Coral Snake is Pretty, Mommy

Amelia still loves her little toy snakes and has taken a particular liking to her coral snake. She will notice if it’s not in with the others and go looking for it. This morning I was working on the laptop on the edge of the bed and she tapped me on the arm and said “The coral snake is pretty, Mommy.” And I looked down and saw this.

Today was a pretty big day. We had her 3-year check-up and as usual it took 90 minutes from the time we walked in the door. Ugh. I’ve never gotten out of that place in less than two hours. For the record, Amelia is 37 inches tall and weighs 33 pounds.

The nurse was great with her. Amelia had her blood pressure taken for the first time with a cuff. It was so small and cute, I wish I had brought a camera! The nurse asked questions and Amelia surprised me by answering. (She usually acts a little shy with someone she doesn’t know.) She told the nurse she was 3 years old, her name, and that she was a girl. Amelia even had an eye test! Then she put us in a room for over 30 minutes and Amelia was getting very antsy. She had tired of climbing on and off the exam table and reading what few children’s books were in there. The doctor came in and we had only chatted a few minutes when Amelia got really, really restless. Without consciously meaning to be snide I said, “Amelia please be quiet for a few minutes. I know we’ve been in here a long time but Mommy has to talk to the doctor.” So after the lecture about how Amelia needs to drink more milk the doctor then finds out that Amelia is not completely potty trained. She was aghast and said, “Most girls are trained long before 3.” Direct quote. She didn’t ask me what methods I had tried or how long I had been trying, just something along the lines of how I need to make sure she got it. So then I risked asking the one question I came in with which was whether I should be concerned that Amelia drools so much. This is how that went.
Doctor: “The dentist can answer that one. What? You haven’t taken her to a dentist yet?”
Mommy: “Look, I can’t even get her to sit still to get her picture done.”
Doctor: “Well, I’ll make this referral. Do you want us to make the appointment for you?”
Mommy: “No, I think I can handle that one, thanks.”

At least there were no shots. Amelia was still glad to see her go. Before the doctor was even out the door, she enthusiastically and loudly said, "Bye Doctor Sawyer!" (which is actually our pastor's name, not her doctor's name).

We also went to the animal shelter today and dropped off the donations from people who came to Amelia's birthday party. They only had 3 cats and one kitten there, but lots of dogs and puppies. It was loud but Amelia didn't mind.

When we got home she really wanted to play outside so we drew in the driveway with sidewalk chalk and she played with her toy lawn mower. We also blew bubbles which she loves to chase. After a quick lunch it was off to pre-school.

You would think with all that activity that she would have taken a nap after pre-school. You would be wrong. I certainly was.

Daddy's brass band had a spaghetti social tonight and Amelia had a blast eating spaghetti and cheesecake and then running all over the stage. She is such a ham when she wants to be. She really hit it off with Elizabeth, a friend's daughter, and fell asleep almost immediately after getting in the car.

Sleep sounds pretty good to me, too, come to think of it.

Princess Amelia

September 24th was my due date with Amelia. When you spend so many months anticipating a certain date, it's hard to forget. It took me a while not to say 9/24 anytime someone asked her birthday.

One of her favorite birthday presents turned out to be a tiara and jewelry set. She adores it. The first night I made her put it in a little bowl that we put on the hearth and it was the first thing she wanted to do the next morning. She needs help with the earrings and is so cute about it.

Here she is all bundled up in her stroller for an evening walk. We had gone to get her pictures done earlier in the day and they were behind which made us 15 minutes late to pre-school and then with the gas shortage we didn't follow through on our evening plans.

It was a very tiring day with the rushing around and then I volunteered at pre-school and supplied the snack - mini goldfish in little Dora cupcake holders, Hello Kitty napkins and organic fruit roll-ups. Turns out most kids her age don't like fruit roll-ups. Oops. (Amelia likes them better than she does goldfish, and she loves goldfish.)


[picture dated 9/23/08, courtesy of Grandma]

Happy 3rd Birthday Amelia!

Wow - Amelia is three years old. This morning after she woke up I couldn't help but think how three years ago this morning at that time it was just her and me in the hospital room - she was born at 12:39 am and by 4 am we were alone. I didn't sleep much with all the excitement of having finally met her. I remember holding her and having so many different thoughts and emotions running through me - I still have many of them.

It's been an ongoing party here since yesterday. We had her friends party yesterday afternoon, a family party tonight and tomorrow it's a preschool party.

In the meantime, I'm exhausted. Pictures and details to follow soon.

Pizza Man

Daddy come home with pizza tonight. He had trouble unlocking the front door and Amelia said, "What's that?" I opened the door and said, "It's the pizza man!" Well, it stuck and she referred to him as the pizza man for most of the night. We'll see how long this lasts. Even if she goes to 1st grade telling everyone her daddy is the pizza man, she isn't exactly lying - he did have a job delivering pizza many years ago!

