Amelia Takes On the World

I feel like I see pregnant women everywhere. And its giving me baby fever - I mean my baby is now a toddler and I often miss the little baby moments I savored. However, we aren’t quite ready for that yet (did you see the post about her teething??), so instead we thought we’d share some of our favorite baby items in the creation of Amelia’s Worldly Store. Don’t worry, I’ll include things for moms too.  There will be a permanent page and link in her sidebar - Enjoy!

Did you all know mom & dad were taking me to the woods for Memorial Day weekend?  I had a great time!  We stayed at Kaykay and Grandpa Joe’s cabin, and I got to play with them and their dog Zuey.  I loved Zuey - I would giggle at her as she tried to lick me all the time.  Mom & Dad got a hiking backpack to take me around - we went on two hikes!  They took turns carrying me, but I had a great time.  I loved looking around and commentating on the scenery.  I did decide to take a nap during one of the hikes - what can I say, it was comfy.  Mom & dad claim their backs don’t hurt from carrying me, so maybe they’ll take me again. We also decided to try and take some pictures of me in front of the pretty pond and flowers - mom was worried I’d roll into the pond so she decided to join me too.  You can see what I thought of that - I was being a little stinker and trying to make sure they captured my tongue in the photographs.  However, they managed to catch me smiling too - oh well.  At least the scenery was beautiful.   I turned ten months old on Saturday and decided to celebrate by pulling myself to standing for the 1st time - I can do it as long as whatever I’m pulling on is lower to the ground - still haven’t mastered the taller things yet.  I’m also figuring out how to cruise once I am standing, its very exciting.  I also got my first taste of deli meat for lunch and tonight mom & dad gave me freshly grilled zucchini.  I love finger foods!

Thanks Kaykay and Grandpa Joe (and Zuey) for having us visit for the weekend, we had a great time and I can’t wait to come back for July 4th.  Maybe I’ll try to catch one of those fish in the pond.

Love,

Amelia

Amelia - I am in denial that you are ten months old this weekend.  I can’t believe my little girl is growing up so fast.   We were at a party recently and kept saying you were nine months, but then the other baby who is only 5 days older, her parents said she was ten months… and it hit me that you were right there!  How is that possible?

However, its true.  You are ten months old on Saturday.  So much has happened this month… the main milestone is crawling.  You are fully crawling and even have turbo speed crawling when you really want to get to something.  So far your favorite things to get into, that you shouldn’t, are inside the fridge/freezer if I open the door and playing with the springy door stops.   You also love to find paper anywhere so you can rip it up.  I’m sure any day now you are going to move onto standing and then walking.  Right now you try so so hard to stand up and I’ve seen you get almost there - you get one foot under you, but can’t get off the other knee.  I’m sure that is going to happen any minute, if not by the time I get home today.

Unfortunately this has also been the month of the ear infection and teething (and maybe a growth spurt?) - so its not been the most restful for anyone in the house.   You like to sleep, so I know its not a pattern starting, and I’m hoping we are through the worst since you slept well the past two nights.   Those front two teeth are just coming in frustratingly slow!!  Not that you let us feel them to really tell how they are doing - maybe there is more in there, who knows?  You are up to about 22 lbs now and growing longer so I do think you had some growing going on in there that just complicated the sleep issue - one night you ate a full 16 oz during the night in addition to daytime eating.

We’ve also been working on finger foods and you are really starting to get the hang of it.  Your favorites are the puffs & cheerios, you also really like the dried fruit bits.  I love how you use your index finger to make sure to push the food back into your mouth - its adorable.   You also eat stage 3 foods like a champ, so now its on to real table food this month.  Wish us luck.

I had my first night away from you this month, and while it was nice to not worry about waking up at some unknown time, I still rather be home with you and your dad.

Your favorite toys - that’s a hard one - you don’t have a ‘lovie’ yet.  I did recently put the soft lamb in your crib, and you like it, but you like all your toys - especially the ones you haven’t seen recently.  You do seem to have a preference for the little balls that came with your kitchen, but really any toy will do.   You also love bathtime, and try to jump out of our arms to get in the tub when you realize its time.  We tried your first bubble bath last night - though I think those just confused you, you were more playful once they went away and you could see your toes again.  There were a couple days where you were carrying your toy rings in your mouth, kind of like a dog would… I think Graham taught you that at school.  I managed to capture that on film (disk?) thankfully.

