Correct that: We have TWO teeth!

Just minutes after my last post, sharing that Amelia had an upper front tooth 1/2 way through, I noticed her SECOND upper front tooth poking through. It's just starting, but it's on its way. It was enough for her to try pancakes this weekend, which she really enjoyed. Congratulations, Amelia! I have yet to get photographic evidence though. It's much easier to get photos of the bottom teeth.

We have a tooth! (oh, and Chuck E. Cheese)

I am proud to announce that Amelia's first tooth has poked through! It's her upper front tooth. I think we didn't notice it for so long because we kept assuming one of her bottom teeth would come in first. So, here's to Amelia's first 1/2 of a tooth! Hurrah!


Also, we took Amelia to the doctor Thursday to see about her Craniocap. We were hoping for one more appointment, meaning the cap would be off in two weeks, but the therapist wanted to see if we could get her through one more growth spurt, so it looks like she'll be done with the cap on April 24, before her first birthday! It will be a nice day when we are done with it. Although, it's part of the routine now and Amelia has always been wonderful about wearing it.

And we went with two other of our neighbor families to Chuck E. Cheese tonight. It was a fun time for the kids. Mira gave Chuck a hug and rode on so many rides. In the end, she had 130 tickets and opted to buy 5 mini toostie pops and 8 mini plastic fish. Quite the selection!



Here's Mira "crashing" a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese. So much fun . . . but sorry, not invited!

Happenings in the night

I had put Mira to bed at her usual 7:30 last night. After a long story, tooth brushing, a drink of water, a song, and and extra hug and a kiss, I thought she'd go to sleep considering she hadn't taken a nap during the afternoon. Wishful thinking. Usually Mira finds an excuse to get out of bed (needing to use the bathroom, needing another book, coming to my room to tell me I'm invited to her tea party the next day, etc.). So around 9:30, I heard the sound of jingling money coming from Mira's room. I went in there, and she had nearly emptied out her piggy bank and was trying to shake the rest of the change loose. Here's a picture of the lovely mess:


Oh, and she'd also changed from her pajamas into her pink tutu by this time. Kids. You never really know what they will do next, do you?

Amended to add: when I went into Mira's room in the morning, she had changed her pajamas yet again! This kid loves to wear lots of different clothes.

Happy Easter, again

We just got back from Chris's dad's house for Easter. It was a nice, quiet affair with delicious food, great lemon cake, and a yearly tradition of an Easter egg hunt! Since it had snowed so much lately, the kids didn't have to brave the steep hillside this year, but instead found the eggs laid right on the top of the snow and around the deck. Here's to wishing it's this easy every year!

Happy Easter!

We want to wish you a very happy Easter today! The girls woke up and spent the first few minutes of this morning searching for their Easter baskets. Amelia found an Easter hat, 2 books, and a chocolate bunny in hers. Sidenote: don't you love Amelia's Halloween pajamas? Guess I wasn't thinking when I got her ready for bed the night before!




And Mira finally found her basket tucked between a chair and an ottoman. The Easter bunny brought her an Easter hat, some chocolate, a t-shirt, and a cheerleading outfit for her dress up trunk. We think the Easter bunny made a good choice!





And I caught the most precious photo of Amelia sleeping last night. How sweet!

Long and lazy weekend

While Chris was busy winning enough money to pay off our mortgage in Las Vegas, the girls and I had 3 lovely days at home together. Considering it snowed two of the days and it was hard to leave the house, we did have a good time. We watched "Bee Movie", went to see "Horton Hears a Who", made frosted Easter cookies, and had 2 Target runs and a Best Buy run. Plus dinner out with friends. It was a nice girls weekend.

Since we are still waiting for Amelia's teeth, I bought her these mesh bags that you can put food in. It's odd, but she sucks the food out through the mesh bag. Amelia seems to like it. Peaches, pears, and bananas = good. Carrots = no good.


Mira played some dress up, as usual, in her child bride attire. She did her hair herself. Pretty!


Mira proudly shows off the Easter cookies she helped to decorate. We'll be bringing some to her daycare tomorrow.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Mira and Amelia would like to wish everyone a happy St. Patrick's Day today. They celebrated the day at daycare by making St. Patrick's Day hats, and Mira got to have green milk for breakfast!



