Reading

Amelie has started pulling regular books off the shelf to read. For a while, one of my composition textbooks was a favorite. She calls it I Say, I Say, which, come to think of it, is a more accurate description of what most students do when writing arguments anyway. She calls this kind of book an "ABC Book" since it's just full of the alphabet (and no pictures).

Swimming

Ah! I thought I'd taken the video of Amelie jumping (which is also impressive), but apparently it was of her swimming in the pool with Papaw. She is quite enthusiastic about the whole endeavor.



P.S. I'm not sure what the watermark on the video is -- I took it with my camera, but I'm using Holly's computer and the way I uploaded the video isn't the same as it is on mine.

Bathing Beauties

Well, perhaps this was not the most photogenic. Here are those bathing beauties taking a break for some string cheese.

Giving Jeff a high-five.

Hanging out with Dada.

Amelie looks like she might be in trouble for something here.

A new day, another swimsuit. "Look at Mama!"

"Nope, don't want to look at Mama."

Swimming back and forth between Dada and Papaw.

Swimming to the steps.

More swimming to the steps, this time with Grandma.

Being pushed in the starfish by Uncle Joe.

Drying off. (In combination with wearing a beach towel as a dress.)

Cousin Ellie looks quite fashionable.

Uncle Joe

Uncle Joe came to visit Missouri, where he got to do lots of this. (This being "look at cows.")

I promise, this was the best photo I was able to get of Amelie and Uncle Joe. Maybe she's sad about him leaving.

This photo is awesome, though! Joe also took advantage of "Grandma Mary's Pool" and was happy to catch Amelie jumping off the side.

(I took a video of Amelie jumping, but I'm using Holly's computer and need to figure out how to upload it -- there are also a bunch more swimming photos to come.)

Uncle Jeff

The last time we were in the bootheel, Uncle Jeff and Amelie had a grand old time putting puzzles together.

Look how short Uncle Jeff's hair is:

We did get one photo of Amelie with Sadie, but not with Great-Grandma or Great-Grandpa. We'll have to remedy that next time, for sure.

I do think it shows both of their attitudes fairly well, though. Amelie looks like she's thinking, "What? I'm going to terrorize the dog -- what are you going to do about it?"

Thank you to Nana Jana for the fun new summer outfit :)

The Zoo

One more animal post.

We made a last-minute trip to the zoo since the weather was nice and Sam strongly implied that we might not be able to come again for a while with the new baby. In what's become something of a disappointing trend, I didn't manage to take very many pictures.


Amelie liked looking at zebras (or perhaps mostly standing on the fence to do so). I thought the leopard-print pants from Grandma Mary Beth were appropriate attire for the day.

Despite the lack of photographic documentation, we had a lovely time. The weather was great and we stayed from about 1pm until they kicked us out at 7:00. We saw the new underwater sea lion exhibit and went to a sea lion show.

On the car ride home, Amelie talked fondly about the prairie dogs.

Remember way back when we started this blog and Sam complained that it made me look like a single parent? The pendulum's swung in the other direction, and I think I need to get out from behind the camera sometime!

Grant's Farm

Two (maybe?) weeks ago, we went to Grant's Farm. It was hot!

We met friends of ours and their one-year-old, who Amelie called "Baby Hannah," even though she was talking and toddling all over. Both kiddos were pretty interested in the Clydesdales.

Horses!

The rocks were an interesting attraction. (And Hannah was a great sport!)

Here's Amelie walking with Dada, and then the camera died. Oops!

We also took a train ride, saw some real baby buffaloes and other animals, plus Amelie enjoyed feeding the baby goats with a bottle and got to have a snow cone after lunch. Mama was mostly hot.

Cousins

These two were being just as cute as could be, so I decided to (try to!) get some pictures.

"Wait, what are we supposed to be doing again?"

Anyway, Cousins!

Swim Lessons

This post is coming a little late, but Amelie took swim lessons this summer. She got to go with her friend Ezra each night for two weeks. It seems as though the class was more designed to get kids used to the water, but Amelie had a lot of fun anyway, and she keeps asking about going back. She eyed the 3-year-old class pretty enviously, so I think she'll have a lot of fun next summer.

With Dada

At Hickman Pool

Sad to be leaving, but sporting some cool water shoes. 

Of all the various activities, Amelie loved "scooping" and racing after ping pong balls and "zooming" back and forth between Mama and Dada. She was not quite as big a fan of gliding on her back or blowing bubbles. 

Oh, and thank you to Great-Grandma Pat for the strawberry swimsuit and terry cover-up! They came in handy!

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!