Grammy Camp- Part 1

A couple of weeks ago Amelia and Luke had the privilege of going to Grammy Camp!  You see- Uncle Joe and Aunt Chrissie were away on a 10th Anniversary trip so Grammy had gone up to their house to take care of their two daughters- Abby and Ada.  Amelia and Luke wanted to join in the fun so they packed up Mommy and headed to Uncle Joe's house for Grammy Camp as well.  What a fun and crazy week we had!

Abby (4yrs old), Luke (6 months), Amelia (2yrs old), and Ada (2yrs old)

decorating "princess" crowns

love this one of the girls laughing :)

night time stories with Grammy

these two were so sweet together- that is when they weren't fighting over the baby strollers

Luke's shirt says "What happens at Grandma's, Stays at Grandma's"

story time at the library

Amelia now LOVES to use glue sticks!

Luke loved this float- he kept splashing his hands in the water and kicking his feet like crazy.

Best picture of Amelia from the pool- she was fearless!  Mommy forgot her puddle jumper floatee so we were making due with arm bands and floats.  She kept jumping from the side right into the pool- whether anyone was there to catch her or not- and without floats!  We finally convinced her that she HAD to wear the floats to jump in and then she kept jumping from the stairs into the water.  It took one of us watching her FULL TIME to make sure she didn't drown!

On our third day there- we packed up all the kiddos and headed down to Columbia, SC to EdVenture- an awesome hands on children's museum. 

Here Amelia is in the Vet Clinic- giving a kitty medicine

getting eggs from under the chicken

Grammy and Luke- taking a break

Amelia favorite area BY FAR- the grocery store.  She had a fit when we left to see the other areas and kept asking to push the grocery carts the whole time so we came back on our way out

Amelia was a very meticulous shopper- looking at each item as she put it in her cart.  Her cousins would just put anything and everything- with their carts loaded up to the top.  Amelia was very particular about what she picked to put in her cart.

at the check-out

Luke taking a ride in the little shopping carts

cousin Abby thought it was soo funny to push Luke in the shopping cart

Abby was so great with Luke

more to come in Part 2

Summer Fun

Just a few random pictures of our crazy summer fun!

Splash N Play- at local pool

after swimming for a little bit- this guy crashed!

Amelia's favorite- Minnie Mouse sugar cookies

Luke VS Sweet Potatoes

Just a couple of days before Luke turned 6 months old we started solid foods. I was soo excited- I already prepared homemade sweet potatoes, peaches, and plums.  I had made a few homemade foods with Amelia and hopefully this time I can do a lot more for Luke.  Amelia didn't really do well with the rice cereal and preferred the fruits and veggies. I have also been reading how it's can be better to just start right out with sweet potatoes or another veggie.  So that is what we did and it worked out great- Luke LOVES to eat!

 first bite- sweet potatoes

Mmmm, yummy & messy

he kept opening his mouth up wide and trying to grab the spoon

if we weren't fast enough he would put his hands all up in his mouth

he is totally ready for this bite- he ate a whole 2 cubes (about 2oz) for his first meal

Amelia said "take MY picture eating yogurt" . . .  so I did :)

Big Sister update

I haven't done a post about my big girl in awhile- what a crazy and silly little sweetheart I have.  I know that's a lot of descriptive words that really don't seem to go together but they do for my 2yr old.  At times she is just the sweetest thing ever- playing with her baby dolls or singing songs.  Other times she is silly and jumping everywhere.  The crazy part- when she is just being 2yrs old.  The typical 2yr old tantrums- Amelia will lay on the floor and cry.  She will yell "NO"!  She gets very frustrated when she cannot do something she wants to do- like take the clothes off her baby dolls AND putting clothes back on her baby dolls (could be why all of her baby dolls are naked!). She loves all things princess- and still love Minnie Mouse.  She loves to watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and her favorite movies:  Cedarmont Kids Silly Songs or Action Bible Songs and Leap Frog Letter Factory.

Her "princess" smile

Amelia can recognize just about all the letters of the alphabet and can tell you what sound they make!  She still LOVES to sing.

Flashback- Amelia's first time in her camping chair- she was 5 1/2 months old. Oh my how she has grown!

She loves her little brother!

She LOVES going to church. She likes to pray before we eat and at bedtime.  She LOVES to read bible stories at bedtime.  Her daddy taught her that "the Bible is true, the Bible is real". She repeats it anytime we mention the Bible. She also likes to repeat that "the Bible says obey Mommy and Daddy".  Now if I could only get her to follow that . . .

Amelia has also reached another level of potty training!  She has been fully potty trained at home- going by herself to the potty and hardly ever having an accident.  But we always just put her in pull-ups when we went out.  I didn't want to deal with an infant and cleaning up her accidents out in public or racing to the potty with 2 of them by myself.  It was finally time-she was ready all along- it was just inconvenient for me and I was being selfish. I felt bad because she wanted to go to the potty- and not in her pull-up.  So we switched to using plastic panties over her regular panties and after several outings with an accident once or twice- she's good!  Now she only wears pull-ups for nap time and of course overnight. 

