Slow down Amelia!

I came around the corner to find Amelia had pulled herself up on this box to [finally!] get the toys her brother was putting out of reach. Such a silly girl!

I thought she was just looking around....

Turns out she was thinking about giving her poor mother a heart attack. Shouldn't a baby behave like a.....baby?

Milestones

Friday: 9/25


Amelia is getting to be more stable all the time with her sitting. I consider her officially sitting up now with rare moments of toppling when she is very distracted. It is so fun to have a baby that sits up (not spits up)!

Amelia sitting Pretty - this is my new favorite color on her: navy blue

Sitting pretty and talking to Mama

Drinking milk from a cup - what a big boy!

The shirt William picked out today.

Friday nights we've been trying to have Family Nights. We try to pick something active (ie: not watching TV) the kids will like and have fun spending time together. We're hoping we continue spending time together as the years go on doing fun family activities. So far we've spent time at parks, played games, and gone to the pool. This Friday we decided would be Amelia's first swim at the pool (and also Mama's first swim at the pool after Amelia's pregnancy - EeEK!).

Amelia before getting in the water - so cute!

We don't have any pictures of her swimming because at this point, both of us have to be in the water with both kids for safety reasons. Camera +water= bad news. So, we don't have any pictures with all of us in the water. This seems like the best place to tell you that she wasn't thrilled. Amelia was pretty overwhelmed by all the different things going on. The music, the water, the kids, the splashing, the temperature, etc. She is usually very outgoing and wiggly. She like to charm people and see what is going on. She spent most of her time in the pool turned into our bodies and hanging on tightly. No sign of my spitfire girl. She smiled when we sang and dipped her in and out of the water, but as soon as the song was over, the smile was gone too. So, I think we'll wait awhile before we try this one again with her.

Mama is making me kick!

This time we opted to check out a life vest from the pool. I wanted to see if William would "swim" a little on his own if he had a little support. Currently when we swim, William spends most of his time hanging on to our necks and not attempting to propel himself through the water at all. I was looking for a little....motivation.

Jumping to Mama....or at least thinking about it.

William jumps!

Helpful Big Brother

From the recent photo archive :9/20/09

I'm mostly caught up and then in a minute I'm completely behind again. While looking through some pictures, I've found a small stash of ones I've missed. I don't think I'll ever have time to edit a photo again, so I'm going to quit saying that the photos are unedited. From here on out, the photos are 100% unedited and 100% unposted if there is an unflattering picture of me.

In the morning, Amelia prefers to sit with the crowd while we eat breakfast. During breakfast clean up, she can be a little impatient. This day I turned around to find Amelia's helpful brother had provided a multitude of choice toys to choose from including his very special yellow blanket.
Amelia loves the attention
What a helper! I was wondering where that toy was at...

The helpful big brother likes to pick up toys he doesn't want to share and put them juuuuuuust out of Amelia's reach on top of this box. She will work and work to get at these toys. Because you know if they are out of reach, they have to be fun to play with.
And...Ms Amelia has really started to pick up speed with the crawling. In a flash, she crawled right out of her pants! In truth, most pants that are long enough are huge in the waist on Amelia. The wiggle/crawl she is currently using means loosing her pants is a usual occurrence.

Whirlwind weekend

Sunday: 9/27/09

What a busy weekend we had! Blogger has made some changes which I'm still figuring out - hopefully soon. Friday we went swimming with the kids and spent some time as a family. Saturday, Mama got up early to go to a subdivision garage sale. On the top of my list: William really needs some "play" jeans he can wear out crawling, running and playing in. No luck and I actually came home empty handed, which rarely happens.

Mid morning Saturday we were scheduled to help out at the Green Homes Festival in the kids area. Unfortunately, as soon as we got everything set up and rolling, the sky opened up and we were rained out for our shift. Even more unfortunate was our activity was called sun painting - which really does work better with SUN. However, this was a REALLY interesting event and I'm sorry we weren't able to stick around to get a few estimates for adding solar panels to our roof (totally serious here, I've been wanting solar panels for several years now). They had all kinds of displays and vendors with a TON of information about making existing and new homes more green. So cool! We also walked away with some recycled plastic bottle bags which I am totally excited about (PS I am a nerd). Even more exciting was the green craft fair. The crafts for sale were all recycled products and there were some very, very cool ideas!

These are art sculptures made from trash pulled out of Missouri streams during Stream Team clean up events.

This is my girlfriend's booth of hand painted with sun paint items. She recycles used clothing from garage sales that are still in good condition, but stained. She hand paints them with sun paint and resells them. What a great idea!

Close up of a few of the sculptures

I noticed the drastic difference in the blues...here are William's (biased, of course) beautiful, blue eyes

And Amelia's beautiful blue eyes. They are a much deeper, darker blue. Almost a navy blue.

Sunday morning was a crazy busy morning of church commitments requiring much strategizing, planning and list making. But, it got done in time for us to meet up at the park for a birthday party for our very special friend, Charlotte. Charlotte just turned 3! We ate a picnic style lunch, played on the playground, sang Happy Birthday and enjoyed some delicious cake before we had to sneak out for a much needed nap!

Amelia swings - this girl loved the swings!

William loves this slide! He still prefers to go down backwards... This is also the only picture I have with William and the birthday girl. He is on the slide, she is standing and watching him (lower right side of frame, pink shirt, adorable pigtails).

The birthday girl!

Sunday evening I got motivated and made Amelia some bananas to try for the first time! Don't they look yummy next to her rice cereal?

I also made us dinner! Yay me! I made white chili for the first time...and it was good!

Amelia waiting for her nanners

The first bite...will she like it?

Kind of a funny face...unsure

She goes back for more...it must be good!

Licking her lips!

Taking another bite. Not surprisingly, I think bananas are probably her favorite so far.

After dinner, Amelia decided it was time to pull out a major milestone: She was able to push/pull/wiggle herself from her belly on the floor to sitting without any help! WOW Amelia!

So proud of herself! (PS Don't you love the outfit? Missing the pants and one sock....)

Enough sitting! Her favorite activity this week has been to push this ball until it is out of reach and then crawl after it. While squealing. Loudly. Sunday evening she took two crawling "steps" on her hands and knees. This little girl has a brother she has to keep up with. What will she think of next?

Squash

More from the recent archive: 9/22/09

Amelia tried squash for the first time on 9/22/09 - this is exciting for me because I've decided to dabble into the world of home made baby food. So, I was a little nervous she wouldn't like it and my feelings would be hurt. Because, I made it and all. After doing a lot of reading, I don't think I'll be making ALL the food. For example, I'm not sure I'm excited about anything that requires straining. We'll see, I guess. I'm also just realizing how much more cost effective it is to make the baby food than buy.

Big smile before the first bite... Will she like it?
Still smiling!
She likes it! Hurray!
Taking bites
Mmmmm....

Amelia likes to hold the spoon, so I have to always use two. One for her, one for me. She is already showing a little independent streak (Lord, help us) (although my mother will tell you I certainly have it coming)

Funny face #1

Funny face #2
Silly girl!

All done! Can't you tell? I ate [almost] all my food! Now, who is going to eat squash with me at Thanksgiving?

Warning: I didn't know John was recording, so you want to make sure your volume isn't way up. Permanent hearing damage may result.

All done & cleaning herself up!

For the record

Mama [to Amelia]: Hi peanut!
William: Silly mama. That not a peanut. That is a baby. Not peanut.
Mama [to William]: Are you a peanut?
William: Noooooooooo. I am a grandson.

wait a minute...

who taught the big kid the lower case letters? I know it isn't something I've worked with him on...so where did he pick it up?