Wash your hands after reading this!

Poor Meredith had quite a day yesterday. She wasn't her happy self when I dropped her off at daycare, but I chalked it up to the cold weather. By 11am, her true reason for being unhappy had revealed itself--pink eye. Ever try to put eye drops in a toddler's eye three times a day? To top it all off, I had to wash all of her bedding and anything else she might have rubbed her eye with. This includes her very favorite blankie. It goes everywhere with her and she refuses to nap without it. I managed to sneak it away from her while we were cleaning this morning, but she found it (in the hamper!) and wouldn't let it out of her sight. I finally managed to take it while she was napping and it's currently in the washing machine. I just hope it's dry before she wakes up! I noticed before her nap that her other eye is starting to water, so I guess I'll be doing double drops when she gets up from naptime. Can't wait to hear what she thinks of that!

13 weeks!

Just a quick update from my OB appointment today. I'll be 13 weeks tomorrow--officially in the second trimester! The baby looked great. We had trouble getting the heartbeat with the Doppler, so I got a quick ultrasound just to check things out. The baby was moving like crazy!!! His or her heart rate was 149 bpm. I seem to be doing okay too (I even survived the weigh-in. It's totally unfair to weigh a pregnant girl after the holidays, especially one with nausea that is only cured by Zofran and carbs!). All in all, it was a great appointment.

Winter!

It's been two months since I've updated the blog, but at least I have some cute pictures to add! In my defense, I have a pretty good excuse. As most of you probably know, we're going to be welcoming another baby to our family this summer! I'm due July 14th and things are going well so far. I've been really sick and exhausted (pregnancy with a toddler--need I say more?), hence the lack of blog postings. We had an ultrasound this week that showed a healthy (and already very active) baby. I'm just finishing up my first trimester, so I'm hoping the "morning" sickness (such an unfair name) will let up soon and my energy will start to pick back up (it didn't happen this soon when I was pregnant with Meredith, but a girl can hope, right?). The other big difference this time around is that I'm showing so much sooner! I'm so excited to see who this baby will be and to watch Meredith become a big sister. I'm sure she's up for the challenge!

Two months brings a lot of changes for a little girl, so here are a few of Meredith's newest tricks:

-She now shakes her head "yes" and "no" and really means it!

-Her favorite word is "this"--she uses it seven thousand times per day and it can describe anything from Mia and Philly to what she wants to have for lunch; did you know "this" was such a multi-purpose word? She's added "that" in the last few days, but it hasn't gained the same level of popularity just yet.

-She's walking everywhere and does steps like a pro

-Mere learned how to blow her nose after a recent cold. She was tired of the booger sucker, so she took matters into her own hands after some coaching from Mimi and Papa

-She seems to comprehend everything we're saying and even reacts to conversations when you think she's not listening

Blowing her nose. The next step is to teach her what is appropriate to blow your nose on. For example, tissues are good, Mommy's sweater is not. Last night after her bath, she was trying to blow her nose on her toes. It's really interesting to see where we're finding boogers these days.

At Grandma Rooney's on Christmas Eve; Grandma was holding Ian while Meredith explored everyone's presents. Cousin Ian (and Uncle Patrick and Aunt Vero, of course!) stayed with us over Christmas. It was so wonderful to have the cousins finally get to meet and hang out for a few days!

Christmas morning at home. Philly loved his new monkey!

Christmas Day at Mimi's

Mere in her Christmas dress in front of our tree. Notice that the bottom 2/3 of the tree only has lights and ribbon and that our village is missing. Want to guess why??? :)

Taking down the Christmas tree. Chris and I were working while Mia and Meredith supervised. Mere thought the plastic bin for the ornaments was great to sit on. We kept asking "How big is Meredith?" This picture is her answer--"So big!"

Meredith's first trip out into the snow to play. She did okay until she got snow on her gloves. She had a melt down and was ready to come inside.