Meleah Susannie

Mischievous
Energetic
Laughs like a crazy person

Entertaining
Always falling

Helper

My little Elly Jelly is so much fun.  She definitely has the most diverse personality of any kid I've ever met. On one hand she can be very stubborn, disobedient, and yes I'm going to say it...a little mean.  On the other hand she loves to be my "biggest helper" and spends hours gently rocking, kissing, and putting her babies down for naps.  Meleah has always seemed much older than her actual age to me, most likely because she loves to do everything herself.  Unfortunately, I don't generally want to wait 5 minutes for her to do something I could do in 0.2 seconds, and thus the battles continue... Why can't she just happily be babied like her two older siblings?  Then again, it takes me an hour to convince Carter to dress himself in the morning, so I should probably just be grateful to have a child that actually wants to be independent.  

Favorite Phrases:
"So bad" after everything.
example:  "hurts so bad" or "potty so bad"

"Did it myself"  She's been saying various forms of this for a while, but I just love to hear the excitement and pride in her voice when she says it.

"Mommy home!"  This is another thing she's been saying forever, but I don't think I've ever documented it before.  She gets SO excited when I come home, even if I've only been gone for a few minutes.  She runs up and gives me the biggest hug.  It makes me feel so warm and fuzzy inside.  Ü  Oh yeah, and she generally gets excited when Daddy comes home too...

Quirks - 

- She loves when I put "hair pretties" in her hair.  She then proceeds to tear them out, and come back and ask for more.  Thus, she generally can be seen running around with either hair in her face, or with crazy ponies that are half pulled out.   

 - She isn't incredibly particular about colors.  She usually gets excited about whatever color she's given, but just know that if you give her a different colored spoon/cup than her plate she's going to go get the appropriate color out of the drawer herself. 

- As grown up as Meleah is, she still loves to steal Cameron's "ba-ba," curl up on her bed with a blanket, and twirl her hair.  I know it's not exactly good parenting to let your 2 1/2 year old start drinking bottles again when she's been drinking out of cups for a year and a half, but she looks so cute that I just can't help it.  Besides, I'm a sucker for kids with bad habits because I sucked my thumb and had a "silky" at bedtime until I was in the first grade.  Not to mention that it takes her a good twenty minutes to down a bottle, which equals twenty minutes that I don't have to hear her high-pitched screams from fighting with Lydia or wonder what she's getting into. 

- As you can see from the pictures, Meleah still takes a nap every day.  Carter and Lydia both stopped taking naps when they turned two, but Meleah eventually crashes in odd places if I don't get her down for a nap.

- She loves to carry around big heavy things and say "Mia so STRON!"

- Her favorite foods are tomatoes and cheese (not necessarily together) and she drinks like a fish...especially juice. 

Sometimes I wonder if I should write about my children's less desireable attributes, but I want to remember exactly how they are during these precious years that just keep flying by.  Sure, I could just document all the sweet things they do, but then I may not remember that Meleah can scream so loud that I feel like my head is going to explode, or that I have to tell her EVERY TIME she's done going to the bathroom that I'm going to put her undies on myself (fat chance) just to make her naked bum come running back to me saying "No, my undies!"  My little Meleah's not perfect, but I can definitely say that there's never a dull day around here, thanks to her.  I love to just sit and watch what she's doing.  It's almost like I can see her little brain working.  She brings TONS of laughter into my life and I'm so glad that Heavenly Father blessed us with her.