Talking Amelia

Tonight we were on our way home from being out and it was kind of late. We wanted to try and keep Amelia awake, so she wouldn't get her second wind. So here was the way we (daddy) kept her awake.....

Daddy: Grunt

Amelia: pause....pause...Grunt

Mommy: Grunt

Amelia: Gruuuuunt

Daddy: GRUNT

Mommy: grunt

Amelia: GRUNT....pause....grunt

.....all the way home.......

For the Love of a Box

Who needs to buy toys, when you can use things like a shoe box?! It truly is one of Amelia's favorite things to play with!

Notice the bitter?

Yes Mommy I Hold My Bottle

For quite some time I have felt Amelia should hold her bottle. Of course.....she was havin' none of that! No matter how hard I try - she will no wrap her hands around the bottle and the more I force it the more angry she gets. So pretty much gave up on that whole thing. Lately though, she has decided she wants to hold her bottle - in a rather unconventional way....by holding the end....with only one hand. But alas....Amelia is for the most part holding her bottle!

Smush My Face In You

For quite some time, Amelia would lay her head somewhere on us....arm, leg, lap, chest, hand - really anywhere handy. I originally thought this was because she was tired - which I think may still be true at times; however, it has recently become quite the device. And what device you may ask?! Well, her device to stand! She will smush her face in your and literally walk her legs up until her butt is sticking up in the air - she then works on pushing up the rest of her body until she stands. What creativity!

I Stood Up All By Myself!

Tonight as we played hard, grunted hard, and laughed even harder....Amelia decided it was time to stand up all by herself without mommy or daddy!!! She did use the laundry basket a little bit - but boy was she proud of herself as we cheered her on! Way to go sweetheart!

Steam Roller

Crawling is slowly transitioning from work to a way to explore and have freedom for Amelia. Yet, she loves to crawl to her mommy! If something is in her way....she does not go around....instead she smacks it away with force until she can get through! She also grunts, bitter beers, and Michael Jordan's her way over! And when she reaches me, she hits her hand on my leg as if she were crossing the finish line and hitting the buzzer!

Sweetness

I love these pictures of Amelia from our Kansas trip. Papa is holding her.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!

For Easter, we stayed in town. It was wonderful to go to church at the main campus. We had not been to that location since Christmas - we typically go to the one near our house. We ran into so many friends that we had not seen for so long! Catching up with them was great and I was glad we were able to spend a few moments together!

After church we stopped by a lake and took these pictures of Amelia. Poor girl - she was so tired and we woke her up! But as always - she was a trooper and even provided a couple smiles.

We hope you have a wonderful and blessed Easter!

My 1st Crawl

Here is a video of one of Amelia's first crawl:


This video is one day after work. I set Amelia down to play while I went to change clothes. As I was changing I kept hearing, "ha...ha..ha.ha.ha". Amelia was sitting there playing.....laughing. It was so sweet - but funny too, because it is her fake laugh.

Auction & Family Time

On the Saturday we went to Kansas, we attended an auction at the fairgrounds. There were so many beautiful quilts! The most expensive one sold for $4000!!

Amelia and Daddy looking at quilts

Watching quilts being auctioned off - Amelia loved Great Grandma Lillian's jewelry

This is the biggest homemade ice cream maker I have ever seen! One pot had 120 servings!

Great Aunt LuAnn's reaction when Nana tried to take Amelia out of her arms

Great Aunt LuAnn and Amelia

The first time Great Grandma Lillian had ever Skyped. We were able to talk to Aunt Amber and Uncle James & Aunt Jenna. We were also able to spend some time with Bob, Corey, Aaron, Cameron and his new wife, Kelly.

Nana and Amelia were wore almost the same thing! Purple cotton shirts and khaki shorts

Hotel Fun

After our trip to Kansas and our afternoon with Great Grandma Lillian we stayed at a hotel. Since hotel carpet is not the epitome of clean, the bed was Amelia's playground and she loved it!

At this point - it was a week before she was crawling, but she was sooo very close!

Amelia and Daddy were having so much fun together! Amelia made sure to give "the bitter".

Amelia did really well overall sleeping during the weekend. She had some troubles on Saturday night, but the poor girl had about a 30 minute nap all day and had lots of stimulation! Who can blame her?!

"Look at me!"
This was not the only time Amelia spent on her belly. Amelia realized her freedom in the pack 'n play and spent her first night sleeping on her stomach! Of course, this was after rollin' around, back and forth.

Time to snuggle with Papa!

Bzzzzzzzz!

Amelia was quite contagious with her laughter and Papa was quite the entertainer!

Its Official.....

Amelia can CRAWL!!!

Today she took her first multiple sets of 'crawl steps'.

