Amelia had a great time painting one of our old moving boxes so she could use it to wrap Mark’s birthday gifts – early in the week I gave her $5 and set her loose in the dollar store. She left with a bottle of bubble gum-flavored mouthwash, a box of superhero band-aids, a desk-sized orange traffic cone that says “Great Job” and a three-foot long grabber tool. She was SO PROUD of her purchases and very excited to give them to Daddy! The grabber tool has been the biggest hit – very helpful for picking up toys that are accidentally tossed behind the couch! Florence sat in her bouncy seat and helped hold the paintbrushes we weren’t using, while Shelby stepped on the wet paint and left footprints on the birthday box and the driveway.

For Mother’s Day I dressed the girls in matching shirts that were a gift from our lovely neighbor. Amelia was so excited to be dressed the same as Lolo! This was one of the best pictures out of the 40+ that Mark took of us – both of the girls are making silly faces, but at least everyone is looking at the camera!

What a wonderful weekend full of “happy” days – we are so incredibly blessed!

Share This / Bookmark This

Share This / Bookmark This

Share This / Bookmark This

Amelia is always asking to help change Lolo’s diaper, enjoys bouncing her in the bouncy chair and asks many times a day to “hold baby Lolo”. Grandma tells us that as soon as Mark called from the hospital to announce Florence’s arrival, Amelia wanted to go see her – at that instant! Later in the day when Grandma had a hard time finding a parking spot at the hospital Amelia was almost beside herself with worry that she wouldn’t get to see her sister. She showed some hesitation the first time she saw Florence, but I think she was more awestruck than anything else.

Shelby has taken to her new role as well. She always wants to be in the same room as Florence, and tries to stay as close to her as she can. When I am nursing Florence, Shelby will come up and just stand by me, waiting to see if I will lower the baby’s head so she can get a sniff.

Mark and I are so thankful to have such loving family members who were willing to drop everything at a moment’s notice to help when we need it. Mark’s parents took care of Amelia and Shelby while we were in the hospital, took Amelia to her last music class and had a yummy supper waiting for us when we finally got home. My parents are up from Florida for a week and Amelia is having a blast spending lots of special time with them. Family is such a blessing!

Share This / Bookmark This

Share This / Bookmark This

On Easter morning I managed to get a few pictures of Mark and Amelia before we left for church. It is hard these days to get a “real” smile out of our girl! One of the children’s program leaders at church brought in a baby chick as part of a lesson this morning. Amelia was amazed when she got to pet a REAL chick! She has a stuffed “chickie” who goes pretty much everywhere with her, and she hardly knew what to do when she saw the real chick! After church we went to Grandma & Grandpa’s for the afternoon. Of course Amelia put on her baseball cap as soon as she could, and she kept a tight hold on the bottle of bubbles that she received at church!

Share This / Bookmark This

Amelia loves getting cards in the mail! The only thing is that she is devastated when we tear open the envelope. She starts crying and asking for tape! I keep telling her that the envelope is trash once we open it, but she WILL NOT throw it away. She will keep trying to shove the card back into the envelope and if she can’t manage that she carries both the card and the envelope around for hours on end. Too cute!

One day I was putting groceries away and Amelia started yelling “SHOES! SHOES!” – I turned around and she had taken two of our Christmas stockings and was wearing them on her feet! She had helped us put them up a few days before but she didn’t call them shoes at that time. We had a talk about what the stockings are for, and I told her that they were fragile and that Daddy’s Aunt Linda worked really hard to make them. Let’s hope she leaves them alone from now on!

Ever since she potty trained herself, Amelia has started dawdling while she washes her hands. Since she potties & washes her hands MANY times a day I have told her that she needs to be faster while doing so. One day I told her that we have to pay for all the water we use – therefore we should wash our hands quickly and not dawdle. A few days after that I had a pot in the sink and was filling it with water . . . she yelled at me and told me to stop wasting water because we had to pay for it!

Mark likes to offer me the crook of his arm when we are out walking together. Apparently Amelia has noticed this and instead of holding my hand in parking lots she has started offering me the crook of HER arm! What a little gentlewoman!

When Amelia wants something and we tell her “no” she tells us that she just wants to smell it. If Amelia asks for a piece of candy or a treat and we say no she says she just wants to SMELL the candy/treat. If she asks to go outside and we say it is too cold/rainy, she says she just wants to SMELL outside! We’ve tested it a few times and given her a treat to smell – she smells it and then slowly hands it back. She’s so funny!

