Swing

"Go to Grandma's house and swing" is what I heard over and over the other day. And Julie found the swing we have on our shelf in the garage because we don't have a good place in our yard, and while crying she kept saying "I wanna swing". And being the wonderful Dad that he is, he invented a way and hung it on our awning over the cement pad in the backyard. It works for now, but we are planning on getting a swingset soon for Julie to play on.

 She was having so much fun, each time I would push her, she would just laugh. She was having a great time.

 Love her super smiley face she is making in these next two pictures. What a happy girl!

 And since she decided to read her books during nap today and not actually take a nap, when she went out with Rob after dinner, this is what resulted. One tired girl in her swing. And I think these were actually before we had dinner.

 We really need to get this girl some toys to play on in our yard.

28 Months

This little gal is sure a ball of craziness! Wowzers!
She loves the Giggle Bellies "Wheels on the Bus" song on youtube. She was singing it to me the other day before bedtime. She grabbed my arm and swung it around saying, "The wheels on the bus go, bound and bound, the wheels on the bus go bound and bound, ..." for quite a while. The wheels on the bus part was so fast that it was hard to understand, but I knew what she was saying.
-She finally has started to wave, she would wave before but not very often. I think she got this from the wheels on the bus song, at the end of the song, they say, "wave as they go by, wave as they go by", and now she waves. She just doesn't like to do things when asked.
-She still loves grapes, I haven't bought them for a while because they were not in season and never on sale, so when they are under 2.00 dollars I get some and she could eat and eat and eat them if I let her.
-She can now open the refrigerator, this one is not so cool, because she can also turn the knob that regulates the temperature. Yeah, not cool.
-She can now also turn on the water in the bathroom when standing on her stool, and she loves to wash her hands. If the bathroom door is open, she is at the sink washing those hands.
-She sings along to the Pooh them song and the beginning of the movies, it is so cute. It is usually the last few words of each phrase. Also, from when she was little and I would read to her, sometimes I would stop before the last word and wait to see if she would say it, which she usually would. Probably started with the ABC Dr. Seuss book, I would wait for her to say the letter. Now, while reading she does the same thing, but can repeat more of the story back to me. It is so funny, she was doing this with the "Where the Wild Things Are" book the other day. It amazes me how much she remembers, even word for word.
-Loves to "Hold my hand" and grabs my hand and takes me wherever she wants me to go. She is big into holding hands lately and I don't mind, sometimes I have to pry my fingers out to close a door or turn off the light.
-She loves the oat clusters in "Honey Bunches of Oats", she will pick them out of my bowl when she sees a rather large cluster.
-Takes her shoes and socks off all the time, kind of annoying when I just put them on to get ready to go somewhere and she will take them off. She now has flip flops, which she can basically get on herself, most of the time they are on the wrong feet but will usually get her toes in right. Flip flops make life much easier, although feet get much dirtier.

-Can take the locks off the door nobs. She has only done this when she is super mad after we have locked her in her room before bedtime. She gets so mad and pulls the lock apart, she hasn't tried to take the locks off the bathroom and bedroom doors yet, and hopefully won't.
-She can also climb over the gate that we put up in front of the bathroom door when we are getting ready, but she can't climb over it to get out.
-She loves to unravel the toilet paper roll, and can do it pretty darn fast.
-Calls herself "G-ee"
-She sings the "Popcorn Popping"song with me with the actions. We have even added a few other signs in there for surprise and tree. She gets so excited when we sing this song.
-She also is really good at saying her alphabet, she will push the button on her leap frog, and she will say the alphabet right along with it, usually a few letters ahead. And she really gets her mouth into by really saying the letters clearly. So funny, I think I got it on video so if I figure out how to upload it, I just might have to post it.
-Has been watching Tangled lately and loves it, love the songs. So I don't mind if they get stuck in my head from hearing them so many times.
-I don't know when we are going to fully try to  potty train Julie, but she will tell me sometimes when she is peeing, she will look at me and say,"I'm peeing", she will also say," I need to toot" and then proceed to toot, or "I tooted".
Me: "Julie, did you poop?"
Julie: "No"
Me: "Are you sure"(because it smells, and sometimes her diapers just stink)
Julie: "I don't sink so"
She still doesn't get dressed by herself, and so she cannot pull her pants up, so if she needed to go, she wouldn't be able to go on her own.
-Nilla Wafers
-"I need something good to eat", "hopt-topper",

She loves to sit with Daddy when he is holding Melanie, if Melanie is getting some attention, then Julie seems to need some as well.

For the most part she is pretty good with Melanie.

Woke up from a nap with Crazy bed head, and she was not in a good mood to take pictures.

