Oh my... a first.

For the first time, we went in to get Amelia after she woke from a nap and she was sitting upright in her crib. She can sit up just fine and even catch herself from tipping over very well, but she's never ended up sitting from a laying position before.

We're in trouble. It's a good thing Chris lowered the mattress on the crib last week, she would have been awfully close to the top!

We determined that she rolled over onto her knees (to practice crawling) and then ended up in a seated position.

And she's taken single "steps" in crawling -- one movement forward and then she ends up planting her face into the ground. Eek. She's way too close.

Christmas Pictures

Here's the pics we had taken at JcPenney. These are scanned in, so excuse the quality of the images.

Merry Christmas from Bambino!







Since it's hard to tell... In the first two, she is wearing her Christmas dress. In the other three, she is wearing a Christmas tree shirt and jeans.

34 Week Old!

Amelia was 34 weeks old on Monday! I really love this picture....


A great shot of her teeth. She has 4 now! The first on the top was the left one and it's showing really well. The right one on top just started cutting through last week and is starting to show its little head now.

And proof that we're in trouble very soon.... she's starting to try to crawl. She gets up on all fours and does the rocking motion that they tell you to look for. Baby-proofing is the next item on our list!

Eating Updates

Amelia is still nursing or having formula several times per day, but is getting increasingly interested in other eating.

An average day looks like this in terms of other eating (not milk/formula)....

Between 7-8am - Has breakfast with mommy banana bits and cheerios. I'm still feeding her at this point, because she can pick up the cheerios, but they don't make it into her mouth usually. She also eats cheerios at other points in the day, just as a little snack.

Between 10am-noon - Lunch veggies and fruit. Lately she has been eating about 6-8 cubes of food (3-4 oz.). I've started making combinations of fruits or veggies she already likes, as well as re-introducing a few things she didn't like so much in the past (mashed avocado and pureed banana). We also added peas and pears.

Between 4:30-5:30pm - Dinner veggies and fruit. Lately she has been eating about 6-8 cubes of food (3-4 oz.).

So, in addition to milk/formula, she eats a lot during the day.

Amelia has also tried a few other things lately....

Pizza crust (inspired by her younger cousin, Victoria) -

Rice at Pei Wei (this was a first, and she chowed down!) -

This is just during Chris's (and Amelia's Sitter's) Christmas break. Once she goes back to Sue's, we'll probably attempt to continue the breakfast fun, since she seems to like it so much. Also, she just seems to eat more veggies at Sue's, like what we typically would give her in an entire day (plus she still gets dinner at home). We'll be sending fruit with her now, too.

Week 34

Last week was a busy one, with Christmas, and all of it's festivities. We ended out the week with some fun activities, though.

Friday -- Amelia, Chris, my dad, my brother's family, and I went to the childrens science museum in Dayton.

Amelia played with the water table with her daddy and the other kids.

Amelia, Monica and I waiting to watch the otter feeding.

Amelia was also treated to a trombone concert from Grandpa. It was her first time seeing it up close, and she really didn't know what to think....

On Saturday, we had lunch as a big family, to celebrate Paul's birthday. Then the family headed back home.

On Sunday, we went to the zoo with our friends. We got a zoo membership as a Christmas present, and we upgraded it to allow us to bring guests! [Friends/family, keep that in mind!].

We went to see the animals, as well as the "Wildlights" Christmas lights. One nasty woman loudly commented about having Amelia out in the cold, but does she look cold to you?

Amelia seemed to really enjoy the Christmas lights, and always likes seeing the animals.

Christmas Wrap Up

So I didn't really talk in my previous posts about how Christmas Day went for Amelia. She woke up kind of on the "wrong side of the crib", so to speak. Not in a good mood whatsoever. She is in the midst of a cold and the cough makes for not very consistent sleep.

After 2 failed attempts at a nap in the morning, finally I held her for about a half hour while she slept. That was a bit stressful, because Chris and I always do the cooking (at my parents house), but he had it covered and I got to watch a sleeping baby.... the best thing in the world.

