Rob's family

from Kim and Tracey Tom and Kim Coleman wrote: Wow! If I remember correctly the way to determine a child's adult height is >to take their height on their 2nd birthday and double it......let's see, you > think she is big for her age now, as an adult she will be an even 6 foot > tall. :) Wow! I knew I would always be the short one in this family (guess Rob is the exception to men liking tall women!), but 6 feet tall for Melinda? We'll see! :-) Melinda is going to be a ladybug for Halloween -- red sweatshirt with black felt spots, black leggings, and pipe cleaner and styrofoam antennae. No sewing required, so I think I can do this. Kim, I bet Meghan's Po costume will be precious. Could you use a hooded sweatshirt? (Not that I have been able to find any of the plain hooded variety around here.) Happy costume-making! Tracey

We went shopping for Melinda's birthday this weekend. Tried VERY hard not to overbuy - we've been to kid parties where the kid get bored of opening gifts - not a situation we want to find ourselves in. Inspite of our best efforts, we probably still over bought, so in an effort to avoid the boredom problem, we decided to give a gift early. The gift we selected was a "adult push / kid pedal" big wheel like thing. Figured it was a safe bet - for the last two weeks when ever we take Melinda to the park, she's tried to take advantage of other kids wheeled cars. Giving it early also meant that she could use it for the last month or so of summer. So after dinner, we assembled it, Melinda clamoring to ride it in the house. Finally, got out to the sidewalk. We figured we'd head to the "Big Park" (Melinda's term) because it's a good far walk - give her pleanty of opportunity to pedal / be pushed. Melinda lost intest in both pedaling and being pushed be

The subject describes Melinda's activities over the past couple weeks. Rolling has become more common. After doing it once at four months, and once at five months, the frequency has increased dramatically as we approach seven months. Melinda enjoys sitting and reaching for toys. If you put things just out of her reach, she will scoot, and even get up on her knees before she comes crashing down on her nose. Hey, how else are you going to learn how to walk? Friday night we brought her down to Tracey's folks place. Tracey and I relaxed on the couch as Jim and Sharon played with her. No chance of her falling on her face down there. After the first close call, Jim spent the next hour (until her bottle) with one arm wrapped around her, if she should try to fall. Tracey says that at some point babies are supposed to be able to sit up from laying down on their stomach. I'm not at all certain how that will work. The physics seem to be against it. I can see her getting back around to

from Tracey Melinda picked up a new skill this weekend at the wedding. No, not how to shotgun a beer like Rob taught Teddy! :-) You know the trick where you take your index finger and rub it against your lips making a "b b b" sound? (Hard to explain in writing but hopefully you can figure it out.) Norm Potochney did that to Melinda several times over the weekend to get her attention. (He must be a good grandpa!) Well, Melinda has her own version -- she sticks her right index finger in her mouth, wiggles it around and says "ba ba ba". She's quite pleased with herself. That's all, just a little humor on a rainy day. Tracey

It was a great wedding. Lots of emotion, lots of dancing. I'll get through the obvious - Debbie was beautiful and Matt was handsome. Great to see family. The Potochneys were there - getting some last minute pointers on what to do and what not to do (Karen's wedding is August 1). Carol's flight got delayed and delayed and finally cancelled. She couldn't get anything that would get her to Newark in time for the Saturday ceremony. One of the things that I really wanted to do was to have Melinda sit with Grammy. High on everyone's list - except Melinda's. Our timing was just wrong. I think we got a couple good photos inspite of Melinda's crabbiness. Tracey's pretty convinced that Melinda prefers men to women. I think it's just that no other women comes close to Mommy (or Ma, and Melinda likes to say (to everyone)(still no Da)). Melinda is a such a ham! This weekend, she figured out that when people point cameras at her, her job is to smile. I'm not k

