Updates

Wow it's been a really long time!  I hope your ready for a long post I have a lot of catching up to do.

Amelia has been working on a couple of teeth for the past weeks.  There are two for sure, maybe three.  Nothing has popped through yet but they are very close!  Usually babies get their front teeth first.  Not my baby, she has to do things her way!  She's getting back teeth first. 

Shortly after discovering how to control her hands, Amelia's feet began spending all of their time in the air.  (By the way, I was asked on this day if she was a boy.  Come on lady!  Bow, ruffles, purple,earrings.....)

Pretty soon she started grabbing them all of the time and once her feet ended up in her mouth!

Instead of sitting she now prefers standing.  She loves it when I hold on to her hands and pull her up to standing.  Then I'll drop her back and let her land on the bed.  This is her favorite and usually gets giggles.  Oh yeah, she also laughs and squeals at the top of her lungs all the time. 

Here she is showing you how she likes to stand.  Guess where we are....

She had her very first trip to the Mall of America.  She didn't really care for riding in the stroller.  I think it's because my spoiled baby loves being up higher like when I carry her in the Moby so people can fully drool over her. 

She loved the American Girl Doll store!  She laughed and smiled and talked to the dolls.  So cute!

This week Lucas' family minus Athena and Dominic came to town and we all went out so Amelia had her very first sleep over at Grandma's house.  She did a great job and stuck to her usual sleeping schedule for Grandma. 

One more new thing we have discovered.  She loves to be held up above my head and then brought down.  Only if it is a slower motion.  When I almost through her up she looks scared.  I tell her it's ok but I'm not sure she believes me yet. 

Daddy

My favorite quote that Lucas has said about his girl, "I love that baby to death!" 

It is so much fun to see how much he loves her and her love for him in return. 

Birthmarks

Nope, that's not a rash.  It's a really large birthmark on the back of my girl's head.  I have a feeling this one won't totally go away.  Luckily she's a girl and her hair will cover it. 

She also has a V on her forehead and a mark on her eyelid that have faded quite a lot since she was born.  Unless she's really mad, then they come out again. 

The poor girl looked like she had a black eye in the hospital. 

Finally!

Amelia has been getting up for her early morning bottle earlier and earlier.  Usually I've been staying up after that bottle but jeez, 4:30 is still a little too early for me.  I tried it.  I needed a nap later. 

I'm a night owl at heart and going to bed before 11 just really hasn't been happening even with the early mornings.  I've just gained hours to every day.  So with all of my extra time I've been cleaning (the house has never ever been this clean for this long before.  Definitely enjoying that!) and catching up on some old projects. 

This purse is my new knitting bag and has been on the "to do" for a couple of years now.

Last year before becoming pregnant I decided to redo our bedroom.  I had huge plans to paint, make curtains, and make all new bedding including adding a headboard that hangs on the walls.  Well after awhile I got worn out on the whole thing and never finished.  So last weekend  I made the bed skirt and pillow shams and now I'm finally finished with our rooms. 

I've seen several cute camera straps around the internet and of course I needed one.  Isn't this much better than the plain black one that comes with the camera?  Lucas says, "Yup, that one looks like you."  The best part is these fabrics were in my stash already, the red one came from the thrift store for a quarter, and I reused the hardware form the old strap. 

I made an apron to keep at my mother's house when I go over there to help her with holiday cooking and baking.  So then I was thinking, why don't I have one for at home?  I've been thinking that for the last couple of years every time I get some food on my clothes while cooking.  Finally fixed this and it was another project where everything was already stashed.  Love it!

See the quilt on my design wall.

I finally started putting it all together.  It has been laying in pieces in my room for 4 months.  Hum...notice anything about that time line?  I actually started cutting the pieces the day I went into labor.  It was Friday and we were going to go to my parents on Sunday for supper.  The guys were going to watch Fox News while us girls sewed and I was going to start piecing this.  Ha ha ha.  Plans changed big time. 

Now I'm making Lucas help me recover the chairs for our table.  So far we have half done but I ran out of staples!  Menards here we come!  :-)
 

Hands

Over the weekend Amelia finally discovered the hand always flapping in her face actually belongs to her and she can control it! 

So what does a girl do with this discovery?

She gets to actually play with the toys on her baby gym!  It's a lot more entertaining than just staring at them. 

When Daddy is having you hold his Twizzlers naturally you put them in your mouth.  (She's just dying waiting for us to let her try food.  At suppertime it's like we own a dog!  She watches every bite.)

Don't worry, she didn't actually eat any of it and this ended after the picture. 

She's also trying very hard to put her pacifier back in her mouth.  She'll take it out and try to put it right back.  So far this hasn't been successful but I'm sure it won't be too much longer. 

Jumperoo 3

We really just can't get enough of the Jumperoo around here.  Every morning after getting up and having a bottle Amelia kicks and kicks her legs.  So I put her in the Jumperoo so she can feel like she's going somewhere. 

One day last week while she was jumping I washed dishes.  I was talking to her and we were listening to the music.  Then it would stop and I'd turn to look and see what she was doing and she kept resting her chin on the front.  The poor girl was tired but as soon as I'd look at her she'd smile and jump some more.  So I'd continue to wash dishes and every time I'd turn around she'd be resting her chin again but start to jump because I was looking at her. 

Sleepy Girl

Hanging out with Daddy. 

Less than 20 minutes later. 

