Wrapping Up the Week

Here are some random pictures from the last week. I'm working on several posts about our big Memorial Day weekend as well.

Do you cut coupons? If you do, you maybe saw these in the paper a few weeks ago: Marinades and BBQ sauces in different beverage flavors. Orange Crush Marinade? Umm...no thank you.

This cat's name could be Garfield. Antisocial, likes to eat, orange, loves to sleep in the shoe box...
And we paid a visit to our friends at West Middle last week to congratulate them on finishing out their year.

Amelia goes to school and meets up with her friend Lily. And look! Lily is happy this time! William is not pictured. He was busy trying to figure out how to jam the copy machine or break into the soda machine.

The Wiggler

I remember William doing this as well. But, the first time he moved, it wasn't this far! I don't know how she did this while swaddled. For reference, her head started out on the cloth at the top of the crib.

7 Weeks Old

Amelia is 7 weeks old today - she is getting SO big! I've had to pack away most of our 0-3 month clothing. She is just so tall that her legs can't bend inside most of the one piece outfits. So, we're on to the 3-6 month set! This week Amelia is really starting to show her sunny personality. She is talking up a storm, smiling like crazy and even starting to laugh. We are eating it up around here. And so is she. We were at the doctor's office last week (yes, both kids had a virus it turns out) and Amelia tipped the scales at 11 lbs 8.25 ounces. Even the doctor was impressed. No more worries about our slow to start eater (still a post brewing about this one)!

Before she was born, John and I unpacked our baby stuff leftover from William. We were shocked by how many bibs and burp clothes we had in our stash. After going through some old pictures, the memories came flooding back. William spit up ALL.THE.TIME. We held out a small amount of hope that this time things would be different and this child would hold down their dinner. We were initially excited because there really wasn't much spit up. Just a little here and there. Turns out, she really wasn't eating enough to show her true force of spew. Also turns out Amelia is also a spitter. At this time, it appears Amelia is in the classification of the happy spitter. Totally happy, just messy. Only time will tell if she is going to flow with the same awesome-ness that her brother demonstrated.


I took the time for a very quick shoot today with Amelia. The outfit she is wearing is particularly special as it is an outfit my mom made for me before I was born. Only she never finished it by putting the buttons on the sweater or the ribbons on the hat. So, some 30 years later, she decided It Was Time. Time to finish this project and hand the sweater and hat set off to me. It is beautiful and special. And Amelia was darling in it. As always, the photos are unedited and should be fixed up. But, they're not. Oh well.

Her facial expressions are becoming so interesting!

And a few with just the hat...

New Stuff this Time!

We didn't need as much stuff this time around since we would be reusing most of our baby gear we got with William. However, there were a few items I wanted to get this time around becasue I've heard good things about them. Here they are, along with my 100% honest opinion!

Item #1 is a sling carrier for the baby. Amelia is tucked up in here nice and snug. And I have two hands free to do things like: eat, put laundry in the washer, pick up a crying two year old, put shoes on the two year old, unload the dishwasher and grocery shop. It also keeps her out of the sun, doesn't allow anyone to touch her, and is easy to get off and on. Not especially easy to get her in and out, but not bad. So far I am loving the sling carrier and Amelia is too. Our sling is this one.

Amelia snuggled into the sling

Happy baby, happy mama

Item #2 is the boppy pillow. I registered for this item with William and didn't receive it. Then I was too cheap to go buy one for myself. This time I really wanted to have one. While I'm not finding this item to be indispensable (as it describes itself), it is mighty handy. It is nice for nursing Amelia, but also great for holding her for tummy time and making her feel nice and snug while on her back.

It also makes for a great picture as it supports the baby's head and body nicely!


Item #3 is a nursing bracelet (mine is green and copper). I thought with two kids running around, it might be hard to keep track of how long it had been since I fed the baby. This cute bracelet has a charm you move to the time you last fed the baby and you switch it from left to right arm to remember which side you started on last time. I'm finding this to not be as useful as I thought it would be. First, I have to remember to wear it. Second, I have to remember to move the little charm. Third, William can't see me wearing it or he wants to wear it. After he is done wearing it, it is usually a few days before I can find it again. Fourth, the beads are pretty uncomfortable for Amelia when she ends up laying right on the bracelet while I'm feeding her.


