Thursday, December 30, 2010

Christmas with the Paddocks

On Christmas Eve, we went down to Kennett to celebrate the holiday, open presents, and enjoy lots of good food.

Uncle Jeff (and Nana Jana off to the side)


Grandma & Grandpa


Cousin Rylee gets a camera and a fairy tutu.


Aunt Juli helps Rylee hold the baby.


Daddy Time

New Mexico Visit

Amelie visits with Grandma Mary Beth.


They enjoyed a look at her mirror Christmas gift.


Uncle Joe is pretty silly.



Yay!

Baby Pushups!

Amelie has been working on her core strength while we've been on vacation. Apparently, she's started her New Year's resolution early.

And one.


And two.


And three.


And four.


Here Dad says she has good form.

Friday, December 24, 2010

Professional Photos

*This post was delayed a month because some people got these photos as Christmas gifts, and we didn't want to ruin the surprise.

We took Amelie to get six-month photos done on the day before Thanksgiving. JC Penney's was a madhouse! Unfortunately, we had to wait about two hours for our appointment, and by that time, Amelie was looking pretty serious:


She wanted to scoot around and act silly.


We eventually got a few good smiles.


Rolling one way and then the other.


Plus, we took a family portrait.

The baby only looks a little bit frightened.

And then they tried to sell us a bunch of photoshopped collages again.

In case you forgot, here's the "Love" photo at three months.

We bought the copyright, so we could make a billion prints and put the images up on the blog without breaking the law.

If you see one you'd like (or if you'd like a different size), just let me know and I can order it for you.

And, just for fun, some links back to older professional pictures:

Three month pictures

Newborn photos

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Adventures in Baby-led Weaning

*I didn't realize until I uploaded the video to youtube that it was so blurry. I used the same camera that I use for all of Amelie's videos. Does anybody have any ideas about why this one was blurry? It might be the low lighting.

Well, here it is:

Amelie playing with ... erm, enjoying her supper ... well, "enjoying" might be too strong of a word with the face she's making every time she sticks the red pepper strip in her mouth.



The other items on her plate are peas, sweet potatoes, and oatmeal. She used the bell pepper strips to scoop some of the mushier stuff up and had fun picking up and dropping the peas.

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Jabbering & Bouncing Away

Amelie has figured out how to work the bouncy chair. In the video, she's bouncing herself back and forth and it almost looks like she's about to bounce herself out of the chair (she's not!). She also makes some pretty funny noises sometimes, and it usually sounds like she's vaguely offended about something. Mostly, though, she's just getting happy and worked up about all of the fun bouncing going on.



In this video, you can still see her bouncing. (I promise she's not going to fall out of her chair, really.) You can also hear her jabbering away, making an even greater variety of sounds. Make sure to turn the volume on your computer all the way up for the full range of sound effects.

