9! Months! Old!

The delicate Russian princess wears her rabbit trimmed hat to keep out the bitter winter wind.

This post is so neglected. I have reasons, but they aren't very exciting. It is a combination of disappointment of the pictures we took (or didn't manage to take) of her on her 9 month birthday. None of the pictures seem to capture the sweet, joyful, stubborn little girl that is growing up so quickly. There has also been a scheduling problem. Like, when my kids don't sleep, I don't have time to blog. Also, a few of my New Year's resolutions (more on that later) are interfering. Anyhow, here is what I have!

My second favorite picture - my favorite picture is at the top of this post.

Baby in the snowbank
Her smile just lights up my heart. No, really.Laughing at Daddy.

Playing peek-a-boo with Daddy's hat

Watching William play in the snow with Grandpa Heidt

And here is some updates on Amelia:
-so social: hello, hi, waving, peek a boo, so big, clapping, mimic
-standing unassisted for brief periods of time
-champion crawler
-determined to eat power cords, pull plugs and tip over Christmas trees
-cannot keep socks/shoes on the girl
-chew, chew chew
-up to six teeth and counting
- loves anything with a face
-dances to music (bounces)
-eating all kinds of things. Still do baby oatmeal, purees on the road. loves solid green beans, peaches, tried potatoes, corn, bread, pizza crust, cheerios, puffs. Does a GREAT job getting food (and everything else) to her mouth by herself.
-Communicating: WOW! In the week we were at home, Amelia became fascinated by the telephone! Every time she sees one or hears on (or something that sounds like one), she puts her hand on the side of her head and says "Ehh?" as if to say "HELLO?" Totally adorable. Unless you are trying to have a phone conversation with her in your arms. Then it is totally annoying.

I thought we might get a cute picture with the trees and snow in the back yard. Right after this was taken, she launched herself in crawl position resulting in a snow face plant, snow in her shoes, up her sleeves and up her pant leg.
Amelia was done trying to get cute pictures - look at that sad, sad tear on her right cheek. Poor, cold baby! I had to take her inside to warm up.

Amelia bundled up a second time again the cold. Her snowsuit was COVERED in snow, so I took it off her. She insisted her shoes and socks come off as well.

On top of fun picture taking, we got in a good bit of playing with Grandpa Heidt today!

We played a little bit in the back yard. I was hoping we would find a little hill to do some sliding on, but no such luck!

We also tried (again) to teach William how to shovel. Here is Grandpa Heidt's attempt.

It appears to not be any more successful than the rest of us. William is determined to shovel the now ONTO the sidewalk from the snowbank.
We broke out the sled. Grandpa Heidt pulled William up and down the sidewalk with fresh powder on it.
And then, I added Amelia to the sled!
I know it looks like Amelia is crying, but she is laughing!
They both loved it, as you can see
Quit taking pictures mom! We want to go FAST!
William wanted a turn to pull his sister
But, we had to quit due to her daredevil tendencies - she would roll over onto her belly, pull herself to her hands and knees, and then attempt to launch herself out of the sled while it was traveling at top speeds.William then requested to pull Grandpa Heidt.

After warming Amelia up, I decided I needed a turn with my kids in the sled.
I can't remember here if William was trying to get himself into the sled or wanted to pull the sled.William even talked me into letting him pull Amelia for a minute in her carseat. It didn't last long because I think she is about 85% of his body weight with the carseat.

Another treat was spending some time with the Gaedke's. They truly are some awesome friends. We don't see them often enough, but when we do, we are able to just pick right up where we left off last time. It was wonderful (this isn't even close to the right word) to watch our kids play together. Cana is starting to take some steps and...and...it was AWESOME.

Also, they brought presents for the kids! Amelia LOVED the tissue paper her beautiful dress and tights were wrapped up in.William just outright LOVES presents by this point. Every day he wakes up and asks: "Will there be more presents today?" I think he doesn't even care if he birthday ever comes because he is loving Christmas so much at this point (and who wouldn't when you get great presents roughly every other day for two weeks solid and people feed you cookies whenever you want. What else is there? Birthday-shmithday!)
William got a dump truck that comes apart! It has a little drill to take off the wheels, cab, and dumper part. We have taken it apart and put it back together again exactly 5216846846464616846846161651 times as of today (1/20). He is very good about knowing which way the drill needs to work for the screws to come out/go in - something I thought would potentially frustrate him.

PS We did get Cana presents (doll quilt, Christmas tree ornament, fudge for her parents), we just didn't take any pictures of it.