Showing my mommy pride

Today Melly went to swimming. She loves it and it is a very nice class for her and her daddy to spend together. Today in class (the second one of her second quarter) the teacher informed Mr. C that Melly was a superstar and that she was ready to move from baby swim 1 & 2 onto auqatots (which is the bigger kids class!)!!!! I am so excited for her. So not only will she get to learn some new swimming moves she will also have the older kids to watch and learn from! So proud! The teacher also said she will work with Melly on more advance swimming techniques so she will be able to be a superstar in the next class too!

What a girl!

Wonderful Child

A few months ago Melly figured out how to turn somersaults. Mostly by mistake and she was so shocked by it that she didn't do it again...until today. And once she figured it out again there was no stopping her (especially when she was very dizzy). And so, without further ado...

Stress level falling...

The weekly good news...
I have been granted in state tuition!
For those of you who know all about college tuition you will know that the cost of my grad school just dramatically reduced. We are talking $10,500 a semester down to just over $3,000. (Wow!) I had enough financial aid to get me through it at the higher cost, but with nothing left for living expenses... and now even after tuition we will have enough to cover childcare.

I didn't realize how off the chart stressed about this I was until I got the news yesterday.

Now, if only Melly would sleep in past 3am...then we would all be doing a lot better!

No chair is safe in our house...Melly will seek and pull off any sticker attached by the manufacturer in order to keep us safe.

And apparently we need to wear them too...

Sadly, sometimes stickers aren't enough...or chocolate chip cookies...

Childcare *warning, this is a whining rant*

I have to put Miss Melly into childcare again. I have several things I am looking for this time, including state certification. And I have found a very nice lady who has agreed to look after her and her brother, when he is ready for it. And this childcare even costs less than what we were paying in SC. (By just a little.) But what I wasn't ready for was how much it was going to cost to send both babies to childcare. In fact, I had a little mental meltdown last night on how in the world we were going to pay for school, childcare and the cost of living all at the same time. I'm not saying that people who do childcare don't deserve enough money to make it worth their while...and quality costs...But I honestly think that we are going to be paying more in childcare than in rent and bills combined each month. I have no idea how we are going to pay for it, even with Mr. C working and student loans. Yet one more step towards my mental breakdown...

Nightmares

For the past several nights poor little Melly has been waking up screaming in sheer terror. She is so scared that we have had to take her into another room and turn on the lights. Two nights ago she was so upset that she didn't want to be with only one parent...she needed to see us both. What is so scary to a one year old? Are nightmares normal?

What a weekend

So, this past weekend was very fun and action packed. Fluffy came to visit us and it was great. Melly fell in love with her right away and we had a lot of very cute snuggly baby moments. Fluffy sent took some very cute pictures...









Fluffy went home on Sunday. (Thanks for coming to visit!) And on Monday we went swimming...much to the dismay of my glasses which accidentally got stepped on. So Yesterday I had two doctors appointments...One to look at Ian and the other to check out my eyes. I will be getting new glasses next week and I am pretty sure that everyone is pleased to see Ian. So a good (long) weekend!

This up coming weekend we are thinking about going to a lake for some swimming... I wonder how Melly is going to like that... (The baby does not like grass and is afraid of dirt patches.)

The Verdict is in

Here his is... Everyone, please say hello to Ian!


In case you were questioning in any way...here is a clear shot of boy. (A clear view, just like Melly did.)


His foot! Right in the middle of the picture...

Last Night

For those of you wondering, last night was just fine for Ms. Melly and terrible for me. She did fall out of bed, twice. The first time she woke up and cried, but was quickly put back to sleep by her daddy. The second time, however, she was still asleep and her dad picked her up and placed her back into bed with no issues. I didn't sleep at all. I spent the night thinking I heard her or she was about to walk into the bedroom. I kept hearing phantom noises and seeing baby sized shadows. It was terrible. When she did finally get up (at 6:00a) I heard a pathetic little 'ma' and then crying when I sat straight up and called to her. (She was fine, by the way, just confused about the new morning freedom.)

So I just took a little nap while she was taking hers...and hopefully tonight will be better. (Probably not as Mr. C is away on business until Saturday morning.) Oh well. I'm proud of her. I just wish I was dealing with her growing up better.

Exciting day

A very exciting day in the house... Melly now has a big girl bed. We realized that she is wanting to do things for herself a lot now and there is really no reason that we need to keep her in a cage so... Here she is in her first nap in a big girl bed. Mr. C changed the crib to a bed while we were out and when we came home Melly was so excited. She has been climbing in and out of it all day. I wonder what tonight will be like?

Here is my smart little girl coloring. She just loves the pens (mostly because she can pull the caps off and put them back on). I love them because they are the crayola marks only on the special paper pens...so she can't color on everything! Cheers to the little Picasso!

DMV

Well, I finally have my new license plates. That was quite possibly the biggest ordeal I have been through in quite a while.

First, the bank lied to me and said the would fax my title in 24 hours.
Then the bank said, give us 10-14 days.
16 days later they said "well, since you only asked a few days ago, it takes 10-14 days." I called them a liar and told them the dates I had talked to them and sent them faxes. They said, "oh. Well try again on Friday." I asked what happens when my registration runs out and I still can't get a new one because they are stupid. They said "Let us talk to the DMV to get you an extension." I called the DMV and they said they do not grant extensions or provisional registration.

PS my registration expired yesterday.

What have I learned from this? Quite possibly why banks are failing. And for anyone interested, the bank that failed me is Wells Fargo. I am currently looking for another bank to pick up my car loan so I don't have to have anything to do with them every again. I urge everyone out there to never use Wells Fargo for any banking needs. They suck.

