She's One!!!!!

It's official.  Amelia is 1!  I have absolutely no idea where this last year has gone.  Amelia has grown up so fast!

Her obligatory one year old photos:

The girl loves dirt and everything about it.

Amelia had a day full of adventure planned for her birthday.  We started the day by getting her professional one year old photos taken.  She even had a smash cake for photos.  She was not happy with the photographer when they took her cake away!

After photos, we took her first trip to the zoo.  We snapped some mommy and Amelia photos while at the zoo.  I have no idea what she's looking at here but I'm so glad Dave caught the photo.

Here she is pointing at one of the larger monkeys.  The monkey was swinging around his place.

She also got up close and personal with a spider monkey.

One of her new skills is trying to walk.  She loves to hold your hands a take a few steps.  Here, she practiced by the tortoises.

Who taught her to climb?

Tortoises!

She was captivated by the penguins.  They marched right by and then jumped into the water.  She kept pointing at them.  It was adorable.

Like father, like daughter.

Big girl!

Amelia kept reaching through to pet this cow.  She was just tall enough to see and reach over the railing and she'd reach for him every time he came close.  I'm concerned that she may have thought he was a puppy as he was Patton's size!

She also got to pet a goat.  She wasn't super thrilled with this, but I can't blame her.

After the zoo, Amelia had her 1 year old check up with her Doctor.  Everything went well including 3 shots!  Since she was a trooper, we also went to the water park!  No pictures, but she had a blast.  At first she wasn't sure about all of the other kids (it was really busy) but she warmed up the idea.  We even went out into the deep end with her and it didn't bother her one bit!

We wrapped up the evening with a picnic at the Bennet Park with Patton.  I think we set the bar pretty high for birthdays but she'll never be one again!  We still can't believe that she is one already.  They say to enjoy every second because it flies by and they are right!

Stairs!

Yikes!  We are so not ready for this!

Dave and Amelia were playing by the stairs and she zipped right over to them and right up!

Memorial Day

We took a break from our walkway project to enjoy Memorial Day. We spent the day enjoying and walking the paths at Mahoney State Park.  Patton had a blast exploring every sight and smell and Amelia absolutely loved the play time!

Yes, she's pointing at the camera. Pointing is her new skill.

While she loves to sit in the grass, she still isn't sure about crawling through it.  Hence the crab walk!

When we arrived back home, Amelia and I decided to wash the car.  Well, Amelia really just sat and played with more mud (the girl loves mud).  She was filthy but had a blast!

Our Vacation

Ahhh, vacation.  Time to relax, enjoy the free time, and forget about work.  Right?

Well, not for us!  Dave and I both took a week off of work so we could install a walkway.  We've lived in our house too long without a a path to the front door.  I know our guests were getting tired of traipsing through our yard to get to our front door.  

We planned out the walkway to be the width of the front steps, about six and a half feet wide.  I would guess by the time it wraps to the driveway, it's 60 feet long!  It was a huge project.  In addition to installing the pavers for the walkway, we had to bury 3 downspouts to help with water movement.  Lots of work!!

After 3 days of prep work, Dave was able to lay the first paver.  We all did a happy dance!

The walkway has a couple of curves in it making it more difficult (we do nothing easy) but Dave is handling it like a champ!

My mom came up and helped out tremendously.  She helped us with the walkway during the day and then hung out with Amelia in the evenings.

Amelia enjoyed the process as well.  She got to spend lots of time outside and since it was nice out, she was able to play in her pool.

For some reason, my shoes were so entertaining to her.  She kept lifting them up and giggling!

What a ham!

After several days of hard work, the walkway was nearing completion.  As of today, Dave has all of the pavers down except for the ones that need cut along the edge.  We still have lots of work to do as everything between the house and walkway needs cleaned up and filled with river rock.

A New Game

Amelia discovered a new game last night.  She had a blast!



My favorite part is her putting her hand out so her father can give her back the block.  She just figured out the hand out gesture in the last day or two.

11 Months Old!

Our baby girl is almost 1 year old!  I have no idea where the last 11 months have gone but when I look back at her monthly calendars I cannot believe all of the milestones she has hit.  Her 11th month was no different.

Amelia cut back to 1 bottle per day at daycare (most days).  This is a huge accomplishment for her because she was still taking a bottle every 3 hours.  She's now eating more solid foods and loving all of them.  She had pancakes, spaghetti and lasagna for the first time this month. We have to space out the bites on her tray because she will scoop them all into her mouth in one bite!  She absolutely loves these foods.  Poor Patton doesn't get any droppings from her though she will let him lick her hand occasionally.

Amelia is also starting to point.  To go with her pointing, she loves to poke at things.  We were sitting on the deck playing one night and I looked over to see her poking at something.  She had a little spider pinned to the deck.  I had to move her hand so it could scurry away.  She didn't hurt it.  She was just so interested in the little thing.  She watched forever as it scurried across the deck.

She is also working on her speech.  We were set back a bit with all of the ear infections.  She now has tubes in both ears and is actually on her 2nd tube in her left ear.  I'm not too concerned about her speech yet.  So far she talks when she wants to and that's ok.  We were playing with bubbles one night and she must have heard me say bubble one too many times as she started saying it!  It was really cute coming from her!

Amelia is also continuing to practice her standing and walking skills.  She can take a couple of steps as long as she is between items.  She likes to practice these steps between our two hassocks.  Unfortunately bumps and bruises come along with this.  She had one really bad spill at daycare and came home with an incident report and a big fat lip.  That poor lip looked so painful!  She didn't even take it easy with that fat lip.  She came home and played for a while and fell on it again!

10 Months Old!

10 months old!  Our baby Amelia is getting to be such a big girl!

Amelia got to celebrate her first Easter during her 10th month.  She loved the eggs and buckets.  She has the best time putting items in buckets and pulling them out of buckets.  That task can keep her entertained for days!

Amelia also discovered how to wave hello and goodbye.  Her face lights up and her smile is huge when someone waves to her and she waves back!

Amelia can also now pull herself up on furniture.  Her stance is a little rough but she's working it!

Amelia tried pickles for the first time this month.  She loved them!  Must get that from her papa!

Amelia received sidewalk chalk and yard tools for Easter.

She had a blast with the sidewalk chalk though it was immediately to the bath when she was done drawing.

Amelia's other big accomplishment for the month was finding her belly button.  It's easiest to find during bath time but she giggles every time she "finds" her belly button.  Her mom and dad giggle as well!