Our last Friday...

Today is Friday. School starts Monday...and doesn't end until 2025. I just had to do the math...Amelia will graduate high school in 2025. I have many mixed emotions about this very important Monday. So much of me wants to keep her home with me until kindergarten. To sleep in, snuggle, stay in our jammies until lunch time, play...just be little. Really little. The kind of little that I take for granted every day. The kind of little that I already wish I had more photos of, more video footage of...so I will never forget what she was like when she was little.

So she goes off to school, 3 mornings a week, starting Monday...to learn, explore, socialize, create, grow and get to know herself away from home, away from me.

But today is Friday. We slept in, just the two of us. We snuggled together, laughed and talked in my bed until we got hungry for breakfast. We stayed in our jammies until lunch. We packed a picnic. Stopped at the community center to sign up for her very first ballet class. Went to the park, ate our picnic lunch under a shade tree, and then played and played. We walked by the river, just the two of us. We pretended to fish with long sticks, catching sharks and yellow fish. We wrote our names in the sand by the river bank. We explored among the old trees and sat on their low branches and imagined who lived in their hollowed out knots. We played in the cool September air until we were tired. We stopped at the shoe store on the way home to try on ballet shoes. We went home and rested on the couch while we ate a snack, and talked and played until Ford came home. We finished our day together as a family. Doing our family thing. And then we kissed her little 3 year old face goodnight and tucked her in.

Our last Friday, not to be forgotten as we head into this bittersweet Monday with excitement, a few nerves, and really big hopes...

My school girl. My big girl. We're ready.

I love the doctor!

If you've followed this blog, you may remember in previous posts regarding doctor visits, Amelia has never been a big fan...of any type of doctor let alone being examined by one. As a baby, when we would visit Dr. Frank's office in Nashville, all she had to do was spot him in the hallway on the way to the exam room and the tears would flow and the clinging would begin. I remember having to virtually yell over the screaming/crying in order to communicate with the doc. Doctor visits were brutal, and exhausting. Something we all came to dread. This was one of those things about her personality I thought might continue on as she got older...but yesterday, the bugger proved me wrong.

All three of us have had a nasty cough/virus for about a week. I decided it was time to have her checked out. I told her about an hour before we left the doctor that we were going to visit Dr. Chapin so that the she could have a listen to her chest as well as check her ears and throat.

She excitedly got ready to go. Really? She smiled and sang all the way there. For real? She even said..."I looovvve going to the doctor." What? Ford and I just kept looking at each other like, "who is this kid?" And the doctor bliss only continued once we got to the office. She excitedly viewed the fish in the fish tanks while we waited our turn. She willingly walked into the exam room, with purpose I might add, and then followed the nurse to the scale to be weighed. She laughed and read books while we waited for the doctor to come in and when she did...Amelia smiled, engaged in conversation and willingly did everything she asked, even sat up on the table and laid down so she could check her tummy. No crying, no clinging. Just a happy cooperative kid.

Knock me down with a feather. I could have cried I was so relieved and proud of her. But I didn't cry, because I was just too happy that the drama seems to have come to an end...at least in regard to doctor visits. :)

Falling In Love.

This afternoon Amelia and I were eating lunch while listening to music. She apparently was listening to the lyrics and told me the girl was singing about falling in love.

I asked her, "Do you know what that means?" She replied, "No. What does it mean?" Thinking carefully I replied, "well, it's like when I met your dad. We liked each other and he asked me on a date...then we fell in love," Looking very inquisitive she asked me,"was I there? In your tummy?"

I smiled, "no, you weren't there. You were born after Mom and Dad got married." Pausing, she thought for a moment..."and then did you fall in love with me?"

Still smiling, "I sure did."

Woke up a 3 year old...

Amelia turned 3 on August 7, 2010. When she woke up she ran out into the living room. I said "Happy Birthday!" She said with a big grin..."Mama, am I THREE??"

Here she is on her new bike (from Grandma and Grandpa Turrell) looking so big and so three.

Last day as a 2 year old...

Went to bed a 2 year old...

Big Sista!

1-24-2011. Amelia is going to be a big sister!! We are almost 12 weeks already! 28 to go! Here is Amelia proudly sporting her new big sister t-shirt. So proud. And the next photo...well, tonight Ford went in to check on her and found her like this...asleep with her baby (doll) in her tummy. She must have been thinking about baby brother or sister when she fell asleep. So sweet.

If I were...

Below are a few unprompted quotes from Amelia...

"Hey Dad! I can smell the sunshine! If I were a superhero...I would fly up into the sky, lift my head, and smell the sunshine."

"If I were a butterfly...I would stay in a cage so I wouldn't be so tickly."

Just cute.