Gymboree with Grace

We had a good weekend, before Mel & I started getting sick!  Saturday, Mel's friend Grace came over about 9am, since both of her parents had to work.  Grace went to Gymboree with us, where we also got to play with the girls' friend Aya.  After returning home (with McDonald's french fries, of course), Grace & Mel played outdoors for a while, and then as SOON AS Grace left at 1pm, Mel's head hit the pillow.  Entertaining is exhausting.  Saturday night, Gigi & Poppy came over to play while Jeff & I went to dinner and to meet some friends out.

Sunday was a truly lazy day, since I was coming down with a sore throat.  Hopefully this has now moved out of my throat, but both Mel and I have a nasty cough.  When either of us coughs, she identifies it, but she's getting the word confused with "coffee."

GigiPoppyMollyJulie

Melanie seems to think GigiPoppyMollyJulie is one word - and when she sees one of them, she's eagerly asking about the rest of the pack.  Monday night, my dad stopped by after a seminar he was attending in Indy.  Tuesday night, we were pleasantly surprised by the whole gang showing up - Dad from his seminar again, Mom in town just because it was nice outside and she wanted to see Mel - and Julie/Molly/Matt in town to go to the zoo. 

I was loading Melanie into the car after daycare yesterday (Tuesday), and she was whiney.  So I told her that if she behaved, Gigi would come over (I know, not the best discipline, but whatever).  She immediatly perked up and said "Gigi?"  I confirmed; she immediately asked "MollyJuliePoppy?"  When we got home, she roamed around the house asking "Where's Gigi?"  So I told her that maybe we could find Gigi at the park.  Mel SPRINTED to the park, yelling "GIGI" the whole time.  It was a dirty trick, but I needed to get out of the house, and thought my mom would be able to meet us at the park.  Mel had NO interest in the park once she saw Gigi wasn't there, so sprinted back to the house, and was ecstatic to find Gigi in the front yard waiting for her!  That was only the beginning of the excitement, though, because shortly, the rest of the PoppyMollyJulie equation showed up!

Mel has been talking up a storm lately, and is learning new words every day.  She cracks us up with the things she comes up with, and it's a joy watching her learn!   While taking walks with her, she is eager to identify everything she sees.  At home, she loves reading books and singing songs.  When she has visitors, she likes to pull out each of her toys, one by one, and tell stories about them.

We have been enjoying the last two days of wonderful weather by playing outside, cooking on the grill (Mel joins Daddy by cooking on her new grill on the porch) - and walking to the store, one of our popular summer activities.  We are definitely ready for spring/summer at the Worzala house - including the arrival of the new baby!

BabyW2

Lest we forget about the new baby in all of the hoopla for Melanie's birthday, we do have some updates here too. 

Sunday morning, Cory threw me a beautiful shower to welcome Baby W2 to the world.  Other than all of Melanie's hand-me-downs and three onesies I bought for a total of $3 at Once Upon a Child, this kid had nothing of his own to wear.  Family & friends solved that on Sunday morning!  This child will be very well-dressed, and he also has cool stuff for his room (which is now "done") - and some pretty fancy blankets!  While it threw me off to see all the blue in the decorations & gifts, it was a fun celebration!  Thank you to everyone who came!

Today (Wednesday), I brought Melanie with me to my routine OB check-up.  She kept insisting it was HER doctor we were visiting, but she did great while I met another doctor with the practice.  My appointment was actually scheduled for TOMORROW, but the doc was nice enough to squeeze me in since I showed up a day early!  Everything looks great, and he talked to me about options regarding scheduling my delivery!  Some interesting things to think about..... Also, he confirmed that the baby is still head-down (has been at least since 20 weeks) - and should stay that way. 

Everything is still going very smoothly with the pregnancy; he has started getting the hiccups every once in a while, and he doesn't seem as active as Melanie was, but certainly active enough!  Sometimes I jump due to a sudden movement or weird twist he makes.

Melanie's 2-year well-visit checkup

Daddy took Melanie to the doctor this morning for her 2-year checkup.  She passed all of the tests with flying colors - he got to answer "yes" to the developmental questions that Dr. Megremis asked.  She weighs 22.4 pounds (4%) and measures 33.25 inches (40%).  He advised us to keep her on whole milk;  I had read to reduce the fat in the milk at 2 years - but since she's still so little, he said to keep her on the whole milk.  He agreed that it's TIME (okay, past time!!!) to get her off the bottle.  As of last week, she was down to 2/day; over the weekend we did pretty well, and were at ALMOST 48 hours without a bottle until Mommy caved this morning due to Mel's lack of oxygen from screaming.

