tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-45588231254177334442024-02-20T09:47:59.589-08:00The Bennett FamilyUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger155125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4558823125417733444.post-91474277659103366782013-06-22T13:54:00.000-07:002013-06-22T13:54:09.754-07:00Slacker Mommy<div style="text-align: center;">
I clearly have been avoiding my blogging duties, but I have photos to make up for it! </div>
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Amelia telling Matt a story. She talks with her hands just a bit. :)</div>
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Mid-tumble. She takes gymnastics at school and LOVES to practice her tumbles.</div>
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This great shot is courtesy of Matt's cousin-in-law (I might be making up that phrase) <a href="http://scarterphoto.com/wordpress/" target="_blank">Sean Carter</a>. He took it during a Mother's Day/Graduation brunch. If anyone has tips on getting her hands out of her mouth I'm all ears.</div>
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Amelia's current obsession is dresses. She has to have one on everyday. Nana sent her some sundresses and she's been modeling them for me.</div>
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And the current favorite dress - the long blue one. </div>
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Soccer practice. She's just started, and is the youngest one on the team, but she gets very excited every Wednesday for soccer practice. Actually participating is another story...</div>
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Occasionally she will actually kick the ball instead of carrying it around.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4558823125417733444.post-5813923753300250782013-04-16T13:34:00.001-07:002013-04-16T13:34:56.396-07:00Wait, what?<div style="text-align: center;">
Amelia is now 3. I'm not sure how that happened. We had a small celebration on her birthday and then a small party the following weekend. She was sure that because she had already turned three that the birthday party meant she was turning four. Not quite right.</div>
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Big birthday morning hugs for Daddy.</div>
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First thing in the morning. She's gotten huge and the pictures don't do justice to how tall she is.</div>
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Dressed for school. She wanted to wear her Easter dress but we drew the line at the glass slippers. She requested chocolate cake at home and vanilla cupcakes at school. Variety is the spice of life.</div>
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Happy third birthday Amelia!!!</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4558823125417733444.post-72119810362318654052013-04-15T04:43:00.002-07:002013-04-15T04:43:24.839-07:00Beach Bum<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Just before Matt and I were ready to send Amelia to live with the gypsies, the next best thing happened. She went to spend a few days in Florida with Matt's mom and step-dad. Amelia had a great time and LOVED spending time at the beach.</div>
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When the weather wasn't warm enough for the beach she loved being a daredevil at the local playground.</div>
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And she enjoyed helping make a birthday cake for Bill.</div>
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Thank you Grandma and Grandpa!!</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4558823125417733444.post-10137992350559301922013-03-11T08:52:00.000-07:002013-03-11T08:52:00.446-07:00Lousy Smarch Resolutions<div style="text-align: center;">
So this time I'm going to try and post pictures more often. Seriously. We'll see how it goes.</div>
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This weekend we had the nicest weather in a long time. Amelia and I took advantage by doing some painting outside. She's the only child I know who loves using brushes more than her hands. I take that back, I wouldn't be surprised if Matt did. She was very confused that I let her use a "work shirt" of mine, but I'm not going to wear it anymore so it might as well get some use.</div>
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She is now 95% potty trained for the daytime. This has brought back an unexpected photo opportunity. Depending on the underwear/legging combination you can see the characters thru her pants. It's not fully noticeable here, but there's a big Finn McMissle (<i>Cars 2</i>) on her bum. My brother used to wear Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle underwear under his white baseball pants and I swear you could see the turtles when he was playing right field. He will never live that down.</div>
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Before we went to London, my parents visited (Nana and Poppy) and they had sent Amelia this trampoline. We put it together and she LOVES it. The point was to calm her down, but unfortunately it only gets her more excited. But she does love to lie down on it. Here she's dressed in her Rapunzel dress and Stanford Sierra Camp sweatshirt. She's a stylish little one.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4558823125417733444.post-21156135168484914412013-03-08T01:12:00.000-08:002013-03-08T01:12:03.862-08:00London Calling<div style="text-align: center;">
So I totally lied about getting more photos up and writing more often. But I'm about to make up for it with pictures from Amelia's first international trip. Matt had to go to London for work and Amelia and I went along for the ride. I mainly wanted to see my sister and Amelia wanted to find princesses and Mary Poppins. I told her that there were princesses named Beatrice and Eugenia and she totally didn't believe me. </div>
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We took the red eye over, so here's Amelia with one last snack before getting on the plane.</div>
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Here she is on the plane. Because of frequent flyer miles we were able to fly in Business Class and it was awesome.</div>
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She's got Brave, blanket and a chair that reclines. This is a happy traveler.</div>
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Amelia and I spent the first day visiting the Victoria and Albert Museum, along with the Natural History Museum. Dresses and dinosaurs proved to be the big winners. While going to meet up with Bunny we found this chalk painting on the sidewalk outside. We looked around for Dick Van Dyke, but he was no where to be found.</div>
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We took a walk in Hyde Park and looked at the swans. I wouldn't let Amelia get too close because those things are mean birds. And yes, I do still hold a grudge against the one that bit me when I was four.</div>
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Trying to get a self portrait.</div>
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Afterwards we went to Amelia's absolute favorite part of the entire trip - Harrod's.</div>
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They now have a Disney cafe where we had lunch but it was almost impossible to get her to listen to anything. There were no less than 4 movies playing at one time and then her pizza was shaped like Mickey Mouse. </div>
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There were statues of the characters next to their movies and Amelia wanted to be with Rapunzel.</div>
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And Big Ben with Tinkerbell.<br />
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Then we hit the ultimate pop-up store. I had read that Disney was doing a temporary (or pop-up) store inside Harrod's. It was supposed to close after Christmas, so I didn't think it would still be there. Apparently it was such a big hit that they kept it open another three months. In the middle was a castle and when you went inside it was a pink velvet padded room with the Harrod's exclusive Cinderella glass slippers. To say they were a hit is a huge understatement. Here's Amelia trying on her new shoes. The did have adult sizes but in a rare moment of sanity, I realized I would never actually wear them.</div>
