Happy Birthday, Amelia

Oh my little baby is 1!!! It's funny to think that at this time last year, we'd gone to breakfast as a family and the little zoo in the Bay in San Mateo. We woke up that morning telling Miles that it was his sister's birthday, and here she is a year later overlooking the same bay where we were.

To my darling daughter:
You amaze me with your spirit and your determination. You've moved so quickly through your infancy I half expect you to be a teenager by next year. You are such a wonderful and happy little girl and I just love spending time with you. Your personality is coming out more and more everyday, and your Daddy and I are so excited that we get to watch you and help you grow up into a wonderful and beautiful young woman. I might be getting ahead of myself, but I see the future in your perfect eyes and I am so grateful that I get to walk this road with you. I love you so much.
Love, Mom.

Good Night Infant, Good Morning Toddler

Amelia turns 1 tomorrow. In the last month, she's transitioned to walking full time, gotten 4 more teeth, and started sleeping through the night. She eats like a trucker (sausage and goldfish!) and is growing like a weed.

Long gone are the days of the little lump of the-cutest-girl-in-the-world and we're headed into a new day of toddler with an opinion.

Tonight, on the eve of when she was born, I can't help thinking about where I was last year which was wistful about taking attention away from my boy. Those feelings stopped about the moment she was born. I can't imagine a world without my Little Bug and am enriched daily by her little (BIG!) presence in our lives.

Really?

Oh man, life went ahead with out us again. It's been a crazy month of illness (lots), work (too much), and wonderful times with our kids. I can't believe it's already getting towards the middle of February. Last I looked, it was new years eve. I've had chaos at the office, new managers, and a wonderful visit from my brother! Trips to the zoo, super bowl parties, jumpy houses and more. I aspire to being able to log all of our fun events, but for now, just know that life is great, we're all happy and healthy, and mostly staying afloat.

Totally unrelated photo, but I love my family!!!

Christmas Afternoon

After a glutinous morning of presents, the cousins came down from Incline Village and there was a glutinous afternoon of presents. Miles was excited about opening more gifts, but more excited about hanging out with Cody & Kylie. Amelia didn't seem to notice the gifts, but was THRILLED to shred tissue paper.

Christmas Morning Recap

"Miles, do you think Santa came?"

"No."

Boy, was he wrong.

We kept Miles in his grandparents room as we made sure that Santa had come and that he had left the Christmas lights on. I fed Amelia and we changed the kids into Christmas pajamas, and then chaos ensued. Miles was blown away by all the presents under the tree and started to go from one to the next saying "what's next?" He got a number of the presents that he was asking Santa for, including a doctor box for our kitchen set-up toy and a whistle. It was his year of musical instruments as he also got a clarinet, a cat-piano called the Meowsic, and actually an accordion. The kids loved all their new toys and had a blast playing with each other. I loved experiencing the magic of Christmas again.

Snow clean up

There was a TON of snow up in Reno/Tahoe over the holidays. Miles had a blast, got to shovel snow, make a snowman (3 apples tall), and drink hot cocoa.


(Do you notice the red spot on his nose? Right before we went up to Reno, Miles must have taken a digger at daycare and got rug burn on the tip of his nose. It was scabbed for about 10 days and the skin below it is still red. Who gets rug burn on their nose?!?!)

Oh no!

I have no idea what happened, but Amelia decided to spend the Christmas vacation not sleeping, literally. It was unfortunate since she was finally sleeping before we got up there. Tim came down with a doozie of a sinus infection so Amelia and I shared a room just the two of us. I am not sure if it was the fact that I was in the room with her, or it was too dark, or she was in the pack 'n play, or it Miles wasn't around, but she slept from about 7 - 10, 11:30 - 2, and then up again at 6. I tried to do the whole "cry it out thing", but she would stand up in her crib at the foot of my bed and just yell at me - and wake up the whole house.


And her lack of sleep at night made her very insecure during the day, and often was only happy in my arms. There were countless moments like the above when she would be all sorts of fussy about one thing or the other, I would pick her up, and she would just melt. (Amelia comforts herself by sucking her lower lip, which makes for a very sad looking face, but at least she is relaxed.)