Weekend Fun!!

This weekend, we headed over to Dayton for a night. A friend from high school was having a post-wedding luau party, so of course we had to be there!

Dancing with Daddy:



Playing in the sand box:



She loved the sand box - she kept saying "weeee!" and throwing sand in the air. She will love our trip to the beach in 3 weeks! :)

But with that thick, curly hair of hers, it took a full day to get all of the sand out!

Then, we hung out with Grandma and Grandpa Roberts for a bit. She loved the play equipment that they had outside.



She kept trying to climb the slide from the bottom.





And then she kept digging around in this play tool bench they had.

Dancing with Grandpa:

The next day, we went to a fun event in Grandview - the Tour de Grandview. Did you know that in this little town, you can see a bike race filled with professional teams? Chris was totally excited, and I have to say I thought it was pretty cool, too. Amelia liked to see the racers fly by every couple of minutes.

Weekend Fun - Part 2 - Father's Day!!

Happy Father's Day from Amelia to her Daddy, grandpas, and great-grandpas!

The day started off with snuggles, cards and gifts:

Amelia's sitter sent home the CUTEST gift that Amelia helped with:

Amelia and Daddy played and shared kissies:

And then posed for a picture before we left for church:

Later, we decided it would be the perfect day to figure out if our little sailboat was ready to sail!

Looking good!

We invited some friends out, and the 2 dads took out the boat for it's maiden voyage (in many years at least):

Another great weekend day!

Weekend Fun - Part 1

What a great weekend!

On Friday night, it was just us girls, because Daddy was running his first 5k down in Columbus.

On Saturday, we picked up Amelia's best friend (and his mommy) to check out a kid's museum in Lancaster - http://www.aha4kids.org/

The kids made eyes at each other in the car...

And then they splashed together at the water table...

And Amelia explored...

And played with Daddy...

And cuddled with Mommy...

And played dress-up!

It was a great day.

Big News!

I know that I owe you a weekend post (before the next one arrives!), but we have breaking news from the Fink house!

You know my kid is not walking. No desire whatsoever. She crawls, pulls to standing, creeps along furniture, etc.

As requested by Grandma Cathy, here's an example of why she doesn't walk - she's too proficient at crawling - especially with her little "kick-stand" crawl (staying upright, leaving her hands open for other stuff): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0U5m4wp0AOg

Well, on Saturday, she stood up from a seated position two times without any assistance. Okay... progress...

On Monday, she stood independently a few times (staying up when we let go), for about 30 seconds at a time:


[She's not usually hanging out in just a diaper - she'd been finger painting]

She still would drop and crawl when she decided it was time to move. And she's spent the past 2 nights standing several times, both staying up when we let go and also standing up without assistance.

Well tonight, she took 1 solid step before losing confidence and dropping down. And she did it TWICE! So I guess we call that her first steps? It's progress anyhow. She's figuring out that she CAN do it, and she still needs to figure out if she WANTS to do it.

So behind!

I'm SO behind on my blogging, I don't know where to start!

I'm just going to start with an apology (sorry!) and a few random pictures that don't fit in other posts.

Amelia sticky with the pumpkin butter that grandma and grandpa brought us:

A crying little strawberry girl:

Wearing mommy's new glasses [suddenly she looks a bit like me -HA!]:

Chatting with Grandma Cathy just before bathtime [she steals my phone and accidently calls my parents quite often]:

Video-conferencing via Skype with Gramma D [Gramma's showing her a horsie]:

Swim Classes!

Amelia is enrolled in the "Whales Tails" class at the local pool for the next 6 weeks. We were a bit nervous at first that she may not like it, and the beginning of the first class was a tiny bit rough.... but it's going GREAT!

She's just not a fan of acclimating to the water temperature.

She loves getting in the water with Mommy or Daddy, smiling widely at everyone. She loves her teachers. She has a great time.

Now for the pictures and videos! :)

"You won't drop me, right Daddy?"

"This isn't so bad...."

"Whoa there - where am I going?"

Video 1 - Still a bit nervous.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSiR7jFtepU

"Wait a minute... this is great!"

Video 2 - Loving it! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FC19OBwqhQ8

Happy baby!!

Wait... is she walking without assistance? Why yes she is! Must be too distracted to realize.

"Ack! The fountain got me!"

Video 3 - I'm outta here! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdppRi51Dks

Weekend Fun!! [Part 2]

Pictures!

Getting a ride from Grandpa around downtown:



All dressed up for church:



Checking out a cool singer and doing some dancing:

Gnawing on mommy's corn cob:

Eating ice cream with Grandma!!

Eating ice cream with Grandpa!!

Pictures!

No, these aren't the pics from the weekend post (still waiting on a few from my mom)...

These are leftover from my birthday. We went to the zoo!

Petting and combing a little goat:

First time riding the train!

Weekend Fun! [Part 1]

This post will come in two parts, because the camera full of pictures is somewhere between Findlay and home right now. But it's been several days since an update, so I need to share!

We had a great weekend! My parents came over for some Amelia-loving. She was so excited to see her grandparents and show off her new tricks!

