Closer to actual crawling

Need to keep updated on this more regularly. The last few days Melanie doesn't scoot around like a fish out of water like she is doing the breast stroke, she is actually putting one arm out and then the other arm. She is still on her belly mostly when she does this, but it is just so exciting. It is like we are watching her progress in slow motion, just how her muscles are slowing getting stronger. She kind of seems uncoordinated while doing this new crawl, it makes her a lot slower at getting places. 

She loves crawling into the bathroom, and tonight I was giving Julie a bath when she came in and shut the door behind her, so I lifted her up and she just kind of laid there on the edge of the tub and splashed her hands in the water. 

 It is fun to see all her strength building exercises helping her with her progress.

Melanie - 19 months

-Will scoot to the door and whine and whimper until we come over and open the door. She wants out. Or if we open it, she will start moving towards the door as fast as she can. She must love being outside.
-Acts like she is trying to sing songs with gestures, she does this in a whisper voice almost. She uses her tongue a lot when she is singing like this.
-Uses her arms a lot more lately, not crawling, but will lift herself up with her hands while laying on the floor. Will lift herself to a side laying position as well.
- Melanie and a cold to not go well together. A few weeks ago, she got a cold and did not have a good night. When she woke up she would just cry and cry even while we were holding her, she would look to be calming down and ready to sleep and so I would lay her down, and she would just start crying. After several attempts at laying her in her crib, we put her on the front room floor and laid down with her, she eventually just had to cry herself to sleep. That was a rough night.

Happy girl eating.

She kind of is transitioning to one nap, depends on the day, but this day was Sunday and she didn't take a nap before church at 1:00, so when we got home we laid her on the floor and within minutes she was out. I felt so bad waking her up after 10 minutes to go to grandparents house.

 Waking up early one morning I think and fell asleep again.

She loves to do her hair after she eats, crazy girl.

Here she is wanting to go outside, it was raining and kind of chilly, but didn't bother her. She would have gone all the way if we had let her.

Went to her 6 month eye check up and her left eye isn't focusing as well. It doesn't come back as fast after it starts wandering. And I have noticed from far away she has a harder time keeping her left eye center. It looks like she is looking somewhere else. So, she gets to wear a eye patch for 2 hours a day for a month and then we go back to see if her eye has gotten stronger. She doesn't like us putting it on her or taking it off, but doesn't bother it much while she is wearing it.

 Julie rolling the car over her back, Melanie's back is very ticklish and she loves it when we drive cars over her back.

Had another appointment at Primary Childrens with our Genetics doctor. Her CK test came back normal last time we were there with a neurologist follow up, so he wanted another blood test to see if it still normal or if the other one was a fluke. He wants us to wake her up after 10 hours of sleep to feed her. She has been sleeping 12 hours just fine. Basically to get calories in her, and if she wakes up at night to feed her. Got to fatten her up, so calories, calories. We go back in "2 months and a half", I don't know where our doctor is from, but his accent is so fun, although hard to understand him at times. We have to really pay attention, we love him and know he is doing his best to help Melanie. She is getting so much stronger and has so much energy sometimes, she will eat a few bites of food sometimes and then just start swaying in her high chair. Well, that is all for now.

Melanie - 18 Months

18 months on the 20th of August(just a month behind on this post almost)
Her stats:
Weight:     20lbs 9oz.     (9%)
Height:     33 3/4in.     (96%)
Head:     18 1/2in.     (55%)
She is at least progressing and following a curve, she gained 3lbs since her 1 year check up which is a good weight gain. Since she was not feeling the greatest we held off to get shots until she was feeling better.
She is standing with help really well, and really starting to use her arms to pull herself up to things and climb over objects. She is doing better at walking along with help of course. So happy to see her progressing.
Over this past month:

-She has a bottle usually after every meal, yes, she still uses a bottle. We are working on a sippy and she does pretty well, but still likes the bottle. When she is finished she will stick her tongue out of her mouth until we take the bottle out, she does this with food as well. When she/we put something in her mouth that she doesn't want, she will stick her tongue out and let the food fall out, she will do this until it is all out. She also likes to grab the top part of the bottle where the nipple is and she will squeeze it and pull it out, sometimes while she has it in her mouth, which creates a big mess.

