Ready for Christmas!

Now that Thanksgiving has passed, we are all ready for Christmas - can you tell? And thanks again to Mary for the very cute Rudolph Robeez!!!

[picture dated 11/26/06]

Happy Thanksgiving!

I had decided that since we were going out to a cafeteria-style restaurant for Thanksgiving dinner, it would be a great opportunity to let Amelia feed herself a portion of their sweet potato casserole. After all, she loves sweet potatoes, and she's been dying to feed herself with a spoon for at least a month. The evidence for this supposition is that she tries to grab the spoon when I feed her and if I give her an empty bowl and spoon, she has a great time "eating" while I am able to successfully finish shoveling food into her mouth.

Well, she wasn't interested in using the spoon at the cafeteria. That was okay until she got her cute little hands into the middle of the sweet potatoes which were still warm. She proceeded to cry as I put her little hands on my cold water glass.

After she calmed down and was distracted for a bit, she was more than happy to eat the sweet potatoes - as long as I fed her every last little bit with the spoon. Then she ate most of cousin Bethany's mac & cheese while I ate my meal. And believe it or not, she had room left over so I could share a few bites of my pumpkin pie with her. Yummmm.

This is such a sweet picture of her leaving the restaurant with her Nana.

[pictures dated 11/23/06]

14 Months Old!

The time is really flying - just about as fast as Amelia does on her two little legs through the house! I really need to put all the moments of her life that I've been collecting in a book. I should also finally use the handprint kit that was given to us as a gift a year ago. There are so many things that always need to be done! But the most important thing is to enjoy her, and that is something we're doing every day.

When I pick her up at daycare, she used to just get excited about seeing me and go back to whatever she was doing. Then she started raising her arms to be picked up, but after mere seconds she was ready to be put back down to return to the toys. But now - she runs to me with an excited "ho ho ho ho ho" (not Santa-like though), maybe it's more of an "oh oh oh oh oh" and it's soooo sweet!

She's really starting to ask for things now, although she doesn't know the words. So this means there's a bit of whining, but I can distinguish between the "I want something" whine and the "I'm tired" whine. Back to that list of things I should do ... teach her sign language. I started this a few months ago, but I couldn't remember all the signs, so it was hard to try to teach them to her. She wasn't looking at me anyway, she only looks at what it is she wants, or what it is that delights her - in the case of the cats. I do know the sign for cat! It really is so much easier to randomly hand her the things that are in the direction of her outstretched hand. When she is asking for more food, I do the sign for "more", only to be met with a more insistent "uhuhuh" with the outstretched hand. I think it's her way of saying, "The only think I want you to do with those hands is give me more food!"

This picture is from last month when we were visiting Grandma and Grandpa. It's such a great shot of her smile. She's holding one of her hair brushes which she will amuse herself with for quite a while - she loves the bristles but she also loves brushing her hair. It's so cute to watch her try to do it herself. It's often done with the bristles up, but she doesn't mind!

[pictured dated 10/30/06]

Sleeping in the Big Girl Carseat

Sitting forward has been nice for Amelia and for Mommy & Daddy because everyone can see each other so much easier. But napping in the carseat isn't quite as comfortable for Amelia because her head tends to slump forward. I've tried putting a rolled up blanket, but she'll move her head while sleeping and it will fall down. However, Amelia seems to have found a way to prevent this and it looks so darn cute, I had to take a picture! She's done this several times now. The close-up is even cuter.



[pictures dated 11/15/06]

Reading with Daddy

Amelia says: "You already know how much I love books. After Daddy finishes reading me a story every night, I often like to review the book again by myself. Sometimes it looks better upside down. There's just so much more depth to the illustrations, I think. "

(What you can't really tell from this picture is that she is reading her book while Daddy is looking at the latest Jeep magazine/catalog that came in the mail. Too cute.)

[picture dated 11/15/06]

Learning from Dad

Saw this post on Bloggingbaby.com about how toddlers learn their language skills from their fathers. They also link to the original article. Since we fall into the limited control group of families where both parents work, does this mean that I am in for a toddler talking about trains, basketball and drum corps? I don't mind the basketball and drum corps so much, but that would explain why she hasn't said shoes yet!

As for the trains, here is a picture of her with a statue outside the Cary, NC train station. We were in the Raleigh area to visit a friend and I thought this would be a fun shot to take. If and when we go back, I'll have to remember to take another one to show how much she grows between visits.

[pictures dated November 11, 2006]

SHOES

No, she doesn't say shoes, yet. Just because it was Mommy's first word does not make it genetic. She's still uttering Dut/Duck, Bye Bye (bah bop - complete with two closing fists held out as a wave), Doy, Daddle, Dadadadada and some very interesting and inflection-filled jibber jabber. The other day, after my usual "and we need this, this and this" as I was grabbing last minute things like her snack trap and sippy cup on the way out of the house with her on my hip, she said, "This!" My little parrot!