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There were more princesses to take pictures with. After that we hit part of the toy section, the candy and confectionary hall before I declared I needed out immediately.</div>
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Close up of the shoes.</div>
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After being in the store for a few hours, Amelia declared that it was her favorite store ever. We also took a walk along a street with the most expensive jewelry stores ever. Amelia loved all of it, and proved that she is Anna Gwyn's great-granddaughter by referring to a 13 carat ring as "a small one."</div>
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Friday was a bit of a rainy day, but that didn't stop us from getting out and about. Matt didn't have to work in the morning so we did some sightseeing. Big Ben was the biggest hit because that and Tower Bridge, are the things Amelia associates with London. And Peter Pan.<br />
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I swear that somewhere there's almost an exact replica of this picture, but with my Dad and Bunny.<br />
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Trying for family portrait.</div>
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Saturday was a full day of sightseeing, starting with the Tower of London. We tried to convince Amelia that she had to stay in there but it didn't work.</div>
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Looking out at Tower Bridge.</div>
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At least someone stands still for the camera...</div>
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It was great to see Bunny and her husband Pete. We had dinner with them every night and even though Bunny used her "teacher voice" with Amelia, she couldn't get enough of her aunt. Every day she would ask if we were going to see Aunt Bunny and Uncle Pete that night. They were kind enough to babysit for one night so Matt and I could have a date night. After a drink at the Ritz Bar (I have an obsession with nice hotel bars), we had dinner at <a href="http://www.thewolseley.com/" target="_blank">The Wolseley</a>. It was great and we happened to get the best table in the house for people watching. That ended up being especially cool because Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin were having dinner there at the same time. The whole experience was great. </div>
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All in all a great trip. Amelia is already talking about when we go back.<br />
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PS - If anyone can smuggle a case of this stuff (the apple cider, not the strawberry-apple) into the country I would love you forever. It's a Swedish brand that they don't currently have here, but it is in Canada. I see a road trip in my future.<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4558823125417733444.post-54141311637068584132013-01-16T11:48:00.003-08:002013-01-16T11:48:28.763-08:00New Year, New Pictures<div style="text-align: center;">
I have no good excuse for not posting so I'm not going to try to come up with one. I'm hoping this will satisfy cravings for more Amelia photos. </div>
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These are more shots from our shoot with <a href="http://www.angelinaphotographyblog.com/" target="_blank">Angelia Photography</a>. (side note - Steph just ran the Disney marathon and finished a series of Wounded Warriors photo shoot raising over $4,000 for The Wounded Warrior Project. We totally love her and wish her the best for her wedding this fall.) As I sent our Christmas cards out on Monday, some of these will be on that. I'm clearly totally on top of everything right now. :) </div>
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Family shots</div>
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Princess Won't Look At The Camera</div>
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Twirling much?
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School Pictures - Amelia refused to do it last year but was totally into it this year.</div>
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She's realized that she can swim in our bathtub and now would like every
bath to be in there and to be a bubble bath please. I also have a
picture of her washing her hair with her foot, but it's not quite
appropriate for a public posting.</div>
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Playground!!</div>
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I have some more photos coming, but I'm having technical difficulities. I promise it won't take another six weeks to put them up.</div>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4558823125417733444.post-88206665974886396102012-11-30T11:28:00.001-08:002012-11-30T11:28:29.356-08:00Almost Too Cute<div style="text-align: center;">
In one of the few things we've managed to do every year since Amelia came is to have professional photos taken in the fall. We've used Steph at <a href="http://www.angelinaphtographyblog.com/">www.angelinaphtographyblog.com</a> for every session and I love how them come out. It's also great to see how Amelia changes over the years.</div>
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2010 (6 months old) </div>
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2011 (18 months old)</div>
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2012 (2 1/2 years old)</div>
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I'm not going to share anymore of the photos as not to spoil potential cards or gifts this year. But let's just say that they turned out great again this year and Steph once again did a great job of capturing our little tornado. </div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4558823125417733444.post-58149517643051300212012-11-06T13:09:00.000-08:002012-11-23T17:00:55.359-08:00Family Times Two<div style="text-align: center;">
My step-mother's father recently passed away, and I was able to go out to Long Beach and spend some time with her and her family, along with a sibling reunion. It's always amusing to step back in sister/daughter mode for a few days. For the record I did not start a food fight this time. While it was a short trip, I was glad to be back home to be wife/mother.</div>
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I got back just as Sandy was starting to bring a little rain to DC. Thankfully Matt's mom was able to get out before the storm started, after being here a couple of days to spend time with Amelia. While I'm not saying it's her fault, Amelia did not think she was a princess till after Grandma was here. I'm just pointing out the timing. :) Thankfully we survived the storm with no damage and never lost power, which is some sort of miracle.</div>
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Family - Matt, Amelia and Teddy</div>
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Our little ham enjoyed the idea of Halloween more than the actual day. She rallied for the school party and some pictures at home, but was not interested in trick-or-treating. She did like giving out candy and by the end of the night was running after other kids to give them candy. Great parenting win - she learns about giving to others and we end up with no leftover candy. Excellent.</div>
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Mary Poppins with all accessories.</div>
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(A big thanks to Grandma for the AMAZING outfit)</div>
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Mary Poppins at school. I wouldn't let her take the umbrella to school because I didn't want to get a note from the teacher about Amelia putting out some kid's eye.</div>
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(Note: the kid behind her in the gold and black is Carnac the Magnificent aka Johnny Carson on the Tonight Show. He has no idea what he is and his mom said it was the second year in a row in that costume.)</div>
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I went in for the "party" at Amelia's school, which was cute. It featured 2 Buzz Lightyears, Mickey and Minnie Mouse (not related just coincidence), Batman and Robin (again not preplanned), Elmo, a doctor and a couple of other animals. I learned that numerous kids, especially boys, talk about her at home, thankfully all good. However, Amelia has never talked about some of those kids and I only know their names because they have a cubby with their name on it.</div>
