Today's Trip to the Library

This morning Amelia and I went to the library. For the first time, she picked out her own book! She spied a book she wanted that was standing up on its own at the top of the shelves (they are only two shelves high) and asked, "Puppy dog book, please!" She then went around the shelves to the table and chairs where I helped her up. I dragged a chair from the other table to sit next to hear and read the story. She looked at me, made a pushing motion and said, "Mommy, down and play." Little Miss Independent wanted to read by herself at the library! I left my chair where it was, walked over to see if The Red Tent was in (it wasn't) and looked back a few times to see a smiling Amelia watching me. She is so fun.

Her Very Own Wish Book

We got a Fisher Price catalog in the mail and I thought Amelia might enjoy looking at it. It's now one of her favorite "books". She will sit and meticulously page through it, examining each page, each baby's face, each toy. It makes me think of my own childhood and how I adored looking at the toy section of the Sears Wish Book every year, back when it was free like Amelia's catalog is.

[pictured dated 11/25/07]

Another haircut

It's been a while since I've cut Amelia's bangs, an idea I had been flirting with for a while while debating if I should just let her hair grow out a little since it's curly and goes to the side. With winter here, however, the hats are making her hair straighter and her hair winds up in her eyes more often than not which makes her look a little unkempt. So yesterday I went ahead and snipped.

Her daddy took this picture later in the day. I can't believe how big she's gotten, sitting on the couch all by herself, reading a book. I think she looks a bit like Pippi Longstocking with her curls coming out from the sides of her head and that expression on her face.

[pictures dated 11/24/07]

Sit Down!

Amelia was riding in her carseat yesterday and had her Leapfrog doll Tad in her lap. She was saying, several times, "Sit down in chair, Tad!" You can't tell Amelia's hears that often, can you?

And then today I needed something way up high and got a chair to stand on. From another room I hear, "Mommy sit down!" Oops. There I was being a bad example.

Overprotective Mothering

On our way home we decided to stop at one of those steakhouses with the big bucket of peanuts on the table. After placing our diet coke order and checking out the menu, I realized I didn't have Amelia's apple or her crayons, so I ran back out to the jeep to get them. When I got back, she was delighted to have her crayons to play with and we had some apple. Then she starts reaching towards the other end of the table. She doesn't ask for anything or name anything that she sees, and it seems like she wants something but I can't figure it out.* As I'm saying, "I guess we could give her one of those peanuts to play with," our food comes and I start cutting up chicken for Amelia. Daddy reaches into the bucket for a peanut and I figure Amelia might have fun exploring the texture and maybe feeling and hearing the little peanuts inside shake while the chicken cools. Next thing I know he cracks open the shell and puts one of those little peanuts in front of her. !!!!! Not wanting to take it away once she sees it - and she indeed sees it and is excited about it - I break it up a little smaller and hold my breath as she eagerly puts the pieces in her mouth. Daddy says, "That one was about the same size as the one she had while you went to the jeep." (*So the reason she wasn't saying anything while reaching is that she didn't know the word peanut, but she knows she can't just grunt or whine for something.)

Truth be told, I'm not sure when I would have been ready to try whole peanuts with Amelia. I know she doesn't have a peanut allergy because she eats peanut butter, but I am terrified of her choking because she isn't the world's greatest biter and chewer of food when she decides she likes something or is in a hurry. I am glad Daddy gave her the peanuts and that she likes them so much and I feel a little silly for being so overprotective.

As much as I might try to recognize future occasions of needless worry, I know this won't be the last time that Daddy lets her do something I wouldn't have been ready to let her do, something she was ready for and winds up enjoying so much. Hopefully I won't hold her back too much.

26 months

Today is Thanksgiving and Amelia is exactly 26 months-old. I am so very thankful for her.

We spent a wonderful day with Nana's side of the family. It was a great day of food & fun. Most of them hadn't seen her in two years when we first brought her for Thanksgiving 2005 at the tender age of 2 months. She has changed a lot since then!

After greeting everyone she took her afternoon nap and then came out to play some more. She discovered it was great fun to take the yellow child sized chair and push it down the two steps into the back room where most of the folks were. First she would declare, "Yellow chair fall down steps!" Then the push. Then the huge smile, a little dancing and clapping before descended the steps, lifting the chair, pushing it to the kitchen and back, and repeating. She also did her happy dance for and along with Scott, ate turkey and pumpkin pie, and was downright charming before we headed south for a couple of hours to a hotel. She kissed Aunt Ruthie and Jackie good-bye, and they loved it.

Thank You Deborah

Amelia picked up "please" pretty quickly when she started saying more than one word at a time, as in "Juice please", "Book please", etc. However, I've had a really hard time getting her to say, "Thank you." I say it to her all the time, and as much as she is a parrot she hasn't picked it up that way.