Little Miss Amelia has had a wide range of shoes in her life thus far. These wonderful lavender trimmed Converse high tops with lavender laces have been a highlight in her shoe wardrobe the last two or three weeks.They arrived in our home as yet another great eBay bargain and I just love them. They make me think of the red Converse high-top wearing Velvet Knights, the most fun drum & bugle corps ever. Okay, maybe the Bridgemen were more fun, but they were before my time. But I love these shoes so much and am so proud that she already owns her first pair of Converse (Mommy has yet to own a pair but Daddy reportedly lived in Converse shoes as a teen), I had to be sure to post about it.

And here is the rest of her while wearing said wonderful Converse high tops and enjoying Cheerios. Do you like how the sippy cup is coordinated with her outfit? LOL

By the way, did you know that it is SO much fun playing with Daddy's size 13 shoes, even if they aren't made by Converse?






[pictures dated 11/8/06]

More Balloon Fun

Amelia was at a friend's 1st birthday party earlier this month and discovered his balloon. It had her beloved Thomas the Tank Engine on it. Okay, Thomas may not be beloved yet, but watching it every Sunday morning with Daddy will get her there at some point, plus there are a few Christmas presents of a certain tank engine nature tucked away that should help.

So here is Amelia yanking the balloon and having the most fun ever with it. Fortunately, she did no damage and after getting untangled (it's amazing how easily she keeps her balance while she turns around, and around, and around laughing at the bobbing balloon) she was easily distracted by something else since Cayden has lots and lots of toys - all new to her and so they all had to be checked out.

She seemed especially interested in his set of four Thomas mini-board books after he opened them. She nonchalantly appropriated them while the two other boys at the party were wading through the crumpled paper after the new car toys. She wasn't at all interested in the bath toys that she gave him. That's probably a good thing, though!

[pictures dated 11/4/06]

Shape Sorting Fun

The shaper sorter is currently Amelia's favorite toy. It's been a favorite for about three weeks now. We even take it in the car for long trips which is a little bit challenging with that forward facing seat. I spend a lot of time turning around (in the passenger seat since Daddy is driving) and handing the pieces and/or tub back to her.

Amelia's friend, Livia, showed her how easily the top comes up and Amelia just delights in putting a shape in and immediately removing the top to retrieve the shape. When she first started playing with it, she would put a shape almost all the way in its slot and then pull it back out with a great big grin on her face. She will still do this and I guess it's her way of saying, I know where it goes, but I don't have to put it there!!!!

She also likes to figure out what other things fit in the shape sorter. Last Sunday she decided that the cats' large, black toy rat was an excellent candidate for being pushed through the holes. I usually try to take the rat away from her when she appropriates it as her own, but I let her play with it last week until she started putting it in her mouth. After all, I have to draw the line somewhere, no matter how cute she might be while playing.

And Amelia says, "Thank you, Grandma, for my pretty new dress!"

[Pictures, which are a little dark for some reason, dated 11/5/06]

Big Girl!

Amelia is now facing forward in the car. We finally swapped out the backward facing car seat for the forward facing car seat. She seems to have made the adjustment well, although her head flops a little if she falls asleep. I like being able to see her just by turning my head, but I find myself still checking the rearview and seeing the back of her head reflected in the mirror that is still hanging from the otherwise-useless baby shade in the back window. I guess old habits are hard to break! Here she is demonstrating one of her favorite activities - putting things on top of her head!

We had a great Halloween. Amelia was able to trick-or-treat with her cousins. She couldn't quite keep up with them, but she had a ball anyway. She liked to hold a piece of candy in each hand which made it impossible to pick up more candy when kind neighbors would offer her the bowl. Occasionally she would accidentally drop the softened, still wrapped chocolate goodie into the bowl to grab something, but it didn't happen often. The only thing she truly got excited about was the opportunity to grab pebbles from one person's landscaping. She did this on the way up and back from the front door. That's my girl!

It seems Amelia has had a growth spurt. Her Robeez are tight, her pants are short, her diapers are too small (and yes, I've found that out the hard way), and her sleepers don't fit. We've got stuff stashed away but I can't believe that I'm going through 18 month clothes to see what will fit when just a year ago she was still in 0-3 month clothes that were baggy on her. Throughout her first year, she was usually a size behind.

We took her to Rupp Arena last night for the second time in her life. It was a much better experience, and almost exactly a year apart. We went Nov. 13th of last year and we were much closer to the ceiling and the noise was just too much. This year we had lower level seats and she just had a ball! (Pun intended or not? You decide!) She spent about 20 minutes in the first half staring at the kid behind us eat his nachos. Poor kid. But when a baby wants to stare at you, and especially one as stubborn as Amelia, there's just not much that we can do about it.

[pictures dated 11/6 & 11/7/06]