Camping Retreat Weekend

You can read about our camping adventure last year here.

With two kids in tow this year, we opted to not stay over at the campground. I'm sure we could have swung it...but it would have been a lot of work for us. Not the relaxing kind of weekend we were looking for.

1) William runs a LOT. In a wide open campground, this is a little scary. You can't turn your back on him for longer than .5678513854 seconds because he has no [very little] fear. He also thinks he is one of the big kids and will follow them anywhere without checking to make sure THEY know he is with they (most of them are pretty good at helping out and keeping track of him WHEN they know he is there).

2)All Amelia wants to do is crawl on her hands and knees. She would practice 27 hours a day if she could. She does NOT want to be held and will twist, turn, wriggle, and general be a nuisance until you finally put her down. Sadly, she does not stay on a blanket anymore either. She makes a beeline for the edge of the blanket and then shoves as much grass/dirt/sticks/dirty objects into her mouth as she can fit. Because Mama is surely coming and will take it away.

So, we made a day out of it. I'm a little sad to not be part of the whole adventure, but I think we'll try again next year!

What a beautiful day! The temps were in the 80's with a little breeze - heavenly! We decided to take a different ferry this time out of Grafton, MO (creatively named The Grafton Ferry). In this picture, the ferry is approaching from a distance.
The ferry: small
William got out of his carseat and watched the boat from the window
Amelia's first boat ride! 9/12/09
Amelia and daddy on her first ferry ride. William was very entertained by the motorcycles behind John while we were waiting for the ferry. Although, I have no idea "What is the motorcycle saying now, Mama?" No idea. What would a motorcycle say besides "Brmmmmmmm!"?
William on the ferry with Mama. I finally got him out of the car, but I was WAY to nervous to let him get down and wander around. The sides of this ferry are waaaaaaaaaaayyy to open for my peace of mind!
Then, we let Amelia drive the car for awhile. John was too afraid to look...Amelia had a great time though! Look at her face!
Just kidding, but the steering wheel is fun to play with!
We met up with the rest of our church group at the apple orchard for some apple picking. Here are John and William waiting for the tractor to take us back to the apple trees. I was REALLY looking forward to this because it is fun. And, also Honey Crisp apples. Sadly, the cooler weather we enjoyed this summer mean the honey crisps aren't quite ready for picking yet. So, we had to make do with the Jonathan and Yellow Delicious. Still yummy!
This is called the pumkinator. It shoots pumpkins, I guess. John was disappointed we didn't get to see it in action. I reminded him we don't need to give our little boy any ideas....
William pickin' his apples - he enjoyed this so much more this year! No tantrums coming off the tractor this year!
Getting daddy's help for an apple up high...and winking at Mama is appears.
Showing me his apple (and watching the big kids run around like crazy)
Mama and Mia picking an apple together. She wanted this apple BADLY. I don't know what she wanted to do with the apple, but she was determined to have it in her hands. Hence, the not super cute picture of us.
I was impressed William wanted to eat the apple whole. Usually he is kind of picky about the peel and how it is cut up. I started the apple for him (actually, he stole the apple out of my hand after I started eating it)
So, I had to go and get a new apple. And hide it from Ms Mia and her brother Apple Stealer.
After he got an apple in his hands, William was pretty set to wander around and enjoy the day.
Still working on that apple
A BIG bite!
Waiting for the tractor to take us back to the farm. Still eating the apple while we waited for the tractor to take us back to the farm. I think he ate close to 75% of this apple (including part of the core when I wasn't looking) without any help from us.
After apple picking and admiring the animals for a little while, we packed up and went back to camp for some lunch. William wasn't interested in lunch. He was fascinated by this block/building set.
He happily played with this along with a couple other kids (they showed him how to get started) while I fed Amelia and then while John and I ate (we also tried to feed him, he just wasn't interested).
One of the best things? Having a lot of people around to hold Amelia/chase William so John and I can do luxurious things like eat a whole meal in one sitting. This is one of our favorite babysitters for William, Paige. We haven't actually left Amelia with a babysitter yet (with the exception of one time for a few hours while we attended a funeral). Which suddenly strikes me as crazy.
Here is Paige's brother Mitchell. I'm pretty sure he is teaching William how to shoot this gun at his sister.
William also got to play a little soccer with another big kid - thanks Josh! to run off some steam.


We haven't had any success in getting Amelia to take a bottle recently. Although, now I think we'll move straight to a water bottle. She LOVED this water bottle and cried when I took away from her. In my defense, my pants were entirely soaked (as were hers)because she wasn't actually drinking it, just drooling it everywhere. This makes me think we should skip the bottles and maybe start working on a sippy cup?
Here Zach and Mitchell are teaching William....big boy things I would guess. What is really means is that John and I got to eat another meal in one sitting. I would have to estimate my calorie consumption to somewhere around 879987938789674898 on Saturday due to all the helpful baby holders/toddler chasers. Maybe it is a good thing we don't usually have that much help?
William played with the dominoes/blocks again before we had to leave to catch the last ferry home again. I think he is going to need a set of dominoes for Christmas...

Morning Secrets

Amelia has been an early bird lately. Like 615am early*. When I hear her crying, I stumble into her room with my eyes shut to get her out of her crib before she wakes up her brother in the next room. With my eyes only half open, I shuffle back to bed while squeezing her diaper to gauge how close to overflowing we are (see here for more on that). Most days, I've been taking my chances on the diaper overflow and popping her into bed with me (John is surely more in love with me now than ever before, right honey?). It is win/win for both of us. John is already long gone at work, so we have the bed to ourselves. She eats, I snooze a little longer. We both snuggle, we're both happy.

What makes the moment a lot sweeter is Amelia's morning babbling is usually a whisper. Pfft. Fffft. Crccccccc... I like to think she is softly telling me secrets or about her dreams from the night before. Sweet, baby dreams, of course**.





*Anything before 7:30 to me is too early. Her early rising may or may not have to do with the fact that she is needing to eat more, so ready or not solids are coming soon***.

**I've been thinking about trying to get this on video. But, then the whole world would know all her secrets. I'm not sure I want to share these sweet secrets...

***Solids were coming in the next week or so regardless of the sleep situation.

Ka-BOOM

On the way home from Minnesota yesterday, William was complaining (and I don't blame him. 7+ hours strapped down into a carseat without being able to run or play very well...boring!). I was attempting to ignore him as it was nap time and I was hoping he would drift off for a Very Long Time. But, I was enjoying listening to him. At that moment, his chief complaint was that baby sister was not smiling at him. She was sleeping at that very moment and I wasn't about to wake her up to smile at her brother. More likely is waking her would remind her about being strapped into HER carseat and oh! but how unhappy she is about her carseat!

Without any help from me, William needed to do more if he was going to get that smile he was after. So, he started kicking Amelia's seat. Amelia continued sleeping (isn't she an angel? Although her halo was pretty tarnished when she cried/fussed/complained for the last 1.5 hours. Again, can't really blame her). He kicked harder and harder. Still, nothing. It got quiet for a few moments and I thought maybe, just maaaaayyyyybeeeeee he had fallen asleep when all of a sudden:

Ka-BOOM!!!!

William shouted "Ka-BOOM!" at his sister....and she woke up...with a gummy grin for her big brother. It was all I could do to not laugh out loud at his persistence and creative solutions to get what he wanted. It still makes me giggle thinking about it. Although, she was pretty crabby for the rest of the trip. That part wasn't so great.

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William has taken to greeting his little sister most mornings with a "Hey Babe!" I'm not sure where he got this one as it is one of the few things we DON'T call the baby sister. But, it is adorable every.single.time.

Cana & Amelia

We are so lucky some of our very favorite people (outside of our family)live in Rochester. My best friend from high school, Jessica and her family now live in Rochester. This makes visiting them a lot easier some times. Some times we are so busy running back and forth, too and fro, we don't even get much down time. We are also lucky that most of the time, Jessica (and her wonderful husband) are usually able to work things out to see us at the last minute...because I usually forget to call her ahead of time. Hmmm...I'll put that on the list of things to do...

