Memorial Day Weekend/NYC

Over Memorial Day Weekend, we took our high school seniors and some juniors to New York City. Of course Amelia had to make her first youth trip. She did amazing and all of the students were great with her.

We drove up Friday during the day and we stayed in Secaucus New Jersey. We then took a bus in crazy traffic into the city to go to a Met's baseball game. (note of fun: I left my phone on the bus! Luckily they turned it in but I didn't take any pictures the trip, so I am stealing from everyone's pictures!) They gave us all free hats, even Amelia! Of course we were late with the traffic but it was fun for everyone.

Saturday we went in groups and we went with the guys. We saw the Statue of Liberty, walked to Ground Zero, walked around the Financial District, and went to Times Square.  The students went to see Mary Poppins on Broadway but I didn't think that Amelia could sit quietly so we hung at the hotel. I was walking with Amelia in the Ergo carrier to get some food in the rain when I started falling. I tweaked my knee to not fall but I was like a little gimp after!

Sunday we went to the Apostle Church and they said that Amelia did great in nursery! (I was a little shocked!). We then walked through Central Park which was my favorite! We got tickets to the 9/11 Memorial which was really neat. They made these deep waterfall pools where the two towers once were with the names of all of the people who lost their lives engraved around.

We finished Sunday walking through China town and Little Italy. Little Italy made me miss (big) Italy! We drove back Monday morning in a bus with no A/C! Sunday was Amelia's most fussy day but who could blame her?

Amelia really did awesome the whole time. She barely took naps but was in a great mood the whole time.  She even slept better was sleeping 6 and 7 hours straight! It was great with the guys because they would carry her stroller up all of those Subway stairs. My favorite was some of the kids had never held a baby before. Amelia even let some students into her 'inner circle' like Ashley here. Such a fun weekend!

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View From Here

Watch out NYC!

Amelia is on her way!

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Baby Girl is 6 Months

That brings a little tear to my eye! She is getting sooo big. But I am loving this age. She is still a momma's girl but loves her daddy.

She weighs 16 lb 2 oz (50-75%) and 27" (90%).  Tall like her daddy!  We have moved her into 6-9 month clothes and size 3 diapers. Let's talk about her sleeping...Still not sleeping through the night! She still gets up every 3-4 hours but she does spend most the of the night in her room in her crib.

She can sit up by herself for quite awhile and will play with her toys on the floor. She usually ends up on her back again but we have had a few falls. She can roll in all directions but she is not usually interested in rolling.

She is still a little thumb sucker. Makes me swoon a little. No teeth yet but everyone thinks that she is teething. I don't necessarily want the teeth but want the teething to end!

We are still nursing and taking EBM when I am working. My goal was 6 months so I am very happy that we are past that. Baby girl is full on in the baby foods now. It's really cute because she says... MMMM!!. She also likes to grab the spoon herself. She likes most foods so far, especially green beans, peaches, and sweet potatoes.

Here is a funny video eating squash.




We love Amelia Grace so much. She is my little gift from God.

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Our 3-6 Months Must Haves for Amelia

I made a list before of our must haves for Amelia when she was smaller here. Now that she is older, it was time for an updated list!

• Exersaucer/Jumperoo--We have both. It seems that Amelia will play longer in her Evenflo ExerSaucer upstairs in the bonus room/playroom. It plays fun music and has many toys around the seat. Downstairs in the Family Room we have our Fisher-Price Rainforest Jumperoo which a friend gave us their old one. There is not as many toys but she can obviously jump up and down.
   

• Baby Carrier--I just started getting back into baby carrying. I have a Ergo Baby Carrier that I got an awesome deal on eBay. Amelia went to sleep pretty quickly in it. Our plan is when we go to NYC this month to carry her. I also have a Baby Hawk. I think they are easier to get on and off and you can design your own. I used that at church when it was past her bedtime and she went right to sleep in it.

• Vulli Sophie the Giraffe Teether--We love this teether and so does Amelia. It's super cute, French, and great for gums. It's our go to toy. When we went to DC Amelia was chewing on her legs when I heard someone say..."That baby is chewing on a giraffe!"

•  Highchair Cover--We love our high chair cover. Amelia will go right to chewing on the high chair at a restaurant..yuck! I can keep her clean. We love it!
  


• High Chair--We love our high chair. Some people prefer just the high chair you attach to a regular chair but our good friends gave us theirs from their little boy and we really like it. Definitely to each his own.
  


• A stroller of course! We have a Chicco Cortina Stroller that we got with our travel system. This is a great stroller for most outings. It is a bulky stroller but the storage is great underneath the seat. We also got a Chicco Capri Lightweight Stroller off Craigslist. This is a supportive lightweight stroller. We plan on taing this to NYC with us.

Of course you need bibs, soft spoons, toys, books, cute clothes.

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A is 5 Months

Can you believe it? I just want to freeze time right here. This is a fun age for us. We are starting to see her little personality but she is still up for a snuggle session in the rocking chair.

This month her hand eye coordination got tremendously better overnight it seems. She will reach for this and of course they go right into her mouth. She loves things like her rattle, teething toys, and now her Sophie the giraffe.

We also started baby foods. She tried rice cereal which she did okay. I had high hopes it would help with her sleeping. Ha! She liked baby oatmeal much better. Yesterday we tried bananas and she did really well. And last night she slept a lot better. Maybe we are making the transition!

