Silliness

Melanie has been really fun and extra silly the last few days. She is almost always smiling and happy, and when she is mad about something, it doesn't take her long to turn it around. These are some of her favorite things to do these days.

Melanie loves to dance! We put on pandora or youtube videos and she'll dance her little heart out. She twirls spins, stomps her feet, toddles around, and wiggles her hips back and forth. When she really gets into she'll even bounce up and down. I try to dance with her once a day, usually to get a few extra wiggles out just before we start the bedtime routine. Now when I ask her if she wants to dance she'll nod her little head and wait for some music.

She shares. She loves to share her snacks, especially Cheerios. She stuffs handfuls of them into my mouth or she takes a nibble and then gives me a nibble of the same Cheerio. She's so happy to be sharing, I can't say no. Today while I was doing yoga with my friend Teeva, she brought her milk cup over to me and kept sticking it in my face. Once I pretended to take a drink she'd reach around my shoulder and give me some pats on my back. Teeva got a few turns, too. Melanie's very favorite thing is when I share popcorn with her. She knows I get the first bite to get the kernel off and she waits patiently for her part.

Sometimes she takes her Cheerios out of her snack trap, puts them on the carpet, then gets down on her hands and knees and eats them right off the carpet.

Melanie's favorite word is "cookie". Anything with chocolate chips is a cookie. In fact, I'm pretty sure that she thinks chocolate chips are called cookies. I had cookie dough on a baking sheet ready to go in the oven the other day and she spotted them. "Cookie? Cookie. Cookie! COOKIE!!" She was not thrilled when I said we couldn't eat them yet.

When we read Green Eggs and Ham, Melanie pretends to take the ham from each page and brings her hand to her mouth with a little chomping sound. Sometimes she feeds it to me. When we read Fox in Socks and get to the "Let's have a talk about tweedle beetles" line she giggled with anticipation. When we get to the "Now wait a minute Mr. Sock Fox!" page she wags her little finger at the fox. She loves books.

She also loves candy canes. This was her first one of the season, and once she tasted it she wouldn't even share with Spencer.

There's nothing silly about Spencer's life right now, but I've had some fun labs! We had a wound care lab where we practiced wound debridement on oranges, and I was declared the winner for having the cleanest orange. Another day we had fake wounds applied with goop and jelly on top of them to practice cleaning them with sterile techniques. We had a bandaging lab, which you can see in the picture below. And today was the first of three massage techniques labs. Best day of lab so far. PT school has some pretty fun moments mixed in with all the studying and learning.

Fall Semester

I haven't blogged all semester, and we are almost to Thanksgiving!

School has been going well. The beginning of the semester had a nice, slow start, and then we had 1 to 3 exams each week for like 6 weeks in a row. I usually feel like I'm just scraping by, somehow managing to finally get a solid grasp on the material the night before the exams. Let me tell you, there have been moments of divine inspiration and intervention in regards to my studies, and I am so grateful for that. I'm enjoying the material, and I'm really enjoying learning. Physical therapy is absolutely the right career for me. It's the perfect balance of academic problem-solving and personal interaction.

Spencer has been doing pretty well with school this semester, too. He has been passing all of his exams. We both know that next semester will require a lot more study time from him, and maybe he should be doing a bit more this semester, but he is loving the time he gets to spend with Melanie. He has the mornings off a couple days a week, so unless he has an exam coming up, he and Melanie get to play. He is the best at doing quality time. She is always giggling and happy when he is around, and he knows just how to get her riled up.

Melanie is doing great. She loves daycare, which is awesome for everyone. She also loves coming home. Some morning or afternoons she gets to be home with Spencer or I. Spencer's mom comes up about once a week to spend the day with her, and she really loves that. As soon as Grandma walks in the door, Melanie's finding her shoes and ready to go to the park or to the Discovery Museum. I love seeing their relationship grow, and we appreciate Mom's sacrifice driving all this way just to spend a couple of hours with Melanie.

Melanie is a yapper now. She loves books, and will take them to us or sit and read them to herself. Sometimes she'll read it to us, too. Her favorite is Fox in Socks, and she'll look through every single book in her book cubby until she finds it. When it gets to the tweedle beetle battle pages, she makes little "blaadablabbblob" sounds by flicking her tongue in and out of her mouth.

She's usually all smiles, but is beginning to be more protective of her things. At church last week another kid was picking up her stethoscope and bear (her two favorite toys), and she ran across the room yelling "MEMANIE! MEMANIE!" As in, that's Melanie's toy! Spencer said she said "mine" the other day, too, but I haven't heard that one yet. Overall she's still pretty good at sharing, but she's picking up a few things at daycare. :)

Melanie loves meat, especially sausage, baths, the children's museum, other kids, being chased, Mr. Bear, her teeny tiny baby doll, books, eating, people, walks, shoes, showing people her shoes, my shoes, putting her shoes on by herself, and finding her clothes and trying to put them on, even if she is already wearing clothes. She's happy and silly, and I can't get enough of her.

