The things they remember...

I have known for a while now that Melanie has a fantastic memory, but now I know Meredith does too. Whenever she sees Mickey or someone says anything about Disney, she always says, "I go Mickey's house. Disney World. I frow up at Disney World. I wear Mel's Tinkabell shirt." And she is exactly right....that is exactly what happened! Meredith got mad on the way to Orlando and stuck her finger down her throat to make herself vomit, and she thinks that this story is just HILARIOUS!

I love you too

Meredith is so frickin' cute. I love the stuff that comes out of her mouth....for example, whenever she wants to tell someone she loves them, she just automatically says "I love you too." Not just "I love you" but "I love you too." That makes me feel so good, because clearly, she feels loved if she is always adding "too" on the end of it...she's so crazy, but she is so sweet!! When Melanie was her age, she would always say "A too" for I love you....I love my girls!

Speaking of "frickin'".....I have heard my voice coming out of the mouth of my eldest a few different times. Meredith has this Princess iPod that she insists on having every time she gets on the trampoline. The other day the girls were outside playing, and I hear Melanie stomping inside saying, "Fine! I will get your FRICKIN' iPod for you!" My mouth dropped open...she sounded just like me. She also disciplines Meredith in my voice. "I am going to tell you this one more time....." or "Do not jump on the couch, sweetheart....you might hurt yourself." I guess I really need to make sure I watch what I say and how I say it!

Brainwashed

Well, even though they have been fighting ALL DAY LONG, these girls always know how to make my day. In the tub, they are sitting there arguing, and then all of a sudden they are giggling because Melanie found 2 things that were orange and blue, and those are "icky Gator colors!" So Meredith starts going, "Icky Gators! Icky Gators!" So I looked at her and said, "We don't like the icky Gators, do we?" She replies, "We don't like icky Gators, we like ca cars!" over and over and over again! Daddy should be proud he has both his girls brainwashed against the icky Gators and icky Yellow Jackets!

Our baby girl is 4...how did that happen???? (and the rest of our busy month!)

Our sweet birthday girl!

Whew! I have no idea where the last month has gone....I am going to try and do a reader's digest version of everything we have been up to!

We had 2 big events: My grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary and Melanie's 4th birthday. We went to Chicago for the big anniversary, and it was a busy, crazy trip. The craziest thing?? Probably our trip to the emergency room with Meredith. She came down with a 104 degree fever and was throwing up, and Mom and I were at the ER with her for over 8 hours, and then Dad showed up to keep us company. Thankfully, she ended up being fine and breaking the fever, but this was after the poor baby had to get blood drawn, a bunch of different tests, and an IV where she had to be re-hydrated with 3 bags of fluid. I felt so terrible for her! And she didn't sleep well in the ER...we actually had to call Lulu in Georgia to sing for her because that was the only thing that would calm her down!! Another thing that kept making Meredith smile was when I would make a pouty face and she would smile and say, "Calm down Mommy, calm down!" She also found the automatic hand sanitizer thing on the wall, and that kept her occupied for about an hour. We were also lucky because we had the best nurses and doctors taking care of her! For a bad situation, it was a great experience.

Now that I am thinking about it, the hospital visit probably wasn't the craziest thing....the craziest thing would have to be Christine, Kate, Nicole and I getting all 7 girls together (ages 4 to not even 2 months!) for a picture for Grandma and Grandpa's anniversary. Our photographer was kind of a tool, but shockingly enough, we got a fabulous picture of all the girls together to give to Grandma and Grandpa. The girls were all so cute....Kate found poodle skirt dresses that we were able to get in all the girls' sizes, for a couple of reasons.....they were married in 1950, so it was kind of a throwback, and also because Grandma made us all poodle skirts when we were little. It was a great idea, and kind of funny because they were all 1950s, and Meredith insisted on holding a cell phone in the picture. Funny kid!



We also had a big party at Grandma and Grandpa's house for their anniversary, with all of the family except for Eric, because he had to work. It was so nice getting to see everyone and spend time with the family. We even got a picture of all of us together taking by a random mexican guy name Ramon that my uncle pulled off the street. We found out later that the guy lived a few houses down, but it was still pretty funny because all of a sudden there was this guy snapping pictures of everyone, and no one knew who it was or where he came from!




Oh! And while we were up there, Melanie decided she was ready to get her ears pierced. Once that kid makes a decision, it's decided! We went to Claire's at Orland Square Mall, 2 girls did each ear at the same time, and our brave little girl didn't even cry! Now she has the "most beautiful ears ever with my pretty pink flower earrings!!"

The before shot!


During the piercing....such a brave girl!


And the after shot!

We had a really good trip and it was really nice to see everyone, but we had to make the 700 mile drive home the day before Melanie's birthday, and I still had to get her present put together! Eric and I got her a trampoline for the backyard, and it didn't get here in time for us to put it together before we left. So I drove home from Chicago, unpacked the car, went and picked up the trampoline, and then Eric and I spent the next 4 hours putting together the trampoline in the backyard! It probably would have only taken us 2 hours, but it got dark and my poor night blind husband really had to slow down because he couldn't see what he was doing. But in the end, it was all totally worth it because Melanie was so surprised when she saw her trampoline in the backyard! She had a good birthday....we went to ballet, and Chuck E. Cheese for dinner, and then she got her new "telly-scope" and a camera from Mom Mom, and then we said we could take the camera out back to take pictures. She asked me what she should take a picture of, and she couldn't have timed it better because as she asked that, she walked out and I said, "How about your new trampoline?" She loves it, and it's great because it wears both of the girls out like nobody's business! I just can't believe my baby girl is already 4 YEARS OLD! It's just crazy, I feel like we just brought her home from the hospital!






Oh, and also, Meredith started tumbling and Melanie started ballet again. I can't remember whether or not I already posted this, but if I did it's cute and I'll put it again before I forget. Meredith is so funny, she will stand there and jump and run, and then when she wants me to take her picture she will start shouting "Cheese! Cheese!" until I take her picture. Then, if she thinks I am not praising her enough, she will look straight at me, and say "Good job me, good job." She has been telling everyone "Good job" any time they do anything lately.....so, so cute!!

Anyway, I think that's about it for now. I am going to get back to updating this more often again now that summer is coming to a close and we are getting back on track with our schedules.