A whole lot of babies!

Last month (June) I started a monthly mommy baby playgroup get together with a bunch of my local new mom friends. Its INCREDIBLE how many people we know that have had babies within a few months of Amelia's birth. We even have one friend that had a baby 5 days after Amelia! Last month was at our house and we failed to get a group shot as our hostess (Amelia...) got a little overwhelmed by the party apparently and had to go down for a nap before everyone even left!

This month we went to the Rousey household and we had a BLAST. Jefferson has the best toys! We almost had a repeat of last month as Jefferson pulled an Amelia and had to go down for a nap while we played but apparently he only needed a quick breather to get himself together because he was back within a half hour and we were able to snap a quick pick of the SEVEN babies that were present! Let me tell you...it is really hard to get a picture of seven babies...especially when a few of them are crawling and trying to get away! I managed to get a few good shots! We are really enjoying our new playgroup and we can't wait for next month!

8 Months Old!

Amelia is 8 months old!

It's getting harder and harder to keep her sitting in the chair for pics!

Although every month since Amelia came into our lives has been wonderful in its own way this last month has truly been a joy to experience. Amelia is growing and developing so much, she is a whole new baby each month! I feel like last month she had just started to hit her developmental stride...learning so many new things, well, we are in full swing now and have a little mover and shaker on our hands!

Amelia is army crawling around at quite a high rate of speed! We are constantly chasing her around the living room as she tries to get to the lamp (or more accurately the cord to the lamp...) or Elle's toys or our shoes. Of course those things are all so much more interesting than her toys! She has started to get up on all fours and rock back and forth before slumping down to her belly and scooting around. (First time on 7/11) I think she will be legit crawling before my next update. She sits up perfectly now without any fear of falling over, she reaches for toys and steadies herself and moves seamlessly from sitting to her belly to crawl around. She hasn't quite figured out how to get back to sitting from the crawling position but I think that is right around the corner as well.

Amelia is starting to attempt to pull herself to standing position. She has always loved "standing" and was putting weight on her legs months ago but now she makes an effort to get to that position. She will crawl to our laps and climb up our legs until we grab her fingers and then pull herself up! Its adorable! We decided to go ahead and lower her crib on 7/9 just in case. She hasn't had the courage to pull up on anything without our arms or legs nearby just yet.

While on vacation at the lake in Tennessee Amelia learned two new tricks! I do not even know how to describe one of them, we call it the silly bunny noise. She basically blows air in and out of her nose. I know that sounds strange but its really cute. She did it a lot for Grandpa (Pop Pop) Wagner and does it every once in awhile for mom and dad.  She also started waving bye bye! Its not an every time thing but I think she is starting to know what it means so now I wave bye bye every morning when I leave her at my mom's for daycare. Even when she doesn't respond with a wave she laughs and smiles. She just loves it!

This past week I was at my moms for lunch and I looked down and Amelia was clapping! I quietly told my mom to grab me my phone and I caught it on video. We have been working on this for awhile and she finally got it! Here is the video:

(knock on wood) Sleep has been great this past month. (knock on wood) Every time I say that I get a serious fear that I will jinx it. I typically nurse one last time between 7 and 7:30 and put her down sleepy but awake between 7:30 and 8. She doesn't always wake up at the same time but its usually between 6 and 7. Although I wish I could get ready in the mornings without having to figure out how to entertain my now mobile little sidekick I really can't complain. Since she has absolutely outgrown the bouncer seat she now sits in the excersaucer in the bathroom while I get ready. Most days she is fine with it, others not so much but we make it work!

We just upped Amelia's solid foods to 3 meals and sometimes 1 snack a day. Here is her typical day of eats:

· Breakfast: fruit and cheerios

· Lunch: cereal and fruit or veggie

· Snack: puffs or cheerios or fruit or veggie (sometimes)

· Dinner: fruit and veggie and usually some puffs

I'm not pureeing the fruit at all anymore, she will eat any fruit cut up into small pieces. Currently we are rotating between plums, peaches, mango, watermelon and blueberries. We also bought a mesh feeder and we give her banana in that and she devourers it! I give her some cut up pieces or veggies but she doesn't seem to do as well with those so we also do veggie purees. Her favorites are sweet potato, carrots, and butternut squash...not the biggest fan of peas but she will eat them every once in awhile in a veggie medley (whole). I am trying to give her more and more finger foods and get away from purees. She does AWESOME with the cheerios and puffs and fruit. We (thankfully) haven't had any gagging or choking scares. (again...knock on wood!)

Stats:

· size 3 diapers (just made the transition, they are a little big but the size 2 were too small!)

· wearing 3-6, 6-9 and 6-12 months clothes, depending on the store

· weight on 7/12: 16 lbs, 12.5 ounces

· nurses (or gets bottle at daycare) about 5 times a day

· Loves: crawling, taking sunglasses off of faces, remotes, cell phones, books (especially when mommy or daddy read to me) and FOOD

· Not so much: diaper changes first thing in the morning, getting her face or nose wiped, not being able to play with remotes, cell phones or cords :)

Like I said, this has been a very fun month in the life of our little girl. I can only imagine it will get better from here. It is really hard to think she will be a year old in 4 short months...guess I better start planning the party!

Wagner Family Vacation

For the week of 4th of July we headed to Watts Bar Lake in Tennessee for the Wagner family vacation.

We went to Watts Bar Lake in 2010 and enjoyed it so much we decided to go again this year. We originally chose Watts Bar Lake because everyone could drive...Bob and Mary Ann from Iowa, Abby (and now Laz) from Chicago, and Eric, Amelia, Elle and me from South Carolina. We really got the best deal however because our drive was only 4 hours...a lot less than the rest of the family. Good thing too, I don't think Amelia would have lasted a minute longer. It makes me quite nervous for the long drive to Iowa for Christmas!

I digress...we had SO MUCH FUN this past week I don't even know where to begin! We spent many an hour on the Wagner's new boat, Amelia experienced the lake for the first time, Elle enjoyed swimming, we water skied, we (as in everyone but me and Mary Ann...) jumped off a large rock into the lake (I did it in 2010...), we ate good food, read good books and simply relaxed! It was wonderful.

Amelia got to spend a lot of quality time with her grandparents. Bob hadn't seen her since Christmas so it was a nice little reunion! Here are some of my favorite pics from the trip...we took so many its hard to choose!



What a trip! Can't wait for Wagner Family Vacation 2013!



A Visitor

Aunt Dot came to visit us from Iowa for a week. It was so nice to see her after so long It was her first time meeting Amelia and she really enjoyed spending time with her. Here are few pics from her visit!