Amelia Takes On the World

Okay I looked at the date on my computer and was like…whoa… Amelia is only a month away from being 2.  That’s crazy!  And yet, that means today you are 23 months old sweetie.  Wow.  How are you growing so fast?!

You really have begun to develop your own unique and fun personality.  You are definitely independent for sure – you can climb into the van and then into your carseat by yourself.  And if I help?  You re-do it by yourself.

You love to dance and sing and be the center of attention – guess I shouldn’t be suprised, you are a Leo like your mama.  Lately if I try and join you in dancing you tell me ‘no’ or ’stop’.  You are the only one allowed to dance apparently.

You still love cuddles, hugs and kisses from mommy & daddy – I hope that never changes.  Its one of my favorite things.

You are obsessed with water.  Whether its your bath, sticking your hand into my water glass, pouring out your sippy, playing with the water table or at the pool – or asking to water the plants so you can pour your watering can on your feet on the deck… you try to play with water as much as possible.  I was a water baby and a summer baby – have always loved it – so its not suprising.  You are actually tanning which is surprising since I thought you had your daddy’s fair skin – maybe there is hope afterall.

Sometime this last month you learned how to say ‘cheese’ – which is really funny.  So far its actually a cute smile that it produces, though my favorite pictures are still the random glimpses of glee or seriousness that is your personality.

You talk up a storm these days – most things are 2 word phrases (my turn, baby book, mickey tv) – occasionally there is a sentence thrown in (I don’t want that) which always amazes me.  You are growing up!  You can also sing songs pretty well and you can count to 10.  Another new development is colors – it seems like overnight you can name almost every color – usually if you don’t know it its because its close to another color (orange is hard because its so close to red).

You still eat pretty well though meat isn’t a big thing for you anymore.  Though every day you come home from school with an ‘I ate everything’ at every meal & snack which is a new thing for you.  Maybe that’s why dinners aren’t as big anymore.  But you almost always eat the carb first (pasta & potatoes are big hits), maybe followed by fruit (blueberries & cherries are very big hits – don’t try melon or bananas though – you refuse).  You’ll often eat your veggies too.  You LOVE peas & broccoli, and carrots are pretty popular.  Corn is probably your favorite all time food, especially if its corn on the cob.  Meats are hit & miss.  You like meat sauce on pasta, and you will devour a hot dog – but chicken… ehhh not so much.  Bribery works if you want more of something else to get you to eat a couple bites, but you just aren’t that into it these days.  Who knows.   You still drink your soy milk, though you like to ‘double-fist’ with orange juice or water.  Its pretty funny to see you alternate.

We’ve evolved from the daily morning oatmeal – now you love to have cereal (with milk, that you drink out of the bowl when you are done), but you also are up for waffles or biscuits if they are available.  You’ll even come and play before eating which never used to happen.

You aren’t really interested in the potty yet – well you have asked to sit on it a couple times but you have already gone in your diaper by that time.  And you only tell us you need a diaper if you don’t want to be doing what you are doing (like sitting in the car).  Then you’ll even let us know if its the tiniest bit wet.  If you are playing with water, you can have a poop explosion and pretend it hasn’t happened.  I think this fall will be a more likely time to try and train – I’m not really ready anyway and I want us to both be ready.

You gave up the paci early this month – with great success!  You really are a big girl.  It was a rough 2 – 3 days but you never really asked for it – you understood you gave it to the bunnies (which stayed around for awhile but haven’t been around in a few days unfortunately).  You just took a few days to learn how to comfort yourself back to sleep.  You have become even more attached to lamby and your ‘baby book’ (a tiny book about babies) – probably to replace the pacis, but all in all its been pretty smooth sailing.

We’ve had to take more initiative on time-outs – they seem to be effective for you.  You weren’t coming to us when we asked you to and felt that was important so that’s a big one and its only taken a few time outs for you to start listening.  You also occasionally get too rough and throw a book or yourself at mommy or daddy and so we’ve had to use time outs for that too – but you do learn from them so I think its working.

I don’t even know how to capture all of your cuteness in a letter to you – you just do so many cute things.

