Burgers in her nose

Sometimes when Amelia learns a new word, she has trouble correctly saying a previously well-enunciated word that is similar to the new word. For example, when she learned gas, she would pull up grass and call it gas. I would correct her - but she would just smile at me mischeviously, so I think she did it on purpose.

Tuesday she had some snot issues and at one point in the afternoon told me she had burgers in her nose. She used to call them boogers without a problem, so apparently burger is a new word and she thought she'd give it a whirl. Again, she had a mischevious grin, so I think she knew full well that she had boogers, not burgers, in there. It still made me laugh.

A few other verbal gems: Today I picked her up at Nana's and she was happily playing with her trains. She came into the kitchen, looked back at her trains and said, "I feel homesick." She reiterated it a few times tonight, too. I can't help but wonder if that came from a cartoon she watched at Nana's. I played along with it, using my sad voice and saying, "Ohh, you feel homesick? I'm sorry." She's practicing for camp in a few years I guess.

This week her big thing is "uhhh-uh." There are a few "uh-huh's" and similar, but instead of saying no, she now says "uhhh-uh," complete with vigorous shaking of the head.

In other news I have poison ivy and feel like a leper. It's really annoying. At first I thought it was a reaction to an over-ripe peach, but several people have told me it looks like poison ivy. I think I got it from one of our cats and I'm wary of passing it to Amelia, so I'm trying not to touch or hug her too much, which is really difficult. If all that is not annoying enough, constantly trying to not scratch has scattered what little concentration I have (after mommy brain set in almost 3 years ago) and that makes me even more crazy. Ugh. This too shall pass.

Just a restaurant

We've taken Amelia to a handful of fast food restaurants with playgrounds - mostly Chik-fil-A and two McDonald's so far. She loves them and calls them playground restaurants.

Sunday evening we went out for supper. Amelia was exhausted from playing with Dodah while her daddy and I went to a play that afternoon, and she fell asleep on the way there. She woke up as I brought her into the restaurant and was a little unhappy from not having slept very long. After she finished waking up I let her stand on the floor. She looked around and said, "It's just a restaurant. There's no playground!" She was so disappointed - but I'm not sure why she expected otherwise. Poor girl.

More Boo-Boos

Amelia has some scrapes and bruises from her fall down the ladder the other night. The bruises seem to multiply daily - I guess they take a while to appear sometimes and her little arms look like she's been abused.

Tonight after pre-bed oatmeal (her request), I went to get some ointment and a clean band-aid for her chin. I was three steps away when her, together with the chair she was in, went backwards to the floor. I heard the thud and knew she had stood up and pushed away as soon as I turned my back.

This is what I find so tiring about motherhood - reacting to one mess/injury/disaster while another one happens. I can't keep up. And I feel so guilty. There I was leaving her to get stuff to address one boo-boo that happened right in front of my eyes, only to listen to another boo-boo happen just feet from me.

I ran to her, scooped her up and we rocked. She was crying pretty hard and didn't sing any of the words with me. (I sing her a song and try to encourage her to say the last word of various lines.) But when I stopped rocking to check on her she said, "Rock more!" And then she said, "That's why we don't stand on chairs."

I didn't feel any lumps rise up on her head (I was holding her Tigger gelpack against the back of her head while we rocked) and she seemed fine otherwise. I think since the chair fell with her, that she may not have landed on her head at all, that some other body part took the brunt of the fall. (When I saw her she was laying on top of the chair on the kitchen floor.) I think she was just scared, and then when I was rocking her she was just tired. I am, too.

Daddy read her a story and she was her normal self, and we did the rest of our night-time routine like normal, so I think she's okay. I am glad she seems pretty resilient and extremely grateful that she is okay after all these types of incidents, but I wish I didn't have so many demonstrations, especially so close together.

Prefers Cheese to Chocolate

Amelia was eating the remains of a milk chocolate lollipop purchased as a treat from a chocolate shop. I was putting together her dinner prior to leaving for work so her daddy would know what to feed her. She saw me take out the package of provolone. She loves cheese, so much so that she urgently said, "Mommy hold it!" (meaning her chocolate lollipop) and "Want cheese! Want cheese!" Of course I let her have some. She wanted more, but I told her she'd have the rest later.

