First trip to the zoo

Today we were spontaneous and went to the zoo with Amelie spur of the moment. We also decided on a whim, to become members. Yay! Regular admission was more than half the membership price, so we went for it. Amelie is old enough to enjoy it, we live less than 5 miles away, and soon we'll have a second working car so I can go anytime I want. And since it's an "Individual Plus" membership, I can take a friend when I go. That's an open invite, by the way.

We took a couple pictures of Amelie's first time at the zoo, but Chris took more of a bald eagle, not to mention the other animals. Next time, I'm in charge of the camera. :) Anyways, here are two that turned out (most were blurry and a couple were breastfeeding pics - you don't want to see them).

Proof of the Boogeyman

He lives in Amelie's nose, and leaves his mark all over her face (even above her eyebrow), on her clothes, in our bed, and on my frontside. He is persistent about making himself known. So, if you've ever questioned his existence, put your mind at ease. He lives.

Amelie has been sick for the last week or so... AGAIN. I'm pretty careful about having people who appear sick hold her, but somehow she still gets the occasional bug. This time it's lots of boogers and a little cough, topped off by an occasional low-grade fever. She HATES having her nose wiped, but the funny thing is that when I wipe it, she gets so angry that she blows her nose. So I wait till she really needs it, and then we go to town. And she has for some reason developed an affection for the booger-sucker, so that is always an option. Unfortunately, it just doesn't work as well as getting her mad enough to blow her nose. And, OH, how she loves her medicine! When we get out that bottle, she quiets down and opens her mouth like a baby bird. How cute.

The night before last, Amelie slept for 6 hours in a row! I felt like a new woman when I woke up. For those of you who don't know: Amelie usually wakes up every 3 hours, at least. Sometimes every hour for one reason or another. Then last night, she slept for 5 hours. It was so nice. I still slept in though (Amelie always has Daddy Time in the morning until her AM nap so I can get some extra sleep), and when I woke up I was so disoriented and groggy; it was horrible. My body felt like it was still asleep, all my limbs were sleepy. And when I stretched, I was light-headed. I just felt like I was still asleep. This lasted for 10-15 minutes. I don't think I'll ever sleep for 11 hours again, no matter how interrupted it is. I'd rather be tired from too little sleep than from too much like today.

Amelie is working so hard on crawling. She wants to go-go-go, but she can't-can't-can't. She has been scooting a lot, and she gets up on her knees and then falls on her tummy. Her newest trick is getting from her tummy to sitting up. She learned how to do this the other day, and is now a pro. She also LOVES to stand up, holding onto her activity bar (is that what you call it? the toy that you set over babies and has toys dangling from it?). Today she had her first real fall, while holding on to the bar. She just fell sideways, and I heard the "bonk" of her head on the wood. Po baby. A couple seconds of crying and a couple minutes of nursing, and she forgot all about it.

The other day I bought Amelie a toothbrush set, with a toothbrush for every stage until she needs a big-kids' toothbrush. Here she is brushing her teeth:





Silly baby:




Us girls:




Being her cute self:




Daddy Time:




She loves the kitties:




Waiting for her best friend Eliot to call...

Swinging

Today we took Amelie to the park to take pics of Amelie swinging. She loves it, although you can't see it in her face. She is always deadpan, but when I hold out my hands to pick her up, she holds on tight to the swing because she doesn't want to get out. Here are the highlights of this afternoon:

It's going swimmingly

Tonight we brought Amelie swimming for the first time at a park by our house (basically it's a park-sized water fountain thingy; hard to explain, I'll take pics of it next time we are there). We got some GREAT shots of Amelie there...

Welcome to the land of O's

In my last entry, I forgot to mention that I fed Amelie O's (Purely O's actually; natural Cheerios) for the first time. She did pretty well, but seems to be a little stressed out about it. When she eats one, she drools profusely and makes this strange forced sneezing, nose-blowing noise that is really hard to describe. She doesn't choke, she just gets really dramatic about it. And she still picks up another and tries again.

This and that

I worked out yesterday for the first time in probably years. It felt great. I did the Cindy Crawford workout video (cheezy, but it kicks my butt). All day I felt so-o-o good. And then I woke up this morning. Ouch.

Last night I had all sorts of crazy dreams (and I didn't sleep well at all). The best one was when I dreamed (dreamt?) I woke up to find Chris wildly spraying deodorant in his pitts saying, "Oooh pizza, it smells like pizza." I tried to tell him we didn't have enough deodorant for him to be using it so liberally. Then I woke up for real.

Today I went grocery shopping at the co-op, and I got $287 worth of groceries for $183 (63 in sales and member discounts +41 in coupons). Thrifty me.

