The Child Speaks!

Amelia has been "talking" for some time now. She "says" things like "mama" and "dada" but never connects either to Jason or I. She "says" stuff all day long but mostly it is just jibberish. Now she says car and knows what a car is. Today all she has done is point to cars and say car. When we drive all I hear is car and I see a little finger pointing out the window.

Car is officially Amelia's first, true word.

Catching Up

We have been so busy this week! So many things are getting crossed off the ever-growing to-do list!

Tuesday was our final class for Financial Peace University and we took Amelia with us... That was interesting, to say the least. By the time we got home she was ready for bed so we let her sleep in her t-shirt:


Wednesday we were running all over town getting things done. We were able to pick up Jason's car, finally! It even cost $200 less than we were quoted at, which was a great feeling!

We had lunch at Beans and Barley since Jason had never eaten there and we are moving soon! Amelia was so loud while we were there. She loved listening to her voice echo in their tall, windowed dining room! She also kept turning around to "talk" (ie-yell) at the ladies behind us. They were good sports and talked back to her. Finally, right before we left she dumped an entire glass of water onto herself and the floor. I bet they were glad to be rid of us! Here is an interesting picture of her we took in the parking lot:


(that is a straw half in her mouth)

Jason had an appointment after that. While he was at his appointment, Amelia and I walked to look at the lake.


It was so beautiful! It made me a little sad to be moving next month :( I tried to take some pictures of Amelia but it didn't really work out too well:



I think the grass, the other people in the park and the shining sun were just too much for her to be able to look at me and smile!

After Jason's appointment we went to the UWM bookstore to find a diploma frame for me. We have talked about doing this for some time now and figured we better do it before we move! We settled on this one:


It was one of the less expensive ones but we thought it looked the best. It is also made out of 100% recycled wood! We put it right back in the box for safe keeping until we have a new place and can hang it up.

Yesterday afternoon we spent way too much time watching the squirrels on our neighbors roof. We have discovered that they are living in his roof which can't be good. Jason tempted them out with some snacks so we could watch them. That, and Jason really loves squirrels it seems. I do not want to bore you with all our squirrel pictures but here are a few good ones:



Today we had an errand to run and after that brought Poopy outside with us while we switched Amelia's car seats.


We finally decided to forward-face Amelia in the car. We kept putting it off but she has passed the age and weight recommendations they say are "ok" to forward-face, so we did it. We put her in my car to see if it would be any easier to get her in and out and boy, it was so much easier! Here she is checking out the new views:


And this is my new view of her:


I think this change will be good for us all!

I think that about gets everyone caught up with our busy, but not very interesting week! I do plan to share the details of our move soon. I just have some other things that I need to get done right now!

Baby Steps

Amelia is getting so close to walking!



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

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!

The time has come...

...for Amelia to get some teeth! She is 13 and a half months old and just now we are experiencing the joys of teething. Sense the sarcasm? Sunday and Monday days were so terrible. By Monday afternoon when Jason came home from work I could barely think straight. I was just so wiped out, frustrated and upset. She has one part way out, bottom center, and I think the other bottom center tooth is on its way. I can't be sure on that though. This is the best picture I could get of her pearly white:


It looks like a shiny reflection but I can assure you, it is a tooth! Click on it to enlarge, for a better look.

This is the Amelia that we see most of the time lately:


There isn't much I can do for her. Her baby Orajel has gone missing, which is probably ok. I can't ever seem to actually get that stuff on her gums, just her tongue! Instead, she has discovered the artificial grape flavor of baby tylenol:


I think it is hilarious because after I give her some, she makes this noise that sound like "yum" or "mmmm". Either way, I know she likes it!

Today we had a better day. She was able to make it through most of the day with minimal tears or meltdowns. She even did a little dancing when we were eating some dinner between errands:



While we were there she also decided she should relax and put her feet up:


She is such a character!

Notice her socks? In honor of her grouchy mood the past week or so, I put her Oscar the Grouch socks on today:


In other news, Amelia's favorite toy is still a cat toy. She drags it around with her everywhere.



I love it when she gets to a piece of furniture because watching her hoist that toy up can be quite funny!

Pulling Up

I don't have a lot of time before work but I wanted to share with everyone that Amelia can officially pull herself up on her OWN! I no longer have to help her. What a big girl! It started last night when she woke up in the middle of the night, wide awake and Jason and I were watching The Right Stuff. We decided to just let her play on the floor awhile so we could watch the movie. We looked over and she pulled up to her knees and that was it. Today she went all the way!

It started while I was online this morning, looking for thesis sources. I felt a tug on my pants and there she was:


Halfway there:


All the way up on her own:


Things are going to get even more interesting around here now!

Catching Up

This month is FLYING by. I can't believe that it is almost October! I have been very busy this month, so far, and I anticipate I will be very busy for the next twelve weeks (ie- until graduation). I miss (sometimes deliberately) phone calls a lot lately. Usually it is because I am in the middle of something, or I just finished something and just want to sit down or I just plain can't talk (for a variety of reasons). So, I am going to take some time tonight and catch everyone (well, everyone who reads this) up on what's going on around here since I just cannot spend the time calling people. In all honesty, aside from quick calls to my mom I will probably not be able to return phone calls until Wednesday, at the earliest.

