Grilled Cheese, Denim and Little Miss Bossy...

One of my favorite books.

Trying on some big girl jeans...

What do you think of my onesie?

About to get mad at the area rug for hindering my mobility...

I think it's safe to say Amelia is now a toddler. Somehow, I was able to make the transition in my mind, just today, when I fed her a grilled cheese and she attacked it with reckless abandon. :) A far cry from her scrunched up face when trying to swallow pureed kale and lentils. :) She loved it. Of course I took great care in preparing it just right, organic cheese and bread, and not too much butter cutting it up into tiny pieces for her to manage. I have to admit, I've been a little neurotic about what goes into her body...but I pride myself on this as well, it's one thing I can do for her during this important stage of growth. I've made homemade organic baby food since she was 5 months old. (However, I figured out quickly that she did not care for the homemade green veggies. Had to go with the organic jarred stuff...whatever works).

Anyway, she's totally into finger foods these days, so I've been trying all kinds. She loves green peas from a can. It's fun to watch her explore new foods with her hands. She's an inspector. She goes through a filtering process with the peas as she looks them over one by one and tosses the unfavorable ones to the floor. She's got her own grading system. Who know how it works but she's very serious about it.
Back to the grilled cheese...it was one of those bittersweet moments that I experience sometimes. Grilled cheese = Big Girl. I'm sure she could've had a grilled cheese before 11.5 months...why rush things? :) Being a first time mom, it was hard to know when to transition to the big girl foods. But as I introduce them one by one, she is letting me know that she's tired of the mushy baby food. She's ready for more...she likes curry for crying out loud (mild of course).
Next, the denim. I mean just look at her standing there in her jeans and her "Genuine Ford Parts" onesie. (How hilarious is that?) She's ready for a night out at the movies with her pals. Well, maybe not yet. But there's something about seeing her walk around in a pair of jeans...
And thirdly, another marker signifying toddler-hood...bossiness. Yes, she's taken to bossing us around a bit. When she's working out on her walker, back and forth and back and forth, she likes to yell and point to where she likes us to stand, usually somewhere in front of her where she can see us. She grunts and clenches her fists in order to communicate this to us. She even yells and grunts at the area rug where her walker gets held up (every single time) while she's doing her cruising. We have to watch it because admittedly this display is really quite funny at this point. It's that stage in her little life where her comprehension exceeds her ability to communicate. How frustrating that must be...hence the feisty attitude. But it shows that she's got spirit, that's what we like to call it (for now anyway)...she's spirited. :)
Who knows toddler years will bring, how her personality will unfold...she may be nothing like me, or Ford for that matter, or maybe she'll be a combination of us both. All we know is that she's morphing into her own little person...the person that God made her to be: Amelia.

Get Well Soon, Grandma Claudia

Just a note to ask everyone to take a minute today to pray for Amelia's Grandma Claudia (my mom). She's having surgery to remove part of her thyroid this morning. Praying for a smooth and successful surgery and a quick and easy recovery! And praying she wakes up feeling good as new! We love you Grandma!

First steps and she's a hard worker...

It's been just over 2 weeks since I last posted. I hope you faithful blog checkers haven't given up on me. We've had visitors!! Uncle Manny, Aunt Jamie and cousins Genessi, Lily, Sofia and Kate made the long trip south to attend Camp Nashville for a week. Despite the less then desirable conditions: i.e. chigger infested grounds and quiet time twice a day during our youngest camper's naps, everyone seemed to have a great time and Amelia loved playing with her cousins! Every morning when I'd get her out of her crib, she'd squirm and giggle with excitement when I asked her if she wanted to go play with the kids. What could be better than 4 live in playmates?
While the Vazquez family was here, Amelia took her first official steps. It started with one step and ironically, I was the only one here to witness it. Of course she's been testing out her new upright mobility, but only a few steps at a time. We are working on her confidence and she has since built up to 4 consecutive steps. I'm guessing she'll be in walking mode by her birthday. Here are a few photos of Amelia doing her very important "work." The kid is obsessed with straps and buckles; car seat straps, high chair straps, stroller straps...she works her way around the house each day and finds them and diligently does her "strap work" as we call it, like she's getting paid to do it. She also loves herself some mail, so here are also a few photos of her doing her mail work...she sorted these pieces of mail for approximately 20 minutes. She means business.

