Say Cheese!

Melanie's favorite time of day is morning.  We don't really know who she got that from, because it sure didn't come naturally from her mother or me.  We've been trying to take advantage of this time by playing with her while she is so alert.  We were playing with her Monday morning and she got really tickled and started smiling at us!  Big thing for us since we've been on the lookout for anything resembling a smile for over a week.  Since she was in such a good mood we sat her up in her little bumbo chair and started snapping.  We did our best to capture a few fleeting images.  A couple of the best shots are out of focus, but that's what happens when you try to catch a childs reaction on a camera with red-eye reduction on.  We shot a couple yesterday on my camera and they came out a little more in focus.  For some reason the shots on my camera made her hair look a little redder than on Joanna's.  It makes Joanna happy to see the red hair come out since she think Melanie has so few of her features.  I see Joanna all over her face, but don't question a mothers instincts.  Just look at that little booger, ain't she cute?

 

While all of this is very entertaining for us, Melanie was getting bored. 

Sweet Dreams

Melanie slept throught the night last night!  She ate at 10:30, and didn't wake up to eat again until 5:00.  I woke up at 3:00 and started to worry that something was wrong.  I peeked in on her, and made sure she was still breathing, then I went back to sleep.  Who knows if we'll be as lucky tonight.  But, it was really cool that it happened at all!  Here's a couple of pictures we took last night.

Melanie - Month One

Well if we thought it was hard to find time to post new entries before...now its seems almost impossible!  I do have a lot of time that I'm sitting on the couch now, though...feeding and rocking Melanie.  I guess I just have to learn how to type with one hand!  Things are going good here.  Melanie is growing, slowly but surely. She's a petite little thing!  You can tell that she feels a little heavier, though, and her face and legs look a little chubbier.  Mark went back to work again this week, after having been off for 2 weeks.  After two weeks back at work, he'll have another two weeks off around Christmas.  Having him here was great.  My mom went home after a couple weeks with us, then we went to Auburn the week of Thanksgiving.  Once we got home, it was great having Mark here at home with me.  He did some work around the house, like running electricity to our crawlspace/basement.  Now we have a second refrigerator down there and overhead lighting.  That's Mark's "man-space", so he's happy to finally have good lighting to work by.  So, he was working, but if I needed him to hold Melanie or watch her while I ran out of the house, he was available.  Now, it's just me, Melanie and the dogs.  We're doing pretty good.  I just have to let go of the idea of getting much done.  It's definitely all about her, and not about me being able to get chores done around the house.  Daisy and Lucy are feeling kind of neglected.  Lucy still gets to sleep in the bed (of course!), but other than that, they're playing second fiddle.  A crying baby takes precedence over a crying dog.  Daisy has taken her frustration out on us a couple of times, though.  Twice, we've left the house to go to the grocery store, and she's managed to pull bags of bottles down off the counter to try to eat them.  Not too much damage was done, though, once she figured out it wasn't cookies.  So, here are a few more pictures we've taken of Melanie this past month.  Enjoy!