She has been loving her potty watch, mainly because she can push the button that plays music.

Another of her many sleeping spots.

Rob feeding a sleeping Melanie, and a sleeping Julie next to him.

Has been letting me put her hair in pigtails.

Made Mothers Day cards and decided to put Julie and Melanie's hand prints on them. Julie hates anything on her hands and immediately wants them washed off, so when doing she did not want me to paint her hand, but she did pretty well.

She loves to dump out the whole contents of the bin with little odds and ends, and small toys.

After a night of getting up at 2:00a.m. and deciding she was not tired, we put her in the front room with her Pooh Bear movie and went to bed. I don't know what her problem was but once it was morning she was out and after getting myself ready I came in to find her asleep on the floor, when she was on the couch in the other direction.

Some more of her fun sleeping positions.

I am not quite sure what to do with this kids hair, do I cut it or not. Sometimes it just looks like a mop. She has naturally curly hair in the back, but after laying on it it gets a little crazy and mashed. I just can't cut it yet.

She sure is testing her limits to, getting into everything and really testing her boundaries, which we need to work harder at disciplining her.

Snorter and growth spurt

Melanie is a snorter, when she wakes up or wants some attention, she starts snorting/sneezing over and over, and eventually it will turn into a cry, but most of the time it is just this half sneeze. It does a great job of clearing out her nose. I will come in to get her from a nap and find she has snot above her lip. I am really not a fan or her snorting at night though, when it is all quiet and then she starts snorting and snorting and snorting until we feed her or stick a binkie in(which doesn't always work). 

I kind of can't wait until she grows out of this, but maybe she won't, oh well. 

I am thinking she is going through her 3 month growth spurt, because the last two nights she has been up every hour and a half to two hours wanting to eat. So, last night I got a total of 4 hours of sleep, an hour at a time. Although, she has been a happy baby for the most part during the day.

Enforcing Naptime

So, I was going to just give up on getting Julie to take her nap during the day, but when she is so tired at night and falling asleep before dinner, and then waking up at night and somehow being wide awake. I am now making sure that I try really hard to mean business and that she gets her nap. Saturday it worked and she had a good nap, although she was kind of ornery and getting into so much trouble for the rest of the day. Who knows what that was about.

A couple nights ago, she woke up at 2:30 and just couldn't go back to sleep, we turned on Pooh Bear for her and she fell asleep, but was back awake a half hour later, then I went in and laid with her on the couch with the lights on and watching Pooh Bear, and she was just wide awake. It was just not a good night and I think I got like maybe two hours of sleep. If it is not one child it is the other, and they seem to perfectly synchronize when they wake up, once I get Melanie fed and settled down, Julie will wake up, and vice versa. I am still waiting for the day when Melanie sleeps longer than 3 hours.
And today she read and read and read, but she did stay in her room. She definitely still needs that nap, just doesn't want to. There is to much to do to stop and have to take a nap.

3 Months

Yah, 3 months, and as I was re-reading Julie's 3 month post, I realized Melanie is not the same as her sister in a lot of ways. First is the size, Julie was a chunk and Melanie is taking her sweet time putting some pounds on her. She fits into the same clothes length wise but not width wise. Julie took a while to get some neck strength and she was doing pretty good at her 3 month mark, being able to at least lift it off the ground when on her stomach. Melanie on the other hand, can't even lift it off the ground, she can get her head up enough to move from one side to the other barely, but that is it. She still has a floppy head when propped up. I guess I am not too worried, we just need to work with her a little more. And she is also not talking as much as I remember Julie doing. 

-Melanie did kind of laugh the other day when I was blowing on her belly, and she will give the cutest open mouth smiles. 

-She loves to be held facing outwards, and like Julie she is not a super cuddly baby, she is much happier to be facing the world around her. 

-And when you put her face on your shoulder to burp her or just to hold her there, she will rub and rub her face into your shoulder, which usually means she is tired and wants to sleep. So, we lay her down and she usually falls asleep pretty quick. I think she definitely prefers the crib over sleeping on us. She is a tummy sleeper, we don't lay her on her tummy, but when she has tummy time or is laying on us, she just lays there and loves it.

-She can fall asleep on her own, we rarely ever put her down when she is totally out. During the day she never sleeps for longer stretches of about an hour and at night, her longest stretch is only about 4 hours(ugghh), so not liking this. With Julie she was sleeping through the night at 2 months, and Melanie wakes up at least three times during the night. I haven't had a continuous night sleep since she was born and I hope that changes soon.

-She likes to lay on the left side of her head, which is making her head odd shaped. We have been trying to turn her head to the other side when we lay her down. Hopefully it will help. And she loves to sleep with her arms up.

