At the risk of my phone ringing off the hook for dance lessons, here's some footage of me rockin' out with the girls to "Hit the Road Jack" and "Move It"
Ah Amelia. How do you explain Amelia these days. Since she is always talking (and I do mean always in the most literal sense), she's probably best described through her own words.
Quotable Quotes
“Papa's nose needs a haircut.”
"Amelia, do you want to go to Ireland?", "No, I would rather go to the Thomas the train store."
"I can't hardly even imagine that! Can you?!"
"Stop asking me questions"
"Are you going to leave me here at home mom?”. “No honey, I am not”. “Good because I don't know how to take a bath by myself or go nite nites”.
"No doubt about that!"
"I'm so stinkin'/silly/smart."
"Celeste, let me ask you something. Are you done with that roll?"
"Does God stay awake?"
"Maybe M&Ms will fix it." ("it" could be anything from booboo or world peace, doesn't matter the problem, M&Ms are all powerful)
"I'm not gonna get a bellyache”" (esp when asking for a dessert)
When told that Siena was in Mommy's belly before she was born, with a grave expression on her face "You mean you ate her up!!!???"
"I'm dropping a doodee" (no context needed)
"Shut the door. I need my privacy” when dropping a doodee
"I do not like your behavior"...when talking to Siena if she is not doing something Amelia wants her to do
"Mom, do you need help?" when Beth am correcting Siena for something
(from Beth's perspective) We had just finished doing a craft and Amelia and I were busying cleaning up. She looked at me and said, "Mom, I have to tell you something. God will always be in my heart forever to take of me and especially if I am alone.". Wow, I thought, that was pretty powerful for a 3 year old. About 2 minutes later she says to me, "Mom, I have to tell you something else". Okay, I was ready for another powerful statement and was looking forward to what divine wisdom she was going to impart on me. She said, "You do know that chickens don't have names"!
"Why does that man have gray all over his face”...the gray wasn't a beard, it was Amelia's introduction to different races has begun.
When asked if she wanted another brother or sister, she replied "I wouldn't want another sister. Two would be wasteful!"
"Mom, you have big inkels! You know, like Miss Brenda and Miss Lauren do!" (for those of you down with Amelia-lingo, "inkel" = nipple/breast
"Amelia, it's not nice to touch other people's inkels. You should only touch your own inkels."..."But, I can't Mommy, they're too small!"
"I'm just glad I have a Mom and Dad."
"I'll do it on Friday", when asked to do anything she doesn't want to do, especially take a nap.
"Stay in my dust De De" when Julie was chasing her in the pool and started to get too hot on her heals
She's Got Skills
Amelia is a little scholar. She loves to learn new things:
Reading/writing - Amelia has known how to write the letters in her name for a while, but now she's at the point where she can write them all in a nice neat line and it actually looks like the word Amelia. She loves to write thank you cards to people and learn how to spell the words and write all the letters she needs to know to make up her message. She's also starting to recognize a few words on her own. We try to learn a new word when we read stories at night and Amelia is starting to pick them up and retain them.
Arithmetic - "What does five and three make?" "What does ten and ten make?" "How do you make six?" "How else do you make six?" Amelia loves to ask these questions and she can even answer many of them herself. She loves to figure out addition problems using her fingers and toes.
Geography - Amelia has a puzzle that is a map of the US that she was into for a while. She can point out CT, TN, FL, IL, TX and AL.
Arts and Crafts - Art is Amelia's new passion. If there is one thing that she does at least once every day, it's make a picture. Crayons, pencils, paint, glue, stickers, the medium doesn't matter, what matters is making something suitable for Daddy to take to work. These days, the drawings are even recognizable as the objects she intends to draw. Well, recognizable might be a bit of a proud Dad's overstatement. "Recognizable with some orientation" might be a more accurate term.
Personal Affairs - "Me do it" is without a doubt the most frequently uttered phrase around these parts. Amelia into doing everything herself now. She's completely potty trained (as of July 2008) and loves to scrub herself in the tub. These days she's into getting herself dressed, and, of course, picking out her own outfits. She does surprisingly well in the fashion department, but then again, what do I know?
Negotiation - Well, on second thought, isn't every kid skilled in this regard.
