"Dog"

Amelia is spending a lot of time looking out the window at Cooper.I feel like she got very close to saying "Dog" on purpose. Of course, I also think she is the smartest kid in the universe. So, take it for what it is worth.

We have been bundling up and walking over to see Meme and Pop in the mornings after breakfast. Amelia gets so excited to walk over and see them. She definitely loves to be on the go and recognizes that we are going somewhere.
Ross's first week in Springfield went really well and he gets to come see us today! I have missed him a ton this week. We will go back to Springfield with him for his next week. He will be on OB and I hope he gets to see a lot of healthy babies born. Hopefully Amelia will have a great time her first week in Springfield. I am hoping to see some friends from Harrison who now live there--Amber and Emily. We will see if that happens since I do not know my way around AT ALL. Who am I kidding---I don't know my way around Little Rock either ha. AND I had to get directions to Kayla's house here in Harrison, even though I have been several times. I am direction illiterate and need a GPS. Christmas hint.

Baby Love

Amelia loves other kids. To the point of smothering them. I didn't get many pictures of Amelia and Emerson actually together because we tried to keep the apart. Amelia wanted to tackle her. In the most friendly way of course. Such as, give me that ball. Ha.


Isn't Emerson so pretty? She stayed pretty close to her Grandma for a while.


Her favorite toy of Amelia's was this ball, which is hilarious because it belongs to Owen. We borrowed it forever ago. Don't worry Amy, we will give it back! Promise.

I was a bit more cautious when we went to visit Drew because I knew Amelia would overly love him as well. The difference is that he is four weeks old. Here she is looking up at Kayla to make sure it was okay that she pulled his sock off.


Drew was a trooper. He didn't make a peep the whole time we were there. So sweet. See someone's little hand?

Party in the U.S.A.

I am foot loose and fancy free. Dinner with friends two nights in one week. Seriously hasn't happened since pre-Amelia. I told Dad last night that I didn't know what to do with myself. Meme rocked Amelia for her nap yesterday and I took a thirty minute shower. Wow. I threw my hands up, they're playing my song...

Mom has taken Amelia duty for three of the nights we have been home. Spoiled rotten. Me, not Amelia. It is really nice to have help. Don't get me wrong, Ross helps, but... help in the form of a Mom and a Meme is totally different.

Blah blah. I'm just on cloud nine. Pictures now. A Buzzy Bee, Reed the Elephant, Owen the Lion, and Deacon the Lion.

Amelia loves G and Pa's farm. Oh, and leaves. Oh, and more Halloween presents.

Okay, that should hold you Earlene. At least for a bit. More to come--I've got pics backed up out my ears. :)

Time Travel

Just for you Derek.

Well, it is awesome being in Harrison. We have filled our four days with so much fun. Ross's mom said we should just look at this rotation and the upcoming interviews as an adventure and that is a lot better than the other option-- a stress-filled mess. Anyway, adventures we have been having. I can't post pictures because Mom's computer is ridiculous, but here are the pictures you can expect when I find wireless.

• The cutest kids' Halloween party ever. Complete with spooky trees, spider Oreos, ghost Nutter Butters, punch, goody bags, and the best costumes ever. I've got a bee, an elephant, and two lions for you. Precious.
• A trip to the farm to see G and Pa. Amelia saw horses, a donkey, and fed the cows, but her favorite was still the dogs. She just absolutely is mesmorized by dogs. We walked to the creek and watched Harley fetch sticks. Fun!
• A play date with Emerson. This was Amelia's first play date with a girl. All her Little Rock friends are boys and she was a little rough with sweet Emerson ha. They had a good time playing with toys and of course putting everything in their mouth.
• New stuff. Mom and Dad got Amelia a new basketball goal and she has so much fun with it. She also got a new "spinning" toy and she thinks it is pretty awesome as well. Meme and Pop had new toys waiting at their house too. Amelia's favorite was a purple dog--a Mushabelly. She's thinking, "This place is WAY cooler than home!"
• TWO teeth. Okay, you probably won't actually get a picture of this, but Amelia's other front bottom tooth came in. Two little teeth.
• Time with Baby Drew. Amelia was obsessed with him. He is about four weeks old and Kayla was sweet enough to let Amelia continually take his sock off and look at his feet. She kept wanting to hold his hand. Drew is the first baby she has seen and it was love at first sight.

