Amelia Takes On the World

I didn’t realize the independent streak in Amelia would display itself so early.   I succumbed to needing sleep and put the bumpers back in her crib - at least that got me only two wake up calls last night, both fairly minor and easy to fix with some back patting.  However, we are now about to face off in the battle of the high chair.  I admit, it’s probably my fault.  I thought, let’s see how she is standing while holding on to things - and she loved it!  Now when we try to put her in the high chair for dinner - legs are locked, they are not bending, she is not sitting and she is crying and very upset.  She loves to eat - so I know its not that.  And here’s the kicker - at daycare she sits just fine in a chair and eats.  So its just with us & her dinner.  Little stinker.
So Amelia - I love you baby girl - you give me that smile in the end and it melts my heart.  But luckily your dad and I are also stubborn so don’t think you’re going to win.  Tonight its daddy’s turn to figure you out - I’ll come home after you’ve eaten and are back on good behavior.

Love, Mom

So Amelia is normally a good sleeper.  Maybe once a night she might cry enough to warrant a paci, but that’s not even every night.  Last night, a Sunday night, when you need to sleep to go to work on Monday - all heck broke loose.  I admit, we made changes.  Maybe these should have happened on a Friday - but we lowered her mattress and removed her bumper pads.  She can now see out of the crib and if she so chooses, stick her arms and legs out of teh crib.  We are afraid to not do this as she is showing an inclination towards trying to climb the bumper pads.  It also allows her to throw the paci through the bars and as we discovered, make noise by hitting the paci on the bars as well.   (Imagine a prisoner in jail with his metal water cup banging the bars) She was up at least once an hour crying.  She seemed like she wanted to be sleeping.  Can these types of changes make that much of a difference??? And please tell me she’ll get over it.  She woke up all smiles - couldn’t believe it was the same baby that had me wishing for sleeping pills in the middle of the night.  Not sure for who.  I’m kidding.  Really.

Anyone else have this happen with these changes?  Please comment and tell me it gets better.

Tired Mommy

I was trying to capture the joy Amelia was having while playing with her dad’s face.  Unfortunately the best pictures I had forgotten a flash on, but these are still pretty good.

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

Mom tried to smush up avocado for me last night - ewwww…. here is a video to show you what I thought of it.

Amelia

I got to take my first road trip (in a car anyway) this past weekend - it was lots of fun.  Mom & Dad broke it up so I was never in the car for too long - and mom stayed with me in the back of the car to entertain and feed me when I was awake.  We stayed one night with mom’s friends from Duke, Dave & Lisa.  That was great fun - they had two small puppies I could scream at and pull their hair.  Soon they will have a baby girl for me to play with too.  All the Duke friends that lived in the area came out to visit too, and mom & dad had lots of fun playing some funky board game that no one really understood.  Sunday we stayed in Charlotte with mom’s good friend Carolyn - they also had a big puppy-dog who I loved to giggle at and we went out to Mexican.  I asked for guacamole but mom only gave me sweet peas instead.  Monday morning we visited with another of mommy’s friends, Kristine.  She has two little girls, one is even my size!  It was lots of fun to play with them.  Below you’ll see pictures from the trip.

Amelia

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

Kelly

Amelia Rose

We hope you have a great day - and hey, its almost the weekend. Here is Amelia’s Valentine for all of you. Below you’ll also see a video of her getting her Valentine’s finger puppet from her Nonni - she loved it!

Kelly & Amelia

And check out Crazy Hip Blog Momma’s Photo Friday to see other Valentine’s.

Since Amelia’s dad is out of town this week, I thought I’d post some pictures so he could see his baby girl. I’m also going to include a couple from this weekend’s playdate with Meredith. I think I figured out how to post a video of her trying prunes - she hasn’t met a food she hasn’t liked, but I might be facing some not so fun diaper changes after that.  She seemed to know the camera was there and didn’t want to smile - but you can see how she likes to lick her lips!

Kelly

Video:

Well its another Monday. I really dread getting to work on a Monday - I mean, I’ve accepted that I am a working mom and that I have to go to work to be a working mom - but its so hard to leave Amelia at daycare on Mondays. I just want to stay and play with all of them. Once its done, the week moves on smoothly and our routine is down pat. But Mondays are hard.

This weekend was great - a Valentine’s date with my husband (check out the review on www.ddwinereview.com), dinner with friends twice, and Amelia got to play with her friend Meredith. Even if Meredith did try to take all her toys - that was actually really adorable. The working moms in our neighborhood even went and got our nails done - so I feel like I should be re-charged for the week and I’m not. Hopefully this week will speed by and we’ll be off for the weekend visiting friends in North Carolina. Chris is out of town this week, but it should be his last for his current project - yeah!

Amelia is growing so fast these days - sitting up fairly well, working on her 2nd tooth, saying ‘ba’ and her newest - screeching a high pitch noise quite a bit. She eats so well and hasn’t met a food she hasn’t liked - hence her big belly. She’s had pretty much all the stage 1 foods now, I think we have squash and peaches left and on to the next stage. Well once we finish all the jars of stage 1 we have anyway.

I hope all of you are having a good Monday and have an easy week.

Kelly