Amelia Bedelia

Amelia has been interested in her Amelia Bedelia stories lately so we've been reading them a lot. The other night her daddy said to me if he knew Amelia Bedelia was so flaky he would not have agreed to using the name Amelia. I told him Amelia Bedelia wasn't flaky, she was literal, and there is a difference, which is what makes her funny. He doesn't agree.

I came home from work one evening last week and Daddy was on the couch with Amelia, reading Amelia Bedelia while the TV is on ... airing a documentary on a supposed conspiracy about Amelia Earhart's disappearance. That's a lot of Amelia in one living room!

The irony lies in the fact that I drew inspiration from both Amelia Bedelia and Amelia Earhart when naming our own little Amelia.

Engineer Kitty

Daddy put a train under the tree again this year and is letting Amelia do the controls. She is doing such a good job of listening to him and treating the train respectfully. It's a pretty expensive one - a serious collector/modeler's train (which Daddy is) and not just a toy. I am impressed that he lets her run it and even more impressed by how well she does it. She really enjoys it, too, which I think pleases him as well. He was trying to get a good picture of her running the train and he asked her to look up - this is what he got. And she insists on being called Engineer Kitty.

Later in the day we went to the Speedway to see the Christmas lights they do every year. We have never been although I've wanted to go. It's amazing how much having a child can change someone else's mind about doing things. (For me, it's seeing children's movies - something I would never do before; for him it's things like the Christmas lights.)

We made the mistake of telling Amelia that when we get to the center there is an area for children to get out and play. The entire way through the drive-through display we hear, "Are we there yet?" No. Then if we slowed down to an almost stop she would say, "Is this where I can get out?" No. They even had two potty stops but she wasn't interested in that. We finally got to where you can get out after going one lap on the race track - way cool - the wall on the turns really is high! (But Daddy wouldn't take it at 20 mph, darn.) The inside of the track had some carnival rides and food vendors selling kettle corn, hot chocolate, Russian tea, etc. They had a Santa Claus, too, but Amelia wasn't interested in getting her picture done.

One of the carnival rides was one of those walk-through sorts where you go up a ladder and then down a big slide. Amelia spied it from the carousel that we rode and really wanted to go inside. I tried to let her go by herself (to save tickets) but she came running back out like she was scared. The theme was a pirate ship and I had asked the guy initially if he thought she could do it by herself and he assured me she could. When I went in it was pretty scary and the thing that scared Amelia was the floor turning red like there were hot coals underneath. I picked her up and showed her it was just pretend and we went through the rest of it and up the stairs. She enjoyed it and happily went down the slide. My joining her used up the last of the tickets and it was getting late so we headed home. Amelia talked about the floor turning red most of the way home. "What scared me?" The floor turning red. "Because red means hot?" Yes. "And blue means cold?" Yes. "And I thought the floor was going to be hot?" Yes. "And that scared me?" Yes. "What scared me?" [and this began the conversation again; repeat ad infinitum].

Not exactly what I had in mind for a memorable family holiday outing, but I'm pretty sure she will remember the experience.

[picture dated 11/29/09]

O Christmas Tree

Our neighbors across the street put their tree up the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Amelia leaned against the front window and wistfully sighed, "I wish I had a Christmas tree."

We were planning to get one the following Saturday, even though that is a little early for us, and told her we were going to get ours Saturday, which we did. We found the tree quickly and it was only $20. There are a lot of folks selling trees this year and it has driven the prices down - we would have spent $30 to $35 on this tree last year. We get our tree from the same place every year and have a picture of us taken when we get it.

We came home and put it up and Amelia said, "I love my Christmas tree!" I quickly corrected her and pointed out that it was our Christmas tree. She was amenable to that idea, thankfully.

She had a lot of fun helping to decorate it. She put most of the ornaments on about five different branches so we tweaked it just a little after she went to bed. She wasn't as excited about going outside and looking in at it as I thought she would be. (But that seems par for the course with her - I can't ever anticipate what will thrill and delight her. She is her own person.)

It's going to be a fun Christmas.

[pictures dated 11/28/09]

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a nice family day.

I made a nice breakfast and we began watching the parade. Daddy wandered off to do something and Amelia played in her room and in the living room. I pointed out some of the balloons and other things to Amelia but she wasn't too interested. Later in the morning, however, she couldn't wait to see Santa Claus show up at the end, but that was only because she wanted to watch one of her videos and I told her she could after Santa came. Since she asked at 11:30, I told her she had to wait 30 more minutes. It was a nice time to explain the big hand and little hand on the clock. She wasn't too pleased when, after three long minutes of waiting, she still had 27 more to go. She found something to do, though, and the next thing she knew the parade was over.

