My friend

Amelia spends her days with John. They are really starting to interact together. So fun to see. 

 

Crawling progression

Amelia is crawling fast and getting into everything. I have about 100 videos from Tuesday January 13th from when I thought she was going to make a full crawl forward so that steve didn't miss it. She never crawled for the video, on the 15th, her 5 1/2 birthday, she was crawling. And, by Sunday Jan 18th, she was moving quickly and getting into all of stanley's toys. She has decided to skip baby toys and go right for the big boys toys.

Monday Jan 12th :

January 13th: I left Amelia on the mattress with a big pile of baby toys. I came back and she crawled to the edge and gotten Stanley's bag and was eating and enjoying the crinkle sound. 

Below Stanley is showing Amelia how to play with this locking puzzle toy. 

don't have a good video of her crawling around a lot, but I think the below video gives you the final as of Saturday Jan 17th. 

Climbing

Getting into trouble

Standing and trouble

Amelia is definitely for us in our toes and also forcing us to baby proof early. As of last Monday, January 19, Amelia could pull herself is. Yes, and now she is trying to get up another level if stairs. 

Lion style

Dressing up is fun. Dressing up like a lion is really fun. Dressing up like a lion and going to school? Maybe the most fun thing in the universe. You should ask Stanley. I think he would agree. 

Welcome Home Daddy!

I came home a little bit late from work today.  As I opened the door, there was Stanley, stark naked from the waist down.  He yelled out the door immediately into the quiet darkness of the street, "Daddy! You have to come and look at my BIG POOP!!"  

I, of course, ran in the house and asked where I could find such a big poop.  He showed me the poop's location  (it was in the potty) and I told him how awesome it was.  He said it was bigger than him (it was pretty big).  High fives were exchanged.  Songs were sung.  Dances were danced.  It was very exciting.  

Then I went to have dinner.  What an evening!  

Each day is a new day

When I get home each day, it is so wonderful to see what the kids are doing differently. At 5 months, I'm not surprised that Amelia is changing by the day. At 3 years, Stanley seems to be doing the same thing. And, with these developments they are definitely tired! Last night as I was putting together dinner, the two kids were playing separately. Then, I turned around because there was no noise. Amelia had moved over to the rug by the stove and put her head down on it. Stanley had gone to the rug by the sink and had his head down on that. They were both just smiling at each other. I wish that I'd had my camera handy to capture it. Just precious!

Amelia is learning to crawl quickly. On Sunday, Amelia would get up on her knees and hands once in a while as in the previous post. By Monday, she had figured out that she could tip her body to one side pull in a knee and then tip to the other side and get up pretty easily. Then, last night, she was able get up on her hands and knees lots and even pull one knee in a bit towards her hands. She can also lift a hand to play with a toy while she stays up. She definitely isn't crawling, but it is getting pretty close.

Stanley has really started having a lot of independence lately. For months, he loves for us to lie in his bed while he falls asleep. We usually set a 5 minute timer. After the timer goes off, it is a race to the door before he gets out of bed. And it often involves a few tears. However, two nights ago, he said to Steve, "The timer went off daddy, you have to go now". Last night the same thing happened with me. Wow! And, at school he usually has a little melt down about us leaving. Though we know he is happy because sometimes it is hard to get him to leave school in the afternoon. Instead today, he told Steve that it was time for him to go and Stanley just went off and played with his friends. For sure a big boy!

On a completely separate note, I had a funny conversation with Stanley. About a week ago, it was mighty cold. I tucked his covers around his neck and said the saying "Good night, don't let the bed bugs bite". I didn't think much of it when I said it. Well, two nights ago, Steve tucked Stanley into bed and Stanley said "Daddy, make sure to tuck me in so the bugs don't bite me" Oops! Steve and I figured the poor kid has been scared to death of bugs when he heads to bed these last few days. So, to put him at ease, last night I told Stanley that there are no bugs in his bed, it is just a funny thing to say. Instead it means be comfortable and stay warm. Stanley gave me a very sad confused look.

