First Word and her Walker!

Melanie said her first word on January 22. It was "Julie". Rob had both kids in his lap on the reclining chair in the kids bedroom and the lights were out so just the hall light was shining in and Rob kept repeating Julie's name, and Melanie would say it and tap Julie on the back or wherever. It was so cute. We were at the Library tonight and Rob was pushing Melanie in the stroller, they were across the room and I was looking at kid movies and I hear Melanie trying to get my attention, I look over there and she got the biggest grin and was waiving at me. Love her!

We had her IFSP with the Up to 3 program today and she met all of her goals that we had made for her 6 months ago. Her new goals are 

-Melanie will stack blocks and put toys into a container during play

Strategy: Give her large blocks to stack

-Melanie will walk independently as her primary way to get around

Strategy: Let her walk more in the walker

-Melanie will locate 5 familiar objects when named by family

Strategy: Hold the object close to her when named

-Melanie will consistently follow 5-10 routine 1 step commands with prompts.

Strategy: Direct her to do something she likes to do.

-Melanie will attempt to imitate a variety of facial expressions and easy sounds

Strategy: Practice animal sounds

-Melanie will communicate 3 wants/needs spontaneously using gestures, signs, visuals, or words.

Strategy: Give her choices and make her say/show her choice.

In all she is doing great and they were all so positive and excited about the progress she has made. She has done so well with the walker already.

 After her first week with the walker she is getting a lot better and faster, Julie wanted to push her and did a very good job helping her little sister. Didn't realize they were matching until I took this picture.

 She loves her walker, and will crawl over to it and kneel down next to it and start whimpering and touching it until we come over and help her walk with it. So funny, she also knows that she wears her braces with the walker and she does the same thing when she sees her braces on the table. Smart kid.

Once she gets that down better, they have gymnastics classes for these kids that we will be able to go to for her.

Melanie 23 months

 Hopefully I can get caught up on everything so I don't have to do a monthly picture overload.

So, Melanie loves to come into our room, and I have a bunch of shirts that are going to the DI that are sitting on the floor, and every time she comes in they end up all over. You would think I would pick them up and move them somewhere else. She has so much fun though.

 Christmas(another post), but she loved her baby bottle and stuck in in her mouth and started sucking.

 This kid got sick, started with not eating anything all day, which meant she has a sore throat and was going to get a cold. But this time she also started throwing up around 4:30, and with nothing in her stomach, it was just a lot of dry heaving. So so sad, I was headed to the store and I think she threw up just before I left and so I hurried and got what I needed along with some Pedialite and Hylands Complete Cold and Flu tablets. We gave her two under her tongue every 15 minutes or so for 7 doses along with squirts of pedialite from a syringe and she finally dosed off and took a little nap, and when she woke up around 10:30 she was feeling better and when I went to squirt some more pedialite into her mouth, she was drinking it so fast and wanted more. I hurried and filled her bottle up with some and she was just drinking as fast as she could, don't blame her she was hungry. She didn't want the pedialite after a bit but was still wanting more so I gave her some milk and she downed that and we were able to lay her down for bed with no more throw ups. She slept pretty well too. I was just glad we got some milk in her before she went down to sleep. I hate it when she has a cold, and this one was nasty.

 Julie wanted to play in the tub with Melanie and Melanie is really starting to have fun and splash around in the tub now. (We need to re caulk, so yes, it looks disgusting).

 Watching a video together with their big dog.

 She still loves sitting in the nook.

 She has been doing this lately, for about a week or so she would face plant and eat her food like this.

Love her hair and the cheerios stuck to her face in this one.

 She loves to get her fingers stuck in tight places. Her thumb is stuck in this blender bottle ball. She also gets them stuck in the heater vent slats, in my sisters necklace, in the shopping cart.

 I love this girls smile, it is just straight but I just love how her whole face lights up.

 Loving her green smoothie, drinking more and more each day.

 Common place for the kids to be, if Melanie is sitting with Dad, Julie has to come and have a seat to. She wants Daddy's attention.

 Love how straight her back is in this picture. Some things she likes right now is to take the shapes out of the box, play with blocks or balls. Still gets everything taken away by Julie. But she is fighting her ground more now, letting Julie know she is mad.

-She points at things now and makes a sound like she is saying a word and instead of pulling hair, she looks at it and grits her teeth while holding her hands up like she wants to pull it but doesn't. It is like she is growing out of this. One of my favorite things about her was when I would feed her bottle right before bed in her room in the rocking chair and she would have her eyes closed and she would reach her hands up and just pull at my hair. Really, it felt pretty good unless she got a tangle or just a few strands. 

-She is sleeping through the night again, waking up once a week if that, although sometimes she will wake up at 6 or 6:30 which is still early for her so I will feed her a bottle and then lay her back down and she will sleep usually until at least 8:00. 

We sure love you!

22 months

Well, this little girl is 22 months and continues to make good progress.

If I could only want to write it all down, I used to be so good at blogging and just don't have the desire, but will continue since it their milestones.

Melanie loves my parents dog Buster, she gives him massages if he lets her.

