Mini Me

This morning as we were getting ready to walk out the door, Amelia picked up my purse, tried to put it on her shoulder and carried it to the basement door (which is how we leave each morning).

More words

This morning Amelia said "chair" for the first time, and then repeated it after pointing to other chairs. It came out with almost no vowels and wound up sounding very Southern. (think: churn without the "n", go ahead and say it aloud a time or two and I think you'll agree it sounds Southern - while those around you will think you sound crazy!)

This afternoon she put another two words together. She has been saying combinations such as "the ball" or "what this?" and now we can add to the list: "Dad shoes" (as she was standing in them). So yes, she is now using "Dad" correctly in word combinations and has yet to say "mama". But I love her anyway. SO much!

Back Home

Apparently it's good to be home again! Amelia seemed very happy while we visited Grandma and Grandpa plus her aunts, uncles and cousins. She had a variety of toys, puzzles and books to play with and she was quite content. However, upon our return home she is successively playing with every single toy interspersed with trying to read every single book that she has not seen since leaving home for our visit.

She did so good on both the outbound and return flights - she's a good little traveler! Only another four months and she'll have to get her own ticket but at least she'll also have her own seat.

Happiness Is ...

... being at the park!

[picture dated 5/24/2007]

Sharing

Amelia likes feeding others and sharing her food. Here she is offering cousin Austin her Cheerios at the mall. Austin really enjoyed them and would run back for another. What he didn't know was that she appreciated his help eating them so it was easier for her to get to the goldfish which were also in her snack trap. She much prefers the goldfish - Cheerios are so last month, don't you know?

[Photo dated 5/20/07]

20 Months Old!

I can't believe Amelia is 20 months old today! Yesterday (or was it the day before) she said "eyes" and "nose" while pointing to her eyes and nose. She usually will ask "That?" ... which is what she did by the time she got to her mouth and ears. The way she says eyes is so cute, too, she is very careful about getting the "z" at the end.

We're visiting Grandma and Amelia had fun at the park today - too much fun, really, and fell asleep in her stroller on the way back to the house. After her nap she had fun running around in the backyard and playing in the sandbox, too.

My little gatherer

She loves to pick things up and hold as much as possible in her arms. She is always so focused and intent when doing so.

[Picture dated 5/10/07]

Choo

Amelia has said "choo" or "choo choo" a few times when playing with or pointing at trains. Given her daddy's passion for them and our indulgence of things Thomas, we thought it was adorable that she was starting to make "choo choo" noises.

This morning, she said "choo" (but clearly meant "two") when her Baby Einstein Numbers Nursery video was about to unveil the number two. Wow! What a smartie! She didn't attempt to say one, three, four or five, but the fact that she recognizes that she can say the word "two" in context is so cool!

And speaking of two, she is practicing being two, unfortunately. She will have little fits when she is upset about something and I am learning to ignore them after doing a quick once-over to determine she is just frustrated. I hope by not reacting, she will not fully develop this attention getting habit. For example, she wants a particular book and she slides to the floor next to it, squints her eyes shut and whines. No tears, no bumps or scrapes, just drama. After a few seconds (which seem to me like minutes as I convince myself I am not a bad mama), she realizes that no one is paying attention, she opens her eyes, picks the book up herself and proceeds to read it happily. Ugh!

The Shoe and Duck Connection

Today is the fourth anniversary of the passing of Amelia's paternal grandfather. Last year at this time she was just beginning to sit on her own for very brief periods of time and I took a sweet picture of her at the cemetery. It is amazing how much more she can do now!

Tonight as I was feeding her some yogurt as part of our bedtime routine, she was playing with her green duck (which looks more like a chicken, but we've decided not to confuse her and we let her call it a duck). She was wearing her green sandals which are really close to the same shade of green as the duck. I didn't have the tray on the high chair and after saying "duck" and pointing to it for about the tenth time, she then points to her sandals and says, "shoes". And she repeated this a few times. She has said "shoes" a couple of times, but not consistently, so this was pretty exciting in and of itself, but the way she was pointing from the duck to the shoes and naming each was like she recognized they were different items but that they were the same color. Wow!

Ticks and Poop

What a day.

I take Amelia to Linda (a neighbor) because she is done with school for the semester and really wants to watch Baby Girl while I work today. So I get there and walk around the car to get Amelia out of her seat. What is that on her head? A tick? Oh my God - it's completely under the skin! It's probably seeking blood since it's hard to come by between the skin and the skull (goes my thought process as I also double check my short-term memory to see if it was possible Amelia had hit her head on or with something between her high chair - yummy cereal and apple this morning! - and the car seat, and did a brief mental scan of any hard toys she may have been playing within the two minutes it took to drive up the street. Nope, nothing came to mind. Linda answers the door and I present Amelia's scalp which she touches and then declares that the spot moved, so definitely a tick. I am trying to think of what else besides a flame is supposed to make them back out since I don't want Amelia's hair to catch fire. (Are you laughing?) Linda can't think of anything else either, so she comes out with a cotton ball dipped in rubbing alcohol and her tweezers. She rubs the tick with alcohol and it starts to dissolve. Yes, somehow Amelia wound up with just a small scab - and a freaked out mama - but no tick, and therefore no lyme disease. Crisis averted.

But mommy forgot to tell Linda that Amelia's sippy cup should be refilled with watered down juice, not straight juice. Amelia doesn't tell Linda, either. (Like she would if she could, huh?) So Amelia had about 18 oz. of pure juice in addition to the 9 oz. of watered down juice. Mommy hoped for the best but knows that straight juice, especially that much, will give a toddler the runs. Well, .... after supper out with Mommy & Daddy, but before arriving home, Amelia filled her diaper ... and her carseat. Amelia got a bath, laundry got done, and a carseat is now completely washed and disinfected. Mommy's tired.