Conversation - Did I mention she never shuts her mouth? It's especially true with strangers. Her favorite pick up line is "My favorite color is yellow, what's yours?". And once she's got their attention, "My name's Amelia, what's yours? That's Siena, and that's Mom and that's Dad. I'm three, Siena's one. Can you do this with your tongue (curl it)? This is my puppy. Her name is Shammy. Do you have any pets? Do you like broccoli? I don't like broccoli. Papa says I NEVER have to eat broccoli."...and it goes on and on. More than one adult has said "I could just talk to her all day."
High Ambitions With all these skills our little girl has developed some lofty ambitions in life. On some days, Amelia wants to be an astronaut. But, on most days she wants to be an Elf and help Santa make toys for all the little boys and girls. Of course, she also wants to be a Mommy.
So What Else?
School - Amelia absolutely loves her new preschool. She has an absolute blast there and has made some great new friends. She's convinced that next year there will be "two Ms Brendas and two Ms Laurens" so that one set can teach the Panda class and another set can teach the class she will move up to. Amelia loves to talk about her day when Beth picks here up. She gets a kick out of telling her things like "Mia used up all the toilet paper" and "Trafford stuffed all the cookies into his mouth at one time!".
Energy - This girl has more energy than she knows what to do with. Running, jumping dancing, riding her bike...she never stops! If she can get you into a race watch out, a quick sprint to the other side of the room will turn into an endurance race that would challenge Lance Armstrong.
The Patch - For a few months, Amelia had to wear a patch on her eye to help strengthen it. It started as something she had to wear all day every day and then the time gradually decreased. All in all she was wearing it for about 8 months. She was an amazing sport about the whole thing! We almost never had a problem getting her to wear it and thankfully it did the trick and strengthened her eye without needing any surgery.
Monogamous with Thomas No More - Amelia's long love of Thomas seems to be fading. She still enjoys Thomas and finds time to make new tracks and play with her trains. But, a new love is emerging. Dora the Explorer is the new beau, and this time Siena's in on the action. We'll see how this plays out. Keep your eyes out for 200 hundred trains showing up in Ebay in a couple months!
With all this activity, it's good to know that Amelia still takes time to stop and smell the roses...literally, every flower she passes by. Since they've blossomed this Spring, Amelia has had a new fascination with anything the blooms. Smelling, touching, picking, anything you can do with flowers is a bundle of fun.
Being the younger sibling is tough. It starts with hand-me-downs. Then your older sister is always taking things from you and getting her way. Later on comes teasing and big sis getting to do things first. But what shouldn't happen is Daddy forgetting to put all your milestones up on the blog. Fortunately, Mommy's been keeping track in a list offline. So Siena, when you read this in 10 years, I'm sorry Dad's been a blog slacker, but here's what you've been up to since May (yikes).
Siena continues to have the best temperament and the most contagious laugh. Ever since she's been born, she's been so easy going and so easily amused. Her belly laugh always puts a smile on everybody around her.
These days, Siena is having an explosion of new words. It's been a blast watching her personality emerge. A quick history of Siena's speech:
May 08 - "momma", "dadda", "uh-oh", "ni ni" (for night night), nana (banana) - She LOVES bananas at this stage, Amelia starts to, and still, calls her "Siena na Nana"
November 08 - Put a meal in front of her and she said "yuck" (11/2/08), "bye bye", "hi", "baba" for baby, "wawa" for water, "uckle" for buckle, "mine", "O's", "ister" for amelia, "out", "please", "all done", "mine sock", "mine shoe", "oh no", "ride"
December 08 - "race", "heavy", "tea", "milk", "bubbles", "i do" (Her favorite saying is still "I do", said with deep excitement, when asked if anybody wants to do something)
2009 - An explosion of new words and sayings. She's now able to communicate most anything that she wants. Today she can say her full ABCs, count to 10 and sing Twinkle Twinkle. She's been using "please" and "thank you" appropriately and often.
Siena's also having an explosion of things she can identify. She's good with a few shapes and colors, but great with animals and their sounds. Cow, cat, sheep, duck, and dog are her favorite.