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On a recent park outing we were again reminded that this child has no fear. Also, endless energy.</div>
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Seriously, how are you big enough to do that?</div>
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Oh, and she's learned how to snap and even creates a little noise when she does it. Thankfully she only tries to imitate Swiper the fox, of Dora fame, but it's only a matter of time till she does it with attitude. I've discovered that recording her at the grocery store will buy us a few more minutes of calm until we checkout.</div>
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And now we present that she is Matt's daughter. She's trying to brush the dog hair off the blanket while Teddy is still on it. I don't try and get the dog hair off of most things, including the bed. But I will take "credit" for the crazy laughing while harassing the dog.</div>
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Family - The six pack</div>
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(six beers in a pack - six siblings)</div>
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We were all able to make it to Long Beach for Mary's father's funeral. It was the first time since I came home for Christmas my freshman year of college that all of us were there with no SOs. Yeah, Amanda will be a college freshman next fall so we clearly spend too much time with each other. I'm officially twice as old as Amanda and she's closer to Amelia's age than mine. She will be coming out to the East Coast and will attend Princeton and be a coxswain for their rowing team. She was recruited by Stanford but chose Princeton because of coach issues. My father still has not forgiven her, even if he agrees with the choice.</div>
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Sisters - Amanda, Anne, me, Bunny</div>
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Bunny and I look much more like our father, while Anne and Amanda are carbon copies of each other and look more like Mary.</div>
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Brothers - Hugh and Will</div>
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Speaking of family resemblance...</div>
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Seriously, other than height, did they get any genes from their mothers? </div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4558823125417733444.post-41363170167994670192012-10-22T10:20:00.000-07:002012-11-06T09:30:00.605-08:00What??<div style="text-align: center;">
So <a href="http://novato.patch.com/articles/small-rock-that-hit-novato-house-is-confirmed-chunk-of-meteor#video-11828909" target="_blank">this</a> happened over the weekend. I think the best part is that the local paper titled the article on it as "Heavenly Bodies Hit Minister's House." For the record, it did hit his study first.</div>
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Over here in the Commonwealth we had a busy weekend as well, even if it didn't involve stuff falling from space. On Saturday we went to a friend's house for an Oktoberfest party. Matt and I got some grown-up time and Amelia got to play with a bunch of kids, especially the son of the hosts. The two of them are only a few months apart and have played with each other since <a href="http://www.mattandaliciafamily.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2010-06-08T13:45:00-07:00&max-results=7&reverse-paginate=true" target="_blank">they were very small</a>. They shared a kiss before their first birthdays, which was a little horrifying <a href="http://www.mattandaliciafamily.blogspot.com/2010/10/fun-weekend-but-without-camera.html" target="_blank">at the time</a>. They are currently a little obsessed with each other, but I don't know how much longer he's going to want to play with Amelia. She tells him what to do AND will rat him out every time he does something Amelia thinks is wrong. </div>
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On Sunday we went to a joint birthday party for <a href="http://www.albertfamilyblog.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Sabrina (6!?!?!?) and Stevie (4!) </a>at a place that's <a href="http://www.pumpitupparty.com/" target="_blank">AWESOME for kids and migraine-inducing for adults</a>. It was a little overwhelming for Amelia, but once she found a slide that wasn't too crowded, she was good to go. </div>
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The birthday girl and boy. With pizza and cake given after they were done with the bouncy castles. </div>
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Amelia's friend from the day before was there as well. I tried to get a picture of them.<br />
Take 1 - Amelia not looking at the camera. </div>
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Take 2 - No one is looking at the camera.</div>
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Take 3 - Both looking at the camera! Victory!</div>
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I know you can't tell by looking at them, both they're both 1/4 Italian. Blonde, blue eyes - they look like they could start their own Scandinavian country. </div>
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After a busy weekend, Amelia and I watched Cinderella and ate mac'n'cheese and she passed right out. Which is good, because I needed to do the same thing. </div>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4558823125417733444.post-73235165545715596852012-10-09T12:22:00.001-07:002012-10-09T12:22:22.825-07:00Catching Up<div style="text-align: center;">
I apologize for the lack of communication. It's been a little hectic around here, topped off by Amelia being sick on Sunday.</div>
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First, I would like to remind you to vote. Many states have started early voting already, so you have plenty of time to get your vote in. We picked up this gem at <a href="http://www.artontheavenue.org/" target="_blank">Art on The Avenue</a> on Saturday. You can find more of this series by Joe Shymanski <a href="http://joeshymanski.zenfolio.com/p993021501" target="_blank">here</a>.</div>
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Amelia is still growing like a weed and has become obsessed with wearing her tutus with boots. </div>
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Example 1</div>
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She's also managed to keep the gracefulness she inherited from her mother with her new style. Also, I think she might be a bit of a ham...</div>
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Example 2</div>
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She's also still in a big mommy phase. For the past few months we've had to wear the same toenail polish. I swear whatever they put in the stuff for kids is makes it the strongest nail polish ever. Amelia's is usually gone in about 10 days. Mine has never chipped and I had to seek professional help in removing the glitter option she chose last time. (And yes, my feet really are that white compared to Amelia's. I think she got Matt's coloring.) </div>
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She's also decided she needs to wear makeup because mommy does. But instead of trying to look like me, she's taking her makeup style from Miss Piggy. She wants mascara (to get the big eyelashes) but I won't do that quite yet. But somewhere her Great-Grandmother is very proud.</div>
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She also got a haircut recently, and has loved putting in barrettes that Poppy picked out for her in her hair. For five minute increments.</div>
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Oh, and this happened. Or happened 10 years ago to be more precise. I don't feel like that was 10 years ago, but I have a very bad sense of these things. What I do know is that marrying Matt was the best decision of my life. (Second best was wearing the gloves; you have no idea how important they were.)</div>
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Happy Anniversary sweetie. </div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4558823125417733444.post-50915464614666633792012-09-26T10:51:00.003-07:002012-09-26T10:51:53.582-07:00Growing Up - aka Who Stole My Baby?<div style="text-align: center;">
