Rochester

We made the trek to Rochester again over labor Day weekend because we are...well, crazy. As we are certainly going to be driving for both Thanksgiving and Christmas (as we do every year), I had vowed we weren't going to be going back until then after our trip this summer. Not surprisingly, it didn't stick. I have again vowed not to make the trip until November. We'll see how that goes.

As for this weekend, the draw of all the aunts, uncles, grandparents and great grandparents was just too much to resist. Evidence below:

Impromptu jam session with Uncle Mike. William heard Uncle Mike moving things around in his room and went to investigate. After finding Uncle Mike in the closet, William inquired "Do you need help putting on your jammies?" Instead of jammies, they found some of Mike's old percussion kit in the closet and had some fun.


Jam Session Take One

Jam Session Take Two

Auntie Megan on Amelia watch

We took a quick trip to Oxbow Park

This was almost a great picture. Mike and the goat were staring at each other before the goat pulled its head back through the fence.
Grandma and Amelia match! And how DID she ever get this big? I guess I don't really see how big she has gotten until I see her in someone else's arms. She's HUGE!
Trying for a family picture is difficult with a ornery 2.5 year old.
Our family
Grandma and William playing around in the nature center
The weather was beautiful and cool, so we got to spend a lot of time out on the deck relaxing
Grandpa Heidt and Amelia
Amelia and her car. Finally one that is safe to put in her mouth!
Grandpa Heidt reading to William...Amelia trying to get in on the funGrandpa Heidt reading to William and Amelia
More reading fun...I think I thought there was something funny about this picture, but now I don't know what it was...any guesses?
Mia and Auntie Kaye
One of the perks to driving all that way? Being able to eat a (almost) whole meal without a kid in my lap! Yay!
Another perk? People to help the kid run off some steam while I finish eating. Breadsticks...yummy
Great Grandma Gerry reading to William. About trucks of course.
Great Grandpa Tom, Great Grandma Gerry and Amelia
Scott, Zach, Grandpa Heidt and William playing in the backyard at a little party my parents had to celebrate the (almost) completed kitchen project.
Uncle Mike, Willam, Scott & Zach play some more...I'm thinking Scott was tired that night!
After dinner and playing outside, William served everyone his specialty: Ice cream with ketchup.
Amelia's crabby face.

Amelia made huge strides over the weekend in her crawling. She is pulling herself to hands and knees now and rocking (rocking!). She is much more efficient with her army crawling and is able to get from point A to B without launching herself onto her face most of the time. She still enjoys her baby pushups as you can see above.

Item worth crawling to: brown paper bag. What toys?

Reading with Grandpa

When Grandma and Grandpa were here last month, I asked my dad to read to William as part of his bedtime routine while I did some quick picking up. My dad looked at me a little funny, but I had an ulterior motive. Reading to the kids is absolutely one of my favorite parts of my day, largely because it is one of THEIR favorite parts of the day. Amelia in particular, gets herself so excited about books that her whole body gets going. Her arms fly, her feet kick, she squeals. It is quite the show and bring a smile to my face every single night.

William too is completely entralled by stories and being read to. He will shut everything else going on (most of the time) and focus himself on the story being read. Amelia can be doing a little baby dance while squealing away and he won't bat an eye. She can even flail her arms and HIT HIM IN THE FACE and he will not takes his eyes away from his book.

Knowing this, I sent Grandpa in to do the reading chore for the evening and I was not disappointed to hear him laughing only a few minutes later as Amelia knocked the glasses off his face in excitement. Enjoy - I know we did!

5 Months Old!

Amelia Ann, you are growing so fast! In the blink of an eye, you've gone from an infant content to watch the world go by to a real little person who is participating and interacting in almost all the activities we are involved in.

You are still our sweet baby girl and your giggles, smile and chatter fill our days with happiness. You are progressing with you babbling with alarming speed (I still have to look up when William started all this to know if you are ahead or behind him - I suspect you are ahead). You are using increasing numbers of non vowel sounds. So far you say "naaa-naaa" "da da da da" and "ba ba". I know they aren't connected to any meaning yet, but it is still so fun to hear you babbling away (still working on getting video of this one).