-Really has started to sleep consistently through the night, we get her down about 8:30 or 9:00, although lately it usually ends up later since we are outside or visiting family. She will normally wake up around 8 or 8:30am. 

-Getting so much more interactive lately, her giggling is sooo cute and she squeals when she is really excited and happy. Just have to post some of these cute videos of her.

-Is getting to be a great eater and loves to feed herself, she loves pancakes, eggs, and banana for breakfast, although since we don't usually cook breakfast, her usual breakfast is a banana and some wheat bread. She still loves her normal foods like black beans, brown rice, squash, bananas, popcorn and I am drawing a blank as to what else she likes. But, she has started to eat broccoli, apples, she hasn't been liking quinoa anymore. And when she is done eating she will throw her food onto the floor, or rather just pick it up in her hands and start waving them frantically, resulting in food scattered all over the place. I know she is done when she starts doing this. She will just smile at me while she is doing it.

-We think she is getting the "crying wolf" bit very well lately. It seems like Julie even gets near her and she will start to squeal and look to see if someone is coming to her rescue. Julie does bother her quite a bit, which drives me crazy. Julie likes to stick her feet right in front of Melanie or use Melanie as a pillow, so she likes to protest. It was so funny, I was in the front room with Melanie, and Julie was in another room, and Melanie was going after something(can't remember), and right before she was going to grab it, she turns around to make sure Julie was not around and then grabs the toy and starts to play with it. She loves baby dolls right now, and she loves Julie's corolle doll she got for her birthday, but Julie won't let her touch it, although she will let her play with any of her other babies. 

-Has the stinkiest poopy diapers EVER, whoa! And she will usually poop once a day.
-(8/3/13)She has started to wave, both kinds if you know what I mean, like waving from side to side with an open palm, and waving up and down using just your hand and fingers. It is so cute.
-Both of her teeth on the bottom just before her molars are coming in, they are popped through. Last part of July.
-Starting to really get into everything, seems like I always say this, but now she is really wanting to get around and look at everything. She scoots around like a fish out of water, or like she is swimming, but not in any water.
-This last week she got a runny nose and man is she awful she has a cold. She is worse than a newborn at night. Crying and crying non stop, and just keeps trying to rip her nose off, we will keep putting her down and she will settle down for a minute and just start screaming, and when she finally falls asleep, she will wake after an hour or so and just cry and cry for another 3 hours. One night I just laid a blanket on the floor in the front room and let her cry til she fell asleep, she was so tired. Finally after two nights, I decided to get to bed earlier, and that helped. I even got close to 8 hours of sleep, where as those first two nights I got a combined total of 7 hours of sleep. Oh, I was so tired.

-Julie is always imitating what Melanie does when I take a picture.

 Playing with her cousin Ethan, he is 9 months younger than Melanie.

She loves to swing

If I can't get her to eat anything, she will always eat popcorn. Her eating has been crazy lately.

Saw Buster and crawled through the opening behind the couch, didn't think she would be able to, but she was determined to get the dog. Julie following behind her.

 Watching some Mickey Mouse Clubhouse together one morning.

 Still loves to unload her pants from the drawer.

 Discovering that she can grab the swing next to her.

 Loves to sleep on her hands, find her like this quite often.

 Story time, Melanie was loving the nursery rhymes we were reading this night.

 Love Saturday and Sunday morning tickles.

Helping her make a mess, she was having so much fun taking the CD's out.

She woke up early one morning so I bundled her up and she went walking with me.

 Getting so long.

We love her!