 We were referred to the Moran Eye Center and went down in November to meet with the doctor there. It was a bit of a wait, and all but it was a good appointment. We don't have to patch her eye anymore and we go back in 4 months for a follow up. She gave Melanie the same diagnosis that our eye doctor here gave her. They dilated her eyes so she got to wear these awesome glasses, and I was kind of surprised that she kept them on. She also did so well with the long doctor visit.

 She has ventured into the kitchen and loves to open and close cupboards. Thankfully she hasn't pulled anything out of the cupboards yet. I have to watch where I am stepping when cooking dinner.

 Rob helped her learn how to climb stairs, he is so much more patient at teaching her than I am. She now loves stairs and we can't keep her away.

 Rob got a sphero ball after Melanie crawled after his brothers. Both Melanie and Julie love to chase that thing around.

 Waiting to get labs done at Primary Childrens(another post). She looks so excited doesn't she. Poor girl.

 When I am to slow at getting her to bed for a nap, this is what happens.

She has started to pull up to furniture. This is so awesome to see her doing this. It still shocks me every time I come into a room and see her standing by the couch. 

 The only problem is that she pulls up to the couch and then turns herself outward and she doesn't have the balance to go along with her new skill. So this kind of keeps me on my toes. I hear Julie say from the other room, "Mom, Melanie is standing" to which I have to run in the room to make sure she doesn't hurt herself. What a big girl she is, sometimes it makes me so sad because she wants to do so much and her body won't let her. But, she will get there.

 Having fun with Dad. Still loves to hang upside down.

 Daddy's headphones.

 I just love this face.

 Now that she can get herself to a sitting position, she does this all the time.

 This is also another thing that is crazy to see her doing when I come into the room.

 Since she has discovered sitting, she can now kneel in place too, which I think takes more strength and muscle than sitting. She has even started to get onto her hands and knees and crawl a little. I think she has seen a taste of what she can do and just doesn't want to stop.

 Giving herself a nice hairdo while eating is a common occurrence.

 Touching Matthew's hair, he didn't seem to mind much.

 This just makes me laugh, Julie loves to do what Melanie does occasionally. Funny that they were both undressed as well.

 Melanie just exploded with milestone after milestone this month, really a lot of them were within a weeks time. During the week that she started to get to a sitting position, she also started to be more interactive, as in interacting with Julie while they play, trying to get your attention, she will point at something and then make a sound, pointing instead of using her whole fist. She is just more bright and alert, wanting you to play with her. I wish I gave her more attention, she is so fun and I am so excited with the things she is doing.

Julie

Man, I cannot keep up with this anymore, which makes me sad, because I am so behind. 
Always is saying, "Thank you, Mommy" after I do almost anything. So fun to hear. Lately she has been saying "momma", and it is so cute how she says it.

-She will also randomly, but very frequently give me a hug and say, "I love you, Mommy". Love these moments. Makes me realize how fast she is growing up. Some other phrases she says a lot are, "I have a hurt in my eye" or "My favorite color is pink"(I definitely know what her favorite color is, and "That is my favorite", this refers to anything she loves at that moment, something she see while we are driving, or some toy that she is playing with.

-Has the pee part of potty training down, but not the poop. After always holding it for a year, and then doing three clean outs, it is going to take some time for her muscles to not want to hold it every time. Patience right!  Plus sitting on the potty every morning and every night. Will she ever get it? I sure hope so. Almost 4 years old and still in diapers, she is definitely not an independent person.

-Loves to put all the objects from toys in separate containers, like she will take all the letters from her magnetic leap frog toy and put them in a hat, and she will take the coins out of the piggy and put them in a bowl with the 4 balls from another toy. Rarely are they where they should be.
-She loves to watch, "Peppa Pig", "Curious George", "Super Why", and still loves "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse", but I think her two favorite right now are Super Why and Peppa Pig.
-Rob  put some music on her music box and she loves to dance to the music, her all time favorite song is from, Wreck it Ralph, it is the song right after the movie ends when the credits start.
-Her hair is getting so long and I love to twist it up and pin it to the top of her head and then when it dries she has the cutest tight spirally curls.
-She loves watching the piano guys.

 -Giving me a thumbs up after a good day of potty training(pee wise).

 Loves her yogurt, she loves her "creamy" yogurt which is vanilla greek yogurt.

Constant clean up around here

 My sister in laws kids were visiting while their Mom and Dad were waiting to have a baby, and we took them back to their other Grandparents one night. Full car.

 Sharing her cheerios with Melanie

 Loves red peppers.

 If you lay on the floor, you are sure to get climbed on.

 Daddy did my hair.

Reading my cookbooks, telling me what she likes on each page.

 Eating ice cream for the second time in her life, thanks to my sisters. Aggie ice cream both time, this time it was Chocolate Chip Mint.

 Moved my spice rack to the other side of the oven and she was having fun.

 Waiting patiently while I finished raking up all the leaves into the garden.

"Mom, look, they are moons"

 She loves to lay on the ground and hug Melanie quite frequently

Chilling one morning while I got ready.

-She will put her baby down for a nap and say, "Mom, you need to be quiet, my baby is taking a nap". 
Julie sure is a delight and she is growing up way fast. She can be so loving towards her sister, and I love it when this happens.