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This weekend we did some cleaning and yup Sunday even felt like spring!!! Saturday Jeff and I cleaned out our storage room that was starting to look like just a dumping ground. Once the renovations were almost done and the carpet guys were on their way we shoved all sorts of stuff in there and we couldn’t really walk to the back anymore, it was very frustrating. Well Saturday we overhauled it, we took a ton of stuff off to Goodwill and we re-sorted, packed and now not only can you make it to the back but there is actually nothing on the floor. I am a nut for organising, I am so satisfied when I am done. Sunday was round two of organising, Jeff and I cleaned out the slanty shanty/Jeff’s workshop. During the reno’s that little room also fell victim to the dumping ground syndrome but that was even worse, you actually could barely get in the door and then to get in you had to climb on wood and insulation. Well to get things sorted we had to take everything out, our backyard looked like a yard sale of tools and wood. We didn’t get everything done that Jeff wanted to in the time Meals napped but you can walk (on the floor) all the way to the back and you can even open the cupboards. There is going to be a need for another big dump run but Jeff has his work shop back. Next week we start on the back garden; my mission to actually have grass this year…

Saturday night we finally rented March of the Penguins, it was very good. We also got Must Love Dogs which was much less than good. Ah well. Sunday night we hosted Sunday dinner and we had a Mexican theme, enchiladas, black beans, pomegranate margarita’s and chocolate banana chimmichanga’s, all so yum.

Meals was very frustrating and very funny this weekend. One of her new tricks is if you ask her if something is good she will nod her head. This morning I asked her if she could say “mama” and she nodded and said “yeah”, I was abit shocked. What an ass though. I am not holding my breath that she actually understood what I asked but I think she understands some of it. On Saturday night after our day of toiling we were sitting in the living room Jeff was on the couch and I was in the chair across the room. Meals found a piece of paper that I would rather have stayed dry and in one piece and Jeff told her to give it to me, she shuffled along the table and reached it out to me and as soon as I reached out to get it she pulled it back and shuffled back to Jeff, again Jeff told her to give it to me and again she pretended to then shuffled away. This was very devilish of her but also very funny and it was surprising how much she actually understands. For awhile now she has known, “hands up”, “not in your mouth” and “no” but apparently she actually does know what we are talking about sometimes. She is standing on her own now without freaking out and she will now walk just holding one hand, it is rather cute. After spending a day with Ronan she now seems to think walking is cool and shuffles from one piece of funiture to another trying not have to crawl. On the frustrating front she was very clingy this weekend and abit out of sorts probably because she also wasn’t that into sleeping this weekend. BAH!!!

So yesterday my friend Leigh babysat for me. Leigh’s son, Ronan, is about 6 months older than Amelia and the two of them are pretty cute together. While at “Camp Leigh” they played in Leigh’s backyard of kiddie fun and Leigh was even brave enough to pack them both up and take them for a play at the park. She tool some pics for me, I thought they were pretty cute.

Also here are some pics of Meals and Dex. I have never seen a more attention staved cat. He will take it where ever he can get it.

I can’t believe next month Amelia will be a year, how time flies!!! No more baby all little girl. I have found that in the last couple months Amelia has really developed a personality, she is such a ham and very devilish. She loves getting attention and flirts with everyone when we are out shopping, she likes starting people down till they look at her then smiling and then hiding her face in my neck and pecking out smiling. She understands a lot and if you say “no” she looks and either scrunches her face in protest or turn and smiles and tries to do it again. She knows “fishies” , I give her those fish crackers for a snack every once and awhile and if I ask her if she wants some fish she will do the high speed crawl over and then stand at my legs till I give her her fish.

She has started saying cat this month, well “TAT”. Amelia loves harassing Maisy, poor Maise doesn’t want to have anything to do with Amelia and usually makes a quick exit. Dexter is staved for attention and will flop right in front of Amelia and she will ignore him. She does like harassing Dex when he is asleep, she usually starts by tapping him and petting him abit then it quickly turns to pulling his legs or trying to lie on him (this is when he takes off).

In the last couple months Amelia has developed a deep love for her blanket, it now has to come everywhere with us when there is sleeping involved. She likes to chew on the corners and feel the satin edge, very cute to watch but abit troublesome if I forget to bring it, eep.

This month Meals has become more comfortable standing on her own and she is also getting much better at walking. She walks quite comfortably if we hold her hands and will even walk if I just hold the straps on her overalls but as soon as she feels you let go she sits down. Ah well all in time.

