Bootheel

Unfortunately, we had to make a trip down to the bootheel for a funeral this Saturday. We were sad for the reason for the visit, but glad to be able to see some of our family members from Iowa and Arkansas. Nana Jana and Amelie on the porch swing.

Amelie with Grandma Doris

She didn't want to sit still for a photo.

Amelie with Great-aunt Helen.

She was pretty squirmy sitting in the chair. Are you noticing a trend?

Schroeder was glad to get in the car. He also wanted to illustrate that the camera works really nicely if the subjects will just sit still for a minute.

Carseat Couture

Why, yes, we do have that very-nearly-two-year-old still rear facing in the carseat, and doesn't she look stylish while we're at it?

Yard Work

We've been doing some work in the yard -- not that you can tell much!

Amelie is a big fan of the watering can.

I sidestepped her request to fill it up with water, but it was still fun to play with.

She's asking Dada to fill her cup with water.

And then she figured out how to do it herself.

A big thanks to Nana Jana for the nifty dress!

Shape Sorter

This is a ridiculously long series of pictures of Amelie figuring out the shape-sorting toy. Our friend Jen Miller brought it (in a great big bag of really cool stuff) way back when Amelie was just a few months old. She's played with it for a long time, but it's just recently one that she can actually figure out (as a shape-sorter, it's almost comically complicated -- there are 3 different sides and 9 different shapes, some of which are really close, like the half-circle and the moon shape).

Balloons

Amelie spent most of the afternoon yesterday running around the house in her underwear playing with balloons like mad. (This photo is blurry, but I think it best captures the spirit of the balloon-fest.)

Finally I chased her down and put some pants on her.

Watching her try to jump up in the air to grab the balloon string was priceless.

She colored on her shirt (and her belly underneath) with markers, but they're the washable kind and I love them.

Rock Climbing

So We're Starting This Already?

Amelie was eating a ladybug popsicle (smoothie mix in an ice cube tray sprinkled with blue blueberries and frozen) this morning. She finished it and brought the empty stick to me and said, "More popsch, please." When I told her that she'd already eaten her popsicle so it was all gone, she considered that information for a moment, walked over to Sam and said, "More popsch, please."

Shadow

At the Park

Last summer, I horrified the other mothers at the park by letting Amelie go down the small slide by herself.

This summer, she can go down the big slide by herself.

Wheeeee!

Here's a picture of her at 16 months going down the small slide:

We're really lucky to live just down the road from a nice park, though I think my days of taking Schroeder around for a quick walk with Amelie in the stroller are over -- if we pass the playground equipment, she insists on stopping.

Another at 16 months playing on the same equipment:

(Or you could go straight to the blog post from October to make a full comparison.)

Swings!

This Deck Is Only Big Enough for the One of Us

Any ideas what they're talking about?

It must be something exciting.

I know! Let's push Dada off the deck!

Mission accomplished.

Most Adorable Picture

Pretty much the most adorable picture ever:

Amelie wore her backup Easter outfit this week.

Appropriately enough, she's eating a leftover hardboiled egg in this picture.

Dandelions

Our back yard is full of dandelions.

You want me to do what with this?

Blow!

Yuck! Maybe I got a little too close to that last one.

Fun times!

Talking

I thought it would be a good idea to write down a little bit about Amelie's language development before she gets too big and we forget. Here are a couple of things going on right now:

Amelie knows lots and lots of words. Sometimes it's hard to figure out exactly what she's saying ("water" sounds more like "agua" than anything else), but she talks all the time.

She says a few simple sentences. Yesterday, she spilled water on me and said "Mama shirt wet." and then "Water mama shirt." I told her that's what "wet" means, and she said "Oh, okay."

She's started giving compliments, saying "Dada nice," "Baby nice," "Schroeder nice," "Amelie nice," etc. etc. etc.

I haven't caught anything longer than 4 words yet ("More orange juice, please"), but several follow a Subject-Verb-Object construction:
"Mama eat waffle."
"Mama brush hair." - I was brushing Ameile's hair at the time.
"Mama kick ball." - This was a command.
"Amelie pee potty." - This was to let us know that she needed to go.
"Amelie shut door."

She says "please" and "thank you," unprompted (most of the time).

She says "Come" like it's a spell. Lying in bed with me, she said "Dada, come!" and Dada came. Then she shouted "Schroeder, come!" and Schroeder came, too. Then she said "Monkey, come!" But no monkeys appeared.

She has told one lie and asked one question, "Dada doing?" (she's asked this a few times, meaning "What is Daddy doing?")

She knows several colors, two shapes (heart and star), most body parts, tons of animals and animal sounds (the cutest one is when she says "Hee-Haw" for a donkey).

Doctor's Office

Why, yes, I let my non-sick child play with the toys at the doctor's office.

How could I not, when there's this fantastic bead toy in the waiting room?