Pez with Woody

Tonight the cast of Toy Story came for prayers, and Amelia insisted that they fold their arms and sit down... As much as possible.

Toy Story is her absolute favourite movie.. and the funny thing is that all three of these toy story figures were inherited from different people. Woody was Brad's as a kid, Buzz was cousin Jackson's, and Hamm belonged to our cousins here in TX. We love never having to buy toys!

Pez

I heard Amelia in the other room saying her "pez" (prayers). When i walked in, there she was holding her stuffed bear and teaching him how to pray.

Angel Child

Ever have one of those weeks where you keep thinking, gosh, my child has been a complete angel for several days now... When is the storm coming??

Amelia has been so stinkin sweet and content for days. She's been taking three hour naps (as compared to her usual 1.5 to 2), going right to sleep without so much as a whine, staying in bed for 11-12 hours at night, smiling and laughing all day and keeping herself entertained even if we've been cooped up or in the car the majority of the day... Even when she gets angry at me for taking her away from something, the tantrum only lasts a minute or so. She's been, in a word, an angel. I mean, she's usually a fairly mild mannered, happy child anyways but tantrums usually occur frequently as with any 20 month old. But not this week! I am one happy mommy. I find myself looking at her several times a day thinking, what in the world did I do to deserve such a beautiful, loving, sweet child?

The more I enjoy this easy-going disposition of hers, the more I keep expecting a grumpy-phase to come out I nowhere. Or a hitting or throwing or screaming or I-hate-bedtime phase. Doesn't something like that always happen right when you realize your children are easy? Isn't that a law or something? Oh well. I will soak it up now, whether it lasts or not!


...Amelia loves to organize, like her mom

20 Months

Amelia is starting to be so good at playing by herself and it is SO WONDERFUL! I can go take a shower or get ready and she'll just hang out in her room or with Harvey, playing with her toys and laughing and talking. It's just marvelous. Of course I love to play with her too, but it's just great to be able to cook in the kitchen for a while and have her just happily playing with her toys.

Amelia loves to say "pez" (prayers), especially during dinner. We always bless dinner before we start and she folds her arms and bows her head, peeking out at us occasionally. Then we'll start eating, and five minutes in she'll announce again "PEZ!" and we all have to fold our arms again and act like we're saying another prayer. Repeat three times. Afterwards she usually claps or cheers... workin on that one. I was sick last Sunday and Brad took Amelia to church because she generally does pretty well in Sacrament meeting and hey, nursery is two hours of free babysitting, so why not? (Just kidding, the real reason is that otherwise she would have been cooped up at home the entire day and that drives her CrAzY!) Anyways, he told me that after one of the prayers in Sacrament meeting, when Amen was said, she cheered "YAY!!!" and clapped for joy...

Amelia is a kisser. If you ask for a kiss (and often even when you don't) she'll run up to you, grab your face, pull you in and plant a good one right on the lips... and then she stays there for several seconds. We love it.

She loves doing songs and dances... like Ring around the rosy and Itsy Bitsy Spider or Wheels on the bus, while doing a dance or hand motions. She asks for us to do them with her again and again. She's also pretty good at her forward roll and bear crawling and other fun things from gymnastics.


We take a walk most days, around the apartment complex to get the mail ("MAYO!") or take the trash out or go to the apt office. Though it's kind of a hike and a complicated route, Amelia now knows how to get herself to all three of these places, and her favourite is the office. She will scoot herself right over there as fast as she can, push open the door, and walk right to the candy bowl. Then we walk out (after saying HI to every person in there) and I try to get her to walk back home, but soon enough she's chugging back to the office in hopes to get another candy. I usually have to pick her up, screaming and kicking, and walk with her a ways before she will head to the mail or somewhere else.

Her new favourite phrases: "Oh Boy!" and "Oh, Wow!"

This one's for Grams

Big girl swing!

...Yes, he is supporting Mustache March, no matter what I say.

(She usually skips the toes part and goes right to "green green washing machine")

Monkey bars and Forward rolls

Yesterday we went to our weekly Mom and tot gymnastics class. Amelia had been feeling a little sick for a few days but seemed better, and she needed to get out of the house. She was pretty naughty the whole class, refusing to sit still for stretches and trying to hang on things that aren't meant to be monkey bars. (monkey bars are usually her favourite. She likes me to lift her toes up to the bar while she hangs. But it was one of those I'll-do-what-I-want-and-not-what-you-ask-me-to mornings, so since I led her to the right monkey bars, she bolted to the ones she's not supposed to hang on.) I had to put her in timeout 3 times for getting out of hand. Towards the end of class she did the obstacle course and I tried to help her do a forward roll down a ramp. As she came out of the roll she threw up all over the ramp and herself.... Guess she wasn't feeling up to gymnastics after all.

(in the picture with Harvey he is just reaching out to put his paw on her, not hurt her. They get along pretty well.)

Dress your best

I asked Amelia to go get her shoes on so that we could go to the cousins' house. She ran off and came out of her room like this...
I'm surprised she even knew they were shoes and found them. When the cousins handed them down to us I stashed them between her chair and toy shelf for later use. I guess she'd been eyeing them and waiting for the perfect occasion.

Grandma and Grandpa Weinert

Brad's parents came to visit. His dad had a helicopter convention to attend for work and his mom came along to visit! We loved having them here and Amelia just soaked up the attention. On Tuesday we all went to the convention, which was pretty impressive. Amelia loves buckles, so she wanted to climb into all the helicopters and buckle up. Luckily people were pretty okay with that.

We can't wait for them to visit again!