4 Month Birthday with the Verninator

Friday Gwennie had her 4 month birthday. Grandma Verna (affectionately called "The Verninator") swept down upon our messy house and in 3 days had the kitchen, dining room, and living room unpacked. Oh yeah...and she played with Gwennie the whole time and also managed to do 5 loads of laundry. Corbin and I are still in awe of her organizational skills. The best we could do this weekend was unpack 5 boxes out of the office and hang a few ceiling fans. My mom could do that in her sleep!

Here's some before and after pictures so you get an idea of her skills......

Welcome Amelia and Tennant!

More baby news! Our Boston friends Laura and Matt Bryson welcomed Tennant Roarke on June 21st. Tennant popped out a healthy 9 lbs 13 ounces! So far he's keeping mom and dad pretty busy!

Over on the other side of the US in San Francisco, Jeebie and Vanessa Thomas welcomed Miss Amelia Grenfell who decided to visit a little earlier than expected. She was born on July 1, and weighed in at 7 pounds 15 ounces.

Happy 4th!

Grandma Verna is here with us on the 4th to visit Gwennie. She's also such a neatnick that in her spare time she's unpacked half of the boxes and she hasn't even been here 24 hours!

We didn't do much yesterday, just unpacked boxes, made a Home Depot run and grilled out (but ate inside because it was TOO hot!).

Here's some pics from yesterday.

New Digs....

Well, as you can see we are all pretty fed up with unpacking!

We have been in the new house for 5 days now and everyone is happy tb be in the new place. As of Thursday, our old pad on Asheville Place will have new residents. Everyone seems really happy to be here (especially the dogs...Ginger and Ruby LOVE their new yard). We are pretty sick of looking at boxes but we know that's just part of the deal.

The first night we noticed how quiet it was and Gwennie slept until 7 AM! We think she loves the place and can't wait to try out the treehouse and the swingset!

Here's some pictures of the move in progress

Ginger and Ruby met their new pals Comet (a labradoodle) and Lucy (a boxer). They all run around the fence barking at each other and the Girls go visit Comet in his yard for play dates. Here's a video of Gwennie's thoughts on the move.

The Bumbo.....

Gwennie is finally able to hold her head up and besides trying to stand up with Mommy and Daddy's help (which we both are NOT ready for her to be mobile anytime soon!) she also loves to sit in her bumbo chair and check things out.

She just started using it today and as you can see, she's pretty happy hanging in the bumbo. Corbin and I both agree this is the best baby gadget yet!

The Last Days of Nana Daycare...

For those of you that know me well, you knew I was pretty worried about going back to work and having someone else take care of Gwennie. I spent many hours fretting that noone could take care of my child as well as I could...including Corbin who was a wonderful Manny.

I have to say though that I am very sad (and getting slightly teary) about Nana Susan not being here anymore. Gwennie,Ginger, Ruby, Corbin and I have had so much fun with her and I am pretty sure the sole reason my child is now sleeping until 5 AM is because of the structure and schedule her Nana created while she was here.

We tried to get Susan to stay longer but her other child (Kara the dog) is probably getting a little lonely. We would invite Kara for a visit but we are pretty sure she will herd us all into one room because that's her nature and having people in other rooms might cause her to go nuts...and she might eat Ginger and Ruby in her down time :-)

So this is our public thank you to Nana for being such a wonderful grandparent and caregiver to everyone while she was here.

More Baby Aerobics

I am sure no one else gets a kick out of this as much as I do but Susan is at it again with the aerobics...I think my kid is going to have a washboard stomach soon! Both Susan and Gwennie really love this time and we are going to tell her babysitter to make this part of the daily routine!

Lu Lu and Gwennie

This weekend was pretty packed with activities. Saturday, the asbestos people came by to remove some old steam heat pipe from the 30's under the house. It was pretty funny, they told us it was completely safe to be there because they encapsulate the pipes before removing them. We had lofty plans of leaving beforehand and heading down th Lu Lu and Bill's house in Spartanburg. We should have realized that nothing is quick with a baby. By the time we had the dogs, baby, Nana Sus and ourselves in the car they were long gone! So we still decided to head down anyhow for a change of pace. We stopped in Gaffney, SC at the Pottery Barn Outlet.....big mistake! We ended up buying a sofa for the new place and a rug for Gwennie's room. Which meant a trip back on Sunday with a U-haul in tow. And today...2 more rugs and a chair...50% off is a sweet deal though!