Good Night Moon Meltdown

While reading Amelia a book last week (I think it was Wednesday evening), Daddy veered off-text and used one of the lines from Good Night Moon, probably "and a bowl full of mush" which, for some reason, is just fun to say. Well, Amelia took immediate notice, bright little girl that she is, and insisted on getting down and going to find the book. Well, it couldn't be found and the crying started. So Mommy started looking and then Daddy started looking. Mommy went to her car and to Daddy's. The neighbors could hear the wailing at this point. Still no book. Meanwhile, Daddy tried distractions, which worked for a moment or two, and we somehow managed to get through supper. She was still distraught and Mommy suddenly remembered that it was in the stroller because Amelia had read it to herself during a walk the previous evening. It had been left in the stroller since Amelia likes to walk up the stairs and that requires Mommy holding both of her hands, so no one has a hand left over for sippy cups, books or toys.

I brought the prized book up the stairs and noticed that she was waiting patiently and expectantly on the other side of the door, perhaps even saying a toddler prayer for the return of both her book and her mother, so I passed it to her through the cat door and the look of pure delight on her face was just precious. You would think the heavens had opened up and all the stars had aligned themselves - Amelia was soooo visibly relieved and pleased! She went running to Daddy with it and all was well again. Her entire disposition was returned to its normally scheduled programming and we were all relieved - although the parents were a little disturbed that a reference to something should elicit such a vivid and long-lasting reaction!

So fast forward to Friday evening when we're at a friend's graduation party. Amelia is walking into the living room for the umpteenth time and everyone around has really enjoyed how entertaining and friendly she is. Well, another family arrived and their teenaged son was camped out on the sofa in the living room. Someone says, "Oh, look, Amelia's going to see Thomas!" I held my breath as my head screamed Why couldn't his name be Dylan, Caleb or any other of the thousands of names out there?!?!?! I was gauging Amelia's reaction because I envisioned her looking for Thomas the Tank Engine and having yet another meltdown. My quick mental scan of our vehicle's contents did not turn up any Thomas toys or books and we were in a baby-free house. Yikes!!! Fortunately, she did not hear the statement and no one repeated it. *whew* (She also didn't walk over to him so that probably helped avoid any Thomas confusion.)

Ball

Well, of course I forgot all about "ball" which Amelia has been saying for some time now. She did that typical baby thing of just saying "bah" for a while but was definitely referring to a ball. She would even say "bap" which I thought was pretty darn cute. When she would use that version of "ball", though, she would use her high pitched voice, which I don't always find so cute.

About a week ago she started pronouncing the word almost correctly and it's cute to both watch and hear. She very carefully closes her mouth, as if she has an apple in it (future oboe embouchere?) to say the ells at the end of the word. They are always quieter than the beginning of the word and it is just adorable.

Since I love posting pictures of her, here's one from a few days ago while she was playing with one of her favorite toys. It's a push button phone with a plastic rolodex of animals. They are a little hard to turn, but they announce whatever the animal is and either play a song or count depending on the setting the phone is set on.

She has a cold today and so we're laying low. Thankfully she doesn't get sick often, but it's usually on a weekend when she does. Weird.

[picture dated 5/1/07]

New Word

Amelia is getting a little closer to English. This past Tuesday she said apple for the first time and was indeed referring to the apple I was about to feed her. She's said it a few times since then, always within the appropriate context, so I'm counting it as a "word" unlike "juice" which she says randomly but will often refuse her sippy cup which I offer whenever she says it, so I guess she's actually saying something else entirely.

On occasion she's said other words in context, but then doesn't repeat them. An example of this is shoes. Duck remains her most often and clearly spoken word.

In Love with Thomas

Today was the first time Amelia wore this great e-Bay find, and she was SO excited that Thomas was on her clothes and her shoes! Here she is telling me all about how great Thomas is! (And it's a size 2T, she's growing so fast!)

I put a bib on her since she's drooling a little thanks to those eye teeth, which came halfway in a while ago, deciding they'll go ahead and finish coming through. Well, she tucked the bib under her chin and walked around for a couple of minutes like that because she wanted to be able to see Thomas. I took the bib off so she wouldn't have to do that, plus I figured if she wound up soaking her shirt it wouldn't be too big a deal since it's [finally] so warm right now.

The shoes wound up coming off too easily so it was back to the faux Crocs later in the day.

Something she's been doing for a while that's pretty cute and useful is blowing her nose whenever she sees a tissue or toilet paper. She'll walk up to you if you're holding a tissue, or she'll walk up to the roll of toilet paper in the bathroom and start breathing in and out of her nose, with her nose and it's spittle about two inches from said tissue or toilet paper, leaning forward towards it with her hands tucked at her sides. It's pretty darn funny and has proven to be quite useful, too! I want to encourage her to understand the concept of blowing her nose, even if it's just for the novelty of using a tissue, so I always put it up against her nose, let her breathe out, and then say, "Good girl!" She's been doing it for several months now, so I think the habit has taken hold. Yay! Hopefully it will still be a while before she realizes she can unroll the toilet paper! So far we've been VERY lucky on that one!

If she gets ahold of a napkin or a tissue (usually at mealtime), she'll blow her nose and then wipe her tray and the table if she can reach it. (And if she's not in her chair, she'll wipe the floor after blowing her nose!) I try to tell her that while napkins are used for both purposes, we generally don't use the same napkin for both. She apparently thinks this is a mere technicality because after informing her (yet again), she just looks up at me and grins, which makes me grin right back because she is such a cutie!

[photos dated 5/1/07]