18 Month Stats

Amelia had her 18 month check-up today. The doctor proclaimed her perfectly healthy and sweet! We're certainly happy to hear that she's healthy, but we already knew that our little Amelia is a sweetie! At 18 months old, Amelia is 32 7/8 inches tall and weighs 24 pounds 13 ounces. Even though Amelia is an extremely picky eater as of late, she's clearly not struggling to put on weight or add height to her frame.

Amelia was mad at me for putting her in the scale. If her 'angry' face is this dramatic at 18 months, I can only imagine it 14 years from now!

After I started to get Amelia dressed, she began to dance around the exam room. Amelia clearly thought she was heading home immediately, but what she didn't know was that the nurse would soon arrive to administer her vaccine-hence the lack of pants. :)

Merry (very belated) Christmas!

This entry is very late in coming, so I apologize to all those who like to occasionally check in on Amelia and Graham. Everything is fine here, we've just been busy hanging out with family, catching up with old friends, and having fun with all the new "stuff" that Santa so generously delivered. Our Christmas actually began on Christmas Eve morning. We sleep at Grandma and Grandpa's house on Christmas Eve, so Santa was thoughtful enough to deliver some gifts a day early so we wouldn't have to haul them to their house just to bring them home again. The kids were amazed to wake up to a mountain of gifts. Graham knew just what to do with them, but Amelia was quite overwhelmed. Either she was just having an off-morning or she just wasn't into opening gifts that day. Thankfully, Christmas morning would go better for her!

The gifts before the kids attacked them

For the past few months, Graham told us he wanted Santa to bring him a violin. Luckily, Santa came through for him!

Amelia becoming acquainted with her new baby and stroller

The favorite gift of the morning was a toddler sized table and chairs

After opening all the gifts from Santa and Mommy and Daddy, we packed up the car and headed to Grandma and Grandpa's. We were in the middle of a blizzard so our car was PACKED full of stuff since we had no idea we'd be hanging out with them due to the weather. Because of the horrible weather, Uncle Peter's flights were canceled so it actually worked out well that he could be home to celebrate with us. We ended up having a very low key Christmas Eve and Christmas day. We did a lot of laughing and spending time together and it was just perfect!

Three babies after their bath-I have no idea why Amelia is crying!

Hot (actually luke warm)chocolate and marshmallows on Christmas morning. Yes, Amelia is drinking from a shot glass, but don't tell her!

Graham decided to climb under the table and explained to us that it was in a dog house...ummmm, ok then. What Graham does, Amelia does, so, here are two kids smashed into a 'dog house'. :)

A girl can never have too many tutu's!

Taking inventory of his Little Einstein figures. His new pressure washer is next to the Little Einstein toy.

French braids compliments of Auntie Lynn

Amelia and Graham present "The Three Billy Goats Gruff"

Let it snow!

We're preparing for a Christmas blizzard around here! Last I heard, we should expect anywhere from 16-22 inches of the fluffy white stuff and I have to admit that I'm pretty excited! It actually sounds fun to be snowed in over Christmas with my family....yes, I actually enjoy spending the holidays with my family...I'm lucky! Hopefully it isn't too windy the next few days because we hope to take advantage of the fresh snow and take Amelia and Graham sledding. So, let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

This picture has absolutely nothing do to with snow or Christmas or anything remotely related to the holidays actually. On a whim, I attempted to get Amelia's hair into a pony tail this morning. Not two of them sticking out the side of her head, but one in the back, just like a big girl. I don't know if I should be happy or sad, but most of her hair did fit, and yes, she does look more like a big girl to me. I think we'll stick with the big bows and pig tails for the time being!

Amelia knows what she wants...

We did have a fun adventure to the Children's Museum today, but when we arrived and I pulled out my camera I realized that the memory card was back home still in the computer. So, I got to enjoy our morning at the museum without a camera. It actually worked out for the best, since the museum was more crowded than I've ever seen it and chasing Amelia and Graham through the crowds required the full attention of both parents.