Down Memory Lane

We reached Newton mid afternoon on Friday and went to see Great Grandma Lillian!

Amelia and Great Grandma Lillian! The last time we were able to see each other was last fall during Daddy's race.

Amelia, Great Grandma, Mommy and Daddy

Relaxing a little bit after reaching our destination and before we headed out in the car again.

Papa grew up in the Newton/Heston area. This is the elementary school that Papa went to.

Welcome to Heston!

Heston is where Nana and Papa met at college! We were able to visit the campus, even though it didn't look much like when they attended. We did get to see the booths that Papa asked Nana on their first date. Nana said she was studying and Papa had a hard time getting the nerve to ask, but eventually he did and Nana said yes!

The campus was really nice and it reminded me of Northwestern's campus a little bit - where Mommy and Daddy met! Amelia was sporting her new sunglasses.

Nana and Great Grandma Lillian!

Amelia and Papa! I love the little smirk Amelia has on her face! It was fun to see where Papa and Nana met and where they went to school!
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Next we were off to see where Papa grew up! The farm is on 22 acres with a creek that has to be crossed in order to get to the house. It was some of the most beautiful land we have seen! A kid's paradise!

Nana, Great Grandma Lillian, Papa and Amelia on the bridge.

Mommy, Daddy and Amelia

Looking from the house down towards the bridge. The weather was wonderful last weekend and it was so tempting to go explore, but other people live there so we stayed for just a little while.

Originally, Great Grandma Lillian and Great Grandpa Arman wanted to build a runway on the land towards the back. Arman flew planes and they thought it would be perfect! But they had to move before they were able to build it.

More beautiful areal pictures!

This is the chicken coop - Great Grandma Lillian loved her chickens! Even now when she talked about them, you could see how much she missed them. Great Aunt LuAnn thinks she should get a couple chickens to put in her backyard, so we'll see if she does!

In the picture you can see the purple tree - they are called Red Buds, but they are bright purple and gorgeous!!! They were all over Newton and Heston. I would love to have one! The weather made us all ready for spring - but it also made me grateful for the lack of wind in Minnesota!

Looking up towards the house

This is the table where many picnics and fond memories were had

The creek towards the front of the property - Papa said growing up he would go fishing in this creek.

What a beautiful path towards home

Road Trip!

Last weekend Amelia took her first road trip! Our road trip was with Nana and Papa and we went to Kansas to visit Great-Grandma Lillian, Uncle Bob, Aunt LuAnn and their kids, Cameron, his wife Kelly, Corey and Aaron!

Our little trooper! Amelia left us all speechless - we drove around 8 hours on Friday (also Amelia's 9 month birthday) and did not make a fuss until the last 15 minutes of the trip! On the way home, which was all in one day (around 11 hours) she didn't fuss at all! We could not have asked for a better trip with her.

Papa driving. We seemed to have a theme on the way down...the theme was spills. It started before we even left Fort Dodge when our coffee spilled all over. The theme passed back and forth between us all. I think Papa and I were affected the most - at least 2 spills each. Nana and Daddy got stuck with 1 spill. Note to Papa: Don't poke a hole in the bottom of your styrofoam cup...it will continue to leak all over you!

Nana up front reading

Daddy and Amelia! While on the way down, a discover was made.....Amelia got another tooth on the bottom! Right next to the other!

What can I say other than, Bitter Beer Face.....to the extreme!

Amelia happily chowing down on her pacifier. She isn't really a child who sucks on a pacifier or relies on it for comfort, but she definitely will play with it and chew on it.

Play Time

I will admit - I tried to unsuccessfully to shorten this little video. So once it goes blurry towards the end....really there is nothing left to see. But everything before the blur is pretty cute, so it was worth posting despite my lack of editing skillz!

9 Months Old!!!

On Friday, Amelia turned 9 months old! The past 9 months have been a ride of a lifetime and we are utterly blessed by having Amelia as our baby girl! Over the last week or so Amelia has made so many advancements developmentally. One of these is advancements is literal - she is so close to crawling! I have said this for quite a while; however, you can see the strength she is building in her arms and neck. So any day.....

Yesterday was Amelia's 9 month wellness checkup. Here are her stats:

28 inches long - 65th percentile

17 lb 9 oz - 26th percentile

45.3 cm - 84th percentile (This last one means our baby has a big head! Daddy says its because she has a big brain!)

More stories on what Amelia has been advancing on coming....stay tuned.....

Bitter Beer Face

Typically I wouldn't associate beer and my baby girl - especially this early in life (and hopefully never! Amelia don't drink!); however, lately she has been making this face, that can only be described as the bitter beer face! We laugh every time and you'll notice in posts to come it has become a common facial expression for her!