Friday night, my mom and I went to see "A Chorus Line", while the men put the kid to bed and watched the Stanley Cup final.

Saturday morning, we went down to check out the farmer's market after Amelia's morning nap. We grabbed some awesome sandwiches from 12 South Deli, in Delaware, and Amelia entertained/annoyed a diner-full of patrons. After another nap, we just hung out at the house for some nice family time.

On Sunday, we had a bit of a rocky start. Amelia's morning nap was a big fat FAIL. She just kept chatting up a storm with herself, shrieking "daddy!" every few minutes. You see, he had gone for the day, and super-smart Amelia knew something was missing. All day it was "Daddy!!!". We gave up, and Amelia, mommy, and the grandparents went to church and to lunch. At church, she was in rare form -- yelling, throwing things, spitting out food, etc. But, we got her home, and she took a major afternoon nap. Later, we checked out a small arts event in Delaware. We came home, and about a dozen "daddy!"s later, Amelia went to sleep soundly.

Where was Daddy!? He was up in Michigan at the Nascar race with HIS daddy. They were guests of the Kellogg racing folks, and he got to see their team WIN from the pit!

Amelia had an awesome time with her grandparents. She became quite the giver at the kissies, which had previously just been reserved for mom and dad. With much practice with Grandma, she said "Amma" once (attempting "grandma"). She crawled with such ferociousness that her knees are bruised! She was quite the entertainer.

But one area that she is NOT happy in... she will not share her bean bag chair! If you dare sit on Amelia's bean bag, she will grab/claw/scream... whatever it takes to get you off. :)

**We have a Winner!!**

I used Random.org this morning to draw the winner for the lovely coaster that Amelia painted.

We had 8 entries, including an honorary entry for Amelia's Great-Grandma Maul. Hey, she knows how to access the internet and get on the blog, which is more than I can say for most great-grandma's in the world! I can forgive her for not figuring out how to comment. :)
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The winner is Amelia's friend Joey!! Congrats, Joey ~ you get a coaster for your sippy cup! And yes, we can schedule a painting play date any time you want!

Yesterday was also my birthday. You saw how great my weekend was, so it was amazing to still have a birthday to look forward to. Chris brought me breakfast in bed in the morning. I worked a half day, and then headed out to enjoy the afternoon. I finally cashed in a massage gift certificate that I had received, and did a little bit of shopping. Then, we picked up Amelia early and took her to the zoo! We finished out the day checking out Graffiti Burger [officially- best burger I've ever had] and coming home to open my presents. I got the new watch I'd been hoping for! :)

All-in-all, an awesome day. So you could say that I'm the winner, too!

Oh yeah, and our awesome new sitter helped Amelia make the sweetest card and they picked out a birthday balloon for me. And she gave me a card with some adorable pictures of Amelia enjoying their adventures. I will have to scan some in to share!

Weekend Fun!

And what a fun weekend it was!!

My 30th birthday is coming up very soon, so Chris got a big group of my friends together for some festivities on Saturday. But this is Amelia's blog, so I will keep it relevant to her experience. :)

We started the day with 7 adults and 3 kiddos meeting up at the Columbus Arts Festival. My favorite local band was playing, and so we hung out and enjoyed that. Amelia danced, as usual.

Dancing and spinning with daddy:



Afterwards, we went over to the kid's area and the kids all painted and colored some lovely creations.

We split up mid-day and everyone went off to give kids naps and relax a bit. The Fink car did a lap around 270 to give Amelia her afternoon nap!

Our plans for the evening involved Chris and I finally having our first night away from Amelia. We got a hotel downtown, and stopped there after Amelia's nap to get cleaned up for dinner.

Amelia enjoyed rolling around on the bed:


Then we went to a fabulous dinner at Cafe Bella. This part was a surprise for me. We had 16 adults and 5 kids all out on a beautiful patio space. Chris had worked out a great set menu for dinner - plates and bowls full of food kept showing up and everyone was happy and well-fed.

Feeding Michelle some pasta:


Enjoying some birthday cake:

So after a wonderful dinner, it was time for Amelia to head home. So what were her plans? She had a girls' slumber party with our friends Melissa and Gabby! They watched videos and played with barbies, and stayed up way late, until Amelia finally begged for sleep. :)

A few of us then headed to walk around the Columbus Gallery Hop. My first time (I think) in about a year and a half! It was fun, but a bit overwhelming to see how much it's changed since we last Hopped!

The ironic part of the story is that our night away, a glorious opportunity to get great sleep and wake up on our own terms did not go quite that well. We had some inconsiderate hotel neighbors and were repeatedly woken between 2-4am. Oh well!

So today, we spent the day (all 3 of us) catching up on a little sleep and just generally taking it easy. We all 3 napped at the same time for maybe the first time ever. :)

Later, we spent a little time outside gardening [we have about 20 or so pots with veggies, fruit, herbs and flowers growing] and cleaning off the sailboat.

Amelia likes to pick flowers outside:

It's funny that my birthday is still a couple of days away and I can say that it has been the best birthday of my life! I have a wonderful family and fantastic friends that all made me feel so special. :)