Spring of 2006

To catch you up to date on the going-ons in the lives of the Merediths:

At the beginning of the year we hosted a Superbowl party for our friends. At one point everyone was laughing at one of the funny commercials and Zack thought the laughter was on his behalf. He started grinning and clapping his hands and really hamming it up. He enjoys being the center of attention.

One of Zack’s cute habits is what we affectionately call the “Snoopy dance.” Whenever he becomes really excited or happy, his feet and body begin to bounce in a way that is similar to Snoopy’s happy dance. His favorite “toys” still are the remote, the telephone and anything with buttons. Now he can say “hello” when I call home from work.

Zack’s favorite books vary daily. This week it appears that “Good Night, Sleep Tight” is the winner. He’s pretty excited about playing in his sandbox and is looking forward to playing in his swimming pool. He absolutely loves water and especially the “water box,” which is what we call our shower.

Fruit is one of Zack’s favorite foods, especially strawberries. He would probably eat a whole carton of them if we would let him. He also enjoys pizza, mini raviolis and hot dogs. He is not a big fan of TV, although he does enjoy the Teletubbies and the Big Comfy Couch at times. And even though he doesn’t watch Sesame Street on a regular basis, his favorite character is Elmo. Consequently, he loves wearing his Elmo light-up sandals.

Both dogs have adjusted fairly well to Zack’s addition to the pack. He loves to pet and kiss them and touch their paws and eyes. We are working on a little playroom off of the downstairs den. It’s a small space under the stairs, so we call it the Harry Potter Room. Mike has drawn a mural of an old-time Western town. We are painting it in our “spare time.” Most of our spare time is now spent outside though. Slowly we are clearing more of the overgrowth that is/was our backyard.

Although Zack doesn’t attend daycare he’s still been quite the germ magnet this winter. His pediatrician has put him back on preventative antibiotics so that hopefully we can avoid more ear infections. If he has two more before August we will have to look into putting tubes in his ears.

Zack went on his first big road trip in February. We traveled by car to Winter Haven, Florida to visit his Great Grandma and Great Aunt. He did really well for spending so many hours strapped in a car seat. The DVD player and Elmo videos helped immensely. While down there we visited Cypress Gardens Amusement Park. Zack enjoyed his nap as his mom and dad walked around the gardens. After the nap he had fun watching the water ski show and riding some of the rides.

I am settling into my new job at the Police Department. I have now become accustomed to reading about criminals and their crimes day in and day out.

Mike has continued to excel at balancing his care of Zack with his work as a freelance artist/ illustrator. You can see his portfolio at www.mikemeredith.com. He recently won an honorable mention award from the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators for his “boy in the cave” contest entry. (2nd picture in the top row of his gallery) In March Mike completed a family portrait in cartoon style for his mom. We are hoping to move into making cartoon portraits a larger portion of his work. You can see the completed portrait atttached to this blog.

I am attaching the following photos:

Zack in red
Zack meets Great Grandma Epperson
Zack’s first amusement park ride
Zack playing in Great Aunt’s big tub
Zack reading his books
Zack at Easter.