Go Wolves!

A day I have been waiting for two years has finally arrived.

Yes, Amelia can now fit into the 24 month-sized cheerleader suit I have been dying to dress her in! You may recall her first time to wear a Wolfpack cheerleader suit when she was 2 weeks old.

I had wanted a tiny cheerleader suit for her first basketball season and my Aunt Rhonda was going to make one for me but couldn't find a pattern small enough. She settled for a Build-A-Bear cheerleader, added Co-Lin to the suit and gave it to me at my baby shower. That day at 2 weeks old for that photo was the one and only time she fit into that outfit. The Build-A-Bear wears it now and he sits on her bookshelf in her room. Since then, I've been looking everywhere for a suit to fit her and 24 months is the smallest I've found. And now she is finally big enough to wear it!

We had so much fun at the game last week. She loved seeing the wolf mascot (but not up close) and even ran on the field to be a part of the spirit line with her little friends before the players ran out. Sadly, I have no photo of it because I never dreamed she would have participated since she had been so whiney and clingy earlier when I tried to get her to do it.

Looking at these pics, I couldn't help but be nostalgic for her very first time to meet the wolf mascots.

 Here she is in my tummy at 8 months pregnant.

And here she was last year at this time posing with my co-workers' kids at the tailgate party.

  

And last year during basketball season

She is growing up to be quite a fan of the Wolfpack! She even yells "Go wolves!" and can howl like a wolf when we ask how the wolf goes. I'm looking forward to even more cheering when basketball season starts for Daddy. We love being a Co-Lin family!



Wordless Wednesday- Blackberry Pics

Recent photo shoot with Aunt Katie

Katie was testing out a new lens and asked if Mimi could come with her for a quick photo shoot downtown last week. Of course I agreed and changed her into an adorable dress she hadn't been photographed in yet (seriously, sometimes it's hard to find something we haven't taken her pic in, lol).

I thought they turned out so cute. Enjoy!

Labor Day Weekend

We had a fun but busy Labor Day weekend. Any time off we have from work, I always want to make the most of, but that usually ends up with me being exhausted by the time I get back to work.

We decided to take Amelia to Global Wildlife in Folsom, La., and we were so glad we did! The weather was perfect, sunny with a cool breeze, and Amelia is at a great age for it because she loves looking at animals. I had been feeling like a horrible mother because she has never been to the zoo. Even though I still plan on doing the zoo with her very soon, Global Wildlife was even better to me, because you can get up close and personal with the animals. You ride in these covered wagons and the animals come up to you and you can feed them and pet them.

We saw tons of deer, antelope, zebras, camels, buffalo, cattle, kangaroos and giraffes.

This is Cliff feeding the zebra.

Mimi was fascinated.

The giraffes were my favorite, but they wouldn't come up to the wagon and let us love on them. As we were leaving we saw them getting friendlier with the next group.

After our tour we headed down to Manchac to eat at one of our favorite places for fried catfish, Middendorf's. We don't get out much at restaurants these days due to the fact that Amelia likes to act a fool when we go out to eat, but apparently 2:00 in the afternoon is her happy time at dining establishments because she did great. I still gobbled my food down like someone was going to take it away just in case we had to jet out of there. There are no leisurely restaurant meals for the Furr family these days.

Great day, but sister was worn out on the way home! This is what she does when she gets sleepy.

We got a little worried about her and uncovered her a bit.

Then, Sunday was promotion day at church, and Amelia moved up to the toddler class. We were the first ones there and I snapped a couple of pics before everyone else arrived. I wanted to eat her up with her pigtails in that smocked dress Katie got her.

How cute is her little classroom?

I even got a little video of her as we waited. Her favorite word lately is "Thank you." She loves to say it when you pay her a compliment or when you give her something or do something for her. It is my favorite thing she does right now. Who doesn't love a polite child? I hope she keeps it up. It helps balance out when she says NO and STOP, her other favorite words.

New Sunday School Class from Angela Furr on Vimeo.

Her teachers said she did great. I figured she'd do fine because she loves being "big," and now instead of being the oldest in the class, she is the youngest so she gets to feel like a big girl around the older kids.

