Wednesday, April 29, 2009

6 months!

I seriously cannot believe it has already been a month since she turned 5 months old, but time has indeed flown by, and Amelia is 6 months old today.

Here we are meeting for the first time on October 29th after being in labor all day and pushing for an hour and a half. Even now, sometimes I still cry when I hold her while she's sleeping.

And here we are wearing our purple this morning before heading out to work and daycare.

I thought about interviewing her again to check in on her newest tricks, but she's in bed for the night and I don't want to wake her. I'll just list a few of her accomplishments from the last month.

  • She's gotten much better at sitting up on her own, and enjoys hanging out in the floor with a bunch of toys. She no longer insists on being held 24/7, thank goodness.
  • She loves her bath at night. We take baths together often and she loves playing with her bath toys and kicking her feet. Daddy is in charge of drying her off, lotioning, and getting her in her pjs, while I finish my bath. They enjoy their nightly routine.
  • She is almost able to hold her bottle on her own, but she still prefers that we hold it for her. Lazy girl!
  • She loves all baby food, and sometimes cries for more when she finishes a jar. Bananas and sweet peas seem to be her favorites, but she's also a big squash fan.
  • She now reaches for me to pick her up, which delights my heart to no end! She likes to play with Daddy by laughing and turning her face away when he reaches for her from my arms.
  • She is trying to crawl a little sometimes, but gets frustrated if she can't get very far. She's usually pretty happy either laying on her back with a toy, or sitting upright. Although she can roll over, she doesn't really want to very much.
  • Over all, she has become a happier and much easier to handle baby than in her first few months of life, thank goodness! We have always felt lucky to have such a healthy, easy baby, but finally being able to entertain herself has made it so much easier for Mommy to get things done!

I asked Cliff today if it's been the best six months of his life (already knowing the answer), and he answered, "without a doubt." We are still amazed every day that she is ours, and not a day goes by that we don't thank God for blessing us with her. She brings us more joy than we could have ever imagined. Happy 6 month birthday, Princess!

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Weekend with friends

Friday we went to Bryce's birthday party and Amelia finally got to meet one of her future BFFs, Joy. Joy's mom is Neisha. They'll be in the same class in the fall, so we were glad they finally got to hang out together.

As you can see, they loved each other. Amelia's totally going for a hug here.

Now they're holding hands. Such sweet babies! Amelia is 6 weeks older than Joy.

Then Sunday afternoon I helped host a bridal shower for Nina, one of my BFFs from college. Amelia got to see several of my friends that haven't seen her since she was a newborn. And she got to meet another future BFF, Madelyn. Madelyn is my friend Misti's sweet girl. She's 8 weeks older than Amelia.

They were fascinated with each other. Amelia couldn't stop touching Madelyn's hair. I'm sure she was wondering why Madelyn has so much more hair than her! Sorry, Amelia, but if you're anything like Mommy, it will be a while before you get that ponytail :( We'll just keep wearing headbands to hold up our big bows! BTW, I made the one she's wearing to match her dress. Isn't it precious? This was take two with the egg hunting dress since she slept through the photo ops last time. Look at those sweeties in their monogrammed dresses!

It was impossible to get a shot of them both looking at the camera. Madelyn is crawling and too hard to keep still! In this shot, Amelia is looking at her as if to say, why do you have my toy cell phone? And now she wants my bow!

After she couldn't get her bow, she decided to go for her paci that was clipped to her dress.

Amelia with Linds. I wish she had been looking at the camera.


Smiling at Givens.

Misti and me with our girls

Me and the bride-to-be All the hostesses on a fabulous couch


Co-Lin friends plus a little wolf doing our Wolfpack sign. Nina insists on a Wolfpack photo every time we get together.

Amelia and I had such a good time seeing our friends. In a couple of weeks, we'll be off to NOLA to celebrate the end of Nina's single life, and then the weekend after that is her wedding. She and David are high school sweethearts. It's about time, guys!

Friday, April 24, 2009

Love this!