New Photos

Holding some lipbalm and curling her hair.
Beauty...

Trying out her new big girl car seat.
It's that time already...

Testing out her new wheels.
She hasn't really moved forward yet but
she's a pro at standing...squatting...standing...squatting...

Umm...what happened to you, Daddy....?

First of all, still no camera. Still trying to figure out what to do about the repair situation. But good news, I did just remember that our video camera has a still photo option. So, I can post a few in the meantime.
We've had visitors! The Turrells love visitors. First, our friend Heather came for a fun visit. Amelia loved her. We went for walks, went shopping, to the coffee shop, out to lunch and even hit an estate sale. Amelia was just one of the girls, hanging out, she loves to be social.
Next my friend Molly and her two great kids, Marian and Michael came for the weekend. (And she loved you too, Molly). :) Though they did not stay with us, we spent two fun-filled days with them and the "other Kim" :) and her fun family in Franklin. Again, Amelia had a blast. Every time she spends a significant amount of time around kids, she seems to blossom more and more. I love it.
We all spent Sunday afternoon swimming. This was only the second time she had been in a pool. As soon as we entered the gate and she caught a glimpse of the twinkling light blue water, she squealed and panted and pointed and bounced about with glee, practically leaping out of Ford's arms toward the water. She wanted in. The kid loves the pool. She and Ford got right in, they swam and splashed. She moved her arms and kicked her legs, just like the little amphibian she is...
She couldn't have been having more fun, and then, in a flash, things took a little bit of a turn...
Ford held Amelia up high as he dunked his own self under water coming back up to greet her with a dripping wet head and big smile...she was not amused. There were no tears, no whining. Just staring, nervous staring at Ford and his sopping wet head.
"What has happened to my Daddy? My Daddy was just right here, swimming with me, splashing and having fun, and now what do I do? I kind of don't want to touch him, or even look at him...but yet, I can't take my eyes off of him..."
Of course Ford and I were laughing as he reassured her and tried to convince her it was him and that he was okay. "Beans, it's okay, it's me, Daddy." She wasn't having it. So much seriousness. This state of seriousness went on for quite a while. Even as I took her from him and swam with her, she seemed to forget about the whole thing for a few minutes, and then suddenly she'd catch a glimpse of him... and again with the total seriousness.
We could not figure this one out as she has seen Ford's wet head before, in fact every morning she sees his wet mop after he gets out the shower before work.
Who knows what her little mind was thinking.
Overall, she had a complete blast. A perfect summer day spent with friends. She was exhausted when we got home. She smelled of pool and baby sunscreen and her head and hair were a greasy mess (since I loaded the sunscreen onto her nugget as she has developed a real aversion to wearing hats). After a long day, we made it home before bed time. I had that nostalgic feeling of arriving home after a long fun-filled, but tiring in a good way, sunny summer vacation. I love that feeling. As I gave her a bath and washed the sunscreen off of her body and got her into her clean jammies, I couldn't help but be thankful. Thankful that she can be a healthy, happy summer baby, splashing about in the summer sun. I don't take days like this one for granted. They are golden.

First Official

Well, it happened today. June 17, 2008, Amelia's first official bonk. I mean of course, she has bumped her head and fallen down plenty, but this was a little different. Let me first say that she is fine and it did not involve a trip to the doctor's office but it was horrible none-the-less. I knew it was coming, I knew it was only a matter of time, but I did not like it. Not one bit. She finally got her top two teeth on Father's Day, just 2 short days ago!! And ironically, in timely fashion, this morning her knee got caught up on the rug and she fell face first on the hardwood floor, right on her mouth. Ford was with her...I heard the initial cry from the other room and then the proverbial, "it really hurts this time," silence....