I will share one quick story from this afternoon though...both kids were playing together nicely and after a few minutes I realized that Amelia had disappeared. I called her and she didn't come which is quite unusual for her. I eventually found her on the floor in Graham's bedroom. Apparently, Amelia is a girl who knows what she wants because she located a diaper along with the container of wipes and positioned herself to be changed. And yes, she was correct, she did need a clean diaper!

Zoo Day

We're lucky enough to have Jeff home from work until after New Years so we're planning to fill our schedule with lots of fun activities! Many of the things I do with Amelia and Graham during the day, Jeff misses out on. He doesn't get to go to see the animal shows at the zoo with us, he doesn't get to splash in water room at the Children's Museum with us, and he doesn't get to crawl on his hands and knees through tunnels at the indoor park. This week, that will all change though. Welcome Jeff, to stay-at-home parenting!

Today, we made a visit to the zoo. Our first stop was the dolphin stadium to watch the dolphins train for the aquatic shows. Amelia was having an "I'm afraid of fish day" but Graham was thoroughly impressed with the jumping dolphins and the occasional dolphin who would leave the trainer and come splash the audience.

The zoo has a monorail that we've often watched as it slowly moves across the tracks and today because it was too cold outside to tour the grounds on foot, we jumped on for a ride. All was going well for the first half, then things changed. Since I want to be honest about how our days play out around here, I'm guessing many will find humor in what was about to happen....Amelia has this strange habit of stuffing her mouth full of food and leaving it in her cheeks. Today, her mouth was full of orange slices and it was still full when we boarded the monorail. Amelia was enjoying the ride on her Daddy's lap when she suddenly threw up. She's got an unusually light gag reflex and I guess those oranges became too much for her! I immediately began digging through the bag looking for something to wipe up both Amelia and Jeff. The only thing I had was an extra change of clothes for Graham, after all, you can't be too careful with a newly potty-trained toddler. So, in front of a train car full of people, I proceeded to wipe Amelia's face off with a pair of Thomas underpants...I can laugh about it now, but at the time, it was anything but funny. Jeff was covered, Amelia was covered, and the the enclosed car without circulation really STUNK! Hopefully, Amelia is done stuffing her mouth full of oranges! Like I said before, Welcome Jeff, to stay-at-home parenting!

Just minutes before the 'incident'...

Cookie Fest

Today was our annual Cookie Fest baking extravaganza. Since we were down a few family members, we only made two types of cookies instead of the usual four or five, but we still had a great day. Our two little bakers enjoyed playing with the dough and were occasionally caught with a mouthful of raw cookie goodness! Decorating the sugar cookies was an interesting experience as both Amelia and Graham demonstrated the need to refine their frosting skills. At one point, an ENTIRE bottle of chocolate sprinkles was dumped onto a Santa cookie and as quickly as the sprinkles were piled on, the entire cookie, mountain of sprinkles and all, was inhaled. Needless to say, we dealt with two very serious sugar highs and subsequent crashes this evening. It's all in fun though and thankfully, it's nothing a good night's sleep can't fix!

The Superhero Kids

Both Amelia and Graham have this 'thing' for capes. They loves to take the kitchen towels, stick them into the back of their shirt collars and run around in circles pretending to fly. To be completely honest, this drives me crazy. As the kids decide they're ready to forgo the capes and flying for walking, the towels are discarded in the most random of places making it difficult for me to find them. So, I decided to take matters into my own hands and get them the real deal. I custom ordered two superhero capes and was just waiting for the right opportunity to present them. Being that last night was the 8th and final night of Hanukkah, I thought it was the perfect occasion. The instant the Amelia and Graham had the capes around their neck, their bodies became infused with energy. I don't know what it is about these capes, but they are certainly a hit around our house!

Graham was just starting to realize what he was holding...

Modeling the capes

And they're off.....an action shot as they take the first of many, many, many laps around the house last night!