When we got to Lu Lu's we had a nice day of lounging around the house, catching up and dining on Sugar 'n Spice Cheeseburgers-A-Plenty and Sweet Tea. For the non-Sparkle City folks reading this...A-Plenty means with slaw, french fries and onion rings. Really...the only good thing for you on the plate is the lettuce and tomato (which is optional...Corbin, Susan and Lynne opted out of the veggies and went for mustard and slaw on the burger. Something I still can't understand but it's a southern thing and is standard at these places - like a regular coffee at D & D - cream and sugar).

Baby Aerobics

Here is a video of Gwennie and Nanna Susan doing baby aerobics....

I'm 3 Months Old!

Pretty cute, huh?

Nannasus....

Gwennie's Grandama Susan is here now (we are trying out names...nannasus is the one that Corbin and I like but Gwennie has the final say!). She's taking care of Gwennie this week and next...and doing an amazing job! She has her on a schedule, keeps her occupied all day and the dogs are so excited for the attention they can hardly stand it!

Gwennie turns 3 months tomorrow as well so more pictures to come!

Click here for some photos

Memorial Day Vacation.....sort of.

If you are looking at this picture and wondering why Corbin and I are pasty white still...here's why. It's a long story so get comfortable.

On Wednesday Corbin, Gwennie and I headed to Arizona to see my parents, Aunt Pat, Uncle Frank and cousin Chris. The plan was to stay in Phoenix overnight and the drive up to Lake Havasu on Friday to enjoy some time on the water. Gwennie did great on the flight. She didn't cry at all and just slept the whole way there. Then we headed to my parents house and slept in Thursday morning (well...sort of, Gwennie only got up once and since my parents were so excited to see her they took care of her while Corbin and I caught some much needed sleep).

Thursday afternoon we packed the car and headed up to Lake Havasu where Pat, Frank and Chris were already enjoying the sun on their pontoon boat. For those of you that don't know much about AZ, it's hot...like 450 degree oven hot so usually we only stay out on the boat until around 4 and then after everyone is cooked we head in. Also, on Memorial day weekend, all of the crazy boaters come out to play with their new toys.

Thursday night, we all enjoyed a nice meal, and headed to bed early so that we could be ready to go out on the boat the next day. The plan was for me to work in the morning and take care of Gwennie since she's too little for water time. My mom was going to take over from there and let me go out on the boat after. I should have seen it coming that it wouldn't be that easy... Work kept me busy until around 2 PM and my mom figured since I was home she could jump ship and join everyone else on the boat, so the rest of the family just stayed out on the water. Gwennie and I watched a Star Wars Marathon on Showtime. The lucky boat people (as you can sort of tell...I'm a little bitter about missing out on the fun but that's life as a mom!) came back tired and dark...other than Corbin who lathered himself in sunscreen so that there wasn't a chance that his lily body would fry. We all had dinner again together than night and that is where things went downhill.

Around 1 AM both my mother and father started to get sick. Let's just leave it at both ends of my parents weren't doing so hot. My dad seemed to start to get better around 3 AM but my mother was just getting worse. At 4 AM Corbin and I decided we better start helping her or we were in for a long day. So Corbin headed to the Walgreen's and I worked on helping my mom. We tried everything...water, sprite, pepto, crackers....nothing was staying down! Around 7 AM Corbin and I made a judgement call....we were out of ideas and my mom could barely stand so I took her to the Emergency Room. 2 litters of IV Fluid, a shot of nausea medicine and some pills to help the other end and my mom was back to normal. They released her from the hospital at noon and we headed home. The rest of the day Corbin and I switched between nurse and nanny duty because both of my parents were pretty tired from the previous night. Frank, Pat and Chris went out on the boat but came back pretty early because there were too many people on the water and things were really choppy. That night my parents finally were able to eat some crackers and slept some more so they felt better. Frank, Pat, Corbin and I enjoyed a nice quiet dinner while Chris watched Chuck Liddell get the beat down on PPV. Sunday we all had seen enough of Havasu and packed the cars to come home. Once we got home, Corbin and I took a quick dip in the pool and everyone lounged around the back. I can honestly say yesterday afternoon was the first time my skin saw the sun or water since we got there! Gwennie was in a mood so the sun time didn't last long and we needed to pack up for our red eye flight home. I did some laundry, folded some clothes and Corbin enjoyed his last moments of sun with the rest of the family. Sunday night we had a farewell dinner and we headed back to the airport. Since we all were exhausted, the flight should have been a relief but everyone (including Gwennie) was restless so we all were pretty bleary eyed this morning. The plane landed at 6 AM, we picked up the girls from Doggie Hilton and have been sleeping every since. I can honestly say I don't want to go on ANY vacations again anytime soon....too much work!!!!