You know, that long horrible silence when they are crying so hard that everything stops...and you just wait...there is no sound, no breathing no blinking...nothing except a red face with a wide open mouth and tiny tears that start to spill from the corners of sad squinted eyes...

I came running when I "heard" the silence...and there it was. The first little stream of blood running out of her mouth and down her chin. My heart dropped first and then began beating fast as I scrambled to figure out where she was bleeding from. She finally began to cry. Hard. And we were able to determine that her cute, new little (and very sharp) teeth had cut right into her top lip. Instant fatty. It wasn't too deep and luckily it stopped bleeding fairly quickly and she was willing to suck on a cold wash cloth. She even let me ice it for a while. She's a trooper. Then it was back to life as usual, for her anyway. (Except she couldn't figure out how to eat her puffs with her big fat swollen lip in the way, she didn't let it stop her though).
But for Ford and I, I think life felt a little different.
An initiation of sorts? Welcome to the world of cuts and scrapes, bruises and bonks, slips and falls...and dare I say stitches or broken bones? Yikes, not going there yet.
Logic tells us that there is no way to protect them from every boo-boo. Though try as we might, it's inevitable, it's going to happen, over and over and over. Interestingly enough, in heat of the moment, I noticed my brain scrambling to reassure my emotional self...sounds crazy but it's true. I found myself drawing on every bonk incident I could remember happening to our friends' kids, cousins, our nieces and nephews...I tried to imagine that I myself had been through this scenario, as a mother, several times already in an attempt to reassure myself; to make myself feel better. Honestly, I don't think that helped.
I imagine it will get easier, but let's face it, although you know they'll bounce back, I think it's going to hurt everyone involved each and every time.

Bugged

Summer is officially upon us and that means...yes, chiggers. Many of you have heard me complain about these nasty little bugs before so I'm sorry, but here I go again. They are absolutely killing me this year. I mean literally getting under my skin. I refuse to put Amelia in the grass for fear she'll be chiggered alive. Do babies even itch? Because if they do, and they just can't figure out how to scratch, I'm sure that chigger bites would drive little Amelia to the brink of insanity before the age of 1. Not a chance I'm willing to take.
I'm making them sound like something out of a science fiction movie but I despise this little insect. Is the chigger in fact an insect? They are in the mite family, are mites insects? I don't know but if so they are like tiny baby (yes, they are babies) insect ghosts that find their way from the grass to your feet and make the long journey north up your leg (it can take up to 15 minutes) and up to the areas where your clothing is the tightest (a.k.a. underwear elastic and bra strap area...nice) where I've read they roam about for a while looking for the perfect spot to munch on a delicious meal of dissolved skin cells. Shortly after finishing their meal, they fall off to the ground where they grow into adults and live off of a diet of vegetation for the remainder of their days? Graciously and unbeknownst to you, they leave a large and very, very, itchy red welt that can hang around for up to 2 weeks, itching and itching until you've gone and itched it so much that you've itched it right into a scab. And sometimes, because one is just not enough, there are two bites right next to each other like one chigger said to another, "come on, I'll take you out for lunch, I know a great place over near the Hanes comfort band where we can just hang and talk and munch a while..."
And then, it seems most evenings (because that's when the welts magically appear, long after the chigger is gone), Ford and I find ourselves talking about our chigger bites to one another, to the point where it's become a competition to see who has the biggest or who has the most or who has the bite in the most uncomfortable location...like they are little annoying trophies to be shared with your friends.
So why just the one meal of skin little chigger bug?? What's the point? It seems to me that the only point is to make us miserable, to change our sheets from white to Calamine lotion color, to make swim suit season even more embarrassing than it has to be, and to remind us that mosquitoes really do get a bad rap, and to make us miserable...I said that already.
So to tie this blog into the theme of Amelia...I'll just say this "I'm sorry Amelia, that you have to spend your first summer cooped up in the house most days, far far from the chiggery grass.
"I hate chiggers." I say to Ford.
"Yeah, me too." he says.
"Hate 'em."