Amelia woke up from that nap pretty happy, so we opened presents with Grandma and Grandpa Roberts. She mostly opened gifts from Mom, Dad and Santa, saving the Grandma and Grandpa gifts for opening with her cousins later. Chris and I worked on Christmas dinner, while Grandma and Grandpa (and later, Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa) played with her.

She started getting fussy later and we got worried. Thankfully, she went down for an awesome nap, allowing Chris and I to finish cooking the meal. Jeff (my brother) arrived with his family, including 6 of Amelia's cousins. Amelia kept napping, not waking until after we'd all eaten. Yay!

Amelia had a great time watching the other kids playing. Jeff's kids are awesome siblings, and love babies. They each took turns holding and playing with Amelia.

She didn't get to partake in the Christmas dinner, but she was eating on and off all day (like the rest of us!), having milk, cheerios, banana pieces, banana puffs (from Jeff's family), pureed green beans, and pureed pumpkin and sweet potato mix. Plenty of yummy foods for our little girl!

She went to bed, exhausted, not long after everyone left. I kept worrying that she would not sleep well, since she was a bit over-stimulated and because of the cold, but she only woke once.

All of Amelia's family and friends did a great job at Christmas this year. She got some great toys to play with. I'll do a follow-up post about all that next week.

Amelia enjoyed opening gifts, but I think her favorite part was the bows on top. :)

Terrific Thursday!

Two more shots to finish out the day...

Oh, and I'm mad at myself. I meant to have all of Amelia's official Christmas pictures ready to post on here on Christmas day (figuring that anyone that was getting one would have it by now). And I forgot all about it. They're at home on my desktop computer. Sorry!

Christmas Day

Warning.... Amelia had 3 outfit changes today (post-pajamas). It's just how a fashionable lady does Christmas. She had to wear her 3 Christmas outfits.

1. A lazy morning outfit, for opening presents in the morning. Says "Baby's First Christmas"...

2. Her Christmas dress...

Playing with one of her new toys:

3. A casual outfit, for hanging out after Christmas dinner...

With Mom, Grandma and Great-Grandma:

Another "watching the cousins grow up together" picture with her cousin,

Victoria (3 weeks younger):

And at the end of the day, she spent a few moments on the web-cam with her Gramma D. Our friend, Christine, enjoyed some web-cam time last week. If any other family/friends want to see what all of the fuss is about, all you have to do is ask! :)

Merry Christmas from Bambino!!

And a very Happy New Year!!!

On the Twelfth Day of Christmas...

... on Thursday ...

Amelia got a stuffed Columbus Crew cat!

Christmas Eve

Before heading to Dayton, we shared with the kitties their Christmas stocking. Bella is hiding, for some reason. So Penny had all of the fun.


Then, at my parents' house, first we helped put up the tree.




And then we went to the church Christmas pageant. Amelia seemed to love watching all of the kids running around and such, and Grandpa Larry gave her a great birds-eye view of the action, standing together in the side aisle about halfway up.

Then, it was time to go back home and wait for Santa!

On the Eleventh Day of Christmas...

...On Wednesday...

Amelia got a stuffed carrot rattle from the fair trade store here in Delaware.
She picked it out on her own (shaking it wildly, entertaining the other customers) while on a shopping expedition with her Daddy, so of course "Santa" had to pop in there and get it for her.

She loves that thing!

On the Tenth Day of Christmas....

...On Tuesday...

Amelia got her first My Little Pony!

I loved them when I was a kid. The other day, randomly Chris and I were having drive-thru McDonald's (we never go there...) and I saw that this was the toy with the happy meals, so of course I had to get one for my little girl. :)

Week 33

No updates needed... I've been posting enough recently!

So, just some lovely week 33 birthday pictures.

Wow... I'm quite bloggy tonight...

I've posted 7 messages, not counting this one.

I've posted more entries this month than there has been days so far!

