Photos to go with the recent postings...

Bob the Tomato Boo-boo






Signing "A" for Amelie






Bananas for bananas






Getting proficient at the harmonica






Waiting to be adjusted at the chiro

Party Animal

This has been the month of birthdays. First, we went to my cousin's baby's (Grace's) birthday party, then to Chris' step-sister's baby's (Madie's), and finally, to our friend Jackson's party. Amelie's party is soon to come.





Grace and her booty:






Amelie after seeing the booty:

Crybaby

Fun with iPhoto

Now that I've learned how to use iPhoto, I can save my blurry pics of Amelie by tweaking them and turning them into something lovely. My favorite is over-exposed, high contrast black and white. Yay iPhoto!

Hats off!

I may just skip the whole party hat deal altogether. I had such a great idea for party hats (in my own head anyway; they probably would have been stupid IRL). It's too hard to explain it well enough, and I doubt anyone cares anyways. Sheesh. $.79 per hat is pretty steep for a plain Jane cone hat. When you add in s/h and the 10c embellishment I was going to add, they'd be about $1 each, and with 40-50 people coming... OUCH.
I could make better ones myself for about $.50 each, but that's so much work for a piece of cardboard that little kids will yank off to chew on and adults will hate wearing and throw away first chance they get.

I can't believe I just wasted my time and energy writing about party hats. And yours, too. Forgive me. I've become THAT mom.

Can anyone help?

I'm looking for a place that sells plain white birthday hats. I've called a couple party supply places around here with no luck, and tried looking online, but nobody seems to have them Anyone know where to look?

Also, I'm having a hard time getting a downloaded font into NeoOffice. Anyone know how to do that?

Sign of the times...

Amelie is speaking with her hands, now, as well... She started by signing "milk" awhile back, but has since forgotten it. However, this week, she started consistently using the "more" sign, usually for crackers (more on that later). "All done" is inconsistent, she points at things, and waves "bye". Also, this week, she's started really trying hard to sign the alphabet when we sing it. We've been signing it to her since she was old enough to focus a few inches from her face, and now she's trying it out herself. She actually signed "A" and "B". What a smart girl! Now we're working on "mama", "milk", and "eat".

Poor girl has a rash on her upper body, probably from a food allergy. Amelie would do backflips for her multigrain crackers if she could, but I suspect the yare the culprit. I put calendula oil on it, and it seemed to help, unless it's clearing up because we didn't have the crackers today. I'll probably take her to the Dr anyways, as it's a good excuse for her to meet Amelie for the first time.

Today Amelie cut her foot, right by her big toe. Ah, the big kid stuff... getting hurt and all. She has a Veggie Tales bandage on it, and keeps trying to pick at it. I know how annoying it is to have one on the toe...

Monday, Amelie's 5th toothe popped through. I can see #6 is on it's way!

You don't say!

Amelie is up to speaking 5 words now...

Her first was Daddy, pronounced "DA".

Then she suprised us by saying "Bye" when we were leaving the mortgage office about a week ago. Pronounced "Buh".

Her latest words, all started this week, are: Burp, Bunny, and Book. All pronounced "Buh".

Here are 2 pics of baby girl this last week. I think they're adorable, Chris says she looks "slow" in one and like Elephant Man in the other.
"SLOW":


"Elephant Man" (I think it's the teeth?)

Early bird

Wouldn't you know it, the one time Chris isn't here to have Daddy Time in the morning, Amelie gets up earlier than ever. I'm not a morning person, so her pre-8am wake up this morning wasn't a pleasant experience. I'll just nap with her later.

Today we get to go to my cousin's baby's first birthday party. I'm sure it will be a blast. Amelie will love playing with the other kids. I'm off to wrap the gift, now...

Mullet 4 11

The last couple of times that Amelie and I have taken a bath, we've brought her plastic comb in with us. I have been playing with her hair while she plays with toys, and tonight I gave her the greatest televangelist mullet, it was hilarious! Then I gave her mall bangs, and then a funky all over spikey 'do. I can't wait till she's old enough to enjoy the bath hair as much as I do.