In the last month you become so mobile! You've gone from rolling here and there from time to time to a rolling, scooting, crawling machine. Every waking moment and plenty of time in your crib has been spent practicing, practicing, practicing your crawling. At this point, you are doing some rolling to get around and more scooting on your belly (or army style crawling). In the last week, you've managed to pull yourself to your hands and knees several times. But, when you get to the hands and knees, you aren't quite sure what to do with yourself. The baby pushup is another exercise you practice at least 45 times a day. Because of all this activity, I'd even go as far to say you have been a real pain to live with because practicing is all you want to do. Just because you are tired, it is quiet and you are in your crib does not mean that you want (or should) to sleep. In fact, this suggestion on my part has been met by a great deal of unhappiness from you lately. Lucky for me, the overnight sleeping hasn't been a problem, it is just the daily napping you can't be bothered with. Unfortunately, without a nap you aren't the happiest of campers, so our day has been filled with some...crabbiness on all parts. It also means we've had to let you do a little fussing in your crib until you are ready to sleep. So far, Mama will still rescues you when the all out crying begins, but those days might be numbered if the current trend continues.

In the last two weeks, I've been noticing you copying my facial expressions when I least expect it. This isn't something your brother did (although, the books said he was supposed to). If I stick out my tongue, you stick out your tongue. If I laugh, you laugh. When I chew candy, you make smacking noises with your lips and tongue. You study our expressions and are enthralled by faces. This makes you easy to entertain while waiting...just about anywhere. Now that I think about it, it probably means I am easy to entertain as well because I could make faces at you all day.

Which brings me to think about how much of an individual you already are. You are so different from your brother in personality and your interests, which just astounds me. Five months in, you already have enough personality and likes that I can tell you are going to be a different kid than your brother. This in itself isn't surprising to me- I knew you were going to be your own person. What surprises me is how quickly it is becoming apparent. You love toys with faces. William didn't ever play with his animals or dolls. You on the other hand could easily spend an hour rolling around on the floor talking and playing with one doll or animal. You focus on their faces and poke at their eyes. You bite on their noses and chew on their hands. You tell long elaborate stories while wrestling around with them on the floor. Another way you are different is you love to snuggle. In the morning, I bring you in our bed and I feed you. Then we snuggle and sleep a little longer. You are so happy to be snuggled in next to me that sometimes I wonder if you wake up early just to have some extra time snuggled in by my side. I have to admit that I don't mind - I like the snuggle time also.

Although different, you still have a lot in common. You absolutely adore your brother. You look at him with such love and adoration that I hold my breath. Because, someday soon he is going to break your heart and hurt your feelings. You love his trucks and cars, a fact he does not love. You'll work extra hard to propel yourself with great speed towards his vehicles when he isn't looking. You also have that same stubborn (determined?) streak your brother has. You. are. learning. to. crawl. and nobody better get in your way. You will practice, practice, practice until you learn how to do something. Even when you get frustrated, you don't give up. You just keep going, going, going. And, just like your big brother, you are growing like crazy. You've had another big growth spurt which means your 9 months clothes aren't fitting very well anymore. The one piece pajamas now need to be sized 12 month and your two piece outfits need to be 9-12 month. Your room is a disaster with all the clothes you've outgrown piled up in different places.

Random other stuff

An assortment of other pictures from this summer....

Sleeping baby

I think we have hundreds of pictures of our kids sleeping

William's first smore of the summer at our friends' patio party

Amelia and her Godfather, Jeff. He is such a good sport - she was so crabby and he wanted her anyway! Still with a smile on his face here...

William playing in a box on our couch...I couldn't find him for several seconds and found him here. There is nothing like a few moments of quiet followed by the realization you can't find your two year old.

That's my Boy

I heard both Amelia and William on the monitors in our bedroom (yes, we still use a monitor with William because he wakes up in the night still from time to time and we can't hear him from our room. The kids' room are on the other side of the house from the master bedroom and it is possible we would not ever hear them crying.) a few days ago. Since no one was crying, I took a moment to enjoy the moment of luxurious solitary laziness. However, we had places to be so the moment didn't last long (and you've seen what Amelia can do to a crib). William tends to get upset when he hears me in Amelia's room, so I usually go in and get him up and take him into Amelia's room. She always does a little happy dance in her crib when she sees William.

I opened the door to William's room and he was still laying in his bed. As my eyes adjusted to his darkened room, I saw that he was looking at a book while laying on his bed. After several seconds, William popped his head up and said "Oh! Hi mama! I'm just reading to my cars!"

And sure enough, he had six cars all lined up on the bed facing the book he was reading to them.