Is it really over?

Tomorrow is my last official day of maternity leave. We'll still have the weekend, and then it is back to work for me on Monday. I haven't blogged much lately because we have been busy trying to make the most of our time off together.


Monday we went to Hammond to shop at one of my favorite stores of all time, Hobby Lobby, to stock up on frames. Now I can display my baby's face all over my office and our home. I also scored some other cute stuff for the house from their clearance. So much fun. Am I the only one whose heart starts pounding rapidly when I am in the presence of bargains? It usually happens when I find good deals on shoes or purses here, here or here, but it was definitely beating like crazy when I saw all the cute, cheap vases and frames! (Can you tell I have discovered how to link? I have a feeling I will be sending you guys to all kinds of fun sites now.)


Surprisingly, I haven't even been taking that many photos lately. We've either been on the go, or just laying low, snuggling around the house. We needed a recent photo (like we didn't have any) for the newspaper's "Babies of 2008" section, so I asked Katie to come over the other night to take some pics. I was hoping that I could get Amelia to smile and Katie would be able to capture it, since I've been unsuccessful in my smiling photo attempts. She wasn't feeling up to posing, but we managed to get some cute ones.


She wore this cute outfit to church Sunday night. She didn't want to make a cute face, but I just had to post a pic of her in her dress and boots!



Katie snapped a couple of cute candids while Cliff and I were doing anything to try to get her to smile. I hate the double chin I have from this angle, but it's cute of Cliffy and Amelia.

After she spit up ALL OVER her dress, we decided to try some in just a diaper and a bow. This is our new glittery flower clip. Some of you may recall that we already have one in brown. The glitter is a pain to get out of her hair but I had to teach Amelia early on that sometimes we have to suffer for fashion.

Finally a smile! This one will run in both the Daily Leader and the Lawrence County Press's "Babies of 08" editions. I resisted linking to both these newspapers. I don't think the baby sections will be online. Boo.

I liked this one because it is so typical of Amelia. Since birth, she has always placed her hands up by her face when she's sleeping and she loves to clasp them together all the time. So sweet.

Her newest trick to grab her daddy's heart (or anyone's heart for that matter), is to poke her bottom lip out! Sometimes she does it in between smiles, but often she does it before she has a huge meltdown. Here's one with the lip.



And then Daddy made her feel better and got a smile.

We had our 3-month photo shoot this morning. Amelia was kind of sleepy and I'm not sure we got any smiles, but I think they turned out ok. I'm eager to share the link to her proofs with you soon. It should only be a few days because she's having a baby Tuesday and wanted to have them ready for me before then. I can't wait to see them! Of course the second she put her camera away and got ready to leave, Amelia started grinning and cooing at us. That little stinker.

I will probably do a little live blogging with updates when I have time on Monday when I go back to work. I know I will have a million things to catch up on, but I'm sure I'll take some time to sneak over and check on my sweetie. Pray for us that we'll handle our separation well. I think we're both going to be fine, but it won't be easy!