Update

Amelia is such a chatterbox lately!

This weekend, she picked up a version of Grandma = "amma" and Grandpa = "ampa" (3 guesses as to who was visiting!) and airplane = "airpay". We count words and add them to her list when she seems to understand them in context, and not just be repeating us.

And she repeated her hollering at her buddy "Joeeeeeey!!!". This one is funny, because she doesn't have a sibling or an animal that she calls by name (calls both kitties "kitty-cat"). So it's cool to see her pick up on other names and actually attribute them correctly, other than just mommy and daddy.

And for the first time in a few months, we tried the nursery at the church again, and it worked like a charm! She played with the other kids and had a great time. A few times we heard hollering coming from the nursery and one of us would go and peek in.... and there was Amelia in her little dress, playing with the toys, completely oblivious to the drama around her.

Picture Day!

With her new fishie from Uncle Brent!


In a berry-induced transe:

Crazy hair!

Amelia and her awesome chair:

Amelia and her Leopard friend:

She loves a good ice cream cone!

A daily routine... jumping on Daddy

Amelia's decided that she likes corn on the cob. Her little (12 + 2 poking through) teeth just CRUNCH down!

Weekend Fun!

This weekend was pretty low-key.

On Friday, we went to the park after dinner.

On Saturday, our plan was to go to the annual Polo event here in town. However, it rained at a pretty inopportune time in that decision-making process. So instead, we went shopping and to dinner!

It's a shame - Amelia had her hat all ready for the contest at half-time:

On Sunday, we played around the house all morning.

Amelia built a fort out of cushions and pillows:

And wheeled in for a "drive-in" cartoon:

And checked email and soccer scores with Daddy:

Later, uncle Jeff came over to hang out with us. His kiddos were out of town, and I think he was going into withdrawal.

After some pondering about going to the lake with the boat, we decided it wasn't the best day for that (kinda chilly, not much wind).

We decided it would be a better day to go to the zoo!

We saw the gorillas... and the bonobos:

Look at the baby!

And the kangaroos and koalas...

We had a great time with Uncle Jeff!

And Amelia passed out mere minutes after we got in the car.

We parted ways with Jeff, because we had dinner plans with Joey and his parents down in Columbus.

Amelia calls him by name now! "Joeyyyy.... Joeyyy!"

Lisa made a fabulous dinner - a perfect ending to a nice, relaxing weekend.

Terrific Thursday!!

Some miscellaneous photos for my avid readers!!

Tonight was Convocation at the college. Amelia danced with her Daddy in his dress beforehand:

This is such a mommy-daughter moment! She's trying on my shoes:

This onesie makes me laugh - "born headstrong" and "loves to be indulged". So true! She fits with her "Taurus" astrological sign

Taking a short break between the madness:

And off again on her Wheely Bug!

Waving her flags:

Weekend Fun!

This was a very nice weekend!

On Friday, we met up with some folks for dinner, sort of a tradition at this point. We're getting smarter about it though, and started meeting at people's houses to save some cash. This also allowed the kiddos to run around a bit, too. Which led to Amelia's first run-in with a boy. Let's just say, his tackle made his football coach father proud. :)

On Saturday morning, we went to a first birthday party for Amelia's buddy, Arden.

She spent the majority of the party playing with the toys, especially the balls:

She also made friends with a large, fluffy white dog. When our backs were turned a short while later, she wandered off to visit him again. That girl loves dogs!

Later, I went and spent the evening visiting my mom.

And Chris and Amelia went to the Crew game:

Amelia had a blast at the game with her daddy, and she had lots of friends there to entertain her.

On Sunday, we had some afternoon visitors. Joey brought his parents by for dinner.

They had fun playing:

But Amelia's favorite part was the doggie that came with them! :)

On Monday, it was back to the usual grind.

On Tuesday, however, Amelia played hooky from the sitter, so she and Daddy could pal around one more day before school starts next week.

Mark and Cindy stopped in, while they were passing through on their way back to Michigan:

And Chris and Amelia went on a nature hike (she's looking at trees) at High Banks:

And played together on the playground:

Update

We had Amelia's 15 month Pediatrician appointment on Friday. Dr. Krueck declared her to be "perfect". She's meeting or exceeding all of her developmental goals.

Dr. Krueck was especially impressed with Amelia's vocabulary. We had started counting her words, and she has 40 at this point. And she's not just repeating what we say - she points at things and calls them by name. In the last week, she's added "milk" and "flower" to her list.

Amelia's newest stats:

Weight - 22 pounds, 12 ounces - 44th percentile

Height - 31 inches - 65th percentile

So she's finally starting to catch up on weight and can no longer be called "peanut". I was expecting this, because she's been growing out of her clothes faster than she used to. She's a good eater though, so this is a good thing.

We finally started introducing meat. Actually, we started with some crab a few weeks ago, when we were on our beach vacation. She liked it. This weekend, she had a bit of chicken at a birthday party, and a few small pieces of all-beef hot dog with dinner last night. We were holding off because she was getting so much protein from other sources, and we were so conflicted about organic vs. regular. But, Amelia pushed this a bit, because our Sitter was telling us that Amelia kept asking for what she was serving the other kids. And we trust our Sitter's choices about what she feeds the kids. So... open the floodgates, I guess!

Weekend Fun!!

Last weekend was a pretty relaxing one at home.

On Friday, we met up with some folks for a quick dinner. Later, Chris's mom (Gramma D) showed up for a short visit. She had found a Little Tikes Castle at a garage sale for a steal, and had to bring it to her little granddaughter -- she was on her way east, so it was a quick stop.

So we put it up on Saturday morning:

Of course, Amelia loves it, and had to spend a great deal of time checking out everything:

And then we headed to the beach at Alum Creek Park, so Grandma could see Amelia in action at the beach:

She's saying "hmmm... this doesn't feel anything like that stuff I played in last week...."

"... and the water is kinda weird..."

"... but I can still have fun!!!"

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LJQzo8buuU

On Sunday, Dona headed out after hugs goodbye:

And then the rest of us got ready to go to a baseball game in Columbus with Michelle and Kevin:

We spent the whole time corralling this kid on the move!

It was a great weekend!

Terrific Thursday!!

Some miscellaneous pictures from the last couple of weeks...

Amelia decided it was time for her to start helping out around the house:




Wild child:



Fiercely holding on to her balloon:



Loving her new chair:

Checking out a local park:

Bouncing with Daddy:

Sliding with Mommy:

Swinging video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29Xi4vP_m0Y

She really loved that park. She kept marching around checking everything out. And then this other family showed up and Amelia was following the doggie around, while their 2 year old was following Amelia around calling her "babeee". :)