Terrific Thursday!

Sorry, forgot to post this.

Just a bit of Amelia-cuteness for you...

Poor Amelia....

Please keep little Bambino in your thoughts/prayers.... it seems as though she is fighting her first real illness, beyond the various infections/colds that she has gotten.

She had one of those sicky colds earlier in January and it was just starting to go away. On Thursday, she slept an unusually long period of time at her Sitter's house, like on and off from 10-4. She was eager to go to bed early, too, but no other real symptoms. On Friday, when I got to Sue's to pick her up, she was very warm and had been sleeping again for the better part of the day.

We brought her home and took her temperature - 102.7! Her very first fever. She took fluids well, but wasn't a fan of solid food last night and today. She did not sleep so great last night - up to eat 2 times. This morning, her temp was 101.1, and she was still quite sleepy. At bedtime, her temp was 100.8. So she was definitely making some improvement there.

About 3 hours after she went to bed tonight, she woke up quite upset. Any attempts that I made to feed her were a miserable failure - she just kept screaming and pulling on her ears. She finally went back to bed, but hasn't had a lot to eat in the past several hours. We're thinking that she has an ear infection, and are planning to take her to urgent care in the morning. She has her 9-month pediatrician appointment on Monday night, but unless she wakes up back to normal, that seems too far away.

As usual, our little girl is trying her hardest to be happy. She played with her toys and crawled around having fun...

She even had an extra bath in the middle of the day! It wasn't as fun as usual.

But a funny story.... She loves her bathtime and the time they spend together makes it Chris's favorite part of the day, too. During her bedtime bath, they always play with her rubber duckies. As you can see in the above picture, she likes to gnaw on them - that one especially.

Tonight, Chris was pretending to chew on it, too, and it made her laugh SO hard. It started out with him reaching for it and putting it up to his mouth, but then she started reaching over and putting it to his mouth and laughing and pulling away, and then doing it again, over and over. So funny! It's great to see her pick up on things and playing games with us.

New Update... part 2

Forgot one thing... Amelia has become a pro at the sippy cup. She prefers the kind with handles and slurps down water whenever we give it to her.

Today she did the funniest thing. She was crawling around my office, and suddenly - jail break! She took off for the bathroom. She kept peeking back at me, as if she was preparing for me to chase her. Then she took off towards the stairs, and as I chased after her, she was crawling so fast and giggling so hard. She was trying to entice me into a game and it worked!

She's so interactive and playful now, it's great. She likes it when Chris or I grab her and run around the house - she'll laugh and laugh, peeking back at the other parent like "wow, this is so much fun!". And she loves bouncing around on our shoulders, too.

While I'm happy to see her learning new things and all, I'm nervous that my teeny baby is growing up too fast!

New Update

I know I've previously mentioned that Amelia says Mama and Dada. Even better - without fail, she says Dada repeatedly when she wakes up (Chris gets her the majority of the time) and Mama repeatedly when she wants to eat (I feed her the majority of the time). So does she use it referring to us, or referring to the need we meet?

Well yesterday I think we got confirmation of that. She crawled over to me (not at a normal eating time), and tugged on my pant leg, with a pitiful "Mama Mama..." until I picked her up. A moment that will melt your heart..... :)

Today, after getting off the phone with Chris (they had a little chat), she said "Dada Dada...". Oh and the way her face lights up when he comes home from work.... it's priceless. I don't get quite that same look when I pick her up from Sue's, and I wish I did!

Another new thing is that she loves bananas in all forms - most recently preferring them straight from the peel. If you hold it for her, she will munch it down, one bite at a time.

Week 38

Amelia is 38 weeks old today!

Here are some favorites from her weekly birthday photo shoot!

Check out this last one.... she looks like she has a beer belly (err... milk belly?)!

Weekend Fun

On Saturday, we went to another birthday party! This time, for Amelia's friend, Joey, who turned TWO! She had a ball with the other kiddos there.

Today is Joey's official big day - Happy Birthday!

