Happy Thanksgiving!

Amelia went on her second trip to York this past weekend. Thanksgiving was the holiday with Daddy's family this year (we'll be with Mommy's family in Ohio for Christmas). Chris's mom and his dad and step-mom all live in Michigan, but both parents decided to visit their families in Pennsylvania for Thanksgiving this year, so it was an easy choice to head out there, instead.


Amelia had such a great time hanging out with all of her family. Her days were full of hugs and kisses and showing off her new tricks. Amelia loves an audience, and she had one readily available all day. They wore her out, so she slept wonderfully, too.

All ready to go!

Beautiful girl in her Thanksgiving best.

A book with Gramma Dona

Where's my dinner?

The 6 Great-Grandchildren (2 more due in 2009)

[Dalton, Wyatt, Amelia, Cooper, Danica and Samantha]

Where Amelia's beautiful blue eyes come from - a 5 generation picture

[Great-Great-Grandma McConkey, Grandpa Tom, Dad, Amelia, Great-Grandma June]

Having so much fun!!

Terrific Thursday!

Yeah, yeah... I know it's Sunday, but whatever. I'm late.

Terrific Thursday... Thanksgiving Edition.

Mommy and Amelia on Thanksgiving.

Mommmm.... seriously, you shouldn't be feeding me mashed potatoes yet. Do not want!

Thanksgiving Day green bean and brown rice "casserole"

Easily entertained...

Amelia so fun to watch these days. She has this plastic shape-sorting toy in the living room that we can plop her in front of and she will play with it for quite a while. No shape sorting yet, but she likes to pull the pieces out of the bucket one at a time, taking a moment to inspect each one. We're convinced that she is destined to be an engineer, based on the way she looks at every little thing so closely, turning it around and over so she can inspect every bit of it.



But of course... her favorite toy of the moment is a plastic spoon. Not any specific one, just whichever I grab when we're out and about. You can see in the picture below that she was playing a bit of a modified golf game, using the spoon to move the ball around. She wanted to play with the ball, but she absolutely could not put that darn spoon down!




And also loves this pasta scoop spoon that was given to her at Daddy's conference last week. Weirdo.

Week 29

Amelia had a busy week. We got back from Boston on Tuesday and she spent Wednesday and Thursday at her Sitter's during the day.

Then on Friday, her Sitter had taken the day off. I had a team meeting in Columbus, so she spent the day on campus with Daddy! He took her with him on all of his errands around campus and introduced her to everyone. For his classes, he lectured briefly (with her assistance, of course) and showed a video. The students got a kick out of her presence.

On Saturday, she and I went to her first birthday party -- for her friend Gabby. Melissa (the mom) is a close friend, and we get invited to the "family party" every year on Michigan game Saturday. All of Melissa's family had fun playing with Amelia.

On Sunday, Amelia, Chris and I went to Dayton to visit my mom, who just had surgery the previous day. It was a surprise visit, and my mom loved seeing her. And Amelia loved showing off all of her newest skills!

Later on that day, we went to Fado back in Columbus, to watch the Columbus Crew (major league soccer) play in the MLS finals!

Amelia was excited for the day...

Go CREW!

Watching the game with Daddy...

And they WON!! YAY!

Amelia on her week-29 birthday:

Terrific Thursday!

Here's the bonus picture and video of the week! :)

Amelia was being extra wild and playful, when I was attempting to feed her sweet potatoes. It turned into a big mess-fest.

And a video of her laughing. It was taken with the camera, so it's a bit grainy.

She was being super-fussy in the airport, and I started making faces at her, which worked!

Click on this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUnqILdqkd4

Boston!

Last week, Amelia and I tagged along with Chris when he went to Boston for a conference.

She was great on the plane. She got her own seat, because it wasn't a full flight, and she seemed to think it to be a fun adventure!

And she quickly fell asleep. In fact, she only briefly cried when the bumpy landing woke her up!