PPS I want everyone to remember that being this pregnant makes me unable to control my emotions. So please imagine all of my phone calls with me being so angry that I am crying uncontrollably. Who said pregnancy isn't fun?

Birthday

As most of you know, yesterday was my birthday (and thank you to everyone who called and sent stuff!) and I had a great day. I got to sleep in, had breakfast waiting along with a stack of presents and cards and then got to play with Melly. For dinner I got my favorite sushi (everything was cooked, nothing raw) and a wonderful cake made by Mr. C.

I just love birthdays.

Big surprise gift... a Kindle. (electronics are so cool.)

What's next?

Memorial Weekend

I love Memorial Day weekend. Not just because it's my birthday weekend but because it's three days that mark the beginning of summer. And the weather here was beautiful!

Starting my weekend early I went to the OB on Friday and everything is going fine. The new baby ran from the sonogram just like Melly did. It took a few minutes for the nurse to find him and she was getting the worried look... Melly went with me and was quite a hit. However she was not too pleased when everyone was paying attention to me and needed to sit on my chest when the doctor was examining my belly. I have an ultrasound appointment in two weeks to do the gender check (and counting of finger and toes ect). Very excited.

On Saturday the whole family went to the farmer's market and then I went off to my concert rehearsal. When I came home we did a quick swim (because swimming lessons were canceled due to the holiday weekend.) and then got a picnic ready for our evening concert under the stars. We got there is plenty of time and Melly got to explore the entire area.

She was pretty good for the concert, a little wiggly, but then again she is only 1 and a half... But Mr. C managed to film bits of the concert for everyone to enjoy. Keep in mind he was struggling with the baby and the camera so some moments are a little shaky but he did a great job. My favorite moment is during O Fortuna where the baby is in the frame....ah, my classic baby. I was also informed that when he orchestra played the Theme from Star Wars (The concert was movie themed.) she giggled all the way through the Emperors March. That's my girl.



On Sunday we did little trips...we went to the fabric store to finish Mr. C's pirate costume and then to the mall to get interview clothing for me (I have an interview for a scholarship in two weeks so I need belly friendly nice stuff.). Melly was glad to have a chance to run around.


We went swimming again on Monday and generally just stayed around the house. Until we realized that Ms. M was running a fever...a fairly high fever and then we did a lot of baby cuddling and Tylenol getting. (She is slowly getting better, by the way, her fever broke yesterday.)

Doors

For quite a while now we have been living in fear of the day Melly figured out how to open doors. She has been trying for a long time now, but was always just a little too short. This morning, however, she finally managed to open the bedroom door all by herself and much to her own surprise. I guess it's a good thing we already bought door knob covers.

Smart girl.

Swimming Lessons For Everyone!

As I get a little better with my tech abilities I have figured out how to do some editing and some longer videos. So this wonderful swimming lesson is eleven minutes long... but very cute. Enjoy!

A test of my tech skills

My first Melly youtube video.

Mother's Day

I hope everyone had a great Mother's Day! (No matter if you are a soon to be mom, a new mom, a mom for a long time, or a mom by volunteer.)

I don't think Melly could have been a better baby! I had a great day. And my great day is going to be fun for everyone else...Mr. C got me a flip video. (So I can easily download videos onto youtube and share them with all of you. So hopefully my blog will get a little more tech savvy soon! We then went out to a wonderful brunch. We tried a new place and it was delicious! And Melly couldn't have been better behaved if we planned it! So nice.

Then we went to one of my favorite places int he world...the fabric store! I am making Mr. C a pirate coat for the con we are going to in August and we were picking out the fabric. (Of course my favorite fabric for this was one of the most expensive in the store...but we had a coupon so it wasn't as bad as it could have been.) And then (after the baby was asleep) he helped me cut out the pattern! What a great day!

I hope everyone had as great a day as I did. Hopefully I will get some video posted soon....

Potty!!!

My baby went pee in the potty!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(Yes, I know it was probably just good timing... but she told me "Pee" before she did it and we went in together and sat on the potty together and then she went pee!!!!!!!!)

Ahem.

I'm better now.

Doctor update

At 18 months Melly is...
31 1/4 inches (Mr. C asked me if I realized that this means she is almost 3 ft.)
23.6 pounds
and
coming in with a head size of...19 5/8 inches.

She is sitting nicely just under the 50% for height and weight and her head is growing once again. We still haven't made it onto the curve but one day...one day her head will fit the rest of her! I have faith!

Also, today we declined to get the chicken pox shot. I know that I have talked with some of you about this... I had the chicken pox at 1 week old...and so it id possible that I might not have immunity. So I have opted to wait on this shot until she is older, I am not pregnant and I have had a chance to get the blood test to see if I have the immunity.

Healthy baby. Just what we like.

**WARNING...THIS IS A RANT**

I have been trying to get my car registered for the past few days. On Friday I went in and was told that because my old registration said my car was a lease I needed the title to register it in my new state. No problem I called the bank I have the loan from and the nice lady said she would fax it to me within the next 24 hours. Great.

I went back this morning. No fax. I called the bank again...gee, now it turns out that I need to submit a form...faxed to them...and then they need to get something from my old state and then in 10-14 business days they will fax the title to the new states DMV. WTF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Why was I told on Friday that I would have it in 24 hours if it was going to take 2 weeks?!?!?!?! What the hell!!!

I was so angry that I could not drive home right away. I had to make stops to cool down. Why the h*ll would she tell me on Friday that it was a 24 hour fax when it was a 2 week issue??? I needed this done today!!!

I hate Wells Fargo. I have hated them for a long time and this only makes me hate them more.