Look at the way she's looking at him :)

Daddy giving Amelia a ride on Joey's airplane

I love the way she has her arm out like that - totally like she's saying: "buddy, this aint no tunnel of love, back off".

According to his Mom, Joey was walking around later looking for "Ameer" (his name for Amelia). That is the cutest thing ever.

New Look... Try 2

I got a few comments about the little green boxes in the (old) new background, so I swapped it up again. I was feeling the same thing, but I hadn't found another background that I liked, until now. It took a few minor changes (color-wise) to the header and voila!

This will be the last change (except maybe updated pics in the header) for a while!

Friday Night

We were supposed to have a visitor this weekend, but her trip was unfortunately cancelled. :(

To make the best of it, we decided to throw caution to the wind, and take Amelia out past her bedtime last night. The last couple times we've attempted that, we've gotten screams the whole way home (remember Cleveland in August, Michelle?! ugh).

Chris's college hockey team was playing at Bowling Green (about 90 mins away), so we decided to go! We primed the situation by getting right on the road after picking her up from the Sitter's, and sure enough, she fell asleep in the car for a good hour of the trip. So then it was around 6:30pm and I hopped in the back and fed her some veggies to keep her happy. Once we were inside, we figured she'd be happy as a clam, for the first part at least, because she loves crowds.

First, she was like "where am I at 7pm - this is not my crib"

Then she was like *yawn* "this isn't so bad.... those guys look kinda funny moving around like that..."

And then she started really noticing all the fun people around us, and they noticed her (cue the "oh my goodness, she's so cuuuuute!") and voila - Amelia is in her element. She's so vain.

She was checking out the little boy behind us (like her mama, prefers older men).

We fed her various things throughout the game, to keep her extra happy. She really seemed to have a great time.

And then comes the much-feared trip home....

As we got on the road, I sat in the back and fed her as much as she would take from a bottle. Then Chris pulled off and I hopped in the front. She went right to sleep and slept the whole way back. She woke up, quite upset, but I fed her and put her to bed.

So, she finally got in bed at 11pm, almost 4 hours past when she usually does, but she had gotten 2 serious naps already. She slept just fine last night, until 7:30 this morning (and we were thankful that it wasn't her usual 6:30).

Wow, okay okay....

Thanks for the nice comments! I will definitely be continuing the blog. I was just kidding, you know? Sometimes a girl needs a little validation for her efforts. :)

I know that Bambino has fans across the US (and according to my stat counter, across the globe) - family and friends that depend on this to keep up-to-date on her life. Most "fans" are silent, but we get a few regular commenters! Thank you everyone. We love our kid and we love sharing her with you.

Seems silly to do a "Terrific Thursday" post at this point, but I'll follow this one up with a fun story about last night!

Blogger On Strike....

Not sure if anyone noticed, but I didn't post a Terrific Thursday post yesterday. That is punishment for no one commenting on my new blog header and background. Until I get 1 comment - just 1 - there will be no posts.

:: off to cry in my cheerios ::

Week 37

I've already blogged about the other days in this past week, so we're just left with telling you about our super-fun day OFF today!

Amelia and I went to the mall and met up with our friends, Melissa and Gabby. We started off with the play area, which had mixed results. First, she had fun playing with Gabby.


Then, she was OVER it!



I think she was just overwhelmed... getting to the mall in a not-so-great mood, being tossed to Melissa while I unloaded, dozens of kids running around, Gabby desperate for her attention.... it was all a bit much.

We walked around and she cheered back up, thriving under the attention of Melissa. She appreciated not being forced to stay in her stroller. :)

We had a fun time at the mall, despite the bits of drama! Thanks to our friends!

Amelia at 37 weeks old...

Sunday Fun

We've had a fun weekend in the Fink house!

For Christmas, Amelia got her daddy a gift certificate for the local "paint your own pottery" shop, as an idea for a fun day together. On Sunday, the 3 of us went to use the certificate. We made a coaster for daddy's coffee mug at work, a Christmas ornament (a belated idea for a yearly tradition), a coaster for mommy, and one more secret item.

