Update- sorry it's been such a long while!

Alright, so I figured I needed to do some updates so here we go. No pictures this time, but I promise I will get them going soon.

First off, Dustin recently took on a second full-time job and has been gone more often then not, but he is such a strong and wonderful man to take care of our family the way he does and we are so proud. He works with adults who have disabilities, and cares for them in their homes allowing them to have independent lives. He works so well with them and I couldn't be more proud. It has taken some sacrifices but we are just grateful for the blessings it has provided.

I am still working at Wings and have been here for a year now and am loving it!! Next year, Melody will be able to come with me to work and enjoy the benefits of socializing and also getting an hour of play at Planet Kid a day! It's an amazing job and I am super lucky.

Speaking of Melody, she has now started to walk and we are so excited to see her take off! She is in developmental therapy and is thriving. She says the following words now:

Hi

Mama

Dada

Ace (Nana and Papa's dog)

This

That

Hat

Yay

Hi Dad

Ouch

Baba

That is pretty awesome considering that just a month and a half ago she was not saying a single word- pretty cool!

She smacks her lips when she wants something- anything- and loves to clap at anyone willing to say 'Yay!' She is an amazing sleeper and clocks in 11-12 hours a night plus a 2-3 hour nap. In a few short months she got a full set of teeth and has enjoyed testing the new set on mom and dad (never been out of anger- she thinks it's funny but still bad) and twice it's happened when another child stuck their finger in her mouth. (Yikes!) She is in nursery now and loving it. She does really well considering she is a bit behind the other kids, and gets along really well with the only other girl in her class, a 22 month old little girl. Her hair is coming in now, and I am having to regularly trim the back until it all grows in fully (I don't want it to grow in to a mullet) and the top I'm able to put in to pigtails and other cute styles.

I got a calling in church as the librarian and I am actually pretty excited about it. It came in the nick of time since Melody can go to nursery now!

We are doing super well and are happy and overall healthy. If you are reading this, I appreciate you still checking our blog :)

Smiles,

Lynds

Randomness :)

These are some random pics of Melody, without a real reason for some, just a few cute ones :) Have a great day! Most are her playing at Planet Kid where I work :)

I have to explain the one above. Melody has gotten her top teeth in (as Dustin lovingly calls them, rat teeth) and has been chewing on the furniture like some type of animal...HAHAHA :)

She loves to sneak in to the office and try and play the child sized acoustic guitar :)

Chocolate Costco muffin :)

She started cruising the furniture!! :)

No Hair, No Cares

So I have been wanting to do this for a while but I decided it was high time to do a bit of a hair blog. I work at a day care and one of my major pet peeves is to see little girls whose moms are fixed up to the T and their daughters come in looking like they havent had a bath or a comb through in days. This to me is sad. My mom always did my hair when I was little and though sometimes I fought her I was always happy to look 'cute' and she made it so that we enjoyed having our hair done. So when I found out I was having a girl, I vowed then and there to make sure she always looked girly and as though her mom took care of her. I don't really buy it when people say they can't do their kids hair for this reason or that. You can at least comb it out or curl it, you don't have to put it in a ponytail if they won't keep it in. Sure we all have our days where we don't have much time but I've made it a goal to always make the time, because I think it's important.

Anyway, I thought it would be fun to post some things I have done with Melody's notoriously thin, barely there blonde baby hair to show you that it can be done!

The Karo Bow

When Melody was born she had a surprising (well to me, I was bald at birth) amount of baby fine white hair. It was literally platinum blonde. It was so cute but as a newborn you dont want to try anything, that would be a sin. Plus it all fell out in her first month of life. So for a long time we did the 'Karo bow'. It's simple. Get some ribbon, make a bow the size you like, and secure it on the head (middle, either side, near the front) with a dab of Karo syrup. We had a very small tupperware which we used and also a q-tip to apply. You don't want too much. Luckily this stuff is water-soluable so when you want it removed you just wash it out. It doesn't take much water.

Variations:

Karo bow with a fawk.

This works perfect for babies with a little peach fuzz on top. Same as Karo but use styling gel or even water and gently bring the centers together.

Karo with side slick

Same as karo bow, but this time put the bow to one side of the head and with gel, slick all the hair on the top of the head toward the side of the bow. Looks really cute and put together.

HEADBANDS

To me headbands are also another cute way to girlify your baby. The tricky part is if they can pull it off, which becomes a safety issue. At that point, just stick to the karo bow.

There are several types of headbands we used..

Pantyhose headbands- these are made of a pantyhose material and either come with a bow on (my sis in law Jenny made this one and a few others for me) They are stretchy but only to a certain point. If they leave any indent it's time to get rid of it.

Crocheted headbands- Probably the best for versatility and comfort. Easiest for them to pull it off, but you can't beat them for the other reasons. I got like 30 different colors off of ebay. Truth though, I haven't used them all. You can get really creative though. I made this attached clip for the dress she wore. That's easy too, message me if you are curious :)

These elastic ones appeared after I had Melody and I discovered them after she grew out of headbands. But I think they are adorable and very chic. You can get them on etsy. They come with flowers already on them. I imagine they'd be easy to make too. If I have another girl I will look in to this, or when Melody is old enough to not want to rip her headband out.

These premade ones work only on SMALL heads. I think Melody was maybe 4 months old in this picture. You don't want to put it on a bigger head because it cuts off circulation. They are not very versatile either because they come, for the most part, in pastels.

This beaded headband I got at Fred Meyer in a pack. They are super comfy and you can slide an alligator clip in to it so it makes it versatile. I could almost always match her outfits.