At times I'm so ready to be past this 'terrible twos' phase but on the other hand I don't want her to grow up too much yet. I love her sweet kisses and huge choke me hugs.  I love how she says "mommy, hold you". I love to scoop her up in my arms and she will lay her head up on my shoulder and snuggle for a moment- usually just a brief moment before she's off and playing again.  I love listening to her play with her baby dolls- saying "I wuv you" and blowing them kisses (just like I do with her at bedime/naptime).  I love listening to her sing- and she has just starting singing along with me.  I love watching her learn and put new things together.  I love watching her play with her daddy- usually she tells him to lay on the floor so she can climb all over him.  I love how she says "oh o-pay" when she's excited. I could go on and on.  For now though . . . I love my sweet Amelia May.

6 Months Old

My sweet snuggle bug is 6 months old!

At his 6 month check-up Luke weighed 16lbs (near 25th percentile) and was 26 1/4 inches long (just under 50th percentile). I honestly thought he would be much longer than this since he totally outgrew all his 3-6 month clothes and it already filling up a lot of his 6-9 month clothes. 



Eating:  We started him on solids- he LOVES to eat! No surprise- another post about that soon :)  He is still breastfeeding 4 times a day. 

New accomplishments:  Luke can now sit up on his own!  He is still a bit wobbly at times so we have to stay close or have the boppy pillow behind him.  He doesn't like to do it for a long time though- usually he just wants to be in his jumperoo!  He will play in the jumperoo for 30 minutes to an hour- twice a day!  I have started laying him on a blanket on the floor more- trying to encourage him to roll over.  He is now rolling up on his side all the time and has rolled from his back to his belly twice.  He is not as big of a fan of the playmat anymore . . .

Sleep:  Luke will usually take a short 30 minute to 1hour nap in the morning and then a long 2 hour nap in the afternoon.  In the evenings he will still occasionally take a 20-30 minute cat nap.  He goes to bed around 8:30 and gets up pretty consistently at 7:30.

Amelia is starting to "play" with Luke more now.  She will bring him toys and show him how to use them.  She also likes to 'help' him roll over and then she will lay on her tummy right next to him. Amelia is such a great big sister- she loves to hug him and give him kisses.

No paci for this boy- he will NOT take one for the most part.  I have seen him take one for the ladies in the nursery at church but at home- nope!

Good Morning

Love being greeted with this big smile each morning!

Every morning for the past few weeks Amelia will climb up to say "good morning" to Luke- he will just grin like crazy.  This particular morning she started "roaring" at him- (see the lion on his pj's- this girl notices everything)- well he just started laughing like crazy!  Unfortunately by the time I ran downstairs to get the camera the laughing moment had passed- but my sweet boy was all smiles still!

Happy Birthday America

We got back home from our whirlwind trip just in time for the 4th of July.  Our friends had invited us over for a cookout, swimming and fireworks so we got to rest from our trip.  We slept in that morning and enjoyed one of our favorite restaurants for lunch- Kobe.  Kinda funny- celebrating America and we go eat Japanese.  Well we still felt like we were on vacation and we all LOVE Japanese!  Amelia could eat her weight in rice- with white sauce of course!

So here are just a few snapshots of our fun day celebration our country's birthday!  We told Amelia it was our country's birthday- America's birthday- and we were going to a birthday party.  She sang "happy birthday A-merry" all day long!

All the kids in the pool- Amelia LOVES to swim!

Just look at this big grin- the other kids would pick her up and drop her in the water- she would come up sputtering with a HUGE GRIN- she loved it! 

just love the pure excitement. . . joy . . and fun on that sweet little face

As the sun set the pool water got chilly- the boys got out but Amelia and Addison stayed in.  Then I noticed Amelia was shivering and her teeth were chattering so we headed back inside for dessert! 

Amelia absolutely adores her friend Addison- she calls her Addisee in such a sweet little voice 

Usually Amelia doesn't actually eat the whole cupcake- she will like off all the icing and be "all done"- and she is not a big fan of chocolate (I know, my child doesn't care for chocolate - what?!) but she devoured this cupcake (I think seeing her friends devour their cupcakes played a big role in her eating all of hers :)

Our friends live on a cul-de-sac and several of the neighbors were setting off some pretty big fireworks right over our heads- Amelia loved looking at all the colors.  The loud noise didn't bother her one bit.  Luke would jerk his head every time one would go off but he didn't cry or seem bothered at all.  On the other hand, my friend's kids all got scared at different points and would run back toward the house crying. 

first time with sparkler

such a silly girl

Happy Birthday America!