1, 2....10 steps!

I'm learning quickly.  Beer + Football = smiles

I've had some good fun since my last update. But I'll start with the biggie...I have taken steps...that is steps toward walking. I'm not completely sold on doing it all the time, I can get around much faster on my hands and knees. But I now thoroughly enjoy walking back and forth between mom & dad. I think my top so far is like 10 steps....but I don't know why they keep getting farther and farther from each other. I enjoy walking real fast and then doing the nose dive/catch me move. Fun stuff. Here is some video that mom tried to take last night...of me walking...AND playing with dad.

 I love it when he throws me in the air!

 Ok, now let me back up to some of the other fun things. The weekend started off pretty normal, walks, dinner, etc. but then i was surprised right before my nap with visitors. Grandma & grandpa Steffen came to see me! How cool! It took me a couple minutes to completely warm up, but soon enough I wanted no one but grandma to hold me and mom kept saying that I just beamed whenever grandpa walked in. I say that was my protection beam, he kept tickling me! Silly guy. We 'watched' the Husker game...there was not too much to watch. Luckily this time because we were blowing out the competition, so I did a lot of playing instead. After the game we decided to head out for a nice dinner. We went down to the bottoms to a KC to an old restaurant called the Golden Ox. Grandpa loves steak, so dad said we had to go there. I will clarify, when I say it was an old restaurant....it has been there for a long time (there were pictures from some big livestock flood from over 100 years ago!), but the people were let's say...not getting any younger. They weren't quite sure what to think when a baby entered. They dusted off a kids menu and I proved to them that I may be small, but I can put down food with the rest of them.  Yep, sure can and we had some cherry cobbler for dessert. And let's just say...I couldn't get enough...of the ala mode part at least! YUMMY! Sunday I took them to my favorite Loose Park so I could show them the duckies. I was having a hard time staying awake on the way there, but I perked up once I saw the ducks. We took some old Ritz crackers that I didn't think tasted so bad, but apparently were for the ducks and not me. So we started feeding them. Grandma thought it would be fun to let the big ducks (which I guess actually were geese) come eat out of my hand. They actually didn't scare me...which means I must not take after dad in everything, because he was like 100 feet away at all times. Speaking of weird fears, we next went over and looked at the HUGE fish...mom looked a little grossed out and grandpa looked totally interested. They were all right. After a walk around the park and smelling the roses (literally) we headed back home for some lunch and a nap. Well me at least...and maybe grandpa! Unfortunately they had to get back on the road to go back to Hartington, so we had to say our goodbyes. It was tough, but I was assured that I would see them again.

saying goodbyes

Opening presents

 And I had to get ready to be a hostess! That's right...we were having a shower for my friends Tyler & Sarah. You see, Sarah is going to have a little friend for me in a couple of months, so apparently they needed some supplies to get ready. So i had lots of friends old and new come over. We had a lot of fun, we ate some yummy BBQ made by dad. We played, ok...my friends played in the yard/leaves, etc. I was mainly content sitting on people's laps and eating. So much food....so little time. All in all, it was a great time. I sure can't wait to meet the new kid on the block!

costume sneak peeks.  More to come in next blog!

showing Violet my walker

This week has been good so far. Yesterday was super fun. We had a pumpkin patch AND a petting zoo come to my school, yeah....how cool is that?! It was great. Then...after my nap, I was surprised by an early pick up from mom. She decided to use some extra vacation time and take a 1/2 day to spend with me! We went to Loose park and fed the ducks and then played in the park. Then it started getting way too hot (85 degrees at the end of Oct!), so we went for a stop at Russell Stover for some Ice cream (rainbow sherbert...yum!). I think I like it when mom breaks me out early! Hopefully that won't be the last time!

I am geting hair!

All right, all this walking I have been doing has totally worn me out. Time to get some rest. Amelia OUT!

Who wants a water?

It is officially fall weather around here.  Starting to get a bit chilly.  Mom says it is time for me to start wearing a hat, but apparently my head outgrew the ones we had.  Time to go shopping....sweet!  With fall comes leaves, dad says that soon enough I will get to see some up close and personal, besides just picking up a few off the ground to hold during walks, because it is raking time.  I'm pretty sure I will be an AWESOME help in that department.  Before my anticipated fun this weekend, here is last week's update. 