Click here for pictures of the weekend

Our First Big Trip

Well...we made it...barely! This weekend was out first trip on an airplane and in the car for more than 2 hours. Friday afternoon, Gwennie and I headed to the airport (with more crap that you can imagine) while Corbin drove the Jetta up with Ari's trunk in the back. Our fist stop...Owing's Mills, MD to visit Alan, Heather, Ari and Niko Eisrau.

All in all we did great on the airplane. Gwennie just chilled and slept during the flight. Alan picked us up at the airport where we headed to their house. Corbin got in about 2 hours later, tired and in dire need of a beer! That night we got sushi at a local joint and enjoyed our first night out without a baby. Many thanks to Myrtle for babysitting both Ari and Gwennie!!!

Saturday afternoon we headed down to Arlington, VA to visit Dave, Missy, and Henry Dixon. Dave is graduating from GW Law School with his Masters in International Law. The last time we saw Henry he was only 3 months old and I was about a month and a half pregnant (and didn't know it!). Henry is now walking and sounds like a turkey..he runs around all day babbling to himself and you'd swear he's speaking another language!!! Sunday morning Dave and Missy were the smart ones and told us to skip the graduation and leave from their house. At first we thought we would be fine leaving from DC but they know what it's like to travel with kids and we took their word for it.

Let me forewarn anyone that likes road trips. Add atleast 2 hours to your travel time with a baby. We left at 1 PM, had to make a stop every 1 1/2 hours for poopie diapers, feedings, searching for diapers (we ran out 3 hours from home), food, etc... Overall the trip was supposed to take 6 hours but we didn't get home until 9 PM...8 hours later!

Click here for a movie that I took at Heather's house. We were trying to get the kids to sleep so that it why it is so dark

Click here for Heather's pictures

Click here for our pictures

My Manny

No, that's not a typo...daddy is a man-nanny (Manny) for the month of May. Microsoft actually gives it's male employees 1 month of infant care leave (paternity leave if you can believe it!). So for the last week and a half Corbin has been Gwennie's entertainment from about 9 AM to 5 PM. It's hard work and he can't wait to get back to Microsoft so he can rest!!! Little Miss Gwennie is pretty exhausting.

Yesterday we had lunch with Matt, Jenny, Grace and Emmaline Myers at Zio's which is a great Italian restaurant in the area. Of course we forgot the camera but since they are in Charlotte until the weekend, we might try and meet up again.

Gwennie's Auntie Jess Christenson in Boston and Uncle Mike Leichtner in California requested we take more photos of her since we have been slackers lately so click here for some snaps from this morning.

Happy Mother's Day!

Hope everyone has a great Mother's Day!!

Yippeee!!!

More exciting news over here. First, our friend Parks Workman graduated from Law School today. Parks was Managing Editor of the South Carolina Law Review while he was at University of South Carolina Law School (not too shabby, huh!). Even better news is that Parks proposed to our cousin Rachel Webb (she said yes incase you were wondering). Welcome to the Family Parks!

More Big News!

I usually don't post twice in one day but there's some big news over on the Webb side of the family as well as from the UVM side.

To start, our cousins Clay and Brandt Gilbert have moved to Charleston, South Carolina for Brandt to start Dental school in the summer. To top that in the "big news" category, they are expecting a baby in November!

Over in Norfolk, VA - cousins Russ and Gini Webb moved from Hawaii in January and are expecting a baby in December too!!

In addition to family, my sorority sister Meghan Westwood and her husband Bob are also expecting in December...identical twins!!!