What is this? Amelia can ride her trike all by herself? Thankfully she still needs help with the turning and doesn't know how to brake, so we've still got time till she takes on the neighborhood. And I'm not at all freaked out that we live at the top of a hill, and because we're at the t of an intersection, she could probably get all the way to the river without having to do much peddling. </div>
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But she does know that she has to wear her bike helmet whenever she rides her trike, and that BOTH her parents will be REQUIRED to wear one too if they go biking together. Since neither of us owns a bike, this is probably a moot point, but I'm a little obsessive about it and Matt is not. He said he never wore one growing up, but he didn't LIVE AT THE TOP OF THE HILL THAT CAN TAKE HER TO THE RIVER. Also, I took multiple trips over the handle bars growing up and know how important they are. </div>
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I let Amelia help me paint an Ikea table we've owned forever to try and get a few more months out of it. I had her take off her top, but let her keep her pants on. I should have gotten her a shower cap. We used four different colors while painting, but somehow she only got blue on her. Trying to get the blue out of her hair is not my favorite bath memory.</div>
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She also has been taking great pleasure in playing with bubbles recently.</div>
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Apparently I'm not fully trained in bubbles, because after I blew a couple of bubbles she took them back and wouldn't give them to me again.</div>
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She also received her first birthday party invite from preschool. Since this is from her "special friend", I think she has to go. If it was from the kid who tore her book and punched her in the ear during circle time, I think we could let her pass. </div>
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She's still into Mary Poppins (and all the songs from it), but has added Cars 2 and Sound of Music (aka Mommy's movie) to the rotation. I haven't even tried to explain that Maria and Mary Poppins are actually the same person. That would just confuse her and then lead to all sorts of questions (like, why aren't Jane and Michael in the other movie, etc). She has to understand how things fit together - she does have some of Matt in her -and that would blow her world up. She understands that Matt has brown eyes because Grandma and Pepere have brown eyes, and that I have blue eyes because Nana and Grandfather have blue eyes, but she doesn't question the pairings. Which is good. Because then we'd need to replace the photos on the fridge with a family tree, and that would get weird real fast.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4558823125417733444.post-78152216425641466322012-09-04T10:51:00.000-07:002012-09-04T10:51:03.598-07:00First Day of Preschool<div style="text-align: center;">
Even though Amelia has been in "school" for over a year, today is the official start of preschool. We dressed her up more than usual because I insisted on photos.</div>
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I love my daddy.</div>
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One last applesauce and hug for her baby before heading out. Also, it's a little creepy how much she looks like me.</div>
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And this is how you can tell she's my daughter. She also thinks a skirt with pockets is the coolest thing ever. She a little obsessed with pockets and this is the first skirt she's worn that has pockets.
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Painfully cute.
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<b style="color: purple;">Have a great day Amelia!</b></h2>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4558823125417733444.post-70983574710659788372012-08-23T09:43:00.002-07:002012-08-23T09:43:48.814-07:00Odds and Ends<div style="text-align: center;">
Amelia is a child that loves routine. Every day after school she comes home and has to take out every toy that she's currently obsessed with. Thankfully she's pretty good about packing it up at the end of the night. Every group (Thomas, Cars, Nemo, Muppets) has it's designated location and you better not mess with it or Amelia will come after you.</div>
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I was trying to get her to cuddle up to Matt. She had to think about it.</div>
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This is as close as she would go.</div>
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And on an unrelated note; my sister Amanda is now the proud owner of a silver medal in the World Rowing Championships. Here she is with her teammates. Guess which one is the coxswain? Yup, Amanda is the one on the far left who doesn't reach the shoulder of the girl next to her. We're so proud of her and wish we could have been there. She's eligible for the Junior Olympic team again next year, so we may be taking a summer trip to Trakai, Lithuania for the finals there. And if she continues to kick ass and take names, Rio in 2016.</div>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4558823125417733444.post-27181636493036228472012-08-21T10:09:00.002-07:002012-08-21T10:09:25.793-07:00What Did You Just Say?Amelia is now at the age where she grasps something and then will not stop talking about it. For example, she's been reading "Finding Nemo" and would not stop asking about where Nemo's mommy is. I tried to tell her that Nemo's mommy was on a trip, but she wouldn't buy that. Finally I told her that there were different kinds of families. Some have a mommy and a daddy, some have two mommies, some have two daddies, and some only have one mommy or one daddy, like Nemo. Her reply was that she wanted to have two mommies. After I said no, you have a mommy and a daddy, she added "And a Teddy." Yes Amelia, we have a Teddy. She hasn't mentioned Nemo's mommy since then, but is obsessed with finding a Dory to go with her Nemo and Marlin.<br />
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She has also become obsessed with where Daddy works. She kept insisting that he worked at the Metro station because we picked him up there once. I kept saying he works in the city. Once I mentioned he had to go on a bridge because it's on the other side of the river, she's been good with that. We went into the city to have dinner with friends and Amelia loved going over the bridge and was happy there were no trolls. She had been very concerned about the possibility of trolls collecting a toll. She's also quick to comment on our driving. Apparently Matt needs to go faster and I need to go slower. We both are told about every traffic light we come across.<br />
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She's picking up phrases and trying them out to see how she likes them. We were in Home Depot on Sunday and she looked at me and told me to "get out of her face". I whipped around and asked "What did you say?" She repeated it and then put her head down and laughed. I used the "do not eff with me" voice and told her she was not allowed to say that to anyone, but especially mommy and daddy. I walked away to grab something and I heard her say it quietly to herself and then laugh really quietly. I've tried to tell her that she's not sneaky or subtle, but she hasn't figured that out yet.<br />
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But her favorite activity by far is singing. It starts in the morning and only ends when she passes out a night. It's always a jumble of songs that she puts together, but she sings it with gusto. She doesn't do anything halfway. After we put her down for the night you can always hear her singing for at least 10 minutes before she falls asleep.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4558823125417733444.post-36241369709854910332012-07-30T16:16:00.000-07:002012-08-02T12:44:13.134-07:00Where's The Off Switch?<div style="text-align: center;">
Amelia is getting more and more verbal, which has been pretty funny. But she's still firing on all cylinders all the time. Here are some of her more amusing moments.</div>
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I'm pretty sure we weren't in danger of losing her in the family room. </div>
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I think she needs to work on her Spanish.