Amelia was being a moody artist. We pictured handing her a brush and letting her go to town, even using her hands to smear some abstract art. She wasn't a huge fan of our expectations. What finally worked was Chris holding her in his lap, giving her the brush, and him holding the item up while she waved the brush around.

It's not fantastic art, but that's the point. :)

Rest of Saturday

Amelia was invited to her buddy, Carrick's 1st birthday party.

As you can see from the first half of Saturday post, her hair is getting quite long on top (oh, but not the back...!). So, we decided to go against her "signature" look, of parted hair with one of her (dozens of) little clippies.

It was awfully cute in person, but I'm not a big fan. I think it'll just be an occasional look. :)

She definitely had fun at the party. There were other kids for her to play with, and even a doggy to chase around. Daddy gave her a ride in C's toy wagon.

And she demonstrated how she's ready for her next milestone, by pulling herself up on things. . Apparently, she decided that she wasn't growing up fast enough!

And then the cake came out... cue the breakdown! Amelia got super-sleepy really fast and was read to go. She did have a bit of mommy's cake.

Party pooper!

Amelia Crawling!

Here's a video of Amelia crawling. She's been doing it this consistently for 5 days now.

She really gets going if she has something she wants to get to - in this case, a set of keys.

She's kinda crawling funny in this video, because her pj's are too big and are bunched at her feet.

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-G-NinNj-Iw

Saturday Fun

Amelia woke to the news that Grandma Cathy and Grandpa Larry were making an impromptu visit today, but alas, it got called off due to Grandma waking up not feeling so great.

So we decided that today would be good for hanging out in our pj's and getting some stuff done around the house.

Amelia proceeded to crawl into her pile of toys, with Bella looking in on the fun from above. One thing on our list is to transfer that pile of toys into Amelia's new toy box! Oh well, that can wait for another day...

Next (after a nap) .... I had some veggies to puree for Amelia. With her current eating, I have to do it almost every weekend to keep up! So I plunked her in her high chair and went to work, while letting her feed herself lunch. She ate tofu chunks covered in graham cracker crumbs, peach chunks, and cheerios. She was also snacking on some of the veggies I had cooked: peas, carrots and green beans. Basically, she sat there, happily eating for like an hour while I was working. As you can see, she's at the point now that she can eat a lot of things by herself in chunks, but I'm still making purees because it's easier and faster at feeding time.

And then she served as my official taster. :)

All in a good day's work.... [that's tofu on her chin]

Then, she had some fun playing with her toys and did some awesome crawling [video to be posted next!].

Finally, she crashed for her afternoon nap. We have a birthday party for her friend, Carrick, in an hour, so she should be nicely refreshed and ready to go!

Terrific Thursday!

Excuse me... who are you??

And some adventures in nakey-baby mirror time....

Eeek... we have a crawler!

About 3 weeks ago, Amelia started getting on all fours and doing the rocking motion that babies do, when they are trying to crawl. About 2 weeks ago, she started taking crawling "steps", as I call them - one or two motions forward - before falling on her face. Last week, she was able to go a few "steps" forward, and could return to a seated position without falling flat.

As of last night, I'm officially labelling Amelia a crawler. She crawled 10 feet across the room without falling, returned to a seated position, and was tugging on the cords to the DVD player - all in a span of about 30 seconds. I was uncertain that this was the big thing, until she did it for Chris and he totally freaked out. I said "oh yeah, she did that earlier....". Chris: "Why didn't you tell me she was crawling like that?!". Yeah, okay, this is the big moment, huh :)

She doesn't do the best crawling motion. She likes to stick one leg out a lot, but she figures it out and pulls it back in. I'll have to post pictures.

I guess we'll be baby-proofing this weekend!

And not thinking that she was done for the night, she decided to push herself up from the floor. She had her feet and her hands planted on the ground, but her head down and her bottom up and her legs completely straight. Kind of like the classic yoga pose "downward facing dog", but her feet and hands only a few inches apart.

