Good Video

The video below is hilarious!! See if you can spot Holly saying, One, Dada, Cat and Again. She also laughs like crazy and kisses the cat.

Holly learns about ICE!

Here are some pictures of Holly during our recent ice storms.

Sharing with Camden

Here are some pictures that Johanna (the twins' Mom) took at our Oatmeal Playdate yesterday. It was at Alec's (Kristin is the Mom) house.

Below is one of Camden (one of the twins) and Holly sharing. It's hard to tell who was doing the giving and who was taking (I bet it was Holly taking from Camden), but either way it was peaceful and sweet. I love the lighting and they way they look so beautiful.

Kindermusik had to be fixed!

Well, we LOVE Kindermusik and we love Mrs. Sheila (our teacher). Yesterday was our first day of Kindermusik for the semester. We are doing a sign and sing class. I'm really excited about this class and learning the signs with Holly. She already uses:

Clean-up
All-done
Bath
Potty

We take our class with some of our good friends, the twins (Camden and Grayden) and Lily. In fact most of the class is composed of people I call friend and babies that Holly recognizes.

There was one bad thing -- there was this terrible little girl that kept being violent toward our babies. She actually PUSHED Holly. Her Mom didn't even correct her. Boy, I wanted to knock her mama's block off! I managed to be civil. But I did point it out to her ... she said "Oh" corrected her daughter, then said "she's never done anything like that before"... well that's BS b/c the whole class had just watched her do it to Grayden and Camden a few minutes before!

Of course, Holly was in tears, I don't think she realized what happened -- hopefully, thankfully. That is the kind of behavior that if these babies see too much go uncorrected they might think it's OK. It almost seems catching. We would never allow Holly to act like that. I know I can't protect her forever, but I will as long as I can.

Anyway.... three of us (Sherri, Johanna, and I) had conversations with the teacher about it and she is going to ask the girl to move to a different class. I'm really glad Sheila (the teacher) addressed our concerns quickly. I really appreciated that.

Burrrr!!

Wow is it cold! This morning we bundled Holly up and took her outside to "walk" on the ice -- which she hasn't ever seen before. We waited until the sun was out, but before it had a chance to melt the ice. Holly liked walking on the crunchy grass -- she was very puzzled by it. Then we held her up (we were in the grass) while she "walked" on the ice on the sidewalk -- she loved slip sliding around. She was mad when we went back inside.... but it was just too cold!

Kissing her favorite toys

The latest super-cute thing that Holly does is..... If she likes a toy (i.e. her stuffed kitty) she kisses it over and over, while making an adorable smacking noise. I'll have to see if I can get a video of her doing this.

Socks in the Toilet & our friend Megan (or is it Eggin'?)

Yesterday Holly deoposited four pairs of socks into the toilet -- before I realized what she was doing! Little sneek. She loves to play in the sock drawer... always good for at least 20 minutes of entertainment while I get ready in the morning. Above is a picture of Holly wearing one of Mommy's socks -- she's convinced they belong on her arms instead of her feet.

We went to story time at the library yesterday. We hadn't been in a while, so it was really nice to sing the "old" songs. Holly decided to say bye to her friend Megan, so she said "ba ba Eggin"... it was soooo cute!! Below is a picture of Megan from one of our recent play dates.

Getting back to it

Well, we've been out of it for a few days. Recovering from our trip to Friendswood (getting back on schedule) and preparing for and throwing a shower for Heather and her soon to be delivered baby Emily.

Monday we went to a Popcorn Playdate at Rian and Kenleigh's house. It was good to see everyone. I've never seen that many flavors of popcorn in one place! Fun times.

Tuesday we did some last minute preparations for Heather's baby shower and we had lunch with Heather and Katie at Gloria's.... YUM!

Today we were at Stephanie Cole's house, which is where we had the shower for Heather. It was a success. Heather's Mom, Nana and several of her friends were there... along with six babies! It was a busy day and lots of good fun. Holly only took one little 45 minute nap, before the shower, so I'm thinking she's going to be easy to put to bed tonight, hopefully.

Holly's naps haven't been going very well lately. She wants to take one short nap in the morning and then that's it. What she needs is one LONG nap in the afternoon. We'll have to work on that. She still loves the word button.... first thing she says when she wakes, last thing she says before bed. I have a video of it.... I need to post it.... maybe tomorrow.... must go bathe Holly.

Play Time at Katie's

Today we played at Heather and Katie's house. Holly LOVED Daisy, their dog. She kept saying Daisy over and over. Katie and Holly sat on the couch together... of their own accord! It was so adorable. Then they had a conversation... Katie handed a book to Holly and said "a book", Holly looked at it and said "book", then they both looked away and went about their business (playing). As far as I know, that was the first conversation Holly's had with another child!