- When we work on puzzles, you’ll do things ‘wrong’ on purpose to get us to pay attention and help (because we see you do it right at othertimes).

- You like to give my belly (your little sister) kisses.

- You love Mickey Mouse Clubhouse but occasionally ask for Elmo. (Thank you to Comcast On Demand)

- You have a great relationship with your cousin Lena – sure there is occasional sharing issues, but you are both about 2 years old – all in all you play well together and have a great time.

- Same with your buddy Graham – he is almost like a brother – you love to have each other around but sometimes there is a skirmish.  You definitely won’t share your ‘baby book’ with him, that’s for sure.

- If you ask you who your friends are, you say ‘Carter, Davis  and Graham’ – all the boys in your class – guess you don’t like girls?  How do you know the difference?

- You love hats, bows, sunglasses… an accessories kind of gal.

- You love all creatures, great and small.  An ant is just as interesting as a frog or a bunny.  My favorite though is your lion’s rarrrh.  I’ll have to get that one on video.

I know I haven’t captured everything, but at least you get a glimpse into how you were at 23 months.  We love you so much and are so glad you came into our lives 23 months ago.

Love,

Baby Momma

On Saturday we celebrated Father’s Day with Chris’ family.  Amelia’s cousin Lena came over, and Amelia & Lena had lots of fun working on puzzles together.

Yes, Amelia looks just like her Aunt Ann.

Lena was pretend feeding Amelia corn – I think Amelia was a little confused.

This one cracks me up.  Its Lena thinking ‘my cousin is crazy’.

Lena joined in on the sillyness.

Amelia says cheese and builds a tall tower!  She loves to build but then again both her parents are engineers… (or at least were at one point and time).

Nonni & her girls… we so rarely get a good picture of all of them smiling, so this came out great!  Yes, Amelia is holding a boo boo bunny – I think she had bumped her foot or something.  She likes to hold it to feel better – it doesn’t actually go on the boo boo.

I hope all of you had fun celebrating the weekend as well.

Baby Momma

Libbie Wicket that is!

http://libbiewicket.com/

Our wonderful photographer that we met when Amelia was a newborn has also become a great friend.  I’m so glad that they have become a part of our life and we are so excited to support her as she launches Libbie Wicket.  Enjoy!

Let’s see at one point and time I had links to her sneak peeks back when we did Amelia’s sessions with her… (and I can’t wait to do Amelia’s 2 year session and the newborn one for this new little one soon).

Okay here is Amelia’s newborn session sneak peek:

http://libbiewicket.com/2007/08/the-first-of-five/

If you scroll down on this page you can see her 6 month sneak peek:

http://libbiewicket.com/2008/1/

Here is Amelia’s one year session sneak peek:

http://libbiewicket.com/2008/07/happy-birthday-little-a/

Enjoy!  And check her out!

Kelly

I’m sure there will actually be lots of weekends with water this summer – its going to be hot!    Amelia got to go to the pool on Friday and Saturday and then she got to be in a kiddie pool at her cousin’s birthday and we brought out the water table on Sunday.  This kid loves water.

Her cousin Lena is just 6 weeks older and turned 2 last week.  So we had to celebrate in style!    Here is the happy birthday girl with her parents before the party started.

I kept trying to get a good one of the girls together – but there was too much fun going on.  And too many snacks to eat.

Amelia did have a lot of fun in the pool though – her favorite game was throwing the beach ball out of the pool and having daddy go get it.

Lena even took some time to pose for us!  Isn’t she adorable in her pink & green?  The green chair is just her size.

On Sunday, Amelia’s friend Graham came over to play.  They really enjoyed the water table that we put on the porch.  At first we thought it might be too cold, but the sun came out and great fun was had by all.

Graham even danced for us!

I found it quite funny that Amelia would pour the not so warm water on herself – here is a string of three photos that accurately captures it – it might be cool but she was having a blast.

Hope you enjoyed this little glimpse into our weekend of water.