One Saturday morning Amelia climbed into bed with us and give me an “ultrasound”. She has certainly come with me to enough perinatologist appointments to know what she’s doing! She put the pink “blanket” over my legs, squirted “gel” onto my tummy and used Daddy’s deodorant as an ultrasound wand. She told me to roll to one side or another just like the ultrasound tech does when she’s trying to get baby girl to move, and she even made a wooshing sound when she “found” the heartbeat!

Share This / Bookmark This

We went to a birthday party for one of Amelia’s friends – Amelia didn’t want to take the hat off all day, so she wore it when we went grocery shopping and got quite a few smiles! The flower was a party favor and it is now a favorite buddy – she has to have it in her bed every night!

Great Grandma came for a visit and Amelia had a good time painting with her.

My little tomboy loves her ball cap, and often wears it backwards. I love her style!

Amelia learned a new way to swing and was very proud of herself.

She dressed herself in a snow hat and a scarf on a beautifully sunny 70 degree day. These cars are a favorite and she plays with them when we get to speech early enough and have time to sit in the waiting room.

Grandma and Grandpa have these funny glasses at their house and Amelia loves getting us to laugh at her!

Grandpa gave Amelia this box of Cheerios and for a few days she wouldn’t go to sleep unless it was cradled in her arms. She even had to take it with her when we went on a quick weekend trip!

Best buddies with her cousin.

Mommy and Amelia enjoyed a candlelit supper one evening when Daddy had to work late.

Share This / Bookmark This

Share This / Bookmark This

The next day we drove over 800 miles to Grandma and Grandpa’s house with no accidents. She was a champ at using public restrooms, although I cringed every time we had to use them – yuck! No accidents the whole time we were there, and she did great on the long drive back home as well. She started the new year wearing panties during the day and pull-ups at night. She is still waking up wet some mornings, but no accidents during the day. I think I can safely say that she is potty trained! The best part is that she did it all by herself – we just had to wait until she was ready. We are SO PROUD of our big girl!!!

Share This / Bookmark This

Share This / Bookmark This

Share This / Bookmark This

The first few days after we moved in Amelia would cry whenever we left the house! She kept saying “big big big PURPLE” – she didn’t want to leave our new house with the big yard and her purple bedroom! No matter how many times we reassured her we were just running errands and would come back when we were done, she still was incredibly upset to leave her new house. Also, Amelia BAWLS when we drive in the direction of our old apartment – she says “big! big! big!” and cries her eyes out – she is afraid we are going back to the apartment, poor dear. Even when we tell her we are just running errands and will go back to the new house when we are done she still cries when she recognizes the scenery around our old place.

A few weeks ago I bought a large pumpkin to decorate our front porch, and a few days later we made pumpkin bread and pumpkin chocolate chip bars. Now whenever we pull into the driveway Amelia yells “MMMMMM! YUM YUM YUM!” when she sees the pumpkin on the porch!

A few nights ago we heard Amelia fiddling with a little wooden “treasure box” in her room after we put her to bed. When I went to check on her a few hours later, she had her bean bag in her bed  (at the foot) and was using it as a pillow while resting her feet on her actual pillow. Curiously, I looked all over her room for that little wooden box she had been playing with and couldn’t find it. Finally, I checked her bed – it was by her feet, hidden under her pillow! I guess she hid it there and decided it wasn’t comfortable to sleep on, so she used her bean bag as a pillow instead!

Whenever we have to fuss at or be stern with Amelia, she reacts by dramatically shutting her eyes and snoring/pretending to sleep. If she is sitting down she flips her body around so her back is facing you while she snores. It is SO HARD not to laugh at her!

Amelia and I were having a tea party and I asked her what she was serving. When she told me it was hot chocolate, I said it was very yummy, and asked if she had any marshmallows to go on top. She thought for a minute and ran to her kitchen . . . she came back with a mushroom and shoved it into my cup! I guess marshmallow and mushroom sound similar? Who knows!

Share This / Bookmark This

Share This / Bookmark This

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Amelia got her birthday gift a few months early this year! Mark and I decided to give her a Radio Flyer trike so that she (and we!) can enjoy it while the weather is so nice. One of the rough things about having a birthday two days before Christmas is that you can’t really go out and ride your brand new trike in the snow and ice. She already loves it, and Mark and I are thrilled that she is enjoying it so much!

Share This / Bookmark This