All tagged Babies
So two weeks ago, we celebrated Melody’s THIRD dance recital. The stress around recitals never gets easier. Every year there is new circumstances that make it even more chaotic than the previous year. I am also bias in that I thought our recital last year was the best. It was NOT a full recital due to COVID, but for kids this age, I think it was perfect! But we had a traditional recital, but with less people due to social distancing.
By much surprise, we finished our dance year without any COVID related issues or delays. We even had a little sense of normalcy by the end of the semester. We would get to go inside and watch the girls the last 10 minutes of class. We only got to do this maybe a handful of times, but it was still something that made it feel a little more normal. I am hoping next year will provide us a greater sense of normalcy as well. Here are some photos I took throughout the semester!
I was hoping this was the year Melody decided to smile in her dance pictures. I mean she finally smiled in her school picture. Well she tried. I just don’t think she is as comfortable with the dance photographer as the school one. But she tried. And the pictures did turn out cute.
I wanted to share with you some of the Easter baskets I made this year. I didn’t try and use another item for a basket like I have in years past. I went traditional yet practical. I am also sharing some Easter egg fillers at the end of the post!
I thought it might be fun to take a look back on last year through some pictures. Sure, it was one heck of a year, but we made the best of it. We spent a LOT of time together as a family, and we did come out with a lot of great memories, even if they were not the memories we expected to make! Follow along below!
So Melody started going to food therapy back in August. We have been discussing this as a possibility with her pediatrician for a few years now at her well visits. Well this year we finally decided it was time. While we are still attending food therapy, I thought I would share what we have been doing at home so far to assist.
By a miracle, we managed to attend in-person dance class for the entire fall! Things are slightly different than years’ past though. We had to drop the kids off instead of take them into dance, we then returned to pick them up an hour later, and masks were highly recommended. But Melody had so much fun!
WE FINALLY GOT A SMILE! This is Melody’s third year of preschool, and I think her 4th or 5th school pictures. She has always refused to smile. There were even sometimes she claimed she smiled but never did. This year she smiled! It turned out so cute and adorable!
After Melody outgrew her crib, we converted her crib into a toddler bed. We intentionally asked for this crib because of its conversion abilities. She would have this crib forever basically. We bought the full size bed conversion kit when we got the crib so that we knew we would have it when the time came to transition her. While we were having no issues with her in her toddler bed, we knew it was a matter of time until she would outgrow it. So in early November, we decide to take the plunge and convert it to a full size bed.
October was a month full of a lot of fun! We traveled, we visited with grandparents, the weather got cooler, and we celebrated Halloween!
Back during our “unexpected homeschooling” days, crafts were critical. I was reaching for a lot of our crafts, but this one turned out to be a fun one. We made a caterpillar game.
It is hard to believe it is already October, and we are thinking about Halloween. But here we are. Like previous years, I threw together a Halloween Happy for Melody. We have not been getting out as much, so I didn’t get as many things from the Target Dollar Spot was previous years, but I was able to snag a few things a few weeks back, and I ordered the rest on Amazon.
One of Brad’s presents for his birthday was a fun and very hard craft I had Melody make for him before she went back to school. I made the template on my computer, and as we worked on it, I had to keep adding space because she has such big hand writing. It was a really adorable craft though, and I think Brad loved it.
About a month ago, my parents bought a pontoon boat. It is a work in progress, but they wanted to buy one so that Melody could experience river/lake/boat life. We had a boat growing up, and I have so many fun memories on the river with my family. So I am really excited for Melody to experience something similar. A few Saturdays ago, we decided to head down to Smith Lake to take a ride on the boat for the first time.
With this being Melody’s last year at her sweet preschool, I wanted to give her a little gift the day before starting. We bought Melody a Pottery Barn Frozen backpack and lunchbox a long while back. She asked for a backpack for her birthday, so we decided to go ahead and give her that then. So we knew we had a lunchbox to give her. And I wanted to get her a new back to school book. The last thing we ended up with was a Rainbow Rangers toy set. I happened to find this on the Walmart website, and I knew I had to have it! It just so happened this was the perfect occasion to give it to her!
I have not done this in previous years, but since it is Melody’s last year, I decide to send a back to school gift to her teacher. This year is the first year she only has one teacher, so that also made it easier. During the summer, I bought these adorable paper clips from Simplified. The specific ones I used for this gift were apple shaped, but I also bought some pencil shape ones too I may use as a gift for someone else later. I then wrote a nice note on matching cardstock, and I had Melody sign it. Then I attached it using ribbon. Super cute and easy!
So this year is Melody’s third and final year of preschool. I remember first signing her up for preschool and crying after dropping her off for her first day. Last year was complete chaos because we had just moved, and it of course ended just as chaotically. She goes to school the morning of March 13, and we never went back except to pick up her belongings in May. This year we have high hopes on a really great year. There are some changes this year, but we are looking forward to getting back into a routine and getting Melody back to school to learn and socialize.
For my dad’s birthday, we made a craft using work gloves and Melody’s handprint. I saw this a while back and knew I had to recreate it. I do wish the gloves did not have a logo on it, but I also didn’t want to pay an astronomical amount on gloves that I do not intend for him to use.
Recently Melody has started food therapy by seeing an Occupational Therapist. When she first started solid food, she did fairly well. She would eat almost anything we offered her. However over the last few years she has become a lot more picky. She has started giving up foods she once ate often, and now she is becoming even more particular about the foods she does eat. So we finally gave in and started food therapy after her 4 year old well visit.
When quarantine first started, I was on the lookout for some easy and fun crafts for Melody. I ran across this one on Pinterest. You take a piece of cardboard, and you draw hands and/or feet on it. Then draw nails on that.
