Fitted for Braces

Since Melanie is now putting weight on her feet, she needs braces for her feet.

You can kind of tell from the pictures that she stands on the insides of her feet.
She got fitted for braces feet today, I wish I had taken pictures of the process. Melanie HATED it, she gave us her pouty face, like "I am going to cry if you don't stop right now". Luckily we were the only ones in the clinic at that time. And then she cried and screamed the WHOLE time, like drooling out her mouth and nose and eyes crying.

They had to cast each foot up to her calf and boy did she not like it. They were pretty quick doing it, and even had the new guy there that was doing observations cast her foot after watching them do the first one. It was his first day and he was nice and did a great job. So glad this is over with. Now what is Melanie going to do when these braces are strapped to her feet for a longer amount of time? Hopefully she will get used to wearing them.

Curlformers(getting ready for family pictures)

The first time I tried curlformers was right before our family pictures. Probably not a day to "try out" something, but we did it anyway. They were so easy to put in and I loved how her hair turned out.

Here is a picture after getting them all in her hair, I used about 20 for her head. She does so well letting me put them in, she usually has a bag of fishy crackers or something. We did this after taking a bath in the morning, and left them in her hair for about 5 hours or so, the longer they are in the puffy curlier her hair is. I love the body her hair has the next day, the curls are a lot flatter, but she gets this nice wave with curlier curls at the end, might be because her hair is naturally curly too.

 After just taking them out, I try to not brush them until we go somewhere since the curls last longer if I don't touch them. But after I brush through them, they are so pretty. I should have taken a after brushing picture.

Here is one where I left the curlers in until like 4:30 in the afternoon. They were so fluffy, this time I used a wide tooth comb to brush through her curls.

 I love this picture, she loves her heart glasses, I did put a barrett in her hair so that top curl wasn't sticking straight up like it was.

 Back view again.

I love these curlers, I think I am going to try some flexi rods for my hair. It would take me way to long to put these in my hair, I got 40 curlformers in a package and I don't think that would be enough for my hair. I have so much. If I try flexi rods, I will definitely post pictures.

Family pictures coming up, they turned out super cute.

Popcorn

Pretty much every Sunday after we get home from church, Rob will make up a quick batch of his special blend of popcorn and the kids and Rob will sit on the floor and chow down. Melanie loves it and tries to grab at the bowl to get some. She gets the soft squishy part.

Julie was helping Rob this time, we use a whirly popper and she loves to turn the handle. This time we made it before church, I think, can't remember now.

 Enjoying, Melanie sure loves it!

 Melanie just waiting to be given another piece.

 She decided she would just try to get some herself.

 Success! It was so cute to see her reach for it to get some.

 Great motivation to get her moving also.

 I don't even know how to make Roberts special blend of popcorn, but it tastes really good. A lot like Movie Theatre popcorn. We love popcorn around here.

Metabolic Specialist

So, we met with the Metabolic Specialist about a month ago now, they have someone else come into the room to ask questions and ask what we want out of this visit. We basically didn't really know why we were here, other than the metabolic specialist wanted to meet with us. 

When the Dr. came in, he explained that he thinks she has Hypoglycemia(low blood sugar), during our last visit when they took her blood and her blood glucose was low, it was around 30(even when fasting, it should not get that low), should be at least above 70. So, he recommended we do Cornstarch Therapy. Basically, the starch made from corn contains complex starch molecules that are slowly digested in the gut to provide a source of "slow-release glucose." This allows the time between feedings to be longer. So we give her cornstarch in her night time bottle right before bedtime, we started with 1 Tbsp. and then we go up to 2 Tbsp. and now we are up to 3 Tbsp. Kind of strange, but she is now regularly sleeping through the night again. Although it seems like she is not wanting to eat very much during the day. She won't drink as much as before and she hardly will eat anything. I might just have to call the Dr. and ask him about this.
Update (5/24) She is eating a lot better now and drinking well to, just took some time to adjust I guess.
Anyway, that was the gist of our appointment, Melanie remembered the hospital and did not like it when we set her on the exam table. She also leaked on me during our Dr. visit, and it so happened that I didn't bring a change of clothes. When you bring extra clothes you don't need them and when you forget you end up needing them. Oh well, she was in disposable diapers, because they are easier to pack, but from now on she is in cloth, never have had a leak with cloth with her other than at night. 

We had to do more lab work after, and boy did she hate that, she was crying a little and then when he poked her she started crying so loud, plus he didn't get it right off so he was kind of fishing around for her vein. She got a lovely bruise from it, and still two weeks later, it is still there. Poor girl. 

We ate before we left at the cafeteria and I got their Chicken Curry with Broccoli. It was so spicy, but soo good.

We had a Genetics appointment scheduled for the 21st and a week before the appointment we got a call saying that since we are working with a Genetics Dr.(metabolic specialist we went to), that they are going to cancel this appointment. I was like, isn't there any other testing they need to do. She basically said that, whatever testing the Dr. ordered was it. Kind of feel gipped, but I know they didn't just cancel it just because. We still have follow up visits with the two Dr.'s  that we have seen so far, so no worries.

