...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.

Happy First Birthday, Melanie Grace!

"The days are long and the years are short" is sooo true, no? Not ALL days are long, of course, but while you're in the moment, it doesn't feel so much like time is flying. Then, suddenly, you wake up and your little baby girl is ONE YEAR OLD!!! It has been a blast watching Melanie learn everything over the past year. When you catch her at a good point, she'll even hold up one finger to tell you how old she is!

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Miss Melanie is now in 6-9 month clothes, size 3 diapers, and says the words "dada," "hi" (nonstop), "kitty," and something that sounds an awful lot like Sh-t. Over and over, of course. She continues to be very happy, and very active. She likes all food put in front of her - particularly if she can feed it to herself! Bananas are back into the favorite, after a brief stint on the "possibly allergic" list. She fluctuates with her formula intake, and is currently in the boycot stage, so we struggle to get 20oz a day - although she, as her daycare provider reports, "is the first to start eating and the last to stop" for table foods. She's in a clingy stage where she doesn't like to be left - especially by Mommy or Daddy. She's developing a longer attention span, and the thing that makes her giggle the most is getting Lucas riled up. She's moving to the next car seat (still rear facing) since I can't bear to carry the pumpkin seat any more. She sleeps through the night, with a bottle at about 5am or some such time when I am not aware of the time (she has a fabulous Daddy who takes care of that!) She is starting to get to one looong nap a day rather than two shorter ones - except, of course, at daycare. She claps most anytime she hears music - even if it's a church hymn. She continues to LOVE bathtime, her silky, and her favorite toys are a choo-choo train, Tad the Frog who sings to her, her Fridge DJ, a caterpillar that plays music, a horsey on loan, her kitchen, and the stacking rings. She has eight teeth that we can see (middle four on top and bottom)

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The above photo was taken at the house today, but we also got professional photos taken. If you're reading this, I'm sure you'll be a lucky recipient of one of the 85,000 wallet pictures we got with the package :) In case you can't see the writing on the dress, it says "Birthday Girl" with a cupcake above it.

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We're looking forward to celebrating with the immediate family this Saturday with, of course, monkeys as the theme!