If She Only Knew....

GG: Amelia, how much longer is Henry going to be a baby?
Amelia: For a couple more months and then the REAL fun starts!

Hurt Feelings

When Amelia was exiting the bath tub the other night, she slipped and fell and bumped her head.  She was upset and crying, although I think she was mostly just scared from the incident.  

I asked her, "What hurts?".  

She answered through her tears and wails, "my feelings".

It's the Little Things..

For nearly an entire summer while home from college one year, I lived with my aunt, uncle, and cousin.  My parents had decided to build a house and were prepared to wait awhile for their old house to sell.  However, two days after putting it on the market, the house had two offers and my parents (and myself!) were homeless.  They moved in with a single friend of theirs that had a spare bedroom and I was shuffled off to live with my extended family.

Aside from having my own phone line (my bedroom was in the office that they used on occasion to work from home), the thing I remember most about my time living with them is something that happened each night at the dinner table.  Not only would they all sit down together to a home cooked meal each night, but during the meal, each member of the family would go around the table and talk about the best thing that happened that day.  Since I often joined them for dinner, I would participate too.  It was a great exercise to force me to stop and think about my day (regardless of my current mood) and find something good that happened.  Some days it was easy and I wanted to mention two or three things.  But, some days it was very, very hard and my "thing" might be, "the soda machine gave me an extra quarter back".  

Since we've been taking it super easy this week (in the hopes of recovering by Halloween), I have been able to sit back and absorb all of the wonderful things going on in my life.  We've slowed down quite a bit and because most of my time with Amelia has been spent playing on the floor and reading ridiculous amounts of books, I've noticed some very interesting things coming from Amelia's mouth.  

Case in point:

(While trying on one of the way too many pairs of winter boots Amelia owns):

Me: Are those too tight?

A: No

Me: Are they too loose?

A: No, me like them.

Me: Can you walk in them okay?

A: Yes, Mommy!  They are just fine!

(While doctoring "sick" GG--one of Amelia's favorite pastimes):

A: GG very sick. Me take temperature.  GG have fever.

GG:  Do I need to go to the doctor?

A:  No, that not necessary.

(While playing with Amelia's farm animals, a goat comes trotting very quickly in my direction):

Me:  AHHHH, please don't get me goat!  Slow down!

A: Its only pretend, mommy.  This goat no hurt you.  Just pretend.

Me: Oh, okay.

A:  See mommy?  This goat be nice to you. 

(At this point the goat is stroking my face and hair very gently and this is gives me a "smoocher").

But, my "best thing that happened today" for Monday occured when Amelia was drawing on the counter near where I was preparing dinner.  She was on her third sheet of paper and chatting away about all of the things she was drawing.  A long squiggly line was a snake.  A jagged line with a few loops was her name, then my name, then "dad's name", then Truman's name.  Then, I said, why don't you draw the Winking Guy.  

(Note: this is the term we use to refer to a smiley face of any sort.  Mostly, this term came from the gigantic "winking guy" that is painted on a shed near our house---Zumbehl and highway 94 for you locals--that Amelia loves to point out each time we drive by.  The "winking guy" phenomenon has also been intensified during our Costco visits.  Amelia is always in charge of the receipt that gets checked at the door and without fail, every time the receipt checker draws a smiley face before handing it back to her).

So anyway, I turned my back for a few minutes to start sauteing some vegetables and next thing I know, Amelia is squealing with delight over her creation.  When, I turned around, this is what I saw:

"winking guy" through the eyes of Amelia Ward

It may not look like much to you, but I was so proud of my little girl and she was awfully proud of herself too! She pointed out his hair and he even has teeth (located about 1/2 inch under his chin).

Oh yes, life is good.

With a Week to Spare!

After much worry and anticipation, I am delighted to say that Amelia's costume is finished! Not only does the zipper work, but the dress fits properly and resembles what we started out to make. This is my first official sewing project that I did from start to finish, with a few exceptions (my mom got to put on all of the fun details). It certainly isn't perfect, butI am so very proud of my creation!

