The post in which Meredith explains the Internet ...

K: “What did you do this morning?”
M: “I read some books. I wish I could play a computer game.”
K: “Why do you like computer games?”
M: “Because it’s fun. I need to go see if the Internet is working.”
K: “What is the Internet?”
M: “It’s those wires that go from our house to Mr. John’s house and back to our computer. And there’s a yellow sign on our computer that says it’s not working.”

[Side note: Who would have thought that you would have to start putting computer restrictions on children as young as age three! I was thinking maybe age ten or something. Meredith has become quite adept at figuring out how to browse her favorite computer game websites. If we didn’t set a timer for 15 minutes, she would spend at least an hour doing it. We found out recently that Meredith knows some basic Chinese greetings and how to count to three in Chinese, because of one of her computer games!!]

Meredith has also figured out how to call her daddy using speed dial. This could be helpful if there’s an emergency but it’s not so great if she calls Kevin five times a day just to see what he’s up to. She also loves to answer my phone, sometimes without my knowledge. Today a man called and she handed the phone to me, telling me it’s “Great Grandma.”

Meredith told Clara the other day: “Clara, I will be right back. I have to go potty. While I’m gone, you just try to stay out of trouble!” Such a first born!

A: “Mer, how ‘bout we paint your new bedroom green.”
M: “No. I want the walls ALL pink. I want lots of pink stuff. I want princesses and ballerinas and pink.”

She recently went to her kitchen set to find a pretend “dog biscuit” so she could feed her pretend dog. When she arrived at her kitchen set, she said, “Oh no! There’s no food here. That is so STRESSFUL!” [Where does she come up with these words? Do I use that word in front of her?!]

M: “Do you remember that I want ballet lessons?”
K: “Do you like ballet?”
M: “Yes. I do ballet all the time!”

A: “Meredith, I hope you won’t waste your orange juice.”
M: “I don’t want my O.J. because it has feathers in it!”
[This is when I peered into her orange juice cup and noticed that it had pulp in it.]

M: “I want to surf some day.”
A: “Really? What is surfing?”
M: “It’s with a surf board.”
A: “What do you do with a surf board?”
M: “You stand on it and it floats. It’s such a fun toy!”

Meredith has made this sudden transition from a little girl to a big girl. I don’t know how else to describe it. She converses so freely and has become such a good problem solver. I feel like, just in the last week, she has made this huge leap into young girlhood. It’s fun to watch and also scary to realize that there are more challenges in parenting ahead! And more joys, of course!

And yes, I know I really need to do a Clara post sometime soon. She’s starting to say a ton of stuff too. Her favorite word these days is “balloo” for balloon. Do you realize that there are balloons everywhere? I mean everywhere. I never realized how many balloons there are in the world until I had Clara to point them out to me!!