It's the Merritts: 3/1/09

Ci Ci's

Liam probably doesn't realize what a coveted place this is to his Uncle Ben.

Benjamin certaintly isn't aware

Linnea is just concerned with a continuing supply of pasta salad

and milk

It's all about the pizza and if your Ben they better have lots of bbq pizza and keep it coming!

Dandelion

It's a weed we don't really like to see in our lawn. We spent good money trying to get grass to grow and not have weeds choke it out. But....

if there were not dandelions...

she'd never have the joy of getting to blow them

and blow them some more!

Long live the dandelions! One 2 yr. old is doing her best to make sure your seeds are spread for yet another growing season.

Cousins

The first week of March Rosalie and Liam came to visit. It was a wonderful time and Linnea and Liam play well together and don't beat each other up too much!

One is such a fun age!

Snow???

January 20th we had snow day. A nice southern dusting that was just enough to cancel classes for fear of ice. It was also nice because it gave Ben a 4 day weekend!

Linnea loved getting to wear her snowsuit and play in our pathetic amounts of snow.

February 4th we had more snow. Ha! we were caught off guard by this fierce storm and it made it challenging for us to get a van for our trip to Myrtle Beach.

Finally, March 1st we actually got a little bit of snow to cover the grass! Sad to say but it's the most snow of Linnea's little life. She loved it and after two other "snow events" she was greatly anticipating it coming. The snow was beautiful coming down in the evening, but by early afternoon the next day it was all gone!

Some day we'd like to take her up to Vermont so that she can actually see what real snow is!

February

February was a crazy month for us, winter sports winding down and spring sports starting up. Linnea started having attitude problems and Benjamin started asserting himself more and decided that sleeping was highly overrated! They still manage to steal our hearts most everyday. Linnea became much more independent and started successfully dressing herself and also really learned what it meant to apologize. Of course she also got into lots of mischief! Benjamin started playing more on his own, rolled tummy to back several times, and just loves to laugh and interact with anyone. He doesn't like to be left alone, he wants to be with people at all times and will scream until Linnea comes to play with/near him!

Benjamin's First Trip to Lexington

Mid February we headed down to Lexington for dentist appointments. It was a good thing we had planned the trip because Ben ended up having an emergency root canal. I just wish I had taken a picture of Mr. Chipmunk Cheek!

Linnea loves being read to.

She insisted on holding her baby brother.

Grandpas make great horsies!

Grandparents

Benjamin has gotten to enjoy lots of time with his grandpa Citro over the past few months.

Enjoying some time with great grandpa and grammy Citro.

Little Miss Mischief

As I sit here working on this post she strikes again and I haven't even started writing about all of the Linnea adventures of the past 2 months. "Here Mommy" she says as she hands me an iris that she has uprooted from its home by the front steps! No camera in hand to capture this moment.

This cookie was a sign of things to come. She obtained it from the counter by herself. My mom, Ben, and I all thought the other had given it to her. She was quite happy with herself and enjoyed her cookie! She likes being tall enough to reach about anything counter height and has brought lots of interesting items to us. She ate lip gloss that she helped herself to, from the back of our dresser, has put deodorant all over her body, and has used a stain stick as hair gel!

A common style worn by Linnea whether it's 30 or 80 degrees out. She loves to wear mittens and can be found wearing mittens along with sunglasses, short sleeves, and capris!
Playing with Benjamin/sitting on Benjamin. She tries to help him out of his swing/bouncy seat/car seat etc... At least she stopped sitting on his tummy!
She was playing happily in her room while I nursed Benjamin. He fell sound asleep and I was feeling triumphant about laying him down to sleep successfully! Then I hear "Mommy Help!!!" along with lots of crying. Yup she decimated a tube of Desitin, so I got to spend his naptime cleaning up her and the rug in her room. FYI Dawn dish soap is awesome at getting out diaper cream!

She requested to hold the craisins, I didn't know that she would try to put them all on a plate!

She loves to climb up in the babydoll carriage.

And someday I'll learn that if there is trouble to be found she'll have fun finding it!

Little Helper

She loves giving hugs especially to her little brother.

Linnea likes to help grandpa give Benjamin a bottle.

Benjamin's First Road Trip

At the beginning of February we all loaded up and drove to Myrtle Beach for a health science conference that Ben was presenting at. The kids traveled well and we only had a few times that we questioned our sanity. Linnea loved riding up and down in the "alligator" aka elevator and was thrilled that we had a van just like all of her friends have. It turned out that they experienced a record breaking cold snap while we were there, lows in the teens and windchill during the day that was in the 20's! Needless to say we didn't spend much time outside. Linnea loved the extra time spent with her daddy and even attended a session with him. She charmed everyone at the conference and the bellmen all got to know her quite well.