First Fair

We took Amelia to her first state fair yesterday and she loved it. We met some friends there and Amelia wound up riding her first roller coaster. It was one of those kiddie coasters, aptly named the Dragon Wagon, and if we were by ourselves she probably wouldn't have gotten to ride it. We strapped her in with Livia (who had already ridden it) and Amelia LOVED it. By the end she had noticed that some older kids had their arms up and she let go with one arm and was smiling, screaming and waving that one arm over her head as much as she could.

When we first met up with Livia, she was already in the little kiddie jungle gym thing that has a big slide as an exit. Amelia wanted to go in so badly that Daddy said he'd go buy some tickets. I told her that she needed tickets and Daddy went to buy some and she promptly pulled out the admission tickets we got when we paid to get into the fair (and which she had tucked away in her pocket) and started running toward the entry so she could go in. I was momentarily shocked that she had heard me over the loud carnival music AND understood what I meant, and then made that connection! I had already forgotten about the tickets in her pocket. I had to get over my shock quickly and grab her before she got to the entrance, though.

We also took her on a pony ride - one of those where there's about six or so ponies attached to a round thing and they walk in a circle. We picked an Amelia-sized pony whose name was Shadow. She enjoyed her ride and leaned over to pat Shadow as we loped along. Meanwhile, another girl who had to be at least 6 was totally freaking from the moment her mom put her on the pony and by the end the pony was spooked. I felt bad for both of them - that girl should not have been forced to ride in my opinion.

I should back up and say the first thing we saw (after a potty stop of course) was a humongous Smokey the Bear. She tried to climb him but only managed to get up on his foot and hug his knee. We went to the little tent and she asked for a sticker. They gave her a slip of four and she carefully peeled one off and handed it back to them - not realizing they meant for her to have all four. It was cute, but before you go and think she's all honest and sweet, she then slyly took one of the plastic (also free) bracelets without asking, slipped it on her wrist and walked away. (Later when she was climbing up the children's jungle gym to go down the very big slide, she held her wrist close to her so the bracelet wouldn't fall off. This rendered her left arm useless for climbing - silly girl.)

Later we stopped off at the wildlife tent and inside there was a tree made of bark and inside was a spiral staircase leading to a slide. Amelia loved it and we had to literally drag her away after 15 minutes.

Before leaving the fair, we stopped by the PBS tent. There was a real-life Clifford in front and she hugged him, then hugged him again, then hugged him again. We dragged her into the little courtyard where they had wooden cut-outs of the Super Why character (and some others from various PBS shows). She had a blast running from Alpha Pig to Super Why to Princess P. She'd run to each one and yell their name. It was so cute. [As a side note, Daddy does this thing with her where he says, "Princess P!" and she replies, "At your service!" - It's from the show and it's so cute, especially since our last name starts with P.] Anyway ... Amelia kept straying outside the courtyard to give Clifford extra hugs and he didn't seem to mind, but we knew it was time to leave.

On our jaunt through the parking lot Amelia said, "Go to fair tomorrow!" and I told her, "No, go to fair next year." She seemed okay with that ... but we're going to have to start saving to afford all the rides she'll want to do next year! Actually we'll just have to go on the day that offers a one-price ride all you want bargain, but that won't help us with the games she noticed, wide-eyed at all the great prizes, as we walked through the Midway looking for the pony rides earlier in the day.

Hotel Fun

So last weekend we went to visit friends. On the way, we stayed in a hotel to (a) break the trip up and (b) get a head start Thursday evening. We took the changing table back and while I was dismantling it to get it to fit inside the Jeep, Amtrak called to let Daddy know they canceled his train due to Tropical Storm Hanna. (Apparently CSX shut down the east coast rail line, so it wasn't Amtrak's fault.) So while Daddy made other arrangements, I pushed Amelia in her swing in the backyard, and then we were off.

Amelia is officially too big for her Pack-n-Play, and the motel did not offer cots or roll-away beds. (I was intending the put the mattress on the floor.) The desk clerk did not have access to the laundry room so I couldn't get an extra blanket to put under her sleeping bag. So we improvised and took off the comforter, folded it up, put the Dora sleeping bag on top and Amelia was thrilled! (Can't you tell?)

She had been so, so, so excited about going to a hotel. She slept most of the way there and woke up as we pulled in. She looked around and said, "It's just a hotel. There's no ocean." A-ha! So that's why she was excited - she thought we were going to the beach. (We went to the beach in April, but then we went to KY in June and there's certainly no ocean there.)

She slept really well, but woke up at 5 am. I was sleeping on my side and heard right behind me, "Mommy!" Then she read off the numbers of the digital clock: 506. My house number growing up. Oh, joy, I thought. What am I going to do with this early bird?

[picture dated 9/4/08]

Earlier Bird

Amelia woke up at 5:30 am saying, "Are you hungry?" I gave her a cookie and put her on the potty thinking maybe she had an upset stomach. After she peed and pulled up her panties she came out and said, "How about someting to eat?" So I gave her a granola bar, and with that, our day just kept going.

