Productivity

We had a good day. Lots of things got done! Our trip to Target was a complete success...I only bought things that we needed! Usually I end up with clearanced baby clothes or toys in my cart, but not today! I looked but reminded myself of how many clothes Amelia has already! Where would I put the new ones?!

I tried putting Amelia down for her usual morning nap after our Target trip, which caused her nap to be later than normal. She was not interested in napping at all! I went in there because she was babbling and this is what I found:



Very similar to what I found this morning!

Amelia had a good time this afternoon, while we worked in the kitchen:


Once she started to yawn I put her in her pack 'n' play, secretly hoping she'd nap...and this is what I found:


She slept for over 2 hours, thankfully, otherwise we would have a real crabby girl by now.

In other news, Amelia's babbling is starting to sound like real words. Today, she has been "saying" "uh-mama-mamun", which sometimes sounds like, "hi mama". She makes the funniest face while making those noises!

I'm off to work soon! Hope everyone has been enjoying their long weekend, at least those who aren't in the service industry that is...

"Black Saturday"?

I know there is "Black Friday" but is Saturday "black" too these days? It seems like a lot of stores have "doorbusters" on Saturday too. Either way, I have to head to Target for some essentials, most importantly: real Nyquil. The off brand stuff has not been working for me at all. Two restless nights proves it. We are all sick in this house and I could use a night of sound sleep. That would be step one towards getting better! So, real Nyquil it is.

Yesterday I worked another 10-8 at work and man, it was busy! We were understaffed so it was ridiculous. Jason and Amelia spent another day together, in the kitchen it seems:



He cleaned up her Sesame Street kitchen we found at a yard sale this summer:


It turns out there are three colored pots that go with it! Jason is keeping an eye out on eBay for them. It talks and Cookie Monster tells you he wants to "cook soup in blue pot" etc. Even if we don't find the pots, she'll have fun with this I think.

(What do you think of Jason's photography skills? He has been trying hard to take better pictures and I think he's getting better! Usually we only post my pictures on here and Facebook. He put my Canon SLR on a tripod, so he could focus on getting Amelia to look AND smile, and it worked for him!)

This morning Amelia was up at 6! I changed her, fed her and let her cry in her crib because it was just too early! She fell back asleep and woke up at her usual 8 :) It was hard to be upset about having to get up when I walked in to see this:


She is getting so big!

With that getting bigger comes difficulty though...she doesn't understand that this is not ok:


She gets so mad at us when we flip her back over!

I have high hopes today! I want to get a ton of stuff done, as usual. I have a short presentation in my graduate seminar, about my thesis, to give on Monday and I really need to be able to spend tomorrow getting ready for that. That means, getting everything else done today before work! Hopefully this sick little girl decides to be happy today:

Happy Thanksgiving

Well, I am now home from my 10 hour shift at work. Amelia and her Daddy spent the whole day together! They played, watched football, ate, crawled around and more.

Amelia had on a special Thanksgiving outfit today! It was hard to get a picture of her in it though, she had more important things to do (like crawling around).





Yes Amelia, we are very thankful for you. Your shirt is correct!

We hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving!

What a Wednesday

Wow, last night we were in bed by 8:30 and I think I was out before 9! We have gotten a lot of sleep the past two nights, which is great!

Today we went and got all of Jason's laundry washed. Amelia is still amazed with the washers. It's a lot of fun watching her be so enthralled with something so ordinary:


After that we headed to Blain's Farm & Fleet (not Fleet Farm, Fleet Farm is ten times better than Farm & Fleet) to get me a new jacket. I don't quite fit into mine. I am hoping that by next winter I have gotten rid of some of my excess, so I can fit into my nice Columbia again! While we were there we also got Amelia a couple of Christmas gifts. Their prices were lower than Target!

She is finally sitting up:


She has been able to a couple of months now but never wanted to. She'd sit there for a few seconds and decide that being on her belly was better. Now she is figuring out that sitting up has it's advantages too!

