Videos

I know it's been a while (a month, to be exact). I kept trying to upload videos to the blog, would get frustrated and quit before I had written anything. I finally uploaded them to YouTube, so I'm hoping I can figure out how to embed them to the blog. Here goes nothing!

The first video is one of our favorite faces she made when she first started eating solids. This was taken 4/25/11 (8 months):






This is Part II of her crawling videos (taken 5/15/11 at 9 months). She is now a pro at crawling (and now can pull herself up!):





And last, this one was taken tonight (6/12/11 at 10 months). Amelia just finished eating, and Jon was leaning in to kiss her. She "pushed" him away, laughed hysterically, and they kept this up for a good 10 minutes. I love this sound!!

Back online!

Several weeks ago, we decided to give up our cable. Well, not really. We were paying for a home phone line in our package that we weren't using, so we had to cancel all of our services while we had a break in our contract. So that meant our cable and Internet went along with the phone service.

We are now back online and I can't begin to tell you how happy I am to be able to do email, pay bills, and, yes, even check Facebook, from my computer (web surfing just isn't the same on a phone).

But, surprisingly, we haven't missed the cable. Sure, there are some programs I want to catch up on (Glee, the Office, Modern Family!), but Jon and I both realize how much more productive we are without it. And we sit down and eat dinner together (most nights)...and have actual conversations :) We still look forward to our Netflix movies, but we are no longer tied to our TV, and can get out and enjoy this great spring weather!

I have A LOT of blogging to catch up on, including several videos that I can't seem to upload right now, so I'll do my best over the next couple of days to catch up on all of our Amelia developments.

So close!

She's working so hard and is getting so close to crawling. Guess we need to start baby proofing!

Six Month Photos

Here are some of my favorites:

March Update

I guess I'm not very good at this whole blogging thing. I'm trying, I promise. But by the time we get home from work, do dinner, a short walk (when the weather cooperates), bath time, reading and bedtime, I'm ready for bed myself! And I only have ONE child. So I'll do my best to provide a quick update on some of Amelia's newest accomplishments, and promise (once again!) to do better about posting more often. It's been a busy couple of weeks. Amelia is now:

• Eating! I've been making a lot of her food (pureeing fruits and veggies), but she is even more interested in what we are eating. We have started giving her small bites from our dinner...and tonight she actually picked up pieces of chicken and fed herself!


• Crawling (backwards :) She can push up on all fours and rocks back and forth, but the only movement is in the wrong direction. She's making progress, and I know any day now she will take off.


• Babbling...we gets lots of mamamama and dadadadada and bababababa. She's most talkative in the mornings and coming home from daycare...like she can't wait to share her day with us. I love it!


• Sleeping!! She goes to bed at 7:30 (without a fight!), sleeps until 5:00 or 6:00. On the weekends I wake up and feed her, and put her back in bed so we all get a little more sleep. Last Sunday, Jon and I were up at 8:30 and Amelia slept until 9:00. I don't remember the last time she wasn't the one to wake us up.

Everyone was right...it does get easier, and it seems that 6 months was the magic number. Every day brings new discoveries, new challenges, and new excitement!

Yummy!

Amelia had her first taste of "food" on Thursday night. She has been fascinated by everything we eat, and since we hit the 6 month mark, we thought it was time. We started with rice cereal, which she seemed to like. Here is her first taste of green beans from Sunday. Verdict is still out on this one :)

Poor baby

We had Amelia's 6-month check up this week. We thought it would be pretty basic...take some measurements, get the immunizations, talk about starting solids (!!). Everything looked pretty good (she is still tiny...13 lbs/6 oz, 24.5"...still in the 10%), and then the doctor discovered the ear infection. We were all surprised! She hadn't given any indication she was in pain. She had been fussy, but she was getting over a(nother) cold, and we thought it was due to that. I guess she's one tough little chica! Over the last week, we've been home with her quite a bit (snow days, sick days) and we were at home once again on Tuesday. I hope one of these days we'll conquer these daycare germs, but for now we are putting up quite the fight! Our remedy? Tylenol and antibiotics...and lots of love and hugs and cuddling!

Happy Valentine's Day!

These were technically taken on Sunday (before Valentine's Day), but she certainly looks like the perfect little Valentine to me!

First time in a high chair!

Slow down!

My little girl turned 6 months yesterday! I can't believe how quickly it's going. I feel like I haven't savored every moment. Those moments I thought (for sure) that I would always remember are already fading away, so I only imagine what my memory will be like years from now. It makes me happy I've tracked what I have through this blog, but that I need to do a much better job of capturing every second. I wish I could speed up work time and slow down for family-time...if only it were that easy!

Sitting up!

New discovery!

Oh, that hair!!

Amelia was born with hair. A lot of it. And other than a nice little bald line across the back, she has kept it all. And it keeps growing. Not surprisingly, we get lots of comments on it when we are out. So I'm not surprised that the teachers at daycare would want to play with it (or try to tame it :) I couldn't help but laugh when Jon brought her home like this...

Bows don't last in daycare, so this may be are go-to hair style for a while :)

Bathtime!

Amelia LOVES the bath! Here she is demonstrating her favorite way of "communicating"...blowing raspberries!

