Isn't She Lovely?

For our ward enrichment on Thursday, one of the girls in our ward took us on an art walk through UCSD campus. She was a landscape architect with UCSD before she had her children, and knows so much about the outdoor art installations on-campus. During the tour, we visited an installation called "Green Table," by Jenny Holzer. The table was made out of marble, and had what she calls "truisms" etched into the marble all over the table. There were sayings like, "A SOLID HOME BASE BUILDS A SENSE OF SELF," "EVERY ACHIEVEMENT REQUIRES A SACRIFICE, " and MUCH WAS DECIDED BEFORE YOU WERE BORN."

There was one line on the table that I haven't been able to get out of my head.

"TURN SOFT AND LOVELY ANY TIME YOU HAVE A CHANCE"

It reminded me of the 13th article of faith to seek after things that are virtuous, lovely, of good report...

It isn't hard to find loveliness all around me in San Diego -it's everywhere I look. But, sometimes it is really hard to BE lovely. Especially when our world can be tough, unforgiving and inpatient.

I love the idea of letting go of any other emotions you may feel and replacing them with soft and lovely emotions, thoughts, word and actions. I love how she used the word turn - because it really does take effort, and in a lot of cases requires a 180 degree change in what you're thinking, saying and doing.

It's my desire to learn how to turn soft and lovely...so I can help sweet Amelia preserve all the loveliness she was born with.

Paging Dr. Wignall

So, we had our first trip to the emergency room on Tuesday evening. While playing at the park with Amelia, and having a grand time, I made the mistake of picking her up by her arms...big mistake. Her wrist popped, and she proceeded to cry and wouldn't move her arm.

I took her inside, Chris came home, I raced around the house gathering snacks, stuffed bunnies, books, pacifier, and whatever else I could think to pack for our trip to the urgent care, gave the still crying Amelia tylenol, and we headed out the door.

After 2 hours of holding a crying baby in the emergency room, a doctor finally escorted us back to to take x-rays. The doctor made Chris hold her down(and according to Chris our baby might be a superhero, because she had super-human strength) and put her arm out straight. I left the room - the doctor said it was to protect my ovaries, so we could have more kids, and more trips to the emergency room...I think they call that job security.

And this is the part where genius Chris turned into a medical doctor. Sometime, somehow, in the midst of Chris struggling with Amelia, arms and legs flailing, the doctor running back and forth and pushing on her arm, Amelia's arm popped back into place and everything was fine.

Amelia was so happy to not be in pain. She ran and jumped around the emergency room....much to the dismay of the other, sicker emergency room patients. Her appetite came back and she was our Amelia again.

Well, I didn't want to pay for anything else, because obviously she was fine. So, with my mom's advice, I took Amelia in to the nurse's room, and showed them just how fine she was - she didn't disappoint - she was talking, drinking her milk, giggling, and pointing to things in the office. Obviously fine. I told them I didn't want to pay for anything else, but it didn't work.

Another half-hour later and a visit with a doctor, Amelia left the emergency room after being kissed by all the nurses and paramedic drivers she'd charmed. She laughed and waved goodbye to the sick patients waiting by the door, and we went home.

She's been fine ever since. Next time, Dr. Wignall is going to do whatever it was that he did and save us a ton of money. And all this time I thought he was working on a Ph.D.

14 1/2 Months...and Counting

It's been awhile since I did a little update on Amelia's latest tricks. Here's the NEWs:

New Words
Dog
Cheese
Thanks
More - this isn't consistent yet, but I'm hoping
Teeth
Swing
Three
Moo
hair

New Tricks
Doing all the actions to the song "If You're Happy and You Know It"
Blowing kisses
Climbing on moms dresser
Trying to wear mom and dads clothes
Correctly identifies the following body parts: hair, eyes, ears, teeth, tongue, head, fingers, toes
Wearing mom and dads shoes
I needed to insert a little anecdote here. Amelia has been unsuccessful at getting her feet into my flip-flops - but not for a lack of trying. The other day she had backed the flip-flop into the corner and was holding onto the wall with both hands. She spent several minutes picking up her foot and placing it in the shoe. After several minutes with the shoe not cooperating, she picked it up, yelled at it, and put it back down. She repeated this shoe scolding process several more times, before she gave up. Obviously the shoe was not quite as good at putting itself on Amelia's foot as she would have liked. She has since been more successful with both mine and Chris' shoes.



















New Adventures
Uncle Eric & Uncle Todd were visiting today for Memorial Day - you can see that Amelia loves the beach. don't worry - we are feeding her plenty - she just likes to eat the sand for its grainy texture. She had fun playing with the boogey board, throwing sand on Uncle Todd and knocking over other children's sand castles.

Amelia loves to dance along to almost any music. The other day she was getting her daily veggie tales fix and I happened to walk around the corner as she was rockin' out with Bob & Larry. Hopefully I can get it on video next time, so you can see (and maybe learn) some of her dance moves.

That's all the NEWs for now.

Like Mother...Like Daughter

You know this post can't possible be about me and Amelia - since we don't resemble each other (maybe the next girl...). This post is about my darling sister-in-law, Nathalie. For the first few months of her daughter Cate's life we called Cate Little Richard, not because she resembled the famous entertainer, but because she looked just like her Dad, Richard.

However, the more Cate grows up, the more it is clear that she is definitely her mother's child. Not just in looks, but in actions as well.

Please compare these pictures of Nathalie as a toddler with her post about Cate's movin' and shakin' on her blog:

http://thethurstonfamily.blogspot.com/2007/05/mover-and-shaker.html










































I say, the world's lucky to have this mom and daughter...we all need a little movin' and shakin'. They make us happy, liven up the party, and give us so much lovin'.

We love you Nat and Cate!

Todd's Girlfriend

Uncle Toddy loves his niece. We're so glad he stayed with us last week. The first time Amelia saw him was when she ran into our living room, only to find some strange man sleeping on her floor. She didn't want anything to do with him. Todd was smart and just stuck out his finger, which she would walk by and touch. Gradually she warmed up to him, and even learned to say his name. By the time he left they were buddies.

Family Vacation

We had such a wonderful time on our family vacation. We stayed in Manhattan Beach and loved it! Amelia was such a trooper. She didn't like sitting in the car so much, but loved being outside all day. We had so much fun being tourists. Our only regret (other than not buying extra batteries for our camera) was not staying for 3 more days!

Day 1
Swimming @ hotel














Dinner in downtown Manhattan Beach
Lounging in the hotel - hooray for a suite!




















Day 2
Hollywood - Mann's Chinese Theater/Walk of Fame















Celebrity Watch - you can see anything in Hollywood - including Batman stopping to get directions from Michael Jackson.














Beverly Hills

Olvera Street - Cinco de Mayo















Swimming @ hotel
Pizza in downtown Manhattan Beach
More Lounging in the hotel















Day 3
LA Temple
La Brea Tar Pits
Santa Monica Pier
Drive Home!

Amelia's Favorites

I've been taking pictures over the past few weeks of Amelia's favorite things to do at this point in her life...13-14 months.

Eating Breakfast - strawberries please!














Going for a run with mom.



















Watching a movie.














Trying to open the door to GO OUTSIDE!















Drinking milk.














Playing at the beach with Hannah.














Playing with Dad when he gets home from school.














Climbing the stairs. Any stairs.



















And when she is done doing all of her favorite activities. She loves to SLEEP!














What is Amelia's mommy's favorite activity? Taking pictures of Amelia, of course!