I put her into her pack 'n' play this evening so I could do a few things and when I looked in on her, this is what I found:


The poor thing was worn out! Since we were out most of the day she didn't get her usual nap. She napped in her carseat while we were out, for maybe an hour, but that is nowhere near the length of her usual late morning nap! I got her up a little after 5, changed her into pajamas and let her play for about 30 minutes and I put her to bed!

Over the weekend, Amelia learned how to pant, like a dog. She sits there, panting, with her tongue hanging out. Why??? All we can figure is that she picked it up from Molly, her Great-Grandpa Peterson's dog. Molly panted in her face a few times and now Amelia pants too... It is so strange. For awhile I thought something was wrong with her, like she couldn't breathe, but she is fine. She is her normal self, only she pants now. This picture was taken while she panted:


Strange little thing that girl is.

This evening I have done all the dishes (there were a lot, remember, we had "Thanksgiving" dinner last night), done some everyday picking up, made applesauce and more! I have lots more I'd like to do tonight so my momentum better stick around!

Impromptu Thanksgiving

Tonight, Jason and I had a spur of the moment Thanksgiving dinner. We found out yesterday that Thursday I will be gone the entire day :( I work 10-8. I had asked to open in hopes of having the evening off but that is not exactly what happened.

We had some turkey in the fridge, leftover from the turkey dinner at the cabin over the weekend (a tradition of opening weekend), that Jason's grandpa had sent with us. Jason ran across the street and got some pre-made stuffing, milk, bread and dessert. This was our Thanksgiving "feast":


Not bad for deciding to do it at about 5:30. We never got to dessert...we are stuffed and sitting on the couch!

Amelia also had a Thanksgiving meal tonight, pumpkin and sqaush. That made her a happy girl:


Even the cats got to feast! They shared a can of chunky chicken and turkey casserole:


We have lots to be thankful for this year! We hope everyone has a good Thanksgiving week :)


************************

Before the "turkey-coma" set in I got a lot done! Today was a decent day. I kept busy the entire time Jason was at work. I unpacked us, put away all the laundry I had done at my parent's house, picked up the house, went through all the papers laying all over etc.

Over the weekend I made the decision that I would switch the clothes in Amelia's "dressers" to her '12 month' ones. She is only fitting into about half of her '9 month' clothes right now and I found our over the weekend that she fits well in some '12 month' clothes. So, I decided to just switch them now. She is SET on '12 month' clothes! Her drawers are FULL:


There is not one thing she could possibly need in this suze! She is going to be the best dressed baby for sure!

I also worked in her room this afternoon, making room for her new chair. She seems to like it:


She even tried getting out of it on her own today:


(I helped her, so she didn't get hurt)

In order to help keep the cats off of her chair, I put some of her "friends" on it:


I also put our over-the-door hanger in her room, to keep all of her coats in order:


Amelia was such a good girl today, letting me get so much done! She played in her pack 'n' play so great:


Jason and I are beat and ready for bed. I think we are going to watch another movie and get to sleep early again!


(PS- Just so everyone knows, I really miss Comcast! When I was at my parent's house this weekend uploads took a second. Here they take minutes! It is no fun! Time Warner Cable is awful!!!)

Home with the Comforts of "Home"

**These days, to us, home is Milwaukee and "home" is the Hudson/Stillwater area. This is where our family began, so Milwaukee will always be important to us, even if/when we leave**

This morning we made the trek back to Milwaukee. Amelia got some Nana lovin' before she left:


She did so great in the car, again! I took this picture of her at a gas station, while Jason was inside getting our refreshments:


What a good baby that is! On our way up she got fussy near Menomonie (~30-40 minutes out of "home") and this time she slept, played, slept, played and never fussed! We are lucky!

On our way home today there were deer everywhere! I compared it to people strapping their Christmas trees to their cars to bring home...there were a lot of them. Sorry, I really don't want to gross anyone out, but we got a kick out of this one:


This weekend they got a new couch AND a deer? Must have been a good weekend.

