Another first for Amelia!

Four generations (2004). 

Rest in peace Papa Korey

From Mike: My grandfather passed away yesterday. He was a humble, religious man whom I will always remember for his faith, his good cheer, his singing in church, and his unforgettable laugh ("ta-HA-ha!"). We are so grateful that our family was able to spend some time with him last year, when he blessed our baby Amelia and gave her the nickname "Oodle-Boodle." Leo R. Korey, 1918-2005. You will be missed.

First curtains

I realize it isn't rocket science, but I was very pleased with myself when I put these lovely Walmart curtains up in Amelia's room. (Maybe I should have ironed them first - they look better in person.)

As far as I can remember this is the first time I have ever hung curtains. I think I did a good job. I also bought some big block letters that spell out A-M-E-L-I-A to hang on the wall above Winnie the Pooh. They're very cute! I even used a gift card from Sears to purchase one of those fancy laser levels so I can make sure the letters are nice and straight. If they look good, maybe they'll end up on the blog, too.

Decorating Amelia's room is fun. It makes me feel more at home in our apartment when I do things to really personalize the place. Sure, I still wish I could paint, but this will be good enough for now (just look at how happy Amelia and Goldi[locks] are!).

Lisa

It's curtains for you, baby! 

Check out my new hat!

Mommy took me to the mall today, and it was fun! I saw a lot of neat things and made new friends (they smiled at me, anyway, so I guess they were friendly).

On our way through Target mommy let me pick out a toy to chew on. I wasn't sure if I wanted the pink elephant, pink ladybug, or the blue elephant more. I finally decided that if I could only have one I wanted the blue elephant. (I got two hand puppets because I pretended to like them both equally.)

I love my blue elephant thingy. I chewed on it all the way home and for a while after dinner too. Then mommy put the elephant on my head. I really liked that a lot because it kept all the soapy water out of my eyes when I was taking a bath. Bath time was SUPER fun! I splashed and splashed and splashed and flung water everywhere and no water got in my eyes!

Well, I hope I can tell you about more new toys soon. Until then, keep the camera clicking!
-Amelia Mae

Too much fun for one little girl... 

More on eating...

From Mike: Amelia's appetite is starting to return to normal. But to feed her, she has to be well entertained.

Last night I gave her the baby utensil she likes to play with when eating. Well, she twisted, turned, chewed on it for awhile then she was done with it and bored again. So she slammed it on her tray and grabbed the spoon I was using to feed her dinner. She is getting stronger and better coordinated - if she wants the spoon, she won't let go. So I let her have it and started feeding her with this baby utensil thing instead. She accepted that.

But when I tried to take the spoon away, all hell broke loose. She screamed and screamed as though her arm was still attached to the spoon I took away from her. To make a long story short, we went through three spoons and one baby utensil on that meal...

Can I eat this? 

Learning to self-feed, sort of...

Amelia is eating better than she was before, but she still isn't eating a whole heck of a lot. I think a lot of the reason she isn't eating is because sitting in her high chair and being fed is (yawn) boring for her. After all, she loves to eat crackers, biscuits and other treats she can hold herself.

So, today I put some sweet potatoes in a bowl and attempted to teach her to eat them herself using her "utensil" (a little plastic dagger type instrument that holds food and can be dipped any which way). She liked it when she found food on her utensil, but didn't seem to understand the concept of dipping the tool into the bowl of food. She did, however, find a way to dip her fingers into the bowl. That's great, but she didn't then take the next step and put her fingers in her mouth.

So, I guess it will be a while 'til she learns to eat with a tool of any kind. Oh well, she'll be a great finger painter one day...

-Lisa

What can I get into next? 

Baby Sisyphus

MS: Amelia is continuing to get better, and is starting to eat more. She still hates her medicine, just like I did when I was little. The doctor said that babies don't usually fight medicine like Amelia does until they're two years old. Then, he laughed at us.

Amelia and I played a little game last night where she would crawl to the diaper stuff, pull out the roll-on baby powder or the wipes or something, then I would hold her legs and slide her on her belly across the room. Then she would just crawl back, grab the wipes, and I would slide her back again. This went on, over and over, for about fifteen minutes. She reminded me of a baby Sisyphus, sliding that rock up the hill for eternity. Finally, I decided to add a little twist to the game, by laying down on the floor directly in her path. So she crawled up to me, looked up and over, and with a look of determination she crawled up and over and reached the other side! No obstacle will stand in the way of what this little girl wants...

"I'm all in." 

Baby's getting better!

Our Family Blog

Some of you may not have known this, but Amelia has had strep throat this past week. Here's the story: she got a couple of vaccination shots last Friday so when she developed a fever Saturday, (my drill weekend, of course) we just assumed that it was in reaction to the shot. But come Wednesday it seemed suspicious that the baby still felt lousy and still had a fever. So, Mike took her back to the doctor's office and, sure enough, she had strep throat.

Yesterday, she still seemed to be feeling pretty bad, but today she was back to her happy, fun self. She's starting to eat again (though still not quite as much as before) and she's taking nice long naps again. In fact, she was wearing a really cute outfit today, and I did my best to take her picture, but I had a difficult time at it since she kept crawling after the camera. Obviously, her spirits have improved!

Lisa

On the move... 

Our Family Blog

Hi, everyone. We decided that the time was right to set up a family blog. Now you can read about Amelia's latest adventures and (if it works correctly) download pictures and movies without using e-mail space. We might even have something to say, too!

Hope you enjoy Our Family Blog,

Lisa, Mike, and Amelia