Cabin Fever

Amelia said, "Mom, we have been indoors for two days without even a walk."


She stared and stared out the window. Then, at me.


So, out we went for a mini walk. It was too icy and we were sliding everywhere, so it lasted about five seconds. She was unimpressed, I was unimpressed, and Ross was smiling. How I love him. Haha.After she got unbundled she said, "Okay, that flopped. What else ya got?" Luckily, I had bought these balls at Target on a great sale and was saving them until her birthday. However, we busted them out and put them in the tunnel Meme and Pop got her for Christmas. Instant success.
After all that fun, she said, "Well, my baby is probably getting thirsty."



This morning we went to church and Amelia asked, "Can I wear my sweater and shoes from Aunt Jessalyn?" I said sure and she was as cute as can be.




Everything has melted and we are happy. Looks like storytime, Target time, and maybe even walk outside time. Whew...it was like not only did the KC trip get ruined, but then there was ice-ing on the cake. Gag.

I went to the mall after church with Amy and we met up with Ashley for a little while and it was heavenly. Lunch at the food court and some perusing in Dillards, Bakers, and Baby Gap. I got Amelia a cute new bathing suit and outfit and some new boots. I returned home feeling less grouchy and almost ready to let the Kansas City trip go. Almost. I mean how long can I let something like that bother me? Thanks Amy and Ashley for the fun. And thanks to Ross (who never reads this blog) for watching AC all day.

Ice Day

No snow, just ice. Pellets. Couldn't play in it, just ice. Pellets. Couldn't go anywhere, just ice. Pellets.

Amelia enjoyed the ice day though because her dad was home too. We had a fun time just playing and lounging, but hopefully we will be able to venture out tomorrow. Why venture out, you ask? Because I am still a bit annoyed we didn't get our KC weekend adventure. That's why.

Ross was tickling Amelia's belly and for some reason it struck her as the funniest thing that has ever happened to her. She usually chuckles, but today she squealed.


Uncle D, yes, this little grin monster is walking. Everywhere.
And Gorman, this is for you.

A trip to Target
is just what you need sometimes
to do some reading.


Yes, we left the store
with that big over-priced book
thanks to Miss Blue Eyes.

New Plans

Well, I had to break it to Amelia that she wasn't going to get to stay with Gammy and Gampy this weekend and it didn't go over too well.

I told her that I felt the same way and had even had a few fits of my own, but that we were just going to have to come up with some new weekend plans to fill the void.

We have yet to come up with any but I feel like the mall will be involved somehow.

Amelia is really into playing by herself right now. It is so weird how they go through so many phases. I am sure the day is coming where she is a clingy lady again, but for the last two days she leaves every room that I walk into. I told her yesterday, "Mommy stays home so that we can play together. " She just smirked and her and baby left the room.

It is so funny to watch her. I try not to just follow her around every second and actually let her have some independent play time and it is cracking me up. She found one of my magazines under the couch and actually looked at it page by page very intensely for about ten minutes.

I was cleaning a few of her toys and she got in on the action. She was just scrubbing away on this table.

When Ross got home we went on a walk to get out of the house and Amelia wouldn't go without her baby. I thought it would be a disaster, but we took her. She held her tight the entire time!

Ross took this wonderful shot of our family. Here, let me take it. I am taller.
Amelia had a wild night last night and tossed and turned every thirty minutes. She constantly changed positions and I am in awe of how she got any sleep. Her hair this morning is indicative of this. But, oh how she loves her little lounge chair.

Close up of the hair and our trash

Mom, sorry she is in her pajamas in half of these. Next time, all cute outfits and bows. We stayed in our jammies until three yesterday. Your worst nightmare.

AnnoyedSad

I am equally annoyed and sad. There is supposedly this insane amount of ice and snow moving into the Harrison area on Thursday and Ross and I probably won't be able to go home this weekend. Four weeks without NWA is about our limit and we have reached it. PLUS- were supposed to get to go to a nice dinner in KC for Ross's second look call back for residency and stay at the Hilton. I was really looking forward to some time with just Ross.

So, I am now a big ball of grouch.

Seriously.

Here is Amelia holding my purse all ready to go to Kroger this morning. You know, just so this post wasn't a total waste of your life.
She loves going to the grocery store, which makes my life quite enjoyable since groceries aren't optional. More later and a better attitude.

Throwing Arm

Amelia actually threw the ball tonight! She usually hands me the ball or drops it, but tonight she threw it. And threw it, and threw it. We cheered and clapped like crazy people. It was so exciting; it's the little things.