Now, onto the comforts...we brought home 2 Carbones pizza sandwiches and they are in the oven warming up as I type this:


We had asked for them par-baked so we could throw them in the freezer for a snowy day but they came fully-cooked. Therefore, we must eat them sooner, so we chose tonight! Star Trek is ready in the bedroom, so once dinner is done we will eat in there and watch a movie together!

Another comfort that we brought home with us is RJ's beef jerky. Jason snacked on it in the car. I think it was tough for him to ration it and save some for later! He was nice enough to share it with the boys tonight:


Lucky came too but, shockingly, he didn't seem too interested in beef jerky! That boy loves to eat (his belly shows it too!) so I am wondering why he wasn't interested in the jerky... Maybe because Poopy goes nuts for it and was charging the pieces on he floor when he finished his, even though they weren't for him!

Ludo seems a bit perturbed with us, for leaving him so long, but he has found his own comfort in Amelia's new chair (pink is his favorite color...):


I am going to make room for it in her room for now, to try and keep the boys out of it!

It is nice to be home again! I can't wait to sleep in my own hed tonight with my cats! Except...they seem mad at us. Especially Lucky :(

Last Day in MN

Today was our last day "home". This morning I watched Law and Order: SVU on USA. You must understand, there was a marathon on and we don't get that channel in Milwaukee, so this was a big deal to me. I LOVE that show! I watched 2 episodes!

Amelia and I had lunch with Marie this afternoon. The day was pretty low key. I finished up our laundry that we brought with and waited for Jason's call. He got in to town mid-afternoon. We have venison! Jason did not get a deer himself but his cousin (?) got a buck and lives in TN, so he won't take it with him. (mom, skip this picture...):


Amelia wore her Daddy's blaze tonight after he got back:


I had already packed Amelia's clothes up tonight so all I had for pajamas for her were some Christmas ones that she got this trip and I had washed today, so she is in Grinch pajamas tonight... She also wore around a red Tupperware bowl, like a helmet, to match her army crawl:


At one point she was in the doorway to the kitchen, banging her head on the wall, with her helmet that is. She already understands what it is for! She must take after her Daddy after all...

It has been a busy weekend. Tomorrow, back to the "grind".

Shopping Saturday

Yesterday we spent the day out and about. My sister, mom and I went to a craft fair in Hudson in the morning at the Hudson House. There was a lot of cute holiday decor but most of it was out of my budget! Amelia got a couple of things though!

First she got a new hat:


There were lots of different animals to choose from. I decided I liked the raccoon the best. Some runners up were a whale, a duck, a kitty (it might have won if the woman had had a pink one with brown ears left...) and a pig (which she was also out of). The pig sounded so cute! I always buy Amelia piggy things when I see them!

Amelia also got a Christmas present. I am leaving this one at my mom's house so Jason and I don't decide to open it up early like we have all the other things we've bought as "Christmas presents". It is a pink hippo Zoobie:


It can be the animal, a pillow or a blanket. There were a bunch that we liked of these too. The runners up were a black bear and a blue elephant. We let Amelia choose. Each time we held up a pair of animals she chose the pink hippo, so that is the one that she got.

After the craft fair we picked up my dad and went to Rosedale Mall. We walked around, Amelia got a few new outfits (she is so spoiled) and then we went across the street to Kohl's. It was the biggest Kohl's my mom and I had ever been in and we got lost, seriously. We had no idea where we were and could not find my dad and sister. It was funny.

We ate dinner at Boca Chica (yum) and Amelia fed herself while we ate:


By the time we got home Amelia was so tired! She had her bottle and was out like a light. She woke up a bit later and freaked out. I let her cry for 15 minutes and then went and got her. As soon as I picked her up she stopped crying and was asleep again. She has been in this phase of needing me all the time. Somedays I can't even leave a room without her melting down. It is sweet but really annoying at the same time.