The first day, we dropped off the bags at the hotel and took the metro into Boston. We had lunch at a restaurant called Durgin Park, by Faneuil Hall. My grandfather's family lives in Massachusetts, and when they'd visit, it was somewhat of a tradition to go into Boston to this restaurant. I got my family moment, and Chris got his table full of seafood! :)

We then took a trolley tour around the city. It was kind of a windy, rainy day, so this was a perfect opportunity to see the city. We hopped off at the USS Constitution and Amelia found a sailor friend that she liked.

Amelia fell asleep towards the end, and got a ride on Daddy to our next destination. We went into the North End, which is the Italian area of Boston.

Amelia and mommy in the North End.

On Sunday, we went on a harbor cruise. We stayed indoors and it was a nice opportunity to see the city from the other side.

Where is Amelia?

Happy baby.

On Monday, Chris was at his conference all day, so Amelia and I went to the New England Aquarium. She loves watching the fishies swim by and she seemed to enjoy the penguins, too. The only bad moment was when she knocked my map into the big tank! Ack -- but they told me it happens all the time.

This is how Amelia spent much of her time on this trip. Whenever she'd get fussy, I'd find a safe spot and put out a blanket and some toys, and she'd work out some of her boredom.

On Tuesday, we just went to the hotel that was hosting the conference and hung out while it finished up. We hung out and played on the floor while all of the attendees would walk by and praise Amelia for her cuteness. She really got a lot of attention in Boston! Everywhere we went, she was stopping traffic. And we got to join Daddy for a cooking demonstration and lunch.

The trip back was as uneventful as the trip out. She was asleep right after takeoff. Again, she didn't appreciate being woken up when we landed, but she went right back to sleep when we got home!

Week 28

Week 28....

It's really sad, but I can't recall what all went on last week before the weekend!

Amelia went on her first major trip last Saturday-Tuesday. I delayed blogging about it, because it's probably not the best idea to let everyone know you're going to be out of town. :)

I'll keep it for a separate post.

Here's her 28 week shot, taken in our hotel room:

Terrific Thursday!

As I promised! A mid-week post to tide you over until next week's update:

Don't you just want to chew my cheeks off?

Cuteness times two -- Lunch with Grandpa Larry

Amelia is sad....

She thinks no one has looked at her lovely 6 month pictures, since no one commented in the post.


My favorite... the only one she smiled in. You can see tooth #1 in the middle. Tooth #2 was just breaking through that day, and tooth #3 is breaking through now! Yikes.

Cue the Fanfare.... TA-DA!!

See the link below for Amelia's 6 month pictures!!

http://www.flickr.com/gp/26289742@N06/2ag584

I love love love them. She was not her usual smiley self, but they are beautiful nonetheless.

Funny Nap Story

So on the list of things you don't want around when your kid is having a much-needed nap (and new to this whole napping-at-home business), pretty high on the list would be.... marching bands? pack of harley davidsons revving their engines? fire trucks honking their horns? drum corps? bagpipes?

How about all of the above.

We finally got her down for a nap yesterday when the Veteran's Day parade came by - right by her window! We were thinking -- no big deal, how big can a parade in November be??

Well, there were 2 marching bands, 1 drum corps, 3 sets of motorcycles (she HATES harleys), 1 group of bagpipes, and 2 sets of fire trucks. Every time a loud group would come by, we'd look at the baby monitor in horror and hold our breath. And soon as we'd think we're safe, another thing would come along.

But she stayed asleep. It's like a whole new world in our house.

Week 27

Not much happened last week. Amelia has been getting over a cold, so we've kept her home as much as possible.

She's spent a lot of her time like this:

She loves rolling around on the carpet.

We did her 6-month pictures with Erica on Saturday. Our silly girl absolutely refused to smile for her. I got a first look at them yesterday and she has a smile in only ONE picture. And it's not a very big smile. Oh well, she looked beautiful anyway. I requested a few tweaks to the online viewing, and when it's done, I'll post the link on here. But they are just wonderful pictures.