I miss Ross, but I am truly enjoying this neat opportunity to be home for the whole week. Amelia is so blessed to have family and friends that love her so much and want to see her and love on her. It is incredible to watch her learn and grow every single day. I love to hear her babble to her toys and cannot wait to hear all that she has to say.

Time for lunch. Pictures tonight (fingers crossed).

Travel Time

Ross has a rotation in Springfield starting on Monday and Amelia and I are going with him. We are staying in Harrison the first week to visit everyone and then going up to Springfield the first week of November to stay at my Aunt Jen's house. It will be Amelia's first time to visit Springfield and they have the basement all set up for us. I am literally packing our whole house. Every toy and book and outfit and bow.

Typical Heather. I was so excited at the prospect of this at first. How fun! How exciting that we get to go visit everyone and Amelia gets to be in different environments. Then, I convinced myself this morning that Amelia would be confused being in different surroundings and not at home and so I called Mom and told her such. She definitely had that 'get a life' tone and informed me Amelia was far too little to be confused about going from house to house. My mom rules at tough love. I'm back to excited.

So, we will head out tomorrow night after out costume party. I am so excited for Amelia's first chance to dress up and see all her friends in their cute outfits.

Amelia loves our pumpkin.


And she loves our Halloween banner.
Aaron and Rebecca came over for a birthday celebration Wednesday night. Aaron's birthday was Wednesday, their 5th Anniversary was Thursday, and Rebecca's birthday is today. They don't mess around.And yes, Rebecca made the cake and it was double layer with icing in between and had precious fall leaves on it. She made her own birthday cake and then brought it to my house. I am a horrible friend.


Amelia was loving all of the attention for sure.

She somehow managed to score a gift. Reb brought her the cutest frog growth chart. I can't wait to hang it up in her room.

Yes, these are purple Halloween pants. So cute. Thanks G!

A Change of Scenery

Amelia asked, "Mom, do I have to keep wearing orange and black for days and days on end?"

I replied, "Of course not sweetie. Let's bust out some pink."

As you can see, she was pretty excited about it. And, pretty excited about that new toy box.

Later, I reminded her of this, "Tomorrow it is back to orange and black. You have a ton of cute Halloween stuff and we must wear it all."

Amelia said, "Sure mom. I just needed to get my girl on for a second."

Happy Eight Months

Sweet Amelia is eight months old today and her first little tooth is poking through! She is not nearly as excited as I am (lots of drooling and grunting and whining) but hopefully it will be a full blow tooth that is through soon. Mom called and her entire kindergarten class yelled, "Happy 8 Months Amelia." I had it on speaker phone and Amelia was delighted. So sweet.

Amelia is:
--saying da da da, but no real mom sounds still
--sleeping through the night (in our bed) with usually just one bottle
--loving to stand up and pull up on whatever she can (she even lets go occasionally)
--clapping for anything and everything
--obsessed with the outdoors. She kicks her legs and feet and squeals when we go outside.
--playing better by herself while I do some things around the house
--on an unpredictable nap schedule. They are whenever she wants and for how long she wants.
--drinking water from her sippy cup after meals
--not a fan of the diaper change or getting her pajamas on.
--still getting baths in her baby tub. She is about to outgrow it though...I'm scared of the big tub.
--understanding the word "no" but not obeying. Great :)
--a huge fan of other kids. I wish we were able to have more play dates--she loves kids.
--16 and a half pounds. Tiny little tooter bug.
--a happy little girl. Amelia loves to play and read books and listen to songs.
--a feisty little girl. Although the previous sentence is true, Amelia lets you know what she wants. And if she doesn't get it... Whew. We might be in for it.