Today Holly & I went to visit Grangie and Great Granny (my step-mom and her mom). Pojo was there to visit for a little while when we got there. It was a surprise treat to get to see him! We took a tour of Great Granny's new house, which is beautiful and we went to lunch at Esperanza's in Fort Worth.... Yum! Holly took a nap all the way back to Grangie's and all the way home -- she might not want to go to sleep tonight -- yikes! The picture is of Holly and Grangie last Valentine's Day.

Very tired

Ugghhh.... Holly decided to sleep very little last night. She rolled around in her crib until well after 10pm, then at 2am decided to wake up and roll around some more, then at 3am decided that she wanted to get up. So, she had a formula cup, and I put her back in bed... she rolled around until 4:30. So basically we didn't sleep from 2am - 4:30am. Then she got up at 7:30am. Wouldn't take a nap until Noon and then only slept for about 20 minutes. I will need a good night's sleep tonight and unfortunately I already know David has to work late. Uggghhhh.....

Dancing, Sick, and Katie

This is a video of Holly doing her dance:

Holly got sick, again, last night. She had fish for dinner, we're sure that's what did it. She must have an intolerance, since she is not showing any other signs of allergy, like hives, rash, or breathing troubles. She was perfectly fine this morning.

I would be totally remiss if I didn't publish a picture of Holly's best-little-friend Katie. Katie and Holly were born only two days apart and have been around each other since they were four months old. I love this picture of Katie.

Play Date at Adam's

Well, it's official....Holly is completely weaned from her bottle (since the weekend after New Years) and is down to one nap per day. My little girl is growing up!

Today we went to a play date at Stephanie and Adam's house. Left is a picture of Kristin & Alec (left) and Stephanie & Adam (right)... Colin is hanging out, too (far right on the floor). It's from a play date at our house during Christmas.

Still haven't finished packing away Christmas decorations... maybe tonight?

Riding on the Carousel

Today Holly and Daddy (David) went to the mall and rode on the carousel. They had a blast. I finished reading Eclipse and hung around the house. Missed church.... we slept too late, which is an unusual occurrence in this house!

Marmee watched Holly while we watched Twilight

Well, Holly is as wonderful as usual today. She stayed with Marmee (my Mom) for the afternoon and David and I went and saw "Twilight". Holly wanted to go out in the freezing cold to play, which obviously Marmee couldn't let her do, but other than that she and Marmee had lots of FUN!

Twilight was a good movie. David.... who received many brownie points for going with me.... even liked it, "for a chick flick". I thought they did a really good job with the main character, Bella... she was exceptional. There were a few parts that were over the top and it wasn't as scary as the book (obviously with less detail), but it was still very entertaining and got the main points of the story across. We give it two thumbs up!

We finally started putting the Christmas decorations up, today, but we couldn't find the "bananna bag" (a big yellow plastic bag) to put the tree up.... so we have an undecorated tree still up. And yes, we put the outside decorations up, on New Year's Eve.... we didn't want to be one of those neighbors.

Check this out.... Holly learned how to say "UP" very clearly:

My first "real" post

Holly has learned to do the cutest thing ever!! She can back up (walk backwards). She likes to back up to sit on my lap or lean against my legs. I wish I could get a picture of her doing it... but as you can imagine... since she's backing up, it doesn't photograph well.

Holly had her first Dentist appointment. He said her teeth were "perfect" and that we were doing all the right things to take care of her teeth. We don't go back for 8-10months. She also had her 15mo. Checkup. She was 33.5 inches and 24.6 pounds. She's really tall for her age.

(PS... I've decided to make all Holly updates in pink... incase that's all you're intrested in reading.)

I'm neck deep in reading the Twilight series.... a vampire romance. It' s totally addictive. I've read the first two books (Twilight and New Moon - about 500 pages each) and I'm a quarter of the way into the third book (Eclipse - also about 500 pages). I just started reading on the second. I can hardly put them down! We're going to see the Movie tomorrow, while Marmee baby-sits Holly. It's been good for me to read and let Holly start to do a little more "independent" play. It's nice to read something for fun. It's been about two years. It is a "teenybopper" series, so it very carefully walks the line of decency -- which is good for me... I wouldn't read it if it didn't. My sister and my friend Cindy turned me on to it. Thanks y'all. I'm on team Edward!

I'm also listening to the Bible, on Audio CD (a fab. gift from my in-laws)... while driving around town. I started at the beginning.... Genesis. Man, those early folks did some pretty crazy stuff!! I'm surprised how much more interesting it is to listen to it, as a story, than it is to read it. Big dif.

New Blog

Welcome to our two minute old blog! It will take me (Melanie) a while to get it up and running, but at least it's begun.

It's one of my new year's resoulutions -- to start a family blog. One down, many more to go... wouldn't you love to know!