Up-sizing

Today, I got this urge to switch out Amelia's 12-month clothing for her 18-month clothing. Her 18-month stuff includes summer clothes and I think I am anxious for her to be able to wear cute little sundresses and stuff! I made quite a mess in her room:


Someone sure seemed happy to be getting a wardrobe face-lift!


I did leave out some of her 12-month stuff to wear while the weather is still chilly, though:


I am thinking that some of it will actually fit all summer which will be nice. She will have some warmer clothes for evening activities!

I let her wear a pair of 18-months jammies to bed, just to see how they fit her:


Not too bad! They are a little big but they work!

Hopefully everyone has some nice, fun weekend plans to enjoy! Me? I am working, as usual. However, we will have a somewhat unusual weekend at the Oriental. We are screening Ed Gein: The Musical at midnight Friday and Saturday. Yeah. You read that right. Watch the trailer HERE.

Baby Steps

Amelia is getting so close to walking!



You can see, from her smiles, that she thought it was picture time!

Play Days

Yesterday, Amelia and I had a pretty serious play day. It all started while I was writing yesterday's post and I let her play freely. I knew she had ventured to her room and after about 10 quiet minutes I figured I had better go see what she had gotten into...


...which was everything!


She just seemed so proud of herself.

Next we played with blocks. There were so many great photos that I decided to make this collage instead of waiting for them all to upload individually :)


(click image to enlarge)

As you can see, Amelia was not a fan of the towers her dad built her once he got home from work (upper left corner of collage)! We had a lot of fun playing yesterday!

Today was a bit quieter around here. Amelia got a lesson in static electricity this afteroon:


The only other excitement we had today was a bath. I got some pretty cute pictures of her in there:




Jason is at our Financial Peace class tonight. Once he gets home we are going to watch disc 2 of Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring the extended version. We started the trilogy last night and I think it will take us a week or two to watch the extended versions since they are all 2 discs and we are not home together more than a night or two a week!

Auntie Liz Visits

Last Thursday, Jason's sister, Liz, came to visit us for a few days. She arrived Thursday afternoon and she and I ran an errand or two. She babysat for us that evening while I worked and Jason attended the Crispin Glover event at my work. It sounds like they had a good time playing. Liz said they even made a fort!

Friday morning we went to lunch at El Fuego before I had to be at work.



Once again, it was yummy! I made it to work just in time, too!

It sounds like their Friday was uneventful. I don't have any pictures...apparently Jason doesn't remember that we have a blog to publish! Liz took Amelia to the park and they played on the slides for a bit. Jason picked me up from work and we all enjoyed a nice homecooked supper of pork, cheesy mashed potatoes and green beans.

Friday night, Liz and I tried out the neigborhood bars (there are 5 within a block of my house) and it was a late night. Saturday morning we hung around the house before Liz left to head home.


Thanks for the visit, Liz!

Crispin Glover

What a late night for us! Tonight at the Oriental I worked an event and Jason's sister was in town to babysit so Jason got to come! He was pretty excited to be out doing something!

Tonight, Crispin Glover was at the Oriental with his latest work - It is Fine! Everything is Fine! He first did a slideshow where he narrated some of his books and then the film was shown. After that he did a talkback with the audience for about an hour and after that there was a very extended meet and greet. What do I am mean by extended? Well, Jason was in line for about an hour and he was within the first 12-ish feet of the start of line! I finished work in time to join him in line.


Crispin really took the time to actually meet with everyone. We left the East Side close to 1 a.m. and he was still there, meeting people! Since I was working, he even gave us one of his books for free as a thank you for helping out!

If you are interested in the film, you can go here to his website.

Also, I am sure some people are wondering who Crispin Glover is... Well, here some of his more well-known roles...


See? You knew who he was after all!

Friday Fails - Bath Fail

What is going on, mom?


After doing laundry on Monday night we gave Amelia a bath in her rubbermaid, in our tub. We didn't dump out her bath water...


...for several days. Every single time I went in there I just looked at it and thought about how I should dump it, but I never did - FAIL! Jason finally did it very late on Wednesday night.

This was just one of the many fails that I accomplished this week! For more fails, go to myblessedlife.net!

Our Day!

We started out the day with a trip to the bank to try and further sort out some stuff. After that, lunch out was in order (perhaps not our best idea, given that we are trying not to eat out!). Oh well. We had some Buffalo Wild Wings and ordered Amelia her very own meal for the first time. She got naked (grilled) tenders and was loving them!


We were impressed by how well she ate!

Once we got home we went on another walk. We intended to walk by the lake but it was so windy out that it was a little too cold for that so this is the closest that we got the water:


That is ok though. There will be other days to walk by the lake, right? We also stopped to get some air pumped into the stroller tires and by that point Amelia had fallen asleep:


I was about to snap another picture when Jason turned the air machine on and I caught this face:


"Huh? I was napping guys". After that her eyes went wide and then she just sort of stared, confused:


After we got home she became a little playing machine. She played with her blocks mostly:


(the ribbon on her wrist is from her balloon from BWW)

Eventually she just got right into the block wagon...