Shadow is going to be really sad when Amelia's chair leaves his house for her house in Milwaukee:



Remember how much Amelia loves cords? She gets so mad when you don't let her have one that she wants:

New Earrings

Amelia's Grandpa Joe has seen babies with hoop earrings and he has wanted Amelia to have some. So, he got Amelia a pair of hoops. We tried yesterday to put them in but she wouldn't even let us get her studs out. This morning I tried again and succeeded!

New Chairs and More!

We had another busy day up here. This morning we got up and I brought Jason into town to meet up with his hunting group. They departed a little after 9 for the cabin. Hopefully Jason feels better by tomorrow. He has been fighting off a sickness and sitting in the woods all weekend probably won't help him feel better...unless he gets a deer. Then he'd probably feel better!

Today my dad and I went to lunch in St. Paul at Cossetta's. I had a salad AND the mostaccioli this time since I never get there anymore and there is nothing in Milwaukee that can compare :) We also brought my sister some pizza while she was at work so she had a good lunch today too! After that we headed to Kowalski's to pick up some more baby food since I underestimated how much store bought food I'd need for this trip! While we were there Amelia got pulled around by her Grandpa:


She sat there swiping a pen back and forth on the cart and listening to the noises it made.

On our way home we stopped in Hudson and EP Rock elementary and introduced Amelia to Marie's mom. They hadn't met yet! While we were there Amelia took her first steps (holding on to someone's hands that is) for the first time! Marie's mom said, "See, she already learned something at school!". I also learned something at school today. There were big blue balls on all the desks, like exercise balls, with 4 prongs on them that looked like udders kind of. I asked why they were there and Marie's mom told me that they were the students' chairs. I guess it is supposed to better for their backs/posture? I thought it was cool. There were different sizes, green were the smallest, then blue and then yellow. Why didn't we have those for chairs when I was in elementary school!?!

Later this evening Amelia and I had plans to hang out with Marie and Lisa since tonight was the only time Lisa was available since she will be hunting all weekend! While we waited for Marie to get ready, Amelia tried out her new chair that her grandparents got her:


She looked so cute in it!

Once we got the go-ahead from Marie, we headed to pick her up and go to Lisa's. We ordered a pizza and hung out. Amelia got to eat her dinner in a booster seat that Lisa's sister has passed along to her for when she has kids:



After we all had dinner we decided that we wanted dessert. Well, we didn't exactly have anything laying around...so we made something! We made pumpkin rolls and they were so good!

We made two rolls so there would be leftovers for us... The girls getting things ready:


(I helped too, I got the frosting ingredients ready. I never cook or bake so I just want to make sure you all know I tried! As I always said to Lisa over the years, "I don't help cook/bake, I supervise")

The final product:


(I linked to the recipe above, in case anyone is wanting to make these!)

Amelia and Lisa's kitten, Callie, got along incredibly well. They played together the entire time we were there, seriously. Callie was so great with Amelia. I told Lisa that she should consider getting Callie a baby...he he. Here are some pictures of them playing together:




Callie really loved Amelia's toys:


I kept having to take Amelia's toys away from her! Lisa commented that Callie loses all her toys and I said she should get her baby toys since she seems to like them so much because they are bigger and harder to lose! We found a few of her toys though, under the stove. That is where all our cat's toys end up so I told Lisa to check there and sure enough, she found some!

Amelia did incredible well, despite being up way, way past her bedtime. She was even feeling good enough to get some pictures with her "aunties" before we left. Amelia and Marie (Auntie "M"):


Amelia and Auntie Lisa:


Before we left Amelia made sure to read up on this year's hunting regulations:


Now she can quiz her Daddy when he gets back and make sure he followed all the rules! (I am sure he did though)

Tomorrow we are planning on spending some time with my family. We always stay with them but never see them because we are always trying to fit everyone else in. Others don't seem to get that just because you are staying with someone doesn't mean you see them all the time! I mean, when you are out and don't get home until 10, when are you gonna see them? I am making up for it this trip. At least that is the plan!