Yo!Yo!Yo!Yo!Yo!

When Mel feels like a homie, she says "yo,yo,yo,yo,yo!" while shaking her hand(s) in the air. Last night was just such a night......

Kitties & Ketchup

Melanie loooves her kitty. She tries to feed Lucas bottles, she pets him, giggles most times she sees him.... and apparently, reads to him.

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She might, however, love ketchup even more than she loves her kitty. She will dip anything & everything in ketchup. Tonight, she was eating ketchup with a spork.... and then asking for "more, please." She then started just asking "please" and pointing at the ketchup. She loved this approach.

Fashion Plate Melanie

Mel's latest shiner

Melanie fell off the bench at the kitchen table on Sunday night, smacking her head on the hard floor. The pain - and the shiner - didn't last long, but it gave us a scare in the meantime! Not being able to find anything "normal" in the freezer, at one point she had sausages on her head, another point, meatballs. I think these were french fries. Melanie's tough - she is always bruising herself, and does not lose much sweat over any of her shenanigans. She was back up on the bench within a matter of minutes.

What?! I'm NOT sleepy!

Melanie has been battling naps for a while now. She does NOT want to miss anything! There are some days (usually, ironically, when I'm here with her by myself), that she will sleep for 3-5 hours at a time. Then, there are days when she does not nap at all. This weekend was one of the latter. She slept to Frankfort on Saturday, and home from Frankfort on Sunday - but was insistent that she was not otherwise sleepy. On Sunday, I tried yet again to put her in her crib with the idea that sleep would soon take hold. Less than five minutes later, Jeff had to go "rescue" her because she was crying & screaming so much. He found her on TOP of her crib!! So, apparently it's time to start thinking about a toddler bed. I'm SO not ready for that! She isn't even big enough to sit forward-facing in her carseat, and she's already (maybe) moving up from her crib?? So anyway, Jeff carried her downstairs, and she promptly fell asleep with him. He, too, actually caught a few winks, since she had kept him up a little bit the night before (she was sleeping, he couldn't - they were sharing a bed at Gigi & Poppy's). He then extracted himself, and she continued to sleep. I only wish someone would be so insistent that I take naps each day ~ what a rough life she has!

15 Years?!

While it doesn't seem possible that I'm old enough to have been out of high school for fifteen years, I guess looking back on it, I have gone through the appropriate life seasons since 1994! College, living in Chicago for six years, the suburbs for two, and then back in Indy for 2.5. Got married, had a baby..... Yep, I guess I'm officially an adult! BUT, not too much of an adult that a bicycle was not needed for my transportation on the night of my fifteenth class reunion!

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Our class is somewhat lazy, so no one (including me) wanted to plan a big hoopla and track everyone down. Instead, we rented a shelter at the TPA Park in Frankfort, everyone brought their own food, and we had a little "family thing." Then, we headed back to Laura's and then onto the Scoreboard, where we met up with other classmates who didn't want to join us at the park. All in all, I saw about 15 classmates or so. About 10% of the Class of '94 - not a fabulous turnout, but fun, nonetheless! It was just a word-of-mouth event through Facebook, so we weren't expecting huge numbers.

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PS - the girl I'm holding in the above photo is my classmate Jennifer's baby, not Mel. I don't think there's any room for confusion, but just in case....

Happy Birthday Charles Joseph

My first and only nephew turned THREE this week (August 11). I can't believe how quickly time goes. Just yesterday, I was sleeping on the floor of the Chicago hospital where he was born, anxiously awaiting the miracle about to enter our lives! We got to the hospital just after work on August 10, and Charlie decided to grace us with his presence around 4am the next morning! He was SO worth the wait (including the wait involved because he was "over"due!) Charlie is a treat to hang out with. He loves to solve mysteries like Scooby Doo, loves his baby sister Sammie and his cousins Melanie, Lola, and Annabelle, and is affectionate & sweet. When asked last Sunday when his birthday was, he replied - very emphatically - it was in THREE minutes! Happy birthday Little Guy! Thanks for being my favorite nephew!!