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.

Summer is A Comin' +Bonus Video

It is getting close to summer time! Are you ready? Here are the kids in some of their new summer clothes!

6 weeks old!

Mia Moo, Lia Loo, Chicken Little, BabyDoll, Peanut, Crazy Lady, Sweetie Pie, Baby Girl, Tiny Toes, Little Bitty, Princess, Pretty Girl, Little Lady, Wiggles, Molly Moo, Sweet Pea, Silly Millie, and the list goes on and on. Amelia has so many nicknames! And she is so sweet at six weeks old! We barely had time for pictures as I brought her with me to my 6 week follow up doctor appointment (the weight will not be published here. Not now, not ever).

But, I wanted to take a little time to talk about how much we are enjoying this baby girl of ours. Amelia is still consistently sleeping through the night in huge stretches. A little part of me worries about this, but most of me just really likes to sleep. Most night she is sleeping (the surest way to ensure she will stop is to publish it) from 10:30 to about 7:30am without waking as has been since she was four weeks old. She might have started it sooner if I hadn't been waking her in the middle of the night to eat. We'll never know, I guess. I think we're getting close to working towards a schedule for eating/sleeping with her. I have a feeling she is already doing it or ready to try - I'm just so disorganized I'm holding her back. On the list of things to do this week and next is to pay attention to her sleep/wake times and see where she is at.

Amelia is a smile machine. She smiles a LOT and does quite a bit of cooing as well. I was trying to pay bills earlier in the week with her on my lap. She kept making squeaking noises so I would look down at her. When she got my attention, she would smile HUGE with her whole body. The lips were grinning, her arms were waving, and her legs akickin' away. Very cute. Then she would coo some more at me. I swear it took me over 2 hours to pay 3 small bills. Oh well.

She is just starting to discover her hands and is very interested in them. They are also very interested in her. Her hands wave around her face until she catches sight of them and then she gets very still. She spends a few seconds studying the new object in front of her until...it hits her in the face. And then she cries like a baby.

And when she cries - she does it with everything she has. You cannot hear yourself think when this little lady cries and we all run around like crazy trying to fix her up when she does cry. Which isn't often and rarely without reason.

She is also very wiggly. Amelia has already rolled from her front to both sides as well as all the way to her front and from her front to her back. However, this was totally by accident and doesn't count because she had no idea what she was doing. She regularly unswaddles herself and the day for the unswaddling is approaching rapidly. She gets her arms going and works both arms out of the swaddle on a regular basis in order to clunk herself in the face more often. Amelia enjoys her time on her tummy, although I don't think she gets as much tummy time as her brother did. It is just too dangerous to leave her laying around on the ground with Mr Rambunctious running around at top speeds.

Amelia is a very big mama's girl currently. She definately prefers me to just about anyone else with the exception of her brother. She might prefer him to me, but I don't think she realizes that without us, he would drop her right on her pretty little head. I'm sure that leaves me in first place.

I'm sure there were other remarkable things I wanted to write about, but I can't remember them, so on to the pictures.