We carved our pumpkin last night and Amelia loved to watch Ross. She thought she wanted to touch the pumpkin guts, but then once she felt it, she decided NOPE.

Surprised...

I was surprised that the marriage conference opened up with so much focus on individual time with the Lord. I was thinking, "Umm marriage conference people. Tell us about marriage." However, it became very clear that marriage cannot and will not work unless each member of the union is where they should be in their relationship with the Lord. It seems very -duh- typing it out but is so often the last thing considered when their is a problem.

"Personal agendas are submitted to God's agenda as both spouses seek to be controlled by the Spirit of God rather than by their flesh. Neither partner clings to their 'rights,' rather, they both realize that they are under the authority of God."

Lately I have been struggling with the fact that medical school is Ross's dream and not mine. I do not want to move for residency. I do not want to go to dinners and interviews and meet these people who control where we will spend the next three years. Aha! No one controls the next three years except Christ. He already knows where we will be accepted and he is already bending our hearts toward this location. Little Rock, Columbia, Springfield, Ft. Smith---wherever it is, he knows and he will be there.

So, Goal #1 is to focus on God's agenda and not mine. Not doing so hot.

Another important point at the conference was to make sure that your marriage isn't child centered. I almost left when this was brought up. I know it is biblical, but I just didn't' care. Gasp. But, after my normal over-reacting, I understand that no one was saying children are to be neglected, just not placed over God or spouse. Big Goal #2 is to make sure Ross and I continue to take time for ourselves. We feel that we are doing a good job here and this is largely due to my the willingness of my parents to keep Amelia.

At the retreat, they set up the Not-So-Newlywed Game and Ross and I were selected to play. So fun. Oh, and we won. Obviously.

More on that later. Picture time now. Buzz got a fun dancing ghost from Meme and Pop.


She got a new toy box from Gammy and Gampy. I was under the impression that this was a Christmas present, but it just showed up this weekend. Hmmm.

Sweet bath time with Gammy.
A huge Halloween box of goodies from G and Pa. So much fun :)


She had a great weekend with Mom and Dad and Ross and I so enjoyed our time together :)

Magical Monday

Ross and I were gone Friday night, all day Saturday, and Sunday morning to a marriage retreat. I had high hopes that it wouldn't be hokey. It wasn't. I had high hopes that it would be beneficial and not just fun. It was. I have a lot of things that I would love to share from the retreat, but FIRST let me just tell about the greatest thing that happened today.

Ross left for his day at the clinic this morning, and Amelia and I had breakfast. While we were playing, I hear the front door open. I decide we are being robbed in broad daylight and kick myself for not locking the door. Ross came bounding up the stairs right when I was contemplating my next action. He got the WHOLE day off :)

We decided that we should go to the zoo for Amelia's first wildlife experience as a celebration. Zoos are my favorite place ever--even awful ones such as the lovely one in Little Rock. Amelia had a great time, and here were her favorite things of the day.

1. The giant pumpkins that were everywhere for decoration.




2. The waterfalls by the jungle exhibits.



3. The huge leaves in the bird house.




Yes. Those things. She kind of thought the giraffe was cool.





And this monkey DID catch her eye.





But, you know, they didn't really compare to those plastic pumpkins. So, it was nap time.





Good Day. I love these two.




OH, marriage retreat re-cap to follow I guess. This turned into the zoo post.

Sacrifice and Sleeping

I actually grew to enjoy posting without pictures last week because it allowed me to write--something that I miss and don't get to do as often as I would like.

Sacrifice has been something that is on my mind a lot lately. I always thought that sacrifice was when you had a decision or choice between two things and you picked the one that appealed to you the lesser amount. However, you picked it because you knew that you should. You picked it because that was the point of sacrifice--to do without, to be the martyr, to relinquish, to take one for the team. You picked it knowing that you would forgo the thing that was a greater prize.

