The french fry

We went out to dinner for our Anniversary to Applebees since we had Melly with us. A nice kid friendly place, and as long as I didn't have to cook, I'm happy! We order some burgers, and Melly wants chicken and fries.
Our meal comes, and on the first bite of french fry, Melody takes a bite, and accidentally drops the rest of the fry on the ground. Sometimes at home, I may have the "5 second rule", but in a restaurant, if something even hits the table, it's a 'no go' for eating. So this french fry is on the floor, and Melody starts crying. Not really sure why, so we start asking some questions. Come to find out, she's crying because she wants to eat the french fry. We explain to her that it has germs on it from being on the floor. She cries some more and protests:
"But Mommy, remember I washed my hands and got the germs off"
I then explain that the germs are on the french fry, not her hands.
"But Mommy, the french fry already has my bite mark in it, I need to finish it"
I remind her that she has an entire plate full of french fries that still need her bite mark in them.
While all of these excuses are going on, she's wailing quietly on her chair, really upset about this french fry. Rob & I try everything to get her to stop crying and maybe eat something. The tears are popping out of her head, her nose is running, and she's just not into eating. We even try taking bites out of our own french fries and putting them with her dropped one so that it would have friends. Still no good. The wailing continues while Rob & I eat our entire meal.
I then tell her a story about how all the food that's left on the plate gets taken away to a special place in the back kitchen where they get to have a party together. That seemed to do it enough for her to eat some of her food. She was still upset, not in a great mood, and fell asleep in the car on the way home!

Melody as a girl!

Well, here's the proof! Melody in her dress, and her sock-pants going to Addison's baptism.










We had to go to WalMart to buy more of them, and she wore a skirt with sock-pants to Alex's birthday party too! Wow!

The Sock-pants

We went to Addison's Baptism the other day, and I pulled out my little tomboy's summer dresses (with tags on) to find one appropriate for a fall day. I run to the discount children's store in town to buy stockings, a sweater and some dressier shoes to wear. I cringe at putting the dress on her, since she usually tugs at it and asks me to take it off. I start off with the stockings (which were nice and thick) and Melody says, "Ooooooh! Sock-pants! I like them!" So I was pleasantly surprised and kept talking about the sock-pants hoping she wouldn't notice that I was also putting on a dress, sweater and shoes. (Although they looked like dress shoes, they had the sole of a sneaker. I wanted her to look nice, but I'm not crazy!) We go through the whole day taking pictures (for proof) of Melly looking like a little girl.
Yesterday I'm getting her dressed and she asked to wear her sock-pants. I told her that she would have to wear them with a dress or skirt, and she said, "OK!" My little girl is becoming just that! A GIRL!

3 Year old logic

Melly asked to take out her Calico Critters (really cute little doll animals that she plays with). I look around the living room floor at the mine field of other toys played with throughout the afternoon. I tell her that she has to clean up some of her other toys before taking out the new ones. She looks at me with a big smile and says, "Don't worry Mommy, I don't want to play with my Calico Critters, I'm just going to take them out and look at them."

Another trip to VA

We went to VA again! I got a phone call from Rob last Thursday while I was on my way to meet a friend for breakfast, and he said we're leaving this afternoon for VA. So I finished breakfast, went home, and had us all packed up and ready to go by 3:00.
It was the usual fantastic time. We went to Busch Gardens every day for Howl-O-Scream, and Melly enjoyed it. She loves all the monsters and the shows, and of course the rides! Her favorite is Jack (I'll post some video later on), and she liked Monster Stomp and Frankenrock too. At one point she fell asleep in Monster Stomp because she was so exhausted, and when she woke up later she said, "I fell asleep in Monster Stomp. How did my body possibly do that?" Good question Mel!
We picked pumpkins, walked around Williamsburg, went to Busch, and ate a lot of food. Sadly, still no Sals, and they haven't even started rebuilding it yet. Anyone know of where I can get 4 cheese tortellini in incredible Alfredo sauce let me know!

It's a GIRL!

I went for my ultrasound, and they said without a doubt it's a girl! It was a 3D ultrasound, and at one point it looked like this kid was sitting on the camera, so even I could tell this was a girl! We got a print out of a ton of shots, and there were a couple where it looks like the baby was a bat. I made one small comment how it looks like we're going to have a bat instead of a baby. Melody also can't let that one go, and now she keeps telling everyone, "Mommy's having a bat, not a baby."

Why you don't let 3 year olds name things

We asked Melody what she would like to name her new baby brother or sister. Without hesitation, she says, "Light Stick" Not sure where that came from, but she won't call the new baby anything else. And I hate to say it, but it's funny enough that it's starting to catch on. I've recently convinced her that we can't name the baby Light Stick, but she may call it that if she wants.

Mommy needs her make up!

I was putting on make up one morning and Melody asked what I was doing, so I told her. She came running into the bathroom yelling, "Let me see!!" She looks at me and says, "Mommy, you look much better now. You look like you." So I asked her, "Who do I look like without make up on?" (Looking back... maybe not the smartest of questions) Melly answers, "You look like Grampa because you both have the same big belly."

