These pics are basically all taken with my phone. Lovely quality! I don't care though and they are too sweet to pass up! Here you are sweet Melody, just hanging out with Daddy in our bed. You LOVE to play in our bed. So, take a look at the pic below. You see that face? THAT is how you are 99% of the time. Seriously! You are always happy and sooo easy going. You are still my cuddle bug and are VERY MUCH a momma's girl. Addison is still a daddy's girl! Thank goodness we have one of each! You always want me to hold you for a long time right after you wake up. This is usually a hard thing to do cause we typically have to be getting dressed to go somewhere. Thanks to you my arms are the strongest they have ever been!
One day we went to Best Buy to find Daddy a birthday present. It was early in the morning and we had just dropped Addison off at school. Since the store was basically empty, I just let you roam the aisles. Oh wow. Honestly, that was the first time I've ever let you do that. You are always permanently attached to my hip and I've just basically accepted that. (I love it by the way). Anyway, it didn't take you long to figure out what to do. You tore that store up and I just let you. I was right behind you picking up everything you pulled down. You were pretty ticked at me when I said it was time to go!
Again, hanging out in Mommy and Daddy's bed. Notice that pillow behind your head? Yep, you were pretty happy and didn't move a muscle! You ADORE pillows. You will bury your head in them and roll all over them. We have a castle in the playroom that we stuff full of pillows for you. You will run in there and just throw yourself on top of them! When I was little I had a special pillow that I carried EVERYWHERE with me. I would suck my thumb up against it. That love affair ended when my mom just threw it away one day out of nowhere! DEVASTATED! So in a way I would love for you to pick up the pillow habit.
Your hair is starting to get OUT OF CONTROL! I'm not talking texture or anything like that. It's just that you REFUSE to keep a bow or rubberband in that hair! We aren't "bang" people, so there is this side swept hair that is constantly in your eyes. It drives me crazy!! I'm really hoping you grow out of it soon. I can usually sneak a bow in if you're distracted, but within 5 minutes you will be running up to me handing me that bow! This day I was able to sneak in some pigtails. I believe these were the first ones. Gosh they're cute!
You have seen Addison in the corner many a time and you will randomly go in it and punish yourself for no reason at all. Bless your heart. There will be plenty of time for that in the future! The only time we have to get on to you is when you purposefully take something from Addison that you know she loves. We watch the whole thing go down. You will sit back and plan your attack. Then all of a sudden you sweep in, take the toy and run for your life! You will be screaming the entire time you run away. It is seriously the funniest thing ever! As you take off, Addison will be right behind you screaming your name. There is never a silent moment in this house! Sometimes you won't feel like running from her and you decide to face her head on. You will take the toy and as she starts yelling at you, you will look her straight in the eye and chew her out! We can never understand what you are saying but it is clearly an argument. It is in complete baby talk but you know exactly what you are saying and are determined to stand your ground. I think it's good for the two of you to have this:)
We've been taking more walks lately since it is warming up. Actually we never really had a Winter this year (weird). I always tell your Daddy it's "Global Warming." Not sure I believe in all of that but I just like to say that around him cause it makes him mad! There is NO WAY he believes in that stuff. He thinks it's ridiculous. Oh your Daddy.......how I am crazy about that man. I have been ever since day 1. He is my best friend and can make me laugh like no other! I need to do a full post on him!
Addison, if you had it your way, you would spend every second of every day in "Mommy and Daddy's bed." You love to eat goldfish and drink lemonade while watching Dora or Diego. They just mesmerize you.
I have to talk a minute about Melody and the carseat. If I ever give you a snack in the car, you will take it out of your snack cup piece by piece and put in your cup holder. I never really see what's going on until I go to get you out of the car and there are a TON of goldfish floating around in your cup holder. AHH! I can't ever give you a drink while I'm driving cause you love to take the straws out, the lids off and find certain ways to pour it all out. You also love to strip in the car. Any article of clothing that can be taken off (socks, shoes, bows....) will always be within the first 15 minutes of the car ride. It would probably be easier for me if I just wait to get you dressed once we reach our destination! Seriously....I've thought about it. You just really don't like accessories!
But Addison could wear this scarf everyday! Totsie made this for you and you love to sport it all over the house.
Daddy turned the BIG 30 on January 25th! Oh my gosh!!! It's a pretty big birthday and a lot of people dread it but we have talked about it and we are both very excited about it. There's so many wonderful things in the future and so much to always look forward to. This is a great time in our lives and we are SO BLESSED to have two of the sweetest girls in the whole world! It's going to be amazing watching y'all grow over the next 10 years. I definitely think the 30's will be better than the 20's!!!
