Happy 15 Months Amelia!!!

Another month gone by and I continue to become more remise in my monthly pictures and updates, what can you do?

Amelia develops more personality with each month, I must say going to work is getting harder not easier cause she just seems to be doing something new every day and I hate missing all these firsts.  She still doesn’t talk coherently very often but the more time you spend with her the more words she comes out with although if you are not there to hear it the first time there is a very slim chance you will get to hear the word again. This week I heard what sounded like “Rich”, her manny and “outside” (when she was banging on the door staring longingly at her little pool). She also looked at me the other day and said “mommy” perfectly, it was abit weird to tell you the truth. I am such a loser though I get so excited when she says a new word it is so cute.

Her sleeping has been abit messed up lately, I have asked Rich to try to get her on one nap a day and have the nap in the afternoon (although Amelia would prefer it be in the morning). Poor rich has had to endure some very sleepy mornings where all she wants to do is lie on him on the couch and snooze, one morning was particularly bad and he decided to take her for a bike ride and halfway through he heard a clunking from behind and he turned around and she was asleep with her helmet hitting the side of the seat.  She also is staying up later, we used to be on a pretty strict 7:30pm bedtime but then it started getting later now she is up till about 9:30, bah!!! Even if we put her to bed at 8pm she will play in her crib and you can hear her singing away to herself, very frustrating. I know this all seems pretty silly, of course she is tired in the morning if she is going to bed so late but breaking this cycle is a killer, especially with so much on this summer and getting home later some nights.

This month Amelia has got a bunch more teeth including a few molars.  I think all this teeth action has lead to some days of not feeling well and a drop in her appetite (at least that is what I am chalking it up to). There are still some gaps in her mouth but she is getting close to a full set of chompers.

Amelia is still a very happy little girl (crazy I am no switching from baby to girl, oh my) although she is prone to some spectacular tantrums. She isn’t hugely affectionate but if asked she will give out the occasional hug or snuggle.  This past Tuesday night I strained/pulled/messed up my ankle at soccer, Meals comes to all our soccer games and is our superfan, so anyways she sat with me while I writhed around in agony (okay well maybe not writhed but I liked that word, it sounded dramatic). Anyways other than when she was trying to steal my ice pack or stepping on my foot, Amelia was very sweet she kept giving me snuggles and pats on the back. Kisses, kinda like being slobbered on my a St. Bernard, are becoming more frequent but we really have to teach her to close her mouth. She is becoming a much more active dancer, now not only does she shake her bum but also her arms and chest, I know what you are thinking and STOP, there will be no poles in her future!!!  She is addicted to all her toys that make noise these days, we get a lot of her little piano and her crazy drug-o-matic “work bench”. I am currently on a hunt for the Parents flipphone, I know I am dooming myself to a pre-teen that “can’t live without her cell” (gag gag puke puke) but she played with one of these recently and LOVED it (I had to pry it out of her fingers).  I am not sure if they have Parents stuff in Canada cause the couple of stores I have looked in havent carried any, Does anyone know if you can get it here?

She has been doing A LOT of swimming this summer, from chillin’ at the Reitsma Resort to playing in her paddling pool to swimming lessons, Meals rarely wants to get out. She doesn’t object to being dunked anymore, she sputters abit when she comes up but then goes back to what we were going. She still hasn’t worked out the whole blowing bubbles thing, hopefully that comes soon cause I don’t think it is healthy the amount of pool water she drinks.

Well not much more to say.  I’ll try to remember to take some pics tonight.

Melting Baby Feared to have Hyperhydrosis

Okay it is ridiculously hot here it is getting almost unbearable. Jeff and I had our first serious conversation about getting AC on the way to work this morning this was prompted by Amelia’s 5:15am wake up because she was so uncomfortable.  Jeff got up with her, wet her down with a wet face cloth gave her two glasses of water which she sucked back and I gave her a snuggle and she was back to sleep. Poor thing.

This whole weekend has been pretty crazy hot.  Friday afternoon I had off for summer hours and Jeff took it off and we went and looked at A couple daycare options, I have been abit stressed about daycare cause the end of the summer is coming up pretty quick. We went to seem this girl who is fresh out of the George Brown child care program she seemed very nice and very good but too $$$.  We have decided to go with McCauley Child Care Centre, which is a few blocks from us, and then switch her to the French day care when she gets in.

Friday night was quiet we made salmon for dinner, which seeing as it is a fish Amelia liked and we watched Munich while Meals played.

Saturday morning Jeff, Amelia, Rich, Mom, Daryl, Gramps and I headed up to Mono Cliff’s for a hike followed by beer and lunch at the local pub.  It was somewhat cooler up north and we had a very lovely hike. We borrowed our friends Leigh and Rob’s baby backpack and Jeff was the pack mule.  Amelia seemed to really enjoy it, between Rich and Jeff she seemed to always have something to play with whether it be a LONG piece of grass or some flower she was quite pleased. At the pub we had a very yummy lunch and now with Amelia’s new found love of pasta she had some of Mini’s pasta followed by the last drips of all our beers which she thought was VERY yummy, letting us know with the constant Mmmmms. 

