Amazing Amelia and Incredible Isaac

Amelia is 3!

2009-11-18T11:04:00.004-06:00

Cutting her new Melissa and Doug food

Amelia and I baked chocolate cupcakes for her to share with her friends at school
Amelia chose pink icing and pink sprinkles
We had so much fun decorating!
And then, Amelia learned to write the letter A for the first time! My girl is so smart! She amazes me. I only had to show her two times, and she's got it! Daddy taught her m. Pretty soon she'll be able to write her name! She's so proud, and of course, so are we!

And, because no post is complete without an appearance from Isaac...here he is! 7.5 months! Like the hair?

Fall Fun

2009-11-02T22:57:00.004-06:00

Happy Halloween!

Pumpkin patch fun!

Amelia's preschool has an annual fall festival. She loved riding the horse and jumping in the jumpy house

Tough As Nails

2009-09-11T14:08:00.003-06:00

Oh, my Amelia. The girl is in constant motion and really it's amazing she made it nearly 3 years without needing stitches! Her big girl bed frame is now waiting patiently in the basement. We're going to settle for a box spring and mattress on the floor for now. She certainly doesn't care, as long as she has her new Dora blanket! Amelia has five stitches and they're supposed to dissolve on their own. That day when she fell off the bed she cried as she normally would if she had hurt herself and then even though it was still dripping blood, she was over it and wanted to play again! I had to turn on the TV just to get her to take it easy enough.

Someone asked me once if we tried to teach Amelia to be tough, to brush things off. I can say that we've always tried not to make a big deal out of it when she gets hurt so that we don't make things worse, we just provide comfort. But, usually the girl doesn't even want comfort and immediately wants to go conquer what just got the best of her. This is not taught, this is something you're born with! It's a fantastic quality to have, I just hope we can teach her to use it wisely and not to hurt herself too often or push it too hard. Certainly her mother and father have never struggled with that....yeah. It's amazing how much our children are JUST like us!

I will say, I handled having my baby in the car more calmly on the inside than I did Amelia's incident. I was shaking a little bit as I cleaned up the blood on her face. This is my precious girl! I was a wreck on the inside, but I don't think I let Amelia see it because she took the whole thing, even being at the hospital, totally in stride. She was just thrilled we let her eat Doritos and Chocolate milk in the waiting room. Her favorite foods!

The shots to numb the area were bad, bad, bad, but the actual stitches went well and she calmed down while I told her a story about Diego and Dora, her favorite people in the World. Than afterwards she was like, let's get out of here and eat a popsicle. As soon as we got to my parent's house to pick up Isaac I had to start telling Amelia not to bounce on the couch! The girl learned nothing. Oh well, that's why I pray, a lot!

Amelia's First Day of Pre School!

2009-09-08T20:29:00.004-06:00

Amelia had her first day of pre school today! Her teachers are wonderful, and her classmates are all 2 1/2 turning three this fall. It's so great for her to be with kids her age. Her teacher told me she was quite chatty and funny! Her favorite things today were play dough, chalk and playing outside. I think her teacher over the 3 times we've seen her so far has said how cute and sweet Amelia is like 10 times. It's okay, I don't get sick of hearing it! I'm so excited for our little girl!

Then, as if the first day of pre school wasn't exciting enough, Amelia somehow fell off of her bed and hit her head and had to get five stitches over her eye tonight. Not fun. She handled it really well. I've never realized how much she is in constant motion until I was trying to keep her still until they could stitch it up. It really didn't faze her at all! The anesthetic before the stitches was pretty rough, but after that she did a really good job. We talked about Diego and Dora during the stitches and it really helped! Jason had had stitches at least twice by this age. Here's hoping this will be our only time with Amelia!

In Isaac news, he's 5 months old! Holy cow, time is flying. He's eating rice cereal every day and can eat mashed bananas and apple sauce. The boy loves to eat! He's still the happiest, easiest baby. If he would sleep through the night he would be the perfect baby. Oh well. It will come!

Cuteness

2009-08-22T18:54:00.002-06:00

The Promised Blackberry Pics

2009-08-19T09:23:00.004-06:00

These blackberries were the biggest and sweetest I have ever had. It was really fun!

More cute pics to come soon! Isaac's 4 month pics and too cute pictures of Amelia holding the now 16lb 8oz Isaac. He is going to pass his sister in weight at this rate!

Peach Picking!