More and more, we see you are the social butterfly.  You get so happy to go to daycare to play with the other kids, and when we see kids on our walks around the neighborhood - you squeal with delight.  I’m so glad that you love other kids, it makes me feel better about you going to daycare every day.  You truly seem happy to be there, and your teachers are wonderful and love you so much.

Lastly, I’ll leave off with the fact that this week, sticking out your tongue has returned.  Especially when you are trying to do something - or want to show me your food.  Actually I’m not sure you need a reason - it just makes you happy to stick it out.  Hopefully I can capture it on camera for all your friends to see how adorable you are.

I love you baby girl, though with each day you are more of a little girl - I love seeing you grow, but I also love my little baby.  Don’t grow up too fast okay?

Love,

Mom

Here are a few pictures to enjoy - mostly from a couple days this past weekend which coincides when she was carrying toys in her mouth.  One picture isn’t the best - but it captures the wonderful color of her eyes, so I included it.  Be safe and have a great Memorial Day weekend.

By my friend Amanda - so here goes…

What I was doing 10 years ago…

Finals for junior year, about to move to Austin for a summer internship - fabulous summer!  I turned 21 and just loved Austin - didn’t care for the job so much but that’s okay.

5 things on my to-do list today…

1. Put away laundry
2. Do Amelia’s laundry (she has no more pjs poor girl)
3. Eat a sensible dinner - haha
4. Walk on treadmill
5. Sleep!  Please let me get a good night sleep tonight.

5 snacks I enjoy…

1. Anything chocolate & peanut butter
2. Sun chips or salt & vinegar chips
3. Nut mixes
4. Ice cream in multi-variations
5. Berries (one healthy thing at least)

5 things I would do if I were a billionaire…

1. I would support quite a few charities, and do volunteer work myself
2. Start college scholarship funds for current and future cousins/relatives
3. First get a personal trainer and cook and get into the best shape of my life, and then have a stylist outfit me
4. Have two houses - beach & mountain
5. Travel and other hobbies, like photography

5 bad habits…

1. clutter at home
2. snacking on bad food, especially when stressed
3. talking too much
4. playing on Internet too much
5. too easily excusing not working out

5 places I’ve lived… (only five??)

1. Metarie, LA (1 - 3)
2. Amelia Island, FL (turned 4)
3. Atlanta, GA (4 - 7, 22 - current)
4. Cupertino, CA (turned
5. Kingwood, TX (8 - 17)

Others - Durham, NC for school, Montgomery, TX during college summer break, Sugarland, TX, Austin, TX for internships, Tampa, FL for 3 months for PwC Training…

5 jobs I’ve had…

1. Fuddruckers cashier
2. Liz Claiborne outlet associate
3. Internships with IBM, Fluor Daniel & Honeywell
4. PricewaterhouseCoopers
5. Delta

And now at Turner Broadcasting….

TAG! Now YOU are it…

1. Josephine
2. Jenni

Dearest Amelia-bug,

You are nine months old today - time flies!  Next week we get your official stats from the doctor, looking forward to that.  You seem to be getting longer but staying the same weight, thinning out a bit.  We’ll see what they say, thankfully its a shot free appointment so I don’t have to see you hurt.

It seems like you’ve hit a lot of milestones this month - you continue to sign for milk (though you use it for all forms of eating), your babbling has increased and you’ve said ‘dada’ and maybe even ‘mama’ - without knowing what you were saying but soon you will.   You are trying your best to crawl, rocking on your hands and knees and going backwards.  You can pull up if you have the right support - though we aren’t encouraging that.  And it seems like I was just thinking you’d eat stage 2 food forever when you started eating your puffs and really anything I try and give you.  Even asparagus!  Once we have your 9 month appointment we’ll think about letting daycare give you food as well - apparently you tried to steal someone else’s graham cracker yesterday - silly girl.

Your sleeping patterns have settled down a bit - typically a shorter morning nap, a longer afternoon nap and sleeping from 8pm - 6 or 7 am.  You’ve just started going all night as long as you have your paci - no more losing it at night.  We’ll have to fight the paci battle at another point because sleeping through the night is wonderful.

