The Big Update!

Well, I really should be prepping for my anatomy lab that I have later today, but I'm not being productive and blogging is better than being distracted by the rest of the internet.

We have done a lot of fun things over the last 4 months or so since I really blogged. Here's a quick recap:

Mikayla came home from her mission! We were so excited to see her again and for Melanie to meet her for the first time! Now she's back at school in Idaho and we miss her lots.

We had a date night to Culver's.

We used our spring break to go to Minneapolis! Mom drove us there and we split our time between Josh and Katy's family and AnnaMarie and Caroline's families. It was so much fun. Melanie was a great little traveller, except for having a complete blowout in the car on both of our driving days. Yuck.

The three Thornock Cousins! :)

 We went to the Mall of America.

Everyone loves Melanie and Melanie loves everyone!

 Oh, Jane. She's so awesome. Plus, she thinks I'm awesome.

We tried our hands at making homemade asian noodles. They were pretty good. I'll have to do that again some day.

Lots of visits from Grandma and Grandpa.

We went on a really fun date to the Dow Butterfly House in Midland. Melanie was pretty interested in the butterflies and the whole day was just really nice.

 Melanie liked the plants just as much as she liked the butterflies.

 Family selfie! We're getting pretty good at those.

We made a really good turkey breast for Easter and shared Easter baskets.

 Spencer got me this basket as an Easter basket. He's so witty. Plus, we needed a little laundry basket for Melanie.

 She got this pool and all these balls! Plus some stacking cups for the bath.

The weather got nice and Melanie and I spent a lot of afternoons in the grass.

In May, I took a trip to Ironwood with Melanie! She did great for most of the drive, and I'm so glad we went. Spencer had a test to study for that weekend, so we took off for a visit before my classes started up a few weeks later.

 We took a trip to the Temple and Brigham and his girlfriend, Sage, watched Melanie for us so we could do a session together. It was really nice.

We tried Melanie's pool. That lasted for about 2 minutes. She usually likes baths, so I thought she'd be all for this. 

I turned 23. Spencer made me a cake and his Dad took us out to eat at a nice restaurant in town. Melanie enjoyed chewing on Spencer's leftover ribs.

I started my Physical Therapy program!! My first day of first year and Melanie's first day of daycare.

A couple of weeks ago, Spencer finished up his first year of medical school, and that's a pretty big deal! I'm so proud of him! He is a great student and has worked so hard. I'm glad he gets the summer off to relax and spend time with Melanie! So much happened during his first year, from Melanie joining our family 2 weeks into classes to me starting my program a month before his classes ended. He never complains about all the studying and he is always willing to help with things around the house. I can't believe how fast the first year went!

That pretty much sums up what I've missed writing about. I have a lot more pictures, but I'll add them to the monthly update posts that I wrote before.

School has been going really well. It's been so busy, but I've been really happy. Learning makes me happy. Coming home makes me happy. Melanie makes me happy, and Spencer has been such an amazing and supporting husband. Sometimes I feel out of balance, but I'm getting it figured out. I'm half way through my semester now. My pharmacology class is over now, so I just have human development and anatomy left. Human development isn't bad, but anatomy is very time consuming.

Sometimes I'm not sure how I'm managing to do everything I have to do, and I feel a lot of support from my Heavenly Father. Before classes started, Spencer gave me a priesthood blessing and I was reminded that God loves me and knows the struggles I am going to face though my schooling. He promised me that if I keep my priorities straight and remember to pray, that I will get the help I need. I have already felt that promised support and help. I'm so happy to be working toward finishing my education, even though I miss my little Melanie when I'm on campus. My classmates are really wonderful, and I've made several good friends already. Okay, there's more to write about school, but I've got to go get ready for lab, so that's it for now! We're happy, healthy, and growing in all sorts of ways! 

10 Months

Well, Melanie is 10 months old! Last week. :) Better late than never, right?

At 10 months, our little girl is a bundle of happy giggles and squirms. Here are some of her favorite things:

Melanie is usually a great eater. She loves her veggies and likes most fruits now, too. We have been giving her more and more finger foods, and some days she refuses to eat from a spoon.

She's been a pretty good sleeper, but she's been getting up early.

She crawls, bear crawls (if she is on hard floors or is wearing a dress that her knees get stuck in), cruises, and can now stand on her own!! She does squats all day long, so I'm sure her first independent steps aren't too far away now.