2009-08-12T12:38:00.005-06:00

On Saturday we packed up the kids and drove out to Illinois to pick blackberries and peaches. Now that Jason doesn't have to study anymore (thank God) we can enjoy Saturdays as a family again! Of course it ended up being one of the hottest days of the entire summer, heat advisory and everything. But, we had a great time and have been enjoying the fruit of our labor (pun completely intended there.)

I will put up our blackberry picking pictures next.

Things Amelia is saying

2009-07-23T11:55:00.002-06:00

I wanted to journal a little of Amelia's vocabulary. I'm realizing that if I don't start writing some of this down, I'm going to forget a lot of the little funny things that are right now, a normal part of every day. I watch old videos of her on this blog and can hardly even remember her being so small! So, without further ado, things Amelia is saying:

Over the last year Amelia has gone through many words as her choice for positive affirmation. First it was, "okay". Then it became a very clear and concise, "yes", and now she usually says, "yep."

Amelia commonly refers to Jason and I as "guys" ie, "hey guys, look at what Amelia's doing."

Amelia still refers to herself in the 3rd person a lot. I blame this on stupid Elmo. She is learning the proper use of pronouns though and will use I and you and his and hers.

Amelia is now referring to any time in the past, including 5 minutes ago as "last night."

She uses the phrase "other one" a lot. ie, "Can I have an other one blueberry?"

When Jason and I are having a conversation at the dinner table and Amelia wants to chime in she'll say, "actually Daddy, ba ba wa ma ca sha.....lots of jibberish, but in the cadence of our speech. It's hilarious.

Right now if Amelia is put on the spot or is feeling shy her answer is, "Ba!" or "Da!" usually accentuated with an arm in the air. It's a little embarrassing at times!

Other favorite phrases right now, some good, some not so good!
"Mommy, don't talk"
"Go out of here"
"I want to do it by myself!"
"I will save one for daddy"
"Isaac's crying, I think he needs his pacifier"
"I will feed Isaac"
"I will sit on it with my bottom!"
"Mommy, come here, right now!"
"Amelia can do it!"

Isaac's current phrases, well really, consonants of choice right now are: Boo, Ba and Goo!

Debate

2009-07-22T09:17:00.003-06:00

Jason and I have disagreed for 3 years now on what kind of animal this is. It's a part of a mobile that Amelia loved as a baby, and now Isaac loves too. To be fair, I won't even tell you what animal that I think it is, or what Jason thinks it is. Please help settle this 3 year debate and comment telling me what kind of animal you think this toy is supposed to be.

Summer

2009-07-14T18:38:00.001-06:00

Look out, we have a skinny dipper!

Pics

2009-07-09T10:42:00.003-06:00

Aren't they just the cutest?
Isaac can hold his head up so high now! He's still not a big fan of tummy time but I'm telling him it's the only way he'll learn how to crawl around, which he very much wants to do!
Happy boy on his 3 month birthday. It's going by so fast!
Smiling at daddy
Sitting up with help of Bumbo seat, thank you Jill Peel
How the heck am I doing this by myself?
Apparently Amelia is not too big for the Bumbo seat!
4th of July weekend at Innsbrook! We had such a fun, relaxing time with Noni & Pop, Granny Annie & Uncle Mark, and of course, Lizzie and LaLa!
Amelia loved paddle boating with Daddy. I'll be honest, it was a little hard to let her go, but don't worry, I didn't put up a fuss. That's my baby out there!

Seriously, so cute I had to put it on twice.

Oh My Gosh

2009-07-08T11:05:00.001-06:00

Oh my gosh, Amelia is a crazy woman. I have been talking with other moms of 2 and 3 year olds and it is comforting to know that my daughter is not the only one who has temporarily (please God) lost her mind. However, this does not help me in this moment while she is screaming like a crazy woman in her bed over things she nor I can control. I've never prayed so much as in the last two weeks.

Hooray!

2009-07-07T09:55:00.002-06:00

Isaac finally slept through the night last night! It's been at least two weeks. The key, 4oz of formula with the last feed. Sadly, I'm just not producing enough at night right now. But, getting more sleep because he doesn't need to eat twice a night should help for sure. It's a vicious cycle, he wakes up hungry twice because I didn't make enough in the evening; I didn't make enough in the evening because I'm tired from being up with him twice the night before...you see the cycle here? Thank God for hypoallergenic formula!

In Amelia news, the girl is hitting the terrible two's hard right now. We've had many drestling, yes, drestling matches (that's wrestling with the girl to get her dressed) and she's produced screams and sounds I have never heard before. The good news is that she's doing fabulously with potty training and after only 2 weeks can pretty much be trusted wearing "big kid underpants". They must be called this. Must.

