The Tender Heart of a 2-Year-Old

I awoke this morning to the sound of Jeff helping Melina in the bathroom. She was quite chatty as she can usually be this early in the morning. Jeff asked about an owie she had on some part of her body. She told him about it and then said "yes, Daddy, just like Rodney--he had too many owies so he is now with Jesus."

Oh, how that touched my heart. Nearly 4 months later, our 2-year-old still brings up the precious memory of our beloved dog. May you keep that with you always, sweet baby girl!

Thank you, dear Lord, for this wonderful moment today!

Melina Likes to Organize

Just one incidence of many things Melina likes to organize. I was in the kitchen cooking dinner when I stepped away and saw these shapes and car organized very nicely on the step from the kitchen into our sun room.

Water/Sponge Play

While getting ready to leave for our camping trip (Isabelle was sleeping in), I kept Melina busy by letting her play with water and sponges. I used a lot of towels to clean up, but she certainly had fun!!

Melina's First Fish

Jeff took Friday off and we went fishing. We were at one of our favorite catchponds, and as luck would have it, the stocking truck pulled up. We caught many fish with the highlight of the day being Melina able to catch her FIRST fish! After an afternoon of fishing, we got our favorite pizza in Lone Pine, ate our dinner at the park, watched the girls play for a bit, and then headed to Tuttle Creek for some fishing before the sun went down. A busy and fun day!!
One of many fish Isabelle reeled in

"Baby"

A friend of mine due to have her baby any day came over one afternoon. I touched her stomach and told Melina that she had a baby in her tummy. Melina was pretty uninterested and went on with her play. A few days later, my mom and dad watched both girls while Jeff and I ran some errands. When we picked them up, mom and dad told the story of Melina going up to my dad, patting his belly, and saying "BABY?"

Mischievous Mellie is 20 Months Old

Melina turned 20 months old last week. One word that best describes her: MISCHIEVOUS!! (even though she looks like a sweet angel in this picture)

Parenting Tip of the Day!

Yesterday Melina found a piece of modeling clay Isabelle had hidden on her craft table while we were doing school. Well at first she was fine, just walking around with it and calling it a ball (one of her favorites besides shoes!). Next thing I know, she is pointing to her nose and saying "bow" (her word for owie). I quickly put two and two together and asked if she put the clay up her nose. She nodded her head yes and continued to say bow. I tried to get her to blow it out of her nose (she does know how). She weakly blowed out her nose a couple of times but then went back to saying bow over and over. I looked it up on the Internet and most websites said something up the nose requires a doctor's visit. Then, I happened to see a message board that talked about using turkey basters to get lodged objects out of noses. I ran and got the turkey baster, called Melina over, plugged one nostril and inserted the turkey baster into the other where the clay was. Did this twice and nothing each time. Just when I was about to give up, the piece of clay fell out of her nose. Whew, problem solved! Thank goodness, and thank goodness for the Internet..., and turkey basters!!

Melina is 18 months old today!

What words come to mind when I think of our now 18-month-old baby?

active, doesn't sit still, impulsive, loving, sweet, non-sleep-loving, LOVES cheese, adores her big sis, showers kisses upon her Mama while being held or in the sling, kisses and hugs her Daddy's leg repeatedly as he leaves for work, persistent, a CLIMBER, doesn't take "no" for an answer, likes to call her Daddy "mama" (to get his goat I think), LOVES books (will go to anyone who foolishly thinks they can sit down for a moment and take a rest and climb into their lap with a favorite book), still LOVES shoes, loves animals and imitating their sounds, and last, but certainly not least, wants to do ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING her big sis does.

Nap time--yay!!! Mama can get a short break from a toddler constantly on the go!

Melina's Animal Sounds

Pictures from the day I called Poison Control

On such a beautiful fall afternoon, we admired the tree in our front yard, showing some fall colors that are rare in Ridgecrest because of our frequent winds. We had had some extraordinary weather though in that we hadn't had much wind, and therefore, the leaves stayed on the trees.

Here is what I was helping Isabelle with when Melina was innocently behind me eating honeysuckle berries...

No berries on her face or shirt--she hadn't made her way over there quite yet!
After the drama was over, Isabelle painted the snowmen (notice it is already dark outside!).