In case you can't make it out, she counts like this: "Uno, dos, tres, broccoli, cinco." </div>
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She's singing "Let's Go Fly A Kite" from Mary Poppins, which has become a favorite movie. As we've been watching the Olympics she knows that they are in London. When you ask her who lives in London her answer is "Mary Poppins, Uncle Pete and Aunt Bunny." </div>
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On Sunday we got the chance to go to a nearby pool with some friends. Amelia almost immediately wanted to start her "diving" and was checking out the diving board. After that being nixed, she was content to do her regular diving. She scoots to the edge, put her hands in place and then jumps. She wasn't jumping as far as she was before, so there was a little bit of explaining that she had to jump out farther.</div>
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The nice part about this pool was that she was jumping into water that was two feet deep. That meant she could jump in and stand up without any help, but we were still there to make sure she was coming up quickly.</div>
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And our little diver in action.
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When she got home it was straight into pjs, and playing with her toys. She decided to put on her "Silly Hat" that my mom sent her. It's silly because it has a flower on it and looks like a watermelon. Her other hat is white, so it's not so silly. The color of the photo is a little off, but you can only expect a camera phone to do so much.</div>
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As you can see she keeps a pretty busy schedule. She used to slowly wake up and then slowly go to sleep. Now it's either all the way on or asleep. Even at night when we put her down you can hear her reading and singing to herself until she just passes out. </div>
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Last week we got this report card from her gymnastics class. I have no idea what donkey kicks or the mailbox is, but the idea that she's learning to do cartwheels and handstands has me slightly nervous. I may have to go watch a class and make sure it's not anything like I'm imaging. Because "Amelia" and "Springboard" seem like a bad combination. </div>
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<br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4558823125417733444.post-9076159636396603452012-07-16T14:18:00.000-07:002012-07-30T14:37:11.632-07:00At The Park - Old Stomping Grounds<div style="text-align: center;">
We were at the playground near our old house and it was funny to see the difference between her <a href="http://www.mattandaliciafamily.blogspot.com/2010/09/at-park.html" target="_blank">first few park outings </a>and now.</div>
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She is driving the "City Bus". Amelia has recently become slightly obsessed with different trucks, but especially school and city buses.</div>
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While she used to be afraid of the tunnel, that's clearly gone.</div>
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Trying to see what's on the other side. She asked me the other day to help her look out a window so she could see the neighbors. I tried to explain that's spying and she shouldn't do it, but she's clearly trying to see out of her bedroom windows after we put her down.</div>
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Daredevil child. She's learned to swing herself onto the slide to go faster. Excellent.</div>
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But she's pretty cute (and sweaty), so I think we'll keep her.</div>
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<br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4558823125417733444.post-546365558122757032012-07-13T10:54:00.000-07:002012-07-13T10:54:23.297-07:00We Didn't Want Trees Anyway<div style="text-align: center;">
More storm fallout. We have one tree in the yard (literally one in the entire yard - front and back) so of course it got hit by lightening, or something else that killed just the top part of the tree.The tree splits in two at the base. The trunk on the right is the one with the dead branches.</div>
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The dead area at least 20 feet higher than the top of our house.
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Gravity would not be on our side if we only cut down the one trunk.