Mommy and Daddy? We're just trying to make it past the BAR, July 28th and 29th. Pray!

Conversation with Isaac

2009-07-01T14:00:00.000-06:00

Introducing Isaac

2009-06-14T20:13:00.006-06:00

Isaac is 10 weeks old now. He is very social and loves to smile and talk. As you can see, he's also a good eater! His favorite pass times are looking at his mobile and kicking his legs and arms vigorously, sucking on his hands, eating, and hanging out in his bouncy seat. Amelia has taken very well to her role of big sister. She has her two and a half year old moments, but overall is very sweet to Isaac. We are incredibly blessed to have two healthy, beautiful children.
It blows me away.

Happy Birthday Amelia!

2008-11-19T13:42:00.004-06:00

Yum

Yay for cupcakes!

Amelia got a new kitty for her birthday! It's a fur real kitty - that's the closest to a real kitty she's going to get for some time after our Pedro experience. This one doesn't attack viciously with no known reason, though it does hiss if you pull it's tail! At the end of the video when Amelia says, "see Amelia!" over and over, it's because she noticed the camera and wants to see herself in it. Watching herself in videos is her favorite pass time!

Boo at the Zoo

2008-11-19T13:25:00.004-06:00

The St. Louis Zoo has an event each year the Saturday before Halloween for kids to come in their costumes and trick or treat at the zoo. We had a blast!

The baby tigers! There are 5 at the zoo right now. I could watch them for hours!

Amelia loves riding on Jason's shoulders

Riding on the train. Don't let her face fool you, Amelia loves the train!

Walking confidently as her dinosaur self

Apple Picking at Eckert's

2008-11-19T13:18:00.002-06:00

Aren't we cute =) Amelia couldn't take the apple away from her mouth for a minute. They're her favorite fruit.

Amelia got to ride a pony for the first time. She wasn't scared at all!

Yee-Ha!

Yum

So much to catch up on!

2008-11-19T12:46:00.003-06:00

Cleaning out our pumpkin for carving. Amelia had to warm up to the idea of having gloppy pumpkin insides in her hands, but I think she liked it the more she did it!

Love those wagon rides

So Big! She can ride on the swing all by herself and is quite proud of it. There were 4 swings in a line and she had to try every single one!

Posing with the giant pumpkins. I think orange is a good color for her!

Going to places like the pumpkin patch, apple picking, and trick or treating are so much fun for us - we get to be kids all over again, and there's nothing better than seeing her experiencing these simple joys for the first time. Love it!

Amelia trick or treats!

2008-11-18T10:19:00.004-06:00

For all who still check this site, I'm sorry it's been so incredibly long since we've updated the blog. Yesterday was Amelia's 2nd birthday! We'll have many more updates coming in the next couple of days, I promise!

A New Video for La La

2008-05-26T16:01:00.000-06:00

New Amelia Videos

2008-05-02T09:30:00.001-06:00

Amelia Dancing

Amelia knows where her nose is

Amelia in the snow

2008-02-22T13:12:00.003-06:00

Hey everyone. The other day it snowed a lot. I played in it.

Here are some other pictures to catch you guys up.

Amelia's Christmas

2007-12-29T14:43:00.001-06:00

Amelia got a little chair that's just her size and it even has her name on it!
She's totally stylin' in her new down vest, courtesy of Uncle Marko and aunt Megan
And here's the big present, the bounce and spin zebra. In a word, awesome. Video to come.

We had so much fun! We'll put up more pictures of her in her pretty red Christmas dress as soon as we get some more room on our hard drive to upload the photos!

Amelia's Birthday

2007-12-17T22:04:00.000-06:00

Everyone came over for dinner...
I opened lots of presents...
It was a great day!

Amelia's birthday cake (she didn't like it very much).

I went to the pumpkin patch today!

2007-10-23T13:48:00.000-06:00

I rode in a wagon, but not for long because I kept falling on my face in it...

I climbed over HUGE pumpkins...

I rode a horse made out of pumpkins...

I even drove the tractor...
Here are some movies. First here am I waving from the top of a big pile of hay bales.

Here is Mom and I going down the slide, watch how the girl behind us is just about to slam into Mom, it was very funny.

Then I had to do the big slide one more time with dad, he wishes he had used the gunny sack.

Thanks for watching!
-Amelia

What I have been up to lately

2007-10-16T20:52:00.001-06:00

Slobbering

Bouncing
LoungingHanging out with friends
And guarding the door with "daga"

I will be back soon with video so long as mom and dad can video me without distracting me.
-Amelia

DJ Amelia

2007-09-13T12:07:00.000-06:00

Amelia is ready for football season!