And for the craniocap news: Amelia had an appointment last Thursday and the therapist said her head has not gotten any wider since she started wearing the cap, and the back is rounding out nicely. She's very pleased with the progress. I asked how much longer she'd have to wear it, knowing we had about 8 weeks to go. The therapist thought that 4 more weeks will likely do it! Yay!

Amelia says "hi"

Amelia decided to say her first word this week: Hi! She says it and waves at you. It's so cute! She's crawling everywhere and into everything now. All doors are shut on the main level and if she's not underfoot, she's crawled off to see the sights in another room. Always exploring. She loves to make her way to the bathroom!


I think all the crawling she's been doing has worn her out, for she's slept so wonderfully this week! When she is tired, she whines a little so we know it's time for her to go to bed. I've never seen a baby so excited to be put to bed as Amelia is when she's tired. She'll start giggling and kicking her legs. We give her a pacifier and tuck a blanket over her. She pulls her blanket up to her nose and that's all there is to bedtime! Easy!

Mira has taken an interest in exercising with me lately. She'll do a little kickboxing DVD with me, then roll herself up in my floor mat. Makes it hard for me to use!


I saw some cool rain boots at Target.com a couple of weeks ago. They had about 80 choices, so I finally narrowed it down to these cool green apple boots! I take the bus to work 3 days a week, so knowing my feet will be dry this spring and summer is nice! Mira took the time from her busy schedule to model them for me.


Hope you are all having a good March. Spring is almost here. Can you feel it?

Mira's last gymnastics class/Amelia's crawling!

Mira has been involved in gymnastics every Wednesday night for the past 2 months. She seemed to enjoy it for the most part, but it was hard for me to tell since parents aren't allowed to view the classes except for the first and last session. So imagine my excitement to be able to watch Mira "perform" at her last class this week. Here's a little video of her on the uneven parallel bars:



And a couple of photos for those of you who can't see the videos:




Next we will be doing "Kids in Motion" which is sort of like sports camp where they learn some athletic skills. Mira's done that one twice and really enjoyed it. We're trying a different class every quarter through the park and rec community courses. I think this fall we will try a Jazz, Tap, and Ballet class. We'll see how Mira likes it.

Amelia is officially crawling on her hands and knees now! This past week she really got the hang of it and is now unstoppable . . . and into EVERYTHING! Poor Mira really misses the time when Amelia would stay put when we put her down. Now she is crawling right over to Mira and whatever toy/puzzle/project she is playing with.

Amelia turned 10 months last Thursday. She is growing so fast! She's been teething for about 5 months, but we have yet to see a tooth poke through. The teething seems to have picked up this week, so hopefully soon one will show itself. Yesterday Amelia crawled into the kitchen and somehow got herself underneath her exersaucer. She didn't like it when she realized she couldn't get out again!

Good-bye my sweet cousins

Chesney and Logan are once again off to Australia. In the past three months, Mira and Amelia have gotten to spend lots of extra time with them. It was a sad day on Saturday when Mira saw her cousins for the last time before they move. She already can't wait for September when they will be back for a visit. So, good-bye to Chesney and Logan from Mira and Amelia. They will miss you so!

Goodbye (again!) to the Jahnke Family

Kelly had her official "Good-bye" party on Sunday. She had a really good turnout. In fact, she said that if anyone else had shown up, she would have run out of food! It was delicious food and great company. They are officially leaving on March 9, I believe.

Here are a few photos. All of them my kid in them. Sorry! But, hey, it's my blog!

With aunt Mandy, aunt Kelly, and uncle Justin:

With Grandpa Bob:

With uncle Jeff:


"I love my auntie Kelly. Why does she have to move so far away again?"

On the verge of officially crawling

For about 6 weeks now, Amelia has been able to get wherever she wants by rolling and scooting on her tummy. The other day, she officially got into her hands-and-knees crawling position. She still prefers the other method of moving around, but I think she'll switch to the other way soon.

Update: Amelia had her 9 month doctor appointment last week. She's weighing in at 18 1/2 pounds (50th percentile) and is 28 3/4" tall (80th percentile). Her head is 45 cm (75th percentile), so she's growing just great! We are still waiting for teeth, but she's been teething lately so hopefully one will appear before too long.