We went to Nana's at 1 pm and had a nice time there with Daddy's family. Liza, Amelia & Hailey played really well together. I didn't bring the camera so there aren't any pictures.

I asked Amelia what she was thankful for before she went to bed tonight. She started listing most of her little animal toys. I am certainly thankful for her.

After many weeks, they saw land.

Amelia's preschool had a little Thanksgiving production for the parents this morning. The school meets in the Episcopal Church so they used the sanctuary. The children wore little vests made from brown paper bags which they painted. She took her vest off partway through but I think it was because she was having trouble doing the hand motions to the songs with the vest on. They also had made Indian head bands with feathers. There were a few songs and some speaking parts. Amelia was the second person during the speaking part and she held up a picture and then said, "After many weeks, they saw land." She did really well, too.

During Ten Little Indians, however, she decided to count how many people came to see her. She knew Nana and I were coming, but Daddy was a big surprise and she just couldn't get over him being there, she was so excited. Larry and Shirley from across the street came, too. Then she decided she had to come down and "give Mama a hug" which was too sweet to be mad about. Plus she ran right back up to the stage. One little boy just sat on the stage the entire time and wouldn't participate, so I guess I can't worry about Amelia being a little distracted.

Afterwards they had a nice little lunch for us. The children brought ingredients for vegetable soup and one of the other parents made cornbread. They also had popcorn and we all sat and enjoyed a meal on cute placemats the children had made.

[picture dated 11/24/09]

Computer Games

I've been considering a computer for Amelia for a while, especially since my other laptop was such a dog and I knew a change was coming. I thought about a desktop that we would share but I ultimately went with a laptop. For the purposes of sharing it with Amelia I decided to go with a raised platform (which turned out to be an upside down wire mesh in-box) to avoid unseen sticky spots on the kitchen table with a mouse so she could play computer games (Disney and Nick Jr. type) without touching the actual laptop more than necessary.

Amelia gets computer time on Tuesdays at pre-school and sometimes Meme lets her play Disney games on Wednesday afternoons. I told Amelia she could play computer games on my new computer with the mouse that was coming in the mail (brand new on eBay for $3.25 including shipping direct from China - couldn't beat that deal at Wal-mart!). She found this news very exciting and would ask about every other day if the mouse had arrived. When it did, she was very, very excited.

I am amazed at how well she can maneuver around the Disney site and find all kinds of games and activities that require absolutely no assistance from me. Thirty minutes can pass without her or me noticing, so I have to watch the clock so she's not on there too long. I like that she can be amused in the kitchen with me while I'm cleaning or sorting mail. She is a little baffled as to why we don't have a printer for the "print now" features, but she'll get over it. (Trying to explain that it would invite too many more pieces of paper into the house isn't a concept she can grasp yet. At least I don't think so.)

I made her a shortcut on the desktop so she can go to the game site herself and she also knows how to shut it down. In fact, I discovered that there aren't fights about stopping if I tell her to close it out and shut it down. I guess she likes that she can do it herself so she is compliant.

[picture dated 11/22/09]

No-vember

While driving, the little on in the backseat suddenly asks, "Mommy, is Yes-vember the opposite of November?"

Mrs. Toshiba

My laptop died and so after some research I bought a new one, my first Toshiba. Amelia, who is a budding reader, figured out Toshiba (it's written in huge letters across the top) and then asked me, "Did Mrs. Toshiba make your laptop?" Yes dear, she did.

Bowling

We went to Florida for cousin Jack's 6th birthday party. Amelia went bowling for the first time and LOVED it. She wants to go when we go home, too! Here she is supporting her little cousin, Austin. She is styling in those bowling shoes, no? (And it is SO much fun dressing her in sun dresses in November.)

She tried to taste test the icing on Jack's cake when everyone was called to the table. She was told no and then fell to the floor face first! I picked her up to see what happened and she was crying. In between big tears the words, "I want a birthday!" came out. Uh-huh, she was throwing a fit - she hadn't fallen. This is new. Hmmmm (And I reminded her she had just had a birthday. She seemed to be okay for the rest of the party.)

We did have a few more tears later, though. My brother and mother got into a playful fight and my brother picked Amelia up for protection. Amelia doesn't remember Uncle Stephen and when he picked her up she got upset and started to genuinely cry. I took her away immediately and she hiccuped, "I didn't want that boy to pick me up!" It was cute and sad at the same time - cute that she called her grown uncle "that boy", sad that she was so upset about it. She quickly recovered, though.

[picture dated 11/8/09]

Time Change

This time change is kicking Amelia's butt. She is taking herself to bed at 7 pm with the exception of tonight when she wanted to play for a few more minutes with her Little Pet Shop critters. Two minutes into it, I noticed how quiet it was and peeked around the corner. She was fast asleep!

[photo dated 11/3/09 ]