Supa Dupa Lean To

Awhile ago I wrote about Amelie's nickname before she was born: Pu*pae. Well, as nicknames do, hers has morphed significantly. Here is the transformation: Pu*pae > Pu(oo)pster > Pu(oo)palino > Lino > Lean-to. We also call her Supa and Supa-Dupa. Those came from Pupa Supa Dupa.

Regarding Amelie's recent achievements: her first, which I forgot to write about, was reaching and grabbing for toys. She's doing a really good job recently... she gets the "lips" face, her concentrating face, and slowly moves her hand toward whatever toy we are holding in front of her. She's getting so BIG!

I sing to Amelie a lot, and aside from "You Are My Sunshine," I think her favorite is "The Wheels on the Bus," and more specifically, the verse where I sing, "The babies on the bus go 'whah, whah, whah'" and make a crying face. She thinks that's pretty silly, and sometimes it even stops her fussing. If all else fails, she loves it when I "meow" at her like Henrietta Pussycat from Mr. Rogers' 'Land of Make-believe.'

Like our friend Jenie from church, I have also had a big urge to purge recently. Purge the JUNK, that is. My motivation, though, is that soon Amelie will be mobile, and I need to baby-proof the house. We are such packrats sometimes, and it's too hard to keep the house clean. On top of that, we have sharp edges and glass things around that we need to get rid of. So recently, I've been listing items on freecycle and selling on www.craigslist.org. All the money I make from the simplifying will go to buy whatever we need for Amelie (mostly just organic cotton clothes). So far I've gotten rid of a bunch of stuff for free, and I've made $5 on a crib bumper (funny because we don't have a crib). I was so close to selling a bunch of vegetarian cookbooks for $15, but the person couldn't find our house and doesn't want to try again. Blah, blah, blah. Anyways, it's fun to sell stuff, and I can't wait to shop for clothes for the babe. Oh! And once I finish knitting a hat, I'll make $80 by selling 4 to Chris' step-brother. Woo-hoo!

Off the baby topic for a minute... I've been reading a lot more now, since I have so much time while I'm nursing Amelie. I started with "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe," as I've already said. Then I read "Until We Have Faces," also by C.S. Lewis. It's a GREAT book, and I'd recommend it for sure. It's a retelling of the myth of Cupid and Psyche. I couldn't put it down. Now I'm in the middle of reading "Mothering Ourselves, Healing (or is it Help and Healing?) for Adult Daughters." It's a pretty good book, considering that it's a self-help book. It's about how our relationships with our mothers affect us, and how to get over those issues that come from how we were mothered. It's also really good because I'm learning what kind of mothering will help Amelie grow up to be a healthy adult. I'll probably finish the book in a day or two, so if anyone has any suggestions, throw them at me!