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So this is going to be fun. But considering I can see from my office the root ball of a similar sized tree that took out a number of fences in the storm, we'd rather do it ourselves before Mother Nature does it for us. The crazy part is that because of the placement of the tree in the yard they can't use a crane so it will all be done by hand. Any one need fire wood? Because we're about to have enough to build a bonfire they could see from space.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4558823125417733444.post-13396114530252513712012-07-10T12:21:00.000-07:002012-07-10T12:21:13.360-07:00Power<div class="entry-title">
So, we've had an interesting two weeks. After a nasty heatwave the DC area was treated to a <span class="entry-title"><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/post/derecho-behind-washington-dcs-destructive-thunderstorm-outbreak-june-29-2012/2012/06/30/gJQA22O7DW_blog.html" target="_blank">Derecho</a>. I've never heard the term before, and frankly it sounds like something Matt would make up. However, it is very real and knocked out our power for five days. And the best part is that the temperature didn't go down and continued at 100+ degree days. Because of the heat we lost everything in the fridge within less than 24 hours. We went to eat the ice cream for lunch and it was already soup. Thankfully there were no injuries or major home damage in our neighborhood.</span></div>
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<span class="entry-title">The big damage for us. Our neighbors had a whole tree pull out of the ground and take out about three backyards. </span></div>
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This house is around the corner from us. It's surprising, but there's two trees down and they didn't hit any wires, cars, parts of the house or the bocce ball court.</div>
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<span class="entry-title">To escape the house one day I went on a drive to
IKEA. </span><span class="entry-title"> (Amelia and I
slept in the basement and Matt slept in the family room because we
didn't want to deal with getting a hotel room) </span><span class="entry-title">On the way home I saw this. </span></div>
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<span class="entry-title"> Seriously, let the man out of the cow suit. </span></div>
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<span class="entry-title">Amelia enjoyed sleeping in the basement with me, but it did mess with her nap schedule. Thankfully her school had power, so she went there on Monday and Tuesday. But the weekend led to the nap taking her.</span></div>
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<span class="entry-title">We finally got power back on Wednesday late afternoon. And less than 24 hours later we were on a plane to Grand Rapids, MI. Where it was 100 degrees. Seriously. Thankfully the hotel DID have air conditioning. a pool and power. We had a great time visiting with relatives, and Amelia LOVED all the attention. She has a "cousin" about six months older than her and they didn't really play as much as egg each other on. This was the first time Amelia was at a wedding where she had some understanding of what was happening. She kept asking where the bride was and when they were getting married. Unfortunately, most of this was during the service, so I ended up in back with her. </span></div>
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<span class="entry-title">The wedding was beautiful and we had a great time at the reception. Amelia had an even better time. She was able to bounce from Memere to Pepere to Uncle Steve to any number of Matt's cousins. She worked up quite a thirst. </span></div>
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<span class="entry-title">She must have had four glasses of orange juice, along with at least three cookies plus wedding cake. Thankfully Amelia is a total ham, so she burned off most of the energy on the dance floor. She kept pulling Matt and his father back on to the dance floor. I would say she spent at least an hour out there before melting down. Thankfully it was a quick walk across the street and straight into bed. It was about 10:30 when she went to bed and SHE SLEPT TILL 8AM. This has happened NEVER. So apparently we have to do the following to get her to sleep in:</span></div>
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<span class="entry-title">Spend 45 minutes in the pool jumping in and climbing the ladder out and repeat</span></div>
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<span class="entry-title">Go for a 15 minute walk in the direct sun</span></div>
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<span class="entry-title">Let her play, run around and bust open her lip at the Children's Museum for over an hour</span></div>
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<span class="entry-title">Go to wedding with all sorts of interesting people</span></div>
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<span class="entry-title">Let her stay up and dance her head off</span></div>
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<span class="entry-title">I'm tired just looking at that list, so maybe we're not going to get 8am for awhile. </span></div>
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<span class="entry-title">We flew back on Saturday and thankfully still had power. Sunday night we had more thunderstorms and one of the bangs was loud enough to wake both Matt and I while also shaking our house. I seriously thought we were having an earthquake till the lightening hit. Amelia and Teddy slept through the whole thing.</span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4558823125417733444.post-88815669875563870192012-06-29T09:25:00.000-07:002012-06-29T09:27:26.725-07:00Tumbling Tot<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Amelia loves to tumble, run, fall, jump, climb, basically anything that involves her potentially getting hurt. Her new school offers "Power Tots," aka gymnastics, so of course we signed her up for that. (When she turns three we can also sign her up for yoga, which is somewhat hysterical.) In the top video you can see her doing somersaults and the second video shows her "diving" in her kiddie pool. I didn't get video of it, but she did try and combine the two and do a somersault in the pool, but the water was too deep. And yes, she does say she jumped "too high." Good to know she has some limits.<br />
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We got a paper yesterday from the Power Tots class explaining what the goals are for her class. We're a little concerned because it uses the words cartwheel, twisting, springboard and landing. Lord help us with this child. Please don't let her try any of that outside of class. Matt and I have decided we're going to have to go watch one of these classes because later classes say "side-aerials" and that just makes me nervous. <br />
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PS - Our family room was so empty because we got new carpet and it made a great running area for Amelia one evening.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4558823125417733444.post-86359767272393440552012-06-20T10:06:00.001-07:002012-06-20T10:06:23.892-07:00It's Hot<div style="text-align: center;">
One of the worst parts of living in DC is that summer days can get so
humid you can see the air and the heat. We've let Amelia run through
the <a href="http://mattandaliciafamily.blogspot.com/2011/06/amelia-at-play-and-rest.html" target="_blank">sprinklers in the past</a>,
but this time I had the hose out to water the front yard. She started
off getting just her hands wet, but eventually was down to just her
