Well, It Is Official!!!!!!

We got the postive test result on Friday the 13th- Melanie was born on Friday the 13th- of course it had to have something to do with a holiday in this family!


This was the setup I had for Clint. I took a test while he was in the shower one morning b/c I was forbidden to take too many tests this time around. (I did anyway- what Clint didn't know didn't hurt him). He came down for breakfast before work and I had this set up. I gave him baby shoes with Melanie's birthstone when I found out we were pregnant with her.

Most of you know this already...but... WE'RE EXPECTING!!! Baby #2 is on the way. It is due March 23, 2008 (Clint's mom's birthday!). WAHOOOOO! I didn't want to put anything on the blog until we had our first "official" doctor appointment. We had the ultrasound today and everything looks perfect. For those of you that have seen me lately you know I am already starting to show. I started showing soooooo much sooner with this baby so I was convinced there was more than one baby camping out- but as it turns out just one. The ultrasound machine is new since Melanie and it was amazing. We got to see all of the baby's parts and watch it move around. When we had Melanie's ultrasound at this point she just looked like a bean. This baby looked like a baby. I am 10 weeks 1 day right now. The pregnancy has been relatively easy. I was SUPER tired but I think the worst of that is over. I realized it is much harder to take a nap once you already have your first baby! I had some nausea- but I only got sick once (at Popeye's- how gross!). So, enjoy the pictures!

Neighborhood Festival

We made cupcakes Sunday night





Getting on Emerson, the horse

Playing in the inflatable jump thing

Playing with silly sunglasses
This past weekend our neighborhood had a festival and Melanie loved it. It was SUPER hot but other than that it was a blast. They had food, a clown making balloons, a DJ by the pool who had little dance contests for the kiddos (Melanie earned herself a stuffed monkey), tons of inflatable jump things and a horse to ride. It was really exciting to do so many different things. Enjoy the pics!

Back to Work

Peek a boo- sticking out her tongue

She loves to hang and do her gymanstics tricks on bars

With baby Carol Sue




Dancing in her crib at my parents


Playing across the street from my parents with their grandson
Well, as you have probably figured out due to my lack of posts I have gone back to work. I am working part time this year which is going to be amazing. The past two weeks I have worked close to full time dealing with pre-planning week and getting the first week and our job sharing schedule all figured out. I am very excited for the upcoming week!!

Melanie is getting smarter every day. She can count 1-8, skip 9, and then say 10. She knows the shape circle and will say "Circle, around....stop." So cute!! She knows some of her colors. She pretty much always gets orange and purple right and she is getting more accurate at blue, red, green, pink, white and yellow. She still loves her babies and her newest game is naming them all. Her favorite baby at our house is "Kimberly" at her nanna's it's "Baby Grace" and at my mom's it's "Carol Sue." She is so funny. I will offer suggestions for names and she will say "no, no, no" until I come up with a name that suites the baby or animal. She has a beanie baby named Casanova and LOVES that name- so silly! Her favorite food right now is salad- who would have ever thought that? She also loves fruit. Her newest thing to say is "Goooo dogs, sick em, ruff ruff." I don't think she has a clue what she is talking about but when she sees a Georgia "G" she will say the cheer. :)

I have posted a ton of cute pictures. Pretty much the whole month of August worth of pictures.

Play Week

Melanie dancing to "Hot Dog" her favorite song- on the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse


This week Melanie has enjoyed playing with her friends Caroline and Drew. I watched Drew Wednesday morning. He was sooooo good and as you can see quite photogenic. However, Melanie was NOT. I positioned them and told them to "smile" which Drew promptly did and Melanie did the opposite. But, they loved playing together. Then, Caroline, Drew, and Melanie played together most of Friday. Amy watched Melanie in the morning and Clint and I watched both Caroline and Drew that evening. Melanie was worn out by bed time!

18 month check up/ Vacation

Clint and I at Adrienne Bower's Wedding








Friday we took Melanie for her 18 month doctor appointment. Surprisingly it went better than her 12 month. Melanie only cried when the doctor checked her ears and obviously when she got her shots. For whatever reason she hated the ear check more than the 3 shots. She loved the band aids though and called them stickers. She had pulled them all off before we pulled out of the parking lot. Melanie weighed 25 lbs 2 oz (56th percentile) and was 33 1/4 inches tall (89th percentile). She is getting talller and thinner (if you can consider her bubble belly skinny). I love her doctor. He answered all my questions for me. I have this fear of her in a big girl bed and her roaming the house while we are sleeping. He said I can leave her in a crib until she figures out how to get out- right now she has no clue. I read in magazines how babies should go to the dentist as soon as they get their first teeth and my mom (who works at a dentist) tells me I am crazy and kids don't go to the dentist until they are 3. The doctor sided with my mom. He said unless Clint and I had awful teeth there is no need to go until 3. He checked on her diet (which I think is pretty good). He made sure to remind us only 4 ounces of juice a day and only 2 sippy cups of milk a day. We are great with the milk and we water down her juice a TON however he said just put juice in one of the sippy cups and the rest for the day need to be plain water so she gets used to the taste. Melanie does not love that plan. She only likes water in the bottle (like the Aquafina bottle- not baby bottle) not so much in her sippy cup. So we are trying. He said her molars are coming in now also. Holy cow- the teeth never seem to stop!!!

