9 Month Appointment

We had our 9 month well baby appointment today. It is on the early side, but we wanted to get it in before the true hustle and bustle of the season truly started in. All in all it was pretty uneventful with the high point being trying to keep Amelia on the scale long enough to get her weight correctly. Her stats are now:

Height: 29.25 inches, +1.75 inches in the last 3 months
Weight: 20 lbs 5 oz, +over two pounds in the last 3 months
Head Cir.: 46.5 cm, +2 cm in the last 3 months

The short version is Amelia continues to do well. She is at the top of the chart for height and in the 75% for weight and 90% for head size. She is a tall girl - we could have told you that without the chart though. She is constantly being mistaken for a baby much older than she really is.

We also picked up a seasonal flu booster to round out the appointment and will return for her 1 year appointment in spring. How is that possible?


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Our first appointment of the day was with the dentist for William. The American Academy of people who look at Kids' teeth for a living recommends now that parents bring their kids to the dentist for the first time between 6-12 months of age. Honest. I just read it today in our Parenting Toddlers book (not while at our dentist office). This was William's second visit to the dentist and I was hoping for a little progress in his performance. No dice. He enjoyed a ride in the dentist chair and happily wore the hotwheels sunglasses provided. He liked playing with the toothbrush and using the air blower to blow up plastic gloves. However, he flat out refused to open his mouth for anyone or anything. I was very tempted to....do something not nice to him, especially as his 9 am appointment time meant I spent most of the morning running around like a mad woman putting clothes on kids and trying to feed them in order to be on time. Amelia did her best to alternate between flirting with patients/hygienists and pulling cords out of the wall.

Santa, revisited

All I want for Christmas is a picture of the kids sitting with Santa. Laughing, crying, picking their noses, it doesn't matter. I'm not sure why it was so important this year, but it was. So, this is our third attempt for a picture with Santa. I was a little surprised because overall, this was by far our best experience. Including the wait in line. We went to the Bass Pro Shop. Not your typical Santa stop. The stuffed deer and fish nonwithstanding, it was wonderful. They had a lot of kids activities (coloring, remote control trucks, shooter things, crafts, letter writing station, play tents set up, etc) and most importantly, they allow your own photography. Nice. I wasn't sure how it was going to go based on our previous experience. When it was our turn, I brought the kids up and was ready to plop the kids down for their crying pictures when I was pleasantly surprised.

Santa put out his hand and wouldn't let me put the kids down. He wanted to talk to William first and warm him up. Here they are talking about what kind of cars William likes best. Because, you know Santa's workshop has both big cars and small cars.

A discussion about trains then occurred.

Santa then called William's attention to the miniature train rolling around nearby

And then he sat happily on Santa's lap. Ms Thing though was no so cooperative. She has happily cooperated through two other Santas without problem and I wasn't planning on it being any different this time. Turns out she was our crier this time. Go figure.

Christmas Day 4: A Christmas Program

First of all, we got a Christmas-ed up this morning to go to church! Amelia wore her snowflake sweater jumper and William wore his green striped sweater.

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I really felt like the Christmas program snuck up on me. Before Thanksgiving, the coordinator of the Christmas play and I decided it would be super cute to have the preschool set play and small role in the Christmas play put on by the youth in our church. The toddlers would join the rest of the cast in our Christmas play for the very last scene in the stable as animals while the congregation sang a hymn. All they had to do was be cute. We outfitted William with a costume from the "Official Christmas Play Box" and I committed to whip up something darling for Amelia to wear. I also assisted in badgering other parents to get their kiddos to participate so ours wouldn't be the only ones being a distraction. Of course I left it until the last minute to pull something together for Amelia. It's a good thing she is darn cute on her own. I'd like to present our very own Christmas mouse:

Amelia the Christmas Mouse (turns out she is probably of the white footed variety)

Using white fleece, a white headband and pink flannel, I created these awesome ears in about 20 minutes. I then cut about 14 inches of the rough edge of the fleece, added a safety pin and voila! A Christmas mouse was born!

