9 months

On Tuesday, our precious angel celebrated her 9 month old birthday. When we sang to her she just looked at us like we are all crazy and we are so glad she has learned that early on and still loves us.


It has been fabulous to watch her little mischievous personality emerge. She will put paper in her mouth and when we tell her no and try to take it out of her mouth, she shuts it. After we get it out we tell her that we do not eat paper and she just looks at us and laughs.


We went to her 9 month check up yesterday and Amanda was with me. The doctor asked, "So what does Amelia like to eat?"


Of course Amanda had to answer the doctor using her most enthusiastic voice, "Oh, she just loves to eat paper!" I assured the doctor that we do feed her other things!


We no longer need our vacuum cleaner

since she has really replaced it quite well.

She is over baby food and won't even eat applesauce anymore. We think it is the texture of baby food maybe, and she sees what her sister is eating and wants to be just like her. She doesn't tolerate being fed by a spoon, she pushes it away or uses her fingers to take the food off of the spoon and put it in her mouth. She is drinking water from a straw which is something her Uncle RRRRRR taught her two weeks ago. I love her initative and independence.




She has eaten: mashed and sweet potatoes, avocado, bananas, rice, spaghetti, watermelon, chicken, bread, crackers, (she loves Ritz) graham crackers, cheerios, apples, carrots, and noodles.


She still loves her naps, but prefers to be home for them. She will sleep in the car if she is REALLY tired but she is nosy and doesn't want to miss anything so she really tries to stay awake. Who can blame her really?

She has 5 teeth with 3 others wanting to come in so she is chewing on anything she can get those fingers on help them get through those gums.

Amelia didn't get any shots this time but remembered the minute she saw the nurse and started crying . This happened last time and the nurse told me she remembered she had given her the shots. I didn't believe it, but the Dr. agreed this time that she remembered and said babies do remember. That's a scary thought! What else do they remember? Maybe Amanda wasn't really kidding when she said she remembered being in the womb and it was really dark!

It has been really exciting to watch her little personality unfold! Of course we see some similarities between our girls but boy are there some HUGE differences in them that we are discovering!

Amelia continues to watch her big sis with wide eyes and loves to do what she does. Today I was giving Amanda a plane ride up in the air, ( my back is paying for it tonight) Amelia crawled over and stood up holding onto my legs like she was waiting in line for her turn. She got one! The girls just laugh and laugh with each other and I could just watch their interactions all day long! What a gift they are!

She continues to say "dada, dada, dada" all the time and for every man she sees like pappaw. She has been caught flirting with several older men, most recently a few weeks ago at a restaurant. I was holding her talking and my mom told me to look and Amelia was holding hands and chatting with an older man behind us! She's going to be social I think! SHOCKING!

She is growing like a weed but has lost some of her chunky-ness due to crawling the doctor said it is to be expected. She is still way ahead of her big sis weight wise at this age so we are thankful!

She is pulling herself up on everything she can and has started to cruise along the railing by grabbing one rail, letting go, thinking about it and doing it again. She is sooo much fun to watch!

It is amazing how God designs these little babies in nine months and pregnancy seems to last forever yet, we have had her out of the womb for 9 months now and it seems just like yesterday! We told her to stop growing up so fast but she isn't listening! She must be strong-willed!

The Frog Prince Puppet Show

The girls and I have been having fun visiting different libraries and participating in the programs they have to offer young children. This was one of the best ones we have been to. We love puppet shows and when it had a princess in it, well, it just made one little girl's day!

Amanda really enjoyed the day with her little friend too, she was thrilled to sit next to her and I was thrilled because it meant I could be in the back with Amelia in case she made a peep, which surprisingly she did not and she was awake for the entire show!

I loved this man's scenery and got some ideas of my own from him! I think it would be fun to teach bible stories this way. Kids love anything visual and puppet shows. Maybe that is why I prefer to hang out with kids over adults any day!
I love a good puppet show!

Cubbie ceremony 2010

This is Cubbie Bear the mascot for the Cubbie program Amanda was in this past year. The program ran every Sunday night from September to May.













Amanda memorized bible verses and completed bear hug assignments to earn patches to sew onto her cubbie vest. Mammaw was so very kind to sew the patches on for us since Martha Stewart I am not!

She was thrilled when she saw the reward and earned a tiny cubbie bear.