Julie Girl

Asked her if she was awake, and she said "Yes, see, my eyes are blinking"

-Sound sleeper

-Loves to play at the park

-Always says, "I will sit on the potty next time" and just goes off on these elaborate descriptions of getting her poop out in her diaper and pushing really good. Potty talk deserves its own post for sure. This child has sure been a struggle.
-Last week she seems to be all over Melanie, taking toys, sitting on her or just invading her space and Melanie did not like it and would let me know. And this week since starting her on the Primary Childrens Cleanout(again, another post), she has been nicer to Melanie, just all around different. It is so amazing. And to see her not sitting on the floor holding her poop in is lovely also. She will share things with Melanie that she wouldn't before, man, it is just great.
Since I haven't posted anything about Julie in forever, these pictures are kind of random.
-Julie making a wall around Melanie with the bumper.

 -We still love using curlformers.

 -Here is one of Julie using Melanie as a pillow, sometimes Melanie doesn't mind or just tolerates it, but other times she starts squealing.

-A picture we took after church.

-Enjoying Mickey Mouse clubhouse together one morning.

 -She has been starting to take naps every once in a while again, usually when I lay Melanie down, she will tell me she wants to take a nap to. Makes it nice when both kids are asleep.

 Wedged the bouncy ball inbetween the couch and coffee table and was having fun bouncing on a ball that wouldn't roll away.

 She has been sleeping on the couch for a while(this is what worked for us at the time), and sometimes she would end up in the oddest places, she was totally flipped the other direction on the floor.

 She is now big enough to climb the wall on her swingset.

 Is into lining things up.

She wanted to cut her own fingernails, and she did a really good job to. I just had to trim the edges. Now she just wants to do it every time.

Having a picnic.

Playing with her cousin Matthew, they play so well with each other. Julie will share toys with him and let him play with things that she won't let Melanie touch.

 Sharing some bread on one of our walks.

 Showing off her blanket that Grandma Taylor made for her, she loves it. Melanie also got one.

 I usually cut her sandwich into strips, but she wanted it whole today.

 Princess girl.

 Wanting to do what Melanie is doing.

 These two love to swing,

Painting fingernails with crayon. She did this all on her own, she came and showed me her fingers and then wanted to do mine also. So fun, I remember doing this as a child.

 Cheerios

 Got some local corn on the cob and it was yummy. Julie was loving biting it off of the cob.

 Silly kid, love how her hair ends up whenever she wears these sunglasses.

Another crazy place she ended up when we found her one morning.

 Snuggling on the couch watching a video.

She wears sleep sacks to bed, and she has fun sticking both feet in the same hole and trying to walk around.

Wanted me to take a nap with her, I told her she could fall asleep and I would finish the laundry, she said, "I will wait for you Mommy, I don't have the yawns yet", so after finishing folding a bunch of laundry, I laid down with her. She fell asleep but I didn't, but I got a half hour of relaxation time anyways.

 Green beans, she loves them.

 6 bee stings, went to pick beans, and when we were done we were over by the car, and Julie had a wand that she was banging on the basketball standard that was laying on down. The bees did not like that, all of a sudden we hear Julie screaming and all these bees flying around her. Rob grabs her and we head for my grandmas porch. She was a little freaked out as were we and my parents. She got stung 3 times on her belly, two on her arm, and one on her finger. She didn't want anything touching her that night, so she slept without her jammies and no blanket. Her finger got a little swollen.

Her hair is getting longer and I love it, was able to put a braid in it.

 Loves playing on the swingset and she has been carrying her baby around with her lately.

 Enjoying a bag of fresh green beans, while I was cutting beans to can them, she kept coming over and snatching them and eating them.

 Reading to the kids before bed, Melanie was loving it. She loves to turn pages right now.

Finally got her bangs cut, it takes me a few days to get them totally even. This was right after I did them and you can tell they were not totally even.

 I just love how this kid sleeps sometimes.

 She got curious george from going on the potty, and she has been carrying him around everywhere. He is so well made and soft.

 She wanted to have a picnic with cheerios, and wanted me to join her.

 I can't believe some of the things that come out of this kids mouth, she just amazes me. She is so smart and talks non stop. We love her!