Amelia Wants Her Two Front Teeth for Christmas

Amelia had a great first Christmas, despite being slightly sick and cranky. She'd been running a fever, had a runny nose, and is trying to break in her two front teeth. This lead to us having a quiet Christmas Eve. We were able to get her to smile for some photos in her Christmas pjs courtesy of Nana. They came with adorable reindeer slippers that Amelia decided to play with instead of wear.
After she went to bed, Matt performed the rite of having to put together presents from Santa. Thankfully it wasn't too complicated, but we didn't realize that her present from Santa even needed to be put together.

Christmas morning (after going back to bed at a 5:30 feeding and letting us sleep till 7:30) Amelia enjoyed her first Christmas morning. She loves the dinosaur ride on/walker toy that we got her. She's managed to figure out how to go backwards while riding it, and is working on moving forward. She does need a little help with the mounting and dismounting without landing on her head.
She was very intrigued by her stocking, and that toys and books kept coming out of it. She immediately started studying so she'll be up on her football knowledge. After opening and playing with presents she needed a quick nap, during which she missed the snowflakes making it a "white Christmas", a first for me as well.

Amelia also checked out what Teddy got in her stocking. She's beginning to understand that some toys aren't hers and Teddy is doing well with her riding around on a singing dinosaur.


Matt's parents and some friends joined us for dinner/dessert and enjoying the rest of the day. We managed to not take any pictures the rest of the day, but a great time was had. Especially by Amelia. She's a ham and enjoys being the center of attention. It also gave her something to think about instead of her teeth.

Amelia (and her parents) hope you all had a great holiday as well.

Amelia's First Snow Storm

Yesterday we had our first real snow storm of the year. Conveniently Matt was in San Francisco, so I dug us out of a full 2 inches of powder. I think it took 10 minutes. It actually took me more time to find everything that I needed than it did to do the shoveling. I went to go pick up Amelia after I was done shoveling. While we were still bundled up we went in the backyard and let Teddy run around like a maniac. (The snow makes everything smell different, so the entire yard needs to be rechecked.) Amelia's outfit didn't have mittens so I let her touch the snow. She put her hand in it, pulled it out, looked at me and started crying. She also wasn't interested in sitting in the snow either. Maybe we'll try again when we have a little more snow.

Instead we had an early dinner and a bath, followed by playtime. This is Amelia in one of the quieter moments of play. As you can see, this child does not sit still for more than 2 seconds. Please pardon the quality of the video. I'm still trying to figure out my new phone.

The Start of Christmas

For Amelia's first Christmas we've introduced her to a couple of traditions. The first was the awkward meeting with Santa. My aunt was kind enough to invite us to brunch with Santa at her country club. She was also kind enough to pick the 11:30 seating instead of the 9am. The group at our table included a number of children under the age of 5 (my cousin's in-law family all came with their small children as well.) Some got the idea of Santa, but most were still a little too small to understand. One of the cousins wanted a Barbie that trains dogs to swim. I thought she had totally made that up, but it turns out it's an actual Barbie. There's also one that has Barbie potty training puppies. I think she made the right choice.

Amelia did well being held by Santa, but was immediately confused when he handed her a puppy dog toy and called it a bear. You could tell she wanted to correct him. Or maybe I'm just projecting a little. :)

It rapidly got awkward and she was ready to be done. The lesson for next year is that Amelia needs more eggnog before we send her to Santa.

The club was decorated beautifully for the holidays. There were also Balloonologists (people who make balloon animals) and face painters. We decided to skip that this year, but we did try and get a nice family photo.

Amelia only cooperated from a distance.


The weekend after brunch, we picked out our Christmas tree. As I am slightly obsessed with Christmas, this was a very big deal. We found a Christmas tree lot in the playground of a local church, and picked out just the right size. It was Amelia approved and we were set to go. (Note: we put the tree on a side table so Amelia and Teddy can't reach the branches or the ornaments or the presents shoved under the table. Otherwise we would totally have one of those trees that barely fits in the house.)

Last weekend we had a visit from Matt's mom and step-dad. I would have pictures from it, but Amelia would not stop moving the entire time. She barely stopped to eat, and was very enamored of her new toys. One of them plays a song that I can already hear in my dreams. But she loves the music and claps along with it, so we deal. We also had a short visit from Auntie She and Uncle Mike, with daughter Becca who brought in even more presents! Amelia was a little overwhelmed, but very excited. Most importantly she got her stocking that her great grandmother (Matt's father's mother) knitted for her, so she's all set for Santa. I did decide to hold off on celebrating Santa Lucia Day for a couple more years. I think I was in my teens before I had to put the ring of lit candles on my head, so she can wait a couple of years before her light bulb version.