She is still learning the concept of feeling hungry. Sometimes she will tell us if she's hungry. Other times she will ask all of a sudden, "How about some supper?" This is especially funny at 8:00 in the morning.

Red Riding Hood

About a week ago Amelia found my beautiful red scarf that Barb sent me. She promptly wrapped it around her head and declared that she was "Little Red Riding Hood". She often wants to wear it when she rides in the stroller in the evening, a time when she also drinks milk. Monday evening she came into the kitchen saying, "Amelia Red Riding Hood. Help, Mommy! Red Riding and have milk." So I wrapped her head up and took this picture. Then she said, "Have red hair like Aunt Amy!"

[picture dated 7/21/08]

2 years, 10 months

Again, I can't believe it. In just two months she will be three years old. Wow.

We went to the mall today because my sister-in-law gave me her Gymboree gym bucks. We bought Amelia this dress for $8.50. I couldn't resist it - so cute!

Tonight she fell down the ladder going to Livia's slide. They are wooden and she was facing us, talking about needing a Dora band-aid on her leg for some imaginary boo-boo. I think she forgot where she was, took a small step forward and then went head down. I was sitting about 2 feet from her and jumped up. I think I helped soften her landing, but it scared me to death. She landed on her shoulder with her head cocked kind of funny. If it had been a direct impact, who knows what kind of injuries she would have sustained. I know I should be grateful that she only has some scrapes on her arms and chest from rubbing against the wood, but I can't help but think about the 'could have been worse' scenarios, especially after an 8 year-old girl in our community died last week after falling from a tree.

It is unbelievable how much I love this little girl and want to protect her. It is equally phenomenal how much joy I get from watching her discover new things, hearing her express herself in new ways almost every day, and noticing how much I mean to her. During a family walk or outing when Daddy pushes the stroller or shopping cart, she wants me to hold her hand. In the drug store today I was three feet from her and she said, "Mommy's too far away!"

In some ways it seems like she's been a little person for so long now - even 2 years ago when she was just 10 months old she already had her personality and was pretty darn mobile - and in other ways it seems like she's still so new. I guess the newness is because every day is still full of new things for her and for me. But I can do without her falling down stairs.

[picture dated 7/22/08]

First Hymn

A few months ago I sang "In the Garden" to Amelia for the first time in a long time. She really, really liked it and would request it. Then a few weeks ago I heard her reciting bits and pieces of it. Last week she recited the two verses I sing, word for word, more than once. Amazing.

Her daddy has been gone on a mini-vacation the past four days and several times on the phone she will recite the hymn to him (sorry, couldn't resist). The funny thing was she inserted "daddy" where "he" and "him" belong. I told him that like most little girls, her Daddy and God are pretty interchangeable, and he should be pretty impressed that she's already made that connection. (I used to think my dad was God because he knew everything ... it took me an undisclosed number of years to discover that if he didn't know the answer, he just made one up.)

Amelia doesn't sing - all the songs she knows and loves like "Ring Around the Rosey", "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star", and a handful of others are all recited. I don't know if (a) this is normal, (b) the fact that I'm not the world's best singer is to blame or (c) she has Papa's tone deaf gene. Hmmmmm.

[picture dated 7/19/08]

Happy Birthday PaPa

Today Papa would have been 67 years old. We spent Amelia's first Halloween with him, Grandma, Aunt Amy, Uncle John, and Cousins Ashley & Jack. After Daddy picked Amelia and me up at the airport, we stopped at a Burger King and I got Amelia her first BK Crown. It didn't quite fit her yet, but I told Papa that she at least had one - seeing as he had one that he liked to wear when Grandma wasn't home and he wanted the cats to be sure who was in charge. This was one of his longstanding jokes.

I never did have Amelia wear this crown until tonight. I am sorry I didn't, but there are always lots of small regrets after someone's death, aren't there? But tonight I put it on her head and she found it pretty fascinating for about two seconds and then it was back to the Noah's Ark that Aunt Amy just sent up to her.

The ark, in the few hours Amelia has been its new owner, has been called boat, ship and ark. Amelia doesn't have a single name for it, but she wants it with her at all times. I draw the line at nap time and bed time, but it's been there for meals, potty breaks, and everything in between. Some of the animals even rode in the car today.

