8 Months

At 8 months old, Melanie...

Is a busy girl! She has started furniture walking, and pulls herself up on everything!

Loves music. Her favorite song is "Shake It Off" by Taylor Swift. When I play it for her she smiles and bounces out bobs her head happily. Anything upbeat will usually get her grooving!

Is usually a great eater. She loves her fruit and vegetable purees with baby cereal. She prefers any finger food over rice puffs, but will eat rice puffs if nothing else is available. She loves to share my food, especially breads and bits of rice or noodles. I hope her chewing skills improve soon, because she always tries to swallow things whole and gags on them. Until then, I will cut bananas into miniscule pieces and try to think of other finger foods that aren't choking hazards!

Has not been sleeping well. It's really just because if teething, but it's hard on all of us. She doesn't quite have her first tooth, but I think it's close!

Needs to be close to me. All. The. Time. I blame this on teething as well. I don't mind too much though. She's good company!

Loves to be chased by Daddy! Her favorite game is to chase him/ be chased by him around our ottoman. She laughs until she falls over, and it is hilariously cute.

We love her so much!

7 Months

Melanie is 7 months old today! And it's been nearly a month since I last posted. Again.

Our sweet little Melanie is so much fun right now. This is definitely my favorite age so far, though there are moments when I miss that tiny, snuggly baby that she used to be.

Our 7 month old Melanie:

• She loves sweet potatoes. She tolerates green beans and carrots. She gags on fruit blends unless they are mixed into her baby oatmeal. Don't even try the baby meats on her. 
• She crawls everywhere! She knows that she can get to things she sees across the room, and sometimes she just crawls in circles for fun. Today she was crawling as fast as she could, just to see how fast she could go. Her arms usually work a little faster than her legs -- except when they don't and she face-plants. Yesterday she was chasing her shadow, which was pretty adorable. 
• She can pull herself up to standing! If the thing she is pulling herself up on is the right height. If it is too tall to pull herself all the way up, she will kneel up tall. She always looks very pleased with herself when she's up. 
• She has mastered the transition from sitting to crawling, and more recently, crawling to sitting. She always has a happy smile when she gets it. I love seeing her so proud of herself.
• Her favorite place in the condo is by our sliding glass door, now that I've been pulling the blinds back during the day. She watches out the window, and bonks her forehead against the glass (on accident, I think). 
• She loves nursing, and if Spencer gets her out of her crib she is happy until she sees me. Then she whines and reaches for me until I'm nursing her.  
• She loves rice puffs, rice crackers, and as of today, ritz-type crackers. Her fine motor skills are getting much better because of it! 
• Sometimes she will give her stuffed animals happy hugs (especially a little beany baby lamb from our neighbor, Sister Graham). 
• She likes to follow me around the house during the day. If I'm in the kitchen, she pokes her head around the corner to find me. If I'm in the laundry room, she's right behind me. If I'm vacuuming, she's chasing the vacuum around the whole living room. She's my little buddy. 
• She loves when Spencer comes home. When she hears the door open, she looks toward the noise and usually keeps watching until he comes into view. Then she cracks a big grin for him and wants him to pick her up. 
• She loves to bounce up and down or take steps when someone holds her hands. 
• She likes to be held and will crawl over to us when she wants us to pick her up, but she doesn't snuggle. She's very wiggly and squirmy, but likes to wiggle and squirm in someone's arms. 
• She has made more than one bare-buns run for it in the middle of a diaper change. 

Even though I haven't blogged for a few weeks, the list above gives a pretty accurate view of what's been going on. Melanie keeps us busy and happy. 

We've been doing a few things outside of our normal routine. We found a daycare for Melanie and have arranged for her to go there in May when my classes start. Spencer will finish his semester in June and will watch her for the rest of the summer, then she'll go back to daycare at the end of August. I'm relieved to have found something. I'm going to have a harder time with her going to daycare than she will. 

We applied for some on campus family housing that I found out about from my friend Rachel. It's new and looks really nice. Plus, it's just across the parking lot from the health professions building, where we will both have our classes. I hope we get into it, but we won't find out until May. 

I filed our taxes already! I usually wait until the last week, but I did it a month early this year. My goodness, I hate filing taxes. I just get crabby trying to find all the documents and understand all the questions. On the positive side, we have a good size return coming in a week or two. Now we can buy plane tickets to Patrick and Ashley's wedding this August and save the rest! We might splurge and go on a date or something one night, too.  

