11 Months old

Look at that face. This little girl is so spunky. You can see that little glimmer of trouble in her eye in the above picture. That's my girl! Amelia was a little cheated out of her 11 month birthday being that February only has 28 days! So, we went with March 2nd being the official 11 month mark. The last few months have been so busy with William's birthday, Christmas, Thanksgiving and Halloween it is starting to feel like I've been cheating our girl out of some camera time. I wanted to be sure I got some pictures of our baby before she turns 1 next month (or this month, whatever).
In the last few weeks, EVERYTHING has been in her mouth. If you're brave enough to put a finger in there with all her other sharp teeth, you'll feel four HUGE bumps in the back of her mouth where her molars are coming in. Poor baby!

Chew, chew, chew
She loves the game where she "shares" something with you. She hands you an object. You hold it for a heartbeat and she takes it back. And the cackles away. Because she is the funniest baby ever.

Such a happy girl! As long as things are going her way...but don't cross her! She has a temper! I'm still working on getting video proof of her temper. So cute (at this stage anyway)! Her hair is still so soft and fluffy. Something is a little different not though I'm not sure what. It is SUPER fluffy on top and I can't get it to lay down for anything. It looks like it is coming in more and more in a light brownish color, but I suppose anything can still happen.

William's toys make the best teethers!

I have been looking forward to putting Amelia in this polka dot dress for awhile now! With the sun shining in, today seemed like the perfect opportunity!

Dropping things on the ground over and over is also a riveting game. Here she is dropping William's toy, retrieving it, dropping it, etc.

Pretty girl! We haven't been doing many dresses lately because a)it has been cold and b) they are VERY difficult to crawl in. So fun to see her in her dress!

Silly faces!

Tiny fingers. You would not believe the damage these fingers can do! She pinches and scratches HARD!

Cute baby toes in summer sandals (crossing my fingers they still fit!)
Tip toes!

Amelia is quite the efficient climber. The minute she hears the bathroom door open, she crawls like crazy to get in there. We had been keeping the door open to allow W. quicker access to the potty, but no more! William's room is also off limits now as Amelia has figured out how to open his dresser drawer and empty it quicker than...well really fast.

She loves to get up here and look at herself in the mirror. And throw things into the sink. Like toilet paper, tooth brushes, garbage, anything in her reach.

Just standing on the stool isn't cool enough!
Higher! Higher! Must climb higher!

Ahhh....the two kids. This picture is a great representation as to the relationship between the two. It looks all sweet and nice, but William is really with holding the toy Amelia really wants. Because he can. He doesn't care one bit about any stuffed animal or baby doll unless Amelia is playing with it. And Amelia is waiting for him to give it up. We had our first instance of biting recently (A bit W) over a toy.

No Amelia! Amelia then replies "Nonononononono??!?!" So cute!

My handsome big boy

I will not smile for you. Nope, I won't.

William and his sidekick waiting for Mama at the top of the stairs

THIS is what I need to remember about this age. Amelia is a tornado. She can unload/tip/open just about every container we own. I think I pick up the books from the bookcase about 45 times every day. I shouldn't, but otherwise they get stepped on, driven on and ripped. I just can't let that happen to our books. Yet. Anyway, Amelia spends a great portion of her day crawling to and from different areas of the house emptying book shelves, dumping buckets of blocks, cars and play food, unfolding clothes, and harassing the cat. The only time I have to get ahead of her mess making is when she is harassing the cat.

Other stuff:

Really starting to talk. She greets everyone with the prettiest "Hiiiiiiiiiiiiii-a!" everywhere we go. She also has been doing a lot of mimicking of other words lately. She has said "thank you" "potty" "van" and "book" recently. All words were one time occurrences which I don't count as words. Amelia is finally starting to come back to books. I just couldn't get her to slow down enough to read with me for the past month or so. Not even a page here or there. Nope. Just way to many things for her to do. Now she is finally interested in sitting for a short while and listening to books. Not like William. William would sit with you and read for as long as you were willing. And then want some more. Amelia especially likes books with real photographs of babies in them and any book about animals. In the last week she has decided the funniest noise is "Meow!" . She laughs every. single. time. I do it. Which means I do it a bazillion times a day. Because I love to hear her laugh. She continues to love baby dolls and stuffed animals. She carries them around with her either clenched in one hand or in her mouth. She kisses them, hugs them and pats them exuberantly. We are seeing more and more standing unassisted for longer periods of time. We've also seen a few steps here and there without any support. So far, it hasn't been her idea to leave the support of mom or dad to go out on her own. But, it's coming along. Amelia loves all food. There isn't anything she has encountered she hasn't tried. From cardboard to vegetables, Amelia is quite the little eater! At dinner time, she has been crawling over to her high chair and attempting to crawl in by herself and when that fails, she busies herself with shaking food off of the tray to the floor to eat. When she has something she likes, she hums "mMMMMmmmn" as she eats. There have been a few occasions lately where I'm certain Amelia has out eaten William at dinnertime. Amazing! Her current favorite is probably spaghetti. She loves, loves, loves it! I think that sums up our Mia!