There was a part of me that was fearful that I would have to explain to Amelia what the dress was and that she would give me a confused look and say something like, "I know Belle and that's no Belle dress". Thankfully, though, Amelia is happy, too! She came down yesterday after waking up and yelled, "My Belle dress, mommy! Look at my Belle dress!!" before I even had a chance to point it out to her. She is constantly repeating this line nearly every time she passes by it and has asked countless times to put it on.

This week I went out and bought a white turtleneck to go under it as well as some shoes (I bypassed the sparkle glitter Mary Janes in favor of black patent leather ones that can be worn again at Christmas). I also found a crown WITH Belle's picture on it, but Amelia turned it down flat. She, apparently, would rather wear the crown she received in a Happy Meal a couple of months back.

So, without further ado.

The dress in all its glory

the dress sans the "shawl"

the back...

close-up of the rosette and "diamond" detailing

Candy and Costumes--Round 1

Boy oh boy, things could not have gotten any better last Friday when Amelia and I went to a friend's house for some play time.  Not only did her friend's mom pick up some candy necklace making kits for the girls to assemble, but they also got to play dress up in some of Natalie's clothes. And, I got a little glimpse of what Amelia would look like if she had long, red (yarn-like) hair!

As you can see, once the necklaces were around their necks, they went into their mouths and did not come back out!  

Tying the Knot

Amelia and Michelle, Feb. 2007

I was so excited to get a call on Monday from Jason's cousin, Michelle, relaying some very big news.  She and her long time boyfriend, Adam, became engaged on Sunday night while on a romantic horse-drawn carriage ride on Main Street in St. Charles. 

Michelle also happens to be Amelia's godmother AND she has asked Amelia to be the flower girl in their wedding!  Jason informed Amelia of this information this morning while taking her to my mom's house.  When I picked her up after work (not realizing that Jason already told her), I began to try to explain to Amelia that Michelle and Adam are getting married (I think I may have compared them with Beauty and the Beast) and that she was going to get to wear a pretty dress and then Amelia cut me off mid-sentence and said, "and then me turn into flower!".  

Amelia and Michelle, May 2008

This is especially funny because, as you know if you are an avid reader of this blog, Amelia is very, very into Beauty and the Beast right now and for a long time her favorite part was when the "beast turns into a guy".  Then, when she decided to be Belle for Halloween, she began to say, "On Halloween, me turn into Belle".  And now, to her anyway, being "flower girl" equals "turning into a flower". Hopefully she won't be disappointed!

PAT deserves a PAT on the BACK

Have I mentioned lately how much I love Parents As Teachers (PAT)?  

My parent educator is fantastic and is the constant voice of reason when I go on my paranoid first time parent ramblings.  Short of physically coming to my house with her car to drive me to events, she could not make it easier for me to get to an event.  If anyone is looking for a PAT educator in the Francis Howell district, I would be happy to pass her name along!

So, with the help of Kelly (and my the calendar on my iPhone which I can sync with my laptop), I finally got organized and put all of the dates into my calendar for the many PAT events coming up in Amelia's age range.  

Last week, we got to bring Jason with us to Family Jumping Gym Night.  Exciting for us?  Not particularly.  But, PAT knows exactly how to engage little ones and they did not disappoint!  Amelia did a host of activities during our visit to the gym, but it was the last 15 minutes or so that she enjoyed the most.  They brought out a huge parachute for the kids to wave.  Then, the parents took over the parachute and made a "dome" over the kids who got underneath.  Lastly, the kids rode on top of the parachute as the parents walked it around in a circle.  The new word of the evening, "parachute" was spoken in such sentences as "me ride on parachute" and "parachute fun!" and "Mia go under parachute" the whole way home.

This week, we attended "Art in the Park" on Wednesday morning.  The theme for the art activities was "Wild, Wild West Adventures". They did such a great job coming up with 6 different theme related activities for the kids to do (and even sent more theme based ideas home).