Mammaw and Pappaw were so kind to show up for the program and this just thrilled Amanda. She talked about the ceremony for a week and planned what she was wearing for a week. She chose the dress that she wants to wear EVERYWHERE. We are definitely getting our money at of that dress.

Our cubbie in training came too.

The BOB-A-LOU-E'S

sang with the kids. This is the band that plays every week and teaches the kids wonderful songs.
Amanda and daddy loved them and were faithful to come home and teach me the songs. Why some nights we just had our own little sing-alongs.

My cubbie hubby!
I knew he was good with kids a month into dating him when he would ask me by name how various kids were doing in my class when I was teaching. My friend recently told me he is a "natural" with kids and it was so evident watching him with his cubbie class. I never got to see him perform the weekly puppet show though! Bummer!

After the ceremony we went back to the class for a party, the classroom was packed out with moms and dads. We had such a great time that we didn't realize how late it had gotten. What an amazing group of parents.

Somebody pulled her braid...............

and you would never guess who?????????????

That silly pappaw!

Everyone brought something for the party we brought our version of cubbie bear cookies. We had made them once before for snack and like the combination of the sugar cookie, mint ears, and chocolate nose and eyes. I made them last time but daddy made them for the party so I could take a nap that afternoon. Yes, he's a sweetheart and very good to me.

Cubbie bear cookies

This is one of Amanda's dearest friends!
We loved our first year in cubbies and look forward to next year after our summer break.

Amanda said, "I am looking forward to the longer break." She told me the other day that she looks forward to "more family time on Sundays." I think she heard me say that once. We plan to spend our Sunday evenings together at the pool, and cooking out!

All of our activities are winding down for summer and we are ready for our new summer fun time activities to begin!

Do all sheep say "Baaaahhh?"

Tonight during dinner Amanda was telling us some of the names of God that mammaw taught her this week. She said, "God has like 20 names you know." We talked about how it is actually more.

She told her dad that one of them was "Shepherd."

"We are the sheep, and He is the shepherd,"she said.

I was sitting there so happy that she had learned something new this week and was feeling like she really got it! So thankful for mom teaching her the names of God when we were over there this week.

Then she replied, "So when we all wake up in the morning we need to all say "BAAAAHHHH."

Baby food, no more!

Amelia has discovered that she no longer likes baby food and has made it clear by spitting it out, and shutting her mouth so you can't get it in so we have moved on to real food. She just wants to feed herself. We are limited since she only has four teeth but two more are getting ready to poke through so we are making progress. So far she has had crackers, cheerios, fruit puffs, rice, mashed potatoes, bananas, apples, applesauce, and of course spaghetti!

Daddy makes sure we leave bigger tips when dining out now that she is eating at the table!

Amanda discovered the bench that daddy and mommy first met in person for our first date at Macaroni Grill. We thought about taking it for a keepsake but since we are trying to model good behavior we decided we better just go there and sit it in when we want to reminisce about our first date. Amanda is fascinated with talking about marriage, dating, and boyfriends right now. She told us today, "I am going to have a husband boyfriend when I grow up!"

She asked her daddy at bedtime if at 18 she could get married. Don't worry she has career goals too. She was going to be a nurse but this week informed us that she is "going to be a lawyer!" I must admit with the way she can argue her point.......she just might make a good one!

Something tells me we are in for a wild ride with this girl!

Following Directions is something to Celebrate!

Last night, Amelia was crawling in our bedroom and I was sitting on the floor about three feet away from her. Amelia was playing with my hairbrush ( I know that's bad) hubby said,"Amelia go take the brush to mommy."

We were both shocked when she started crawling towards me with the brush in her hand and when she dropped it she pushed it along and then picked it up once more and crawled over to me and gave it to me.

We clapped and were sooooo excited. This is the first time she has followed a one-step direction so it thrilled us!

We get so excited when our kids meet milestones because in the back of both of our minds we know that it isn't just a milestone, but a blessing.

We talk very often about how each developmental milestone is a miracle because we know many kids and I have worked with so many that meet these milestones much later in life or will not meet them. We read the letters from St. Jude's hospital where all the little ones are struggling just to live and here our daughter is crawling, smiling, and eating, all milestones most parents just assume their kids will meet, but really they are true miracles and just another thing to get down on our knees and thank God for and we do just that!