Siena's also got a bit of a misfit/daredevil/rascal in her. From the time she learned to crawl, she's been a baby on the move who loves her independence. She would crawl, under/over everything and was in constant motion...so much so that she once crawled under the car and even crawled on to the back of the treadmill while it was moving (in case you're wondering 4.3 MPH only propels a toddler about 10-12 inches or so!). She's a tough little bugger too, unless she's tired, she'll take a lickin and keep in kickin. I had a proud moment around Christmas when all of Amelia's friends were wrestling on the bed. Siena jumped into the fray and held her own. I'll never the time when she stood up, let out a scream, charged, and tackled Ayden (the roughest, toughest and most physically adept toddler of the bunch)!
Siena's certainly has learned the spirit of independence as well. She loved to crawl away from you and especially to venture up the steps when we weren't looking. When we'd tell her "no", she'd giggle and shake her head no in return. She loves to tell us "no" as well. Usually this is in respond to "Siena, do you have poo poos?" or "Siena, is it time to go to bed?". The response is an emphatic, emotional, head shaking "No". The more feeling she puts behind the "no", the more we know that the answer is really "yes".
She's definitely not a bad baby, anything but (she's really an awesome baby), but she certainly has an independent spirit! She knows what she wants and isn't afraid to go after it. There was the time when we found her hiding in the pantry munching on jelly beans. Then there was the time we found her hiding wedged between the chair and the ottoman slurping Mom's big Diet Coke. And of course, these days her favorite game is to take something you need (for instance, socks) and run away. This is an especially fun game when it's time to change a dirty diaper.
Siena is the great imitator these days, anything she sees us doing will be repeated. This is especially true of things that Amelia is doing. If Amelia is doing it, Siena wants in. Whether it's making crafts, riding a tricycle, playing with a toy, or going potty, Siena wants to be just like her big sister. If you seem Amelia coming, chances are Siena's right behind shouting "Mia" (Amelia), "Ister" (sister) or "Chooch" (choo choo...the keeper of the trains). Fortunately Amelia doesn't mind and they truly love one another. It's a blast to watch them run around chasing each other, playing hide and seek, and doing "tackles" (essentially light weight wrestling)...and yes, this seems to be the most fun sans-clothing at night after baths.
Some of Siena's passions these days:
-Adult beverages (of any kind). If there's an iced tea or diet coke within 50 feet, Siena HAS to have a sip. And if you give Siena a sip, chances are she's going to want a gulp. And if you give her a gulp, chances are you're going to need to get a refill. (The same hold true for chips with salsa or guacamole.)
-Baby. Siena loves to care for her baby doll. She'll take her for walks in the stroller, feed her a bottle, give her a paci, cover her with a blanket and do everything else that a good mom does.
-Shoes. It's a bit early to call it a shoe fetish, but I have an eerie feeling that Siena's obsession with footwear is going to develop into a costly and closet-filling habit later on. These days anybodies' shoes are a favorite toy; put them on, take them off, move them around, there's no limit to the fun we can have with shoes and socks. The most amazing trick seems to happen when we're in the car for more then 5 minutes. Somehow, Siena is able to take her shoes off, put her socks on her hands and then put her shoes back on (on the wrong feet....every time).
-Hide and seek (an obsession shared with Amelia). Whenever I get home from work, it's inevitable that Beth has somehow managed to loose both of our children and it's up to me to hunt them down. Siena particularly loves to run and hide when it's time for a diaper change!
-Getting her groove on. Don't ask me how, but for the longest time now, Siena's been doing this little "shimmy" dance where she moves her shoulders back and forth. These days she's progressed to jamming to "Move It" and "Hit the Road Jack" (try squealing "what you say" and she just cracks up!).
-School buses and airplanes. All must be pointed out whenever they are discovered.
-Crafts - The girls is always drawing something. She loves to just go into the draw and grab a pen and paper and just start scribbling (fortunately she's very neat and never makes a mess!). Siena loves to sit at the table and do crafts with Amelia. It's great just to be able to leave them there together and entertain themselves.
-Books - She doesn't care so much about the words yet, but she can sit for minutes (if I said hours it wouldn't be true, but many minutes is an eternity in toddler time)and just look through book after book after book. Siena does like to be read to, but she's just as content to sit there and flip through things on her own. In fact, at story time with Amelia, she often gets frustrated by the slow pace of words and will grab a book to look through on her own while we read!
