Physical Therapy Appt.

Melanie's physical therapy appointment went well, her head is now only 3mm different, which is considered normal, so yay! Although we will do the rice sock positioning for at least another month to see if we can get it to 0, that is if Melanie will let us. She is already getting stronger and not always staying inbetween the rice socks. Her strength is improving, got to work on putting weight on her feet by helping her stand all the way straight. She will put weight on her legs, but she is bent over at the waist so her hips are still week, and her shoulders are still a little week as well, but she is doing awesome from where she was. Trying to help her catch up to where she should be and she is getting there.

Julie

I sure hope this stage Julie is in passes quickly, at least some parts. She takes toys away from Melanie, and her cousin Mason(even when they are HIS toys), and will give Melanie a toy and once she has a hold of it she will rip it from her hands. She will pull Melanie's hands out of her mouth if she is sucking on them. She will be so nice to Melanie and give her kisses and then out of no where, she will whack her. Argh she is driving me nuts, or she will push her cousin down, and the list goes on. Many time outs are taking place around  here.

-One funny thing she has started saying the past few days is "WHAT, what Mommy", very matter of factly, and so I will say, "What" back, and she will just keep saying, "What, what, what Mommy, what". I need to get this on video, because the way she says it is just so cute. 

-I think she has figured out how to answer my questions now, before I would ask her a question and she would just repeat the question back to me, and then I would ask the question again, and it would go back and forth like this for a while. And so, today, I asked if she was done eating, and she flat out told me yes. We had some eggs for dinner, and she is usually not a huge egg eater, so I just put a little on her plate, well, she finished hers and asked for some more so I put some of mine on her plate, and she says, "Thanks Mommy, for putting the eggs on my plate", it was just so polite. I cut up an apple today for her lunch, and she told me, "Thank you for putting and apple on my plate" and she told me that one twice. Or she was sitting with me and dropped one of her play eggs on the floor and I reached over and grabbed it and when I handed it back to her she said "Thank you", she has done this on other occasions as well, and it just makes me smile.She is turning into a little girl, and I just love it. 

-She is acting like she is getting a little bit shy, when we first go places it takes her a little bit to warm up. She is starting to talk to other kids her age more.
Eating better.
-Giving Melanie kisses on the forehead. After I put Melanie in her car seat to leave for home from Grandma and Grandpa Taylor's, Julie stuck her head next to Melanie's in the car seat and then sat in front of her and just was kind of in her face, but Melanie was giving Julie the sweetest smiles and giggles, it was the cutest thing EVER. So fun to watch them interact and Melanie getting so excited. Also, in church today, Rob had to take Melanie out, and after they left Julie came up next to me and got right in my face because she wanted to give me a kiss. So, I gave her a kiss, sometimes she is so sweet and I love it.
-Loves to sing, lately she has been singing, "The wise man and the foolish man", and she knows the whole song.
-Loves Grandma and Grandpa Taylor's bounce house, LOVES it!
-Loves to do knuckles and give us fives.
-Loves to watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse or Thomas and Friends, while I get ready in the morning.  
-Loves to be helpful with Melanie, although sometimes it is not really that helpful. One thing she loves to do is stick Melanie's binki in her mouth if she is crying, although sometimes she is just being content and she will stick it in her mouth anyways.

Loves this muslin blanket and likes to wrap herself up like a burrito.

 -Must have been worn out from destroying the front room, haha. This isn't even nearly as bad as it gets sometimes.

 Love her outfit, mommy's shoes, diaper, and a bib, that is all you need, right!

This girl loves to swing, it can be very relaxing for her, I wonder how long she would have slept if I had just left her like this.

 Super dry grass, it looks much better now!

-Julie got right in Melanie's face the other night while she was in her car seat, and Melanie was smiling and giggling.
-This kid loves to be outside and she loves to take her shoes off as well, which means her feet get sooo dirty. This particular day, she was in the garage helping Daddy with no shoes, and she came in so dirty. Dirty on her face, and her feet were black, the dirtiest they have ever been. So nasty.

My sister came over to help my other sister pack the day before leaving for College, they found this dress that was Katie's baptism dress, and put it on Julie. Don't you just love those puffy sleeves, don't worry, we did not bring it home with us.

Julie was eating some of her old puffs, and this container had a good amount of crumb dust in it. I found her with it on her eyelashes and covering her mouth.

-Gets all shy when she talks to people

-Is starting to chat more with kids her age

-First thing she says when she wakes up is, "I need to swing on the swing set" and "The slide is probably hot", she sure loves that swing set.