We are very excited for all of them and can't wait to have friends and cuzzins (as Russ puts it) for Gwennie to hang out with!

I'm 2 months old and we are moving!!!

Big weekend over here in the Meek household! On Thursday afternoon Corbin went to look at a house with our realtor and called right after to say I better check this place out. So Friday morning the whole family (Ginger and Ruby too) piled in the car to check the house out. That afternoon we put in the offer and it was accepted on Saturday morning. Click here to check out pictures of the house.

Sunday, Miss Gwennie turned 2 months old. As you can see from the photos she smiles now when you make funny faces and is such a little diva!

Sick for a few days....

Sorry about that! Grandma Susan came up for a visit 2 weeks ago and joined us for our first voyage back to St. Martin's Church overall everyone did well. Gwennie slept through the entire service and after listening to all of the 6 and 9 month old kids chatter throughout the sermon, we figured kids are pretty welcome over there.

Last weekend Gwennie and I (Natalie) were sick from Sunday on. We both have a persistent cold/cough that we are fightinhg but thus far things are getting much better. Next person to get it will be Corbin, he's trying to stay healthy but his throat is starting to get pretty raw so we think he's not far behind us.

Sunday Gwennie turns 2 months old! Allie Pine (who shares her birthday with Gwennie) will be coming down to celebrate and then we head out to Arizona to visit Grandma & Grandpa Mead, Great Aunt Pat and Great Uncle Frank.

Grandma Gary and Great Aunt Nina

This weekend Grandma Gary (Gwennie's middle name is Iris - after this grandmother) and Great Aunt Nina came up for a nice visit. For those of you that have met Grandma Gary, you all know she's pretty reserved....watch out when Gwennie's around!! She's pretty smitten with this baby! Corbin and I were both commenting on how happy both Nina and Iris were to meet Gwennie and how much fun everyone had. Here are a few more pictures from the visit

1 Month checkup

Today Gwennie had her 1 month checkup at the doctor's office. So far she's doing great...10 pounds, 21 inches long and healthy! The doctor said she can start a little rice cereal in the nighttime bottle to sleep a little longer (which both of her parents are very happy about!).

Easter Weekend

This weekend was FREEZING... literally! After layering the baby and ourselves in fleece and everything else, Saturday we headed over to watch the 2nd annual Easter Egg hunt hosted by Carson, Cannon, Cole, Brenda and Barry Clough. The whole neighborhood looks forward to this event (especially the parents who can enjoy a glass of wine or a beer while the kids are occupied with eggs). Gwennie got a little chilly during the hunt so her dad brought her inside to "warm up" (AKA watch the Masters).

Saturday night we drove down to Sparkle City to Aunt Lynne and Uncle Bill's house for our first overnight adventure. Since the Webb family Easter Egg hunt is about 3 1/2 hours from Charlotte, we decided to start from their house so we would actually make it to the hunt on time....or 40 minutes late since we are never ontime now that the baby is around.

We piled Lynne, Bill, Corbin, Gwennie, Rachel and Natalie into the car and were surprisingly not the last people to arrive! Gwennie was a big hit and behaved herself. Everyone had a great time and I (Natalie) was lucky enough to find the money egg. For those of you that don't know, everyone donates a few bucks to the hat and we split up the money, someone hides it (usually VERY well...under trees, in snake holes, buried with the fire ants) and the adults and children all run around trying to find the eggs....or in the adults case the cash!

Then we drove over to the family cabin to take a few pictures and headed home. The last set of pictures was our failed attempt to get a nice shot of Gwennie...she was much more interested in dinner.

Click here to see the pictures

Charlotte Easter Egg Hunt

Yesterday the whole family joined the Fishers and the Linny Brown over at Charlotte Country Club for the annual Easter Egg hunt. Crawford did pretty well in the 0 to 3 catergory. Gwennie and I looked on and coached from the sidelines!

Here's a picture of Gwennie with the "wacky wabbit" aka Mr. Hardin Minor who is the highlight of the hunt (other than the candy and the easter eggs).

Click here for a few more pictures from the hunt.

More Pictures!

Here's some updated pictures of Gwennie in her new favorite onesie...thanks you Gladys!!

Click her for pics

A little late...

