Happy 1st Birthday Amelia!

I'm not sure why these are displaying in the reverse order I uploaded them. I guess you can see the 1st birthday cupcake fun in reverse time series. :) Amelia was more interested in eating the frosting and then dropping the rest of her cupcake on the floor. She loves to drop all of her food from every meal on the floor. I've never been so glad that we eat in the kitchen....

Lots of fun today, and I'll post winter wonderland pictures later. Amelia of course didn't quite get the concept of opening gifts, but Camila and her friends Lily and Audrey were more than willing to help. (Thank goodness, or we would have been there for hours.)

Happy Halloween

Halloween Lady Bug

I still need to get a picture of Amelia sitting still in her cow costume, but here's Camila in her ladybug outfit. I'm hoping it actually fits OVER her winter coat, since it sounds like Sunday will be cold!

Giggling fun

I'm not sure what made this game so fun and exciting, but it had both girls screeching/screaming/laughing as loud as they could. I think when one laughs or shouts, the other does too, just for good measure. Amelia is definitely learning a bad inside screaming habit from Camila. We're trying to cure both of them of it, with some limited success. :)

Reading books

The other morning I was cleaning up in the kitchen and realized the girls were being quiet. Of course I had to investigate to make sure they weren't quietly tearing something out of the wall. I found them both in Camila's room, reading books. It was great to see them quietly playing together, because it will probably never happen again. :)

Lazy day

Just a few random pictures of a lazy day hanging out at home.






Amelia puts up with a lot from Camila. Sometimes she pulls Camila's hair, but it's hard to tell if Camila starts it or if Amelia is the instigator. From this picture, I'm thinking Camila better keep her hair out of reach from now on.

Camila's 3rd Birthday

A few pictures from Camila's 3rd birthday party. It was so much fun this year, because she's old enough to get excited. She'd been talking about her birthday party for a couple of weeks, about how she was going to help make her cake, eat her cake, open presents, etc. Thankfully she seemed to understand that it's only a one day thing, because when she ate the last piece of her birthday cake, she never asked for more. On the other hand, she knows that my dad and Amelia both have birthdays in November, so there will be no shortage of birthday cake.


She started the morning with a call from Fabricio's parents.


Here she is getting ready to blow out the candles on her cake that she helped decorate. (I think she enjoys that almost as much as eating it!)


Her friends Lily and Audrey


Kayla observing the present opening fun


Her dress up outfit from Aunt Melissa


I didn't realize this would be such a big hit. I got her a copy of The Very Hungry Catapiller since she loves reading it, but it's now turned into her favorite book. She even "reads" it to us now.

Autumn Woods Classic 2010

Since I used to work at this race when I worked for Three Rivers Park District, I knew it would be a great even for Camila (a 1K kids race, lots of kid activities, t-shirt). Anna and Kayla joined us to make it an extra fun morning. Camila (and I think Kayla) had a blast. The weather was perfect, the sun was shining, the leaves on the trees were beautiful, and the kids behaved. :) The pictures are in reverse order (after the race shots are at the top.)


Hay Bale Maze (she LOVED this - she didn't want to leave)




Showing off her ribbon


Just before the race (I wonder what the girls are thinking?)


Amelia's not sure what to think of all of it.


The future runners

She's on the Move

So this post is way overdue, but Amelia has been crawling for the last 5 weeks (just over 10 months). We had a few sibling fights at the beginning when Camila realized that Amelia could now get into her things, but the last couple of weeks have been much better. Camila knows to put things on the table if she doesn't want to share (or if I tell her it's not safe for Amelia). But the best part is now they play together/around each other ALL THE TIME. Anywhere Camila goes, Amelia must go too, and Camila loves it. Camila likes pushing Amelia in this old baby swing I pulled out, and Amelia even tries to push Camila in it. Camila is always running to get Amelia a toy or doll (especially since Amelia is always interested in whatever Camila is playing with, and vice versa.) My favorite is watching Camila run around the house with Amelia crawling after, trying to catch up, and both of them squealing/laughing as loud as they can.

That's not to say it's always fun, but I'm focusing on the good for now. :)


Notice Camila insisting that Kitty needs to be in the picture. (That stuffed animal is in rough shape!)



Amelia about to get into trouble. Notice her crawling towards Camila's special blanket. Surprisingly, Camila has started to share Kitty and Blanket with Amelia. Amelia has her own kitty, but she loves playing with both. I'm sure I'll have stories to tell as she gets older, but Amelia appears to have a bit of a devilish streak. She's not the easy-going baby she once was. It's quite the reverse - she's ALWAYS getting into trouble. I'm afraid she's going to be a biting or hair pulling toddler since we've already had some trouble with that.

Welcome!

Welcome to the new blog! I'd post something tonight, but I'm worn out from birthday party preparations. You'd think with how tired I am that we must be throwing a huge birthday bash for Camila's 3rd birthday tomorrow, but it's just going to be low key. Maybe I'm just getting old.