School is long some days, and I feel this overwhelming need to see my baby as I leave campus. I can't get to the car fast enough, and her smile when I get to the daycare or get home is priceless. I rarely do any schoolwork between coming home and Melanie's bedtime, but it's better that way. She goes to bed around 8 which leaves me 2 or 3 hours to do it. Lately, I have spent a lot of time thinking back to a year ago and comparing. I do sometimes miss those sweet, lazy, snuggly days with my tiny baby. But I don't miss the hard things about being home. It was easy to feel isolated and it was hard to see my own growth. I loved all the mom aspects of it, but I had a hard time with the individual aspects of it. This year, I feel like I've found a pretty good balance most weeks. I think I'm happier now than I was a year ago. I think I'm still being a great mom. Melanie is happy and healthy, and daycare is so great for her very outgoing personality. I'm grateful for this chance to be in school, working toward a career that I will love. I'm also looking forward to being done with school so I can be home more.

One really great thing this semester has been a bible study that some of the PT students do. I go most weeks, and I usually bring Melanie with me. I am so grateful for their examples of faith. It's nice to connect with others in that way, and it gives me a chance to socialize a little bit outside of schoolwork. In fact, I had some of the girls who go to bible study over last night. We had some yummy food and watched the women's session of general conference from September. I missed it back then, and still hadn't watched it. It was really fun and, of course, the conference was great!

That's about all for now. :)

Melanie's 1st Birthday

Melanie is a ONE YEAR OLD!

That year went by so fast.

Spencer's Mom, Brigham, and Mikayla came to our apartment on Saturday afternoon and stayed the night to celebrate with us on Sunday. I made Melanie a tiny cake and some mini muffins and we threw her a tiny birthday party after dinner! We went to church in the morning, then came home and had some lunch and then made Melanie take a nap. I spent all of sunday school in the mother's room because she finally fell asleep in there, and I knew if I went into the bright hallway she would wake up. So I just sat there, staring at my sweet baby girl, thinking about the year.

Her birthday party was fun! We gave her a cake to smash, and she very carefully poked it once. We tried putting some in her mouth to get her excited about it and she just spit it out like we were trying to poison her or something. Then we gave her a tiny fork and she poked the cake. Then we gave her a slice of the cake and she poked it until it made enough of a mess that it looks like she smashed some cake! She loved having Happy Birthday sung to her though! All day long, that song would make her grin ear to ear. We opened her presents after cake, and she almost got it. She mostly wanted to put her things back into the bag they came out of. Haha

Mom got her some outfits and pajamas for her birthday, and we got her a big red ball. AnnaMarie got her a cute little dolly stroller that she adores and giraffe socks that I adore! Katie painted her a picture of light sabers, and Jane gave her a tiny pink elephant. Thanks to all of you and everyone who sent birthday wishes!

We are so blessed to have her. I thank God every day for trusting me to mother this sweet, smart, happy girl. I hope I am teaching her all the good things she will need to know.

Our one year old Melanie:

• She loves people, and loves to share her happiness with everyone around her. She always has a smile and/or a wave for people going by. It's amazing how someone so tiny can brighten up everything around her so much. 
• She is silly. She loves honking noses. She prefers honking her own nose. She loves playing with doors, especially if there is someone on the other side to knock to. She loves when Spencer sings songs and adds "MELANIE!" in her face.  Ex: "rock a bye MELANIE!! (uncontrollable laughter) in the tree tops. When the wind blows the MELANIE!! (uncontrollable laughter).... 
• She loves giving hugs and kisses. Usually.
• She loves baths! She holds her two rubber ducks, one in each hand, and chatters to herself while she splashes them so it looks like she's having them talk. 
• She is deciding to walk more and more each day!
• She loves broccoli, rice, sausage, lil' crunchies, goldfish crackers, and watermelon! She does like a wide variety of foods, but those are her current favorites. She does not like birthday cake. Or cookies. Unless you sneak little bits into her mouth without her knowing. 
• She likes for things to have a place. She is constantly taking things (toys, remotes, balls) and putting them in boxes, envelopes, cupboards, other toys, etc. She won't spill her balls all over the floor. She carefully takes them one at a time and stashes them. 
• She has been a TERRIBLE sleeper. Hopefully that changes very soon.
• She loves balls. She plays roll the ball, kicks balls, chases balls, fetches balls on command, collects balls into her baskets and pushes them around, kisses balls, tries to make Spencer eat her balls. 
• She is very interested in shoes, knows they go on her feet, and tries to put them on her feet, but feels uncertain about having them on her feet.
• She says: ball, momma (kind of), daddy (kind of), no (said no-no-no-no or nuuuuuuuuuuu to express any discontent, not really to say no)

Someday I'll add the pictures I took on my camera. These are all from my phone. 

Moore Family Vacation 2015!

I have to start out by giving AnnaMarie a big thanks for doing so much of the planning and organizing for our family vacation again! I'm not sure if it would happen without you. Thanks to everyone else for their help with planning, preparation, and efforts to get your family there! Spencer and I pretty much just showed up this year. In the future, hopefully we will be a little more available to help with all the work that goes into it.