-Loves to sing, her songs right now are, The Itsy Bitsy Spider, Singing a song is fun to do, or Riding a bike is fun to do, Popcorn Popping, Bringing home a baby bumble bee.

-Getting fast on her bike, won't be long before she is lifting her feet up to cruise along. She has a strider bike with no peddles and she is really getting the hang of it. She just needs to keep the front wheel straight, and watch where she is going!

-"No" is her favorite word right now.
-Thinks everything is hers, and will grab anything Melanie is holding onto.
-Loves to swing
-Loves her back, belly, arms tickled before bedtime.

Love this kiddo!

Thank You

This week, Julie has changed so much. I will giver her something and she will tell me "Thank you for giving me __________", it is just so sweet. She does this all the time. She also responds to my questions with a real answer instead of repeating the question back to me or just saying no. I will ask her what she wants for lunch, and she will tell  me, or I will ask if she wants a banana, and she will say, "Yah", and she will eat it. It is so lovely. 

She will also say things like, "That was fun, Mommy" or "That's funny", or I will ask if she had a good time, and she will tell me. It is so cute to hear. 

She has also been eating a ton better lately. Yeah, loving this stage, except for the everything is mine part.

6 Month Measurements

Measurements:

Weight: 13lb 3.5oz     (10%)

Height: 27 1/4 in.     (95%)

Head: 16 1/2 in.     (35%)

So thought that her weight would be higher than that, she is long and skinny. Her muscle tone is doing better, but he was a little concerned. 

She is now starting to rock her body forward and backward when she sits while we  hold onto her hands. She is definitely making progress. 
She is also starting to move around when we lay her on her back or belly, and she can roll from her back to her stomach and back again. They say, back to belly is hardest and she did that first. Her shots didn't phase her too much after she got them, other than a slight fever the day after.
Just needs to fatten up.

31 Months

-Gets all shy when she talks to people

-Is starting to chat more with kids her age

-First thing she says when she wakes up is, "I need to swing on the swing set" and "The slide is probably hot", she sure loves that swing set.

-Loves to sing, her songs right now are, The Itsy Bitsy Spider, Singing a song is fun to do, or Riding a bike is fun to do, Popcorn Popping, Bringing home a baby bumble bee.

-Getting fast on her bike, won't be long before she is lifting her feet up to cruise along. She has a strider bike with no peddles and she is really getting the hang of it. She just needs to keep the front wheel straight, and watch where she is going!

-"No" is her favorite word right now.
-Thinks everything is hers, and will grab anything Melanie is holding onto.
-Loves to swing
-Loves her back, belly, arms tickled before bedtime.
-

Grandpa Ackerman

My Grandpa Ackerman passed away today at the age of 85, what a wonderful man he was!

I am stealing this thought from my sister, she just said it so well.

"i'll always remember him for his giant mugs of dr. pepper, beautiful paintings, sense of humor, clocks set minutes apart so you'd hear them all chime, singing little tunes about people's names, especially my little sister's: katie, big long hugs that lifted you off the floor, telling us to 'drive honest' meaning 92 mph, bottles of tums that we'd eat like candy, driving crazy down the street in his little black truck, gorgeous landscaped yards, and his sweater vests."

Although I would have to add his keys clipped onto his keychain on his belt, grandpa and grandma staying overnight for christmas morning, his mischievous smile, there was so many things to love about Grandpa.

 This is my favorite picture of both my grandma and grandpa taken at our reception in 2005.

 Love you Grandpa, till we meet again!

Reading

Julie loves her books, and I found Julie showing Melanie some pages to a book the other day before we were leaving somewhere. Although once I saw her she stopped. 

 Julie can be so cute and nice with Melanie and then turn and get mean so quick. Hope she gets through this stage fast.

6 Months

I love that this is the same outfit Julie wore at this age, just weird to be using these clothes again.
 -She likes her left side, and so when we put her in between the rice bags for naps on her right side, I always come in to find her on her left side. That is her strong side, that is the side that she rolls on her back to her stomach.

-She doesn't sleep in her crib yet, and when I do put her in there Julie always ends up in there with her. Melanie does not look quite so small in there now, and Julie doesn't look so huge next to Melanie.

 -We always read Julie a story before bedtime, I usually read to her while Rob feeds Melanie her bottle and puts her down to sleep. So, it was fun to have Rob read to Julie which he does occasionally. So cute! Then we have snuggle time before putting Julie in bed!