Amelia's favorite was creating this ride-on "neigh, neigh" from an empty wrapping paper tube, some construction paper, and some yarn hair.  She rode it to each station and insisted on riding it down to the playground after we completed all of the centers (well five of the six), the whole time yelling "neigh, neigh" of course.  She (more like "we") also made a vest and stamped on a bandana to complete the cowgirl ensemble.

Here's the picture she made at the first station.  She was still pretty interested at the point.  By the time we got to the station where the vests were made, Amelia was pretty much just saying, "me ride neigh, neigh to playground, mommy" and riding in circles around me.

After a long day on the range, we came back to the old homestead and she munched on the trail mix snack sack she had made.  Actually, she picked out the 3  M&M's that were in the mix, popped them in her mouth and then announced she was "all done". No clue where she gets that!

Some More S'mores

Not for this little one!

Amelia enjoyed creating her first S'more sandwich the other night after dinner, but she was less than impressed with the delicacy itself.  After giving it a taste (a teeny, tiny taste I might add), she decided that a plain (uncooked) marshmallow was more her taste.    She was pretty disgusted with the melting marshmallows oozing out everywhere. 

 

Why we decided to give her this immediately following bath time is beyond me!  We'll blame that stroke of genius on her father!

Not for the Faint of Heart

Since Halloween is a mere 6 weeks away, we decided we better get on the ball and do some spooky decorating around the house. We brought all of our decorations out of storage last weekend and put them up, but due to the rainy weather we had much of these week, Amelia and I decided to add a few homemade ones too. Hopefully they won't frighten you too much!

We started out by making spooky hand print ghosts. I painted Amelia's hand white and pressed it on to black paper. When the "ghosts" dried, I drew some faces on with black marker.

Then, we decided it would be fun to trace some bats for our family room windows. Pretty scary, huh?

After that, we made a Halloween chain to decorate our mantel. Amelia helped pick out the next strip to make our pattern and got her first tries at stapling.

Famished from all the making and decorating, Amelia sat down for a scary monster snack. I know--its almost too frightening to look at isn't it?

Howell-A-Palooza

Our school district, Francis Howell, organized a district-wide event this week called "Howell-a-Palooza".  When I attempted to google it to get exact times and directions, google thought I meant "Lalapalooza".  It may have been the first time in history that google's suggestion is NOT what I intended to write.

Jason and I thought we'd try it out since they were supposed to have lots of Early Childhood activities, plus performances by the local high school bands, dance teams, cheerleaders, etc.  Amelia and I decided we would meet Jason at the halfway point since he would be coming from work.  Ultimately, due to the popularity of "Howell-A-Palooza", a ride that should have taken us about 20 minutes, took close to 40 minutes. 

Once we arrived and parked on the soccer field (?!?!--Isn't is boy's soccer season??), we followed the rest of the families walking toward the school.  We met Amelia's friend, Natalie, and her family in the parking lot.  Luckily, we encountered a woman passing out maps who said, "I'll give you one of these now because God knows you won't find them inside". 

The map was our savior.  I am sure without it we would still be roaming the hallways looking for the Early Childhood activities.

Once we found them, though, Amelia loved all of them!  She kept going from one station to the next.  She enjoyed playing in a pool of balls, making an American flag, throwing bean bags at a target, and playing in a huge tub of cornmeal.

  

She spent most of her time, however, playing in the "musical parade".  Everyone grabs an instrument and marches in a parade while playing their instrument.  This is something we do at home pretty often, so she jumped right in and didn't want to leave!

When we finally peeled her away from the parade, we took her outside to see the fire engine sitting in the parking lot. When it was her turn to sit in the cab, she told the

 fireman to "close the door".  She was denied, thankfully.  Although the picture doesn't quite show her enthusiasm, she loved sitting up there and pretending to drive.

