Happy Half Birthday Amelia!

Oh, Amelia Ann. How can you be six months old? Half of a year? You have grown so much and are doing so many exciting things! Tomorrow we have your doctor appointment, so we'll know how you measure up to other kids. You measure up just perfect in our eyes.

Oh Amelia Ann, what a stinker you can be. Can you see it? This is close to the flirt face. It's in the eyes....

Thinking, deciding...can I get the camera?
It is worth a try! Also, I'm seeing that the cute dresses I have stocked up on are going to be put away for awhile. They certainly interfere with our crawling and make this little one very frustrated! PS I know you all told me, but I did it anyway.
Watching Daddy and big brother here...

Crawling...I think our bed photo shoots are coming to an end for awhile. It was VERY hard trying to keep her on the bed and aim the camera at the same time. We'll be somewhere different next month!

William is such an eager big brother. He is [usually] so gentle and loves to hold his baby sister. He does silly things to make her laugh and sings her songs.My babies. I love having two kids. I was so....afraid before Amelia was born of how difficult it would be to balance two kids. Now, I'm singing a whole different tune. If you don't have two kids, I think you should go out and get two right now. Immediately.

Loving her toes!

Why yes, she does have all five toes in her mouth! Can't you do that?

This look right here is pure Amelia Ann. Sheer determination. She will get the camera strap and she will put it in her mouth. Nothing will stop her. Later in the evening, I saw her applying this same intense stare to the steps going up from the basement.
Profile...
It was such a gorgeous day and I was particularly inspired by my cousin in law Kara from Fargo. She recently took some GREAT family pictures outside and I wanted some of us!
Amelia wasn't so sure about the grassI don't think I got her to crack a smile once while we were out there!

You are working on learning to eat solid foods. You're eating up the rice cereal now pretty well. I think you're actually eating it down as opposed to putting in your mouth and then scraping 95% off of your chin to try again. I think you like it...but it is hard to tell. You don't outright refuse it, so I guess that is good. We've also added bananas and squash to your line up. I think you really liked the bananas and you tolerated the squash. This is of course, just interpreting from your facial expressions. We've tried the sippy cup a little as well as some Cheerios. Neither one appear to be your favorite thing so far. Although I just don't understand why you are perfectly happy munching on a piece of newspaper and won't eat the Cheerio. Just a matter of taste, I suppose.

Physically, you are in a hurry to catch up to your brother. You work and work to get to be in the same area as he is. He can make you laugh those big belly laughs that bring a smile to everyone's face by simply paying attention to you. You sure love him. Your army style crawling is getting quicker and quicker which means I keep finding you all kinds of places you shouldn't be. Like in the bathroom tipping over the garbage or trying to lick the potty chair (seriously, what is it about the potty chair? When I can't find you, that is the first place I look these days.)*.

You are also inspired to move fast for our cats. William now leaves them alone most of the time, so they've gotten more brave with being around him. Amelia giggles immediately when she sees them. She can be having an all out fit when I take something away from her and all it takes is a kitty walking by to put a smile on her face. She wants nothing more than to run her fingers through the kitty's fur, pull it all out, and then bite it's nose. It is the funniest thing because she tries to charm the cats into coming to her. They aren't having any of it, but it is still funny to watch. First Amelia tips her head to one side and smiles. If the cats (she does this to people too) don't respond, she throws out an adorable squeal and smiles bigger. By this point she has people eating out of her hand, cooing, laughing and talking to her. But, the cats don't get it. They don't buy this cute baby stuff. So, she moves a little closer and tries again. This time with a big arm swoop finishing in the sweetest clasped hand pose. Still no dice. But, she keeps trying...until the cats get fed up with the noise and relocate.

You are sitting up and crawling on your hands and knees a few steps at a time. You can go from your tummy to sitting up on your bottom like you've been doing it your whole life. All you want is to be on the floor practicing your crawling and finding things to put in your mouth. A friend of ours held you at a party last weekend and summed it up pretty well "This baby girl is as sweet as can be, but she is like trying to hold onto a very wiggly piano wire". I couldn't agree more. My arms are going to be incredible in another month if you keep it up. It is a workout trying to hang on to you!

The babbling continues and is so much fun! You study our faces and I catch you mimicking some facial expressions and swear the other day you waved and said "hi" after I did it to you. But, you wouldn't do it again, so it isn't official. You've also discovered a loud voice. There is a baby pterodactyl screech you make...frequently. There is no ignoring it. The first time it is utterly charming and by the fifth time I'm searching for the ibuprofen.

Another recent addition is peek-a-boo. This is something you're brother never did - so it is doubly special that you've picked it up. You pull whatever is handy (blankets, towels, your dress) over your head, wait a moment and then yank it away with a big smile on your face. When we say peek-a-boo! you laugh and laugh. And so do we baby girl.

Baby girl, you are wonderfully delicious. I wish I could bottle up the grin you give me from your crib each morning in its total sweetness. I love how you lay on your belly facing the door, waiting for me to come and fetch you out of the bed in the morning. As the door opens, so does your smile along with a giggle. You fill our hearts with joy - we are so thankful for you!






*If you come to visit our house, please excuse the bathroom. The garbage sits on the counter, the toilet paper sits up on a shelf, the door doesn't shut with the step stool in the way and the potty chair usually lives in the bathtub. Yes, we have adapted the entire bathroom to fit the needs of our kids...and now it is adult proof.

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?