Breakfast with Santa

Here is a much overdue picture of Amelia's first meeting with Santa!

Happy New Year!

Well, 2011 is well under way and, as you can see, my blogging habits haven't improved much. I would say that one of my New Years resolutions is to blog more...but I would have already failed and I don't want to set my up for failure!

2010 was absolutely amazing. Amelia has brought such joy into our lives and I fall more in love with her every day. Some of her recent discoveries:

- Her feet

- Laughing

- Capone (she smiles and laughs with all of the kisses!)

- Waving (Erin taught her this over Christmas...it's still a work in progress, but she does lift her arm and try to imitate us waving)

- Sitting up (she gets better every day. She went for a buggy ride at daycare and was able to be strapped in like a big girl sitting up instead of laying in the stroller! She was supported by towels :)

- Rolling over (she hadn't done this at all since her first time back at 8 weeks, but now does it much more often from her tummy to back)

And she loves her new jumperoo!

It seems like a we see a new discovery every day and I am constantly amazed by how quickly she is learning!

3 month photos

Time flies

We're still here and kicking! November flew by...obviously so quickly I didn't remember to tell you about it. We have had a great 5 weeks. Here are some of the highlights:

• Amelia laughs! Well, I've only heard it once, but her teachers at daycare say she has been laughing at and interacting with the other children. Jon and I spend lots of time trying to coax one out at home, but I guess we aren't as funny as a 9 month old!
• More sleep...then less sleep... Amelia had started sleeping really well - sometimes 5 or 6 hours straight. Right before Thanksgiving, she started waking up again throughout the night. I hear this isn't uncommon, but it has certainly made getting up for work more challenging. I hope we're reversing the pattern - last night she slept from 10:00 to 5:00!
• 3 month photos...coming soon!
• Thanksgiving: What a great first holiday for Amelia! We had A LOT of family time...I don't think you can have too much family time, although Amelia may disagree :) Her recovery time on Sunday was pretty rough. I think it was all a little overwhelming for her...so much to do, so many hugs to give, so many people to see...and so little time. It's a learning process for all of us and we'll just have to adjust as we go along.
• Pictures with Santa! We were in Springfield last weekend and Amelia met Santa for the first time at Drury's Breakfast with Santa. She did great all morning and was very patient, considering we were in the last group to get pictures done. Never fails...we are the next people in line and she starts to get fussy. But I'm impressed she lasted as long as she did! I'm still waiting for the pictures to come back, but will post soon.

We're looking forward to a great December, packed full of events, friends and family and holiday celebrations!

Milestone...rolling over

I couldn't have asked for a better way to end my 1/2 days with Amelia. My last afternoon at home with her (Oct. 22) she gave me the greatest gift...I was there to see her roll over for the first time! She had done it a couple of times on the bed, but this was her first "real" rolling over...at least in my book. She did it three times that weekend, and I was lucky enough to catch the third time on video. Unfortunately, she hasn't rolled over since...she must have known I needed that moment to help me through the next week.

Sorry for the poor video quality - I'm still working on my camera skills.

Newborn pics

I finally got Amelia's newborn pics back from the photographer. Here are a few of my favorites!

Has it really been so long?

I can't believe it's been so long since I last posted; I don't even know where to start. So rather than try to recapture the last month, I'm just going to start from where we are now and try to do better in the future!

Amelia had her 2 month check up on Friday. She weighed in at a healthy 9 pounds 6 oz. and is 20 3/4 inches long. She is in the 25th percentile for weight and the 10th percentile for length, which is consistent for where she was at her first appointment. She also had her first round of shots and I'm happy to report that we all survived! Jon was there...probably less for Amelia and more for me :) Amelia certainly didn't enjoy the shots, but was her normal self once we got home that afternoon.

In other big firsts, last night was Amelia's first night in her crib and it went amazingly well. We were up from 3-5 am, but that isn't unusual on occasion. And tomorrow is her first day in daycare. She will be going for 1/2 days for two weeks to help us (me, mainly) ease into it.

With so many firsts this week, I'm not sure how I did (or will) survive, but Amelia seems to be such an easy-going baby, that I don't worry about how she will do, and that is a wonderful feeling.

New pics...

Breastfeeding

I knew before I had Amelia how important breastfeeding was to me, and, in talking with friends who recently had babies, I knew it could be challenging. I was committed to making it work for us. I was so lucky that Amelia knew what to do (more than me!) right away...she latched with little help as soon as she was placed on my chest after she was born. We had some guidance in the hospital, but overall the initial learning phase was pretty easy. Our patience with each other through that learning process certainly helped us through it.

Fast forward to our first week home...breastfeeding IS hard work! It is painful and time consuming, and makes sleeping for more than 2 hours at a time very difficult. It amazes me that something so natural would be so difficult (and hurt so much those first couple of weeks!). But knowing that I am able to provide something for my daughter that no one else can is quite an empowering feeling, and I'm so glad I've stuck with it.

I have started pumping so that Jon can help with some of the feedings to give me a little break, and so that we are ready with a supply for when I go back to work in a few weeks. Amelia took to the bottle right away, and we haven't had any problems switching between the bottle and the breast.