So, Matt loves cookie cakes like no other but Addison can't have them cause of the peanut allergy. Therefore, I made a cake so the girls wouldn't have to miss out on anything. Don't you worry, he still got his cookie cake (a double doozy to be exact). Addison is so pumped that it's Daddy's birthday! She sang to him all day and made sure he never forgot it was his birthday!
This little lady is so into everything. I told Matt the other night that we need to either put locks on all the cabinets/drawers in the house, or empty every single one! You are always pulling everything out and dragging things all over the place. It really is funny and keeps you very busy. You are just so curious and need to know what everything does.
You are still not that interested in books and learning. I only say that cause I can compare to what Addison use to do. She was soooo into all of that (still is) and we would just read for hours when she was your age. You will sit still for about 3 books and then need to get up and move around. You would just rather be testing the limits to see how high you can climb on something or try to figure out how a certain toy works. I was spying on you through my car mirror the other day and caught you dancing to an Adele song. You were really getting with it and my heart just burst with pride! You don't really care to watch movies in the car or TV in the house. You just wanna dance to some good music!! You are a very light sleeper. (Well, I guess it depends on the time of day). At night, Matt and I do "rounds" as we like to call them. We go check on you girls and cover you up one last time. WELL, Addison can sleep through anything cause we usually lift her up and position her in the center of her bed. She will sometimes look at us and go right back to sleep. Then we tip toe to your room and the second we open the door, you will sit up immediately! It's like you were never even asleep! We always have to run out of there and never get the chance to cover you up. I am usually laughing like crazy at this point. I tend to laugh way too much when I know I'm suppose to be quiet! In the morning it is a different story. Addison is up by 7 singing in her bed waiting for us to come get her. If we are super quiet, you like to sleep until 8. I LOVE that!
For Matt's birthday we did a "house swap" with my parents. Genius idea! We went to Ruston and they came here to watch y'all. It was really neat for us and kinda like going on vacation (FOR FREE)! We showed up at their house and they had all these gift certificates to where Matt wanted to eat, cake, balloons, presents.....you get the picture. We started at Johnny's that night. Obviously. There really is just no other like it. The next day we went to Monroe for massages. Those were amazing! That night we ate at Rabb's and went to a movie. After that he said he wanted to throw some darts at Rabb's. I went along with the idea cause it was his birthday but ended up having a great time! We were there before midnight so we beat the college crowd. We almost stayed to hang out and reminisce but we were exhausted! HOW did we use to do that?? I kept saying,"It's 11:30, do you realize this is when I would be putting on makeup to go out?" Weird weird weird.
We played 3 games and I won one of them. Just had to add that for documentation purposes! Poor Matt had to explain over and over how to play the game. I kept saying, "Just give me the dart and let me throw the thing!"
Addison sporting one of her new spring dresses. She loves dresses like this and really throws a fit when she has to take them off!
Not sure where you learned this floor pose but it was well thought out I promise!
Very cute!
Melody still loves to cuddle before bedtime. I of course let her! We give you a cup of milk (with the straw) before bedtime and let you sip on that while watching Sesame Street or The Backyardigans. Matt will sometimes insist that he give you the milk cause he knows we will cuddle and laugh for way too long and he is pretty much a drill sergeant when it comes to bedtime. It's just hard for me to put you to bed when you are so very lovey.
Right before bed we usually let Addison "Walk for Skittles." Sounds funny but is great therapy for her. You will either hang out in my lap or I will go put you down for the night.
Since the injury, Addison has some extra tone in her legs that cause her to walk on her tip toes. She wears braces to help pull her heals down and maintain her range of motion. The goal is for her to one day no longer need the braces!! At night we do alot of walking without the braces. We try to provide things that promote a natural stretch to get those heals down! The latest is a ruler! We just taped it to the bottom of her shoes and she is unable to come up on her toes or she will fall! She does great at this and is very capable of putting her heals down. She can even do it barefoot. She just has to be thinking about it to make it happen. If she gets excited and gets to going fast, up on the toes she goes. It's gonna take a ton a patience but if we think about where we started, this is soooo not a big deal!!!! Have to put it all in perspective!!
We get a skittle of every color and make you go from the front door to the chair and back for 1 skittle. If your heals come off the ground we make you start over! Right before you eat a skittle, you name the color, count how many there are (in english and spanish- you can count to 8 in Spanish) and tell us that you are taking away one and therefore there are so and so many left. We figure why not make it educational too?? You're a rockstar!!