Saturday morning I was finally ready to sleep in, but mom and dad decided that was a no-go.  I got all dressed up in a super sweet track suit and ate some breakfast. We then headed down to the KC marathon.  Yep, I have had my first experience of volunteering.  We hung out at the finish line and handed out bottles of water to people as they came in.  I had a good time watching everyone, there were some crazy people that didn't even want water and looked better than dad does after our walks, and there were some people that pretty much collapsed as soon as they crossed and needed help opening their bottles of water.  Pretty sure that would have been mom.  Oh, I am being corrected...mom says you would not see her crossing any finish lines unless she was being dragged across against her will.  The only downfall of this whole experience was that it was SO cold out.  As mentioned before, I am still without a hat and my parents didn't really plan on int being so cold.  Luckilly there was a first aid station nearby so I got to go in and warm up every once in a while.  Our job was suppose to be to hand out medals.  I did go up with mom and do that for a while, but I felt I was in too high of demand and couldn't keep up.  Apparently tired middle aged women prefer to get their medals from cute babies.  Or so I hear.  I didn't want to cause long lines, so I went back to the water station - until I got too cold and dad took me up to an area with sun so I could warm up a bit.  That was good, but really bad too because I was all excited to see Maddie's mom who ran the 1/2 marathon, but apparently we crossed paths without seeing each other.  Booo.... I guess that is expected with 11,000 people running though!  Mom said that I wouldn't have even been able to tell that she ran.  Yeah, she is one of those aforementioned 'crazies.'  The sun finally started peeking through toward the end of our shift, which got me just warm enough to completely crash.  I may not look comfy in the Bjorn, but it worked just fine!  That was the bulk of my fun on Saturday.

Sunday started off typical.  We got loaded up in car and headed to church.  I was enjoying myself spacing off out the windows/sun roof on the way there.  Then a minute before we pulled in, it hit me.  Apparently the yogurt or bagel I had for breakfast didn't sit well and all came back up.  Dad says that he will not be able to handle it if I have the same weak stomach as mom and get car sick all the time.  I'm really hoping that it was just a fluke myself, we will see.  Since I covered myself and my seat in smelly puke, I wasn't too thrilled.  I heard dad gagging when he came back after going into church and getting piles of paper towels to clean up.  Luckily i had a change of clothes in my bag, so mom got me all cleaned up.  We needed to air out the car some, and I really didn't want to get back in the car for another 20 minute drive so we went to church.  I didn't get to go to daycare and instead hung out with mom in the back and a secret TV room.  I took a little nap on the way home and was ready to scarf down lunch when we got back.  Like I said, weird fluke.  I felt great the rest of the day and had a grand ole' time playing.  We went to my friend Tyler & Sarah's house in the afternoon because we were watching their puppy Lily.  She was pretty cool...minus the crazy KU jersey she was wearing.  Don't worry, we fixed that with a cool Husker bandana. We decided to all take a walk in their neighborhood to TCBY.  It was awesome...I'm a big fan of the Mango sorbet.  Yum!  So was Marley.  After we were done playing with Lily we went back home to do some more playing.  I would say my favorite toys these days are my Legos and I have some new zoo animal magnets that are a blast.  I get to play them in the kitchen which is super fun.  I still love my walker and now don't have to wait for mom or dad to help me if I get stuck.  I know I could walk, but why bother when I can be super safe and hang on to my toys, wall, or furniture?!