shoes. I did give her the hose and let her get herself (only while on mist setting because I didn't want to get wet) but she also enjoyed being chased down. Matt saw the pictures when he got home and all he could say was "My job is to keep her dressed, at least in the front yard." and "You have to send the video to my mom."</div>
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If you can't run around naked in the front yard, what is the point of being two? </div>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4558823125417733444.post-31137631970867903722012-06-18T11:09:00.000-07:002012-06-18T11:12:11.017-07:00Life Lessons From Jug and GeorgeHappy Father's Day to all the daddies out there, especially Matt. He is the best father I have ever seen. He's patient with Amelia, but never gives an inch to her testing boundaries. He laughs at her more outlandish antics. He encourages her to keep trying things till she can do them herself. And he gets up with her at 6 am, even on the weekends. Amelia loves him and every time I pick her up from daycare she asks if Daddy will be home. When I say "in a little while, he's working," she always replies with "AGAIN??" and then laughs. Any night that Matt isn't going to be home before she goes to bed, she's convinced he's at a hockey game. I've tried to explain that he doesn't do that right now, but I've given up. So now all evening activities are "Hockey Games." Recently she asked to have a picture of him in her room so she could sleep with it. After waking up with the frame on her face I convinced her that it's best to leave the photo on the bookcase. It moves every day, so I know she takes it down each night and I've even heard her talking to it. She may be in a mommy-phase, but she still likes to sit with Matt and tell him that she's his munchkin. And she is. Happy Father's Day Matt.<br />
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Last year, I did <a href="http://mattandaliciafamily.blogspot.com/2011/05/happy-mothers-day.html" target="_blank">a list of lessons learned from my Mothers and Grandmothers</a>. This year will be what I learned from my Grandfather (Jug) and my father (George). My step-father Kent is wonderful, but he and my mom married the summer before my Senior year in high school, and even then we've never lived in the same house. I'm especially impressed with his devotion to family and how he's been able to turn my mother in to the Pastor's Wife (PW) without her changing her unique charm. I'll leave it at that before I get myself in trouble. My mother's father passed away before I was born and her second husband (whom I grew up with more than Kent) taught me to fine-tune my a$$hole detector. Beyond that, and being Roger's father, he has few redeeming qualities, so I'm not going to say anything else about him.<br />
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And so begins the lessons learned from Jug and George.<br />
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1) Education, Education, Education - my Grandfather came from a humble background, but with hard work and education, he was literally able to go from the assembly line to the Board room. He made sure his children and grandchildren went to good schools, and would have been so proud to see Anne graduate from Stanford. He sat on the Board for both Standford Law School and The Bishop's School (which is where all my cousins went and where my Dad and his siblings went.) He was a force to be reckoned with, and he made sure all his children and grandchildren lived up to their potential, as much as he could. My father has been the same way, and encouraged each of his children to go to Stanford. (So far he's 1 for 5, but has the potential to go 2 for 6) When we didn't want to go to Stanford (you could not have paid me to go there, even if I had been able to get in) he made sure to take us to visit different colleges so we were sure where we wanted to go. But he did try to color those decisions by taking me to Boston in February and then making me walk the Freedom Trail. I have never been so cold in my entire life.<br />
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2) Pick Your Battles - My father can role his eyes like no one else in the world. I think it and tennis are the only things that keep him sane. There wasn't much he didn't allow me to do, so when he would put his foot down, I tended to listen more than the average teenager. If it's not something life-threatening, gigantically stupid, or going to Cal, he would usually let you do it, but you knew exactly how he felt about it when he rolled his eyes.<br />
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3) Nicknames Last Forever - A friend of the family remarked that my Grandfather looked like "a little brown jug" when he was 2 and the nickname Jug stuck around his whole life. Most people called him Bill, but close friends and family still called him Jug until the day he died. I think this is why my father, and his mother, fought us calling my sister "Bunny" so hard, but eventually gave in. (Her real name - Alexandra Catherine) My Grandfather was George Williams R, II, my Dad is III and Will is IV. When Will was about 9 the Indiana Jones movies came out and Will figured out that Grandfather was a Junior, so he started calling Grandfather that. I think it lasted three days.<br />
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4) Travel - My Grandfather loved planes and traveled extensively for work at a time when it was rare. When he would go on trips he often took my father or one of his siblings. This showed them the world outside San Diego and gave them a perspective you can only get by seeing other cultures. My dad continued this tradition (for a number of years out family vacation was based on where the AIDS Conference was) and has taken his kids to South Africa, Sweden, Thailand, Vietnam, and everywhere in between.<br />
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5) Play A Sport You Can Play Forever - For Grandfather it was golf and for my Dad it's tennis. Beyond the exercise factor, you can make friendships that last a long time and you always have a hobby to go and enjoy when you need to get out of the house.<br />
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6) Know What You Are Talking About - Both men had the ability to know completely random facts that made them good at Jeopardy, but also knew history, languages, and had immense knowledge in their work field. They are always reading and learning new things. I once corrected my father on the flavoring in a dish in front of some of his residents. He said "That's right. I was wrong." The resident sitting next to me whispered "I've never seen Dr. R be wrong before." I managed to not laugh or choke on my drink. <br />
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7) Love Deeply - My Grandfather spent the last years of his life fighting Alzheimer's, but on the day my Grandmother died, he sat and held her hand, told her he loved her and never took his eyes off her. Once she had passed he gave her one last kiss before leaving. I sat next to him at her funeral and it's the only time I have ever see him cry. My father's younger (and only) brother passed away suddenly and quickly a few years later. My Dad and uncle were extremely close and I've never seen heartbreak like the look on my Dad's face after my uncle's ashes were put in the columbarium. On a less depressing note, he's loving being a Grandfather. Amelia can do no wrong and I hear that he brags about her quite a bit.<br />
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8) To Whom Much Is Given, Much Is Expected - My Grandfather's generosity knew no bounds. He gave of himself both with time and money. There are too many stories to tell, but it was really amazing. My father has made his work all about finding cures and disease prevention. It really is about making the world a better place. While his training was in pediatrics, he's now an epidemiologist working on projects and grants around the world. Which is way better than him being a pediatrician. He has the worst bedside manner and never sugar coats anything. EVER. He also tries to be in his children's lives as much as possible. He's coached soccer games and sat on committees at the VA just to spend more time with his kids. <br />