Yesterday Aaron and Rebecca and Adam and Joanna came over for a late lunch and we just hung out and talked about residency. Aaron and Adam have been Ross's best friends since year one of medical school and it is crazy to think that they are all three about to embark on their post med school journey.


Amelia would only go to Aaron, continuing her I like men phase. She looked really cute when everyone arrived, but before any pictures could be snapped she had a massive poop explosion and ruined her outfit. I was really proud of Amelia because we played Apples to Apples and she just played with her own set of cards. It was really a defining moment for me; she is gaining some independence. She meandered around showing people her babies and playing with toys and I got to join in on some conversations and it was just a really great time.




The whole gang. Amelia says, Get over here Aaron.


Guess who has a birthday coming up in less than a month??

Attention

Amelia loves attention. Her mother is fond of it also. Some people don't really want a lot of focus on them--whatever floats your boat. Thankfully, we are surrounded by people who give us love, attention and friendship. Today we went to play with Deacon and he was not too sure of our arrival. We were loud and wild girls and he was trying to sit and watch his shows.
He decided that since she was relentless he would go ahead and play with her. Deacon gave Amelia a ride in his car and shared all of his toys. They had a great time together.


We even went on a ride in Deacon's awesome wagon. Deacon made it the whole ride seated nicely. I will give you one guess who did not.


Then after we took a nap and were refreshed, Brandy and Nathan came over for supper. We haven't seen them in quite a while and it was nice to reconnect. Brandy is one of those friends that I will always be able to be myself with and hopefully always be able to pick right back up with. Amelia was in love with Nathan.

I couldn't believe that she went and sat in his lap, and neither could Brandy. In fact, Bran Bran's heart was broken a little. But, it was healed when she saw how much Amelia loved her Christmas present.




She got lots of claps and oohhs and ahhhs from them. Amelia is officially walking and she was quite proud to show off. Brandy's face is priceless.



I loved today. I loved every day this week.

Eleven Months

E- Eating is going fairly well. Amelia still only likes orange things and eats no green veggies. She loves snacks and asks for them by name--"nacks, nacks, nacks." She eats bananas, wheat bread, and cheese right now and that is it as far as table food.

L- Loves her babies. She plays with her babies almost all day--feeding them, holding them, patting them, hugging them. Babyland.

E- Everything delights her at this age. She squeals in delight at a leaf, pinecone, stuffed animal, real animal, water bottle, you get the pictures. She is easy to please right now.

V- Very strong willed. And although the above is true, if you take away any of those objects that delighted her, she has now started throwing full blown fits. Arched back and head. Kicking legs. Whew. Already?

E- Ehh. Enough with the e's. I mean seriously.

N- Nah nah. This is what Amelia calls her bottles. She knows where we keep them and when she wants them. I am giving her milk in a sippy cup during the day and only one bottle after her afternoon nap and one bottle at night. Soon, I will go to one bottle at night so that the transition to no bottles will hopefully be smooth (ish). Worried about it since she loves them so much. She also loves her paci, but that is another letter, another time.

M- Mommy's girl. Amelia loves me--a lot. It is a special feeling, but we are working on her not being so clingy. That is one fear I have with staying home--that she will want only me. I have started putting her in her pack n play if she wants to be held constantly and she will cry a while and then start playing on her own. I am very proud of her for that feat.

O- Outside. Amelia is still an outdoorsy lady. She loves being outside and gets really excited when you ask her if she wants to go out. The cold does not bother her. It bothers me, so I really have to get over myself and just bundle up. We still go on walks and the weather lately has been really nice, so we have been out a lot.

N- Names and phrases. She is recognizing a lot more things that I say. She knows if I ask her about blowing bubbles, wanting a bottle, going outside or bye bye, and taking a bath. If I ask her to bring me something that is close, she understands that and goes to get it. She really isn't saying many more words than last month though. I asked her last night if she wanted to talk to Gampy on her pretend phone and she thought he was here. She started looking for him and burst into tears. Umm..bad move on my part.

T- Television is a friend of mine, and I do let Amelia watch "her" shows. She gets to watch one at breakfast since our "dining room" is actually our living room. Gotta love apartments. She also watches a show at lunch and sometimes when we are settling down for a nap. Her favorite show is Yo Gabba Gabba. Wonder Pets comes in a close second.

H- Home. I love staying home with Amelia. It seems weird to me that I ever had to make that decision and quit work after only five weeks into the school year. It feels like I never did that or had that stress and just naturally stayed home with her. I am thankful for the support of my family and friends because it was a big leap. The cool thing is that it doesn't seem like it was now--it seems like I am where I should be and always have been.