Tonight while Amelie and I were in the tub, our cat Squeak fell in the tub with us. She happens to like water, which is why she was on the ledge in the first place. I don't think she was looking to take a bath with us, though.

Our fun, busy day

Today was my grandma's memorial service in Vergus, MN (near Detroit Lakes). We decided that it would be unbearable to try to make the drive with Amelie, so we stayed home. Chris was able to pick up a shift at work last minute, so that worked out OK.

Since we stayed in the cities, we we able to go to the Annual Tea Party at our midwife's house, when all the families of the babies they've (there's 2 of them) birthed (or rather, helped to birth) over the last year come together to eat good food and chat. It was so good to see Kim and Kathy again; they are such amazing women! I can't wait till I get pregnant so we can start seeing them again. :) Time to start saving my money. Uh, Chris' money. Anyways, we had fun for the short time we were there (we had to leave early b/c Chris had to work), and we met some really great people. Also, we took some cute pics of Amelie in Kim's yard I thought you'd enjoy. (I'm just going to post a bunch because they're so cute; I know it's overkill).

Happy Mother's Day, indeed!

My first Mother's Day was great! First, we went to the Uptown Diner for a BLT for lunch, then we went to church, and afterward we ate food from French Meadow Bakery, my favorite restaurant ever. Dee-lish.

For my MD gift, Chris commissioned a painting of Amelie for me. It turned out so PERFECT! I love it!! Here is a picture of it:

Thank you, honey!

Eat your heart out

Not a fan of apples




Blair Baby Project




Drool





Bookworm

Rockin' out

It turns out that Amelie's "NO" headshake is really her dancing. Or both. We'll see.

I love my sassy baby.

Bargains

I've tried to post pics twice now, but something isn't working right with the site... soon, though.

Thursday we went to some garage sales (the sign said "8+ garage sales," does that mean 9? more? we never figured that out...) and bought several board books for 25c each, and a baby wrap (another baby holder) for $5! Woo-hoo! I love garage sales!

Kid music

So we bought the soundtrack to Curious George, which was made by Jack Johnson. Usually I don't think much of JJ because all his music sounds the same, but I really like this album (I bought it because it has a song by/with Ben Harper). And so I've been thinking about what other albums we can buy for Amelie that we will also enjoy. I like the Veggie Tales movies, and we have a CD, but I can only take so much of the cheezy music and sounds-like-someone-inhaled-too-much-helium voices. We also have a "Reggae for Kids" CD, but it's a little too... KID for me, and not enough reggae. Anyways, does anyone know of some good kid music that isn't too KID?

Happy feet

So, Chris was always saying that he wished they made Robeez shoes for adults, because they look so comfortable. A wish comes mostly true for Chris today: www.mossfeetstore.com offers soft-soled suede shoes for adults. And guess what? You don't have to have a turtle or dumptruck on the top of your foot (but you can if you want)! Every shoe is custom designed by you. They have a ton of designs and shoe colors. When I have $72 to drop on slippers (that's essentially what they are), I'm buying some for Chris.

Caterpillar Roll

That's Amelie's way of moving. When she's on the bed, she rolls to where she needs to be, and if she ends up a few inches away, she creeps like a caterpillar. Or more like an inchworm. Her butt goes up a little, and then she flattens herself out to push forward a couple inches. Does this mean she'll be crawling soon? I don't want to have to familiarize myself with the vaccum (or is it vacuum? I'm dumb) just yet.

Today Chris' manager saw Amelie, and asked if we've considered having her model. I said yes, but that we always assume we are just biased b/c we're her parents. He said that he was a model for several years, and that Amelie has the face and disposition for it (he hadn't heard the dentist drill at that point). "She has a Gerber face," he said. So he referred us to a talent agency that we'll call this week. She may be our breadwinner soon... woo-hoo!

in a nutshell

I just noticed that my last post was not published, so there's a bit of a delay there... whatever. Here is our life recently, briefly, and not well thought-out: We are all feeling well again. Quitting smoking is going well for me, although not perfect. Amelie is babbling a lot more now, usually sounding a lot like a creature from Star Wars. I threw out my back yesterday (actually, the chiro said it was a rib), so it sucks to try to carry the bambino around a lot today. We are praying for some sort of miracle to happen so Chris and I can go to the Pearl Jam concert this summer. What else... We are starting spring cleaning and baby proofing around here. So far we have just started with the living room. Slow going. Amelie has been eating real food for the last few days, not just pureed stuff. She had a slice of pear on Sunday, and some banana yesterday and today. We borrowed the 3rd season of Family Guy and so far I'm not impressed. I had forgotten how stupid it is, but I do remember that it gets funnier the more you watch it.