Aunt Katie captured this precious photo yesterday afternoon while she was watching Amelia as I shopped for more adorable outfits she desperately needs. This is SOOC (straight out of the camera), so this effect is a result of natural light. She says she doesn't know how it happened and couldn't make it happen again, but however it happened, it's a framer. Who else thinks Aunt Katie needs to quit her job as a teacher to become a professional photog?

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Videos

These are for you, Uncle Chris and Aunt Kathryn. They live in Arkansas and haven't seen Amelia in a couple of months.

The first video is of Amelia laughing while I'm tickling her. The second one I took tonight while she was playing with her new penguin toy her Grammy got for her. And the third one is a few weeks old, but it features one of Amelia's newest favorite things to do, blowing raspberries. It's so much fun watching her discover new things she can do. Notice how unsteady she still was while trying to sit up. What a difference a few weeks makes!





Edited to add: I really should apologize to Cliff. In the penguin video, he didn't realize I was filming and he was acting exceptionally gooberish trying to make Amelia smile and laugh. I have no shame anymore when it comes to my baby, so I don't care that I look and sound dumb as long as she likes it. But I should have told him before I shared it with the world wide web! He is being a good sport and letting me keep it on here, but he doesn't like it! Ha ha. I happen to think it's awesome that he will act silly to make our baby girl happy!

A few random pics

No real theme to this post, just some randoms from the last couple of weeks. Amelia has been sitting up by herself for a few weeks now, but sometimes she still loses her balance and topples over on her head, so my solution is to surround her with pillows or her boppy and throw some toys in front of her, and she'll occupy herself for quite some time. Look at our little red head playing like a big girl.

The child pretty much hated her bouncer and swing, and really hasn't been a huge fan of the exersaucer and jump-a-roo, but now that she can sit up, she loves to just hang out with her toys. Who knew? We could've saved some money and room in our living room, which has been taken over by Amelia's stuff. I'm thinking it's time to move the swing out since she hasn't gotten in it in like 3 months.

Our cousin, Megan is having some work done to her car and she got a super-fun convertible to drive in the meantime. She dropped by and Amelia just had to have her photo taken in the car. Megan shot these with her camera phone.

Y'all know about my baby's and my mutual love of Britney Spears, so we pretended to be Britney and Sean Preston riding in the convertible.
Amelia just loves Megan. Maybe because they are almost the same size?

But not as much as she loves her mommy!

We went to hear a local band, The Colonels, play at Co-Lin's spring fling tonight, and the theme is Western, so guess who insisted on donning her western apparel?

I got the cowboy hat and boots at my baby shower and have yet to have an opportunity to let Amelia wear them, so this seemed like a great time. Here she is enjoying the band with Daddy, who did not wear his western-wear, ha. He's wearing his "I just got done teaching class" outfit. He's also wearing his "I didn't realize my wife was taking my photo" face. Sorry, Cliff.

She didn't hate the band, it was just bright outside. Although they were a little loud for her taste, so we had to move further away.


After just a few minutes, she got so tired that she fell asleep sitting straight up in my lap! One second she's looking around at everything and chewing on a toy, the next thing I notice, she's passed out sitting up. Love it.

I think this may be a record on this blog, but I have just completed a post featuring a series of photos and Amelia is bowless in every single one! Don't worry, t's just a coincidence. There's no way we are giving up on bows. They are here to stay. At least until she's big enough to jerk them off her head and refuse to wear them.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Easter photos

I'm out of control and I know it. I can't resist buying cute outfits and accessories for my baby, and I can't resist taking and posting a million photos of her in those outfits and accessories. If you aren't interested in seeing tons of Amelia pics, you should leave this blog immediately. But you know that already. So here we go...

