Happy Independence Day!

Our newest little citizen celebrated her first Independence Day today.  We had a great time eating and swimming at Aunt Marla and Uncle Tommy's house.  Amelia had a lot of fun playing with her cousins and especially swimming.  That child loves the water!  I, of course, didn't take a single picture while there.  I am so sad!  We did take a few pictures when we got home, because I wanted to document Amelia's first Independence Day as a U.S. citizen. 

After having fun outside taking pictures, Amelia had a complete meltdown when we came inside.  She got mad because we would not let her push this cooler (loaded with melting ice) around the kitchen.

 

We quickly realized that Amelia's lack of sleep last night (she was up 6 times) and no nap this afternoon had caught up with her.  I took her up for a bath before dinner.  She cried almost the entire time she was in the tub.  I made her mad by trying to cut her nails while she was in the bath, which caused even more crying.  When I got ready to take her out of the bath, she had another fit.  Poor thing!  We came down to have some dinner.  She ate and ate and then I saw her eyes begin to close.  Amelia was actually falling asleep while eating!  I was shocked!  She woke herself up and opened her mouth again for another bite and then gave up.  Here are pictures of her sleeping in her high chair. 

Amazingly, David was able to carry Amelia up to bed without her even waking up!  She has NEVER slept on either one of our shoulders and definitely not stayed asleep all the way up the stairs.  Amelia was still sleeping when David put her in the bed.  He put her blanket over her, and she rolled on her side sleeping away.

Isn't this the sweetest!

House for Sale

It may come as a huge surprise to you, but David and I have decided to put our house up for sale.  We would like to move closer to Vestavia since David has his new job, and Amelia will begin school there in August.  I would also like to be able to downsize our mortgage (and possibly the size of our house) to be able to stay home longer with Amelia.  We have mixed feelings about moving, because we love our house and neighborhood, but we think this is the right thing to do for our family.  Please pray that our house will sell at the perfect time and that we will find a new home that will meet all of our needs.

If you know anyone who might be interested in buying our house in Chelsea, Alabama, please let me know.

howard9525@bellsouth.net

My Little Fish

Our across the street neighbors have just put in a pool and invited us over to swim yesterday afternoon.  This was Amelia's first time to swim in a swimming pool.  We have taken her to the lake, but she wasn't very enthusiastic.  I think that was mainly because she was confined to a life jacket.  Yesterday was a completely different experience.  Amelia LOVED the water!  Unfortunately, the swimmies that I bought are too big for her little arms, so David and I got in the water and held her.  We also put her in a little infant raft until she decided she wanted to be on the bigger raft like the other two children that were swimming.  She had a wonderful time!  We put her under the water several times, and she would come up smiling.  I think swimming lessons are in our future.  When it was time to leave, she kept saying bye to the water and then asked about the water several times last night.  We will definitely be taking her swimming again soon.

Guess what Amelia did today...

She pooped in the potty!!!  I can hardly believe that she actually did it! 

Amelia has been very curious about the potty, but we have not pushed her actually potty training yet.  Several people advised me to wait until she was two and had more language, so I have just let her sit on her potty whenever she asks.  She likes to sit and read her potty book but nothing has ever happened.  We have come close to tee-teeing in the potty, but that hasn't happened either.  This afternoon, Amelia grabbed her behind and said, "poop" and then, "potty" and ran to the stairs (her potty is in her bathroom upstairs).  I grabbed her and ran up the stairs to the potty.  I took off her diaper and sat her on the potty.  When she stood up to look in the potty, there was poop in it!  I got super excited, and I think she was a little scared.  She wasn't sure what was in her potty because nothing had ever been there before.  She looked at it, said "poop", and then ran over to get some toilet paper.  At least she didn't try to grab it!  I showed her how there was poop in the potty in her book and there was poop in her own potty and then we had to take pictures. :)  Then, we had to say goodbye to the poop.  She wasn't thrilled about this, but I showed her that we had a picture.  She was able to flush the big potty and say bye-bye.  She immediately asked to see her poop picture.  We called Daddy to share the big news, and he was super excited, too! 

I do understand that this may not happened again for 6 months, but we are celebrating this milestone today anyway.  Now, I just need her to tee-tee in the potty, too.

I took a more graphic picture, but I don't think that's appropriate to share.  Enjoy these picture of such a milestone moment...

She knows that I took a picture of her poop and wants to see it.

Amelia's First But Really Second Birthday

Today, Amelia celebrated her second birthday, but her first birthday with us.  This morning, we began Amelia's birthday by singing "Happy Birthday" to her as we went into her room to get her out of her crib.  She laughed and clapped the entire time and probably thought that she had crazy parents.  Daddy took her to Krispy Kreme for a birthday breakfast.  She played a little at home until it was time for her party.

Amelia had a fabulous time at her ice cream party.  She acted like parties happened at our house every day.  She was social with everyone and used her charms to get extra snacks from people at the food table.   There is no telling how many M&Ms or bites of ice cream she was given.  I even saw her actually reaching up to the table to grab chips and crackers.

After having some ice cream sundaes and floats, it was time for cake.  Amelia had absolutely no idea what to do with the cake that sat in front of her.  We practiced blowing out candles all week, but she still wouldn't blow out the ones on her cake.  We tried to get her to smash the cake or eat it with her hands, but she does not like to be messy.  She took two bites from the cake with some urging from her parents, but she never grabbed at the cake or got her hands really messy.  We finally gave Amelia a spoon, and she dug right in.

Presents were a lot of fun.  Amelia had a great time pulling things out of the bags and checking them out.  Hello Kitty was a big theme, and she was beside herself with joy when she would see the "Kitty Meow".  Thank you so much everyone for such thoughtful gifts!  Amelia especially loved opening cards and putting them back in the envelopes.  Thank you to all who mailed her birthday cards.  She really enjoyed opening them at her party!

After the party, a smart mother would have put her child down for a nap.  I am not that mother.  Instead, Daddy decided it would be fun to experiment with the left over dry ice.  Amelia had the. best. time. ever!  She played and played in the bubbles and pitched a HUGE fit when the bubble time was over.

I think she had a fabulous first but really second birthday!  I am sad that we missed her first birthday, but I am so grateful that we were able to celebrate this day with her HOME!