OK... so we tried to get this up on Tuesday when Gwennie actually turned 2 weeks old but as you can see we aren't moving that fast. Click here to see Mommy's other "tries" at getting this picture.

Gwennie's "other" mom

As you can see Ginger likes her new sister. Ruby is also pretty interested in what Gwennie is doing but seems to like to watch the baby more than interact with her. Whenever the baby cries, Ginger checks things out to see if she's OK and constantly wants to lick the baby. If anything, Gwennie will have the cleanest head around!

Here's a few more pictures from today....click here

1 week old with the Hiccups

Well, we finally got some video uploaded. For some reason there is some earlier stuff here from the hospital and the first bath but the main video is from Gwennie hanging out in her bouncy seat battling the hiccups again. She seems to get them about 2 or 3 times a day.

More pics

Hi,
Aunt Lulu came over yesterday and took some great shots of everyone. Corbin's learning how to download video with our new camera so expect to see some movies soon.

Click here for Lynne's Pictures

First Few Days Home

Well, we made it home safe and sound and now are enjoying the lack of sleep and landing of the grandmothers. Overall both Susan and Verna have been very helpful and we don't know what we would have done without them. They have been doing all of the laundry, hovering over the baby, making dinner, hovering over the baby, walking the dogs, hovering over the baby, doing the dishes, and ofcourse hovering over the baby :-)

Gwennie is going to be a diva at this rate but I know she loves having her grandmothers around as do her parents!!! No harm in giving the baby tons of attention, she's pretty cute (we are a little biased though).

Here are more pictures from the last few days including the ride home. Click Here

Introducing Gwendolyn Iris Meek

Well, 17 hours and 1 C-Section later...Gwennie finally decided to come out and meet everyone. This is a picture from the camera phone so it's not too clear. Corbin will be posting more pictures either this afternoon or tomorrow morning. So far everyone is doing great. Gwennie is weighing in at 8 lbs, 11oz and is 20 inches long. She's just like her father in that she loves to sleep. Hope everyong is doing well!

Click here for a few pictures of Gwennie

Weekend Projects

This weekend Corbin and I decided that spending the weekend relaxing was for wussies! Instead, we decided it was time to stop talking about the new bed we needed and to go out and get it. I had been talking about this fabric headboard I wanted to try to make and so at 8 AM on Saturday morning...project build a bed started!

The first step was moving the bedroom furniture downstairs. As most of you know, we are expecting a baby in 3 weeks so I figured this was the fastest way to induce labor...not so much! It's Monday and I am no closer to labor than I was last week.

Here's a picture of the furniture down in the guest room.

So, once the furniture was moved downstairs we had to get rid of one of the extra mattresses. I never would have thought the craigslist in Charlotte would be as fast as the Boston craigslist but free is free so we posted an add at 9 AM and by 9:30 we had someone coming to pick up the old bed in the guestroom.

Then Corbin headed to uhual to pick up a truck, the new bed and some plywood, I went down to the fabric store to pick up the materials and we met up back home at noon to start putting together the headboard.

By 5 PM, everything was done. Here's the headboard without any pillows so you can see what the finished project looks like.

Huh????? What's this white stuff?

As you can see here, the girls had their first experience with snow. For the first time since we moved here (almost 3 years ago) it is snowing in Charlotte. Apparently this is not normal and basically the entire city has shut down. I like to call it a "retail storm" because as usual, all of the bread and milk in the area is gone and people look like they are preparing for a blizzard! Run...buy up all the firewood, we could be stuck at home for weeks!!! We are supposed to get about 3 inches which will then turn to freezing rain. By tomorrow it should melt and life will be back to normal.

Baby Shower

This weekend friends and family traveled from all over to attend Natalie's baby shower. What a fun weekend! The Saturday events included brunch at Providence Cafe and yummy Edible Art Cake...who seem to think my child will spell her name GWYN :-)

Corbin's mother's side of the family included Susan, Aunt Lynne, Aunt Anne, Aunt Emily, Cousins Page, Rachel, Emily, and Clay. Corbin's father's side of the family included Grandma Iris Gary, Aunt Nina, and cousins Megan and Caroline.