Love,

Baby Momma

I love this picture my friend Leslie took of Amelia riding on daddy’s shoulders while we were up at the cabin.   She is my mini-Chris!

Just thought I’d try to capture a few fun things Amelia does right now while they are fresh in my memory.

- She is really good at saying ‘thank you mommy’ – in the most adorable voice. When you say ‘your welcome’ – she then adds ‘welcome’.

- She is starting to put sentences together. Last night it was ‘mommy said Elmo sleeping’ and this morning it was ‘be-bug on shirt’ (we were discussing how she had a ladybug on her shirt)

- When she says ‘pasta’ she says ‘ze pasta’ like she is French

- She loves to help water the plants outside and luckily they are big enough now it doesn’t matter that she is too gentle – though half the time she pours the water onto the deck to play in anyway (pictures of said huge garden below)

- She likes to ‘tickle’ us

- She is getting into the concept of friends – if you ask her who her friends are its ‘Carter, Davis, Graham’ – the boys in her room. Sometimes its ‘Carter – friend, Davis – friend, Graham – friend’.

- She knows who other kids’ parents are – she runs up to Carter & Davis’ parents and asks for them (they are twins), same with Grahams mom ‘Miss Heather’ who she also asks for…

- Most every answer is ‘no’ even if she then proceeds to do it/want it

- She has what I would consider a really good memory for a toddler. She’ll remember things for a month or more ago, like that there was a dvd player that played baby signing times on our dresser (it had been put away), and ask for it. Or when we went to the cabin she kept looking for her kaykay and dog that should be there (normally they are – last she saw them there was Easter so two months ago?).

- She loves animals – I might have a vet on my hands. She really enjoys when we find frogs around our house to look at and giggles with glee when they hop around

There are so many more cute things, but these are at least a few of the ones I’d like to remember right now.

In addition, you may remember we planted a garden. Well first we planted some pea seeds that sprouted on Mother’s Day.

Then within a few days we had…

So we decided to plant a vegetable garden.  My lovely husband bought everything as part of my Mother’s Day present and the weekend after Mother’s Day we got to planting.    Here is the planted garden – around mid-May. (These  pics come from my iPhone so unfortunately not as good quality).

You’ll see the beans on the left, small little zucchinis come next.  The third one has a tomato seedling (grape) in the back and a couple cantaloupe seedlings in the front (we didn’t know what we were doing – research after the fact probably said we shouldn’t have combined the two but oh well).  And finally we had planted one more grown up tomato plant so we could see results quicker.  It already had one tomato growing well, and another started.  Notice how its well short of the top ring of the support it has around it.   Also take notice of how short the grape tomato seedling is next to it.

So less than a month later – and I am amazed. I guess I underestimated nature!  I’ve never grown veggies so it was a shock to me how fast these suckers grow.  I can’t even keep them close enough to take in one picture on the iPhone.

Here are the beans – they’ve made it to the trellis and are working their way around and up.  I think it said to expect beans to start appearing in 6 – 8 weeks so that’s another 3 weeks away.   While not as impressive as the others, these were also the only ones that started from actual seeds.

These are the tomato plants (and the vine thingy you see growing in the bottom right pot is the cantaloupe – we are guessing the cantaloupe will end up growing on the deck itself on the vine).    The one that was already well started has grown up above the top ring and we’ve had to put extra support in there.  Last count was 15+ tomatoes  growing – none have started to turn red though.   The grape tomato plant – remember it – it used to be shorter than the other plant.  While its not as bushy – it wins on height for sure.   Its a good foot taller than the other tomato plant.

And then there is the zucchini.  Do you remember how tiny of seedlings we planted?  See above – they are tiny!  And this is the jungle that has since grown.  No fruit yet but there are some buds that I believe will be flowers and then fruits soon.  I’m in shock at this one.

So that’s the garden, which Amelia helps me take care of (and my husband of course!  he is great with it, helping with support and ties and more!).

I hope you enjoyed hearing about Amelia and our garden.

Baby Momma

Well maybe a mountain getaway with more sleep. We are fortunate my parents have a cabin in the North Caroline mountains – we love going up there! Its just so peaceful and a good way to leave stress behind in Atlanta for at least a couple days.

