Monday, July 30, 2012

Physical Therapy Appt.

So it has been 3 weeks since we took Melanie into the physical therapist, and in that 3 weeks she has made AWESOME improvement.
Her torticollis (tightening in her neck on her right side) is now gone.
She can now lift her head off of the ground and look at you.
And her flat head isn't so flat anymore. When we first went in, her head had a 10mm difference from one side to the other and it is now down to 5mm. They like it to be below 3mm. We could totally tell her head was looking better, rounder I guess. And we only used the Rice sock positioning during her naps during the day. So this is awesome news that she went down that much in 3 weeks. 
She is also putting weight on her feet and she is grasping at toys and playing with them. The therapist said she is a new person since last time she saw her. So proud of our little girl, we go back in another month and things should be looking even better by then.

Thursday, July 26, 2012

Progress

Love seeing the progress this kid is making. Look at that head, it is OFF the ground, yeah, go Melanie!
 And what a happy little kid she is!
Good progress from my "little one", so fun to see her making progress!

Swimming Fun

Since Julie had so much fun playing in the water at her Grandma and Grandpa Taylor's, we decided to head over to my moms to swim, since we don't have a swimming pool yet. I called my mom in the morning, so that she could put water in it to get warmed up. We came over around 2:00, and the water was nice and warm, and Julie had so much fun. 
Testing the water.
 It took her a little while before she sat down, she kept getting in and out and running around.
 Having fun with the ducks.
 Playing with Aunt Katie.
 She would use the side of the pool to rest her head, I think she probably could have fallen asleep, since she was tired before we came.
  She didn't play for too long, and then we got her dressed and she swang for a bit, she was looking mighty tired, but never did fall asleep.
I need to get us a swimming pool!

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

1st Hair Cut

I finally decided it was time to get Julie's hair cut. I was just going to let her bangs grow out, but they were always in her face and so I made an appointment with the lady I get my hair done at, and then decided to take her to Cookie Cutters. She loved the slide they have inside. She got her hair cut on Saturday, July 21. She did so good, she usually hates it when I try to comb her hair or do anything with her hair, but she picked her chair out and did so well. She did not like the spray bottle so much. She even let her style it afterwords, meaning using rubberbands, I have to bribe her at home if I want to put those in.
Here is a before shot.
Playing in the slide they have inside.
Getting her bangs chopped.
After, what a happy girl.
Styled
Her cute cheeser face!
They put some glitter in her hair, I should have taken the picture in the sunlight, since it looks like flakes in her hair otherwise.
I love it how it turned out and she looks so cute.
And here is one with her hair down.
I love how the bangs turned out, and they also evened the back out, which made it quite a bit shorter than I thought it would be. Oh well!

"It's Mine" 30 Months

She is my little person, she basically can say most anything, and it is so fun to have conversations with her. Some of the words she uses are just hilarious. 
-Repeating what we say
-Jabber mouth, has a conversation with her toys, sounds like she is talking to someone and she is just playing by herself.
-Has started saying things are mine, "It's mine" "That's my bed"
-"I pooped a big poop" or "I pooped a oh te tiny poop", the first time she said this I busted up laughing. So funny to hear her say this.
-Others still have a hard time understanding some things she says, but holy moly, she basically talks in complete sentences and it just amazes me some of the things she says. She does really well at pronunciating her words.
-Loves to snuggle on the chair in her room before we lay her in bed. And she likes us to rub her back or tickle her arm. She usually zonks out pretty quick if we do this, and she hasn't had a nap during the day.
Came out to her laying on the hood of the side by side, then she was about to climb onto the top canopy. She loves the side by side.

-Can you see her? She loves to dump all her stuffed animals out of this yellow tub and play inside. You can see her hair and part of her body sticking out from underneath. In the process of reclaiming the front room and moving all her toys into the bedroom.
-This room can sure get messy.
She is now basically sleeping 12 hours at night and so naps are kind of random and depend on how ornery and tired she is. So, when she does fall asleep it is usually not in her bed. So here are some of her recent positions. Usually always ends up on the couch when I am feeding Melanie, she will come lay by me and konk out.
-She loves to sit in her baby stroller and stroll around, I don't ever push her because I don't want to break it
-I have never bought so many bags of raisins before in my life. I buy it by the 2lb bag. She has a  handful of raisins every morning for breakfast and they are usually the only thing she eats in the morning. She is now into craisins, but still loves her raisins. She scoops those babies in by the handful.
-Loves to wear my shoes, and since these are flip flops she can keep them on pretty well while walking around.
-She loves to hang, she is always hanging from anything she can find, and then she will say "Mommy, I'm hanging".
-She will now sometimes say "please" and "thank you" without me reminding her. Or giving her the look that means, "What do you say"
-She loves to play on the swing set, although the slide is always to hot until the evening. She will say, "The slide is hot", or "Mama, can you push me""I want to swing in the red swing". She has now got pumping down pretty well while swinging.
-Saying prayer with her is so sweet, she will repeat what we say and is now adding in little things that she wants to say, like she is thankful for the swingset, says this one all the time during her prayer.
-She is constantly talking and doing something, just busy busy.
-She hardly eats some days, and then other days she eats really well.
-Will distinguish between Grandparents houses by saying "Grandma Findlay", and "other Grandma's", although she does say Grandma Taylor as well.
She LOVES her swingset and while she is in bed, she will constantly jabber about needing to swing on the red swing or the green swing. And how Matthew swung on the red swing or whatever. So funny, trying to get us to stay in her room as long as possible.

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

24th of July

The 24th is such a fun unofficial holiday. On the Findlay side, we start out with a breakfast, this year it was a potluck, which was different and good. Usually we have the traditional pancakes, eggs, bacon, and fruit. After breakfast was the parade at 10:00, and I love that we don't have to drive to get there, we just park ourselves on the front lawn. Here is Julie chillin in her chair before the parade started, she is not into running after the candy, but I think towards the end she was going after the candy a little bit more. She loves the tootsie rolls.
Our spot on the lawn.
Julie decided to sit with her Aunt Kerri on the blanket.
Love how they are both not looking at the camera and in opposite directions.
We got rained on off and on in the morning.
Love Riverdance.
Julie was on the blanket when all of us darted out of the way from the water, and when there is water, my Dad gets out the hose and sprays them back, and we also throw water balloons. She got caught in the cross fire. Kind of forgot her and ran, whoops, sorry babe. She got a little wet.
After the parade we get ready for our carnival, there was a pinata that held up rather well, it got a good beating.
Little Melanie and Kerri
Then dodging for candy.
There was a game of Twister spray painted on the lawn.
We also played the M&M game, and I didn't get pictures of the fish pond, the bean bag toss, bowling, and the ring toss. We didn't do the relay this year, and decided to do it next year for our Paris Reunion instead. 
After games, we have a BBQ and play more games and just visit and chill for the rest of the night. It is an all day affair and so much fun.