At the last Baylor appointment your doctor really started talking about botox. They have brought this up since we were discharged but we refused to start with something so invasive. We wanted to let your body heal and see how far it would take you. Well, you have come sooo far and your physical therapists here totally agree with us. They have been watching your progress over 9 months and they see you 3 times a week and can tell a dramatic difference. Since your progress is considered very speedy, we have a hard time doing the botox. Your calves are very tight which causes the tip toeing and that is where the botox would be injected. If we are to do it, the goal would be to give the muscles in your shins a chance to strengthen (since they are currently being over powered by your calfs) and also give you the chance to make walking with your heals down a habit. Botox only lasts 3 months and there is a chance that your calves would tighten up again. Even if they do, our hope is that your shins will be strong enough to pull your heals down and you will have a strong enough habit of keeping them down so that we won't have to do it again. With all that being said, we still are against it at this point and really think you can do this on your own! Botox is being used for all kinds of things nowadays and that's great and all but I don't want it on my baby! It is a TOXIN and not even FDA approved for children- even though they have been using it for the last 25 years on kids. It will be a very hard decision to make if we go through with it.
We had your parent/teacher conference 2 weeks ago and all I can say is WOW. Your Daddy and I walked out of that school beaming with pride! We had thrown around the idea of letting you repeat Pre-k 3 because of the injury. We talked to your therapist and also your teacher. The first thing Mrs. Blanchard said to us was, "Y'all have NOTHING to worry about". She has been quizzing the kids individually the last few weeks and seeing where each of them stand. We talked for about 45 minutes and it was only suppose to be for 15! She loves you sooo much! She told us not to say anything but that you were at the top of the class and would be very bored and frustrated if we decided to hold you back next year. She then told us some of the things they will do in Pre-K 4 and we all completely agreed that you had to move on. You are definitely ready! It's funny cause she said there are times where she is teaching something that you already know and you get so bored and just quit listening. Then if she teaches something you have never heard of, you are all ears and very focused. I talked to your Occupational Therapists about all of this and she said there are some things that you are behind on motor skill wise. I kinda thought that was weird and decided to tell her what your teacher said. Then she went, "Oh yeah, she is off the charts cognitive wise, but needs a little help with things like sissors, lacing beads, etc." She said that you are "Amazing" and for the type of injury you had it is just incredible at the progress you have made. She said that she would never hold a child back for motor skill delays if they are on track cognitively. So we are thrilled as can be and are 100% sure that you are ready for Pre-K4! Some things about you---you are happiest when you're learning. You always want to learn something new. You are constantly flipping through books acting like you're reading or playing with flashcards with shapes on them or doing some sort of puzzle. You also love to color and paint. You are getting really good at staying in the lines and putting the right colors where they are suppose to go. Anytime we need you to sit still for awhile without our help, a coloring book can always do the trick! You will try to memorize a book and will always say,"What's that say? What's this say?"Then you will sit by yourself and read it over and over and over the best way you remember it! Your memory is so amazing. Another funny thing- you LOVE to wear my bra! You will ask to put it on and I will start to do it and you get so mad and say, "NO! Under my shirt!" You want to wear it just like every other woman does. Yikes. Matt always says, this is too early for all of this! Lately, you have been getting sooo hyper before bedtime and nap time. I know it's just your way of keeping yourself up but it scares us! You will get really careless and start laughing and falling all over the place. We just shut all the gates and keep you off of the hard floors and get you to bed as fast as we can!!
On Daddy's birthday, I left super early to go get him his favorite doughnuts! Krispy Kreme! He was pretty excited and so were you!
Melody surprised us that day and said, "Happy Birthday Daddy!" She doesn't put that many phrases together so that was pretty amazing to us! I'm sure she's heard Addison say this a time or two!
Y'all were sooo ready for this cake! Addison was basically panicking! You LOVE some chocolate!
A funny fact about me.....I think it's absolutely necessary to put the right number of candles on your birthday cake! I just think it represents so many great years and when you lean over to blow them out and make that wish, it's just special to see that many twinkling lights looking back at you!
Melody enjoyed some of the chocolate action!
Daddy showing the girls what they got him. He's been wanting updated pictures of the girls in his office.
On our way out of town to do the "house swap" we stopped by Great American Cookie Company. We picked that double doozy up and we could barely get it in the car before we dug in! Oh my goodness!! Oh and for the record, we ate the whole thing by ourselves that weekend. That's right. That's how we roll. Go big or go home!
Melody is serious about her spaghetti. It's pretty much guaranteed that she has to have a bath every single night. The way she eats is just hilarious! And sometimes we think, "Oh wow, she's still pretty clean, no bath tonight!" Usually that's when she will take a handful of bananas and rub it all into her nice clean hair.