Miss Spider's Tea party

On Saturday Amanda and I had an afternoon of just "mommy with just me time"
Saturday mornings are usually reserved for "daddy and just me time" but since Amanda's swim class ended last week, and the next class doesn't start until July..... mom or mother ( that's what she calls me now) got a chance for some time alone with just me and my big four and 1/2 year old.

We decided to go to Miss Spider's Tea party since we really enjoy reading books about Miss Spider and all of her many adventures. The children were suppose to dress up like an insect.

Miss Spider was there and showed us a black widow spider in the display case.

The first activity was to make an antenna for your insect. Amanda went as a butterfly. She picked out her favorite dress to wear and I tried to talk her into wearing black leggings with the wings but she wanted to be a beautiful butterfly and she would be if she could wear the dress. I figured since it was a tea party it would be alright, but once we got there quickly realized we were over dressed for the occasion, but it didn't bother her one bit because she would wear that dress every day if she could. She asked me if I could wash it so she could wear it again tomorrow. Not sure what it is with the dress but she does like it.

The teacher was FABULOUS and provided song sheets for us to sing spider songs during a music and movement time.

She read a Miss Spider story.



She gave each child an opportunity to come up and take something out of the mystery bag and guess why it was related to a spider.

The second craft was to make your own spider that can be hung up.

Amanda loved making her spider.

The tea party was delightful and for parents too. We all sat at tables and the teen helpers served us tea, lemonade, and passed out crackers, cream cheese, and pretzels to make spiders. We also were allowed to make black spiders using a thing called an Oreo cakester
and pretzel sticks for legs. The tea cups were china and breakable. The teacher was so brave. The cakester was good, but messy.





Amanda put sugar cubes in her tea and started to drink away.............

She quickly realized that she didn't care for tea so we switched to lemonade.

Tea party fun with new friends. She made several new friends. The children were all a little older but within 2 years of each other.

We were served butterfly crackers and bumble bee cookies.

She really enjoyed the party

Here is our butterfly checking out a case filled with dead butterflies. She found this fascinating. It reminded me of the neat Butterfly House we went to in Pensacola.

Making a spider, the girl loves crafts, the question is what to do with them all? When I taught, the 5th graders would make a seasonal craft each month and I would then drive them over to the nursing home each month for the patients to enjoy. I am thinking I should start doing this with Amanda's crafts!

The children were all given a lady bug in a container to hold and let go. Amanda was given two and her first flew away so quickly, the second one stayed on her hand for a little while. She just loved this!

The teacher pulled up a tree stump to look for bugs and found a bug for the kids to hold. I was shocked when Amanda held it and then passed it to her friend to hold. Sharing bugs is not something I have seen her do yet, but then it hasn't been something I have really encouraged either!

This butterfly was checking out the butterfly bench and found a bug on it and became quite captivated with it.

The kids went on an egg hunt and could find one egg. The eggs were all different insects with a tattoo inside. Amanda and I hadn't seen eggs made out of insects before. She found a caterpillar, and another child found a ladybug.

Lady bug fun

Why buy toys when I can just find lady bugs for her to play with?

The teacher was so wonderful with the children and her son dressed up as a man bug since he isn't a lady.

Walking in the woods like this reminds me of LAURA INGALLS

When walking back to the car we took the wrong trail and ended up lost. (SHOCKING I KNOW)

Amanda told me it wasn't the right trail and I should have listened.

The teacher took the kids to the pond where they could see the tadpoles.

The after party at the Nature Center. Amanda loved the dress ups there.

Amanda had fun making new friends and I met some wonderful new moms.

At the very end of the after party Amanda discovered this bench so her "feet hurt" so she had to take a break.

I was surprised how much she loved all of this and was thinking maybe it would have been a better event for daddy to attend since I am not exactly Miss Nature, but found myself enjoying God's beautiful creations as long as they stayed off of me!

Amanda enjoyed seeing the turtle, but stayed away from the snakes.

I admire this teacher for being fun enough to pick up bugs. I just couldn't do it!

Afterwards we played in a fun treehouse.

Amanda discovered this fountain and said,"Oh look at this little fountain." She bent down to use it and I told her no that it is for dogs. I assumed, who else would get down that low for a drink besides my daughter?

What an enjoyable day! We ran into two of our friends on the way out.