I had to go out of town for work at the last minute - I found out Monday morning and headed out Monday evening - and didn't get back home until late on Friday.  I missed Meredith so much!  She and Daddy had a good week hanging out together, though, with minimal distress.  Meredith spent last week transitioning into the next class at school, "Early Preschool."  She did great, she's hanging with the big kids!  When we read the weekly updates from that class, it sounds really smart:

This week, we did tissue paper triangles and after some analysis and observation, we got to the conclusion that two triangles made a diamond.  We also began to recognize the shapes when they are in the environment such as in signs, books, blocks and more.

This week we enjoyed enhancing our Math skills as we sorted plastic fish by color, and counting nine using our green legos. We had a blast beginning to solve simple problems using logical reasoning and mathematical thinking as they noticed things that were missing from a group of familiar items

No telling what she'll come up with next! 

We had a fun weekend - an Easter Egg Hunt for the whole neighborhood on Saturday, and Collin's 3rd birthday party at Gymboree today.  Meredith looks really pretty in all the dresses from Shea.

Meredith seems to be concentrating on physical milestones lately - walking up and down the stairs by herself (holding on to the rail), climbing up on everything, and trying to jump.  She can't get off the ground yet, but she puts all this effort into bending her knees and yelling, "Jump!"  She broke in the guest bed for Grandma and Grandpa last night by "jumping" on it.

When Ben wakes Meredith up in the morning, she assesses her crib to ensure that all of her "friends" are accounted for.  We have a large number of stuffed animals that share the crib with Meredith these days - Bugga Bunny, Oooh Oooh the Monkey, Elmo, Bear 1, Bear 2, Baby, Ladybug, and Caterpillar.  Yesterday morning caterpillar went missing so Ben had to claim him from underneath the bed.

Meredith also likes to read out loud her books for bedtime, rather than have me read them.  She sits by herself (not on my lap) and read.  She has expanded the list of things to say goodnight to from Goodnight Moon, including "Night Night Carpet."  For a while now, she's memorized some of the pages of her books and loves to say the words or phrases when we get to that page (and when the moon is on the rise, they all go up to "EXERCISE!" and "brush and brush and brush their teeth, and night-night to clocks and socks and brush and comb and stars on the right pages).  Then we say a prayer, and Meredith always says the "Amen" at the end.

Meredith had a blast hanging out with Aunt Melissa and Nana this weekend.  Nana thought she was coming to see us, but we arranged for Aunt Melissa to fly in on Friday for a surprise.  Meredith showed them how she can run, she got really good at walking up and down the stairs, she said "My-Issa." 

On Friday there was a spring bonnet parade at school and she stopped by for that after a fun day with Nana.  She got to pet a baby duck which was the highlight!

This morning we called Nana to wish her a happy birthday, and I sang her the happy birthday song.  Then this afternoon we went to Evan's 3rd birthday at the Little Gym.  We had a blast playing on all the gymnastics equipment (especially these things that could serve as boats and we could rock Meredith) and eating cake.  Of course we sang the happy birthday song there too.  So when we got home, Meredith was signing "Happy to you, happy to you, happy to you Nana" over and over.  We called Nana again and she was very pleased to hear the song for her.

(Also this morning we went to eat at J. Christopher's and had Blueberry Pancakes.  Yum!)

Yesterday it was snack time when I picked up Meredith at school, and Graham was crying (just a little bit, I think he was impatient for his sippy cup).  Meredith kept repeating something that I couldn't understand.  Her teachers said, "Oh, she's saying 'Don't cry' in Spanish."  "No llores, no llores Graham."  Meredith's teacher Ms. Jacobs speaks Spanish as her native language, and her friend in class Lucianna speaks Spanish at home as well, so Meredith gets exposed to the language a good bit.  Ms. Jacobs sings songs with the kids in Spanish and uses phrases like "No llores" often.  Her teachers say Meredith eats it up - we already know she repeats everything we say, so she's just soaking up Spanish too. 

So, not only do we have trouble understanding what Meredith says in English all the time (she's usually very good at pronouncing, but if we don't have the context it can be hard!), now we will have to figure out if she's speaking in Spanish or English! 

 I didn't realize it, but Meredith knows the ABC song - quite accurately, actually. She wanted me to draw with her crayons this morning, and I drew out all the letters of the alphabet.  I made the sound for each one, and she repeated, and I said the name of the letter, and she repeated.  Sesame Street was on in the background (Meredith doesn't actually WATCH TV for very long) and they did a bit with the ABC song.  After it was over, I started signing the song, and I stopped at "LMNOP."  Meredith continued, with "QRSTUV, WXYZ."  I was surprised, because I've never heard her do that before!  So I started singing the song from the beginning, and she sang along with me.

Last night we took her pacifier out of Meredith's crib.  She cried for it for a while, but then went to sleep.  She fell asleep for her nap sans paci this afternoon as well (a little upset at first, but then calmed down).  Could this be the end of the paci?  I sure hope so.  I haven't been looking forward to the fight.

So we had a strange March snowstorm come through Atlanta.  Unfortunately the snow was a mix of snow and rain, so we really only got to be outside long enough to take some pictures - no building snowmen today.

We went to the Children's Museum yesterday and had a blast playing in the water.

Meredith has a toy hippo that gobbles up shapes.  Meredith hadn't played with it in a while.  Tonight she picked up each shape, and said the name: square, circle, star, triangle.  She also said the color (although she said that green was red, and orange yellow).