Clint and I got back from the mountains yesterday. We had a wonderful time. We were bored after a while and needed Melanie and Shelby back around. But, it was nice to relax and the place we stayed was beautiful (and huge!). We shopped around one day but it was mostly antique stores, which as you all know is not my pick! We went to see Harry Potter at the most run down podunk theater I have ever been to. Clint and I appreciated the theaters in Gwinnett for sure! We hit a terrible rain storm one night driving to a restaurant up a mountain and thought we would never make it and I was sure we were going to be eaten by bears getting in our cabin each night from our car (I am soooo out doorsy...yeah right!). We went fishing and didn't get a bite but we laughed a lot after getting caught on rocks. We were happy to get back to our little girl though. All of her grandparents said she was great!

New Pics

I LOVE this picture!!!!

Clint's dad sent me these pictures that he took of Melanie a couple of weeks ago. She loves to cook with her Nanna. I get an "F" on being a mom the past 2 days....I am sooooo addicted to the new Harry Potter that I have not been the best playmate. Every time she gets into an activity I see it as my chance to pick the book back up. Clint and I are going to the mountains this weekend so I should finish the book up and get back to being a normal/involved mom again. Enjoy the pics!

Melanie's Fun Games

This was a forward roll that she learned in gymnastics



Melanie is continuing to be so much fun. We have a lot of fun every night just sitting on the couch and unwinding. Melanie loves to give hugs and kisses at this time (notice in the pics).

She continues to be obsessed with her babies. I bought her a playpen for her babies but she likes to put them in a laundry basket with blankets and pillows better. She also likes to get in the basket (as you can see in the pics).

We included a couple of shots of Shelby b/c she is getting left out of the blog these days.

Enjoy the new pictures!

GREAT Week

Melanie after her hair cut enjoying her first lolipop. They had all kinds of "doodads" in her hair- it was cute.

We have had a great week. Monday morning Melanie went to gymnastics and is continuing to improve. Her shining star moment occurred at the beginning. The teacher has us all sitting in a circle and was giving the adults the following directions, "since there is a small number of students today we will have each one come to the center of the circle and do a forward roll while their parents introduce them." Well the next thing I know Melanie is in the center doing a forward roll. She heard the teacher and followed the directions- WAhoo! Both of Clint's parents and my dad came to watch and Melanie was showing off for everyone. We went to get her hair cut later that day. I recommended Snip-Its on 124 for anyone in need of a kid haircut. The people were wonderful and it is the neatest little store. Melanie had a great time. She just got a trim to kind of even things out. Overall we have had a really fun week just hanging out. The cutest new thing Melanie does is "tell" stories. Her top 2 go like this....
Mom (me): Melanie what did you and Nanna see on your walk? A big...
Melanie: Mess
Me: What was in the mess?
Melanie: Box
Me: What was in the box?
Melanie: A cat, jump, jump!
Me: A cat jumped out of the box! What did you and Nanna say?
Melanie: AAAHHH!

Story #2
Me: Melanie, what was in Chris and Aileen's back yard?
Melanie: Oh, no
Me: Oh, no what was it?
Melanie: A bird, tweet, tweet
Me: A bird? What was wrong with the bird?
Melanie: Oh no, bird, nest, oh no
Me: What happened?
Melanie: Oh, no, toe
Me: Oh, no the bird hurt it's toe?
Melanie: tweet tweet
(the baby bird was no longer in the nest and had a hurt leg and couldn't fly very well)

We are having conversations!!!

Potty training is continuing to go well. For whatever reason she is doing better at initiating pooping. For peeing we are still on me taking her and hoping to catch her at the right moment. But, she understands when she needs to poop and will freeze and say "potty, potty" and we run to the bathroom and sometimes she will then go (before I pull down her pants) and sometimes she will make it to when she sits down. I was so excited last night. She stood up in the bath, pooted, and then said "potty" and made it to the potty. Thank goodness! I am tired of cleaning poop out of the tub. It seemed to happen every couple of months and I was over it!

Overall things are going quite well. We almost made it one hour at dinner last night. Clint is learning to eat much faster- he used to enjoy his food. I explained how now food is for nourishment only- eat quickly so we can finish before the behaviors begin!