Reading

This is a list of the books I read Amelie today (all twice through, except Olivia, which we read three times).

Before Hansel & Gretel

Sam's Cookie

There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie

Amelie and the Bumblebee

Before Hansel & Gretel

The Napping House

 Olivia

This is a list of books Amelie pretended to read by herself:

Things Fall Apart

 The Lady & Sons Cookbook

A Brief History of Nearly Everything

The Magic Schoolbus Blows Its Top

This is a list of books Amelie talked her Papaw Buffaloe into reading to her today at the New Year's Eve party we attended at Aunt Barb & Uncle Luke's:

 Where the Wild Things Are

Mother Goose 

Thanks to Karie for Before Hansel & Gretel -- we like it a lot! And to Aunt Lana for The Napping House, and to Grandma Mary Beth for Sam's Cookie, and to Nana Jana for Amelie and the Bumblebee!

We read a lot of books every day, but I think the snow day and the long day due to staying up for the party lead to us reading a few more than average. (And I feel like I'm forgetting one, too.)

Tummy Time

Cardinals Fan

I like them THIS MUCH.

Thank you Uncle Don & Aunt Patty and Cousins Mary, Amy & Christine for the Cardinals outfit! (pants not shown :)

La Petite Ecole

Some photos of what Amelie does at school (besides listen to French). I'm pretty sure most of these were taken by the French intern at school -- I picked out the ones that just show Amelie and her classroom to share here.


I'd like a smock like this one for home! Fingerpainting.

Tools.

I'm pretty sure Amelie's favorite part of the day is recess.

A bunch of the kids like these cars. They pretend to put gas in them.

Play-dough: always a hit.

Hers is the middle top one -- I'm actually surprised that she didn't just stick all of the stickers on top of each other.

Painting pumpkins.

Cleaning up.

Watercolors.

Looking at books.

Even more painting -- always a fun activity.

More looking at books:

Snacktime:

I hear the baby dolls are quite the hot commodity in her room (6 two-year-old girls!)

Amelie's first semester at preschool was a definite success. I'm conflicted about what we'll do next year, though, since it looks like there isn't a part-time option for three-year-olds. I think continuing to go 9 hours a week would be just about perfect, and I'm not sure that I want to give her up every morning just yet!

School Picture

This is a bit late, but Amelie's preschool took school photos.

Class photo:

We had a parent-teacher conference and everything.

Sad Face

Google searches for sad faced & black-and-white photos of babies are always a part of my blog statistics. (And I keep perpetuating it by mentioning it again.)

At our most recent photo shoot, there were so many contenders for the sad faced baby, I just couldn't pick one.

The talented Rhiannon Trask of Lollipop Photography took the photos!

Christmas in the Bootheel

We spent the weekend before Christmas in the bootheel. All of my aunts and uncles and cousins on Nana Jana's side got together on Saturday to eat pizza, watch the little kids open gifts, and play bingo. (I'm so disappointed that we didn't get a group picture!)  I picked this this one because at least Layla was smiling. We couldn't get anybody else to look at the camera!

Nana Jana & Aunt Helen "reading" a family photo album to Amelie.

Layla was better at the game than the little girls. They were pretty interested in what she was doing.

Amelie enjoyed playing with the dolls made from handkerchiefs embroidered by her great-great-grandma Lora. I think Papaw Leroy was taking his breathing treatment in the background.

Aunt Helen got to hold baby James. Doesn't he look so big?

We talked Amelie into getting into the picture.

We went to Grandpa Bob & Grandma Pat's Sunday morning for breakfast. James got to wear the snowman outfit from Grandma Pat for the occasion & Aunt Holly wrangled the baby while Amelie opened her presents.

Amelie looks like she's eyeing the toys that the dog got for Christmas here :) She's enjoying her camera a great deal, though she managed to delete all of her photos off of it already! When she takes some more, I'll try to put some of them up on the blog, too.

Smile!

Uncle Jeff & Aunt Patti

Grandpa Bob & Grandma Pat in their snazzy suede shirts

On Monday, we drove back up to Columbia. We've found that the kids do better if I sit in between the carseats in the back. Sam squeezed himself back there for the last leg of the trip like a champ, but it was dark & we were all getting tired of driving, so I didn't get a picture of that configuration.(Oh, and you can't see him, but Schroeder is camped out underneath Amelie's carseat on the floorboard.)

It was 60 degrees (and sunny!) when we left and 20 degrees (and dark!) by the time we got home.

Cousins

I took these pictures on Christmas day at the Buffaloes' house.

James at 14 weeks and his cousin Benny at 16 weeks

James is saying, "Pick me up!" and Benny's saying, "Who are you?!"

Thank you to our friend Caitlin for the jumper! See, it did fit!

Merry Christmas!

Happy Holidays, everyone!

The lovely Rhiannon Trask of Lollipop Photography came out to the house to take our Christmas photos this year.

Amelie had a grand old time.

James was not feeling the Christmas spirit quite so much.

I remember that Holly always griped about me being in all of the photos ... so here's one for James without his big sister stealing the show ... though he doesn't seem to be paying a whole heck of a lot of attention.

Merry first Christmas, baby James!

We hope everyone's Christmas is merry and bright!