She will still suck and suck on her hands, making her whole face wet from the slobber, and she is starting to drool and make little spit bubbles.

 She likes her swing a lot more than Julie ever did. She can be content in her swing for quite some time.

-I got this little donut pillow a long time ago, and I hope it helps get her head back to normal. Julie was sharing a book with Melanie in this pic.

-She is becoming more and more content, and I love this smile I got out of her.

She has a pretty set schedule right now, and so now I am just wishing and waiting for her to drop some night feedings so that we can get some longer sleep stretches.  But in all, she is doing well. She was also blessed at 3 months old, so that will be in a post to come.
-After she has eaten, she will smack her lips over and over, like she is just savoring the taste. And before she falls asleep she does this also, kind of like when you are tasting something and rubbing your tongue against your front teeth while opening and closing your mouth.

Bike Stroller

We got a bike stroller, that can go behind a bike and I can use it when I go walking. The first time we put Julie in it she did not want to get in. She had just woken up from a nap, so she was a little ornery. When she came back, she did not want to get out, haha, so funny. She loved it and she loves going for rides in the BIG stroller or bike stroller. She can ride in the middle when behind a bike, and then we got a canopy attachment for Melanie to ride in until she gets better neck strength. Ya, 3 months old and she cannot even lift her head off the ground very well, or keep her head upright, but she is getting better, slowly.

She does love it, she just never smiles on cue.

Getting it all hitched up. She especially loves it when Dad takes her to the park.

All set!

And they are off!

And here is the canopy attachment for Melanie, don't they look thrilled. We had just got back from a walk. Melanie didn't always make it all the way around the block at first, we would have to stop and I would either carry her, or put my babyhawk on and stick her in there for the rest of the way around. The last couple times, she has done really well, and as long as we are moving she is happy. You can even hear her talking a little while we are strolling along.

We love it, I just have to get used to a wider stroller on the sidewalk. I seem to veer off quite a bit.

My night station!

This is how my nightstand looks before going to bed every night.

It is my pumping station, Melanie is still not nursing, which is fine. Pumping is quicker, I just don't get that closeness from nursing. I will occasionally try nursing her and she will do okay on one side and then totally not go for it on the other, so I always have to pump afterwards, so this is probably how it is going to be. I am just grateful that I can maintain my milk supply and feed Melanie without actually nursing her.

I feed Melanie, and then pump, and then what I pump I will feed her at the next feeding and so on. She is drinking about 3oz. right now at each feeding. I always end up throwing a lot of milk away everyday because I pump more than she drinks. With Julie I stored all my extra milk and ended up with a freezer full that I didn't use, so I am not even bothering with that this time. With each feeding I also add a teaspoon of formula(non-milk based). I guess this is the way it is going to be.

Tired Kids!

I brought Rob his lunch the other day, and after returning home, Julie was asleep, so I carried her inside and set her on the chair, and then went and got Melanie out of the car. Julie was still asleep and I didn't want to wake her for lunch and then have to get her back down for a nap, which probably wouldn't happen, so I let them both sleep and I ate lunch alone. It was so nice, Julie slept for an hour and a half, and then ate when she got up.

 I am getting a lot of pictures of Julie sleeping on recliners and in weird places since she is not taking her naps.

Naptime

 Nap time became pretty much nonexistent. One week she was having them and the next she would play and play in her room and read books, and occasionally konk out on her chair. I know she still needs them because some evenings she will zonk out before dinner or watching her Pooh Bear Movie.  I am trying to get her to just have quiet time but that doesn't always work either, so if she falls asleep, good, if not, she goes down for bed pretty easy, which isn't so bad either. Rob just got home tonight from a 3-day 4-wheeler ride in Moab, and my mom came by at just the right time for me to get Julie bathed quick and jammies on, and then after she left I laid Melanie down, and then read 1 and a half stories to Julie before she was completely out. Good times. I was even able to get myself ready for the night, and have some time to myself before Melanie woke up and wanted some food. I fed her and then put her down for the night. It was lovely.

While Rob was away, I visited my mom one evening, and then the next evening my sisters came over and we took Julie to the park and brought some Papa John's pizza with us. Knowing Julie would not want to sit down and eat, I had fed her before hand so that she could just play. We got to the park around 7:30, and Julie had fun playing while we ate. Once the sun went down, it got cold fast, so we headed home and got Julie to bed and then went to bed ourselves. Julie loved having her Aunts there when she woke up in the morning, although I am sure they weren't planning on waking up so early on a Saturday morning. There is no sleeping in with kids, to some degree. We had waffles and took our time getting ready and by lunchtime my sisters left and we had a good afternoon. Rob got home around 10:00, and after a shower for him, it is time to hit the hay. Good night!