5 minutes in the life of Amelia

She was having a great time crawling around with no diaper until I wouldn't give her the camera.  

Snow is falling...everywhere.

I love arts and crafts.  Oliver usually does not.  It's hard to make paint drive around or crash.  If he does end up painting it's because he's driving a car or train through a pool of paint and making tracks.  I'll print off Thomas pictures and he'll put one streak of blue paint on the paper and say, "all done painting."  It drives me crazy. 

 So desperate times call for desperate measures. Time to break out the glitter (snow).  He loved it.  I set some boundaries by putting a square on the table with scotch tape.   I had to stay busy by taking pictures so I would not be that crazy mom that wouldn't let their kid make a mess.  Glitter on the floor is not permanent, but it is a hassle.  To quote a ridiculously funny comedian, Demetri Martin "Glitter is the herpes of craft supplies."  It's so true. I am finding glitter in the craziest places a week later.  Oh well,  he had so much fun.  In the bottom picture he is being a snow plow and pushing "snow" around.  See my kid can be creative, he's just a 3-D kind of artist.  

Amelia's First Words

So my Amelia's first word was "uh ohh" and "all done" came shortly after.  She did not say ma-ma or da-da like typical babies.  I hope it's not a sign for things to come.  And no, I did not catch her actually saying these for the first time on camera, she has been saying them for a couple weeks. Don't you just want to squeeze her. 

Yep that's the Chicken Dance in the background.  See previous blog for a more thorough demonstration. 

Oliver's Chicken Dance

On Monday I taught Oliver the Chicken Dance.  I was hard to do without the music so I googled it.  We must have watched the "How To Chicken Dance" video on Youtube 3 or 4 times and then watched it a few more times once dad got home from work.  I haven't laughed that hard in a while.  He's a natural, just a bit slow on the timing.  

No words necessary

 

First Steps

When you want something bad enough...   She will not walk to me or Tim, but she'll go after her brother with the big green ball she's been eyeing.  That little stinker. 

Jackson Street Roundhouse

We went to the Jackson Street Roundhouse today.  We got the Adventure Pass from the library.   We went there 8 months ago, but Oliver didn't seem to get the full effect. This time he actually understood that the museum was in a roundhouse (like his Thomas track).  Oliver was blown away.  We just followed him as he manicly went from one car to the next.  I had so much fun seeing the excitement in is face.  I love being able to do things that make him this happy.  We all had a fun time.  

Tim and Oliver got to ride in the upper level of the caboose.                                                                                                                                   

                                                                                                                      

My bags

These are a few of the bag I made for Christmas gifts.  Some of them were lined and some were gusseted.  I winged it. I did use a pattern from burdastyle.com (Thanks Jackie).  I didn't follow the pattern exactly, but it gave me a starting point.  Each bag came with a storage pouch complete with carabiner.  I was a sewing machine (ha ha, get it?)  in the months before Christmas. 

Rebelling at 2?

Lately, Oliver is challenging anything I say.  I understand that he is just starting to exert is independence from me, but it gets really annoying sometimes.  He argues about where he got a shirt from,  what way to turn when I'm driving,  wearing a coat, the possibilities are endless.  I even have a hard time just reading him books before bedtime.  We have a few of the Play-a-sound books that have buttons you push when you are prompted to in the story.  Lately, he won't push the right button or he refuses to push a button until I skip past the prompt.  He even argues with what the buttons are supposed to be.  He was really looking for a fight last night when I read the line "In the morning, the sun rises, and Thomas promptly rises too".  Oliver replies "not too,  one!"  Duh, mom.  I had to chuckle at that one.  He is getting so smart.  It's kinda cute, but when does it stop?  Seriously.  

Now that's tired

This is what Tot-Time does to an active 10 month old. She had so much fun exploring and walking behind push toys.  

We've got something great going.

Don't read if you have a terribly sensitive stomach. There is poop involved. 