She's done that several more times today. Weirdo.

Week 36

Amelia had a great week last week, despite her little tongue boo-boo and her cold.

Gramma D came on Thursday and stayed through Monday, so she got TONS of attention! Her mommy and daddy got a much needed night away, too, which is usually hard to come by at $10/hour babysitting! [Ugh.]

Chris is back teaching the Spring semester, but I know that he really enjoyed his time with Amelia. It was so hard for us to send her back to Sue's after 2 weeks off!

Pictures from her 36-week birthday!

Smartest Kid Ever

Amelia did the cutest thing today.

Chris was reading her a book for the first time today and there was a section that went something like "... clap your hands 5 times... 1-2-3-4-5". He put the book down to clap and she clapped along right away! She's clapped before, but this was just so cute that she was so quick to join in and seemed to understand what the book was asking of her. :)

We got it on video, so we'll post it at some point, but here's a pic to tide you over...


Other developments in Amelia-land....

- Still working hard to crawl.

- Eating various table foods. She'll eat pretty much anything I give her, though we're still steering very clear of potential allergy items and haven't introduced meat yet, either. She chowed down on tofu today!

- Looking around things to see something hidden behind it.

- She knows what "kitties" means! Gramma asked Amelia where the kitties were (thinking they weren't in the room) and Amelia turned and looked right at Bella (who was sitting off to the side).

- She recognizes her favorite book, even without seeing it. All I have to do is start reciting it and she gets a HUGE smile on her face.

- She recognizes the songs from her favorite DVD (Baby Signing Time, vol. 2)

- Today, she kept tapping her chest when we showed her a picture of herself. Then, she got SUPER excited to see a picture of herself with her mommy and daddy.

Another "Big Girl" Change

We put away Amelia's infant tub this weekend. It was nice and convenient to be able to bathe her in the kitchen sink, but she was just getting too big.

See, she filled the thing!

And then she started sitting up in the tub...

So Gramma D brought Amelia a new tub. It goes in our regular bathtub and Amelia loves to sit up in it, playing with her toys, splashing away! :)

Poor Peanut...

Amelia started freaking out on me yesterday. I finally saw that she has a white/yellow raised area on her tongue.

Today, Chris and I each had an appointment at our Dentist. Amelia wanted to show off her FIVE teeth, so Dr. Shults peered in her mouth, just to check them to make sure they are coming in okay. She determined that Amelia must have chomped down on her tongue, because she could see the outline of teeth. She said that we just have to wait it out for it to heal.

Amelia's not acting like anything's up, but she's definitely more fussy about eating anything too crunchy (she loves crunchy things). So we'll hold off on that stuff for now, and maybe give her some cold stuff to suck on, instead. She's definitely still trying to be happy (which is a lot to ask, since she has a cold, too!), and it helps that Gramma D is in town, giving her TONS of attention!

On a side note, Chris took her in to her Pediatrician to get weighed and she's now 16 lbs, 12.5 ounces! I thought she would be heavier, with the way she's eaten lately, but only had an inaccurate measurement from our home scale. She's not even gained a pound and a half in 2 months.

Little peanut, as "Auntie" Michelle would say.

Terrific Thursday!

Crazy play time!

Fun new hat!

Look at that face!!

Ta-Da!!

Amelia's now in her big girl pajamas!

This is her 3rd mode of sleeping in her life. Following the progression, she's been... first, swaddled in her miracle blanket... second, unswaddled in a "sleep sack" [still gave her the feel of being swaddled]... and finally now, she's in fleece footed pajamas. Our last attempt at this failed miserably a few months ago - she absolutely would not sleep in them.

It's nice, because we can bring her downstairs in her pj's and let her play, without getting her all dressed for the day quite yet.

And she looks so darn cute in them...

... and the best part - some have characters on the bottom, which is extra fun when she turns over to practice crawling. :)

'Nuff Said...

Amelia's opinion on OSU's loss....


"You should have put me in, coach! I was all stretched out and ready to go!"