S- Sleep. Well I blog about this often, so we all know where this stands. Rocked for every nap and bedtime. Sleeps with us. One bottle a night as of right now and doing really good. Do not know when, if ever, I will try to put her in her crib. :)

Today's Top Four

As of right now, 1:13 p.m. (nap time) here are my favorite things of today...

1. Over-priced, over-caloried (460) Java Chip Frappuccinos. Love them. I don't care to support Starbucks with my loan money. Delish.


2. Good attitudes. We went to story time and it was canceled without warning. I did not throw a fit, as I am often inclined to do. We just browsed around Barnes and Noble and read a few books on our own. And, since there is a Starbucks at Barnes and Noble, see #1.


3. This ponytail and bow. Precious.




4. Sleep. Amelia Claire Halsted slept from 8:30-7:00. No night bottle. For the first time ever. Ever. Do I expect a repeat? No. Am I still ridiculously proud? Yes.


These are in no particular order. It would be insane for Starbucks to be first, right?

Happy Birthday to Jared! We love you so much :)

Martin Luther King Day

Thanks MLK for letting Amy get off work so that we could go to the zoo! Thanks for more than that, but, you know. Amelia was excited to meet her friend Owen at the zoo and wore her new shirt from Uncle Derek. So funny.
We got to the zoo right when they opened and although a tiny bit chilly, it was great because we had the whole place to ourselves. At first, both kids just hung out in their stroller and they weren't too enthused to see any animals. I think the stroller was impeding their view actually.. The hit of the day was definitely the gorilla exhibit, although Amelia loved the geese and chickens too.



Owen and Amy by the bamboo--looking alike.



Thankfully Amy was there to share info with the rest of us from these signs by each exhibit, such as, elephant have very sensitive skin, some giraffes are endangered and this is signified by white above the knees, and otters have no layer of body fat. So educational.



Meow. My cute cat. This photo above had to be cropped because my pants were unzipped and gaping open showing my underwear. When I got in the car to leave, I discovered this and sent Amy a text proclaiming the news that my pants were unzipped the entire zoo trip. She replied LOL, I didn't notice. Hmm...from the picture, it would appear it was very difficult not to notice.


I loved this day

VICTORY

Mom and Dad came down this weekend and it was so fun. I love company--especially Mom and Dad. Mom, Amelia, and I shopped on Saturday while the boys golfed. Amelia was really excited to see them and I was so glad that she showed genuine delight as soon as they walked in. She immediately wanted to play with her Gampy and showed off by taking a few steps for them.




Hey, what are you doing in my chair?




I have the most fun mom; she kept me in stitches while she was here. It was great to see them. On Saturday night, they watched Amelia while we went to game night at Amy and Kyle's. So fun--especially since it resulted in a girls Pictionary win. This picture was taken while the boys were ahead--so things were especially funny to them. I was getting nervous because I NEVER lose at Pictionary and we were quite a bit behind.




But with a few miraculous drawings like this elephant and donkey...

We pulled out the win. Whew. There were a lot of laughs, so thanks Mom and Dad for staying with Amelia and for spending the weekend with us. After church on Sunday, we took advantage of the clear and sunny day and went to slide. The walk to the playground was nice, but Amelia noticed the gravel for the first time and we had to leave before I would have liked. She would not do anything except lunge for the gravel in the play area.



The perfect weekend.

I wonder...

How do I not know even know one fourth of the things to do in Little Rock? Seriously. I only know three main streets as it is. Amelia and I got invited to go to The Wonder Place yesterday and before I could respond I had to Google it. Turns out it is this fabulous center with tons of play areas and slides and mirrors and puppets. Amelia really loved it and so did I. It was free adult day and that made it even better. I have to say that I was surprised by Amelia's favorite things because there was some pretty awesome stuff that she had never seen before. She slid down a slide for the first time all on her own, but wasn't too into it. She was way more into these...
Mirrors. Mirrors. Mirrors.
Still looking.




I guess she cannot get over how cute she is. Who can blame her thought? Jen and Chandler were so nice to invite us. Amelia loved watching him play--such a big boy these days.

She went into the big kid section and climbed a rock wall and several other fun things, but I didn't get a picture because I was a nervous wreck making sure she didn't fall. There are no pictures of the playdough room either---bet you can guess why. Amelia was sure that playdough was meant to be a tasty snack. However, I did get this cute tunnel shot.

A fabulous day. Then the sky turns dark and the stars come out. And it begins... I never thought my almost one year old would still be getting up at the very least two times a night. But, I also never knew an almost one year old would be so much fun. Give and take, right?