On Christmas Eve we were on our way to Tim's maternal grandma's house.  Oliver had an upset stomach in the car on the way there.  We were not able to pull over soon enough and he a minor accident in his pants.  We had extra underwear but I put a diaper on him just incase it happened again on out 30 minute drive.  Of course it did.  He was yelling "poop" from the back seat.  I told him he had a diaper on so just let it fly.  He did.  

We got to Grandma Marie's house and immediately went to the bathroom.  Poor Oliver felt to embarrassed that he had a poopy diaper on.  No only that, but the diaper was no match for his upset stomach.  There went his undies, pants and his socks!  Oh and I used all of our wipes.  My son had to walk around in too small navy blue sweat pants and infant socks.  Come on, he has been reliably potty trained for 5 months.  Good thing he is too young to care.  

He seemed to be feeling better and had a great time chasing his cousins around. We stayed there for a few hours and then packed up. Off to Buffalo to Tim's paternal Grandma's house for dinner.  Oliver was still in his adorable sweater and blue sweat pants and Amelia had pooped in the car  so we decided to stop at Target on the way. They were closing soon so we had to hurry.  I took Oliver to find a some new pants and socks and Tim bought Amelia to the changing area.  After our purchase we headed to the bathroom to change Oliver.  I heard Tim in the Family Restroom so we joined him.  The poor guy had been in there trying to change Amelia's diarrhea diaper with no wipes.  He couldn't call me because my phone was in his pocket.  I helped with what I could and got Oliver changed and off we went. 

After we got back on the road I had a realization.  We have a pretty great thing going because at no point did any of us become crabby or raise our voices.  In fact we were still singing along with the Christmas music on the radio.    I think we can roll with the punches really well.   I love my little family.

Merry Christmas

I know, I know, it's been a couple weeks.  Believe me there is not a day that goes by that I don't think "I should really blog about this".  I just have not had the time.  I used every spare minute the in past 2 months to sew re-usable grocery bags for Christmas gifts.  I made 18 total.  I think the bags turned out great.  I am really proud of them.  

We had a great Christmas.  It was busy, but the kids handled it extremely well.  

Saturday, Dec 20th: Christmas in Eau Claire with the Seipel's. We all reserve hotel rooms and stay the night.  We are up the 13 rooms!  There is a reason no one wants to host for our huge family.  Santa came and the kids were scared to death of him.

Sunday, Dec 21st: Dinner at my dad's sister's house. There were a lot of people there.  All of them are related to me, but I don't know them very well.  Both of my parents come from families with 8 kids. 

Christmas Eve:  

2pm: Tim's maternal grandma's house.  We had a lot of fun. We played a White Elephant sort of gift exchange. (Look for a future blog regarding our diarrhea adventures)

5pm: Off to Buffalo to Tim's paternal Grandma's house.  There was a lot of great food there.  Amelia had so much fun chasing their beagle.  She was laughing hysterically. They both fell asleep on the car rid home.  Sorry Santa, no cookies for you this year. 

Christmas Day:

6am: Oliver is up and ready to open presents.  Amelia has to be woken up at 7 or risk Oliver opening all of her presents.

9:30am: Out to Tim's sister's in Hanover. Tim's parents, grandma, sisters(2), their husbands and kids (6) meet for breakfast and presents.  The caramel rolls, egg bake, GOOD coffee and great company are always something to look forward to.  I love the laid-backness of this get together. 

4pm: Dinner at my parents. This one is just my parents, sisters (2) and their husband/boyfriend.  There are no kids except mine.  Although this is by far the calmest event, I have to use a lot of energy entertaining my kids.  Oliver loves playing with other kids.  I think we all had a great time.  

Our holidays were very busy, but it makes me realize how luck we are.  We are fortunate to have our families live close.  We are fortunate to have everyone in good health.   We are fortunate to have kids that are easy going enough to make these adventures doable. We are fortunate that we want to make it to every event because everyone is so special to us. We love our families.