Tendonopothy

Argh. Yesterday I was diagnosed with tendonopthy (and here) in my heels. Which totally stinks because I am banned from running for at least 4 weeks. I am not happy about this. It seems like I finally get in a groove and make running fit back into my (our) lives again and something big like this comes up. Not a happy camper.

The good news is that it is something that can be resolved and it is likely I'll be back to running in the near future. But I am super crabby about the ban which also includes: walking for exercise, aerobics, skipping, hopping, jumping rope, dancing with your kids to silly songs and playing tag outside on a nice day.

I'm also going to physical therapy once a week, icing, stretching and complaining. A lot.


In other news:

William took a nap the other day. He slept REALLY hard. Hard enough he didn't even stir when I took these pictures and then tickled his toes. Tired boy.

Mia is doing a lot more standing up by herself and practicing her balance (Note: in this picture she is not standing alone, she is resting her backside on the couch).Learning the hula is an important skill every girl should have
In this one she IS standing alone. And chewing on her fingers.

Mama's Birthday

It was my birthday!
William helped Daddy make my favorite cake

You might be surprised to know there was plenty of frosting on the cake.

See? It was delicious. Chocolate cake with white frosting. Both from scratch. I love my husband!


I spent my big day at work * and then at the DMV**. Sometimes being a grown up is over rated. All I wanted was to have dinner with my family and get a cute, current picture of me with the kids. John made home made pizza crust (best! husband! ever!) and pulled together a very nice dinner here at home. The picture part wasn't as successful. But, we did try!

Cute picture of WilliamI don't know if this is flattering of any of us.

Cute picture of Mama and Mia
Getting some love from my favorite boy

And a cute, but blurry one of me and my girl

Yay!

*I was specifically asked to substitute teach for a former coworker who is receiving treatment for breast cancer. She has chemotherapy once a week on Thursday and is unable to teach Fridays. She wanted someone in her room who was familiar with the building/subject area/etc. Working one day a week has really helped me see more clearly what I think my plan is in regard for going back to work full time. I'm really not ready to share that here, so y'all are going to have to wait. I'll just say this: Good LORD I love my former coworkers. And the eighth graders.

**We got a notice at the end of last year reminding me my driver's license was going to expire on my birthday. John helpfully put it in a very visible location on our refrigerator where I looked at it everyday. And completely forgot about it until the night before my birthday. At which point, I was overjoyed to realize I would be spending a good portion of my birthday with my favorite people down at the DMV. On the last Friday of the month.

SPAGHETTI!

Amelia had spaghetti for the first time recently. I think she liked it - what do you think?

Craftiness

We've been feeling a little crafty around here. Here is a set of tie T shirts I made for a brand new baby and his adorable big brother. Idea from here and here.
William's also been crafty and whipped up this love bug hat as part of the library story program. He is so proud (and so am I!)!

Oh Amelia

why did you go and grow? Some of your pretty spring clothes are too small and you can reach the top of the kitchen table. Milestones.

3 year appointments

We met with our pediatrician last week for William's three year appointment. Thankfully, there weren't any shots this time as he still hasn't forgiven me for the flu shot he got 2 appointments ago (we were there with Amelia). The appointment was uneventful and in general things are going extremely well. One highlight was seeing how much he has grown since last year!

Three year vs Two Year

Height: 39 in vs 35.75 in
Weight: 35 lbs vs 29.5 lbs

So, he's been doing some growing! Three inches and a little over 5 pounds. He is at the top of the chart for height and surprisingly in the 75% for weight. The height doesn't come as much of a surprise because he is constantly being mistaken for a four or five year old at storytime. The weight was the big shock of the day. This boy doesn't have enough...well....let's just say his pants don't stay up very well. He looks normal enough with his clothes on, but when he is undressed, he is all skin and bones. He is like a stick figure with a big round head on the top. On bath nights I marvel at how he is able to walk at all with that big old noggin on top of his skinny, little body. But, he does. Anyhow, the doctor reassured me that he was completely normal and it was typical to see the ribs on kids his age. Totally normal.

Our other appointment recently was some three year pictures of William. Here are a few!

So angelic. Of course I didn't write on the walls Mama!