Quilting Days

I'm in charge of the quilt show for our local quilt guild this time around.  Mostly that means I'm an overseer making sure that things are getting done so it isn't too bad unless people aren't volunteering.

On Monday I was at Firefly sewing all day on the raffle quilt for the show.  At first I was thinking we wouldn't be able to get much done, but by the end of the day I was really happy with the progress.  I think one more good day of sewing will finish the top.

Amelia spent the day with grandma while I was sewing.  I know they had a lot of fun.  So much in fact that she didn't want to take any naps for grandma and she was ready for bed when I picked her up at 7:30.

Tuesday was another sewing day.  It wasn't quite as long as Monday and had a different purpose.  We hang bed sheets on poles as a backdrop for displaying quilts for the show.  In years past we have safety pinned all of those sheets.  Do you know how long it takes to hang 70+ sheets with safety pins and make sure they are somewhat straight?  Add to the fact that there are a hodge podge of different sheets which are not all the same size.  This year we got rid of the old sheets and got old ones from a hotel in town.  Our next project, Tuesday's sewing purpose, was to sew a sleeve on the top of those sheets so we can just slide them on the poles. I seriously bet we just cut hours from set up day. 

Amelia had to come with this day and of course she did great!  She was passed around and was even able to catch a cat nap.  I guess when your really tired it's easy to sleep with five gabbing women and three humming sewing machines surrounding you.

Fun Days

Last weekend was fun days in Wheeler Park.  Amelia thought it was great to people watch and the loud music at night fortunately didn't keep her up.

Friday night we sat on our boulevard and watched the kiddie parade.  It was a great introduction to parades for her.  She loved watching all of the kids walking by and I would wave her hand so they would wave at her.  She thought that was great to get some attention!

After watching the parade we went to set out our chairs for the big parade and then met Josh & Jennifer at the park so we could see all of their kids.  At this point I think poor Amelia was getting over stimulated with all of the people and rides.  She tried to shut her eyes and sleep on our 1 block walk home but I wouldn't let her.  I didn't want her to think 5 minutes was better than going to bed for the night.  

On Saturday my mom, grandma, Kallie, and Hilary came over to watch the big parade.  She enjoyed this one until it was nap time.  I wore the Moby so she could get some sleep.  Honking trucks kept waking her and she was happy to get home and nap in her crib.  Here she is with her godmother. 

After the parade everyone came over for lunch.  Then Hilary and I went to see a movie while Kallie babysat Amelia.  There wasn't much babysitting to be done though as Amelia ending up sleeping all but about 20 minutes of when we were gone.  I think they both enjoyed those 20 minutes to the fullest.

Choking

In the past week Amelia has really discovered her hand.  She likes to suck on her hand and she really doesn't have any favorite fingers or combinations.  She'll take whatever she can get.  She's been stuffing her fingers in so far that she chokes.  She does this several times a day.  Hopefully she'll figure out how to not do that soon.   

Jumperoo 2

The Jumperoo has officially moved it's status from "I'm not sure I like this" to "This is AWESOME!"

See for yourself.

Sleep Time

Amelia is getting into a schedule that includes an afternoon nap that lasts for about 3 hours.  I manage to get a lot done in that time!  She's also been going to bed at a consistent time.  We've also been working on getting her to fall asleep in her crib on her own.  We're almost there.  Usually she will begin talking and I wait for awhile until she gets tired and go back in to put the pacifier in her mouth.  After that she'll go to sleep.  It's so nice to have her fall asleep in her crib so that we don't have to try and move her to it without having her wake up. 

We had a pretty relaxing 4th of July.  We went to my uncle Joe's for a party and then came home to watch the fireworks from our window.  Amelia slept through them.  Maybe next year she'll be able to stay up and watch. 

Next week we have her 4 month check up.  I can't believe how fast 4 months has gone.  In fact in a couple of weeks it will have been a year since I got pregnant.  So strange!  My girl isn't so little anymore.  She's up to 14 pounds!  I've been having to pull out some of her clothes that are too small now.  :-)

What we've been up to this week

Eating clothes or bibs.  We go through several a day now because Amelia likes to chew and drool on them. 

Playing with the whoozit.  It holds water and has shapes inside that move around.  Whoozit makes tummy time much more interesting and not that bad.  Amelia has also began rolling from her tummy to her back.  At first it was scary but Mommy says "Yay" and claps so it's not that bad anymore. 

We've been playing with the baby in the mirror.  We both agree she's pretty cute and fun to smile at and talk with. 

This is our other new friend for the week.  She plays very cute music and her feet dangle.  They are a lot of fun to watch! 

We've also been reading a lot.  So far Amelia's favorite book at home is "Green Eggs and Ham."  Grandma wins for absolute favorite with a train book that plays different sounds. 

Amelia has also decided that the Jumperoo is in fact an approved toy that she will tolerate being put in.  (She still doesn't think much of the papasan lounger chair.)

On Tuesday Amelia went to hang out with Auntie Rachel while all of the other kids went to go see "How to Train Your Dragon."   On Wednesday she accompanied Grandma and Grandpa to Kole's baseball game while Mommy went to work and ran errands.  She enjoyed it and Grandma says she talked the whole drive there, during the game, and all the way home.

Today we had round two of grandkid pictures.  We took most of them last week but John and Taylor were with their dad that day so we had to finish up this week with their pictures.  I'll post some of those once I get a chance to look at them all.