She is still holding strong at 4 teeth, the two ups are really out now, no sign of any others yet.

She is still sleeping very well and rarely give is a fuss except when we are in an unfamiliar place. She will got down for naps anywhere but going to bed at night in a playpen results in a couple major meltdowns before one of us gives in (right now our record stands at about 50/50). This month she has been waking up earlier in the morning which I am finding a bit rough. I have now got into the habit of going to get her then bring her and her blanket back to bed with me and we both lay and nap for abit before she has had enough and I get climbed on. At first I didn’t bring her blanket with us and she never napped it was just playtime but since I sorted this blanket thing out we both get abit of a sleep in.

She is still eating well but she is getting more particular and at times she puts up quite a fuss if she isn’t the mood for what I am feeding her. She has now discovered she can take the food out of her mouth and on a couple occasions she has pulled food out of her mouth with her fingers, bah!!! Oh well she doesn’t do it very often. She other favorite trick if she isn’t impressed with me is wiping the inside of her mouth with her sleeve, BAH!!! That one really drives me nuts.

Amelia Helen Reitsma - 11 Months

Silly Girl

I survived my week with Jeff away, actually it was a very nice week and very busy. Julie joined Meals and I for dinner on Tuesday night and made us a fabulous dinner and Wednesday night we went out with John and Denise. Thursday night Jeff got in late, it was nice to see him and hear all his adventures and the steal mill. Friday after work he finally got to see Meals before he ran out for poker. The night before I had told Jeff how Meals started walking on her own if you hold on to the straps of her overalls, he had to see this for himself and as she was walking along he let go and she promptly fell over hitting the bridge of her nose on her toy box and getting a little cut and bruise, ah Daddy’s home. Poor Meals poor Jeff.

This weekend, we did some errands, got a new DVD player for the basement and did a bunch of groceries followed by a ton of cooking. Jeff made all sorts of baby food for Meals while I nurtured my mania and organized and labeled the stuff in our kitchen cupboards that were filled with all sorts of little baggies of spices, nuts etc. So Satisfying!!! Jeff made lots of yummy stuff for Amelia including a chicken and broccoli in cheese sauce which I must say is very tasty. Meals was a very good girl while we did all of this and she played in the kitchen opening and closing all the doors and drawers.

Saturday night we went out for dinner with John, Denise and Julie, John and Denise left for the Caribbean early Sunday morning so they needed to see Miss Meals one last time before they were gone for a week, Jeff and I really have just turned into the conduit for the grandchild, ha ha. Sunday night Julie hosted Sunday dinner and it was Southeast Asian themed, OH YUM!!! We had quite the feast and lots of laughs.

This past week I have started trying to get Meals to drink her bottle on her own, until now we usually hold her while she drinks but seeing as she is off the nipple and on to the sippy style I figured it was time. it makes me laugh ever time I watch her leaning against the pillow looking like a couch potato.

So this weekend Jeff, Meals and I headed up to Brockville with Jeff’s parents and Julie. We all went to visit Bill, Betty and Super Pake (Jeff’s grandfather). Friday night we stayed over at Jeff’s parents so we could get an early start the next morning. Meals napped and played on the long drive up to Brockville. We had a wonderful visit with everyone, we went for a walk in downtown Brockville and we relaxed in Bill and Betty’s beautiful house. We came back yesterday morning and then went to my parent’s place for dinner.

This past week I picked up a box of blueberries at Costco and we started giving them to Meals as a snack or dessert, oh MAN!!! Jeff has now nicknamed our daughter Blue Bum the pirate, I didn’t know the human body could produce something that colour!!! You know that popular colour of car or SUV right now, gun metal grey or blue, well yup that is the colour, it is truly offensive. Aren’t you glad I shared?

This week Jeff is going to Sault Ste. Marie for work, he leaves tonight and is gone till Thursday night. Eeep it is going to be a long week without him around, luckily I have a lot planned this to keep us busy hopefully it will go quickly.

In the basement, we have got abit more done; Jeff and John put the sweep under the door, which has really warmed things up down here. We have got our old TV fixed and we now have it all set up, yipeee. Finally, I got the shelves painted in the Harry Potter room and have started putting things on them. Amelia finds it quite offensive that I am trying to organise her toys and when I put her down she makes a beeline for the shelves. She pulls all her books down, she does it with such vigour she really does seem offended by it.