Add in a white pair of tights, a white onesie and the costume is complete!

I'm biased, but she is SO cute!

She was really good about leaving the ears alone - I was surprised about that!

William (the donkey) was not so great about this. Several times he reached up and turned his hat sideways leaving one ear above his forehead and the other ear on the back of his head. We don't have as many pictures of William because he wasn't as tolerant about his costume. I dressed him halfway through the program and was out of it moments after the conclusion of the program.

The mouse and donkey get along fine!

So, during the last song, the preschool/toddler/babies were brought up front to join the manger scene. William nicely took a seat with the other kids. Amelia took one look at the manger and pulled herself up on it to get a better look at baby Jesus.

Amelia stole the show at this point. Most of the kids were laughing at her as were the adults in the audience. She was fascinated by the baby Jesus in the manger.

She picked him up, poked him in the eye, chewed on his fingers and rolled him around in his manger.

William on the left, Amelia center stage.

In our rush, we didn't bring our new flash, so the pictures are a little dark. William has relocated to the far right side of the stage and Amelia continues harassing the poor, little Jesus in his manger.

It was wonderful for the kids to have little parts in the program that didn't affect the production as a whole. Several people stopped me afterward to compliment our mouse's role in the show :) We do have video, but it is too long for Blogger and I am unable to edit on our laptop. Will have to wait until we are home again to edit and post.

Christmas Day 3

Great news!

William is starting to tell jokes.

And Grandpa Kevin is responsible

While we were staying with the grandparents, we had spaghetti for dinner. William either really likes spaghetti or will NOT eat it. No inbetween. Of course, this evening was a WILL NOT EAT it kind of day.

So, Grandpa was making conversation with William in an attempt to distract him.

Grandpa said "Do you know what I like about noodles? They are so noodley!"

William stopped complaining for a minute and then completely cracked up. And then repeated the joke 400 times.

Interestingly (probably only to me), he is able to transfer this joke to other things. If I ask him : Do you know what I like about water? He'll respond: It's so WATERY! and laugh his head off.

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Outfits! I found these Candy Cane pants at a garage sale for a quarter. I totally love them.

Amelia's funny face...
Chewing on the finger...

The Second Day of Christmas

Wintery outfits!

William helping daddy put away the ratchet set after spilling it everywhere. There are a lot of pieces in there!

Antlers! How fun!

12 Days of Christmas

I love Christmas time. I adore Christmas music, the family gatherings, the cookies, the decorations and cards. It is so fun and a little emotional for me that William is finally old enough to participate in some of the fun activities. In preparation, I stocked up on Christmas attire for everyone. I think both kids have enough to compete in a 12 days of Christmas outfit competition. Maybe I'll get pictures to post every day for the next 12 days. Am I up to the challenge?

Here is Day One: Santa attempt #2! Santa was invited to the last day of our preschool session. Santa is a teacher at the high school where the preschool is held.

Here is William in his red Christmas sweater. He would NOT sit on Santa's lap, but agreed to sit with the preschool teacher and talk to Santa.

Talking to Santa about trains
William, Amelia with Santa (and a preschool teacher)
Amelia checking out Santa

And! We decorated a Christmas tree for the first time at our house! We always travel for Christmas and it has always been so much work to put the tree up just to take it down again when we come home after New Year's. This year, for the first time, it was WORTH IT. William was so EXCITED! Very fun. Although we ran out of branches after only half of our ornaments were put up. Bummer.

I Wish

William is currently singing "I'm the nap, I'm the nap, I'm the nap!" (from Dora the Ex.plo.rer)

He means to be singing this song.

But, I'd be heaven if it was a prediction for this afternoon.

UPDATE: success!

Over Thanksgiving, Amelia started making this face. It has taken us this long to catch a picture of it. My family reports that I make a similar face at the kids when I am being silly. I don't think I look like this though...do I?