By this point, we are all starving so we headed over to "taste of Howell", which we thought sounded like we'd be sampling the various cafeteria offerings from around the district.  In fact, it was a gathering of 40 restaurants in the area and after you paid $10 at the door, it was an all-

you-can-eat type set-up.  However, when we arrived they were out of food!  Apparently, the organizers didn't anticipate so many attendees.  

So, our family and Natalie's family opted out of the band performances that were starting on the football field and headed to Bandana's for dinner instead.  We were shocked as we were leaving that the traffic to get in was still backed up for miles!  

Jason, I, and Natalie's parents decided that next year we are

 getting a hotel out by the "venue" and tailgating beforehand.  Oh, the popularity of Howell-A-

Palooza!  

Rainbow Brite!

We did a variation of this activity this week.  This may have been Amelia's favorite activity we've ever done.  She kept giggling and saying, "More colors, mommy".  

We started out with four colors.  I put a tiny drop of food coloring in each container.

Then, I gave Amelia a small measuring cup of water and showed her how to pour it into the container.  Before she started pouring, I asked her to guess which color the water would become.  

After we did the first four colors, she begged for more, so I tried to do some variations with the colors.  I was only moderately successful at this, but it was fun anyway.  Amelia guessed the color "black" for what was supposed to be purple and she was more right than I!  During the last go around, I made sure to give her different amounts of water to pour so we could talk about "most" and "least".

We couldn't resist the temptation to add all of the colors together at the end to make a horribly disgusting brown color.

It's the little things!

Who knew styrofoam and toothpicks could be so much fun?  

Apparently this woman!  Amelia loved this and has come back to it several times since I first showed it to her.

Guess I'll add styrofoam to her Christmas list :)

Saturday Night's Alright

Saturday was great!  Grandma came to pick Amelia up in the morning and then Jason and I headed out for the day.  We had lunch at Olive Garden (we were both craving the soup, salad, and breadsticks combo) and then went to see my friend Tracy's play (which was excellent!). While we were killing time in between plays, we decided to do some shopping at Target and ran into a very old friend of ours.  Jason and I met in high school because we both worked at Target.  The girl we ran into worked with us there, too.  She mentioned that the St. Blaise (Holy Trinity) picnic was this weekend (she also went to the same grade school as Jason) and talked it up so much, that we decided that after the second play, we would take Amelia out there for the evening.

We met up with Grandma and Amelia and made our way to Holy Trinity.  Dave met us in the parking lot and Amelia was super excited to him.  Unfortunately, Amelia was too short to ride on any rides alone, so Uncle Dave stepped right in and offered to take her on the dinosaur ride she had been eyeing.  For those of you who don't know, Dave is 6'6" and built like a football player.  He hopped into the dinosaur and Amelia squeezed in next to him.  With his knees up to his chin, he struggled to clip the seat belt around him and Amelia.  He decided he couldn't do it and was about to get out when the carnival ride operator came by and didn't seem to notice or care that the seat belt was not fastened.  Looking at the two of them in the dinosaur, it was clear that Amelia wasn't going anywhere, seat belt or no seat belt.  What a sight to see them in there together!  At one point, a passing teenage girl looked up, saw Dave and said, "OH MY GOSH! Is he going to fall out of there??"

Again, I assure you, neither Amelia nor Dave were going anywhere.

She also enjoyed a ride on the cars, which was only captured with Grandma's camera for some reason.

We grabbed some dinner and enjoyed the live music in the "beer garden".  After listening to a few songs, Amelia said, "Beauty and the Beast?" and pointed to the band.  I guess that was her attempt at requesting a song.

She played some games after dinner, including the Price Is Right inspired "Plinko" where Amelia's cute face (not her Plinko-playing ability) earned her a stuffed monkey.  She also grabbed some ducks at the "Duck Pond" and won some fun prizes there.  One of the prizes she scored was a parachuting soldier that we've been chucking off the second story balcony at our house!  

One More Thing....

Did I mention what Amelia was doing while Jason and I were slaving away on the bathroom last weekend?  She got to go to a Labor Day party with GG and Papa.  Apparently, her and the sprinkler got along really, really well.