At some point in the past couple of weeks Amelia started saying the 'l' in her name. It's yet another signal to me of how much she is growing up. She used to say her name "Ah-mia" and skipped the 'l'. Not anymore.

When she isn't busy referring to herself as Amelia, she calls herself Missy now. This is my fault. She has long outgrown the nickname of 'baby girl', even though it slips out every once in a while and so I've been referring to her for a while as "my little girl", or just "my girl" and she will often use that in place of Amelia - like when she says, "Is my girl thirsty?" which is Amelia-speak for, "Mommy, I'm thirsty. Please give me some juice." Apparently I've been calling her Missy, or Miss Missy lately because now she is repeating that a lot in reference to herself. It's quite funny and cute all at the same time.

Like most moms I always am always leaving the house without at least one important item like a full sippy cup. It happens so often that now whenever we leave for a walk or head towards the car and I do the inevitable U-turn back into the house I hear her say, "I forgot something." She is quite the narrator.

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Today is Daddy's 46th birthday and we made him a "special cake"! That's what Amelia kept saying anyway. I told Elke this morning that it was his birthday and Amelia told her that we made him a special cake. She helped pour the water in as I mixed. She hasn't graduated to eggs yet! She normally sifts but Daddy wanted a cake mix cake (yellow with chocolate icing), so that's what he got.

I left work a little early and we went to dinner at a place Daddy likes and where Amelia ADORES the spaghetti. She was so excited. She ate her salad and then asked, "Where's my psketti?" Then as I was giving her seconds she informed me she had to go potty, so I had to quickly de-psketti her, but she held it. Yay! I'm so proud of her. After that she was all about the coloring book and crayons, so that was cool (since it means Mommy can eat without scooping up stray psketti).

She fell asleep on the way home (she had a different sitter today than normal since Meme had another commitment and she didn't take a nap). When we got home, she woke up but whined to take a nap so I changed her into her nightgown and put her to bed. I was kind of sad that she would miss the presents and cake, but I heard her talking to her cow and brought her back out to help Daddy with his presents. Then she said, "Time for a nap!" and put herself back to bed.

I put all the candles in his cake (he likes that ... there's no abbreviating with those number candles, but next year we may need a sheet cake). We both lit them and I sang Happy Birthday and then heard her in her room, so I re-lit them and he went and got her and they blew them out together. Then she put herself back to bed again! By 8:10 p.m. she was fast asleep, but at least she didn't miss anything.

[pictures dated 9/10/08]

Choking

Amelia was eating some nectarine tonight and I thought she started choking. She has an excellent gag reflect so most of the time I just wait it out. From the moment I gave her the nectarine I began doubting whether I should because it was so hard, so when she started to choke, my momma instinct went off and I grabbed her out of her chair and whacked her on the back three times. No, I've never taken any classes on this sort of thing, but it seemed kind of instinctual.

Apparently, it wasn't a great idea - I scared her. She started crying, really crying, and she hardly ever cries. So while I was instantly relieved that she obviously wasn't choking, I started worrying she would inhale what was still in her mouth since she was crying so hard. I also felt really bad for scaring her and kept explaining that I was afraid she was choking, that maybe the nectarine had gotten stuck in her throat and I was just trying to help. She seemed to understand but was still upset. Poor girl.

After a few minutes, a couple of songs and lots of hugs she was her old self.

This motherhood stuff is hard.

2nd day was better

Amelia did better Thursday at pre-school, so that was a relief. Her teacher said that Amelia talked to her more, so perhaps she was also concerned about Amelia's verbal skills?

We just got back from a long, good weekend visiting friends, so there's unpacking to do plus preparations for Monday.

First Day of School

Today was Amelia's first day of school! I was so proud of her as I dropped her off. She went straight to the Little People toys she noticed at the Open House and didn't even notice when I left.

She is the youngest one in the class which may become a problem since her social skills are the most undeveloped. Her teacher said she did really well with the academics - letters, shapes and sorting - but not very good at circle time and standing in a line. I wasn't surprised, especially because that is the primary reason I wanted to enroll her.

It's a small class, and the other little girl who has a September birthday wasn't there today. I hope Amelia can catch on quickly to the social skills since I got the sense from the teacher that she wasn't sure how it would work out. She did go onto say that this was typical 3 year-old behavior but, "We'll see how it goes." The teacher also allowed that she didn't want the experience of going to preschool to be a negative one for her - always being singled out and hearing her name. I can understand that and I agree with her. However, I don't think it's fair to punish Amelia for being 3 years old in a 3 year-old class that happens to be populated with 3-1/2 and 4 year-olds. In the meantime, I am going to work on being firmer about Amelia following instructions rather than just letting her do whatever she pleases. (Example, let's go upstairs Amelia ... and she dawdles so I usually go up ahead of her.)

[picture dated 9/2/08]