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My Grandfather passed away almost four years ago, and I still think of him everyday. I can honestly say that I am a better person for having Jug as my Grandfather and George as my father. While no one is perfect, they do try and act in the best possible interest of their children and grandchildren. And for that I will be forever grateful. Happy Father's Day.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4558823125417733444.post-1525084128732395802012-06-14T09:01:00.001-07:002012-06-14T09:01:48.778-07:00Future Geography Bee Champion<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Why yes Amelia is wearing kiddie Jackie O sunglasses with her tennis outfit. She wears the sunglasses in the house, and then tries to put them on top of her head like Matt and I do. <br />
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We've had a map on the wall for awhile to show Amelia where the rest of the family lives. I got her puzzle of the states and she was able to quickly pull out Florida and California and put them in the right place. In the last week, she's added New York, the combo Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Massachusetts piece, Texas, Maine, Michigan and Virginia. She also has a special affection for Idaho, so either she wants to learn to ski or needs more potatoes in her diet. We're headed to Michigan in a few weeks for a family wedding and if you ask Amelia where she's going, she'll pull out the piece and yell "Michigan!" <br />
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We've tried to teach her things about each state, beyond a city or who lives there. Example - Kentucky, that's where they have a lot of horses. Matt did not find my description of Arkansas appropriate. What can I say? It IS full of razorbacks and people who have slept with Bill Clinton.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4558823125417733444.post-91015853694601493292012-06-11T07:57:00.002-07:002012-06-12T08:24:15.233-07:00Yelling and ScreamingWe're definitely an athletic family. Matt played golf and baseball, between me and my siblings we played tennis, baseball/softball, swimming, basketball, volleyball, soccer, golf, skateboarding, horseback riding, rugby and crew. That's a lot of practices, equipment and games/matches/regattas. Yesterday was the highlight of all those events. My youngest sister Amanda, was the coxswain for Oakland Strokes Women's Youth 8+ boat that won the <a href="http://www.usrowing.org/News/12-06-10/Fast_Times_and_Medals_At_2012_Youth_Nationals.aspx" target="_blank">National Championship in Oak Ridge, TN</a>. We were able to watch the semis and the finals via webcast. I might have been a little misty when they won with open water between them and the Marin boat that came in second. We are so proud of her and it was awesome to watch. I also find it pretty amusing that the youngest of six is now a national champion at yelling and telling people what to do. Clearly she learned from the best. We're also very proud that she's headed to the Junior Olympic Camp later this month.<br />
Congratulations Amanda and Oakland Strokes!!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4558823125417733444.post-87224849802987252772012-06-04T10:26:00.000-07:002012-06-04T10:26:10.423-07:00Family and FenwayFor Memorial Day weekend, we flew up to Rhode Island for some family time and a baseball game. I had been prepping Amelia with pictures of family and their names so she was ready. Of course that can only help so much. She did remember all her grandparents, so I'll take that as a win for this trip.<br />
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Flying with Amelia is getting easier as she gets used to it. There are a couple of major points that will lead to a good travel experience.<br />
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<li>Just accept that she will take her shoes off at security even though she doesn't need to. God forbid that we do something and she doesn't do it too.</li>
<li>She will not hold your hand. The closest you're going to get is her holding one strap of her backpack while she holds the other.</li>
<li>The appeal of wearing her backpack ends about five minutes after putting it on.</li>
<li>Pre-board if you can because the harness thing takes a few minutes to get on.</li>
<li>Make sure the iPad is ready the second the light goes out. Now she knows the light has to go off before she's allowed to turn it on. And she remembers it.</li>
<li>Headphones are a 50% likelihood. </li>
<li>Do not attempt to help with the iPad unless specifically asked to. </li>
<li>After the iPad has to go back in a bag have M&Ms ready. Given two at a time you can buy at least 20 minutes, which is an eternity in Amelia time.</li>
<li>Bring wet wipes. See M&Ms above. </li>
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Amelia had a great time the whole weekend. She enjoys being the center of attention and having an audience. Gloria was able to record this little gem of her showing off her singing skills. My favorite part is how she ends the song.<br />
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Could she be anymore of a ham?</div>
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Matt and I got to get away for a night in Boston with some friends. Matt had scored tickets for sitting on the Green Monster and it was awesome. I think these might be the best seats in baseball. You're high enough to see everything, but close enough to watch the ball on every pitch. Aside from the walk-off home run, other highlights included a child with the middle name of Fenway being wished Happy Birthday on the big screen and a marriage proposal with the help of Wally the Green Monster.</div>
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Actual seat. Instead of the normal rows, you were basically seated at a bar. </div>
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You had to get your hand stamped to go into the area. I can't even remember the last time I got my hand stamped for anything outside of Las Vegas. </div>
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Matt at Fenway. </div>
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To help Amelia keep the names all straight between visits I've set up a photo gallery on our dishwasher. It's full and doesn't even have everyone we wanted to put up. Our fridge isn't magnetic, so this is our best option. She likes to pull the photos off (half of which are Facebook photos I just printed on paper since I knew they would get manhandled) and try to name the people in the photo. She's got her godparents, grandparents, Uncle Will and Aunt Bunny down. Aunts Anne, Amanda, Courtney, Kim, and Gina are at about 50% recognition. For it only being up a week, she's doing very well.<br />
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PS - she still says "Uncle Pet-ah" with her fake British accent. It's awesome.<br />
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<br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4558823125417733444.post-2048711170321749802012-05-23T09:05:00.000-07:002012-05-24T08:51:44.746-07:00And I Jinxed MyselfSo right after noting Amelia's obsession with her bedding she came down with pink eye. And now I'm spending a large part of the day doing laundry so she can have all the blankets every night. Awesome.<br />
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<span style="color: magenta;">EDITED: Now I have pink eye. I should really shut up and quit jinxing myself and Amelia.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0