I kept telling Jason to put his hands behind her for when she fell out but she never did! When she was done being in the wagon she just stepped right back out. Again, I was impressed with the girl!

Laundry = Bath Time + a Walk

Monday night it was laundry day, again. We have decided to try and go once a week instead of every 2-3 weeks so we aren't there quite as long. We are there long enough for Amelia to make a mess of herself though!


Gross! We let her crawl around because there isn't much else she can do. She will only sit in her stroller for so long before she freaks so we reserve stroller time for when we are folding everything! Laundry day is always bath day for Amelia. She has so much fun in the tub!



Last night, after dinner, Jason and I went on a walk around Bay View since it was a nice night and ended up at Babe's Ice Cream 5 minutes before they closed! We got a treat and walked home. Amelia had a great time:


See the chocolate on her lips? We let her try a bit of our ice cream :)

That has basically been our week so far. Pretty boring!

Why I Love Teething

Amelia has never been much of a cuddler or snuggler. She is very independent and likes her space. However, a teething Amelia snuggles up to her mommy all the time.


While we are on the floor playing she crawls into my lap and snuggles up. While we are standing in the kitchen making a bottle. Whenever I hold her she gets real close and lays her head on my chest or shoulder.


It seems, for once, she can't get enough mommy and that is why I love teething.

A Girl and Her Cat

Amelia "played" with Lucky for about 20 minutes after her nap. She was so happy!






*I did these in black and white to save the pictures. When I have black and white pictures it is usually because they are so washed out by sunlight that they look awful. Switching them to black and white makes a big difference though!

Scared Standing

As you know, Amelia is now able to stand on her own! Today was a different experience though...


She was so freaked out for some reason. She stood there, crying, for over 2 minutes.

I took a video, much my mother's dismay (I was on the phone with her when this happened). Have a look...if you can handle a cryinging baby...



*Please excuse the mess that is our apartment...

Contortionist

Last night, when Jason got home from work, this is what we found:


How can that be comfortable?!

Heat Wave

It has been a warm day. Way too warm for my tastes, in fact. Our apartment has gotten up to 79 degrees and the current temperature is 81 degrees (it is 7 p.m.). This is not normal spring weather! In fact, 3 years ago at this time we had a blizzard! I am not sure which would be worse, a blizzard or this heat...

Amelia and I needed to get out of the house so we went on a walk by the lake.


We were hoping for a nice cool breeze down by the water but we weren't so lucky today. Amelia, as usual, knew just what to do to relax on the walk:



I can assure you this is a happy face:


Amelia got her first bath in our tub tonight!


I brought a cup in with me to use to rinse her and stuff and she was so fascinated with it!


She's all ready for bed now and I am just waiting for the signs that she is ready for sleep!

El Fuego

Today we took advantage of the warmer spring weather and when we went out for lunch, we asked to eat on the patio! It was so wonderful. We tried a new mexican place, El Fuego, that we had never been and were very pleased and impressed with it. I mean, come on, what's not to like about a patio like this:


Yeah, thought so.

Jason calls this next picture "Amelia in Mexico"


Our server suprised us and brought Amelia a popsicle once we were finished eating. She LOVED it. Here are some pictures of her very first popsicle!



She crashed hard on the way home:


And finally, here is the proof I have been waiting to catch a photo of...


She is standing! Today she even took one teeny, tiny step when I pulled her shopping cart away from her. Then she lunged for it so I am not sure I really consider it a true step but we are making progress!

Financial Peace Uiversity - Week 8

Last week Jason attended and learned all about different types of insurance. I have to listen to that lesson still but he said he learned a lot! Learning about, and understanding, insurance is something that I really need to work on...

This week we talked about bargains and deals, right up my alley! I love looking for bargains and I love getting a deal. We went over "rules" for bargaining which include everything from staying silent to saying "that's not good enough".

The power of cash was also something we spent a lot of time on. Dave is all about cash because you avoid interest payments and you can get what you want for what you want, usually. If you tell a salesperson, and show them, that you have $800 dollars - cash - that you want to spend on their $900 dollar item, you will probably get it for your $800 dollars - cash. You just have to have the confidence to ask. Not enough people want to ask for deals because they want to avoid the possible "conflict".

We also learned about places to find deals. Everywhere from estate sales to pawn shops. Individual owners are also a great place to look because if they are trying to get rid of something it is probably because they don't need it and it is taking up space so they will probably take what you offer to get it out of their hair! Again, just ask/make an offer!

It was a great lesson and I learned a lot. I was glad to hear him supporting pawn shops because I think a lot of people have a negative misconception about them being full of stolen goods and that just isn't true! My sister works for a pawn chain and they check everything with police reports and turn over what is stolen. She gets some great deals from her work, which I occasionally benefit from!

Almost There

Amelia is getting closer...


...and closer...


...to standing on her own! In fact, I just looked over, as I was uploading photos, and she was standing next to the coffee table, with a block in each hand, on her own. Then she sat down and hasn't done it since so I don't have proof...yet!

For now, she is content just sitting around...


...with her ball.

She has been a pretty happy girl the past few days :)


Her little tooth (do you see it?) has broken through and I think that is the reason she is happy again.