Any sort of order seems to disgust Amelia and one day this past week I made the mistake of leaving the full laundry basket in the basement. I was working on the computer and I felt Meals bump into my chair, I turn around and she has manage to crawl over and stand up at the back of the chair with leg of the bike shorts pulled down over her head. I had a very good laugh. I took them off and a few minutes later I found her with them over her shoulders AGAIN!! Apparently she was quite attached to them.

I find Amelia is developing so much personality in the last couple weeks, she is very vocal and now she will even try to imitate you when you repeat a word to her. She is also big on reaching for things and as of the last couple of days she will open and close her hand if you don’t comply quick enough. This weekend she also started nodding her head, not for any reason I can tell but when she is playing by herself I’ll look over and there she is nodding away. She knows the tones of voice I use when I say her name when she isn’t supposed to do something and she will turn around and look at me and scrunch her nose and me and scowl, it is very frustrating but also kind funny.

Ah another Monday… and another week closer to the end of my official maternity leave. I can’t believe that I will have been off for a year by the end of the month, scary stuff. I have decided to stay off till September so I can enjoy abit more time with Amelia and so we can put her into this French day-care that doesn’t accept kids till 18 months (plus lets face it isn’t too bad having another summer off).

Meals and I had another nice week together, we went out for a couple walks, went to the gym (and she went in the day-care) and even went to a playgroup. Meals also discovered a new toy this week, and guess what there are two of them!!! She loves playing with her shoes, the green ones with the laces, from Tuesday to Friday she was dragging one of them all over the basement with her at all times. Her favourite is pulling them under our makeshift sawhorse table and swing the shoe around by the laces and battering the subwoffer, fun fun fun. Her other favourite toy right now is this dog that you can pull the ears and the tail and it expands and vibrates and barks as it compresses again. Meals isn’t strong enough to pull it so she is constantly bring it to one of us to pull it for her, rather cute actually but it does get old pretty quick.

On Tuesday afternoon Meals got the first of her two fat lips of the week. She was climbing the stairs and bounced her chin off one of the stairs and bit her lip, I was with her but I wasn’t quick enough to catch that little slip. There were many tears. We have now moved a couple chairs in front of the stairs to put an end to the climbing. She still checks out the stairs to see if there is any way through but so far so good. For people that think we are totally nuts and why don’t we just put up a gate, well we have weird stairs that are very opened and there is really nowhere to attach the gate on one side and I really don’t want to have to invest in this crazy $$$ fireplace gate, so for now we are improvising. Besides with the basement done the stairs aren’t really much of an issue anymore.

Tuesday Jeff and I also had our first regular week day dinner at our table again. For the last 10months the table has been pushed against the wall and has had all the computer stuff on in but now that the computer and all the toys have come down to the basement the table can actually be used again and not just for when company comes. It was so nice to have the option of eating like grownups again (I say option cause its not like we do it all the time). We sat at the table and moved Meals chair up to the table too and we all ate together, such a nice change.

Friday Jeff stayed home for work sick; he was very sniffily and feeling pretty crap. We spent the day in the basement, Meals playing, Jeff napping on the couch and me working on my album for Amelia. Other than Jeff’s sickness it was a lovely day, I even got to run out and get my haircut, yeah!!!

This weekend we had Dave and Fiona over for dinner on Saturday night and then we hosted the family Sunday night dinner. There was a lot of cooking afoot this weekend and that was the scene of the second fat lip. Poor Meals ended up trying to climb Jeff’s leg while he was cooking, he turned to get something she slipped and bounced her face off the tile, more blood and another fat lip. SOOOOOO sad. She couldn’t have been very upset with him though cause he was the only one that would do for the post trauma cuddles. This time it was dead centre of the upper lip, the swelling went down quickly and she seems right as rain again.

Meals is standing up on her own more, much to her dismay. She gets very upset with us when we make her stand on her own but we are both pretty sure she can do it she just doesn’t want to and Wednesday night it was confirmed. We were eating dinner and she was playing on the floor pushing this box the size of her around then all of a sudden she picks the box up off the floor and just holds it there then puts it down and does it again. WHAT A GOOF, if she can stand up holding a box as big as she is I’m pretty sure she can stand on her own, I think she just likes the safety net of holding something.

This week she has also started saying what we think is cat, well “tat”. Not totally sure but usually that is what is yelled when Dex and Maisy come in the room or when she gets one of them cornered.