Julie phone pics

Julie is always saying she is cold, which usually means she is tired. We will be outside and it is hot, she will say,"I need to go get my blanket so I can get warm." We were outside listening to the Thunder and she had to have her blanket to cover her ears with.

Love the color explosion with her pants and all the toys in this, she can sure make a mess.

She was taking advantage of Melanie laying on the floor, she always is watching every move Melanie makes. If she is going for a toy(any toy), Julie will hurry and grab it out of the way, or if she has a toy Julie will swipe it from. This drives me nuts, still trying to figure out how to get her to stop this.

Loves raw broccoli.

We were outside, and I was showing her that the buds on the trees were out and that the leaves would come out soon. She sat down on the step, and said, "I am going to wait right here for them to come out." Ha, so funny!

A new outfit, and those socks she had on, they were the first pair of Sunday socks with ruffles that I have bought, and well, she didn't come home with them. Apparently she took her socks off in nursery, as did another little girl and she ended up with a totally different pair on. Bummer, we didn't try real hard to get the right ones back either. Oh well!

At Grandma's she was putting all the couch pillows on top of Grandma while on the floor.

She is into hiding from the camera right now, I go to take a picture and she zooms away or moves her head.

Wanting to lay with Melanie on her pillow and put the blanket over them. Melanie was not amused and basically just stared off while trying to grab at Julie's hair.

Got some!

Trying on the toy wooden boot at the doctors office.

She loves her heart glasses, we had to get her a few more pairs to put in each vehicle and in her stroller.

She wanted me to make broccoli trees for her and so this is what she got.

Miss Diva, sporting her Hoagie bun as a phone.

Loves her bike and is a whiz at it now, she rides her bike to Grandmas every day. She is getting faster.

Then we get to Grandma's and she has to switch and ride the tricycle before she gets in the stroller for the rest of our walk.

Getting better at her big tricycle.

Loving that she will let me do pony tails more frequently now. Sometimes she even asks for them.

She loves smoothies with a BIG straw, I usually cut it smaller, but left it this time.

Love it when Julie plays nice with Melanie.

Don't mind the mess in the background, we were inbetween switching sizes of clothes out. This picture might look familiar to some of you, she did this a while back with a blue diaper cover.

Her first job, emptying the dishwasher, she loves it and always asks if there are dishes to be emptied. After she has emptied it she will want me to put more dishes in so that she can empty them.

Rotated books and she spent a good hour or more reading.

She was coloring on the floor and I have never seen her try to stay in the lines like she did, she was doing so well. She also was holding her pencil the right way, don't know where she learned that other than watching us.

She LOVES to ride the 4 wheeler with Rob, she gets so excited when Rob goes fast.

Julie enjoying her Aunt Katie being home for the summer from College. They missed each other.

All matchy, her glasses are purple, green and blue. And well, her outfit matched pretty well.

When it is windy outside, she has to wear a hat. She hates the wind blowing her hair in her face, so the hats help. To me, it just looks hot.

Julie is scared of the dark, even during the day. She will not go into my bedroom to get something if the light is off, even though it is not dark at all.
-Been on the couch at night the last couple of months sleeping because I just can't have each kid waking each other up during the night. If is not one, it is the other. Julie wakes up quite frequently at night, and will yell, Mom, until I come in. After Melanie was sleeping through the night better, we moved Julie back in on 4-22-2013, and it was good for one week and then she was out on the couch again. This is what works for us right now.
-Julie likes to scare Melanie, and Melanie doesn't mind most of the time.
-Julie's laugh for a while was so unique, probably a little fake, but it was still cute.
-She remembers things from last year, I mean little things. Like her Uncle Ren giving her a jelly bean and many others.
-Likes to snuggle and have me tickle her arms and legs at bedtime.
-When I get something of hers out of the dryer, she says, "Oh, I love this", and gives it a big hug.
-She is starting to do better at sharing or not stealing things away from Melanie. Now that Melanie is moving around and really invading her territory, she thinks everything is hers and Melanie can't touch anything.
-She loves to go shopping with me, mainly grocery shopping, loves to ride in the green shopping cart, or if there is not one available, she likes to push the little black shopping cart, which she is pretty good at following me and not running into anything.

Army Crawling

Melanie is scooting, it is so cute. It is basically an army crawl, where she puts one arm in front and then the other, and then with her legs crossed, she pushes her feet and arms and gets herself forward. And now she is really starting to go after things that she wants. 

For awhile she would go after this balloon, she would go all around the room. She got some good practice in from doing this. It was fun to watch her try to grab the balloon, and get so excited when it would move further away from her.

 Now we just need to work on her arm strength so she can get herself off the ground. It is so fun watching this girl change so much from day to day. She really is getting stronger.