2007-09-13T11:58:00.000-06:00

Amelia Crawls

2007-08-21T19:58:00.001-06:00

She's mobile!!!

Trip to Texas

2007-08-19T21:03:00.002-06:00

PawPaw and Grandma Lindy
Going down the slide with daddy
Amelia loves blueberries!
Poolside with daddy-O
Spending time with Great Grandpa and Grandma Wilson

Enjoying new rubber duckies from Great Aunt Joy!

We had a great time! Amelia likes Texas =)

Amelia Rocks

2007-07-24T12:31:00.000-06:00

Here is a video of Amelia Rocking out. Sorry about the sidewaysness of it, tilt your head to the left and enjoy!

Picnic

2007-07-24T10:50:00.000-06:00

I went on a picnic!
It was so fun, I decided to strike my best pose yet...
-Amelia

Amelia Loves NY

2007-07-06T08:11:00.000-06:00

My dad just went on a trip. He told me all about it. After hearing his stories I have decided to express myself by t-shirt.Thats right - NY sounds like the greatest city on earth. Thanks Sarah for showing him around and helping him look less like a tourist.
-Amelia

Oh My Goodness

2007-06-29T20:17:00.000-06:00

Amelia pulled up to a stand in her crib today all by herself. Oh my goodness, my baby stood up by herself. Slowly but surely our time with a child who will remain in the place you put her is coming to a close. I let Amelia play in her crib all the time, it's great for me to get things done while she's happily playing in a safe space. Now, until I know she's got this standing thing under control, I really can't just leave her in there. She falls to the side when she's done and if I wasn't there to catch her she would have slammed right into the bars. So begins the rough path of watching her fall down a lot! And learning the balance of when to step in and help, and when to let her struggle so she can learn to do things on her own. My baby's growing up so fast!

Amelia bounces

2007-06-14T11:11:00.001-06:00

Bawawawawawawawawa

2007-06-07T11:57:00.001-06:00

Amelia's Musical Aspirations

2007-06-01T11:44:00.000-06:00

My mother showed me a new instrument today...

Initially I gave her this look to let her know what I thought about the musical stick...

But then I gave her the benefit of the doubt and gave it a try, I have already mastered banging on the black and white keys so I am ready for new musical endeavors...

I managed to get a small noise out of the musical stick, I will do better next time.
-Amelia

Amelia Stands Up

2007-05-30T22:27:00.000-06:00

New Pics

2007-05-27T21:20:00.001-06:00

Amelia loved the baby duckies. She said, ooh, ooh, ooh! And the ducks weren't afraid of her at all! It was very cute
Amelia loves her new toy the exersaucer. Mommy and Daddy love having a new place Amelia can play while they get dinner ready, do the dishes... She's such a happy girl.

Amelia went to the doctor for her 6 month check last week. She is now 26.5 inches long - 75th percentile! and 15lbs 6oz - 25-50th percentile. She is eating rice cereal, oatmeal, pears, apples, sweet potatoes, carrots and avacado now and she loves them all. The girl loves to eat! It's very fun. She's also sitting up pretty well now and very proud of herself. Before we know it she'll be crawling around! I'm really glad she still pretty much stays where I put her, it won't last much longer.

Amelia Drinks (not what you are thinking)

2007-05-16T16:42:00.000-06:00

Easter (Or thereabouts) Pictures

2007-04-29T12:15:00.000-06:00

So Cute

2007-04-13T14:37:00.000-06:00

Amelia's getting closer to sitting up on her own and she likes it a whole lot. She's also started dabbling in eating rice cereal. She opens her mouth for the spoon and even tries to get the spoon in her mouth on her own, but usually hits her forehead. She went through a growth spurt last week and suddenly now she'll take two two hour naps a day now. I used to get lucky if I got one one hour nap in there and the rest were 40 minutes or so. Thank you growth spurt. She's so much happier during the time she's awake now and can stay awake longer between naps. What they say is true, this does get easier as they get older. Phew.

Have I mentioned how cute she is? She just has the most fantastic personality. I love her!

My Very First Post

2007-03-27T14:13:00.000-06:00

Amelia had taken over Beginnings in Endings and I decided she needed her own blog.
So, here it is! From now on if you want to see adorable pictures, and hopefully videos at some point, and if you want to hear how the girl's doing, check here. I dream of someday Amelia telling me in a cute little voice what to type for her, as I'm sure she'll love to blog, she's such a communicator already! Peace out