Amelie cut her 4th tooth today! Woo-hoo! It's the last of her 4 front teeth. Now she's working on the one next to her other front tooth. I can see that it's about to pop through.

Saturday marked Amelie's 11th month out of the womb. I'm so sad... only one more month of having a "baby". The funny thing is that literally on Saturday, she started acting so much older. It's not my imagination, either, I swear! She did this another time, but I don't remember which month it was... it's on this blog somewhere. Anyways, she started being all funny and weird all of a sudden. We had a 10 minute laughing session the other day, and she's just generally getting more funny and rambunctious (sp? I never write that word...).

Time to start 1) her baby book, and 2) planning that birthday party.

Baby shower

Amelie had her first ever shower this week, with her daddy. I won't bore you (or offend you) with all the pics, but here's a peek:

What can brown do for you?

Amelie's got to start pulling her weight around here, so she's getting a job. Can you guess where?

My Friends by Taro Gomi

This book was a gift from the Sampedros, and was immediately a favorite for all 3 of us. So much so, that I ordered another book by Taro Gomi, but we'll get to that one later... In this book, a little girl tells about what she learns from her friends. The illustrations (watercolor?) are adorable and simple, and have some unexpected suprises. For example, on my favorite page below:

Notice the human skull buried in the dirt? I think that's hilarious! On another page, she's on the roof(!), and on another, a kid is pulling her pigtail.

My only beef with this book is that there's a TV in the little girl's room. Hopefully Amelie will never notice.

Norma Jean

Sometime last week, I saw a PBS special about Marilyn Monroe. Usually, I think she is really overrated (especially as an actress), and when I see something like this program, I have a strange pity for her. But I always come away liking her more and wishing she were still around. She'd probably have a great train-wreck of a reality show right now. Anyways, there was a segment about a particular photo shoot that Marilyn did where she was in a hotel room just being herself, and she had an amazing range of emotions and poses that she did. Every shot turned out different and beautiful. This series of pics reminds me of that:

The Last Straw

As of this picture, Amelie had been holding onto that straw for one hour without putting it down even once.

Is Your Mama a Llama? by Deborah Guarino

This may be my favorite of Amelie's books. When my oldest little sister was a baby, 12 years ago, I read the paperback version to her all the time. So, when Amelie received this board book as a gift from the Schirbers, I was really excited.

Depending on her mood, sometimes it's a little wordy for Amelie's attention span, so we just flip through and highlight certain words, but usually she will be patient enough to listen to it all. The illustrations (watercolor?) by Steven Kellogg are detailed and endearing, without being too cutesy or cartoony. Lloyd the llama talks to his animal friends, asking about their mamas. They answer back with adorable rhyming riddles:

"Is your mama a llama?" I asked my friend Rhonda. "No, she is not," is how Rhonda responded.

KANGAROO!"

How cute is that?!

Bookworm

I always hoped that my baby would be a reader. I love books, and really wanted Amelie to, too. Well, wishes do come true. Everyday we have to read this stack of books at *least* once, sometimes 3 or more times. We also have small stacks of books in her playroom (boring books) and in our bedroom (bedtime books) which we try to read once a day, too. Did you count them yet? That's SIXTEEN books. She loves to flip the pages, I think that's the main reason she likes to read so much. Occasionally she'll seem to have a new favorite book in the pile, one that makes her smile or talk, and sometimes she'll just pick up a book and start "reading" it on her own. The cuteness is too much for me.

For the sake of all you mamas and daddies out there who also read to your babes, I'm going to start reviewing these favorites so you can maybe try them out for yourselves. When I'm done with these, I'll move on to the other stacks of books throughout the house.

4th attempt at posting pics

"What does a pig say?" We're working on this trick, but for now, she will snort like crazy when we initiate it.






Playing "Monkeys" with the cat






"You WOULDN'T!"






Nothing to smile about






You'd think it was a cookie jar!






Faking it






Amelie's first injury: that little bruise on her cheek. :(






And for some generally ADORABLE shots:





The End