Oh Melly

When we asked Melody if she thought I was having a boy or a girl, this is how our conversation went:
Me: "Melly, do you think Mommy is having a baby boy or a baby girl?"
Melly: "Girl"
Me: "What if it's a boy?"
Melly: "Then it's not ours."

So I probed a little farther a few days later. I asked her why she thought that. Here's how that conversation went:
Me: "Melody, why do you think the baby won't be ours if it's a boy?"
Melly: "If it's a girl it can stay home with us. If it's a boy it has to go to work with Daddy, so we can match."

Apparently she's most concerned with the girls staying with the girls and the boys staying with the boys. I tried to ask her about her friends in our group that are boys that stay with their Mommy's, but she couldn't figure that one out and decided to drop the subject!

Guess what boys & girls?

Or should I just say boy or girl? Surprise! We will be welcoming a new baby to our family the end of February! I know probably most of you already know, since if you've seen me there's no question, and if you're on facebook, I've already outed the news on there. But, if you are solely a blog reader.... then surprise! I go for my ultrasound tomorrow to find out if we're having a boy or girl (and most importantly healthy child) so I'll fill you in!
I'm so glad I FINALLY updated the blog!

Hard at work

I love the look of complete concentration!

A Day out with Thomas

Don't let the occasional princess or girlie thing fool you. Melly is a tomboy through and through. She still loves her Thomas! We went to Thomaston CT to see real Thomas and enjoy the train museum stuff they have. We did this last year too, and it was a big hit so we got pretty lucky with the weather this time around too.

The family in front of Thomas made out of Lego's



Melody running through the hay maze with Thomas puffing down the tracks in the background



On the train!


We couldn't leave without saying hello to Sir Toppam Hatt!

Dutchess County Fair

I love county fairs. The Dutchess County one happens to be my favorite of them all. However... this year it was a complete disaster! Mike, Lisa, Danny & Jason went with us. It took over 3 hours to get there due to traffic (regular fair traffic) and an idiot truck driver that decided to get on the Taconic Parkway and get stuck (trucks are not allowed because it's a small parkway), and they had to close down the road for a while.
Once we got there, it took Rob about 45 minutes to park the car because there weren't any spots left, then it took us over 1/2 an hour to get food since we were all starving by that point! There were record breaking number of visitors in attendance, and it was kind of a hot day. Overall, it did not make for very happy campers. Sadly it was Mike & Lisa's first time going, so I encouraged them to give it another chance, since I go every year and this one was by far the worst.
The kids did still find time to have fun, so that's the positive turn on it!


Melly loves the sheep!



Jason is still too scared to go on rides, but Danny wanted to ride the cars with Melody.



This is the best face ever! Finishing up her ice cream cone.... asking for more! How can anyone resist that face?

Mmmmm... brownies!

We don't cook in this house, but boy oh boy do we bake! Rob & Melly made brownies one night. I don't let her lick the batter (paranoid Mom with the raw egg thing), but Daddy lets her!


This would be a foreshadowing of her teenage girl stance



I love chocolate face!!!

I'm a Rock Star!

Melody decided to tell me what she wants to be when she grows up. Please ignore the state of the house. I was in the middle of laundry day when she wanted to be put on film.

4th of July

This year we spent 4th of July at the Danbury Fair Mall enjoying the carnival and staying for the fireworks! We met up with Kerri, Carlo and Ashley. The girls really loved the fireworks, except they both thought they were a little too loud!

Our trip to VA

We were able to spend about 10 days in VA this trip. Rob's band had several shows in the DC area, so we combined his shows with our vacation. We started off by going to an Oriole game on the way down, so we didn't get to VA until pretty late. The next few days we spent going to Water Country and Busch Gardens while Rob had to travel to go to his shows in the evening. We really spent most of our time visiting with Nana and Grampa, and going to the parks.
One of the things that I insist on doing while in Williamsburg is going to Sal's for the best 4 Cheese Tortelloni in Alfredo Sauce in the entire world. Sadly, Sal's burned down and we couldn't go. I'm really hoping the rebuild quickly, because I get hungry just thinking about that place! I will never ask the nutritional value of this meal, nor figure out how many grams of fat are in it. I just enjoy the entire plate, including several pieces of bread to mop up every last bit of sauce that is left. Mmmmm... Sal's.
It was, as usual a fantastic trip, and I love spending the time with my in-laws. Melody wanted to spend most of the time in Nana's playroom filled with toys, but mean Mommy had to drag her away to go to the amusement parks. The lousy life this kid thinks she has! LOL!
Here are a few Melly highlights from the trip:

#1
Nana: "That one right there is Jupiter. That's an easy one because it has rings."

#2
Grampa had on a fluorescent yellow shirt and a fluorescent orange hat.
Melly: "Grampa! You can't wear that!!!"
Melly: "It doesn't match."