 Melanie loves the little nook in between Robs arm and his body.

 She also loves to chew on whatever is in front of her.

 Love this smile!

-Gets happy when I change her diaper, she was all smiles when I was telling her she needed to sleep tonight and not wake up until morning because Mom is tired. She can be crying and I lay her down to change her diaper, and usually when she hears the velcro from her diaper, she gets happy and excited.
-Loves bath time until I have to wash her hair, her bath is like 2 minutes long, very quick.
-Grabs at everything pretty quickly now, and is always watching her hands as they are waving around, she was laying on our bed and she just kept whacking her hand into the bed while staring at it.
-Is no where near sitting yet, she will get there eventually. She is getting stronger every day.
-Fed her some oatmeal cereal for the first time tonight, I don't think she was very fond of it. It was funny though, because she never really spit it out, she just kept her mouth open, looking at us like"what are you doing". It made us laugh, but she did eat what I put in her mouth, it never did come all the way out. She does the same thing with puffs, she kind of just holds it there in her mouth until it dissolves.

It was funny because it looked like she was smiling.

-She still doesn't sleep through the night! I so wish she did, she eats every 3 hours during the day, and pretty much an average of 3 ounces at each feeding still. Sometimes she will go 4, depends on the day. And then we feed her before we put her down for the night, and she will wake up 2-3 more times to eat. I try to let her cry some but so far hasn't helped much. She has done an 8 hour stretch before so I know she can do it.
-She also doesn't make much noise as to talking, just sits quietly, although I think she is starting to make some noise, we shall see. We sure love this little kiddo.

Such a cutie!

 Just the sweetest little face, I can't help but smile even when looking at these pictures! This little stinker is waking up every two hours or less at night right now, I don't know if she is growing or what, but I sure hope it passes quickly, I am TIRED! I am always tired, but even more so! She just woke up at 10:30 after feeding her at 8:30 and putting her down for bed, I let her cry for a while but then picked her up. She gave me the biggest grin, I rocked her and patted her back, I laid her back down in her crib and she was wide awake and when she saw me, she made a little noise while smiling. Apparently she was hungry, again! So, I got her bottle and the second I put it in her mouth she turned her head toward me like she always does when she eats at night, and fell asleep while drinking. So sweet, then I laid her down!

In other news, she loves her left side and can roll onto her belly from her back, she just can't seem to get that arm out from under her.

 She is able to hold her head up for longer stretches now, and is even doing good at lifting it well while flat on the floor.

 I don't have any pictures, but she is grabbing at everything in front of her now. Whether it is a toy or not, mostly she will just play with a ring toy, and pass it from one hand to the other. Or she will grab at one hand and pull at it until her hand flies off. Julie was sitting next to me one day while she was doing this, and her hand kept hitting Julie in the face, Julie thought it was so funny and would laugh every time she did it.

 And I am loving all the clothes I get to choose from to dress this child, I don't know how I ended up with so many 6-12 month clothes, but we have quite the selection. So fun to remember Julie in them also.

 She is doing pretty good at sitting in the bumbo, although still wobbly. Caught her right before a sneeze. The towels are for added support.

 When sitting lately she always has her head down, and then when she does lift it up, she will give you a smile and then put it back down like she is shy. It is just funny!

 Julie was helping to entertain Melanie with this flying bee.

 Now we just need to get Julie to stop running circles around her whenever she is on the ground, drives me nuts. And stealing her toys, she will hand her a toy and once she has it in her hands, she will swipe it away, arrh, the little stink. She is in the "every toy is my toy" phase right now.

Swing Set(Julie's Happy Place)

 Julie loves her swing set and always includes it in her prayers over and over. It is nice that she is old enough to go out into the backyard all by herself and play. The thing she is lying on is the helicopter(hept-topter). She is quite fond of it. I found her the other day just swinging on it, and then laying on it.

 "The slide is probably hot", the slide is usually always too hot for her to slide down unless she has pants on or the sun is not directly shinning on it. It is so fun to watch her go down and then climb the ladder and head down again.

Julie is always saying, "Mommy, can you push me", and now she has perfected her pumping skills and can swing all by herself, but she does still like to be pushed. She went out in her pajamas the other morning and would not come in to get her diaper changed and to get dressed. She kept opening the garage door to the house and I would say, "Lets change your diaper", to which she would say no, and run back outside. I finally had to just go out and grab her to get her dressed.