Saturday night we headed over to Mark and Chelsea’s for a BBQ.  Little Sammy slept through the whole affair and was quite happy either lying on mom or in his little bassinet. Amelia would have none of this sleep thing and wandered around the patio trying to climb in the bassinet with Sam or picking up leaves or trying to mooch food off someone. Mark and Chelsea’s friend Tracey taught Amelia how to cheers and she thought this was very fun and poor Tracey was then bombarded by flying bottles. 

Saturday night was also the start of the serious hyperhydrosis style sweating by my daughter, poor thing her hair just gets plastered to her head she is just all wet. It is nuts, getting her out of her car seat is the worst that thing seems to be sweat central.

Sunday we just did some gardening and chores around the house then went for dinner at my parents with the crew, Dan and Gwen and Gramps. Dinner was fantastic and all had fun. Amelia entertained herself by moving rocks, tossing rocks, generally causing mayhem.

The two pics above were taken by my mom’s cousin Nick who was in town and we got a chance to catch up with on Thursday night. I thought they were such beautiful pics I had to post them.

Amelia gets more and more like a sponge every day. This weekend we taught her her belly button and if you ask her where her Bee Bo is she will lift up her shirt and push out her belly and point, endless entertainment for us.  She has also been coming out with more and more words but it is kinda weird stuff. Yesterday Julie asked her who she was talking to on her toy phone and she tuned to her and said “I don’t know” with a shrug of her shoulders, Julie asked again and she said it again. She will also point and say “that” if you ask her what she wants.  At Mark and Chelsea’s I gave her some ice cream and she announced that it was “yummy”.  I find this all alittle shocking cause for most of the day she is either quiet or babbling away in her own language and if you try to get her to talk her lips are sealed but then she comes out with this random stuff. I think there is more going on in that little head of hers than we know.

I wrote all of the above yesterday and didn’t get a chance to post it. I thought I would add abit now. On sunday before going to dinner John and Denise delivered Aemlia’s little sand box that they got her for her birthday but that we had been putting off taking posession of till or grass grew in abit.  We don’t actaully have sand for it yet but it can also double as a pool which in yesterday’s heat we took full advantage of. Last night we got home from work and my dad was over (in town on business) and Meals was sitting in the basement in her water diaper, rich had let her in her pool.  We put her in again and man is it funny, she LOVEs it, there is much giggling, splashing and crawling around in there, after dinner we let her in again this time sans the diaper, this was an even bigger hit.  Here is one pic but I put up a ton from the weekend and swimming etc on flickr if any one wants to see more.

The ramblings of a crazy man

Guest spot of wordpressing from Jeff this time, Alicia needed a sub an lo!  I’ve tagged in and here I am typing away albeit late and while I should probably be working… ah well!

This has been another pretty fun week for Amelia and her zookeepers.  More teeth are finding their way in, there are a whole wack of molars and tricuspids and outsizors, all wonderful things that have resulted in more frequent and now more painful bites.  I suppose that’s all part of the learning.  Excitement! 

The weekend was good – we’ve been luckier this year compared to last, in that we’ve had generally excellent weather on the weekends with the monsoons reserved for the week.  As such, there was lots of outdoorsings this weekend.  On Saturday, Alicia, Manny (Rich), Amelia and I went for a bike ride down to the lake, though this time around it was not a picnic but merely a park & ice cream run.  Amelia is a major fan of ice cream, which she is very subtle about being keen on sharing with you if you happen to have an ice cream.

Random person holding ice cream: Hi there little girl.
Amelia: MMMM!
Random person holding ice cream: Oh!  Do you like ice cream?
Amelia: MMMM!
Random person holding ice cream:  Oh!  Would you like some ice cream?
[At this stage, Amelia will do one of two things: a) climb onto the random person's leg/chair/back and open her mouth and bite the ice cream or b) start to cry because random person holding ice cream has been too slow in giving her some.]

Friday, before I forget, we had lovely Andrea Nash (no relation to Pluto) over for a nice low-key dinner.  There was lots of laughing and most of it was unrelated to me burning the pizza dough and gassing myself with saucisse drippings smoke while BBQing.  Andrea is great fun but has so far been essentially useless to me as she refuses to play on the soccer team, which incidentally is UNDEFEATED so far this season.