Some recent funny Melanie-isms in the meantime....
-On Wednesday, we were sitting in the kitchen having a snack before her birthday guests arrived.  Julie & Molly came through the front door, and Julie yelled back, asking where the birthday girl was.  Just based on Julie's voice alone, Mel screamed "MOLLLLLY!!!!" and ran to the front of the house looking for hugs!

-Sunday morning, she picked up the house phone, pretending like she was talking on it.  She was all jibber-jabber, and then suddenly threw her head back, laughing, and said "MOLLY!"  I guess her imaginary conversation with Molly was pretty funny!

-Sunday night, she handed me a book, and out of nowhere, yelled "STORYTIME!"  While we do a lot of reading, I have never said "Storytime" along with reading - so it's obviously something she learned at daycare.  She immediately knew how funny it was to announce this, and was giggling along with me.

-This morning I was up checking my work email to see if I had been able to get out of my morning meeting so I could take her to her appointment.  I heard her climb the stairs, walk up and down the hallway asking "Mommy??  Mommy??" - and when she didn't find me, she slid back down the stairs.  No fussing, no worries (the computer room had no lights on, and the drapes were still closed; I didn't answer, trying to find out what she would do....)

-The other day Jeff went through the Starbucks drivethrough.  Melanie said "Look! Look!  Trucks!"  Jeff told her she should ask me to get him a truck.  She said "No, airplane!" (her new obsession).  As they were leaving the drivethrough, she asked for french fries.  Apparently we've made a few trips through McD's for french fries for her!

-When she wants you to go somewhere, she motions you with her finger (like "come here") - and says "C'mon Mommy" - or whoever else she is wanting to follow her lead.  She will even tell inanimate objects to "c'mon" - like they're going to follow her command on their own.

...And the party continues!

Melanie's birthday celebration continued over the weekend.  Grandma & Grandpa Worzala arrived on Friday afternoon in time to pick Mel up from daycare (with me).  She was in fine form Friday night, showing off all of her toys & tricks to "Mawmaw and Papaw" (just spelling it the way it sounds....)

Saturday she went to Gymboree with Jeff & the grandparents, and came home to a party!  We had Randy, Cory, Charlie, Sammie, Julie, Molly, Aunt Sandy, Becky, and both sets of grandparents over for the big 2-year birthday celebration. 

Melanie was in hog-heaven having all of the people who love her most helping her celebrate!

She was way more into opening gifts this time around;

but she was NOT into having Happy Birthday sung to her.  She got a bit freaked out and jumped into Poppy's arms. 

Mel's party was Elmo-themed; it turns out a lot of her gifts were too :)  She LOVES Elmo, and we thought it only appropriate that he help her celebrate her big day.

                                       

                                      

She even had unplanned entertainment for her party; a juggler!  The kids followed up this show by demonstrating their own skills of throwing oranges up in the air and letting them drop on the floor.

Melanie played hard all day, and did great with just a car-nap on the way home from Gymboree while the adults ran errands.  We are learning that she eats better when there are other kids around.  So at the end of the night, she & Molly were splitting dinner; they ended up eating 9 chicken nuggets and some Mac & Cheese.  Molly was trying to steal all the chicken - and we told her to share.  She put the pieces back on the plate, and next thing we knew, Mel had grabbed the last two pieces and shoved them in her mouth!  If only eating could be a sport every time we served food, she just may eat more!  She also ate a few of the grapes that Daddy got on sale.  We came to find out, after all the kids had eaten a few, that they had seeds in them!  Well, we made it through a Worzala family event with no one visiting the doctor or the hospital - despite the grapes!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MELANIE!!!!  Watching you grow brings us joy each and every day!  We are SO lucky to be your Mommy & Daddy!!!

Happy 2nd Birthday, Melanie Grace!

Melanie celebrated her 2nd birthday on Wednesday, March 3 with her neighborhood friends Aya & Ellie (Grace was sick), and the added bonus of Molly.  She had a great time, and was more open with her friends than she usually is, since Molly was there.  The girls had pizza and cake, and Mel LOVED it when everyone sang Happy Birthday to her.  She had a dazzled look in her eyes as she looked around at everyone; then we attempted to blow out the candles, but we clearly had not worked on that trick.  I tried to get her to do it for a while, but once her finger went toward the flame, I blew them out for her.  She then hugged each of her party guests and feasted on the cake.

We had been preparing Mel for a while for her birthday - so she would say "Mine birthday" and point at her birthday shirt, or she would practice "singing" Happy Birthday.  She had some birthday books that we read every night, and if she saw her 'birthday dress' that I bought for her (that I later changed to a different dress) she would say "birthday!"  We're now trying to have it sink in that her birthday is over.  Maybe we hyped it up a bit much.