Melanie loves music and will usually bob her little head to the beat.

"Dad" is her first (and only) word! On Sunday, Spencer helped to pass the Sacrament and every time he walked by our pew she would watch him and say, "Dad. Dad. Daddy. Dad!" It was pretty cute. And very distracting. She mimics a lot of other sounds and words, but I don't think she's really knows what they mean yet. When we call Dad and I tell her to say, "Hi Grandpa!" she goes "Gaaaamba!". Momma still comes out as "mbaba".

She just cut her second tooth! She now has both bottom incisors, and I suspect she is working on her top teeth.

She did great with Daycare and still loves strangers. Whenever we have people over she is not shy about getting in their faces and demanding they hold her. She has also been able to spend a lot of time with both of her Grand Haven Grandparents this last month. Mom comes here almost every Thursday to watch her for us so we can study (though Spencer is out of classes now, so she just comes to visit) and Melanie loves it! Spencer's Dad also stops by about once a week still, and that makes her pretty happy.

Now that Spencer is done with his classes for the summer, she gets to stay home with him all day, and I think that has been really fun for both of them. She just adores him. When he spreads his arms and says, "Melanie, can I have a hug?" she crawls over as fast as she can and burrows her head into his stomach or gets her little arms around his side and snuggles in. :)

Melanie is a little ball of sunshine in our lives. She keeps us happy.

 She still loves to hang out at this window. She also loves to run away when we are trying to get her dressed.

 She was waiting for some of my friends to come over one day.

 

Sometimes she puts a sock in her mouth and crawls around. Silly girl. :)

 She is interested and a little nervous about Cosmo when we go to Grand Haven.

She absolutely loves Brigham! I love this picture of them.

 Grandpa came to take her for a walk one day! She really loves going for walks these days, too. Just being outside makes her happy. She's usually happy.

 And Grandpa read her some stories. Love.

Her daycare had a mismatch day, so I had fun getting her dressed. :)

 She's messy.

 And she loves it.

 Watching the rain.

 We went to Grand Haven for father's day (Spencer's first weekend after finishing his school year), and we took the boat out!

 Here we are at the dock, waiting for them to come pick us up.

 I like this one. :)

 She has no idea how much everybody adores her.

 She really enjoyed watching Brigham and his friends tubing. I was surprised at how well she did on the boat, but she just held on tight and grinned the whole time.

I am like 4 months behind on pictures before this post and even further behind on regular posts. Sorry. This blog isn't dead, it's just hard to find time for it with everything else going on. :(

9 months

I'm writing this a few days late, as things have been pretty busy with school starting up, but here we go.

Melanie is 9 months old!! I can hardly believe it. She is the love of our lives, and I don't know what we'd do without her. Our 9 month old Melanie:

Is still the cutest thing in the world. At least once a day I look at her and my heart just about bursts from all the adorable cuteness.

She is getting pretty steady with her standing. Sometimes she lets go of her support for a second or two so she can use both of her hands.

She loves to eat new foods, and she is getting better at chewing things. I try to do one meal a day of all finger foods so I can get some other things done while she is contained.

If I am eating anything, she crawls over, pulls herself up on my knees, and makes a longing face at me with big eyes until I share or it's all gone. If I share she just wants more.

She babbles a lot now. She is usually saying "da da da da" or whispering all sorts of sounds to herself like she is testing them out. She still won't say "mama", but " ba ba" and "la la" are common. She also yells, squeaks, squeals, and growls.

Her favorite game is being chased around on our hands and knees.

She loves her big stuffed unicorn and will tackle it if you make it move toward her. Usually as she squeals with delight or growls.

She loves to walk while holding your hands. She also loves going for walks in the stroller. One day Spencer showed her how to kick the white, fluffy dandelions and now she likes to kick and stomp them when we walk by them.

She has a sweet, cautious, silly demeanor. She always will give me a big grin and like to follow people around. When new people come over, she almost always crawls over and wants them to pick her up.

If you build her a block tower she comes over happily, then reaches out to carefully grab the top block. If she can't reach it, she backs off and tries again, like she is worried about knocking over the whole thing.

She is doing well with daycare, but that is for another post. We love her so much!!

I need to add pictures, I know. Someday, but it's late tonight.

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.