My daughter is right handed. (I think). That was definitely a cool realization. At first, with her sucking her left thumb almost exclusively, I thought maybe she'd be a lefty - a rebel, an aggressive, unorthodox thinker. But no, she prefers the right. She must be a conventional, stodgy, play by the rules woman. I know she a righty, because she likes to grab toys with the right, even if they're more convenient to the left hand. It's fun to watch her make that sort of decision, and laboriously reach across her body to pick something up. Oh yeah, she picks things up (and drops them). One of our magazines said that we're (Tracey and I) supposed to pick them up for her (even once it becomes a game). It seems that controlling her environment is good for her self-esteem. Who knew that babies had self-esteem? Melinda started on solid (mushy) foods. Her first food was peach mush. My first attempt was very much like the stereotypical Dad feeding his child. I think it was Dave Ber

from Tracey Sorry, couldn't resist. It's been kind of quiet on email lately, so I thought IÂ’d see who was reading. :-) In real Melinda news, she goes to the doctor tomorrow night for her 6-month checkup (can't believe she'll be 6 months old on Sunday!!). So on Friday we should be making our first attempt to feed her cereal. Winnie, that highchair mat you sent will definitely be put to good use! Melinda would love desperately to sit up'if she's lying on her back, she will lift her head and her legs, but of course she isn’t strong enough to pull herself up and she's not real happy about that. But she can sit up and play with toys if my arms or legs are there to keep her balanced. And she loves being held in a standing position. No more signs of rolling over yet. At this rate, she’ll walk before she crawls! Rob's boss and his wife are coming over tonight so we can teach them how to play bridge. His boss is a very competitive guy and loves to play games'

All those hours of the "Da" song have finally paid off. Just days after her fifth month birthday, Melinda started making her first real sounds. Sure, we've been getting "Ardsfsdfsdf sdf sdf" for weeks now, but we've been hungering for real sounds. Well, the weeks of waiting are over. Melinda has said her first sound. Was it "Da?" No. Infact, instead of saying Da, she said Ma. Not just once. Not like an accident. Non stop. MA MA NA MA MAMAMAMAMAMAMAMAMAMA. I figure that when I'm off at work, Tracey picks up Melinda and says "Forget that Da stuff, let's talk MA." So, her first sound was Ma. I hesitate to say words because I associate words with comprehension. So far, Tracey's been "Ma", Abby's been "Ma", her plastic keys have been "Ma". Actually, nothing's been Ma, she's just saying it over and over. Early on, while I was teaching Melinda the finer art of saying "Da&qu

Last night I sat down with Melinda and watched her. It really is amazing. She's so wonderful. One of these days she's going to figure out how to sit up (or roll over or stand or compose poetry). She is so happy (most of the time). She smiles and giggles and loves to play. She likes to do bicycle legs (not so often to the Da Song anymore). Last night, Tracey and I attempted to assemble our photo wall. This is a project that we've been discussing for over a year. We (she) finally went out and purchased some frames for the pictures we knew we wanted to have up on the wall. So last night, we were checking who we were missing. We started this immediately after dinner and at about the same time that Melinda got "The Crabbies". She hadn't napped, so we figured, put her in the bouncy chair, rock her a couple times - bam! she'd be out and we have an hour or so to figure out our photos. No luck. She cried for half an hour. In exasperation, I fed her, Ea

One has to be particularly careful when selecting nicknames. I look back over my childhood and I recall the nicknames of my siblings: Julianne (aka Juln Ms. Coleman aka Princess Queen Ishcabible (sp?)) Tom (aka TC aka Kinnies aka Snaggletooth) Rob (aka Big Robs aka Robert the Brave) Susan (aka Bug) If one looks at these nicknames with a careful eye, at least one pops out as perhaps a nickname the recipient of which might not want to go into the cold cruel world with. Interestingly enough, I believe it is also the nickname that stuck the best. With that observation, I am (understandably) a little concerned about the nickname that Tracey and I have bequeathed upon our first born. It fits the criteria (as I see them) of a nickname: It's cute It's a diminutive It's easy to remember What more could one want? Well, Tracey grew up with Wunk and Teek (TK), my daughter has started life with "Booga". If you recall one of my earlier notes, one of Dad's favorite songs

Melinda is still wonderful. I was a little premature in saying several emails ago that Melinda laughs. It is more correct to say that Melinda laughed (once). One night a couple weeks ago, while Tracey was changing her, she tried the game of peek-a-boo. Melinda had a ball. I came running in and watched for five minutes. She laughed each time we did it. Since that time, we may get smiles, but no laughs. Every night when Tracey or I put Melinda to bed, we say to each other, "we are so lucky." Not because she's a wonderfully behaved, beautiful girl who makes her Daddy smile from ear to ear (which she is), but because she sleeps - when we want her to. We put her in the crib around 8:30 or 9:00 each night, and she wakes up some time between 7:30 and 8:30 in the morning. No night feedings, no waking up. The secret? No idea. She decided that she wanted to do it around 2 months and has never looked back. I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop and for her to turn int