Item #4 is our double sit and stand stroller. We are liking this stroller a lot. But, HELLO! It is a HUGE workout pushing this thing around! When you take into consideration a 30+lb toddler, a 12 lb baby, a 10lb carseat, and 20ish lbs of stroller, you are getting quite the workout pushing this thing up a hill! It also is a little challenging to keep William's hands off of Amelia, although very cute to watch as he reads her books or shows her his toys. Not so cute when he is pulling her carseat strap tighter or yanking the sunshade so the sun shines right in her eyes.

There are a lot of people out there...

who don't want to see Amelia wear her brother's trucks outfits or anything else that is blue! The ladies at church were insistent that Amelia needed a welcome party/baby shower. Sunday afternoon was a beautiful day for a party - these ladies really do a great job!

What a beautiful day to be outside enjoying the weather! There was a pretty good breeze, so Amelia didn't get to enjoy it very much, but otherwise it was a gorgeous afternoon!

Grandma and Megan fuss over Amelia
The church ladies (and a few gentlemen)

The food - yummy!

Special cake for Mama: We went to a Christmas party at our friends' house. I personally ate about half of this chocolate brownie raspberry cake that night. So, when Charlene asked me if I had any requests....this was it! And it was WONDERFUL!

The boys exploring
Cute favors with Amelia's name on it!

Look at all that pink!

Updated! Grandpa and Grandma are here!

Updates added in blue!


Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Mike, and Aunt Megan all drove in for a short visit this weekend! Of course the main attraction was the new baby:

Uncle Mike meets Amelia
Mike and Amelia
Aunt Megan meeting Amelia
Megan and Mike admire Amelia
They also admire William's car playing stamina
This kid can play all day...
He could also read books all the day long
Grandma and Grandpa read with their grandkids. Please note: I swear I've turned on the red eye function on our camera on. Yet, I still produce demon people when I take their pictures. This may require consulting with the instruction manual *gasp*
On Saturday, we went took William to NASCAR world place at the St Louis Mills Mall. The boys enjoyed racing go karts and William drove a car like this. In other car related activity, the Supervan decided it hated me today*. The feeling is pretty mutual.
The little cars were just a warm up to the superfast race cars! Uncle Mike was a good sport and rode with William...

which was hysterical! William has not ever been on anything like this. Everytime the car went around the corner at top speed, a little scream (of delight? fear? I'm not sure) would escape out of him. Very cute. And yes, that scream you hear in the video is coming from William.
We also rode motorcycles...

and played some air hockey.

It was a little chilly outside, so William wore Aunt Megan's coat for awhile...
Grandma and Megan play puzzles with William
Mike and his new favorite girl: Amelia
Uncle Mike and Amelia

and finally Amelia is really starting to enjoy her toys and play. Here are Uncle Mike and Grandpa enjoying watching her!
Of course, if Amelia is getting attention, William needs to be in on the action. Here he is turning off her toy and trying to take it away from her before deciding to try and sit on her head. Lovely.



*When we went to the NASCAR place on Saturday, Amelia needed to eat. So, I stayed in the van to feed her before joining the family inside. John locked the doors when he took William out of the car and took his keys with him. I didn't realize my keys were at home along with my cell phone. Fortunately, John decided to check this and leave his cell with me when he found I didn't have mine. So, I fed Amelia and changed her diaper. I was sitting in the backseat with her and started getting ready to get out of the car. This isn't an easy task as the two carseats are in the middle row of the van and block the exit. So I reached for the lock button on the drivers side. When I pressed the automatic switch, nothing happened. Same thing on the passenger side. I tried to manually unlock the door when the van unleashed its fury. Immediately after I pushed the button to the unlocked position, the button flipped back to lock. And the car alarm started going off loudly. I didn't have keys, so I didn't know how to turn the alarm off. I tried to manually unlock the door on the passenger side as well as the rear doors with the same LOUD results. It was LOUD and I was very stuck in my own car. This made me VERY unhappy - had it been a hotter day or a different situation, this could have been very dangerous. As it was, I had to wait for someone else to leave the NASCAR play place and come out to the car with a remote to let me out of my own car. This is the part that gets me. IT IS MY CAR!! AND IT WOULDN'T LET ME OUT! Thank goodness John left the cell phone otherwise I could have been waiting a very, very, very long time before someone came out to rescue me. And a word to the van: I'm mad at you. Very mad.