2007 Easter

 

 

Melanie - Month 4

Melanie had her four month doctor's appointment on Tuesday.  She got another round of shots, and she handled it great.  I'm sure these visits will get harder as she gets older and starts to realize what's going on, but for now, she's a pro.  She took two before she even let out a whimper.  She weighed in at 12 lbs 15 oz, and her height was 24 3/4 inches long.  So, she's still on her curve for weight at the 50th percentile, and she's shot up to 75th percentile for height.  We're hoping the height thing keeps up, and that she'll take after her daddy in that respect. 

Melanie just finished her second week at daycare, and is doing just fine.  Everybody in the place knew they were getting a new baby named Melanie last week, so they've all been eager to meet her and they've all been really nice to her.  They all say she's a very happy baby...and she does seem happy everytime I go to pick her up.  Mark is the dropper-offer around 7:15, and I'm the picker-upper at either 3:30 or 4:00.  I just got approval to work from home Thursdays and Fridays, so on those days I can go get her a little earlier, which is so nice.  This week, she has started playing with her feet a lot.  She's also going to bed at night sooo good now!    I think going to daycare during the day wears her out pretty good, and then she's ready for bed at night.  We give her a bedtime bottle, then we read her a story, then we say goodnight and put her in her crib.  She falls asleep on her own in just a few minutes.  Because she's going to bed earlier now, we actually have time to eat dinner together in peace and watch our shows.  It's great!

These pictures were all taken about a month ago at a park near our house.  We're still working on getting the settings just right on our camera, which is why some of them look like they were taken in the 70's and some of them look too white.  We'll get it right, though, by the time she's ready for her really cute pictures when she starts walking!   

Melanie - Month 3

Back in January, it snowed for the first time in a few years here in Atlanta.  Mark missed the first snow when he was in LA,  and I was in Auburn with Mel.  Much to our surprise it snowed again that weekend.  It's such a rare thing in Atlanta that we actually got excited, bundled Melanie up, and ran out in the yard to snap some pictures.

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Can't you just see how much Melanie enjoys the snow! 

 

So when Melanie's nose got pink we decided to warm up inside, but the little ham just wouldn't let us put down the camera.

Melanie - Month Two

Melanie is growing fast!  We went to the doctor Monday, and found out that she was 10 lbs 5 oz and 22 1/2 inches long.  That puts her in the 50th percentile for height and weight.  She's consistent...that's where she fell on the chart when she was 20 weeks in my belly!  She's been smiling for the past few weeks now, which is awesome.  While I was entertaining her in the doctor's office the other day, I even thought I heard her laugh a couple of times.  She can hold her head up for short periods of time when she's on a shoulder, and she now coos in addition to grunting.  She's not rolling over yet, but we're practicing.  She still likes to gnaw on her hand more than a pacifier.  She gets prettier every day.  She still has her headful of hair, which seems to be trying to turn blond, and her eyes are still blue.  I've been working on trying to get her on a schedule since I'll be going back to work January 28th.  I don't feel great about it at this point, but hopefully things will get on track in the next couple of weeks.  She still wakes up once during the night to eat, but I'm used to it, and can go back to sleep pretty easily.  Getting up during the night like that doesn't really make me feel that tired now, but I'm sure it will when I have to go back to work..............Here are some pictures we took of Melanie this weekend.  Check out her stylie baby legs!

Christmas and New Years 2008

Hope everyone had a good Christmas and New Years!  We started our Christmas tour the Wednesday before by attending Wesley and Grace's Christmas program at their pre school.  They both performed in style, and we were very proud of them.

As soon as that was over, we drove to Auburn to spend a couple of days with my family.  We made Christmas cookies, as is our usual tradition... Melanie even got in on the game.

Anita made the winning cookie.  Mark won last year, so he said he'll have to up his game next year to regain his title!

Our cousin Harrison got a baby roller coaster as one of his Christmas presents.  We've never seen him laugh so hard!  It comes with this little car that you ride down a small, hilly track.  The video is histerical.

Christmas Eve, we drove back to Atlanta to spend the night and do Santa Claus with Mark's family in McDonough.  Somehow, we didn't end up with any pictures of the kid's stash.  I think Mark was busy manning the camcorder that morning. 

Christmas day, we drove to Warner Robins to spend a couple of days with the Mark's grandmother and visit with all the rest of the family there.  We made sure everyone got a chance to hold Melanie.

It was our usual Christmas tour, but since we did Christmas with my family early, we were able to spend more time at each place.  We were also able to spend more time visiting this year because of my maternity leave and the time off Mark saved up.  We really enjoyed not having to rush around this year. 

We spent New Years Eve at home with Trey, Kelly, and their two shelties, Riley and Haley.  We cooked shrimp and grits with jalapeno cornbread.  It was awesome!  We watched the Auburn/Clemson game (Peach Bowl/Chick-fil-A bowl), which was interesting to say the least, considering the new offense.  Thankfully, we pulled off a win, which capped off a good night for us.  Melanie stayed up with us to ring in the new year, although she was in and out of sleep between her feedings.   

You can see more pictures from that week in the 2007 Christmas album on the left!

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.