Poison Control

This afternoon I had to call Poison Control for the very first time in my almost 5-1/2 years of mothering. I made it through unscathed all this time with Miss Isabelle, but lo and behold, here comes Miss Melina who decided to taste the tiny, soft, brown berries on the honeysuckle bush. Isabelle and I were outside doing a painting project, enjoying the last of the day's sunshine
when I turned around ( it was too quiet), and discovered Melina putting a berry in her mouth and had already squished some berries on her shirt and pants. I immediately said, "no, get that out of your mouth!" She obeyed but had her typical devilish grin...She was drawn to these berries and was taking them and making a little pile in the planter we were standing next to. She was near hysterical when I took her inside and cleaned her up, and still sobbing while on the phone to Poison Control. The woman who answered the phone said, "honeysuckle? Wow, must be a plant day--just got a call about jasmine!" Thankfully honeysuckle in the U.S. according to her is nontoxic (the berries can be toxic in other countries apparently), and if Melina developed stomach cramps or vomiting then I needed to call back, but she said she should be okay (and as of this writing, she is fine).

What's funny about this is that a couple of weeks or so Jeff stood looking at the honeysuckle, noticed the brown berries, and asked if I knew whether they were poisonous or not. He suggested that we should find out, but we never got around to it. He certainly knows his little girl!

Melina is 16 months old!

Here is our happy 16-month-old baby who adores her sister, gives lots of kisses to her baby dolls, has an unnatural obsession with all kinds of shoes, passionately LOVES cheese and mandarin oranges, rushes to be outside any time of day, loves to play with balls (even has her own sign for ball), eagerly tries to always pet and love the cat (much to Taylor's dismay, however), and is still not the world's greatest sleeper. We love you, baby girl!!

Melina's "glasses"

Unfortunately, we had to recently replace the frames of Isabelle's glasses because Melina is very quick to grab them off her face. First time she broke an arm off the glasses, we got it fixed, but when it happened the second time, the eye doctor couldn't fix it. She points to her glasses and says "eyes." She does this with anyone who wears glasses, including sunglasses.

Well, Melina takes her teething necklace and pulls it up over her eyes and says "eyes." Her own glasses. She is quite proud of herself whenever she does this. Here she is with Uncle Pat, showing off her "eyes."

Melina is 15 months old!!

On Saturday, October 25, Melina turned 15 months old!



Is Melina's hair strawberry blond? A lot of people think so, especially when she is in the sun; here is a good picture of her hair:

Sweet Sisters!!!

Melina isn't the world's best sleeper. While some may disapprove and shake their heads, we have done what is best for our family, and Melina has slept with me since she was 5 weeks old. This worked out well, as it let me get my much needed sleep and made for a much happier Mama! The co-sleeping proves to be quite difficult, however, when I need to NOT be in bed (like getting up early in the morning to exercise or do my transcription work late at night, etc.). We tried putting Melina to sleep in Isabelle's bed a few weeks ago and it just didn't work out. I couldn't get her to sleep and I just gave up. Tonight I decided to try again (I've been procrastinating because I'm really lazy and didn't want to deal with the initial onset of rough nights associated with night weaning). She fell asleep easily at 7:30 p.m. and has stayed asleep since then (it is now 10:10 p.m.). Isabelle was so excited to go to sleep tonight and sleep with her sister! I checked on them awhile ago and got these pictures. And Melina has rolled at least 3 times since she started out on the other side of the bed. Yay!!! Is it really that easy? I am so excited about this I can't sleep! We'll see what the night brings...Of course, we can't forget good ol' Rodney--he always goes to bed with Isabelle and sleeps on her bed and he was right there with us when I tucked Isabelle into bed. Good boy, Rod!

Melina likes to carry bags

Making Coffee With Daddy

On the weekends, Jeff has a morning ritual with the girls (or whomever happens to be hanging out in the kitchen when he makes coffee is more like it). He started doing this when Isabelle was Melina's age. Melina sits very still on the counter, smells the coffee with Jeff (she says mmmm, mmmm), grinds the coffee, and turns on the coffee pot.

Yes, Jeff is wearing a neck brace in the pictures. He had pinched a nerve in his neck a few days prior and was still recovering.

Morgan Girls

Melina idolizes her big sister...

No, Melina, No---Not Yet!

Finger Knitting

I first read about finger knitting from this book, now one of my favorites, and introduced it to Isabelle about 2-3 months ago. She didn't seem that interested at the time and never asked about it again until about a week ago. I showed her how to do it once more, and even still she seemed a little bored. However, at the beginning of this week, she picked up the yarn on her own accord and started knitting away. She started by finger knitting with one finger and has finger-knitted an entire basket worth of yarn in a few days. I reintroduced her to finger knitting with the entire hand, shown here:

She is very excited at the prospect that her next step will be working with actual knitting needles. Obviously, I'll be looking for a kind friend who knows how to knit!

Just throwing in this cute picture of Melina from this afternoon: