12 month photos

Amelia is ONE. She is MUCH more difficult to photograph these days. She doesn't hold still for more than a minute and most certainly has her own agenda about what she would like to be doing. And what she wants to be doing doesn't involve sitting still. I think I attempted close to 200-250 pictures of her today and ended up with about three I love. Oh well....

Hanging out in Mama's bed

Ah ha! Sitting still for just a moment.

Peeking at Mama out of the corner of her eye.Laughing out loud - notice I'm trying to distract her with some chapstick.

Standing up on the bed? Always a fun time! (notice new wall color new bedding!)

Cheese - this one maybe should be more of an out take?

Finally! Except for the chapstick in her mouth
Another attempt at distraction with a trucks bookMy girl

Here I am trying to get a picture of her wearing the birthday crown and the 1 onesie I made for her. That isn't too much to ask, is it?

She's already got her own ideas about personal style

I like it better this way Mama!

When Daddy got home from work, we opened up some presents.

Amelia loved all the paper!

Daddy loved the clothes (just kidding, I asked him to hold them up for a picture)

Amelia took one look at this and said "KITTY!!!" She hugged it to her and did not let go.

Checking out Amelia's #1 onesie

After dinner, I finally had an assistant (Daddy) who could help me keep the birthday crown on for more than a few seconds

She still had her own ideas about how to wear it though!

Eating her birthday cupcake

A final parting shot: Amelia getting ready to crawl off the edge of the bed

Happy birthday baby girl!

Amelia is ONE!

(Sniff, sniff)

My baby is one today! It is an emotional day for me, remembering the day a year ago she was born.

Amelia - we are so proud to be your parents and watch you grow. We look at pictures of you from a year ago and can't believe the spunky, loving little girl you have become. We look at you today and wonder what clues you are giving us about the girl you are going to become. You love:

Dancing
Playing with your brother
Water: swimming, bath time, washing your hands, drinking from an open cup and splashing in puddles
Books
Music
Eating anything that looks different on your tray
being held


What a difference one year makes!

hours old
one month old
two months old
three months old
four months old
five months old

six months old
seven months old
eight months old
nine months old
ten months old
eleven months old

twelve months old

Amelia is very observant about what other people are doing. She picks up on every little thing. Rustling coming from the closet? She is there to check it out. Going to the bathroom by yourself? Think again. In the last month she has noticed the rest of us use utensils while we are eating and has decided she needs some too. She is quiet proud to use the fork and get food to her mouth (I put the food on the fork when she lets me, she isn't able to do this by herself except on rare occasions). She has also picked up on that no one else at the table is wearing a bib while they eat. I've almost entirely given up on making her wear one because she can pull it off faster than I can get it back on her. I now only insist on her wearing it when we are eating something super messy (spaghetti, etc). The utensils and the bib are funny/interesting to me because only in the last 6 months did William start using silverware by himself (and still doesn't always use it) and William quit wearing bibs at meals maybe 4 months ago. He probably would still be wearing them if I insisted. He doesn't care - it's about the food/eating with him.

Speaking of William, Amelia still idolizes her big brother. She wants to be right with him ALL the time. Whatever toy he has, she wants it. Whatever he is doing, she wants to do it too. It all gets to be a little suffocating for William and we've had some real struggles lately in sharing toys and being kind to each other. We're working hard at this, but I have to tell you - it is exhausting. Physically, emotionally and altogether exhausting. What did you do today? I refereed the use of a toy shopping cart for nine hours. A process which included multiple time outs, much screaming, crying, yelling, throwing of toys, several attempts at biting and a large quantity of Advil. In the end, the shopping cart is going to spend the next few days resting in my closet. Not that it will make a huge difference in the grand scheme of things. We have exactly 5465465465654651168465461 other toys in this house to fight over.

Amelia does not struggle much with communicating. She says:

Moo (when she sees a cow or horse)
Kitty (any animal with the exception of a cow)
Pretty
Mama
Dada
Ball
Baby
Hi
Hi there
Nono
bye bye
tickle

Signs

Washing hands
phone
hi/bye
up

and when all those fail the ear piercing shriek often does wonders at getting things done in a timely manner. She also entertains us with the silly faces she can make and the mimicking of our actions. For example, when you pick her up? She'll grunt right with you from the effort.


Amelia took her first steps earlier this month and is walking more and more. She is getting braver and choosing to walk herself (rather than me bribing her to). One concern I had about having a second child is that the milestones would seem less exciting or amazing because we had already been through it with William. I will now say without a doubt I am just as excited about Amelia learning to walk as I was when William learned. My worries were unfounded. The milestones are not as neatly and precisely documented as William's were, but my excitement is not at all diminished.

Sleep has been a major challenge this month. I would estimate on average Amelia has slept through the night roughly 20% of the time in the last thirty days. I think I have paid back all of my debt from Amelia's first weeks when she slept through the night so early. She is typically up once or twice a night around 2am/4am. Right now we're not really doing anything about it because she is also getting in all four of her gigantic molars at one time. Once these teeth are fully in, she is going to be in for a tiny bit of tough loving at night. This Mama needs to sleep.

Birthday Eve

Last year I got ready for bed and resigned myself to waiting another day. Little did I know that those two hours of sleep I got were going to be the last ones as a mama to one! I went to bed at 10ish and woke up just before 1am. Amelia arrived just before 6am. Happy first birthday baby girl!

(sniff, sniff!)

Dinosaurs, A Hand, A Funny

William's newest intense interest is dinosaurs thanks to a new dinosaur book/CD he got from Grandma and Grandpa for his birthday (did I thank you for that yet?) I've read the book and listened to the CD AT LEAST once per day for the last 2 months. Anyhow, a few weeks ago, William and I were reading this book and we came to this page above. It says Tyrannosaurus rex was big and ferocious with sharp teeth and claws. What does Tyrannosaurus rex want for dinner?

William replied "Pancakes! He wants PANCAKES!"
When I asked him further about the dinosaurs in the picture, he thought for a moment before replying "They're just playing chase Mama."

This page reads" Ankylosaurus had thick, tough skin and spikes on its head and back. How did Ankylosaurus use the bony club on the end of its tail?

William: They are playing peek-a-boo Mama!

Amelia woke up from a nap recently with this on her cheek. Look carefully and you'll notice an entire handprint on her cheek.

And because I think this is funny, a local BBQ joint is offering some coupons and some LENT SPECIALS!

Pardon me, Tooth #10

Yesterday we noticed Amelia's tenth tooth is coming in. The upper left molar. The other molars won't be far behind. Which would probably explain her crabbiness and lack of night time sleep.


The weather has been perfect over the last few days. John has worked in some walks with the kids and some yardwork as well. We've (read: I've) been itching to fire up the grill and tonight we grilled up some yummy chicken! Also, tonight I attempted asparagus for the first time. It might surprise you to know I've never eaten asparagus (sarcasm!). I read a big article about the health benefits of asparagus recently. So, I decided it was time to give a try. I did extensive research in the three minutes I had to spare today and came up with this recipe.

The results:

John: Asparagus? Really? I'll give it a try.....You can definitely make that again.
Kelly: I'm scared. Green vegetables are not my friends. Must be a good example. Must be a good example. John is going to have to try it first. After John liked it, I tried is as well. It was....surprising. It was good. We'll be making this again soon. Maybe tomorrow.
William: What is it called? Aspapappapaap...what? I'm not eating it. [bribe of more noodles is offered and he takes the bait]. MORE ASPARAGUS PLEASE!
Amelia: Mmmmmmmm ......(she ate every single piece I put on her tray tonight!)


Now, it could be a fluke never to be repeated again, but I have to say I'm feeling a little bit like Super Mama because my family ate a healthy vegetable in massive quantities tonight. Also, William has not ever requested more vegetables. Ever. Ever, ever, ever. Not even once. That, my friend is something worth documenting.

MofA

For spring break, my mom requested some family time together. So, we drove to Minneapolis (1.5 hours from Rochester) and hung out with grandma, grandpa and my siblings (Megan and Mike). It was our first time in a hotel with two kids, William's first time in a hotel bed by himself, and Amelia hadn't slept through the night in several weeks. We were a little concerned about how that was going to go down. We got a hotel near the Mall of America with a pool - so a lot to be excited about too!

We checked out IKEA- Amelia enjoyed the pillows while Mama furiously tried to locate curtains and pillows.

Lounging out

Peek! More than one person asked how much the baby on display was. I warned them about her lack of sleeping at night and her wide stubborn streak. Not that I'd be giving her up any time soon. Just so you know.

We went to the Mall of America for lunch and then followed it up with some play time at Lego land for the kids in our group. William had a good time also in case you're wondering!

William and a BIG lego guy. I'm sure he is supposed to be something, but I don't know what he is.

Impressed by the huge Lego dinosaurs

William gets a chance at the Legos

Daddy helps William race his car on the race track
I think William would have stayed here all day racing cars.Grandpa finally took Amelia over to watch the rides at the amusement park inside the mall. Amelia was very impressed with the roller coasters. Every time one would fly by, she would Ooooooo and point. I'm pretty sure she wanted at least a closer look if not a turn to ride, but I played dumb and pretended I didn't know what she wanted.

After some tears about having to wait in line, William got to ride on a semi truck much to his delight

And the two joined forces on a mechanical tour bus ride (that we didn't actually ride)

Amelia checks out the sights

Grandpa volunteered to take William on his very first rollercoaster ride. It was pretty tame and he said he wanted to do it. I was still a little worried he wouldn't like it and our amusement park days would be over before they began.

Smiles on the rollercoaster - the brave boy picked the front seat!

He also took a ride on Diego's rescue School bus with daddy

and Swiper's race cars. In which he laughed the entire time until he noticed Swiper hanging out in the bushes. He then spent the rest of the time asking what Swiper was doing there and if we could go see him.


After a busy morning and afternoon, we went back to rest before hitting the pool! Next up? Swimming pool pictures!

St Patrick's Day

I had big, big plans for St Patrick's Day this year. William is finally old enough to kind of understand that it is a special day and I was going to continue my mom's tradition of cooking up a green dinner. As in, everything is green (food coloring). I had some big plans of reading Green Eggs & Ham with William and then making it up for dinner. However, St Patrick's Day found us driving to Minneapolis, MN to spend some more time with family. Green eggs and Ham can be done any day. Family, not so much when they live so far away. Although not what I planned, we still found a few ways to celebrate:


Celebrated with a new word :"Pretty" from Amelia


Celebrated our Irish heritage with Chevy's margaritas and mexican for dinner.

The kids all decked out in their green. Please note William's shamrock socks paired with his new sandals. Nerd in training, right here people. And proud.

Wish us luck tonight as we attempt two kiddos in a hotel room with us for the first time ever!