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Amelie's Day

Amelie’s day, starting Tuesday night (12/14) and ending Wednesday night

7:30pm ~ Diaper time, rocked to sleep, placed in the crib, white noise on.
7:32 ~ fusses for five minutes, falls back asleep.
8:00 ~ fusses, pacifier re-inserted.
11:00 ~ Wakes to eat, nurses in rocker, right back to sleep in crib.
2:00am ~ My, what a hungry baby. Nurses in bed, back to sleep in crib.
5:00 ~ Up already? Nurses in bed, asleep in bed. (Thankfully she wasn't up for the day at 5am!)
8:45 ~ Wow, she can sleep late when in the bed with Mom. This may be the latest Amelie has ever slept in the morning. Nurses again for breakfast.
8:50 ~ Jabbering away, new diaper, hangs out with Dad to give him luck/distract him on his final.
9:10 ~ Exersaucer time, watching the dog.
9:20 ~ Hangs out with Mom, pretends to help check email, plays with post-it notes.
10:00 ~ Back in the exersaucer for a bit, taunts the dog with a squeaky toy.
10:15 ~ Bundled up.
10:20 ~ Drops Dad off at the law school and rides contentedly in the car over to Aunt Barb & Uncle Luke’s to drop off some books.
10:25 ~ Possibly asleep in the car for just a bit.
10:40 ~ Braves the cold (in a coat and a blanket) to run back in the house.
10:45 ~ New diaper, new sleeper, swaddled, nurses in the rocker to sleep.
10:55 ~ Naptime (this is really late for Amelie’s morning nap – I wonder if we’re going to be late all day?)
11:20 ~ Stirs, making some noises, but apparently goes back to sleep. Oh, the soothing sounds of white noise.
1:45 ~ Awake from nap, new diaper, tries to roll off the changing pad, nurses, bundled up yet again.
2:00 ~ Goes to the grocery store with Mom, has a grand time looking around at things, is admired by several other customers and Schnuck’s employees.
2:50 ~ Finally back home to help put away groceries in the Moby wrap (it takes a long time to find raw peanuts, which are located neither with the baking goods or other nuts, but with the produce.)
3:15 ~ Has fingernails on right hand trimmed, says “That’s enough of that!”
3:20 ~ Playing on mat, scooting all over the place.
3:50 ~ New diaper, nurses, starts to rub eyes (Oh, no! We’ve got to go get Dad at school …)
4:10 ~ Entertained by Mom, walking around the house.
4:20 ~ Off to pick Dad up from his final.
4:30 ~ Asleep in the car.
4:40 ~ Rudely awakened by the cold air going into the house, down for a late afternoon nap sans swaddle.
5:40 ~ Awake and new diaper, sitting in the bumbo chair on the dining room table while Mom makes supper.
6:15 ~ Baby gets to eat before anyone else.
6:45 ~ Off to a La Leche meeting with Mom. (You’d think it was warmer than 25 degrees outside, the way they cart this baby around.)
7:00 ~ Charms all of the other babies and moms at the meeting, jabbering away and flailing her arms excitedly.
8:00 ~ Eats again.
8:50 ~ Finally on her way back home, starts to get fussy in the car. (This is well past Amelie’s bedtime. See, we were late all day.)
9:00 ~ Dad gives her a new diaper, and hangs out for a bit, Amelie’s figured out that she can bounce herself in the bouncy chair.
9:30 ~ Nurses for a long time, it’s been a long day.
10:00 ~ Wow, we’re up late. Rocked in the rocker, put down drowsy in the crib.

Grand totals
Diapers: 7
Naps: 2
Nurses: 10 times

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Merry Christmas!

Only 13 days until Christmas . . .

Amelie has been enjoying her first Christmas tree (decorated with non-breakable ornaments). Somehow, I think she'll make it out of the holiday season with more than just a lump of coal, don't you?

Saturday, December 11, 2010

First Foods

Ready, Set, Go! Doesn't she look positively thrilled?


Now that Amelie's six months old, she's started experimenting a little bit with solid food. We're trying to follow a baby-led approach and let her mostly feed herself and mostly eat suitable table foods with us.


At first, she was just playing, mainly smushing it in her hands and thinking, "What is this stuff?? I'm not sure I approve. I'm suspicious."


Occasionally, Sam and I have started helping her out a little bit, just so she knows this stuff is edible, too (since she'll put the remote, my phone, and the edge of her tray in her mouth, but not, apparently, food):


But she still acts like we're trying to poison her. "Why would anyone want to eat that??" Holly thought the horrible face she made when confronted with a bit of sweet potato at Thanksgiving was hilarious.

She does enjoy her sippy cup of water that comes with family mealtimes, though.


Man, Sam (er, the baby) really enjoys lounging around in a sleeper, huh?


Even though everything in the pictures above is orange, Amelie has tried sweet potato, avocado, peas, banana, and chicken. The only thing she's been a little bit enthusiastic about has been mashed banana, but I'm guessing she'll catch on to this whole solid food business in the next month or so.

If you'd like to read just a little more about baby-led weaning, you can start at this link.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Belated Bootheel Post

Amelie was in the Bootheel for Thanksgiving, and we got to see the Paddocks. We got some pictures of Grandma Pat holding the baby this time around!

Both are pretty in pink :)

And here's Grandpa, too. Doesn't he look excited to have his picture taken?