We have suddenly started seeing little tantrums from you this past week - you get very upset if someone takes what you are playing with - whether it be a toy at daycare or the floor mat that isn’t really a toy.  Hopefully this will soon pass, because its heart breaking to see you start crying and throw yourself backwards, no matter where you are.  I don’t want to see you hurt!

You’ve continued to show a social nature - you love other babies, and had a great time with friends and your cousin coming over to play.  You really enjoy the bigger kids, just giggling away when you saw both Alex and Ellory this month.

I am loving this age as you become more interactive, and as you explore and hit milestones.  But I also love my baby girl cuddles - some of my favorite moments are when you snuggle up and take a nap with me on the couch or you rest your head against my cheek.  I have to say I’m also a big fan of the wiggle dance you’ve picked up - whether it be happiness while eating in your high chair, or while playing with the strings on your pants - too adorable.  I also love the happy wiggles when we come to wake you up in the morning and you are so excited to see us.

I saw a 5 week old baby (baby Mary Kate) out in her stroller the other day, and I have trouble remembering you being that tiny - it seems like years ago, not 8 months ago.   Don’t grow up too fast on me, okay?  I’m trying to enjoy each and every stage and you are always my baby girl.

Love,

Mom

I am a few days late for this - but Crazy Hip Blog Mommas asked us moms what gets us through the day….

Right now, the mornings are just a routine on auto-pilot.  Wake up, make Amelia’s bottle, hope she stays asleep while I shower, ideally dry hair and do make up before Amelia wakes up but this is a question mark - feed her, lotion her, dress her, let her play on the floor with stuffed animals while I finish.  This will be interesting once she can actually crawl instead of just try and crawl.  Then its off to daycare and work.  I always have a hard time leaving the daycare - I just want to stay & play with all the babies.  Soon they have a volunteer day where you get to hang out for a couple hours - I need to sign up.

At work, coffee gets me through the morning.  Coffee and having lots of pictures of Amelia on my desk.   And knowing I get to pick her up and have a couple hours of baby time.

Once home, we do dinner and playtime, sometimes a bath.  I try to get lots of cuddles in but it depends on her mood - sometimes this means she tries to pull my necklace off for 20 minutes, others she takes a catnap on me (I love this!).  Then its bottle and bedtime - and hopefully a few minutes for me and BabyDaddy to catch up - and then its my bedtime.  Wash, rinse, repeat….

Its hard to remember what getting through the day meant before BabyDaddy and BabyGirl were in my life.

BabyMomma

I hope everyone is having a good week.  Its chillier than I would’ve hoped here in Atlanta this week - I really want to start getting out for some good walks with Amelia - she loves it outside.

Today is picture day at daycare, which I didn’t remember until I was already about to put her in her carseat - so we went back inside and picked out a cute dress.  Of course, by this time, she started to get a little fussy.  We were already running late and into her morning naptime.  They were already taking pictures when we got there - and so we plopped her down and we  only got Miss Serious.  Amelia has the serious face that is oh so serious, like she is so grave and mature or something.  And that’s all we could get.  When she smiles,  the world is a brighter place - and usually we can get smiles for pictures - but no, not going to happen!  So I’ll see what I can do tonight myself and hopefully post a couple pictures.  Because she did look really cute in the blue & white sailor dress.

Amelia seems to be just changing every day - she can do this army crawl and get to things, and the other day she somehow turned around 180 degrees while still sitting.  She still occasionally will do the B strumming, but even more fun is she’ll let you strum her lips while she says B, and she even tries to do it back to us.

She refuses to eat the Gerber puffs, or anything solid for that matter, little pieces of bread, smooshed up carrot - nothing.  I did try my first attempt at making baby food last night from frozen peaches, and just did one run through the food mill so it has a bit more texture than what she currently eats.  She ate a couple bites of that so we’ll try more tonight and see how that goes.  Maybe we will just go ever so slowly into the world of texture - haha.  I’ll have the 2 year old that only eats baby food - oh well.

I know this is just a random blog post, but I felt like writing about my baby girl.  She is just so fun and precious.  I’ll try to post some pictures tonight or tomorrow as well - she’s a growing girl!

Kelly

Well my friend Amanda tagged me from her blog to do 7 random facts - and I need to tag someone else to keep the chain going.  So Jenni - when you read this - you need to post 7 random facts on your blog!  Tag!