Natalie's mother Verna and Aunt Pat fly out from Arizona. And last but VERY not least Natalie's friends Jess and Parrish flew in from New England, Heather from Baltimore, from Cary/Rocky Mount were Allie and her mother Lorena. From Charlotte were Melissa, Michele, Kristin, Brenda, Linny and who can forget Janet. A special thank you to Janet, Allie and Verna for planning the shower, Jess and Ashley (who could not attend but was missed...Happy Birthday!) for making the cute favors and Parrish, Melissa, and Heather for the cake. Click here for pictures from the weekend

On a side note...another very special thank you to Lynne, Faryn & Kamryn for the huge box of clothing & gear!!

I can't believe I am saying this...

I can honestly say I LOVE this stroller. We don't even have a kid yet and this thing seriously is pretty amazing. For those of you who haven't gone through the mortal hell of heading to a baby store to check out strollers, let me enlighten you...Corbin and I folded, unfolded, shook, tried to break, dropped and tested all of them. Then we went home and read consumer reports and were even more confused, then we got sucked into the latest new thing (www.orbitbaby.com very cool strollers but still weren't sold on them) and finally decided to pull the trigger and got the Bugaboo Frog.

As you can see we immediately put it together and starting driving it all over the house. I even went so far as to try to get the neighbor's kid (Crawford...who immediately said "No nanni, baby stroller, I big girl!") and the dogs to try it out but nobody would have any part in it. Guess we will have to wait for the little poop to arrive in March!

Christmas in Arizona and the Crib Project

Happy New Year! For the Christmas holiday we traveled out to Natalie's parents place in Goodyear, AZ. Corbin's mother Susan joined us in our week and overall a great time was had by everyone. Natalie, Corbin, Susan, Verna, Mel, Aunt Pat, Uncle Frank and Natalie's cousin Chris all enjoyed a week of food, food, football and more food. Susan was the only active person in the bunch and managed to go on a few hikes in the area, what a trooper! We also visited the Heard Museaum, enjoyed Mexican food and Susan bought a new pair of authentic cowboy boots to bring home with her.

Once we got back home, by some stroke of luck, one of the Microsofties happened to be selling his almost new baby bedroom set so we decided it was a great purchase. Luckily the crib, changing table and chest of drawers (not pictured since the nursery is so teeny...for now Natalie is enjoying her new dresser!) are a beautiful cherry wood that match the glider Mel and Verna gave us for Christmas! As small as the room is, everything fits well, there's space to walk around and we even have a spot for the small white bookshelf at the end of the crib for future baby readings! For pictures of the AZ trip and the nursery, click here.

Oh yes, and a special thank you to Clark Spencer for sending Ginger and Ruby the yummy smoked bones!

Lake Christmas Weekend

It's that time of year again! We headed down to Lake Bowen for the Webb family Christmas. Which now includes 2 new Webbs....Gini and Alexandra Webb! Russ Webb married the wonderful Gini (and is now a step-father to her awesome daughter Alex) on December 1st. And promptly told his sister Rachel and mother Eileen to keep it a secret!

So we get there, meet Gini and about 2 seconds later I hear..."wife, where are you wife" and find out they were married in Hawaii (BTW..they live there) on the beach. I'll post pictures of their wedding soon enough.

Overall it was a great weekend, lots of fun and a good time for all. Click here for Clay's pictures from the weekend.

Hi Mommy...Ho, Ho, Ho!!

It's that time of year again. Crawford headed over to the Charlotte Country Club on Wednesday for pictures with Santa and to show off her new dress. As you can see, there was lots of other fun things to play with including decorating trees with stickers, face painting and LOTS of food (of which Natalie, Janet and Andrew made sure to get plenty of). Click here for pictures from the party

On Thursday Crawford then was a huge hit at the Little Church on the Lane Nursery School Show....Her mommy and daddy were very proud!

Watch Out Paris!

Yep...Mrs. Janet Fisher is giving Paris and Britney a run for their money. Sorry the pictures aren't any better, they were taken with a camera phone

Janet decided it was too much work to grow long hair so she took a page out of the Paris Hilton handbook and had her hair dresser put extensions in. As you all know I (this is Natalie ofcourse...Corbin does not keep up on hair lingo) couldn't keep my mouth shut on this and for the last two weeks have been calling Janet's upcoming hair unvailing "ho hair."

As you can see the finished product was much better than we anticipated.