Posted By Heather on November 1, 2009
This past Thursday was trick-or-treat night. We didn’t go house-to-house, but still dressed up Melanie for a little while. Here are some pictures!
Interested in Candy
Sitting on porch
Discovering the mat
Posted By Heather on November 1, 2009
For our first video, we have Melanie walking about 15 steps by herself! She started taking her first steps about 3 weeks ago, and by the 20th was taking 5 steps in a row.
She also loves exploring and climbing, including the steps if we let her! Also, she has a couple teeth popping through on the bottom now!
Posted By Heather on September 24, 2009
Wow, it’s been a long time since the last post! Thought I’d give an update. First, here’s some pics:
Smiling in the Bouncer
Chillin in the Sun
Drinking Some Milk
Fence we use (sometimes)
The first one I took right before writing this post. I got her to smile by saying “Booga booga!” The second is from my cousin Nicole’s graduation party in Michigan in July. In the third, you can see she’s working on holding the bottle herself! She’s able to crawl around pretty fast now, and loves to stand up on everything. She wants to hold both of our hands and walk around. In the last, you can see a section of the 2 sets of a baby-fence to stop her from getting to certain areas. We have one section surrounding the TV in the family room so she doesn’t go pushing buttons and playing with cords. We have another section blocking access to the kitchen, so we can keep her in the family room where we have things basically baby-proof. We have another section set up in the office to contain her to one area while Angelo and I work or play on the computers. It works to keep her contained, but after a short while she climbs up on the fence and complains until we let her out or play with her.
She had a doctor’s visit recently and I think she is 19 and a half pounds. She’s staying at about the 75th percentile in length and weight. Still no teeth yet, but it seems like she’s been teething for months! We’re working our way through more textured foods (#3), and puff cereal snacks. She doesn’t seem very interested in self-feeding finger foods yet, or holding the sippy cup herself. She’d need to use both hands to hold it up high enough. Recently she’s started holding the bottle herself. We thought a 5-oz bottle size would be better for holding, but I think she’s able to hold the 8-oz size when she’s laying in our arms. We’ve taken some video over the past months and I’d like to find one to post. So stay tuned!
Posted By Heather on July 9, 2009
We went to the Columbus Zoo last Friday with Fran and the kids since no one had work or school that day. It was fun to see a few animals, including the baby elephant, but boy it was crowded! We didn’t get to see much because of the crowds and since it’s tough walking around with young children. There is a lot of walking in the Columbus Zoo! But it made me look forward to going again (maybe wait until school starts up again and take off work) to try to see more animals! We should take the back carrier for Melanie too. She did really well, but didn’t sleep for very long. She must have been pretty exhausted; she slept for at least 10 hours that night and took long naps the next day! Click on the following for a bigger picture:
Us at the Zoo
Fran, Heather, and kids
Moose
Posted By Heather on July 4, 2009
Last Saturday some of our family got together to see Ryan and Toni’s new house and have a cookout. It was lots of fun to see everyone again, and to see their great new house and cute puppy! We had great food and conversation, and activities included Playstation, cornhole, and preventing the puppy from biting arms and legs! I wasn’t sure if I should put up a lot of pictures of family, so I only put a couple:
Melanie
Grandmom & Melanie
Posted By Heather on June 17, 2009
It’s been so long since we’ve made a post about Melanie! So I figured I would for Father’s day. She is doing great! She rolled over a couple times at the end of April (front to back), but hadn’t again until June 3rd or so (and then it was back to front only!). Today I heard that she rolled over front to back too. She rolls over onto her stomach during the middle of the night and starts getting upset, like she’s annoyed. So hopefully she’ll learn to flip back over. She’s becoming very active, scooting around (rotating) to find her toys. She does a pretty good pushup, and pushes her butt up too. She loves to stand up (we hold her) and to sit up (does a pretty good job unsupported, but falls forward or backwards eventually). Most of the time she sleeps through the night (but gets up around 5 or 5:30 to eat). She eats about 5 times a day, 6 to 8 ounces each time. She’s also tried pears, applesauce, and bananas. Sometimes she eats a pretty good portion of the solid food, but I don’t offer them regularly. She doesn’t have any teeth yet, but she is drooling and putting things in her mouth! Here’s some recent pics:
Ty watching over Melanie
Melanie sitting up
Posted By Heather on June 2, 2009
Angelo has been suggesting we get a Wii Fit for a while now, and I finally gave in and he went out and bought one on Sunday. I was recording a show on Fit TV, which I could watch for free, so I didn’t think we needed a $250 game system just to work out. But, as he pointed out, the Wii Fit has a personal trainer to give you tips and encouragement, and helps you monitor progress towards your goal. I thought you’d be able to specify target areas and it would suggest a series of exercises to perform in your workout. But I guess that’s one of the features in Wii Fit Plus. I was skeptical that the Wii Fit could really target certain areas, since it can only use the balance board (what you stand on) and the Wii controller to determine how well you’re doing the exercise. For example, it wouldn’t know how well you do sit-ups (the only exercise close to it is JackKnife), and you could cheat on a lot of the exercises. What I didn’t realize is the emphasis it puts on balance. There’s many yoga poses and balance exercises to help improve your posture and make sure you don’t put too much strain on your back or hips when you walk. Since I sit all day at work, and have a habit of crossing my legs while sitting, I need to work on my posture and balance. So I’m excited to exercise every day now, and chart my progress! I think I’m already hooked. Those total fitness workouts on TV won’t be taking up space on our DVR any more (I hadn’t been watching them anyway)!
Posted By Heather on February 24, 2009
When Melanie was first born I thought she looked a lot like me, especially around the eyes. But Angelo’s mom sent us some of his baby pictures this weekend, and I must say Melanie looks a lot like him! I scanned the pictures today, so we can do a comparison!
Angelo - 1 yr??
Melanie - 6 weeks
Heather - 4 days old
I’ll have to search around for a picture of me when I was a little older. But it looks to me that Melanie has Angelo’s mouth and chin at least. Her looks change as she gets older, so we’ll just have to wait and see!
Posted By Heather on February 11, 2009
I wanted to try on the Infantino EuroRider baby carrier I received. It took me a while to figure out and adjust the straps that position it correctly on my torso. It says to just pull on a loose strap to adjust, but it is a little more complicated than that. I won’t have to adjust them again though, until Angelo wants to use it. Then it was difficult getting Melanie inside. I have to unbuckle one side (2 buckles and some heavy velcro), then somehow slide her leg into the opening on the other side (while supporting her head of course). Then buckle it up again, making sure her head doesn’t move around too much. The wrap-around head padding seems a little spacious to rely on it for supporting her head. She shouldn’t be too young; she fits the weight and length requirements. She started crying as soon as I tried putting her in, but that was probably because she was hungry. I had to have Angelo help take her back out, so I think it might be a two-person job. I’m sure we’ll get the hang of it and be able to go on some nice walks together!
Trying on the carrier
Posted By Heather on February 11, 2009
Today Angelo and I received our U.S. Passport Books. We applied on January 23, so they only took a few weeks to arrive. We decided to get the books rather than the passport cards since the cards are only valid for Mexico, Canada, the Caribbean, and Bermuda. With the passport books we can go anywhere! How exciting! When we applied for the passports, they kept our birth certificates, and we’re still waiting for them to be returned to us. They were sent separately.