Let's see...what else?  This week at school has been pretty good.  I don't cry when mom drops me off anymore.  Ava is back so that is good.  I still do a lot of playing by myself while I'm there, but I'm slowly warming up.  My teachers keep saying that me and my BFF are so different.  She is adventurous and all over the place.  I like to climb on the slide and just sit there.  So sue me if I don't want to come home with shiners like Ava!  Speaking of my teachers...mom came to pick me up one day and while we were saying our goodbyes...Martha walked in.  What?  I worked hard at giving her my evil eye for the first 5 minutes...she needed to know that I am not happy that she has abandoned me and left me with these strangers and big kids.  She kept telling me how she missed me, but I just didn't want to give in.  Finally I went to her and let her hold me for a while...ahhh...the memories were coming back.  Only to be yanked out by mom and wisked away to go home and play with Marley. 

on our walk tonight.  I'll only wear my hood if mom & dad also
put theirs up

Nothing else too exciting has been going on.  I'm working on throwing out some new words, but I think I'm misunderstood most of the time.  I do like saying "Hi" and "Uh-Oh" a lot.  Although, apparently I am suppose to be working on using correctly.  Apparently you can't throw something on the floor and say uh-oh.   So confusing....Oh wait...so I think I mentioned before that I was doping up on all these new drugs.  Well for the past week now I have stopped coughing!  Awesome.  It is amazing how much better (& longer) I have been sleeping.  Ummmm...hello, mom & dad...could we not have tried this like 9 months ago?  Oh well, I guess better late than never.  Speaking of sleep, Amelia OUT!

Here is a video of me playing in the bath

Going to the farm

 

As I eluded to in my last entry, this has been a BIG week for me - as I moved up to big girl school. But before that, let me share the updates from last weekend. Saturday morning (after a quick nap in the car...which by the way, I would have made longer if I knew it was my last morning nap. More on that later)...we headed to Deanna Rose's place. I guess this lady has a farm, mom said if I liked the animals last weekend to watch out. Boy was she right. This place was pretty amazing. But let me back up first, we walked in and found me a stroller. Yeah, luckilly that place was prepared because mom and dad sure weren't and before we made it too far we ran into the Ungles! Yep, Evan and even his little bro Zach were there (with their parents of course)...I guess this is a pretty cool place after all. A few minutes later, guess who else shows up? My BFF Ava with her mommy...AND Will. Wow, this IS going to be a fun day. For my first farm experience, I think I did pretty good. I checked out some chickens and then the cows. Dad said that these milk cows may be pretty, but if I want to check out some big cows I have to go visit Aunt Rhonda's farm. I guess I'll have to plan on that for a future visit up North. Next we went and checked out some baby goats, they were drinking from bottles. Pretty cool. I thought they were cute so went in for a closer look, but wasn't so sure when they came and touched me. Maybe next time. I moved on as there was so much to see and do there. I even got to ring cow bells, and play in a park full of flowers. And I LOVE flowers!

Needless to say after all that fun I started working up an appetite. As a matter of fact, I love eating whenever I have the chance these days. Anyway, we decided to go grab some lunch. Ava & Will were going to join, but apparently they got tuckered out from all the fun and fell asleep before making it out of the parking lot. WEAK! So it was just the fam...we went across the way to Chik-Fil-A. One of dad's fave's...and I gotta say. I'm also a fan. I ate my very own kids meal. Well dad ate my fries. But I was cool with that, because I got to suck down a pouch of yummy vegetables. Man, I love those! Obviously I came back home and took a real good afternoon nap, I think I wasn't alone in that one. We enjoyed the rest of the day at home, playing, going on walks, etc. Mom kept saying all weekend that I was such a joy. Happy, etc. But does that mean I am not always a joy? Hmmmm.... Anyway, before I knew it - it was already my bath/bed time. I got to throw my Husker ball around for a while and stay up a little late to at least watch the kick off of the big game vs. Ohio St this time. I had a feeling the game wasn't going to go so good, so I decided to call it a night and let mom & dad sit in misery watching it while I dream of the day on the farm.

More cowbell, please

Turned out when I woke up on Sunday that despite mom and dad cringing on the couch hours after I went to bed, my good ole' Huskers managed to stage a comeback (the biggest ever, mind you) and win the game. Go 'Skers! Anyway, Sunday was fun. We went to church, but I was mighty tired when I got there so dad let me skip daycare and hang with him during service. We stood in the back for a while, but then it turned out they were having some problems with the A/C so dad went up on the roof to get them fixed up and I sat with mommy and our friend Tyler (who is going to have a friend for me not too long from now...well his wife that is). I had a lot of fun cuddling with mom and then playing googly eyes with the couple behind me. I guess that is why I am suppose to be in daycare, because I am a distraction. But it's not my fault I'm irristable. Ha! I started talking a bit too loud, so we went to the back again for a while and the guy behind me was not very happy to be losing his friend. I didn't even get to tell him proper goodbyes. Which by the way, if I haven't already told you....I'm all about blowing kisses these days. That and high & low fives.

After we got home from church we took a long walk to the Indian festival down the road. I guess there is an old Indian school and museum there, but I was excited for the food. You see, I had tried some of mom's Indian food (I think it was called Tikka Masala) and I was a fan, so was ready for more. But apparently I was confused and this was American Indian. Mom had this 'Indian taco' which looked awesome. Of course mom liked it...anything with the word 'taco'...she is good to go. With my lack of table and the fact that the Indian taco was big and messy I opted for a hot dog. Always a good option in my book anyway. We walked around and looked at some crafts and then I even got to check out some Alpaca's. I must say, I feel like I have seen more animals in the past couple days than in my entire lifetime. Actually, I do believe that is true.   I started getting a bit tired and Marley was way past tired (she had to give in and ride in my stroller again), so we headed back home.  We went back and I napped with mom while dad watched the Chiefs game (the 5 min's he wasn't sleeping that is).  Then enjoyed a great meal that dad made for us on his new grill!

Love my blocks!

Monday I woke up with my eyes glued shut.  Ugh...memories of my early days.  I am guessing that I am allergic to all that farm stuff or something because I had some puffy eyes for a couple of days this week, until some Claritin kicked in.  That sure helped make my first day of school in the toddler room just great.  Actually day 1 wasn't bad.  I did well with the whole 1 nap thing (and slept 2+ hours in the afternoon) on a cot.  Who needs a crib?  And I ate at the big girl table with no problems.  Who needs a high chair?  I don't know what mom was so nervous about.  Turned out Ava only came to school on Monday and she took the rest of this week off to be with her mommy, so I had to fair it alone with the big kids.  All things considered...I think i have faired all right.  But they are all SO much bigger than me.  What a difference a year makes, I guess.  I still like my alone time, but I am slowly integrating into the group.  They do have some fun toys.  They have a big girl kitchen that I adore and a super fun slide to climb up.  My new teachers seem pretty cool, but I'm not quite yet excited to go (or see mom go) in the mornings like I was with Miss Martha.  It could be partly due to the fact I haven't felt great all week, on top of the puffy eyes.  I started some new medicine to try to help my cough (which - keep your fingers crossed, has been working well).  I also haven't been sleeping quite as great, waking up early - in pain that is.  It took me finally waking up and screaming for a LONG time yesterday for mom & dad to realize that maybe I was actually hurting.  Uh, yeah...my canine is coming in and it HURTS!  You can see the bulge coming out of my jaw, not pretty.  This is the first tooth that has REALLY hurt.  Not sure why I'm getting teeth that most kids don't get till they are 2 years old...but I guess i had to excel in something, right?!  Mom says it will be that much easier to chew all the food I love so much, so I guess the pain will be worth it in the end.  Until then, keep that ibuprofen coming please!  Anyway, I digress...I'm sure I'll get used to the new routine at school soon enough!  Actually, today was better....just in time for the weekend and to have to readjust all over next week.  Oh well, hopefully I'll have a fun-filled weekend...get drug free and be like new for next week.  You too!  Amelia OUT!

reading a new book (special for me!) from my friends Anabel & Eloise.  Awesome!

Movin' on up

Telling Miss Martha that I'm going nowhere!