[pictures dated 10/31/06 & 7/17/08]

What's Missing?

She's not yet potty trained - we have our good days and our bad days, and our in-between days, but she outgrew the changing table a few months ago. I mentally moved it out numerous times over the last six weeks but finally did it in real life yesterday. It was overdue for several reasons including becoming a catch-all for shoes, clothes, toys and books. She now has a bookcase in there that is much better at holding her books, a shoe bag on the back of her door with slots leftover for toys, and more floor space for playing. Yay! Now if we could just get her potty trained, the diaper pail could go, too!

[picture dated 7/16/08]

She's Serious about her Snakes

Remember how I mentioned that Amelia is into snakes? Well, take 30 cents worth of clearance priced snakes, a little water in the bathroom sink and voila! you have at least 30 minutes of entertainment for this girl. We're two days into this fun new activity already. Of course, this is only possible thanks to the $3 Diego and Baby Jaguar step stool we found the other day when it was pouring down rain and we were killing time at a Dollar General after lunch waiting for it to let up.

Yesterday she also painted at home for the first time. (She painted last year in daycare, but since it wasn't with me, it doesn't count - right?) Look how much fun she had! She did really well and painted three pictures before growing bored and restless (meaning before she started painting her hands, dropping the brush on the floor on purpose, etc.).

[picture and video dated 7/14/08]

Hide and Seek

Amelia is really into hiding from me when I pick her up from Nana's. If she can't hide, she covers her eyes. Whether she is hiding or just covering her eyes, she is so excited she starts squealing. It's quite funny.

We saw Dodah at church yesterday and instead of running up to her, she hid behind me, but with that excited "I want her to find me" grin on her face. Such a funny girl!

Home Decorating by Amelia

She has a thing for snakes. And I have to admit, they do add some snazz to the otherwise boring bathroom counter. Don't they?

Happy Anna-Nursery

Today is our 10th wedding anniversary and Amelia has been telling us all day, "Happy Annanursery!" to which I reply, "Thank you!" and she gets a huge grin on her face.

This afternoon we visited Livia's mom and dad in the hospital and met their new baby girl who was born yesterday. They are two doors down from where Amelia and I spent the first 36 hours of her life, and where she had her first bath. The room was empty so we gave ourselves a little reminiscent tour. It was kind of neat since we didn't really do anything super special for our anniversary. I took the day off and we had some plans that got changed due to the weather. This made Amelia's prophecy last night of "tomorrow go to bookstore and play with Thomas!" come true, however.

Amelia is really interested lately in what days she does what. Like on Mondays and Thursdays she goes to Nana's house EARLY in the morning. She really stresses the word - it comes out more like uuuuuuuurrrrrrrrrly. Very funny. And she is also interested in other day concepts such as yesterday, today and tomorrow. The other day she said something along the lines of yesterday is tomorrow today. I turned to her daddy and said, "You know, most grown people have to drug themselves to come up with such deep thoughts."

Cranky Old Cat

We visited Tia Polly briefly this afternoon and Amelia petted her big, gray tabby, Pulgita, and then said, "He's a cranky old cat!" (This is what we say about Maynard.) I had to explain what cranky meant and Tia Polly said, "You mean grumpy? My cat is not grumpy!" - but she was good natured about it since, after all, it was Amelia who had said it.

It is amazing and often cute to hear what Amelia will say. Tonight we were on our way to see a drum corps practice and she was reading a book to herself in the car. We hear something along the lines of "Stinky troll, he had a very long day". She is mixing (we think) a Dora story and a page from Hop on Pop.

At one point in the evening Daddy scooped her up and Amelia said, with a big smile on her face, "I caught a baby girl!!" - something he usually says.

Part dog?

We went on a short tourist train ride a couple of weekends ago and as we're moving along Amelia sticks out her tongue, and keeps it out, like she's feeling the wind on it or tasting the air.

Today we left Nana's in the early afternoon and I had the windows down in the car. I look back and she's got her tongue out like she's tasting the air.

Hmmmm. If she wasn't in her carseat, would she be hanging her head out the window, too? This mother can't help but wonder.