Meredith and Lucas Super Quiz

As Lucas gets older, it become clearer and clearer that he and Meredith have very different personalities. Test your knowledge with this quiz...answers will be posted soon.

1. Which kid is more likely to go down a playground slide?
2. Who gets crazier bedhead?
3. Which kid could eat hummus for every meal?
4. Whose favorite toy is currently a stuffed Pluto from Disney World?
5. Who likes to hear Ave Maria sung for a lullabye?
6. Who is very interested in street signs?
7. Which child is obsessed with drinks?
8. Which of the kids sleeps better at night?
9. Which kid has the most bone-chilling screech?
10. Which kid is currently enthralled with the snap-crackle-pop of Rice Krispies?
11. Who did I recently find standing on top of our electric piano, holding onto the adjacent bookshelf?
12. Who likes to ride a big-kid bike with training wheels?
13. Who loves baths?
14. Who has strong preferences about clothing?
15. Do we have a daddy's-boy and a mama's-girl, or a daddy's-girl and a mama's-boy?

Put your answers in your comment and you'll be able to see how you did when I post the correct answers in a few days! Have fun!

"So Bring Me Tonight"

Here's Meredith showing her mad piano skills with another original song. I think there is a 4-note lick stolen from "Show Me the Way" by Styx (their line that begins "take me tonight" sounds similar to the "bring me tonight" that begins every line of her song). That just shows her good taste in music, right?

Lyrics are posted below...my favorite is when the "doggies and blankets" get introduced partway through. Except for that element, it has the makings of an 80's power ballad with some edgy content, such as the line "you can guess what I'm doin' in the night" (but we don't have to guess because it's abundantly clear from the rest of the song that the answer is "sleeping", and that you should know why).

Musically, my favorite thing is that she refuses to transition to falsetto, just belting it out louder when she wants to get higher!

If you don' t have 4 minutes for this, start at around the 1 minute 40 second mark to come in right after the instrumental bridge.



Lyrics to "So Bring Me Tonight"

(beginning involves some mumbling; I'll indicate other missing parts below with ...)

...
So bring me tonight
...

So bring me tonight
and you know why I'm sleepin' in the night

So bring me tonight
and you know why I'm sleepin' in the night
...
You can do it
I know that you can do it

So bring me tonight
and you know why I'm sleepin' in the night

(instrumental bridge!)

So bring me tonight
and you know why I'm sleepin' in the night
because you got
...
because you got bunny right (?) sleepin' in the night
(note: she has a giant stuffed bunny that sleeps by her bed, so this is my best guess)

So bring me tonight
to bed and I will fall asleep
with my puppies and my blankets
all day LONGGGGGG!
(note: as might be obvious, her sleeping companions are stuffed dogs and blankets)

So bring me tonight
so you can snuggle with your doggies and your blankets
all day LONGGGGGG!

So bring me tonight
to the river (I think? that's the Styx lyric)
and you can guess why I'm sleepin' in the night

So bring me tonight
you know why I'm sleepin' in the night
so you can sleep with your doggies and your blankets
and you know why I'm sleepin' in the NIIIIIIIIGHT!

So bring me tonight
...
you know why I'm sleepin' in the night
with your doggies and your blankets all day LONGGGGG!

So bring me tonight
and you know why I'm sleepin' in the NIIIIIGHT!

So bring me tonight
...
you can guess why I'm sleepin' in the NIIIIIIGHT!

So bring me tonight
(to the river?)
and you can guess what I'm doin' in the night

So bring me tonight
(to the river?)
and you can guess what I'm doin' in the night

Happy 4th Birthday, Meredith!

Last Thursday (June 16) was Meredith's 4th birthday! It was a great day. Here's the evidence...

Before her party, Meredith got a phone call from Grandma and Grandpa and told them how excited she was! She's wearing a special birthday pin she got from Oma and Opa too, and a new dress...my favorite yet!

Since Meredith's birthday was on our usual night for church small group at our house, we just invited the small group and a few others to share in the festivities. Our friend Sarah made Meredith an amazing cake...

...and she loved blowing out the candles!

Her friend Marin came over and they enjoyed their goodie bags.

We had very little in the way of "activities" planned for the evening, but the one thing Meredith and I had talked about was that she could do a bit of a concert for us, and maybe have us participate with instruments too. She embraced the idea at the party, and so after handing out all her instruments to everyone (and naming them all as she looked around the room making sure everyone had one) she led us in singing and playing three songs (Wheels on the Bus, 5 Little Ducks, and He's Got the Whole World In His Hands). Her leadership was infectious: "OK everyone!! Let's get ready for the show! It's time for the performance!". We call this activity "family band," and I think we'll do it again!