We are trying the transition to her crib to sleep. Usually she does great when you put her to sleep but when she wakes up she hates going back to her crib. With my mom in town she was great at getting up with her and trying to get her back in her crib. I'm the pushover who just takes her into my room because I need the sleep! So we are still working on it

She is getting better at rolling over but definitely not all the time. Her favorite is the 75% roll before she rolls back to her back. She is getting better at sitting up by herself unsupported. She is growing up too fast!

We went to DC a couple of days ago. We took the metro into the city. Amelia did wonderful! She went around in her stroller and really barely fussed at all. We toured the monuments around the mall, went to a few Smithsonian museums. This will be good with her being a youth pastor's  kid! I also feel better about taking her to NYC with us next month for the Senior trip.

She is still a breastfed baby and will take pumped milk in a bottle when I'm at work. She will take 4-5 ounces at time every 3-4/12 hours. She is about 16.5-17 pounds when I weigh us holding her. Still in size 2 diapers and 3-6 month clothes.

Her day typically is gets up around 7. She usually takes a cat nap around 8 then get up a nurse. Then we play for  little bit. Her morning nap around 10.  Then nurse again. She takes a pretty good afternoon nap around 2. More playing and nursing again. Sometimes a quick evening nap. Sometimes we do oatmeal before bed. Then we try to get her in bed around 8:30. And she will nurse 1-2 times in the middle of the night still. (But I'm not very structured with her so we kind of go with what works for our day and her mood)
*LIKES*

Her playmat--Amelia is actually lay for awhile on the mat and play with her toys.
Smiling--Amelia loves to smile at people. It's like she is almost ready for them to look at her so she can show them her toothless grin. We can have a fussy day but we go to the mall or something and she likes to look at all the people around her.
Swing--Still one of the best places to nap. We missed it when we went to Indiana a couple of weeks ago. She only really likes it when she is sleepy though.

*DISLIKES*

Being sleepy--still the most fussy time

Being by herself--She likes to be in the room where you are to see what's going on around her.

She is the sweetest little girl and we love her so so much.

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Amelia's First Easter

We celebrated Amelia's first Easter! Each new holiday is really fun to think how to include Amelia this year. And let's be honest that it's way more fun to dress a cute baby than yourself!

I was bummed this year that I had to work Good Friday and Easter...the joys of being a nurse!

Saturday we went to our church Easter Egg Hunt. They think we had over 1200 people in attendance which is amazing! There were bouncy houses, live music, food, and of course Easter Eggs!

Even though Amelia was too young to truly enjoy an Easter egg hunt, I knew it was no time to to sit back. Of course while surfing on pinterest, I saw the cutest bunny hat and knew that Amelia needed one. I found the pattern and my mom went right to work on it. I think Amelia's hat was the hit of the day. So many people commented and I think a complete stranger came up and took her picture. I even went to the dollar spot at Target and got her a little bucket and spelled her name in scrapbook stickers.

Here is Daddy with his little bunny.





 During the actual hunt, she was more interest in eating her bucket than any eggs but don't worry. Daddy picked out four eggs for her! On the way home, I decided that I would eat her candy and opened her eggs to find all toys!

I also of course had to get a picture of Amelia in her Easter dress in her Easter basket!

And speaking of Easter baskets, Amelia of course had to get her First Easter basket! I couldn't resist getting her a personalized Easter basket! Amelia got a bunny rattle, a Sophie giraffe teether, Praise Baby DVD, a few books, some Easter clothes, and a teddy. I am working on making her something but it's not done yet. Pictures to come!

 And we also had a special visitor for the week...

Grandma! My mom is town for the week. She and Joe got Amelia all ready for Easter services yesterday. Isn't she the cutest! How was your Easter?

 

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Amelia is 4 Months!

Those words were hard to type. My baby girl is growing up! I may be a little biased but I think she is the cutest baby ever! She is just a joy to our lives.

We went to the doctor this last week. She is 15 lbs and 10 ounces (75%) and 25 inches (75%). She has little chunky rolls on her thighs...swoon!

She is still breastfed and takes pumped milk from bottles when I am away. She still likes to eat about every three hours but I am trying to transition her to making it more like four hours in between. I still take cues from her when she is ready to eat. We started rice cereal a few days ago. She does enjoy it but hasn't helped her sleep through the night.

She takes great naps for me in her swing. Those two hour naps are a huge blessing. She usually takes a cat nap right after she wakes up. Then she will nap from 10-12 and again around 2-4 and sometimes again around 5:30. We are trying to make bedtime around 8:30. And yes she is still next to us. We did try a couple of nights in her room but its especially hard on days where I work to up and down all night with her.

She has rolled over once from back to front and we are almost there from front to back. She is just now starting to tolerate tummy time. She will lay for a long period of time on her playmat.

We are loving our exersaucer. She will usually spend 15 minutes looking and touching the toys before she is ready to do something else.

We also transitioned to her big girl stroller without the carseat. She does great and likes walks around the neighborhood.

Baby girl is quite the thumbsucker. You can hear me say to her when she is fussy, Amelia find your thumb! She will still take her pacifier but her thumb is what gets her sleep!

We had our first snow last month. I'm not sure Amelia knew what to think. When I sat her down, she just looked at me like really mommy?

And here is my bundle of Joy on St Patrick's Day this past weekend. Love her!


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