Nana set up a wonderland of Mommy's old toys (and a few new ones) for Meredith to play with.  Meredith had a blast playing with the wooden puzzles, reading books she hadn't read before, playing tea, and pushing babies in the shopping cart.

Nana was VERY excited to see Meredith!

Meredith ate her entire kids' meal at Los Bravos, the Mexican restaurant down the street, on Saturday.  And some of Ben's when she still wanted more.  Some days it's more, more, some days not much food at all.

She's outgrowing her 18 month tops - she's so long!

Meredith is a bit possessive of her daddy - I gave Ben a hug when he was holding her, and she brushed me off and said "Mommy no!"  Just watch when she sees me holding another kid.

Meredith and Graham played together on Sunday afternoon, and then all the kids had a blast at the neighborhood Christmas party.  Up the stairs, down the stairs.  Up the stairs, down the stairs.  We were glad we took her in her pajamas so that she could go right to bed.

Santa Claus visited Meredith's school yesterday.  When I came to pick her up, her class was outside meeting him.  Apparently the other kids in her class were none to happy about getting anywhere near Santa, but they had gotten Meredith to take a picture with him.  We took some pictures with her on my lap with him (I tried putting her on his lap and she reached back to me and said "Mommy!"  She gave Santa a high five - I was really proud of her!

Meredith's Happy Gram from school yesterday was kind of cool - she was shown a flashcard of a toybox full of toys, and Meredith immediately pointed to the toys on the shelves in the classroom and said "Toys!"

She's putting words together, which is really neat to see.  We have the Christmas cards we've been getting displayed in our breakfast area where Meredith eats, and during dinner she says something to the effect of "See Card," and I say "Please?" and she says "Please" and I'll pull down the card she wants.  There is one from Stayce that is "bumpy," and she loves the pictures of the babies, Thomas and Kendall and "Pumpkin."  Kristen sent a picture of a dog with a hat, and she says "Doggie Hat!" and then points to the present in the picture and says "Present."  When she's finished looking at the card, she says "Put Card" as in "Please, Mommy, put this card back up for me, I'm finished looking at it."  And yesterday, she gave the pictures of the doggie and all the babies on the cards some of her food and drink, just like she does her animals.  ("Oh, is Thomas hungry?") 

We also really like looking at the tree - she looks at all the different ornaments and says their name (or at least what she calls them) - Santa, or "Bee," or Mouse, or Star, or Airplane, or Baby.  She'll say "Gentle Touch" (seriously, she does) and makes the sign for touch after I remind her to touch gently.  She really loves the ornament that has a picture of her from last year!

Basically, she has been a real joy - her impulse control has been very good, she's sleeping well, she feels pretty good (aside from the constant runny nose), and she is a happy girl.

Meredith helped to decorate the tree this weekend.  I would unwrap an ornament, let her hold it (careful touch) while I told her about the ornament and got out the hook, and then I'd hang it on the tree.  She'd then want me to pick her up so she could see where I hung it on the tree.  She especially likes the stars, anything with a mouse, airplane, and Santas.

Meredith read a book to me tonight.  Very funny.  I didn't understand much of it, but there were a lot of words.

So we went to D.C. for Thanksgiving.  The car ride up was long - we stayed with Brent and Leslie in Charlotte on Tuesday night (had a lovely time!), and then ran into a lot of traffic on Wednesday, and we were dealing with a sick baby!   We stayed with Uncle Eric, Aunt Cheryl, and Meredith's cousin Ryan.  Grandma and Grandpa, Aunt Cheryl, AND Aunt Melissa and Max all came to stay, and for dinner Cheryl's mom, dad, and sister were there too.  We had fun with the family! 

The Eric Clopper family had 2 turkeys, and Meredith would say "Turkey" and then "Google Goggle Goggle Goggle" - so happy Thanksgiving from Meredith!

Meredith got to play with Ryan, mostly very nicely.  We were impressed with Ryan!  Meredith got to meet her Great Grandma Clopper (she was not in a very good mood after the long car ride).  Aunt Melissa got Meredith a monkey at FAO Schwarz, and she calls him "Monkey Oooo Oooo!"  She makes the noise a monkey makes when she sees him, too cute.  And Meredith has started interacting with her toys empathetically - monkey is thirsty and needs a drink, needs to eat. 

Meredith has been learning numbers at school, and we have several books that count down (ladybugs, kisses, silly monkeys).  She will point to the number and say it (no, she's not counting yet though).  Meredith especially likes the numbers 5 and 9.  Ben was wearing an old 99x (radio station) t-shirt and Meredith, without being told or hearing it referenced, pointed to it and said "9!  9!" 

We went out to eat on Saturday night (Meredith was an angel!) and Meredith was coloring her placemat, switching back and forth between her right and left hands.  Ben asked her if she was ambidextrous . . . can you say ambidextrous?  And she did!  She said am-bi-us - 3 out of 4 ain't bad.

We were happy to start music class again this morning!  Meredith got to visit Santa Buzz this afternoon, and then she played with Graham and Keira.  It was a good weekend.  We're looking forward to seeing some family at Thanksgiving!

So for a little while now Meredith as been saying "I love you" (I think you have to know it's coming to understand it) and making the sign (ish) for I love you.  It is so very sweet.  It is all so very worthwhile.

So Meredith really loves the "If you're happy and you know it song."  She claps in the first verse, stomps her feet in the second, says "hooray" in the third.  She will say "Happy" if I'm singing and she wants me to sing it instead.

There's also a song, "If all the raindrops were lemondrops and gumdrops, oh what a rain that would be."  There's a verse where everyone just sings "ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah" - Meredith and all kids will sing that part.  And Meredith always says the "be" at the end of that first verse - I think she thinks it's a bumble bee!

Meredith has been calling Graham "Oscar," which is the name of his dog - and he says Oscar all the time so I can see how she was confused!

We're having a good weekend . . .