All in Kids
We had such a great Christmas this year. It was our very first Christmas in our new home. I love getting to make new memories here. It really makes it feel more like home as we continue to live here. This was also the first year Melody actually understood and liked Santa. No tears this year!! We also did a lot of traveling and visiting family, and we continued a lot of our traditions from years’ past.
Last week my mom suggested we have a mani-pedi day. Melody loves getting her nails done at home and saw my mom getting a pedicure and was intrigued. My mom was off work, so we decided to go one morning. Melody seemed to really love it except when they “separated” her toes. She has a toe on each foot that is sort of twisted/curly. We have seen a doctor about this, and he thinks it is just fine since she doesn’t really hurt from it. I think it is just uncomfortable for her when someone is physically separating them. Anyhow, she loved it, and she said she can’t wait to do it again. And how adorable does she look?? I mean they even massaged her little leg and feet, ha!
We started Melody’s second year of dance back in September. It is still the thing she looks forward to the most every week, sometimes every day. She is constantly asking to go to dance. We have a new teacher and new dancers and dance moms too. It is a bit more chaotic, but I suspect it is just a glimpse of her future in dance, ha! Check out some of my favorite pictures so far from dance!
I have made many diaper cakes at this point for various baby showers/sprinkles. But this was my first diaper cake for a little boy! My best friend recently had a baby boy, and I hosted a baby shower for her a while back. It was so much fun getting to use lots of blues instead of all the pink we are used to! I kept the diaper cake simple, but it was definitely all boy!
One of the pieces of decor I used at Emily’s baby shower was a onesie banner. I placed the banner over my fireplace, and it was sort of a centerpiece to the living room where everyone would be sitting. I made the onesies using my Silhouette Cameo of course.
So last year, Melody attended her very first football game. It was a local high school game where my alma mater was playing. Well this year we decided to take her to her first college football game. My husband is a graduate of Ole Miss, and we continue to have season tickets there. They were playing a smaller game in November, so we decided that would be ideal for her. A friend of ours that has season tickets behind us let us have one of theirs for this particular game.
Back in August we went to Disney very last minute, and we had to throw together a stroller tag. While it isn’t necessary, it is truly easier to find your stroller with something that makes it stand out.
Melody received magnetic tiles for her birthday this year, and she has loved playing with them. She is always wanting to build crazy new things. So I wanted to share a few of the things we have come up with the last few months. Oh, and she has the most fun when she gets to knock it all down, ha!
Halloween is quite different this year. One we are in a new house and new neighborhood. Two our best friends are also in a new house and new neighborhood. So trick or treating was different. We also had more and different spaces we could decorate. Three Melody really understood things more and was super excited. She picked her own costume and asked to go trick or treating every day of the entire month of October, ha!
So now that we are all moved into our new house, we are currently “making it our own”. We have unpacked, but now we need to paint and decorate. We decided to do Melody’s room first. It was the easiest, and we already had everything to do it except the paint.
Just like years’ past, I made another Halloween Happy for Melody. We gave it to Melody at the first of October so she could use everything the entire month.
The summer we enrolled Melody in swim lessons again. Last year we did “lessons” at our local Y. I wasn’t the biggest fan of the setup there, and I wanted to go a different route. So this year we hired a private instructor for Melody and Lydia!
So I have been questioning whether to do this post a lot. Because let’s be real. No one method of potty training works for every single kid. What worked for us, likely won’t work for you. That is something I discovered over the last year and a half. I read lots of ideas and blog posts myself, but nothing seemed to work. However, I thought maybe, just maybe someone can take away something from my posts. So here goes.
Melody loves dance. I am certain it is one of her most favorite activities. Well I originally planned to take a break from dance this summer and only do gymnastics. They released different dance camps, but it was so expensive for only a few days of dance. And while it probably equated to the same amount of time as the weekly dance classes in the end, I did opt to sign her up for weekly classes. This gave me a small break once a week, and she really had fun.
Melody first started gymnastics last summer. She really didn’t enjoy it, and we opted to not sign her up or the fall and spring last year. I would basically have to force Melody to go from station to station, and it just wasn’t enjoyable at all. Brad wanted to give it another go this summer, so I had him pick a time that he could attend the class with her.
Melody started back at school last week. It was in the midst of a lot of chaos. We sold our first home and purchased our new home on a Thursday and sent her to school on Monday. While this may seem ideal, we spent Sunday night searching for last minute things we forgot to leave out for school. No fancy sign this year because I couldn’t find the chalk markers. I thought I knew where they were, and I gave up around midnight and used a piece of construction paper and sharpie instead. I found the most adorable dress from Smocked A Lot, and while she did cry when we dropped her off, I think she was super confused at all the moving and not being at her “normal” house and such. She is now perfectly fine!
For Melody’s Snow White Birthday Party, I wanted to add inexpensive but themed decor throughout. I had the idea for her to paint a Snow White canvas painting. I had some big canvases, but I opted to use one of the smaller ones because it would be easier to paint, and it would allow for an easier placement at the party.
So I guess I should finally share Melody’s pictures from dance this last year, ha! I mean we only have had them since March…Oh well! She was a stinker and refused to smile, but that’s the norm!
So we visited the Gardens a few times this Spring, but definitely not as much as I would have liked. We did meet up with some preschool friends, made some new friends, and got Dada to come along with us too!