Virginia Living Museum

When we go to VA, we love going to the Living Museum. It always changes, and there's a ton of hands on things for Melody to do. The theme this summer was rain forest, and here's some of the things we saw.


This looked and felt real, but luckily it was a fake. I'm not sure Melly believed that it wasn't real though.



Nana & Melly got to go up in a bubble dome to become part of the fish tank!



Embarrassing, but true. We were all trying out our fins and swimming around the museum. Oddly enough Grampa ran away and pretended he didn't know us.



Melly loves to go in the turtle shell and pretend to be a turtle!

Statue of Liberty

We took a family trip to NYC to go see the Statue of Liberty. Rob took dozens of fantastic pictures, but I'm just too lazy to to download all of them, so I decided to take the mediocre ones from my camera! Rob can add more if he wants, but I'm taking the easy way out.

We had such a beautiful day, and we did Ellis Island, the ferry, and of course Liberty Island. We didn't even bother trying to go into the statue, but I'm not sure Melly would have had the patience for that anyway.




Using her binoculars to see the Statue

Aimee's baby shower

This is my mom's group getting together for Aimee's baby shower! We have such a great time getting together, we need to find more excuses to go out without the kids!

Melody-isms

Very often Melly just pops out some statements that make you laugh, while at the same time make you wonder where she got it from. Here are just a few:

#1
Melly: "It's just too hard to be a kitty without any underpants."

#2
Me: "Melody, pick out a sticker."
Melly: "I can't. These hands are made for picking cookies, not stickers."

#3
Melody dancing in her car seat while wearing a polka dot shirt:
Me: "Melody, you're dancing so much the polka dots on your belly are dancing!"
Melly: "Yeah, they're doing the polka!"

Melody's Birthday Party

Hey, I found the pictures! She's a lucky girl to have a Birthday in the spring, and to have such a nice day for a party. The puppy party included the puppy cake, devil dogs, hot dogs, dog bone shaped cookies, and a lot of puppy stuff in the goody bags. I forgot to take out the pin the nose on the puppy game, but the kids seemed to enjoy just running around the yard while the adults relaxed.




Melody, Faith, and Ashley hanging out on the rock. They could be triplets they look so much alike!



The kids enjoyed the swings...

Melody insisted on putting the candles on herself. It was a bit more funny when there was only 1 on the dog cake!

The Bronx Zoo

We have a membership to the Bronx Zoo, so we get to go a lot during the summer. Here are just some highlights:

Melly found a caterpillar. Funny how a drop of water freaks her out, but she can have this crawling on her arm.







I'm not so sure she minded that this turtle wasn't real. It made her just as happy!



Her favorite is the butterfly house.



With Daddy!

Melody's Birthday Cake

Melody turned 3! Megg came up for the party, and the dynamic duo (sans spandex and tights) were able to pull off another amazing cake! Melody wanted a Puppy Party, which I still am not sure why or where that came from, but she asked for it months before, so that's what she got!













The "incubator" we kept the cake under to make sure it would make it through the night for the party!



So, I know I took pictures of the actual party, but I can't seem to find them. If I ever come across them, I'll post them. So for now you just get to look at the fabulous cake!

A day at Green Chimneys

Green Chimneys is a school for troubled kids, and every spring they have a big fund raiser with a ton of activities for all kids. What a surprise that Melody's friends Ashley and Penelope were there too!

Here's the little monkeys jumping in the bouncy house, one of their favorite activities. Penelope was a little nervous about jumping in, but once she saw how much fun these two had, she went in and had a blast!



Penelope showing off her inner Rock Star with a skull and cross bones tattoo on her cheek!



Horse rides too?!?!? We're not too happy about having our helmets on, so it's a good thing there's a horse ride coming!




Melody did a great job holding on!

A hidden butterfly princess

Well, it doesn't happen very often, but here is Melody being a butterfly princess. Enjoy these small moments while you can!

The Jackson's enjoy the party!

Wait... is that Rob with a smile on his face? And he's hugging me? Wow... a doubly great picture!




Emilie didn't know what to do with the giant cupcake, but Melody knew exactly what to do!

Emilie's 1 Year Old!

Can you believe that Emilie is one already? I can't. But it's true! It was a beautiful day for a party, and Carol did a fantastic job with a cupcake themed party.

Here's the Birthday girl!



"Hey Mom... this cupcake is as big as I am!"



The house looked great! Pink... how odd for Carol to have a pink party for her little girl!

Visit with Ms. Bev

Megg, Melody and I had a nice tea party with Ms. Bev, who was our High School mentor and our friend. Ms. Bev is probably the most amazing woman in the history of people, and has shaped the lives of so many of us from RCK. We waited until the end of our visit to take some group pictures, which is why I didn't get any, because Melody wasn't in the picture taking mood by then. There will be more visits with Ms. Bev now that we've gotten our group Project Team back together for some reunions!

Here's Melody having a tea party.



Such a rare sight to see her doing something so girly!