best friends

Amelia loves loves her friends, but while she was snuggling with Chris this morning in our bed she said:

"The baby boy is my best friend."

I do hope that is the case...sounds like a great idea.

baby boy's room

I spent a lot of time before Amelia was born working on her room...thought I should do something for the baby boy...

When I was pregnant with Amelia I saw this great piece of art in a magazine...it was hundreds of polka dots. Thought I would create a smaller version for above the changing table...Amelia suddenly wants to be changed on the dresser again...

Happy Easter

We hope your Easter was delightful...and that you worked yourself into a sugar stupor as well.

She Has Us All Figured Out

Here is a quick conversation I had with Amelia the other day...didn't want to forget it.

Amelia: Mom, can I have some more jellybeans?
Me: No, you've already had some today.
Amelia: Ok, I go ask dad for more jellybeans.
Me: Dad isn't at home, he is at school.
Amelia: Oh...with his bike and his friends.

And, here another funny conversation, because she is just so darn cute!

Every morning we talk about what we are going to do that way...I fill Amelia in on the itinerary, so she gets excited.

One morning, I was lying on her bed with her, and she said:
"Mom, today we going to the beach. Ok? After my nap. Don't worry. It be soon. Don't worry."

Notes on a 2-year-old

(This lighting in this picture stinks
and the photo is grainy,
but I just thought Amelia looked so
adorable in the Valentine's dress
I made her that I had to post it anyway.)

Since Amelia just turned 2, I thought I should post some of her favorite things:

Favorite sayings:

• Oh my goodness
• No Thanks, I'm good
• I'm mommy's baby AND daddy's baby
• pretty much any saying used to boss someone (her mom and dad) around
• Don't touch my black car! (not sure why she says this, but she almost always says it when we get out of our car)
• you're wepome (you're welcome).
  
• What happened?
  

Favorite things:

• Her pigtails (she cries when we take them out to wash her hair)
• Strawberries
• cheese crackers
• milk
• CANDY
• Movies - Annie, Jungle Book, anything with Elmo or Big Bird, Nemo
• Songs - The Alphabet, The Bare Necessities, The Annie Trio (Tomorrow, Maybe & It's a Hard Knock Life) , Baa-Baa Black Sheep, Old McDonald, Once There Was a Snowman, pretty much anything by Weezer...she finds it extremely danceable
• Books - Curious George, anything with dinosaurs...like her dad, Olivia
• Toys - her favorite toy, hands down, is her travel-size magna doodle. She carries it everywhere and has quite the imagination. She often draws animals, circles, her mommy and daddy, flowers, and writes her name....however, everything pretty much looks like a bunch of squiggly lines jumbled together.

Cute stories:

• We've been talking a lot about opposites lately...hot/cold, yes/no, up/down, big/little, baby/mommy and fake/real. She often thinks that things in some of her stories or movies are scary, so we explain that they are fake, which always makes her feel better. She likes to point out to us when things are fake or real. On Saturday, we went to the Wild Animal Park with my family to celebrate Amelia' s birthday. She was looking at the large gorillas with her Grandma Gaylene and informed her, "See that gorilla...it's fake." So, you can see we still need to work on this concept.

• Whenever we are going somewhere and Amelia wants to know who is going, she always adds, "and the baby boy" to our answer. She wants to make sure we know that he is tagging along.
  

• Last week when we kept trying to get Amelia to say her age the conversation would go like this:

Daddy: "Amelia, how old are you?"
Amelia:"I'm good."
Daddy: "No, I asked how old are you?"
Amelia: "I'm good."

It's taken us several days to get her to put the right response with the right question...I think we've got it now.

• The other day we took the bus to go see Chris at school. On the way to his office, she started jumping up and down and saying, "you're a BIG mommy. you're a BIG mommy." I like that she was jumping to show that I was tall, and not big in other ways.

Amelia Turns 2

Our darling girl turned 2 last week. I've been meaning to blog about the eventful day ever since Thursday, but this 2-year-old keeps me busy and now I finally have the chance.

Chris and I were both so excited about Amelia' s birthday. Amelia was also extremely excited. We went to several birthday parties recently, so she knew what to expect - candy, cake, balloons and presents. We didn't disappoint.

When she woke up in the morning, and before she had gotten out of bed I heard her calling for me, and then she stopped and said, "It's my birday." SO CUTE!

Chris and I sang to her in her bed, and then took her out to the living room to see her presents. It was like Christmas. We got her a little train, which she loved. And, her Grandma Stephanie sent her a darling kitchen. When she saw the kitchen she said, "oh! for me?" I responded positively. Then she said, "Oh, for my birday."


Then, we showed her the balloons and streamers hanging over our dining room table, and she ketp saying, "oh my goodness, oh my goodness!" (She picked up that little phrase from the movie Annie).

She played with her presents all morning while I made a big breakfast. We went to the puppet theater to see Peter Rabbit and then to the park. I had to teach piano in the afternoon, but we had a fun evening of more present opening (a church bag and crayon caddy), spaghetti & meatballs, and cupcakes. I think she loved her day.

Here she is opening her present:
Here she is enjoying her cupcake...she pretty much eats everything this way:

Annie

Amelia knows all the songs from the musical Annie. We spent one evening desperately trying to get her to sing. Here are a few of the outtakes...because, well, you'll see...there isn't much performing going on.

eyic

My brother Eric, who is home temporarily from his mission due to illness, came to stay with us for a few days. Amelia loved "Eyic." She espeically loved jumping on his bed to wake him each morning, sitting on his lap to eat her meals, playing basketball with him and snuggling in his arms. They were a cute pair.

Knotts Berry Farm

A few weekends ago Chris, Amelia & I went with my family to Knotts Berry Farm. It was Amelia's first time on theme park rides (other than a carousel).

Here is how the first ride went(click the photo to make it larger...I'm having problems with my photo editing program):

We were all standing watching the ride laughing so hard, and actually crying. Amelia was such a trooper, and never complained about any of the rides she went on. Even, though her little heart pounded the entire time.

Don't worry...she really did enjoy the day. Here are a few of the less scary moments.

Playing in the water with Grandpa:
Playing with Lauren:
A fun ride...she loved this one:
And so did Grandma Gaylene:
Eating snacks with Aunt Kari...my siblings must have given Amelia at least 6 juice boxes, which she of course loved:

And riding on the carousel with Dad...looks like he is also enjoying himself:

It was a fantastic day, despite the rain at the end.