We had such a wonderful weekend. The weather was nice most of the time, and we got to spend a lot of time with our sweet girl and with our families. Friday night Cliff and I left Amelia with my parents OVERNIGHT and went out on a date. We had a great time, but of course we missed our girl. I couldn't wait to get there Saturday morning to pick her up and take her to her first Easter egg hunt! Of course I had a precious outfit planned to coordinate with her Easter basket. I even made a bow to match! Yes, I now make bows. More about my new hobby later. But what do you know, the little princess fell asleep and missed the whole thing.

This is the only pic I got in her egg hunting outfit. We'll have to wear it another day and take photos. I will say this, there was monogramming involved. Oh don't you worry, we have not seen the last of this dress! Luckily she had another chance to hunt eggs Sunday. We got up extra early to swing by Memaw and Papaw's house before church to let them see her in her Easter dress. Every time they come by to see her she is napping, so we were glad they got to see her awake and happy.
She really was happy, even though it doesn't seem that way from the pics. Y'all know how she is about cameras.
The only thing I love more than a giant pink bow is a smocked dress! Oh my goodness, having a baby girl is my dream come true. It's like playing baby dolls every day, but better.

Here we are on our first Easter as a family. It was chilly, so we didn't spend time trying to get a shot with Amelia looking at the camera. Who knows how long that would have taken.

After a wonderful church service, Cliff and I were responsible for cleaning up after the Lord's Supper, so luckily Aunt Katie came to worship with us and she watched Amelia while we finished up. Guess what they did to pass the time!

This was on the playmat in the nursery. Aunt Katie gets way more smiling pics than Mommy. I'm telling myself it's because her camera is faster, and not because she likes her more than me. Everyone knows she's a mama's girl!

How precious is this with the cross in the background? A real Easter photo. Love it.

After church we went to visit my grandparents. (Did I mention how long our day was? We squeezed in two sets of grandparents and church. I was pretty proud of us.) After a yummy lunch, we got ready for the egg hunt. She was awake this time! But no smiles for my photos. Awake and smiling would be asking too much.

I couldn't narrow down which photos to post, so bare with me. Get ready for a bunch of photos of Amelia and her Easter basket. Again, I'm out of control!

I know my toes are under here somewhere. How can I get to them?


Since you took my egg away, I'll try to eat my dress.

Yes, that is a petticoat under her smocked dress. I seriously wanted to eat her more than my plate of poppyseed chicken in that dress.

Here are the men with their girly Easter baskets hiding the eggs. My daddy is the one holding the tutu basket, ha! I stole this pic and a couple more from my cousin Tess's facebook album.

After a quick wardrobe change, it was time to hunt eggs.

Amelia and mommy wore matching pearl bracelets for Easter.


Amelia and Grammy. She's trying to get into that basket!

Here's Amelia with some of her cousins after the egg hunt. She's still trying to chew on that egg.

Janie wanted a pic with Amelia. (Another stolen from Tess. Thanks!) She and her sister, Josie are always so well mannered and Janie tapped me on the shoulder Sunday and told me, "I think your daughter is very pretty." Ha ha. I told her her that I think she (Janie) is very pretty too!
Me and Aunt Mare swinging.
Just when you thought the smocked dress and basket photos were over, I tried a re-shoot yesterday in the yard hoping for smiles...


But no luck. Then Aunt Katie came over and got this grin on the couch. Look at that slobbery face!

The Easter bunny brought Amelia a new swing! She already had her pjs on, but it was still light outside, so I put her in the swing for some late evening playing, and yes, we got a couple of smiles. Aunt Katie's fast camera work to the rescue again.

I love that evening light. Maybe we'll try to save all our photo shoots for 7 p.m.

Ok, that's it for now. Now we're back to our reality of work and daycare. We're so lucky to have had this time off this past weekend. No more holidays left this school year, but when school gets out in May, Amelia will be home with her daddy every day! And mommy will sadly be at work. However we have a new schedule and I'll be off at lunch time on Fridays, so I can't complain. And I always have the evenings and weekends with our little monkey. I love having so much daylight when I get home from work. More 7 p.m. photo shoots to come, I'm sure!

I hope you all had a great Easter, and I look forward to seeing your kiddos' photos too!