We met our good friends Leslie & Brent up there this weekend for a fun-filled, just a little too short, weekend.

Amelia unfortunately decided to have sleep issues this weekend. Maybe it was the lack of paci? Maybe it was the different locale? The last time we used the pack n play we did leave on a vacation without her… so who knows. I think she might be getting one of her two-year molars, but for whatever reason she had trouble sleeping. She didn’t nap either. So weird for a girl who normally naps 2 – 3 hours each day.

However, giving her some credit – other than when she should be sleeping, she was in a great mood! She really enjoyed being up there just as much as we did.

We went on a hike – Chris being the very great dad carried Amelia in a backpack (her 28 lbs plus the 10 lb pack… not a light load). She hiked a bit herself but then asked to get back up. Going uphill with those tiny legs is very tiresome! Brent also carried her for awhile – thanks Brent! He made the mistake of doing ‘horsey rides’ with the backpack and she wouldn’t stop asking for more. She loved it!

We saw waterfalls and fish in a pond. Amelia learned about a big bubble wand and got to see lots of flowers & trees. And we ended our trip with a visit to Highlands, a lovely town nearby with awesome food at a restaurant called ‘Wild Thyme’. If you are ever in Highlands, visit a store called Dutchman Designs (I think) – it has the best stuff for your house. We always pick up more of this lovely scented dried berries – our favorite is the ‘tangelo’ scent. It is divine and makes your house smell so fresh & wonderful. We also enjoy the Dry Sink store – its where we got Amelia’s dragonfly in her room a couple years ago.

So enjoy these pictures and video of our adventure.

A full group photo of us with our friends Brent & Leslie – gotta love timers on camera and I can’t believe Amelia listened when I said to smile at the flashing light.

Amelia playing in/around the waterfall – she loved it and got upset when we left.

Here is a picture of the actual waterfall.

Amelia loves being in the backpack, but she also loved getting to try and hike herself, uphill.  She made it a good ways before asking to get back in.

Miscellaneous fun pictures from the weekend.  Can’t beat s’mores for dessert.

I was trying to get her to pose in front of the dogwood – but she didn’t really want to stay still long enough – too much to do! And see!

Going to help catch a fish.

And last but not least, a compilation video of the weekend – focused on Amelia of course!

Enjoy!
Baby Momma

This past weekend was finally nice weather in Atlanta.  Warm, sunny & not raining.  Did I mention not raining?  Because I appreciate the rain and how it is finally getting close to the drought being officially over – but a toddler on a rainy weekend?  So nice to have it not rain.

On Saturday, we started the day with shopping.  Amelia gets all excited when we tell her we are going shopping – I guess because we don’t bring her very often?  She got to pick out her new bathroom theme since she is a big girl who gave up pacis.  She choose ducks and it is very cute so here are a few pics of the new bathroom decor (there are even ducks on the bottom of the tub!):

Amelia also went with her cousin Lena to the zoo – they are too cute together – hold hands and just enjoy each other.  Here is some cute video:

On Sunday, we decided to do our outdoor play at home.  We had intended on getting a water table but the Target we went to was sold out.  Instead we played with bubbles.  Amelia is obsessed with bubbles – not only does she have her Elmo blowing them for her, but she has to blow them as well.  She hasn’t mastered it yet but she does pretty well!

We also got her a watering can so she can water mommy’s plants with mommy.  She is always asking for water to put on the plants.  We have to watch her because she isn’t the most gentle with them, but she means well.  And we must be doing something right – they are growing fast.    Well since it was hot and we didn’t have a water table, we started by just putting some water on Amelia’s feet – that escalated into a full blown water party with my watering can supplying all the fun for her.   Who needs a water table when you can have this much fun – here is some video:

And don’t forget – Amelia loves to dance.  Here she is grooving with daddy to some music on the back porch while he grills:

This is an adorable age  for sure.  Amelia is loving, playful and just learning so quickly.