Anyway, to make everything a little sweeter, Jessica has a gorgeous baby girl who is about 4 months older than Amelia. The girls are going to have to grow up friends. No choice, sorry! It is so touching to watch our little girls roll around on the floor together and...well drool together at this point. We always try to snap some pictures when we're together because, like I said, these two are going to be friends for a long time!

Amelia (L) and Cana (R)

Cana has her own crazy hairdo. A lot of the beautiful dark hair she was born with has fallen out in the back and sides. Kind of opposite from what is happening to Amelia who is loosing from the front and top. Between the two of them, there is a lot of hair!

Cana and Amelia sharing toys!
Sitting up together...my hand is on the left side of the frame because Amelia isn't 100% steady yet at sitting.
Chewing toys together - they have so much in common!
Amelia drops her toy to study something more interesting: what Cana has
Leaning in for a closer look - good thing Cana is a solid sitter now! She is supporting Amelia now!
Look how cute they are with their hands in their mouths! We couldn't have posed this if we tried!
On the belly is a little safer for Amelia - look how blue Cana's eyes are here! They are so pretty!
Amelia is distracted again by Cana's cool toy (lens cap for J's camera if you're wondering)Poor unsuspecting Cana. All she is trying to do is figure out what Jessica is doing behind me (trying to get Cana to smile for a picture)

Amelia makes her move...Cana still doesn't suspect what she is up to
Jessica must have some great moves to keep Cana's attention like this for so long....Amelia is too busy to look
While Cana blinks, Amelia makes her final moves

Amelia is working hard to get it away from Cana, but Cana is not giving it up yet!

Uh oh....a baby fight!

Role reversal: Cana looking at the lens ca

Is this what you wanted Amelia? Why didn't you say so?

More Cousins

While we were in Rochester, we got a special treat! We got to play with our cousins Alex and Elena! This was super exciting because Amelia hasn't ever met these cousins or her Auntie Tien.

Here is everyone coming up the steps at Grandpa's! William in the lead and everyone (but daddy) behind him!

The four cousins: Amelia, William, Alex & Elena. William clearly missed the memo about wearing yellow that day to match everyone else. Our kids are all about the books. So, even though they were excited about the cousins being around, when Uncle Mike started reading, they were mesmerized.

Our beautiful niece, Elena and nephew, Alex (they're getting so big!)

For a very short moment, Elena and William were pushing the car back and forth between each other. It is so fun to watch them start playing together!

This picture is actually funnier if you make it bigger by clicking on it. Amelia uses the Star Wars light up toy to light up her eyes!

It's just the age. Although William and his cousins are only 6 months apart in age, it is more age appropriate for them to play next to each other instead of with each other yet. But, it is coming, and I can't wait. Here is William lining up his cars on the couch.

Amelia trying to steal toys from Elena. Or get into her lap. Or pull her hair. You know, just be right next to her because she is so cool.
I felt bad because Amelia was being kind of crabby while we were visiting...but once Auntie Tien got her hands on her, she was just fine!
Although Aunt Tien made Amelia happy, Elena wasn't so sure about her mama holding another baby...
Ahhhh....how cute! Elena has kisses for Amelia!
Alex has kisses too! (only he was too fast and I didn't catch the kiss)
William wasn't about to be left out of this fun game! Here he is coming in for the kiss for his baby sister.
Elena and William kissing (bad angle, but you know they move so fast when they are this age!)...if you want to be totally accurate, this is Elena kissing William and William is letting her.
I'm not sure what is so funny, but here are the girls! Aunt Tien, Amelia & Elena
More happy girls!
This time I was more prepared! I remembered to request a group shot! I knew I was going to have to move fast, so here are a bunch of shots of the kiddos (Alex, Elena, Amelia & William)
Right away Amelia notices Elena is next to her...ooooohhh pretty girl! Elena isn't sure what to do...
What pretty hair you have Elena! I just want to look at it...
Aunt Tien (or Mama to Elena) to the rescue!
Elena is one smart cookie - she isn't going to let that happen again! She moves WAY away from Amelia. Amelia isn't about to let a little distance stop her. She is one determined little girl. It also appears William has some concerns about his own precious head of hair.

Game over, the kiddos are done