Bonus Post!

I’ll warn you right now, this week is going to be very Meredith-centric. Our baby is turning four on Tuesday and in an attempt to keep her little, I’ve done everything with her except plan a party.

Meredith woke up Saturday with a rotten cold. At first she was just hoarse, which I accredited to her crazy parents letting her stay up while our family and the 5 Pages played Rock Band until 10:30 p.m. The kids were having a ball and I threw caution to the wind; knowing full well they wouldn’t sleep past their normal times. We were already running low on sleep and then the irresponsible parents took our children over to the Ehnes’s for pizza and lots of play time. By the time we got home Saturday night, Meredith barely had a voice. I slept with her because she sounded like Darth Vadar and I worried about her breathing.

On the way home, Merdi sounded congested and I told her we would put the vaporizer in her room. And it started:

M: “What is a vaporizer?!”
L: “It emits moisture into the air and it will make it easier for you to breathe.”
M: “Oh no! It’s going to squirt water on me?! I’m going to be all wet in my bed!!! I don’t want the vaporizer!!!”
Alex: “Relax Meredith. It’s like a mister at Disney. You’ll be fine.”

The poor girl was terrified of the vaporizer and it’s eerie green night light until I was able to convince her it was little more than steam and I’d sleep right next to her. Suffice it to say, we didn’t get much sleep, but she conquered her fear of the vaporizer.

I’m glad I bunked with Meredith last night because I learned something alarming.

From infancy, Merdi fell asleep to the same lullaby CD. Recently, she learned how to change CD’s and she found a stash I kept in her dresser drawer. She informed me about a week ago she was sick of the lullaby’s and wanted to listen to the “stories.” It is a CD of different Fairy Tales. She likes it so much, she sometimes sits in her room listening to it while she sorts through Kit Kittredge’s clothes or takes inventory of her dress up shoes. Fine, I thought. Good for her imagination.

Last night, as I was lying in her bed, the familiar story of Little Red Riding Hood came on. I started to drift off to sleep when I awoke startled to three gun shots! What on earth?! It was the CD! The hunter in the story shoots the Big Bad Wolf, three times and then proceeds to slice open its stomach and out pops “Grandmamma,” (which Merdi has taken to calling her own Grandma lately,) totally unharmed. It was a bit much, and I don’t think I want Meredith falling asleep to gunfire. If I did, we'd move closer to downtown.

In between nursing Meredith’s cold, I finished editing pictures of a session I did for our good friends, the Staperts. They welcomed their new son, Geoffery on the 9th and I was finally able to shoot him last Wednesday. He’s a cutie and a total spitfire. We wanted a few of him on his belly, but he did not, and that was that. For the record, that's his small, but might hand at the top of this post.

I also did a shoot a few weeks ago for our friends, the Colburns. Their little guy is their first and they are enjoying him so much!

It’s fun to see them as parents and it’s amazing to me that it seems like last week that it was Brandon and I in their shoes. I wish I could freeze time sometimes. Just not at 7:15 p.m. when everyone around here is cranky and ready for bed.