Last week we met my friend, Deborah, for lunch at Moe's, an eatery where you go through a line telling them what you want on your burrito and then they lay the finished burrito in a basket of tortilla chips. We sat down to eat and Amelia was in a high chair at the end of the table. She reached over and appropriated one of Deborah's chips while saying "Chip please." (Why she took Deborah's and not mine is a bit of a mystery ... maybe hers were closer. ) Since Deborah had no intention of eating her chips, she didn't mind the polite little food thief helping herself. So Amelia proceeded to take a dainty little bite of the chip, lay it down and reach for another, saying "Chip please". I said, "Say Thank you Deborah." Amelia complied with gusto and it was so funny. Deborah really liked hearing Amelia say her name. So each chip, and dainty bite, and reach, there was a "Chip please" followed by a "Thank you Deborah!" I thought wow, this is a great opportunity to reinforce the phrase so maybe she'll remember it.

She does remember it - but she thinks Deborah is part of the phrase! We were at church Sunday and somebody said something to her and she said, "Thank you Deborah!" As popular as that name is, it doesn't always fit. So now I've worked on explaining that Deborah isn't part of the phrase and I've tried inserting appropriate names whenever possible. A week later she is starting to catch on. It's still cute, though.

The Bed Bugs Bite

We have a little routine at naptime and bedtime where I say, "Good Night, Sleep Tight, Don't let the bed bugs bite." This wasn't really a purposeful part of our routine, it just seemed to me that something should be said when putting the little one down to sleep.

Well, parrot that she has become, Amelia now says what I say. This became really apparent about a week or so ago, maybe longer since it didn't register at first that she had picked up on the routine of the phrase that I was absent mindedly saying. I don't always say the entire phrase and sometimes I just say, "Good night, sweetheart, I love you!" Lately this has been met with, "Sleep tight!" from Amelia, to which I would respond, "Sleep tight!" and she would struggle with, "Bed bite", and I would say, "Don't let the bed bugs bite."

When I caught onto the fact that she was expecting the entire phrase, and having fun saying it herself, I would start it and let her say the next part, repeat it, and then let her say the last part. I generally do this whenever she says anything to encourage and reinforce her language skills. The last couple of days she has really improved on the last part of the phrase and clearly says, "Good night. Sleep Tight. The bed bugs bite." We're still working on "Don't let the ...."

Oopsies

We say all kinds of things around here along the lines of uh-oh. Variations include oops - which is what I usually say, oopsies, and even oops-a-daisies. I really like the last one which is usually reserved for times when I'm mildly amused at some minor catastrophe. Amelia can say the first two, but when she tries the last one it comes out "oops-a-sissies" which I think is (1) a longer version of oopsies and (2) really funny.

I also don't think I've noted her hyper-pronunciation of noise. For her, it comes out noy-is. Very cute. (of course, I'm her mama)

The evolution of her language, and her willingness to use more words, continues to amaze me. "Up!" has been replaced with, "Mommy, pick up please." She gets a little caught on her hard 'k' so there's a bit of a pause in the middle that I'm sure will disappear before I know it. sniff.

My Baby Girl

There was something about the way this hat pulled her hair back from her face that made me see her newborn face again. (That is such a mom thing to say!) It is amazing how much they change, but also how little they change from when you first meet them.

And here she is trying to fill her daddy's shoes again. I love this color on her.

[pictures dated 11/15/07]

Sarah is Okay

In case anyone was wondering, Amelia did make peace with Sarah. We had a playdate again the following day and when we got ready to leave she gave Sarah a very nice kiss, totally unprompted. How sweet is this?

[picture dated 11/11/07]

The Plane Ride Home

Amelia loves hanging out in her car seat in the airport terminal. This time I captured it on film!

Each time we got on or off the plane Amelia walked down the aisle all by herself with no encouragement from me.

Since I was traveling with a small child, we had priority boarding and after us and one other family there were two wheelchair assistance passengers, so there was a bit of a gap until the rest of the passengers boarded. Once they did, Amelia stood in her seat and started pointing and announcing, "People! People!" It was amusing to me and a few of the 'people', too.

I took advantage of the lack of passengers to walk up to the cockpit and ask the flight attendant if I could take a picture of Amelia with the pilot(s). She agreed but unfortunately took Amelia from me - something Amelia is not a big fan of at all - and while we managed a shot, it's not the happiest one. The flight attendant was planning on putting Amelia in the pilot's lap which is why she took her. It was a little strange, in retrospect, how the flight attendant just took Amelia from my arms without warning, and I didn't quite realize it had happened until after it did. Oh well.

On the flight down Amelia thought we were on a bus. I tried to explain plane to her and even took out the pamphlet with the diagram of the plane, but it didn't compute for her. There was no repeat of "bus" on the way home, though.

I love this shot of her. She was staring out the window and I was trying to get a shot of that, but she turned at the last second and I have this beautiful picture of her pretty brown eyes.

When we were packing to leave I used the 'emergency outfit' in her diaper bag to clothe her and didn't replace it hoping that we could make it the few hours home with no accidents since I needed the extra room for books to amuse her during the flight. I brought apple juice, but no milk since we use one of those take-n-toss cups for milk and those sometimes lose the top when Amelia clenches her teeth on the spout and then pulls the cup off. (This doesn't happen often, but I wasn't going to take a chance that the plane ride would be one of those times.) Once we boarded the plane I quickly changed her diaper so when we took off, she had a dry diaper. The flight would have us home in less than 90 minutes and I figured we had all our bases covered. Well, sure enough, since I didn't have an extra outfit, we wound up needing it. During our descent she pooped. I debated whether or not I should change her while we waited for people to deplane, and then I noticed it had gotten on her shirt ... and pants. Yuk. There was no way I was holding her and getting it on me, so after using a wet wipe on the seat, I let her walk down the aisle by herself. (Thank God for the aforementioned independence for walking aisles.) We made a pit stop immediately upon deplaning and Amelia met her daddy in everything but an outfit - a diaper, onesie, poncho, shoes & socks.