I guess there's just a lot going on. I love Christmas regardless, always been a favorite of mine, but Christmas with an active baby is the best!

I love my kid.

More Christmas Fun

After church today, Chris and I had tickets to see Grease, the musical, here in town. So, we met up with our friend, Melissa, and her 7 year old daughter, Gabby and handed off Amelia. They were more than excited for another opportunity to hang out with Amelia. Melissa dotes on Amelia and Gabby loves to hang out with her, like an older sister.

They gave Amelia her Christmas present - bean bag chair. Now I know what you're thinking... that's not safe... there's no belt on that to keep her from falling out?! But Amelia always loved hanging out in Gabby's bean bag and would literally sit there and hang out for an hour without figeting. So, they decided she needed one of her own. With supervision, why not. :)


So today, Gabby turned on cartoons and they sat in their bean bags together.... and then they played with barbies.... and then they rolled around on Gabby's bed. They had a blast. Forget charging me for babysitting, I think they'd PAY us for the opportunity!

The Christmas Play...

Today, Chris, Amelia and I played the "Holy Family" in our church Christmas play. It is a LONG time tradition that the youngest baby born that year is asked to play Jesus. Amelia isn't the youngest, but she was the only baby of the 3 that was available!

Amelia did great in all of the rehearsals. She definitely forgot what it is like to be a teeny-tiny newborn, so she was entertaining all with her "singing", sitting up independently, and babbling over people when they'd try to say their lines. But no one seemed to care.

Today, we attempted to give her a nap between the last practice and the service, but as usual, all of her admirers were giving her too much attention.

And, of course, she decided it was nap time just about five minutes before we were due to start our processional up to the stage. She was screaming her little head off, with no bouncy movements or pacifiers doing the trick. I thought quickly and retrieved the bunny that she uses to sleep with (thank goodness we had it!!). Immediately, she let go and went to sleep. So then "Mary" had her sleeping babe, just as was written in the scripture, and I had 16 pounds of dead weight on my left arm for about 30 minutes. But hey, it did the trick.

She woke up towards the end, and still got to entertain the crowd with her perky, smiling self.

Here is the "Holy Family", just before the performance (I didn't have my head thingey on yet, oops). You can see she is beginning to not be happy anymore....

On the Eighth Day of Christmas...

... on Sunday...

Amelia got her own little Christmas tree!

I saw this at Lowe's in clearance for $0.75 and I couldn't resist! :) It's real, so we'll attempt to plant it in the backyard at some point.

On the Seventh Day of Christmas....

... on Saturday...

Amelia got a new bib! She needs plastic bibs for her messy eating, and a few of the originals are getting a bit tattered. So this princess needed a "Princess" bib.

Daycare Christmas Fun

Amelia had two big days at her Sitter's house this week. I know, she's wearing the same shirt in all of these pictures. That's because she and Cami were supposed to wear their matching t-shirts on Wednesday, but Cami was sick, so we did a re-do on Friday.

Amelia and her BFF Cami (9 months)

Then, all the little kiddos bring each other little gifts for the Holidays. Amelia got her buddies a little stocking with some Christmas stickers and a photo ornament for their mommy or daddy to put their picture in.

Gifts from Charlie - a santa book and a vibrating santa toy

Gifts from Chase - A bucket with her name on it and snowman blanket, bowls, spoon/fork, bib and cup.

Gifts from Cooper and Cami - Christmas book, vibrating snowman, and a cd of their favorite kids songs.

Gifts from Emerson and Jonas - DVD of Christmas classics and Christmas socks

Gift from Sue (her sitter) - Little Tikes PDA (cell phone)!
Amelia loves my cell phone (so much that my parents have already gotten 2 prank calls from her), so this is pretty cool. :)

Yeah, there are a lot of kids listed above, but many are siblings or cousins, and all but 1 go only part time!

On the Sixth Day of Christmas....

... on Friday...

Amelia got a rattle toy!

She loves to shake it like a maraca and then shriek.