Amelia at 27 weeks:

She loves to sit up on her own! Except she concentrates so hard on it that she doesn't smile much. :)

Many of you have commented that I post in bursts. Yeah, I get around to this about once a week and write several posts at once. Starting this week, I'm going to start "Terrific Thursdays", where I post a picture or two (or maybe a video!) mid-week to brighten your week.

Some more new stuff

So I showed her laughing in the last post -- that's one thing that's changed lately, she laughs more. If you haven't watched the video, I highly recommend it. It will brighten up your day. :)

I know I said months ago that I would no longer blog about sleep victories, for fear of cursing them, but my little girl deserves some congrats here. Recently we introduced identical "lovies" at her Sitter's house and here. Basically it's like a little soft blanket with a bunny head. She took to it immediately at Sue's, and we were hopeful that it would lead her to sleep somewhat as well at home as she does there. Well, there's no chance that she will ever take 2 hour naps at home, but a nap at all would be nice. It worked!! She has napped AT HOME IN HER CRIB the past 3 days, something she hasn't done in a month or two. And she is sleeping better at night. Basically, I can put her in bed somewhat awake and hand her the bunny, and she will go to sleep on her own.

Third big change is that she is now sitting up on her own. She can last about 10 minutes or so before she crashes, but it's progress. :)

"Wait, are you just going to leave me here??"

"Oh yeah, I forgot... this is FUN!"

Another fun thing is that she knows how to wave now. I doubt she knows what it means, but at her Sitter's house, they all wave hello and goodbye. So Amelia just raises her little hand to join in the fun. She'll even do it at home sometimes.

Finally, she's reached that age where she knows that if she raises her arms and whines, it's a good way of telling us that she wants to be picked up. It's rather cute.

Funniest Daddy Ever

Here's some long-promised video of our little girl laughing. Cutest baby ever!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNQ_JG3wBd4

Amelia is 6 Months Old Today!!

Her 6 Month Photo Shoot with Mom and Dad....

So Happy!

Wait, what? When did I get so old?!

Pretty Birthday Girl

At Sue's today, they were having "crazy sock day". So to go with her birthday dress, she wore her polka dotted leg warmers.

With her 6-month birthday gift. She loved her new highchair toy!

Happy 1/2 year birthday, little girl!!!

Amelia's 6-Month Doctor Visit

Today, Amelia had her 6-month baby well check. She is 15 pounds, 5.5 ounces (40th percentile) and 26.5 inches (73rd percentile). She hasn't been feeling well (has a cold), so we felt awful making her get her vaccinations, but it's part of becoming a big girl! :)

She was so active in the waiting room. I think she was just really enjoying having the undivided attention of both mommy and daddy. :)

Oh and the mirror was a definite plus. She loves to look at herself in the mirror and interact with herself.

Touching and kissing herself in the mirror.

And dancing with daddy.

Here's a little video of Amelia playing with herself: (taken on camera, so a bit grainy)

The appointment went well. Little girl is growing up so fast!

Weekend

This weekend, Amelia and I went to visit my family over in Dayton. Chris had a lot of work to do (on his classes, on the house), so he stayed behind. It was his first night away from Amelia since she was born. And he sure did miss us! But I'm sure he enjoyed his first uninterrupted night of sleep! :)

My dad and brother, with Amelia and her cousin Victoria.

The required "watching the cousins grow up together" photo:

Amelia and I went to church at the one that I grew up attending. They have a fancy cry room now, so we watched the service in comfort, without worrying about her making too much noise. She looked cute in her dress and leg warmers. :)

Halloween 2008

Happy Halloween from Amelia!!

After I picked her up from Sue's, we stopped at Walgreens, because they were taking pictures of kids in their costumes. They were not very equipped for a baby, so they ended up wheeling out an office chair for her to sit on. I held her until right before the picture was taken, and then grabbed her before she tipped over. :)

Amelia sat out on the front porch with us, to hand out candy. I took her to one house just a few houses down to trick or treat, so she could properly experience her first Halloween.