For the record (miscellaneous facts, dates and milestones from the last few months):
Mobility:
6/6/08 - Crawled up steps for the first time June/July 08 - Trying to learn to stand, by mid-July can do 15 seconds 8/4/08 - First steps taken (witnessed by Nette Nette and Papa) 8/13/08 - 4 steps taken 8/14/08 - 6 steps taken 8/27/08 - 19 steps taken Mid Sept 08 - offically walking more than crawling
Siena's had a verbal explosion in the last couple months. Here she shows off here latest tricks, counting to 10, singing the ABCs and singing Twinkle Twinkle (she's actually usually better than this at all three, just a bit camera shy!)
Highlights from our New Year's Eve celebration with the Franks. The kids loved the hibatchi....except the big scary flames on the grill.
The girls discovered bowling around Christmas time. It's a great winter activity. Amelia perfected the art of chucking a duck-pin ball half way down the ally before letting it hit the ground. There weren't a lot of strikes, but there were plenty of laughs.
Haloween 2008, yes, it has been that long. Of course, Amelia was Thomas. Siena's costume might look a bit familiar.
We headed down to the beach with the Bowies in November.
It's hard to believe but Amelia turned three the other day! Memere and Buppa made the trip down to celebrate with us and we threw a big party to celebrate. Of course, everything was Thomas themed, from the cake to the balloons to 90% of the bagillion presents Amelia received. We all had a blast, especially Amelia. We were so proud of how she thanked each and every person who gave her a present..."THANK YOU VERY MUCH!". She loved her Thomas cake that Memere helped us make. We kept it a surprise until it was time to blow out the candles and her face just lit up when she saw it! The kids all had a blast pinning the "1" on Thomas, painting trains, coloring Thomas, decorating cookies and gathering the spoils from the pinata.
Somebody got the idea to take 7 kids to a cabin in Gatlinburg for the weekend and hit Dollywood. It actually turned out to be a blast. Dollywood wasn't nearly as redneck as I imagined it to be and the cabin we found rocked (for the adults especially). The kids had a blast with each other and on the rides. The little car ride was Amelia's favorite, but she fell in love with Katie the train...a real live steam engine!
Amelia started at a new preschool this fall. She's at the YMCA Preschool right around the corner from our house. We were lucky to get into this great program when we called on the very last day they were accepting applications for the lottery. We had heard great things about the program so we felt very lucky and blessed to have been accepted. Amelia loves all her new friends (she can name 8 out of 10 of them already) and of course loves her new teachers, Miss Lauren and Miss Brenda. She had one day or so of not wanting to go, but as soon as she gets in the classroom she lights up and has a blast. The teachers rave about her and she loves to bring home her daily artwork.
After a few weeks of getting settled in, the kids had their first school "event". Part sporting event, part fund raiser, all the kids brought their tricycles into school and had a "trike-a-thon" to raise money for St Jude's Children's Hospital. Amelia did great! She was nervous about it going in and up to that morning we didn't think she'd be willing to do it. But, when the time came, she got right out there and was the fastest little rider in her class!
In October for Fire Safety Week, the local fire department paid their class a visit. A fireman came into the classroom and taught them all about his uniform. They all got fireman hats, stickers, and a tour of the fire engine! It was what they call an "in house" field trip!
It's been a year since our innocent excursion to Thomas Day 2007 triggered Amelia's infatuation with this oh so cheeky little engine. In that time, trains have come to dominate our lives and our house! Nashville's Day Out With Thomas is now the must attend event of the year. I wonder if she'll still be this fanatical in 2009?
Back in July Amelia started to be curious about money. We explained the basics to her and gave her some "chores" she could do to earn some of her very own money. Whenever she feels like working, she can get the mail/paper or help water the flowers to earn a bit of spare change. For a while, she was really in to it and reliably did her chores day after day. By August she saved up $10, so we took her to the toy store to buy a new Thomas train. She had her heart set on Edward (turns out that's actually a $20 train so Dad kicked in some matching funds). Here she is making her very first purchase!