This year we rented a big, old cabin in Winter, Wisconsin, near Hayward. I ended up having a surgery the monday before the vacation started, so that put a damper on the vacation fun. I couldn't swim, tube, or golf and I was still feeling a bit sore. We still had fun, though. 

Blogging about the whole vacation is really hard, especially since a lot of the days kind of blurred together. Also, Melanie's sleep schedule was different than the other kids, so I feel like we missed a lot of the action. I'm just going to add some pictures and write down a few memories about them. It was a really great week, and I loved getting a chance to see everyone! 

Hannah adored Melanie and Melanie adored her right back!

This was a popular game. 

Melanie held her own pretty well. And the kids were really good with her. 

Crossing Mighty Mac!

She did pretty well with the drive. 

The only thing we were catching was clams. 

And seaweed. I don't think anyone saw a fish all week!

Pulling the canoe in with the Pontoon boat. I thought they were going to tip for sure, but they didn't.

I helped these two make some fairies. 

Two of my favorite girls!

AnnaMarie got Melanie some birthday presents a couple of days early. A little pink dolly stroller, a painting by Katie, and some cute little giraffe socks!

Those are all from my phone. Real camera pictures will be added someday. Maybe next year. :) Just being realistic. 

Patrick and Ashley's Wedding

Well, I missed Melanie's 11 month post, and I'm really behind on the blog. Pretty typical. I'm hoping to get a post up on the wedding, our Moore Family Vacation, and Melanie's birthday sometime this week, and then just go from there. I'm sorry about all the stuff I missed in between. All the pictures are at the bottom.

Patrick and Ashley got married in Payson, UT on August 1st! Congratulations to them!!

We flew out Thursday afternoon after my lab was over and had a quick, but nice visit. Melanie was a champ on the flights there and back, only crying a little because she just really wanted to do her thing, and we couldn't let her. Thank goodness we had direct flights though! Flying with kids is at least 10x as stressful as flying alone. She gave her best cheesy grins to all the flight attendants and passengers walking by, and absolutely loved the cookies that the flight attendants gave her. :)

We got in late Thursday night, so we just chatted with people a little bit and went to bed. On Friday, Melanie and I got to hang out with my friend Alison and her daughter Lily, who shares a birthday with Melanie! It was so fun to have those little girls together! They were pretty funny. Melanie was a little bit of a punk, greedily stuffing Lily's snacks into her mouth. Spencer and the gang went to the temple for Ashley's endowment session. I also watched Ashley's sister's baby so that they could go without worrying about finding a baby sitter.

On Friday afternoon we went up to Provo. We stopped by the brand spanking new Life Sciences building to see the new version of the office Spencer used to work in and the new DNA Sequencing Center to see Dr. Wilcox. We got to chat with Gale in the office, one of the advisors who Spencer worked for, and that was really nice. And, of course, we got to show off Melanie! We went to the bookstore after that to get BYU game day shirts and some ice cream. Then we tried finding some dinner for Melanie, and I learned that Taco Bell is the very worst. Everything had awful "cheese" sauce on it that was too spicy for Melanie and after three attempted orders, Melanie and I were both pretty much in tears. I went up to the counter yet again and said, "I just need something that my 11 month old daughter can eat that doesn't have weird spicy stuff on it!" I'm pretty sure the poor cashier thought I was crazy. She ended up nibbling and making faces at some tortilla and eating a bunch of gold fish or something. I don't remember. We did a little bit of shopping together and headed back down to Payson to put Melanie to bed and help with some wedding prep!

Saturday was the wedding, and it was beautiful! The house was just a block and a half away from the Temple, and Brigham was brave enough to watch Melanie for us during the sealing ceremony. After the sealing we had a luncheon at Magleby's, which had good food, but was too classy of a joint to have a diaper changing station in their restrooms, so I had to change Melanie's diaper in the back of the car. They are lucky it was nice outside, or I would have changed it in a booth in their dining room. Melanie really enjoyed their breadsticks and noodles, though!

We went back to the house after the luncheon and Shirley and Dave were nice enough to come for a little visit! It was so lovely to see them!

Once everyone else came back, we said our goodbyes to Shirley and Dave so we could help get everything ready for the reception, which was being held in the back yard. We set up tables, lights, decorations, candles -- lots and lots of candles, and prepared the food. There was cheesecake and a chocolate fountain with fruit and things to dip. The reception was just beautiful, and it was so fun to watch Patrick and Ashley. In all the time I've known Patrick, I've never seen him smile so much! They are so sweet together. I hope we have a chance to live closer to them one of these years so I can get to know them both better. I think Ashley and I will be great friends once we get a chance to get know each other a little more.

We flew out again on Sunday morning, and it was back to reality (also known as anatomy) for me. It was so nice to get to see all of Spencer's family and especially to get the chance for Melanie to meet her great-grandparents and other family members. Melanie was just thrilled to see Carrina and Collin, too!