She's had her cap for 3 weeks now and is doing so wonderfully with it! She wears it a solid 21 hours a day and doesn't even notice it at all. We have an appointment tomorrow with the therapist to see how it's going, and we expect nothing but good things from it.

Mira is a star!

We always knew Mira would be a star, and today proved it. We went to the Playhouse Disney Live show at the Target Center and during the intermission, a show worker was making the rounds, talking to different kids (we were in the 2nd row, right in front of the stage). The woman who was talking to Mira asked her if she knew the "Hot Dog dance" from the show. Mira has seen it and so the woman asked Mira if she'd like to dance it on stage with her. We said it was okay and when the intermission was over, the woman took Mira and another little boy up on the stage and they danced the "Hot Dog" dance. I was so proud! The video shows you Mira's first stage appearance!

We're getting a rounder head!

Just a quick update: Amelia had an appointment last Thursday with the therapist to take a look at her head and to make sure her cap fit properly. It fits her very well! No red spots or anything. The only thing the therapist did to it was to give her a little more room on the forehead as it was sitting pretty low near her eyebrows. She was very happy to hear that Amelia took to the cap very well and that she is wearing it about 21 hours a day without complaints! She could already see some progress and said that Amelia must have had a growth spurt in the past week because she was feeling a bump on the back of Amelia's head, meaning she was already filling out the cap. We were told that if Amelia continues to wear it like she is, we should see the result we want in about 3 months! So we are hoping she is out of the cap by her first birthday on May 6.

So, all is well with the cap. Thanks to everyone who's been asking. I'll post more photos soon.
Michelle

A conversation in the car

Mira: Mom, can we go to Disney World again soon?
Me: Well, it's going to be a while. We need to save lots of money to go on that trip again.
Mira: You can have all the money in my piggy bank. Then we can go!

Did I mention that Mira's piggy bank contains approximately $35? What a sweet offer!

Oh, you clever girl!

Mira was watching a movie on TV today and Amelia was playing on the floor in front of her, babbling quite a bit. Mira went over, got Amelia's pacifer and said, "Amelia, here is your pacifier." She put it in Amelia's mouth, and I said, "Mira, I don't think Amelia needs her pacifier. She's not fussy." And Mira said, "But, Mom, I can't hear the movie!"

Now, that's smart thinking!

Fun family weekend!

My mom, sister, and her two kids came to spend the weekend with me since Chris had a work trip and Amelia was learning how to use her new cap. We had a great time, despite the weather. We took a trip to the Maple Grove Maze, an indoor playground here in town, then had lunch out. Mom graciously offered to watch all four of the kids while Kelly and I did a little shopping in the afternoon.

News on Amelia's cap: She did so great with it all weekend! I am very impressed with that little baby. She wore it 2 hours at a time on Saturday and during her naps as well, so I tried to see if she'd wear it overnight and she did! She is a trooper. So now we are on the schedule of 3-4 hours on, 1 hour off, wearing during naps and overnight. I'm looking forward to seeing the results!

Here are a few photos of the weekend:
Chesney and Logan enjoying the "Maze"


Mira and Logan at the "Maze"


Me and Amelia. Funny story: One man was looking at Amelia wearing her cap and asked me where I got it. I said, "Gillette's." He looked confused and I said, "Gillette's Children's Hospital." He thought it was a cap I had bought at a store to keep Amelia from bumping her head. He said his son is always getting bruises and bumps on his head and thought it was a good solution! I suggested a hockey helmet.


Mom, Chesney, Mira, and Amelia enjoying time at home:


Mira and Chesney had a true slumber party and slept together in Mira's bed. What a cute sight!


And Logan slept on an air mattress in my room:

Stylin'!

Here are some photos of Amelia's cap. So far she wore it for an hour this morning and did well with it. She primarily forgot she was wearing it most of the time. After her nap, she'll wear it for another hour, off for 1/2 hour, and so on all day. She won't sleep with it on tonight, but we'll see how she naps in it tomorrow and decide if she'll wear it Saturday night. Chris is out of town until Monday, so my mom and sister are staying for the weekend to help me out, so I think we'll try to get her to wear the cap overnight Saturday so that Sunday isn't too tiresome for me. We'll see how she does.