Okay 7 random facts is going to be hard for me to come up with, but here goes:

1) I played bass clarinet in high school, and actually cared about music back then and yes - went to band camp - every summer

2) Apparently when I was little I wanted to play tennis, because my mom played tennis and that meant I could get married and have babies - ironically I do now play tennis and it was a pre-cursor to getting married and having babies

3) Not totally about me - but Amelia’s name came about because I dreamed that is what we named her… and then it grew on us - and we did live on Amelia Island for about 6 months when I was 4

4)  I bought a guitar to learn how to play after dating a guy who was good at it - he even wrote me a song - and I never learned and gave the guitar to my mom.  I was surprisingly good at guitar hero the first and only time I’ve played though…

5) I like sleep - having a 7 month old doesn’t really help with that - but even before her, we’d go to bed early… now its even earlier.  Like 9pm early.

6)  I read surprisingly fast - and I can totally block out things around me - like my husband, poor thing.  Its a habit I picked up while traveling for work as a consultant in airports & planes.  My favorite all time series is by Diana Galbaldon - Outlander - its historical fiction with romance thrown in.  I prefer ‘fake’ because its an escape from the real world for me, though I do like other books.  Amelia has put a crimp in my reading.

7)  I’ve lived in … Metarie, LA; Amelia Island, FL;Norcross, GA; Cupertino, CA; Kingwood, TX; Durham, NC (Go Blue Devils!); and now Atlanta, GA … with a few three month stints thrown in for internships/work in Austin, TX; Tampa, FL; Phoenix, AZ.   Trying to cover most of the Southeast with a couple Western cities thrown in for good measure.

Okay - Jenni - tag!

Kelly

Dearest Amelia,

You are seven months old today - time really is flying fast. You’ve grown so much over the last month, particularly with your motor skills. You can sit fairly well now (though we still try and pad around you for falls), and you are good at picking up toys and big soft blocks. Last night you surprised us by trapping our arms with your feet - more than once. It was too cute. Your babbling is picking up speed - I heard the first ma in there this morning, and we are pretty sure you have said dada. Though its hard to tell with the other babbling. You also love to make noise as you suck in air - always making me nervous you are choking and you think its great fun.

Food is a great adventure. You graduated to stage 2 foods yesterday enjoying Apples with Apricots. So far the only food you haven’t liked was the avocado - but I think that was a texture thing. We’ll try again in a couple of weeks. Right now you eat solids twice a day and still take 5 bottles, but that’s about to change. You seem to like your solids more than your bottles now unless your fussy (then its a bottle only please!). We’ll introduce breakfast soon.

You love other kids. I don’t know if its going to daycare every day or just your disposition - you get so excited to see others your size. You really ham it up and are on best behavior then. They told me you are the social butterfly, trying to get reactions from others - but that you are also the independent one. You let them know when you want to not be held and play by yourself, and you can hold your bottle yourself as well. I’m very thankful you have teachers that truly care for you while I go to work. It makes it easier, though not sure it will ever be easy.

I think you look more like your dad, as your hair has stayed black and is definitely wavy - but I see me in you too. A nice mix of the two of us - making an adorable you. We just did your Easter photos (can’t believe your first Easter is in a month) - can’t wait to see how they turned out. Sometimes when I look at you smile, I see your cousin Mason. And sometimes when I see your profile, I see your cousin Lena. Both sides of the family are definitely represented.

You still nap multiple times a day, you like your sleep like your mom. At night, you go to bed around 8pm and sleep until 7 most days. You might ask for a pacifier once during the night, but we never know. We appreciate getting more sleep though, and you wake up so happy to greet the world. Its great. Often I come in and you are already awake with a big smile propped up on your elbows. You still sleep on your belly in the corner and this means we are going to have to drop the mattress this week we think. You like to put your arms & legs over the breathable bumper, and I have a feeling that means climbing any minute now. And we are graduating you to the next car seat too - at over 18 lbs (18 lbs 8 oz at the doctor’s the other day), carrying you in the 10 lb car seat has become a challenge.

This was more of a factual letter of musings - about your accomplishments - but now that I love seeing all these accomplishments as my baby grows. We are really enjoying the personality that you are developing and love every minute of being your parents.

Love always and happy lunar birthday,

Mom

And thought I’d create a montage. Enjoy! I’ll try to post pictures from Amelia’s first road trip tonight.

Kelly

Amelia Rose