Amelia has now mastered pulling herself up, and is slowly working on pivoting while standing and has cruised a couple of steps. At the rate she's been going, I'm assuming she'll be full on walking sometime in January. At that point I think we're going to have to put a collar with a bell on her just to keep track of her. She loves to follow people around and needs to know what's going on at all times. I'm not sure how it happened, but I think she inherited some traits from Teddy.

That's all for now, but I promise more pictures and video soon. We've just been so tired from chasing her, that we practically fall asleep right when we put her down. Which wouldn't be so lame except she goes to bed at 7.

Happy holidays to all.

The Third and Final Round

This past week was our last trip to California for a while. Matt and I were both out there for work, so we figured we would bring Amelia and make a weekend of it especially since it was Big Game weekend. At my father's house this is a bigger deal than Christmas and Easter combined.

This seemed brilliant even though Matt was going to be in Chicago, so Amelia and I were flying out by ourselves again. This flight was scheduled for later in the day so I went to work that morning and figured that she would eat and sleep most of the flight. I was so wrong. All I can say is if that day was my version of Groundhog Day I would have resorted to killing myself much earlier. Even though we arrived more than two hours before the plane was supposed to leave, because of all the elevator detours you need to take with a stroller, the process of checking our bags, and then getting to the gate (which was past the sign that said "There are no more gift shops or restaurants beyond this point" which I think the airport equivalent of the end of the known universe) we were there 5 minutes before boarding was to start. Not a big deal except, this was the second leg of a flight from Geneva and there had been a problem with the plane so they had to reticket everyone on the flight. And then getting people boarded took an hour. It was the most chaotic airplane scene I have ever witnessed. Oh, and they had to pull a dad with two kids off the plane with the cops. Amelia was pretty good for the first part, and then she started to need her diaper changed. This was an older plane with no good place to change a baby. I ended up with her on the top of the down toilet seat. She was screaming, and then as I was holding her legs and wiping her she arched her back and ended up with her head stuck between the toilet and the wall. Thank God she didn't decide to take that moment to spray pee all over the bathroom. Then there was just general fussiness, eating four times in five hours and inability to sleep. By the time we landed I was ready to drink all of the wine in California.

Thankfully, after a night's sleep we were all doing much better. After my morning meetings, and then some work in the hotel room, we met up with my mother and took Amelia to the San Francisco Zoo. This was Amelia's first zoo experience, and while there were some animals she liked (penguins, peacocks) most earned a look of disbelief. The first animal we saw, a giraffe, especially confused Amelia and she had no idea what she was looking at. Here's what Amelia did enjoy. A ride on the small train around the zoo.

Playing with statues of animals. This baby elephant was especially popular once she figured out she could touch it.
And it wouldn't be a good day for Amelia if it didn't include a ride on the swings. The SF Zoo has a playground and this was definitely Amelia's favorite part.
Saturday was the day of the Big Game. Amelia and I had brunch with my brother and his girlfriend while everyone else went to the game. Here's the family with the final score (Stanford 48, Cal 14 in case you can't read the scoreboard in the background).

This is the trophy that is played for every year. I used to know that whole story, but my family got to go down on the field after the game and touch it. Very cool.
Amelia and I did attend the after party at a friend's house. She was decked out in all her Stanford gear and was the hit of the party. Especially since there were a couple of Cal fans there that need a pick me up.
The next morning we went up to see my mom and step-father and attend his church. He's the head pastor there, so most of the congregation had heard about Amelia and people were very excited to see her. She slept through most of the coffee hour, but was awake during the service. She was very vocal during the whole thing. Thankfully it was mostly laughter, but it was the most talkative I had seen her in a long time. Clearly she had opinions on the service, or at least the parts of the Church bulletin she wasn't allowed to put in her mouth. She got to meet the whole congregation, and Kent almost gave her the microphone, which I'm sure he never would have gotten back if he had. After a lovely brunch we were off to the airport.
While we've had a good time in California, I think we're done with the traveling for a little while. It would be nice to put away the suitcase and not pull it out again for at least a couple of weeks. We are going to my aunt's house for Thanksgiving, and that's only 20 minutes away. I think that sounds perfect. Have a happy Thanksgiving!