A couple other fun stories, unrelated to summer:

- Amelia is learning to whisper.  This morning, while up way too early, we tried to get her to lay down with us.  However, instead she would sit there whispering – I could pick up the words mommy & daddy but not what else she was saying – however, the whispering is very cute.

- She has learned most of her colors!  It seems like just a couple weeks ago everything was ‘purple’ – but now she knows at least the major ones – yellow, blue, red, orange and green.

- She is learning to count – I’ve heard her do 2,3,4 and 4,5,6…  she gets the idea of counting now so I’m sure it’ll be any day I’ll just hear her count to 10.

- She is also learning her ABCs.  If I sing the song she’ll sing different pieces & phrases along with me.  E,F,G are very popular for her.

Hope you enjoyed these moments of the start of summer for the Dyar Family.

Baby Momma

Amelia has been paci free at daycare for over a week – they just stopped giving it to her for naps and I think there was one day of fussing and that was that.  So we decided we would be brave and make this the paci weaning weekend.  It was something I kept putting off but I truly wanted to do it in plenty of time before the new baby so Amelia did not want to associate her new sister with her loss of pacis.

It just so happens that this week, right before dusk, a family of bunnies has started to appear behind our townhome.  There aren’t tiny bunnies, in fact these are really large bunnies – we’ve seen at least 3 or 4 of them out at once, eating along the ‘nature’ boundary.  Amelia loves the bunnies (she has since Easter when she got to pet a real live bunny!) .  So we had a thought – what if the bunnies needed her pacis?

Friday morning Chris started talking to Amelia about it while she ate her morning cereal (what used to be an oatmeal addiction is now a cereal addiction – this week its corn chex).  He said the mommy bunny came and asked if we had any pacis for her baby bunnies to sleep at night.  And that we said we had a big girl who was willing to give her pacis to the bunnies so that night she was going to give them to the bunnies.  I don’t think she got it but hey – we are sticking to our story.  At this point she tried to reach her spoonful of cereal out towards the back of the house and said ‘bunnies eat cereal?’.  It was adorable, she wanted to feed them her cereal – maybe this will work!

When she got home from school on Friday I had rounded up the pacis I could find (unfortunately there are at least 2 missing somewhere – ugh!), and she threw them off the porch to the bunnies.  (And Chris went and collected them secretly so they were gone next time she went out).  All went well.  Until bedtime – pacis?  Pacis?  ‘Sweetie the baby bunnies have them, they are asleep in the woods’ … we stuck to the story.  Considering it wasn’t that bad… 20 minutes of crying/fussing, then we got her up, let her eat a few more bites and see if there were bunnies out back (there was one, that helped I think), and then maybe 15 – 20 more minutes of fussing/crying and she was fast asleep.  A couple minor wakeups in the night but we never even had to get up to soothe her, she always went back to sleep.

Saturday morning she was a wee bit grumpy, understandably, and was tired, and naptime was an even bigger challenge.  Over an hour of talking, fussing, crying – she doesn’t call for the pacis, she calls for diapers, eating, downstairs, stickers and bubbles.   Finally daddy had to go in, force her to lay on his chest in the rocker and patted her until she succumbed to sleep – and then took a 3 hour nap. 

Saturday night wasn’t too bad – she got to stay up late going to a zoo event with her cousin, and she got to say good night to the bunnies out back.  She went down well, cried a bit a few minutes later – but really less than 30 minutes after putting her down she was fast asleep.

Naptime on Sunday took 20 minutes or so and night time tonight went only 10 minutes before she calmed down and talked herself to sleep.  I think the soothing to sleep is the main issue – she has always used her paci.  So even though she has her ‘lamby’ – it takes a bit of soothing and that’s what she is learning right now.   

All together, I think we did well and we are in the home stretch.  She seems to get that she is a big girl and she gave the pacis to the bunnies.  Hopefully she won’t happen across one of those pacis that I can’t seem to locate.

We are very proud of our big girl growing up, who has a very big heart, and wants to make sure that the baby bunnies have pacis, and maybe they would like to eat some cereal?

Baby Momma

One of the backyard bunnies from last night.