Only Slightly Blurry Photos

Amelie's hair matches the unfinished wood in our dining room. Re-finishing the floor is high on the priority list before baby boy makes his appearance! Maybe I'll remember to get on here and show the "after" shot with my same lovely model. 

Summersaults

Amelie executed four perfect summersaults before I got out the camera to take the video (that's probably why her hair is so wild). When I moved the coffee table out of the way and asked her to try it again, all bets were off. The ones I captured for posterity are a little less-than-perfect. My favorite part is probably at the end when I tell her to try again, and she says "No," and walks off.

Amelie's Own Pool

This blog post comes courtesy of Aunt Holly. She not only babysits Amelie on Thursday evenings, she takes super cute photos as well.

Before Amelie jumps into the pool, she very carefully enunciates, "One ... Two ... Three!"

 This is the "pool" she was planning on jumping into.

Aunt Holly brought it over (it's a Rubbermaid storage tub) and filled it up with water. Ever since, Amelie's been talking about her own pool.

Sparky's

Amelie's Cousin Ellie got her a Sparky's gift certificate for her second birthday. Somebody's ready for "chocolate keem!" 

If anyone needed further proof that Mama's just a big stick-in-the-mud, I think the kid-sized cup is really large! Amelie ate it all, though.

Lost Photos

If I don't have a memory card in my camera, it will save a few pictures directly to the camera. It's a nice feature, but the photos tend to get lost because they don't upload automatically when I plug the camera into the computer. Anyway, here are some I found that I think I took about a month (or two?) ago.

Amelie and her buddy Ezra went to a messy activity at the library. She looks completely offended by the idea that he might want to play with this rubber duck, too. 

Ezra was a good sport, though.

 So serious, concentrating on sorting different shapes and colors of (dry) pasta. Ezra was confused about why we wouldn't let him eat it.

Excuse me?

The tongs were a little more of a challenge.

There was also play-dough.

And chalk.

We ran into a friend from college, too, and posting this reminds me that I should give her a call sometime!

Independence Day

We didn't plan on going to see the municipal fireworks display this year -- they don't start until a little after 9pm, and Amelie is pretty much always in bed by 8. However, we went out to her grandparents' house for the fourth and swam from an hour and a half, then had hamburgers and peach cobbler, then played more, and Amelie ended up taking a big nap until almost 5, so I thought maybe she'd be able to stay up. There was a period of unreasonable crankiness at 7, but after a trip to Target for some bugspray, she seemed up for it!

We got downtown around 8:30 and were able to park really close to Flat Branch Park. We found a convenient rock to sit on. It was still pretty darn warm at 8:30.

We got to hear the last of the band performing, and then they started the fireworks just a little after 9. 

Amelie especially liked the ones that went "round and round."

She was wound up from all the excitement and talked about it the whole car ride home, but when we pulled in a little after 10, she went immediately to sleep. I think she had a fun time. Happy 4th of July!

Daredevil

Let's just ignore for a moment that I was taking a picture instead of stopping her from climbing into her stroller by herself.  

But she did it! (Both brakes were on, and it's really sturdy -- 3 points make a plane and all that.)

Proof that Amelie Sometimes Wears a Hat

I think I took this photo on Father's Day. Amelie and Papaw sporting hats, checking out the dogs and the geese at the pond: 

Here's my pale baby at the park. We use lots of sunscreen: 

Conway Trip

Amelie and I (this is Sam writing) went to visit my family in Conway, Arkansas last weekend. It took about seven hours to get down there (including stops), and Amelie did better in the car than I had any right to hope for.

Amelie and cousin Mary had fun at my grandparent's pond. Can you believe that Mary was the flower girl at our wedding?

 Cousins Amy, Mary, and Christine pose with Amelie and her new best friend "Baby Phoebe dog."

One of my dad's friends was featured in the Conway newspaper for building a rock wall at his house. We went out to see this wall (which is apparently nearly 800 feet long) one of the days there. Amelie really wanted to run on top of it, but that probably wouldn't have been a good idea.

Another day, we went to go see Aunt Anne at story time at the library. Here is Amelie reading with cousin Amy afterward.

Amelie did a lot of reading in Arkansas. Here she is with Aunt Anne.

 Can you believe Nanny can hold Amelie standing up like this? 

Amelie also enjoyed seeing her Great-Grandpa Neal. After a week being back in Missouri, Amelie is still talking about "Ar-ka-saw!"