The balance of Saturday (post biking) was spent with John & Jen & Emma & Leah over, for a nice low-key dinner, involving more laughs, BBQ malfunctions and playtime in the basement.  Leah, Emma and Amelia get along pretty well, though I sense at times that the Twins lose their patience with Amelia when she is unable to answer their questions or respond to requests like “say sorry Amelia”.  Hopefully they don’t see her forever as a stubborn mute who is not keen on sharing toy pianos.  That’s a tough burden to bear through adolescence.

Sunday, we got up bright and early and ventured into High Park for a ~1h stroll in the mist and sunshine.  Amelia is a big fan of walks so long as she doesn’t have to look around and has something like keys or a wallet to play with while we push the stroller.  Mind you, she did get a wee run-out at the park: playing on the swing, slide and tricking Alicia to crawl through a tube (which everyone thought was hilarious… Amelia clapped and then walked away).  Then off for a snooty brunch (go on you eggs benny!) in Bloor West and then to Grandmaman & Pake’s place for a swim, feast and World Cup in HD.  I should acknowledge the good show by the Italian team, but I still am bitter that they got past Australia (a result that helped me stumble to a 43rd place finish in my pool) and as such they are a team of divers and poorly groomed knob heads.  Dinner, as usual, was amazing and Julie did a great job planking away, though she suffers from my disease of lighting things on fire.  Fire makes it good!  Then bed and massive rainstorms.  Woo!

Hopefully Alicia will be suitably traumatized by this post that she’ll be back next week!  More Amelia-ings to come…

Long Weekend

This weekend was rather uneventful but there was some very welcomed quiet time. Friday I got my first pay cheque, yipeee so to celebrate I splurged and convinced my mom to join me to get our nails done.  Ah so nice, my feet need some pampering. That evening we had a yummy dinner that Rich the Manny helped prepare and Danielle, from work, dropped by with her husband and her kitty Finn that I had offered to babysit for the long weekend. 
Saturday Jeff and I (with Amelia’s “help”) did some gardening in the morning then we went for a lovely bike ride with our families down and along the lake.  To fuel us for the ride home we stopped for a picnic down by the lake. I haven’t ridden a bike in a LONG time but I got a bike this spring and I have wanted to take it out.  We also got a kids bike seat for the back of the bike from my mom for Amelia’s birthday, I guess in the back of my head I was thinking we were going to put it on Jeff’s bike well Saturday morning we got a call from John saying he was blowing up the tires on Jeff’s bike and the tire burst, uh oh.  Jeff ended up roller blading and I got the joy of Amelia’s company on the ride.  So as I said I haven’t been on a bike in a long time now not only am I a little unsure of biking prowess but now I have my most precious possession strapped on the back, I was a little nervous to say the least but it all worked out and there were no spills but I must say hills are hard enough on my own but with a 25lb weight dragging you back down it is even more challenging.

Saturday night Denise and John were kind enough to take Amelia for us for the night and Jeff and I went out for dinner at this nice restaurant by my parents to celebrate our anniversary. We had a very good dinner was probably abit too much YUMMY wine. I can’t believe it was two years ago that we got married, how time flies.

Sunday we headed over to the Reitsma Resort for some quality time by the pool. Ahhhh!! Rich, Jeff and I went and saw a movie in the late morning then came back and hung out by the pool. The guys went and saw Superman and I went to Devil Wears Prada, I have never been to a movie alone but I rarely get to go out to the movies anymore so I wasn’t wasting my chance on a movie I only kind of wanted to see. I quite liked DWP, it was light but enjoyable.  We took Amelia swimming in the afternoon, she was abit freaked out at first but was splashing away after a few minutes. We bought her this floating thing that she can sit in a float around, she quite enjoys that.

Monday Amelia and I went shopping at Sherway with Denise, mom, Julie and Rich.  One of my favorite stores Caban is closing so I had to enjoy their sale before it is closed for good.  Last night Amelia had her first swimming lesson, well guardian swim, you just kind paddle around the pool trying to teach them to blow bubbles and start doing the doggy paddle actions. Jeff and I decided to both go for the first one then after this we will alternate. Well Amelia is not so big on blowing bubbles but drinking the water is the most fun, grrrr.  She also really enjoyed going down the slide into the water and jumping (with help of course) into the water.

Amelia is doing well these days, she loves her Manny now and has even cried when rich leaves at the end of the day. She has got some more teeth lately, well actually she has got a lot more teeth.  A few weeks ago I found a bottom tooth and what I think is a molar and then on Saturday I found the other matching bottom tooth and an upper and lower molar on the other side. It is getting to be rather dangerous business poking around in there these days.  Amelia is also saying some more words but they aren’t very consistent, Jeff and I think we may be letting her get away with too many gestures. All cats are still Dexter but her pronunciation of Dexter is getting more clearer.  She is still very good at no and now she will point and say “that”.  It always floors me though when you can tell her to do something that I don’t think she knows the words for and she will go off and do it. She knows a lot more than she is letting on…