So those are really the options for NO hair at all besides, obviously, hats if you like them. But it will start growing, and soon! Once it does you can graduate to Level 2 hairstyles. I was lucky in that Melody grew hair in the center top. If you baby grows only on the sides, you can adjust (do a pony in the back and karo on the top perhaps?) or cut it until it grows out evenly.

LEVEL 2

Clip with Slicked Down Hair

This is good for if they have some on the top. It doesnt take a lot of hair to go in to an alligator clip and it does stick pretty well. Grease down the hair on top in to point then slick it down and stick the clip in.
The Sprout

One of my favorites but it will take practice to do it quickly, and pain-free. You will need little elastics (Walmart has good ones). You gather the hair first, position your hand on the top of the head and KEEP your hand there to steady the rubber band. Like I said it takes some tries but soon it's second nature. You can do the sprout alone or attach a clip (alligator) to the hair directly in front of the ponytail that's been pulled taut. It stays better this way. You can attach it to the sprout if it's full enough (doesnt take a lot of hair to be full enough)
Piggytail sprouts!

Make one sprout and divide in half. If you can, use hair from either side of the head secure the ponies as far from each other as you can. Add bows! :)
For whatever hair style you hair, gelling the back is cute too if your baby has hair or curls back there. Melody's hair is a funky texture and doesnt always stay curled.
Single sprout without added clip
Ponytails with flower clips and bangs slicked down
One more of ponytails.

I will let you all know when we reach level 3. She is getting more and more hair every day. Hopefully this gave some good tips!

Long time, no blog!

Hey everyone, I am sorry I haven't blogged in so long. I want to get back in to it. This is one of our family pictures that we were able to do in our photoshoot in Utah! We had a wonderful tim, and the pictures turned out great!

Melody is now one year old and doing so great! She is crawling (army crawling) now and starting to pull up on things. She does well on her feet but since she has been slower in her physical development I think it will be a while before she walks. She has been 3-5 months behind on both large and small motor skills. We have been told she will catch up fine though so that is encouraging. She also just learned to feed herself which was so nice!!

As far as mental/emotional development she is right on track. She waves bye bye, claps, and mimmicks certain things we do. She can say mama, dada, baba, yay, boobah (the name of her lovey), 'inky' for binky, and does kissing sounds. She also SINGS! Yes, it is too cute and must be seen to be understand. I say "Melody can you sing?" and she begins to, well, sing. I am trying to get a video of it but so far she is elusive. She is a joy to have around and though she has been sick as of late and teething (the two top are coming in) she never ceases to make us smile!

I am on Dustin's laptop but I will get pictures up soon, especially when we do Christmas. I have gotten it all ready and we are excited because she knows how to tear the wrapping paper off the gifts now so at the very least she'll love that part!

I got her a new fischer price dragon toy that encourages walking. I am excited to see her use it!!

Happy Holidays to everyone! Will post more soon!

Father's Day and Nana's Camp

So this is going to be a very pic-heavy post, but the last couple of weeks we had Father's Day and we just got back from a weekend at "Nana's Camp" where Dustin's mom has all the grandkids come stay at the cabin for week of fun, crafts, games, etc. We were only able to stay a day and a half because of work schedules but we had a great time!

Father's Day was fun for Melody and I. Daddy got some much-needed presents. New undies, shirts, and socks! I know, not the coolest gifts but like I said much needed!!! He also got a few treats :)

Here is Melody with daddy's gifts! She liked to help him open them. I am excited to see how she opens the gifts on her first birthay...it's only 4 months away :-S My baby is growing up too fast!

Daddy opening his first gift!

Then, as said before, we had Nana's Camp this past weekend. It's annual so we are excited for Melody to go next year when she can be a little more involved. Some of the activities while we were there were tug of war, which was so funny to watch. Of the 13 grandkids, 11 are boys and they all had fun trying to win!

Everyone tie dyed shirts (well, the kids) and parents did the tie dying for the kids who were too young. They turned out really cute!

There was a water fight which was very funny to watch and all the kids were drenched by the end!

Then, on Sunday, we had a little 'cabin church' meeting and sang some patriotic songs. Melody waved her flag while we sang the star spangled banner! I wanted to upload the video but it was too long!

It was so nice to enjoy the beauty of the cabin on the 4th. I hate to post pictures of me because I was under the weather and looked and felt crappy but it's for memories sake :) Melody was so cute waving her little flag around!

Melody was able to see and play with some of her cousins that we haven't seen in a while! She is closest in age to Greyson, and they sat and batted at each other's faces a lot haha :) Greyson would probably have been more interested if she could crawl around and play but she just sat there smiling or staring at him :)

Landon was so cute with her. He kept saying "Hi baby!" in his cute little voice and trying to give her his toys. All her cousins are so cute with her!

All smiles after eating some mango and pears

She loved the mirror in the bathroom!

I love those chubby cheeks :)

The weekend held a few firsts!

First time feeding herself with the bottle!

First sink bath---she loved it

First time getting and staying in the crawling position

This wasn't a first but I thought it was hillarious. This is the dreaded "captain's chair" position but her little thighs are so strong she sat in this position for a few minutes! It was so funny!

Family pictures with Nana! She's wearing the tie dye shirt she made!

I love this one! Melody and Nana

An upclose picture of Nana with the kids. Melody kept grabbing at Carley's hair

Nana's Camp 2010: Success!

All the grandkids!!

On the way home, there was an accident in the mountains. They had life flight and everything so we ended up waiting an hour on the road, but Melody had some good quality play time with mom and dad!

It was a great weekend!!