Thursday, March 22, 2007

Toddler Days

Here are some cute Meredith-isms from the past month—little things I’ve jotted down as they’ve happened. I’ve only just now found the time to post them!

This picture of her is a VERY typical Meredith expression. She likes to look at people sideways. She is now 20.5 months and such a joy!

Mer’s new thing is getting in and out of her booster seat by herself and then fastening the buckle by herself. In fact, she pretty much wants to do everything by herself lately. When I try to help her, she says, “Self!” When she doesn’t get her buckle fastened on the first try, she’ll say “Almooost” to encourage herself. Lately, though, she’s gotten really good at it—she buckles herself into her booster, stroller, and grocery carts.

Speaking of grocery carts, going grocery shopping with her is crazy! She loves to identify all the objects she knows and yell out the names of food she sees. When she’s not yelling “Banana! Grapes! Bacon! Pasta! Cookies!” at the top of her lungs, then she’s loudly singing one of her favorite songs. We couldn’t sneak up on anyone if we tried.

She has learned how to pray, repeating prayers after daddy: “Fa-der, tank-you … for our food. For mommy, daddy, and baby. AMEN!” It’s so sweet to hear her childish voice saying prayers.

Speaking of prayer, when the pastor said “Amen” at the end of his prayer at church last week, Meredith loudly asked, “All done?” She was tired of being confined in the pew. Children are so honest!

She knows all of the colors of the rainbow, plus more. She loves to identify everything by its color: pink shirt, brown bear, grey shoes, etc. Her favorite color is pink, of course.

She has become a backseat driver! Totally! “Red stop! Green go!” “Turn!” (We wonder what she’ll be like when she’s three!)

Mer is constantly pretending. The other day she picked up a piece of scrambled egg on her plate and said, “Dinosaur. Rooooaaaarrrrr!” Every time she sees two of something where one thing is bigger than the other, the big thing is always the “mommy” and the little thing is always the “baby.” For instance, “Mommy grape, baby grape.”

She wants to be included in everything. When I kissed Kevin hello the other day, she said, “Mommy, daddy kissing. Mer-mith kissing?” We quickly gave her a kiss too.

She copies nearly everything we do. She must always spit in the sink when she brushes her teeth, despite the fact that she’s already swallowed all the toothpaste. :-)

The other day she picked up a semi-transparent blue Tupperware lid, held it to her eyes, and said, “Dark outside!” She loves to tell everyone when it’s dark/night vs. light/day.

We went shopping the other day at Macy’s. We were walking through the underwear aisle when Meredith spotted the most hideous pair of granny underwear in the whole store—big, white, and plain. She reached for it and said, “Awww, cute!” I just about fell to the floor laughing. As we left the mall on another trip, she cried, “Shopping! Shopping!” We asked her if she wanted to do more shopping and she said, “YES!”

Meredith was upset that I wasn’t paying more attention to her as she slid down her plastic slide in the living room—I was reading a book at the time. She looked up and me and said, “Book down! Mommy watch you! Book all done!”

She finds excuses for her finger to be hurt just so she can have it “kissed all better.” When I kiss one finger, she holds up the next one, and then the next one, saying “this one ... this one ... this one.”

Meredith is such a toddler! She has recently gained so much confidence in herself. She chatters and sings nonstop. She understands how everything works and has definite opinions on what people should do, not do, say, and wear. She will be such a bossy big sister! But she is also kind and obedient. We love our little girl!

12 comments:

Alaina said...

Cute stories - she's really growing up!

Carrie said...

Those are fabulous -isms! Thanks for sharing! She's extremely cute. =)

Rachelle said...

If she likes shopping already, the teenage years could be dangerous. Maybe time to teach her some useful skills for future employment? What a cutie! -rlr

the Joneses said...

Mer-mit sounds like a very delightful girl to be around! Glad you're having so much fun with her. Still laughing over the underwear.

-- SJ

Angel said...

The granny panty thing totally cracked me up. Hey, at least she's into "modest" fashions, right? ;) (JK)

Catherine said...

What great stories! Smart to write them all down so you won't forget!

Samal Shrikant said...

I just came across your blog, during the search for a book review from google. read the stories of cute, little Mer. loved to read about her activies, she's really growing up...

shrikantsamal@hotmail.com

Anonymous said...

i came to know about Mer from my friend....it was really interesting to read about her activities and i must say she is very cute.....

DAVians ! ! ! said...

i supposed 2 enter through this link because of my friend. that was really a pleasure to read the activities of the little,sweet,cute Mer. am sure she would grow up with lots of cleverness and a nice sense of humour!!!

Anonymous said...

ahhh. she's awesome. funny funny funny.

Micah said...

This is great! I love to hear what Meredith is up to! What an advanced little girl you have! Love the panties story. Yesterday, Kathryn and I were walking around Kohl's and she was feeling all of the bras and saying "Monny, cute!! Cute!!" It was pretty embarrassing :)

Micah said...

Oh, and I also love that you've found some new friends. That made me laugh out loud!