A Few of My Favorite Things

About Melanie, of course.

I love when I lean over her crib in the morning (or after a nap) and she just gives me the biggest grin she can manage. I think she knows that we stick around when she smiles.

I love, love, love the way she stretches. I'll have to get a good picture of it one of these days. She pulls her feet up, sticks her butt out, arches her back, and stretches her neck so her head tilts way back. All while making this cute face that makes her cheeks look so big. :)

I love when she has little conversations back and forth with me. She tries her best to copy sounds now, but all she can really do is grunt and say "Oooo".

I love when she looks at me right before she starts eating and smiles so big and goofy that I start laughing, and then she coos/laughs.

I love listening in on the little conversations Spencer has with Melanie.

I love how Melanie always has her mouth gaping open unless she's doing something with it.

Okay, here are some more pictures.

Dr. Melanie. This was her Halloween costume. 

Someone put this bear on a "free stuff" table at church, so I took it home. She likes it. 

She still loves bath time. 

Ward Halloween Party outfits. (Gaping mouth)

(Gaping mouth)

(Gaping mouth)

(Gaping mouth)

(Gaping mouth)

Ooh, yeah! I did this on her wall and I love it!

The mouth. I love it. 

Clearly, these aren't in order. 

The mouth again. :) And just look at these cute Jammies from Grandma Jill!

Spencer's 26th Birthday Weekend

We went to Grand Haven this past weekend to celebrate Spencer's birthday with his family. Spencer's Dad works in Bay City, so we caught a ride with him as he drove home on Friday and back to work on Sunday. That was great for us to not have to drive or pay for gas!

I was so worried about bringing everything we'd need with us. I packed two outfits for each day and like 50 diapers. And blankets and an extra swaddling one in case Melanie exploded on her swaddleme. Well, we were there for a whole hour when Melanie had a blowout on her outfit and it had to go in the washer. She also had a HUGE blowout on Saturday, but I'll get to that.

We got there Friday night and had some awesome soup and homemade pretzels that mom had waiting for us. Then we hung out and passed Melanie around. I hardly had to hold her all weekend! So much, in fact, that I missed holding her and would sometimes just keep her for a while after I was done feeding her. I need my Melanie snuggles, too! (But I'm making Spencer go and rock Melanie for a few minutes as I type this. She's been in the going to bed process for an hour now.)

Melanie slept pretty well Friday night, but she didn't really go down until almost 1. Lucky for us, she slept in so we could too. Spencer and Mom went out shopping for his birthday present - a new winter coat - and I did the baby stuff and made some pizza dough in the morning. Alan (a friend from Ironwood) and Courtney (Alan's girlfriend) came over to the house for lunch! They are in school at GVSU, so it's a quick trip for them up to Grand Haven. We had a good time talking and then playing with Melanie after lunch. It's so fun to see them, and I love that Alan and I can go years without seeing each other and just pick it right back up.

Spencer spent a couple of hours studying Saturday afternoon, and then I kicked Mom and Spencer's trash at Racko. (Later, Spencer kicked all of our trash at Ticket to Ride.) That night we went out for dinner at Texas Roadhouse, which was so good, and Melanie slept the entire time and then some! So we finally woke her up to feed her and change her into PJs before we went to bed. As I was feeding her she filled her diaper, except instead of filling her diaper it went right up the back of her onesie. Seriously, it was such a huge mess. I leaned her forward and saw all the mess that had leaked through to her blanket and just called Spencer in for back up. She was so messy that I ended up hopping into the shower with her while Spencer scrubbed out her blanket and pants and started the laundry. We threw her onesie away because there was no way that huge stain was coming out. We finally got to sleep after that and she did fine for the rest of the night.

That's a little finger mark from laying on her hand in the picture above. 

Church was nice on Sunday. I took Melanie into the mothers' room to feed her during Sacrament meeting and after she ate and got a new diaper on she was in a really good mood. She cooed at me for a little while before I brought her back into the Chapel. Then I gave her to Mom to hold and she kept looking at me and giving me these big smiles and coos. After a while she noticed Mom and then she gave her the biggest, goofiest grins she could with a nice laugh. I think half the chapel heard her.

After church we had a nice roast dinner and birthday cake. We visited for a couple more hours until Melanie started to get tired. I nursed her and then we finished packing up our stuff. She ended up losing it and then I kind of lost it and said we needed to leave 15 minutes ago. She was pretty upset for the first several minutes of our drive, then she basically passed out and slept the rest of the way home. I had forgotten Spencer's birthday gifts at home, so I gave them to him before we watched a show and then went to bed. I got him a sweater and a shirt, which sounds lame, but I think he likes them.

Two Month Old Melanie

Melanie turned two months old on Thursday, and let me tell you, two months is a fun age for this little girl.

She smiles a lot. As long as she's alert and not upset we can coax a smile out of her. My favorite thing is when I lean over her crib to get her out in the morning and she gives me a big grin as I get closer. It is really a nice way to start the day. Once she wakes up she eats, gets a new diaper, and we pick out a cute outfit for the day. Then she usually has about an hour of really happy play time. Sometimes I stay and play with her, but oftentimes I take advantage of her good mood and take a shower and eat while she hangs out on the floor. Once she starts slowing down I swaddle her back up and put her down for a nap before she gets overtired. She has started napping in her crib, which is great, even if her naps are short.

Melanie has been a great sleeper this last week, and I really hope it continues. She has dropped her 2am feeding, so she goes down (for the last time) around 9:30 or 10 and sleeps until about 5, then goes back to sleep for a few more hours. I feel like a new person after nights like that. Some nights we get her down earlier than that and she wakes up a little earlier, but she only has one or two feedings instead of two or three.

She has started showing interest in toys and will bat at this ball thing we have. She hasn't quite figured out how to use her little fingers to grab it, but whacks it with her fist.

She coos every once in a while and it's just the happiest sound in the world. Sometimes she will have little cooing conversations with me. She thinks Spencer is the best and even gave him some giggles one day. I haven't managed to get any laughs out of her quite yet, but I'll settle for big, goofy grins and coos.

Melanie is still a very wiggly girl. She's getting pretty strong and likes to be held in a way that lets her see what's going on around her. She is curious and always craning her little neck to get a better look at something or someone going by. We have put her in the bumbo seat a couple of times and she likes it if she's not in too wiggly of a mood. She hates her swing most of the time, so I only put her in it once in a while. She does like to have alone time on the floor a couple of times a day, though. She will whine until I just put her down and leave her alone.

At her two month doctor appointment she was 23.5 inches long (90th percentile) and weighed 12 lbs 4 oz (75th percentile, up from 50th). She also got her first round of vaccines. She loved the oral one, but those three shots made her pretty sad. We got her some baby tylenol and that helped her feel better that first night. By the next day she was feeling better, but slept a lot.

So, that's Melanie at two months. She's a fun, happy, healthy baby girl and we love her so much!

Now it's time to give her a bath, which she still loves, by the way.

Pictures!

Sometimes we let her come snuggle in our bed in the morning. This day we tricked her and left her there sleeping.

Melanie and I had a lunch date out with Tami one day. 

We got to enjoy the beautiful fall colors on our drive with Tami. 

Her poor legs after her shots.