thing in all the world: went to the waterpark. Despite the icy cold water, we had a great time. It was a blast to be back in a familiar place and to know the lay of the land, and also to be surprised with some new additions, like the see-saw that sprays you when you ride it. We came home for a quiet dinner and some cake. Chocolate cake with chocolate icing. Meridian asked for a huge piece and then licked the icing off without taking so much as a bite of cake.