And of course there were presents. Here is a sampling of photos from the gift opening time (and FYI, neither of the babies below is Lucas, in case you are confused --they are Lucas's friends Elijah and Owen. Lucas was running around all night and I don't think he's in too many pictures!).




In these pictures, the backdrop of our TV with a slideshow of her growing up makes these photos extra special.


Bedtime was marked by wearing her new guitar PJs! The shirt says "Rock Star in the Making". Perfect!

New Composition from Meredith

Meredith has really become a little songwriter lately. I have three videos to share, but I'll spread them out so that you don't get overloaded with delight all at once.

This one is a good example of her "songwriting"...she tries some lines out, then repeats/rephrases them. She fills in some of the tune with gibberish to keep the rhythm how she wants it. Usually by the next day both the tune and the lyrics are more solid. She still remembers them several days later, too!

Before you listen, please accept my apologies for the badly out-of-tune ukelele. We try to get it to sound better in the "open" position (though you can see she is also experimenting with the idea of fingering some chords too -- not that she knows any!). She is still holding the uke backwards, but everyone we've asked has agreed that there's no reason to change it. For what it's worth, she also bats left, but eats and writes right. Just one more fascinating thing about our Meredith!

This song is called "You Take Away My Sins". It is pretty theologically correct and almost makes me wonder if she is getting part of it from elsewhere, but it's not any song I know. I've posted the lyrics (with "..." where I can't understand her mumbling) below the video.



you take away my sins
forgiving grace
I know Jesus up in heaven
I know that Jesus up in heaven right now
(...)
He comes alive again

you take away my sins
forgiving grace
Jesus is up in heaven
I know that Jesus up

you take away my sins
(...)
Jesus up in heaven
Taking away your sin
Coming back again
(...)

you take away my sins and you
you take away my sins
(...)

"I'm a Lover, Not a Fighter"

This post is about the most affectionate person in our family: Lucas.

I decided that the best way to demonstrate this was to simply keep track of things that he kissed over the course of a week or so. Here's what we've got:

1) his medicine syringe
(he had his 3rd double-ear infection in 6 months - good thing he likes the medicine a lot)

2) a chicken drumstick (real)

3) a picture of a caterpillar that I drew on the Magna Doodle

4) a dirty spoon that he snagged from the dishwasher when I was loading it

5) the picture of a baby on the Huggie's diapers box (for what it's worth, he is much cuter than that baby, but you knew that...)

6) the top of a drinking glass (to be fair, it had Piglet on it from Winnie-the-Pooh)

7) the door of the kitchen cabinet in which he plays (he actually waved to it first, then kissed it, multiple times)

8) the china cabinet in the dining room (again coupled with a wave)

9) the maple leaf on the Canada shirt he was wearing today

You might wonder what these kisses look like -- well, you are in luck. Here is a video in which Lucas takes a look at a baby in a book and then gives a baby doll a nice kiss. He is sort of "set up" in the video (it's hard to catch it happening organically) but it's always the same open-mouthed kiss with a sort of dramatic "muah" even when it's spontaneous. Enjoy!



Before I go, let me just leave you with a trivia contest: if you know where I got the quote for the title of this entry, leave it in your comment!
Hint: It is from a song, but is spoken in the middle of it. Full credit requires the name of the speaker, the person being spoken to, and the song itself. First person to get it right gains the acclaim of all the others. (You know you got this, Anita!)

Meredith's newest composition

Meredith likes books a lot, and has recently started asking about the punctuation marks. Rob told her what each mark was called and we've been working on helping her understand their functions -- seems a little intense, but she seems to be catching on to some things (ex. an exclamation point means you "say it really loud!"). There was some difficulty distinguishing apostrophes and commas at first, but now she knows which one is "at the top" and which is "at the bottom".

On their way home the other day, Rob heard Meredith singing about the punctuation in the book she was reading in her carseat. We thankfully got her to recreate the song for us at home. This is absolutely priceless! I've titled it: "I Love Dashes (You Can Believe It)" for reasons that will become obvious as you watch it. It proceeds in two movements (such as they are) so it's a little over 3 minutes, but the best parts are the beginning and then a rhythmic interlude just after the 2-minute mark.

Enjoy!

Lucas communication round-up!

At 13 months old, Lucas is well on his way to being a great communicator. Here's the list so far:

• please (the baby sign -- generally means "more Cheerios")
• all done (baby sign)
• sound of a cow ("bvvvvvvvv", which is what "mooo" sounds like when you don't open your mouth while doing it)
• sound of a sheep (very clear "ba ba ba ba")
• sound of an airplane (self-explanatory)

Occasionally, I'm also able to convince him to repeat after me the word "Yuck!". Other than verbal (and baby sign) communication, he's also an expert at pointing, whining, and tugging on your pant leg. Screaming occurs when he is in the high chair but the food you put in front of him has run out.

Ah, for the uncomplicated life :)