Pretty sure my viewpoint on this is a little off. Perhaps I won't throw this word around as often as I have in the past. I tell Ross what a huge sacrifice I made when we moved to Little Rock, and in reality I didn't sacrifice anything by moving to Little Rock. I gained an incredible relationship with my husband and encouraging friends. A lot of times I feel like I sacrifice sleep for Amelia and that it's just par for the course. I don't sacrifice sleep to stay up and hold Amelia. I am gaining precious moments with her that I won't ever be able to get back. I am not taking one for the team by staying home and giving up my profession. I am seizing an opportunity that has graciously been afforded to me.

Sacrifice. The problem with my old definition was pride. Sacrifice was a ribbon to wear. A medal to display. Look at me..look what I am sacrificing. Look...I am doing the right thing. Look at what all I do now that I am a mom. I sacrifice.

And, while that is true, I do sacrifice to be a mom, it isn't me forgoing anything big or prized. The only thing I am really giving up is selfishness. Selfish desires. So, where is the sacrifice in that?

I am going to try to look at things I am gaining from my so-called sacrifices. We will see how it goes. Tonight I might be griping if I am up and in the rocker.

Amelia has started clapping. It is delightful. I got so tickled taking the above picture that you can barely tell she is clapping.

A friend asked how the sleeping situation is going and I haven't done very well keeping myself accountable on the ole blog. I finally gave in and put her in bed with us. She has done excellent this week. Sleeping through the night or very close to it. This morning she awoke at 5 for her bottle and went back to sleep until 730. I always said I would NEVER put my child in bed with me. Turns out, I am fine with changing my mind. Now, three of us in a double bed is umm cozy, but Amelia is sleeping like a log, so cozy wins.

Today is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day. I never understood this pain until I became pregnant with Amelia. I didn't have a clue how much you could love a child. I wasn't even close to understanding the depth of the pain someone has when they lose a child. And honestly, I still do not understand it because I have a healthy baby. I do want my precious friend to know that I love her and today I remember her sweet baby.

Happy

Well, I officially have stopped feeling like I quit my job to be a stay-at-home mom. I now feel like this IS my job and I didn't quit something to do this. I can't think of doing anything else right now other than taking care of Amelia. It was a nice moment--really nice.

For those of you who want to be in Amy and I's book club, but don't live here in The Rock, I thought I would give you our selection and let you read it and we will discuss it via blog. It could be a flop, but there might be a few readers out there who need some motivation to delve into some literature. The book club picked Three Cups of Tea as our selection for the months of Oct/Nov. I am about seventy pages in and I love it so far even though I usually despise non-fiction. Google it and see if you would be interested.

Happy Anniversary to Uncle D and Aunt Steph. We love you tons. Amelia thinks you are the coolest. She is so right :)


Today was Barnes and Noble story time and AC loved it again. She was very attentive through both books, but was a big disappointed when the craft was a color sheet. I let her "hold" a crayon and then we had to leave. She kept crawling to the big kids sheets and they were not happy ha. I wore a hat today due to the fact that I never fix my hair when I am in charge of her. Yes, that means my hair isn't fixed a lot. Well, it was the first time she saw me in a boggan and she wanted it OFF of my head.



Yes, these are purple corduroy leggings. THE cutest things ever. Amelia loves television. I already have to limit her amount of "shows." However, I am not against t.v. I think it is stimulating and informative-the shows she watches anyway. Here she is enjoying Jack's Big Music Show.

I watch shows that are not informative or academically stimulating. AND..I love them all. Small shout out for Jim and Pam's wedding and Danny's big weight loss. NON shout out for Tracy still being at The Ranch, Gabby's return to adultery, and the best team EVER going home on Race.

P.S. Amelia loves Halloween.