What a memory!

[pictures dated 11/11/07]

Cousin Sarah

Amelia met her 4 month-old cousin Sarah Saturday and seemed to think baby Sarah was an okay person until Mommy put Sarah on her lap. Amelia got really upset and even told Mommy, "Melia's Mommy Lap!" over and overa again several times, while pointing at said lap for emphasis and clarity, but it was like Mommy didn't understand because Sarah stayed there a loooong time (or so it seemed to Amelia who had crocodile tears running down her face and everything). Mommy had to put Sarah down and pick Amelia up, carry her away from everyone else and sing the "Hi Lili" song before she would calm down. Then Mommy tried to sit with everyone again, and even though she was still holding Amelia, the crying commenced again, so Mommy walked around with Amelia some more singing the Lili song. Poor Amelia.

Sunday's playdate was not traumatic in the least, but we were in a home with lots of cool toys, so that probably helped.

Properly Attired

We're down in Gator country again visiting the grandparents. Our little Wildcat is not the least bit afraid!

[picture dated 11/10/07]

Playing Games

Amelia is really starting to show signs of imagination and playing pretend.

For months now she has played the "where did the ball go" game after tossing it somewhere. This is always a fun way to engage parental units after all.

Lately she has started her walking Pooh toy and then run from the living room to our bedroom (we have a small house) and shouted, "Where Pooh go?" After a few seconds she will poke her head around the partition we have up between the door to our bedroom and the living room and then look completely delighted to have found Pooh - who is simply where she left him. She will then run up to him, grab him and laugh. It's so cute.

She's also been spending time playing with her Little People and jabbering away. She also likes to play with her farm and the various animals. She enjoys having then come through the barn door and I hear her in her room babbling and playing. I have no idea what she is saying with them but I imagine conversations like, "Oh, Mr. Cow? I didn't know you lived here, too!" And I think to myself that it seems so soon for her to be play-acting (or whatever it's called).

She is also mimicking more and more behaviors and more and more words, which she uses soon thereafter in correct context.

It's so amazing to watch her develop, and it's so fun and rewarding to be a part of it. And there's nothing better than when she wraps her arms tightly around my neck and half-shouts, "Mommy!"

More Vocabulary

For a while now Amelia will demand, "Down! Play!" whenever she is picked up. In fact, I wrote this in as an example of her phrases on her 2-year check-up development sheet. It is a little annoying because she will run up to one of us to get hugged and noticed, but she doesn’t want to be picked up and if you do pick her up, which is kind of a natural instinct for us, she demands, "Down! Play!"

Often times I will tell her she can get down and play in a second when I am cleaning her up after eating or getting her out of her carseat. She has now added this to her demand: "Down! Play in second!" She still uses a very hard "k" so she gets a little caught in the word 'second', which is cute to hear.

We've been teaching her for a while that certain things belong to Mommy or Daddy and she will point and say "Daddy's juice" rather than demand it. Other times she just points to something and says, "Mama's" as if to acknowledge that she understands it is mine. She especially loves to say, "Daddy's Jeep!" as she runs up to it and hugs the door that leads to her carseat. Recently she started pointing to my laptop and saying, "Mama's ‘puter." I love watching her make connections.

Amelia apparently loves the word grasshopper. I am assuming she has this love for the word because she uses it completely out of context and says it so clearly. She learned the word in her 10 Little Ladybugs book. She'll say bug rather than ladybug, but she says grasshopper clear as a bell. Later in the day she'll be doing something random and declare "Grasshopper!" Or we'll be driving in the car and she says, "Grasshopper!" We think it's cute and laugh, so now she laughs whenever she says it.

She also likes to announce whenever something falls down. However, I am now trying to explain to her the distinction between something actually falling down, being dropped or *gasp* outright thrown down. Yep, when she threw the book down last night and innocently said, "Book fall down," I corrected her and said, "No, you threw the book down and we don't throw books." She gave me her puppy dog eyes expression and picked it back up, but did not throw it again. Good girl. We'll see how long that lasts, huh?

(apparently not long because in the time it took me to proofread this, she started tossing lego blocks and saying "throw things". hmmmmm)

Find of the Day

I found something with Amelia's name on it. While we purposefully chose a name for her that wasn't common, we also purposefully chose one that wasn't entirely unusual. I knew that finding something for her on those personalized racks (barrettes, Christmas ornaments, license plate key rings, etc.) would be rare, and I usually give into temptation whenever I see a rack of said merchandise and "just look" for her name. Tuesday I was rewarded with this find, and I also know she is not alone because it was the last Amelia angel there. It made my day. And I love that's it's green.