And while we are talking church, here are a couple of cute snaps I got at the ice cream social a couple of weeks ago. She's such a big girl in the big kid swings! Swings are just about Amelia's favorite thing on earth. It is like pulling teeth to get her off of one.

I hope y'all had a fabulous Labor Day weekend too! I have had to use my time back at work to rest from all our fun, ha.

The Wheels on the Bus

I hope to have a better video of Amelia singing her new songs soon, but in the meantime, I'll share this one I shot on my cell phone the other day. She didn't perform as well as she does when I'm not filming (of course) and she lost interest before the end and decided to tackle me, but I still think it's cute.

I have watched this about 87 times at work today. That little belly laugh makes me so happy!

Back to school

I'm a little late with the back to school post, and I really don't have an excuse other than just being tired when I get home every day. That, and my August TV schedule has been keeping me very busy at night after Amelia goes to bed. Those episodes of Project Runway and Rachel Zoe on the DVR are not going to watch themselves, y'all.

Anyway, August 16th was Amelia's first day back at school. She was moved up to the two-year old class this year since she will be two in a couple of months and we were excited about that. They have a curriculum that includes singing, free play, coloring and painting, reading, playing outside, potty training, and of course naptime. I was a little nervous about how Amelia would do on her cot as opposed to her crib at home, but her teacher, Ms. Stacy, said she has been falling right asleep, which I'm sure is due to her playing hard and wearing herself out. We are glad to be in Ms. Stacy's class again, although we miss Ms. Margaret from last year. Ms. Stacy was the teacher in the infant class that Mimi started attending at 12 weeks old, so they go way back.

She got in trouble one day last week for biting another child's finger and I was totally devastated. My sweet girl is a lot of things but a biter is not one of them. It turns out the victim was one of our friends and luckily she and her mom forgave Amelia, ha. Ms. Stacy told me today that it has not happened again and that Amelia does not give her a bit of trouble. She said she is well behaved, but does have to defend herself every once in a while with some of the other kids. I was glad to hear about no more biting. We didn't want our Mimi to get expelled from daycare!

She has already been sharing some of the things she has learned with us at home. She has started saying "milk" the correct way instead of "malk," which makes me a little sad. Her language has seemed to pick up with even more sentences. She asked to go on the "big girl" potty the other day, and she has been singing some new songs, with her favorite being "The Wheels on the Bus." Video to come soon. I have also noticed her counting and ABCs have gotten much better, and now she hardly leaves out any letters in the alphabet and can count to 16 (random but that's where she always stops) pretty consistently.

She has been walking in every morning like such a big girl, and we are so glad she took after me and seems to love school! And now a few pics:

Crazy bed head on back to school morning

Getting excited to go see her friends!

Curly pigtails make me happy.

I still sometimes struggle with mommy guilt for working full time and often wish I could have it both ways. But it makes it so much easier having to leave her knowing she loves her teacher and friends and is having a great time learning and playing all day. Plus it makes me treasure our time at home together so much more and I try not to waste a minute of it. So for today, the glass is half-full, just the way I like to keep it.

What we've been up to lately

We had a VERY brief visit to the Exchange Club Fair, where we ran into Mimi's friend from school, Parker.

Bless her heart, it was just a disaster waiting to happen. We went the day after we got back from vacation, it was hot, she was tired, just a disaster. Maybe next year.

We spent more time in the pool.

Played around the house

Said goodbye to our sweet babysitter, Kellie. She just moved to Starkville to begin her junior year at Mississippi State.

And we met a new future BFF, my dear friend, Nina's baby girl, Sidney!

Sadly, I had to use a photo taken with my Blackberry as my camera has STOPPED WORKING. UGH! I'm trying to see if I can get it fixed, otherwise that will be a new expenditure we will have to make because I can't be without a camera to capture Mimi's everyday moments. Luckily, Katie loaned me her point and shoot camera for the meantime.

I will be back soon to blog about Amelia's first day back at school, but in the meantime, I will leave you with a short video Uncle Justin shared with me of Mimi calling for "Mare Bet." She got to spend a couple of days with Aunt Mare and Uncle Justin last week and I think they all had a great time. Perhaps Aunt Mare will share some of the photos she took with me one day soon...