Learning Emotions

Melanie has been cracking us up lately; she's been learning the facial expressions for various emotions.  We've been working on sad face, mad, surprised, happy, "thinking," (we're stretching it here - she keeps asking for more), tired, etc.  She won't always pose for the camera with them, but here are a couple I've captured. (sad, mad, happy)

Rough start to the week

Monday, I wasn't feeling well and stayed home from my small group gathering.  While we were eating dinner that night, Melanie pulled what she was eating out of her mouth and proceeded to get sick all over her plate.  She was understandably pretty lethargic the rest of the night, and surprisingly passed up an opportunity to sleep in my bed.  As I was putting her to bed in her own room, I showed her the trash can she would need to use if she felt sick again.  She walked over to it, threw up a few times, and then went to bed.  She slept through the night, seemed fine the next morning, and the only remnants of the illness are the stories she tells us about getting sick.

Tuesday morning, as we were all getting ready, Joey fell and cracked his head on the side of the bathtub (wood siding).  After I calmed him down and took him upstairs to change his clothes, my fingernail cut his arm.  Rough morning for the little guy.

Tuesday evening while Melanie and I were at gymnastics, Jeff was reportedly on his "death bed" - and he was sick all that night.  I slept on the couch to avoid that.  Wednesday he felt better, and by Thursday he seemed to have shaken whatever it was he had.

If this is the worst that happens, we are doing allll right!

Don't forget me!

Mr. Joe has made leaps and bounds lately. 

While he seems to be once again getting up each night for a bottle, he is now pulling up on his knees, and also getting pretty darn close to sitting up on his own (can sit up from his mild boppy prop).  He is also finding his knees more and more often when he's "scooting" around - leading me to believe he'll be crawling on them soon.

He is, just this weekend, moving from his multi-cat-naps each day toward two long naps.  One time I went to get him up from his nap this weekend, he was sitting up, leg through the crib slat, just waiting.....

Aunt Cory felt his teeth coming in this weekend!  That explains the fussiness and drooling.  He has also been a star at dirty diapers - most recently spraying Mommy's pants and the carpet.  Fun times.

His cough persists, so hopefully a round of antibiotics can clear this up once and for all!

We Love Cousins

Melanie had a fantastic time on Saturday playing with her cousins Charlie & Sammie.  It's so fun to see her so comfortable with Randy, Cory, Charlie & Sammie, although she only gets to see them every month or two.  She did a great job despite no nap, and I think Joey loved hanging out with a boy!!

Sunday, Melanie enjoyed a day with Molly and her new friend Emily (our family friend, fifth grade).  Of course it took Mel a while to warm up to Emily, but it was great girl-bonding while my mom, Julie, and I cooked all day.  During the day, Melanie learned the word "cousin."  I loved hearing Mel and Molly shout it back and forth while they played.  And by the end of the day, Mel was asking for Emily, letting her carry her around, and calling her her friend.

We love cousins.

Doctor updates

Both the kids have had their flu shots, and so we have a new weight for Melanie.  On 10/29/10, she weighed 24lbs, 6oz.  Joey, on 11/4/10, weighed 16 lbs, 4 oz.  The 11/4 visit for Joey was to follow up on a cough that he can't seem to shake.  He otherwise seems to be just fine - but I realized the cough has been lingering for several (okay, like six?) weeks.  Dr. Megremis did a full check-up, and then sent him down for chest x-rays.  I got a call later that evening that everything checked out just fine - so no pneumonia, but also no foreign objects fed to him by his big sister!  I'm just to continue monitoring the cough, and call him on Monday with any updates.  We are very thankful for healthy, happy kids!

Happy Halloween!

So I think we're on the hook for trick-or-treating in the future!  Melanie is figuring it out.  Next thing we know, she'll figure out where Mickey Mouse lives and learn about Chuck E. Cheese.  Hmmm....
I worked with Mel this year to teach her about the costume part of Halloween, so that she could pick her costume, and help pick Joe's.  Melanie was a ladybug and Joey was a bumblebee.  Once she finally made up her mind, she did a good job sticking to it.
The weekend started early for Melanie, as she went to Beef & Boards ("The Little Mermaid") with Gigi, Aunt Julie, and Molly.  She did all right, but got scared toward the end.  The verdict is that she was likely scared by the big, loud king who was yelling at the mermaid "Melody."  Easy mistake!  She sat out the end of the play in the lobby with Gigi, and had fun playing with them for the remainder of the day.

Saturday, Melanie & Molly went to a costume party at Gymboree.  They were both really into the activities, and had a great time playing together.  As you can tell from the photos, Mel's costume apparently got a little cumbersome for her while playing.

Sunday, we went to the "Pumpkin Path" at ZPC, where Melanie warmed up her trick-or-treating skills.  I love how Melanie is holding onto the baby carrier strap in this picture.

Then, we had to wake her up from a nap to go to the neighborhood Halloween parade.  I struggled with the decision to wake her up, but she'd been looking forward to the parade all weekend.... I think it was worth it!  She got some candy there, and then we trick-or-treated at Paula & Tom's (Paula had made special cookies!) and then went home to welcome our own trick-or-treaters.  Melanie shocked us by being completely excited about handing out candy to all the kids.  During any lull, she would announce "I want to see more kids."  Every time the doorbell rang, if she wasn't sitting on the stairs waiting for the kids, she would beeline for the door to see who was there.  It was awesome.

That's right, I didn't get a good photo of both the kids together in costume.  Maybe I'll try again this weekend.  The family picture was going to be a good one - both the kids were complying for a few minutes, but other kids kept running in front of the camera, so Mel lost interest.

Another highlight of the weekend was that both kids napped at the SAME TIME on both days.  Magical.

More brother-sister love

Melanie was very bummed that Joey wasn't awake this morning when she left for school....they always go to school together!  But since Joe had a doctor appointment at 9am, I took him after the appointment.  On the way to school, Jeff asked Melanie to guess how much Joey would weigh at the doctor.  Her answer "as big as a shark."  When Jeff asked her if she knew how BIG a shark was, she said, "That's silly."

The first thing she said to me when I picked her up today was "Joey not here, Mommy."  I had to explain to her that he came later; she was soooooo excited to see him.  These pictures were captured after school and before gymnastics.  The empty basket ending up on Joey's head was not his idea.