I feel like I did something else, too, but I don't remember. Oh, I finally made my blog book for the first year of this blog. That was a nice excuse to not do other stuff. :) I'll order it when a good coupon comes along. It's waited for 3 year, so it can wait a few more months to be printed. Plus, we don't have a bookshelf to display it on anyway.

We went to Minneapolis, and I need to write a separate post about that. It was a lot of fun, and I'm not sure why I haven't blogged about it. I'm in a blogging slump! I need to get back into it, or I'll miss all the small things that we do. Life is good right now. We're happy. Spencer is studying hard. Melanie is learning and growing so fast. And I'm watching it all happen. I guess I'm learning and growing in my own ways, but they are harder for me to see. It's late, and I should go to bed. Pictures to come. I'll post a notice when I add them to all my posts. :) 

6 Months

Well, our little Melanie turned 6 months old this past Monday. Half a year. The time has just flown by. Each month seems faster than the last. Once again, I am woefully behind with the blog, so here's a catch up and month post all in one.

Spencer had his second set of exams for this semester on Monday and Tuesday, so Mel and I caught a ride with his Dad down to Grand Haven the Thursday before! We had a really nice time, but we missed Spencer. Melanie got lots of playtime with Grandma and Grandpa and Mikayla, and Mom and I got a good start on a quilting project. Brigham even played with Melanie here and there.

We went down to GVSU to go to some basketball games one night. That was fun, but it was way too long for Melanie. And she had a blowout as soon as we got there. Luckily, they had a nice mother's room in one of the bathrooms. I spent the first 15 minutes changing her entire outfit and then washing out her leggings and onesie with one hand while holding her with the other. Some pretty impressive talents come with Motherhood.
We also spent the last 45 minutes in the mother's room so she could sleep. She enjoyed herself while we were watching the game though! And I enjoyed the baton spinner they had for the halftime shows.

We drove back to Mount Pleasant with Mikayla on Monday, and she stayed with us for the week! It was really fun to have her with us, plus she helped with dinner and dishes, which is always great! Every time Melanie saw her, she'd smile and wiggle excitedly. She loves Mikayla!

On Tuesday, we had her 6 month check up. She got her shots, but handled them like a champ. She is still in the 95th percentile for length at 27.5 inches and just shy of the 75th percentile for weight at 16 lbs. 15 oz. She's getting big, and I am having a harder time carrying her car seat around. I'll be switching to her new car seat when the weather warms up.

After her appointment we all went to get lunch at Max & Emily's. I've been craving their sandwiches ever since AnnaMarie took us there. Mmmm.

We just kind of hung out for the rest of the week. There's not a lot to do in Mount Pleasant during the winter. (Or ever, really.)

On Friday after class, we finished getting packed up and headed back to Grand Haven! We are going to Minnesota for the week, but that's a different blog post.

Melanie at 6 months:

Loves her baby food. Usually.

She is very distracted while nursing, and sometimes it drives me bonkers.

She rocks on her hands and knees ALL THE TIME and bumps things with her bum on purpose.

She scoots, wiggles and squirms in all directions except forward, until Friday night, when she put all the pieces together and CRAWLED forward!! (I'm so proud of her!)

If she feels something with her toes as she backs into things, she looks or reaches around to figure out what it is. Or just kicks it, especially if it is a person.

She smiles at everyone, brightening everyone's days.

She laughs when she thinks something is funny, and let's you know when she's over it. There are very few things that consistently get a laugh out of her, and her sense of humor changes from day to day.

Without fail, she is happy to see me in the morning. I love it.

She is a good sleeper, but all of our traveling has thrown her off schedule a bit.

She chews on everything and blows raspberries/spits when she gets excited.

She has started trying to carry things in her mouth. She puts something in her mouth, then lets go and tries to use her hands to move. She almost always drops whatever is in her mouth, but she keeps trying!
She's one cute little baldie!

That's about it for now! We sure love our little Melanie!!

I know I still need to add pictures to her 5 months post, but we're out of town and I don't have my computer with me so pictures will just have to wait for this one too. Sorry! I'll get them up there eventually.

Copycat

Melanie still spends a lot of time on her tummy. She has rolled back from her tummy to back a couple of times now, but doesn't really seem to have figured it out.

Today she was hanging out on her tummy while I was putting her little clothes on hangers right next to her. I got down on her level to watch her and she pushed her little head up all the way to get a good look at me. I sighed and laid my on the floor, smiling at her. She grinned, let out a little sigh and laid hers down, too. I laughed and she popped her head back up, and we did it again.