Let's see, my last post was Thursday. Friday I worked,as usual, and my parents arrived in Milwaukee not too long after I got off work. There is not a lot to tell about Friday night aside from we welcomed visitors. Amelia was ready for a nap after being up for only a few hours on Saturday morning. I had to get ready to leave, so I crossed my fingers and laid her on a blanket and I got lucky, she stayed asleep! Lucky even joined her on the blanket:


(her eyes are slits, like in this picture, when she sleeps. It is strange and sometimes freaks me out)

Saturday morning Amelia impressed my parents and I by sitting on her own extremely well! She can usually do it, leaning forward, but it never lasts too long. Saturday morning it lasted long enough to get the camera and snap a picture with her still very upright:


Saturday morning my parents and I went to Bayshore Town Center (basically, an outdoor mall). I had to get my sunglasses and eyeglasses adjusted (both sat on my face just terribly). While we were there we were discussing eye exams and how I had not had one in four years, so the girl told us that she could get us in that afternoon. We walked around for a bit and then I went in for my appointment. My eyesight has not changed much in four years, which is great! I did get new glasses though. I was kinda let down when they said they'd be ready in 7-10 days (vs the one hour I have waited for most other pairs). Oh well, I am getting better lenses than I usually get, so it should be worth the wait :)

Once we got home from Bayshore we did a little more sitting:


Here she is mid-fall-over, sporting her "camera smile" (the smile she makes when she sees the orange light on the camera shining):


I headed into work Saturday evening and my parents walked down to the Bay View Bash after Amelia was in bed. They didn't stay long, they just sort of passed through it on their evening walk.

This morning (Sunday) Amelia was very interested in Grandpa's coffee...she almost looked like she was asking permission to have some:


She sucked on the edge of the cup for awhile (and I think some actual coffee may have splashed her little lips...):


She kept pulling away from it and then immediately wanted to suck on it again. Maybe the smell of fresh coffee was just too much for her? She still wanted it though, badly! Perhaps we should have named her Lorelai after all? (some of you will get that and laugh)

Once we were all ready we went to the Pancake House for breakfast. I was a little sad, they aren't offering their pumpkin pancakes yet...I guess I will just have to go back :) Here is Amelia and her grandparents at breakfast this morning:


After we ate we stopped at the Public Market on our way home. None of us had ever been there and we wanted to just check it out. There was a lot of neat stuff in there! My mom and I tried root beer custard and it was good! My dad had key lime, which my mom said tasted better. We saw watermelon after we had paid and everything, I am getting that next time (if they have it)!

My parents left this afternoon. After they left Amelia and I ran to Target to get her some more prunes. She ate all of the ones we had, mixed in with her cereal, so it was time to get more. Prunes must be popular, there were only 3 packages left out of all the brands! We will continue to buy prunes because we just aren't sure how to make our own own baby prunes. Amelia has grown to love prunes! When we got home I fed her some, without cereal this time, and she ate the entire "tub"! (to me a tub=one of the containers from a double pack of Gerber foods).

While I was at Target I also picked up Huggies "Pure & Natural" diapers. Her butt is SO much better then it was a couple of weeks ago. I am hoping that these diapers will help keep it that way! We have not had the best luck with Huggies (they never fit her little body well) so I got a size larger than she would wear this time. I think that might do it. They just seem too small on her when they are the "right" size.

This weekend Amelia showed an extreme interest in computers. She was relentless at getting at my mom's while she was on it! While I was making my usual rounds through Target I saw a "Baby Learning Laptop". It was on sale which I took to mean, Amelia needs it! It is a little obnoxious but she seemed to enjoy it! Here are some pictures of her with her new toy:


This evening, Amelia was playing on the floor by herself and I looked over and she was up on all fours for the first time! I grabbed the camera, turned it on, pushed the button and it didn't take a picture :( Instead it took a video :) Here it is, so you can all see this milestone Amelia has now reached:



I have one more video that I wanted to post of Amelia at breakfast, but it takes so long to upload them and then it squishes everything together and I have to go back through and space stuff out so it posts right and I just don't have the time to do that right now. Keep an eye out for it though, if I need a quick post one day I can start that upload, walk away, and come back and hit "publish"!

I REALLY need to get to some other things now. I have homework and would like to pick up around here a bit. I also have a Redbox movie, Sunshine Cleaning, that I still have not watched. I want to watch it before Tuesday (which would mark one week of having it in the DVD player). Hopefully everyone had a good weekend too!


ps- thanks for all the comments lately everyone! It is encouraging to get feedback on this. It reminds me that there are people out there checking in on us :)

Rolling Over!

This is going to be a short post, I have to leave for work in about twenty minutes and I am still not dressed!

This afternoon we set up Amelia's play thing/activity mat for her to try out. She was having a good time on her back, cooing a ton and smiling.


I decided to try her tummytime on it, just to see what she'd do. She really seemed to like all the colors she got to look at!


And then it happened...she rolled from her tummy to her back! I was taking pictures of her because she was tipping over (she has been doing this awhile) like she wanted to roll over. And then as soon as I put the camera down to interact with her she went over! YAY! Here is a picture of her right before she rolled:


And now, just for fun, here are some pictures of "flying Amelia" this morning: