Halfway through winter

just catching me saying "cheese" for
the camera!
My favorite thing to do!

Middle of winter....say what?  It is almost groundhog day and I am very curious if he will even come out to look for his shadow since winter hasn't even arrived yet.  I'll try to remember to check out how that all turns out next week and keep you posted.  Until then, I am continuing to enjoy this unseasonably warm weather.  It has been in the 60's!  We made a trip to the park Sunday where I got to show dad our find from last week.  It was fun playing on the swings, slides, etc. with him, but we had a lot of fun feeding the ducks our bread.  A fight broke out that was super cool, it included ducks chasing each other across the pond and then dunking each other under water!  Really cool.

The only other big 'news' I have is, my canine teeth have completely come through on the top and the bottom 2 are almost there.  That makes 16 teeth!  Apparently I only have 4 more to go.  I heard mom saying something about me eventually losing said teeth.  What?  Why would I go through this pain to grow them in, if they are just going to fall out?  Not sure that makes sense.  Mom says that we all need to learn that not everything may make sense to us, but God knows what he is doing so we learn to accept. 

Mom!  My shirt is stuck on my head...and it is pulling my eyes!

don't worry, the water is suppose to be pink.  I have fun new bath drops that turn it all different colors!

Saturday I did get to go see some friends.  Apparently I have yet another new baby friend coming soon, so we had a party for his parents Kellie & Jeremy to help them get ready.  Although, dad says you can never really be ready.  Whatever.  It was over at my friend Maddie's house.  They just got back from Thailand a couple weeks ago (where she got really sick), so dad wasn't so sure about me catching some "germs that don't belong in the US"....but I decided to take the risk as she was feeling better (well for the most part).  Neither Maddie nor I were really into playing intently together anyway, so I'm sure I stayed clear of anything.  I did however enjoy all of her toys...per usual.  This time I really had fun with her Elmo workbench, puzzles, etc. but then my stomach started telling me it was time to eat.  Of course there was plenty of food to be had there.  Apparently Maddie and I eat quite differently, she has not quite developed the taste for the meats like me.  I think her mom and dad were both quite impressed as I put down 1,2,3,4 ok...maybe 5 or 6 chicken nuggets.  I just couldn't get enough.  They were shaped like my minnie mouse!  I did enjoy some hummus too....but didn't understand why the others were eating edamame, fruit, etc.  The more for me!  I think the nuggets gave me a burst of energy because I was having fun 'playing' with the other kids there (Avery, Mason, and I even stayed late enough to see Evan & Zach!).  She had some super cool sunglasses that I enjoyed playing with and trying on.  They didn't even slide down my tiny nose much as my usual pair!  I got to stay late, but dad eventually said it was time to go.  He was probably right, I was pretty darn exhausted by the time I got home.  I crashed and slept in with just enough time to get ready to go to church on Sunday.  Let me just say waking up in time to leave for school this week has been a bit tough.  Apparently it hasn't been too easy for mom either.  Ugh....mornings.

Oh yeah, my friend Ava posted a blog that has our friendship in pictures, it is pretty cool.  I may do something similar one day, but until I get organized enough to do that you can check out her page here. Until then, Amelia OUT!

playing tag with Ava at church!

As promised, here is a video of me helping dad make his coffee in the morning.  My morning is not complete without doing that! 


And helping recycle (please ignore the messy house)

A girl of few words

check out the outfit grandma Janice made for me!

Where does time go?  I guess I have been enjoying this unseasonably warm weather so much as of late that I have lost track of my blogging requirements.  Yes, it is the end of January and except for a few cold days last week, you would think it was spring.  In fact, our tulips think just that.  As I was playing outside yesterday, I found that they are all popping up.  I'm thinking that is not good.

I am again going to give a summary of some of the highlights. 
- Lots of trips outside.  Including walks with Marley...and the most fun one was on MLK day mom picked me up (after she got a nice relaxing massage while thanking MLK JR for all that he did) and we went to the park.  Not alone though....Ava and her mommy also came!  We tried out a new place so I wasn't sure what to expect.  Turns out, it was awesome.  They had ducks!  And lots of fun things to climb, slide, swing on....although there were a lot of others out enjoying the nice weather too.  They also had an entire play town that we had fun exploring.  We even got put in jail....uh oh.  I'm sure it was Ava!   Actually, as you can see, I didn't mind so much!



I've become quite the poser for the
camera lately



- Linda from Parents as Teachers came for another visit.  I heard mom and dad asking her questions on the fact that I don't say any words yet.  As per other visits, I decided if they are that concerned about my 'progress' I would throw the poor things a bone.  So I have now successfully added a couple other words to my vocabulary (when desired of course).  Along with hi, dad, etc. I now say up, hat, dog, and apparently....diaper.  I think that is enough to suffice them for a while, so I am planning on going back to the 'strong-silent' method.

- Speaking of...I may be silent, but a girl knows what she wants. Last night's example.... I did have intentions on writing the blog yesterday, but i was just so tired.  I tried to show my unobservant parents by being less than chipper, but they didn't get it.  A little after 6, I had another 'frustrated moment' aka tantrum...so they started asking me questions.  Do you hurt? I told them no. Do you want to play with your blocks?  No again  Do you want to take an early bath?  No...(which is a bit surprising I know, as I love baths)  Then finally dad asked the golden question.  Do you want to go to bed?  I made an immediate v-line for my room where dad (after taking his sweet time) found me standing in front of the crib waiting to get in.  After a bit more convincing to them that I really did want to go to bed that early and did not want a bath, they let me give them my good night kisses and hit dreamland.  Seriously?  Is it too much for a girl to ask to go to bed early?  And yes...I slept straight until dad needed help with his coffee this AM.  (i'll put a video of that in next time!)

- Last but not least highlight for the week was a visit from Grandma Janice (and Sadie, of course).  Per usual, it took me a bit to warm up - but then it was back to old times.  My early birthday present from her (8 months early!) came the same day.  This awesome chair that is made just my size! We had lots of fun, reading books, playing with the dogs, and cleaning.  Yep, my carpet has never looked so clean - thanks to the cool steamer grandma let us use!  Ok, I just watched dad...but whatever.  Us 3 ladies also did some shopping at World Market, where I picked up some real goodies.  What?  I don't get to enjoy all this wine?  Fine...I suppose I will be happy with a Valentines rubber ducky for now.  Saturday night I got to spend some quality time with just grandma.  As mom & dad went to a fancy dinner at the Plaza.  I was totally Ok with it, as we had a lot of fun playing and eating pizza....my favorite!  All was good....until about 10 that is.  When I suddenly woke up puking. I'm thinking grandma was glad that mom and dad were home by then, because it was a 2 man effort cleaning up, changing sheets, giving me a bath, etc. after all 3 of my incidents!  Oops.  It sucked for all involved, I'm quite sure I heard dad gagging.  Luckilly I got it all out of me and then slept through the rest of the night.  Darn that pepperoni.   I was fine Sunday and enjoyed spending the morning doing the usual.  I even got to hang out with grandma solo again while mom and dad went to church.  Which I was told was a super good one to watch one day.  I figure so I don't forget I would put it here.  Some of you may also enjoy it!  http://www.heartlandchurch.org/index.php/media/video 1/22 ). 



I tried to tell mom that this would be much better than our ripped leather couch! 



I like to 'help' when we go to the grocery
store.  I kept bringing these bottles of V8.
Don't ever say I don't attempt at getting
my veggies in!

Not only did grandma make me an outfit, but my very own
pillow...that Marley and I fight over!

That is it for this installment.  Amelia OUT!

Who wore it best?

I figure if Us & People magazines can do it, so can I.

Me - January 2012

Mom - Circa 1978

Starting off on the wrong foot

I am 14 days into the new year and this is my first post.  Not a good start at all....but my slacking does allow me to give a shout out to Grandma Steffen as it is her birthday.  I won't even try to make excuses for my delay and just jump into giving you what you want.  Pictures of me!  First of all, you will see that I changed up my color scheme a bit.  Keeping it fresh in the new year.  I can't even attempt to remember everything so I will go through my pictures and see what is worth sharing....and there were over 100 of them, so beware. In no particular order....

looking through all of our christmas cards.  Yes, I liked
the card from my bff Ava

what?  this doesn't look comfortable to you?

• Let's see - dad made us take all the Christmas decorations down.  The tree still looked so pretty, I hated to see it go...but dad said it would eventually die and make a mess - so that was that.  Our house feels a bit bigger again, which is good for me to spread all my toys all around even further! 
• Up until today, we have had some great weather so we have made some trips to the park and walks with Marley.  But I'm guessing that is pretty much done now.  Sorry, Marley. 

• We had a taco dinner night at school.  It was a lot of fun running around and playing with Ava especially in the pews.  I call it 'Green Ghosts in the Sanctuary'...much more my speed than a Graveyard!  A lot of people were there...including Martha!  Whenever I saw her walk by, I had to go running to her.

• Grandma & Grandpa Steffen made a surprise visit last weekend.  Why you ask?  Well besides seeing me, which I'm sure is always reason enough, they had a truck full of meat for us.  I guess we shared a cow with them.  Hopefully it wasn't one that I saw at Christmas.  I won't think of what I am eating, and just enjoy the yumminess of it all I guess. 



enjoying the view

• Trips to Crown Center.  That's right...trips.  I went New Years day with mom & dad and made my first visit to Fritz's for lunch.  It was super cool...a choo choo train brings your food to the table.  I had so much fun watching it go all around the tracks!  I also went again to show gma & gpa the fun stores there.  I am especially a big fan of the Crayola store, they had lots of fun things for me to look at and play with.  I think i need some of these huge chalk pieces.  We also went outside and watched the ice skaters, I was more impressed with the mini-zamboni, the skaters needed some practice.  They also have some super cool fountains that dance to the music...I loved them.  Mom said when it is nice out i can go join other kids in playing in them!  But as you can see...dad said, why wait?  Running through the fountain in January makes total sense too.  Right?  Don't worry, I didn't get wet!  We topped off our trip with dinner over at Jacks Stack.  Turned out there were other people who thought eating at 5:30 was a good idea, so we sat at the bar and waited for our table and enjoyed some appetizers.  They have AMAZING mushrooms.  They were huge.  The Noeckers told me as much, but I didn't believe them...especially since I don't have much of a liking of vegetables.  Wait?  Is a mushroom a vegetable?  I decided I didn't care, they were yummy.  We filled ourselves up on all that goodness, so got our dinner order to go and enjoyed that at home. 

Aren't the fountains pretty?  See, I didn't get wet.

there was a conductor made out of Legos.  Apparently
I still have room to improve on my building skills

we took a trip to Lowes where I had a lot of fun running
around, and then I spotted dad and gpa a row over, so I
figured I would take a short cut!

I decided we should just try to take the chalk home it was
so cool

• I have to come clean.  I shared with you some time ago when my bff Ava bit me at school.  Well, I returned the favor this past week.  I was quickly informed that this is not acceptable.  I don't know what got over me as I have never had the inkling to do this any other time to anyone.  Mom & dad discussed with me that this is wrong, especially since i have twice the amount of teeth as her!  So I wrote (well helped sign) an apology note and have made promises to not do this again.
• Minus the biting incident I have been having fun at school lately.  We had spirit week this week where I got to wear my PJ's one day!  I have been learning about lots of animals.  As you can see, my favorite is the fish! 

the game may have been boring, but dad was so comfy!

• My Huskers must have had a game as I see pics of me wearing my cheerleader outfit, but I have for some reason blocked this from my memories. 

• I have always enjoyed skyping with folks.  Admittedly sometimes I am a bit too busy to be bothered, but other times I will play along with the grandmas in the picture.  I now discovered that I can see a picture of myself on the screen too, that is fun.  Speaking of that, I am having more fun looking at pictures of people in general.  Dad and I like to look at their wedding album and play the "where's daddy" game.  : )  I now kiss grandma Janice goodbye on skype.  It's not as good as the real thing, but I know she likes it. 
• 

Speaking of saying bye.... Amelia OUT!

This is me doing a bridge - or maybe trying to get up on the chair

Enjoy these random videos mom has taken recently of me doing some things part of my usual day.  Yes, I have a very scheduled day.  If I don't get to help dad out with making his cup of coffee in the morning (yeah, we all like his new Keurig coffee maker), or put my clothes in the laundry, my diaper in the pail, etc. my day is just not complete! 
A quick shot of me pushing Marley:

And playing with her


Putting my dish in the dishwasher
We have to pray before every meal


Getting ready for bath