Stanley: But mommy, I want the comfort bugs to make sure I'm comfortable. 
I had to change my tone quickly
Me: Uhhh, Comfort bugs? 
Stanley: The bugs help make me be comfy in my bed while I sleep
Me: Oh ok, do you want to pretend there are comfort bugs to make you comfortable
Stanley: Yes mommy, I will share the comfort bugs with you.
Me: Thanks Stanley 

I'm definitely not keen on the idea of bugs in my bed, but I guess if they make me comfortable I should be thankful he wants to share.

Back to school and work

We are back to work after a wonderful vacation. Yesterday, Martha came and Steve ran out the door with Stanley. As a result, he wasn't able to give Martha warning about Amelia's developments. Well, Martha was clearly surprised about Amelia's ability to move around.

Amelia at one point managed to move right over her share-care buddy John. I cannot really use the term crawl, but Martha says it is just the matter of days.

With Stanley I was sure hoping he would crawl early. Amelia late. We are going to have to get back out the baby proofing items. 

Amelia at 5 months

Amelia turned 5 months old a few days ago and has been developing really quickly.
Starting on December 30th she learned to sit quite well.

Now she can sit quite well. She doesn't even need to hold herself up with her hands.

And starting yesterday, she started joing us at he table in her own seat. 

 

Part of the reason we have her in her own seat is because she has really long arms. Sometimes I feel like they are Go-go Gadget arms. Twice I have had her far away from my food and somehow she was able to reach out and spill it all over both of us. 

Amelia loves her brother. She will laugh and laugh and laugh at him. 

Amelia at 5 months can

- Move almost anywhere she wants within a 3 foot range. (It is not quite an army crawl, but she somehow manages to get herself around)

- Play the little piano

- Sit without holding on (just learned it)

- Sleep at night without a swaddle (she wakes up ~ once)

- Grow very quickly!!

- Laugh out loud with a good belly laugh.

- Take a bottle

- Recognize people and sometimes even get scared if she doesn't recognize the person holding her

- Smiles lots

- Skip naps to enjoy what is happening. 

Amelia likes

- Her brother

- Nursing

- Being held

- The Becco Carrier

- Rolling quickly over to her tummy

- Laughing and smiling

Amelia doesn't like

- Waiting to eat when she is hungry

-  The car (50% of the time she screams, the other times she has finally learn to fall asleep)

- Missing anything. She will skip naps to make sure she doesn't miss anything

- Stay in chairs at an low angle

- Stay on her back

The store

Growing up I spent a lot of time playing in my store. It was in the basement and over the years got many up-grades. In the end, it had a complex cash register (now broken), a display case, and lots of paper to make receipts. It was so much fun to see Stanley enjoying the store during this trip.

Christmas at Lolo & Papa Doug's

We had a fantastic holiday season. No blogs yet to show, but definitely lots of memories. We had two separate Christmas's--one in Rochester and one in Denver. I thought the Rochester one would be cold and Denver would be nice, but it turns out it was the other way around. Rochester was in the 50's and Denver for 1 day at -9 degrees. For people from SF, that is cold!

Stanley had a great time, but woke up Christmas morning with a tummy bug. He spent a lot of Christmas like this...

 But was able to pull it together to enjoy a few gifts, Christmas photos, and dinner.

Amelia seemed to love the attention and all of the new not-baby friendly toys at papa doug and Lolo's house.

Snoopy

Steve and I took Stanley to the SF Symphony's "A Charlie Brown Christmas". It was cute and we had a good time getting dressed up and going in the POURING rain.
Stanley seemed to enjoy it, but was very confused. We tried to explain that the characters were played by people dressed up in the clothes, but not wearing masks. But, despite our discussions, in the end Stanley asked "Where was Charlie Brown and Snoopy". Clearly he missed the fact that snoopy was a lady dressed up in white with a scarf around her neck. All in all though it was cute. Here are a few pictures from the lobby area.