Miss Sharina

I feel like it has been forever since my last post, I'm sorry. Times fly when you are having fun, I guess. Although after my last post, I can't say I exactly was 'having fun'. I'll rewind. I left off with my intent of enjoying this beautiful fall weather for the rest of the week. Well, plans changed a bit the next day. The day started off just normal at school, I came home, enjoyed dinner and went on our family walk. During bath I noticed something just didn't seem right, so I called it short and attempted to drink some milk before heading to bed. It just didn't taste good. About 5 minutes after laying down to sleep, it all hit me and boom came everything. Dad was shocked that I actually vomited not on him for once, but instead it was all over myself, my bed, etc. Luckilly mom & dad got me out of the mess and in for a 2nd bath asap. I think I heard both mom & dad gagging during the clean up process. I guess MacN'Cheese and hot dog chunks don't smell so good. (Luckilly I don't really have a sense of smell yet. As a matter of fact, I have since enjoyed the very same meal at school!). Anyway, I got all cleaned up and not much later, did the exact same thing. But this time I did get dad....and this continued on for a couple of hours. Mom called Ava's mommy (she's a doc) to find out what we should do..and low and behold Ava started up a couple hours after me! Obviously mom and I had a sick day at home together on Thursday. I was lucky that it was only a 24 hour virus for me, unfortunately my BFF was sick for 5 days! She is lucky she has a mom who knows what to do. Pretty sure my parents would have gone crazy if I was sick for that long. I went back to school on Friday and it turned out it was just me and one of the babies. There was only 1 kid in my entire room that made it through unscathed. Dad says I should hang out with that guy more often. Unfortunately, that will not be happening though...as today was my final day in that room. I know it is time to be a big girl...but I'm not real thrilled to be back to the smallest girl on the block. I will not dwell....

Back to some highlights....once I was feeling better last week, we got back out and about. Saturday we first went to Runza for lunch to get ready for the big Husker game. I must say, I LOVE Runza's. After that we went to a fall festival. Yep, a nursery by us had tons of stuff going on. A band (which I found loud), face painting (which I opted out of), balloons (which wasn't tied around me tight enough and flew off to the sky), a maze of hay (pretty sweet), pumpkin decorating (I have some crafty skills, wonder who I got that from?!), and a petting zoo! I loved the chickens and ducks, I think dad was a bit scared of the llama and pony, but I thought they were OK. Not cool enough to actually want to touch them though, they looked dirty. (Yes, I am my father's daughter). After all that fun, I was ready for a nap. We had some Minsky's pizza for dinner, as the owners are fellow Husker fans...I could care less who they cheer for, they have some darn good pizza. Don't worry, I was told to not get use to such unhealthy meals going forward by the way. I stuffed myself on pizza and laid low for the next couple hours. I was pleasantly surprised before bed with a Skype call with Grandma Janice and our friend Cheryl. It was lots of fun to talk to them, well really I listened. Ok, really I showed them how short my attention span is and went back to playing while mom followed me around with the computer. Nonetheless it was all fun. I tried to talk dad into letting me stay up for the big Husker battle against Wisconsin. But I did not win out, I went off to dreamland to my boys in red scoring touchdown after touchdown. I woke up Sunday morning to find out that my dreams came true. Apparently, I was misunderstood though, as my boys were wearing red pants. Turns out the boys in Red shirts got LOTS of touchdowns...and that was NOT the plan. Ahh, now I get why I was wearing black for the game, they were trying to avoid that confusion. Alas, I moved on with my day and we went to church. It had been a while since we were able to go (trips, visitors, sickness, etc) so I wasn't so sure about being dropped off at the daycare. That and it was right in the middle of my recent naptime, but I didn't have a choice. I stayed strong through the hour. Mom & dad keep telling me I get surprises as long as my number isn't put up on the big screen each week, ahh...bribery. So far, so good! This week's surprise was more fun for dad than me...but I guess I get to reap the benefits. Yep, he got himself a new big boy grill. It's name is Weber....and he is pretty darn excited about it. I'm pretty excited about the goodness that comes off of it that I get to eat, so win-win!

I normally eat big people food. But I can't get enoughof the veggies in a pouch!

This week has been pretty good (minus going by so fast), I have been loving the fall weather. Dad said I have to hurry up and walk so that I can play in the leaves that are going to start falling. I took a couple steps at school yesterday, but I'm making him sweat it out a bit longer. Until the next time....

Enjoy the pics and even a few videos this time. Amelia OUT!

I may not be wearing red, but I'm perfecting my moves for the next game!

Trying to feed Marley my Cheerios...

and a couple of pics from a couple weeks back that Ava's mom sent on..

Like I said....LOVE those pouches

Finally a pic where we are all smiling!