It was a sweet momma-daughter moment and the first time that I really felt like she was mimicking me or interacting in that way. She's a little sweetheart. No pictures, but I don't want to forget this little moment, so I thought I'd write it here.

5 Months Old

Melanie is 5 months old! I swear every month goes faster than the last. Here we go.

She rolls! But she only rolls from her back to her front, so she's been getting lots of tummy time. I usually leave her that way until she voices her distress.

She understands that she can get to things by rolling, so she is always looking around to see what she can reach.

She gives lots of smiles.

She will purposely hold back laughs when she is being tickled. It's pretty funny to see her squirm, grin, then put on a serious face.

She loves faces and always reaches up to touch cheeks or to grab a nose or lip.

She is much better at manipulating toys in her hands to get them into her mouth the way she wants them. Her favorites are the set of rattles that she got from Grandpa Moore and Sophie the Giraffe.

We have added books to her bedtime routine, and she seems to enjoy them. She at least likes grabbing at the pages and trying to eat them.

Sometimes in the morning she wakes up without crying. I'll hear her kicking her crib or making noises to herself. I peek in to find her looking at herself in the mirror or rolling on her side. She gives me a big grin when she sees me.

She likes to pull on Spencer's beard whenever she gets a chance, and she's getting faster.

A good laugh from Melanie always makes me happy. She usually gives the biggest laugh when she's anticipating the next tickle or "oooga-booga-boo".

In all, she's a little bundle of wiggles and fun. We love her so much.

Check back for some pictures.

Strawberries

Melanie tried strawberries for the first time today.

P.S. I set a very wiggly Melanie down on her back so I could upload these pictures and I heard her filling her diaper. I looked over and she was on her tummy! So there you go. I missed her first time rolling over. 

P.P.S. Don't worry. She just did it again and I was watching. :) 

Sleep Training and Other Less Stressful Things

Well, we've been back in Mt. Pleasant for a couple of weeks now. When we first got back, Melanie was still a little bit congested, so when she cried about being put in her crib we didn't fight it. After a week of her sleeping in her car seat, I decided that we needed to be done with it. We also were going through the transition to not using a swaddle during that first week back, and I think the car seat helped her feel a little more secure than just laying in the crib. Anyway, she was finally sleeping not swaddled, but only in her car seat, so I decided it's just time to take the plunge and get this sleep training thing going.

The first night I tried it she was crying for a while... and Spencer said he wanted to go rock her. I said fine, but she has to sleep in her crib. So he worked his magic and got her to bed in her crib. Seriously, for the life of me, I couldn't do it. She'd cry no matter what I did unless I was nursing her. Some days you just can't win. Anyway, that night when I got up to change and feed her, she cried and cried the entire time I was changing her diaper, which isn't normal, and I ended up putting her in her car seat.

That night was pretty rough for me. I wasn't feeling like super mom. I was also thinking a lot about sending her to daycare and all these other things. (Like how we found out that this spring there will be about 3 weeks of overlap in our coursework, so we have to arrange child care for that and I just don't know what we're going to do yet.) Add letting your baby cry to the mix, and I pretty much just felt like crying all night, too.

The next day I talked with Dad for a while and he helped reassure me that everything was going to be okay. Thanks, Dad. :) I decided to give sleep training another shot, and to not give up on it this time. So, day 1 went alright. Today she is doing better than yesterday, so I'm hopeful that in a couple more days she'll go down happily.

On a happier note, we've done a few things with some of people. We had a game night with Spencer's classmate Len and his wife, Lauren. They are both really nice and I hope we have more get togethers in the future. Friday night we had another game night with a few of his classmates. It was fun and we stayed out way past Melanie's bedtime, but she was happy and charming. She LOVED Zach and just stared at him or grabbed at his face for most of the time we were there. It was pretty funny. I'm always so grateful that Melanie is such an easy-going baby when we go out. It makes me think that we should go out more often, but we don't.

Melanie and I had a nice visit with Sister Graham, who is in our ward and our next door neighbor. She invited me over for lunch and we had a nice time chatting. I helped her use some 3M strips to hang some of her pictures, too. Melanie hung out, gave some happy smiles, and even rolled over for the first time (front to back)! Twice! She hasn't repeated it since then, and Spencer's a little disappointed, I think.

School picked right back up at full speed for Spencer. He's starting organ systems this semester, so it should be pretty interesting for him. I'm readjusting to not having him around all day. He does have a long weekend, with Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday, so that's pretty nice. I'm not sure that we'll do anything in particular, but I'm always happy to have him home for an extra day.