palamaro diaries

32 Random Acts of Kindness

2011-11-23T13:28:00.001-08:00

I blogged all about my day on my other blog, It's Hue I Love. Head on over and check it out to read about my awesome day :)

www.itshueilove.com

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

momo

2011-08-29T19:21:00.000-07:00

i don't really know where to start on this post. i actually don't even want to write it. but i do. no, i don't. but i need to, so here we go…

on monday, august 15 when i blogged here about her health, we were hopeful that the medication would kick in and start to work. right before i wrote that blog, i sat down with her on the kitchen floor and tried to give her her medicine, but she refused everything i offered her. she even let a pill just sit in the back of her throat without trying to swallow it. i sat with her for a while and talked to her. i told her to tell me when enough is enough and that she needed to let me know when she was ready. i gave her a kiss, went into the living room and proceeded to write that blog. ironically, while i was blogging, or shortly after, she died. ant went into the kitchen and i asked him to check on her and he said she was gone. to say we were shocked doesn't really describe it. 3 hours earlier, the vet told us that she had high hopes for her recovery and that this was just a "hump" we had to get over. well, it was a different hump than we had expected, that's for sure.

momo, i miss you. you were the greatest dog a person could ask for. just ask anyone who ever met you. everyone wanted to take you home cause you were so awesome. one time at a garage sale some lady asked me if she could buy you. i laughed in her face and told her she would have to kill me first. she laughed, but i was serious.

i miss your stinky breath.
i miss giving you hair cuts (even though we both hated it).
i miss fighting with you to cut your nails.
i miss you pestering me every second of every day (and night) to throw your ball.
i miss telling you "i can't reach it" and watching you get so frustrated cause you knew i could.
i miss watching you play with amelie. you were so good to her, even though you never did care for kids too much. you knew she was special to us.
i miss cleaning your gross ears.
i miss yelling at you to stop licking your butt.
i miss your high pitch bark every time we clapped or vaccuumed.
i miss watching you chase your tail and laughing until it hurt.
i miss torturing you with moonboots and sweaters.
i miss your mohawk.
i miss taking you for walks.
i miss tripping over you.
i miss taking you outside.
i miss the bruises on my shins from your head cause you couldn't see me your last months here.
i miss the yelping.
i miss shoving you out of the way in bed cause i couldn't move my feet under the covers.
i miss tapping my foot on the floor to show you where food had fallen so you could get it.
i miss watching you run your heart out to catch your ball.
i miss forcing you to cuddle with me. you would lay your head on my shoulder for 10 seconds to appease me and then pop up to go find your ball.
i miss watching you box with yeager.
i miss watching you get so frustrated when tucker would pester you. i know you guys are playing together now.
i even miss stepping in poop outside.
and most of all, i just miss having you on the floor next to me. you always had to be in the same room.

you were exceptional. incredibly smart with so much energy. you could learn a new trick in a matter of minutes and remember it forever. you understood every word i said and i swore one day you were going to talk back to me. i like to think i was your best friend, but i know you liked your ball better than me. it's ok.

you were there with me through college, 9 jobs, 7 moves and 3 cities. you comforted me through break-ups and laid with me when i was sick. you were even by my side when i married the man who adopted you as his own (i even made him an adoption certificate to make it official). you went everywhere with me and you were always on your best behavior. we had a good 12 years together, i'd say.

i always knew you leaving would be hard, but i had no idea it would be this hard. i keep waiting for you to come around the corner or scratch on the door to come back in from outside. but, i know you aren't suffering anymore. i know you can see so clearly now. i know you'll never have another ear infection or itchy skin problem. and i know i'll see you again. and i can't wait.

love,
mama

emotional rollercoaster

2011-08-15T19:24:00.000-07:00

Believe it or not, this post isn't about Amelie. It's about our first baby girl, Morgan, or as most of you know her, MoMo. And it's also quite depressing… just a warning, sorry.

As you also might know, she hasn't been doing well for quite some time now. She has had a heart murmur that gets worse every time we take her to the vet. Within the past couple of months, she has been breathing very heavy and fast and her belly got bloated. Her hair is growing in patches and we have to carry her up and down the stairs to take her out now.

Last week I was out of town and got a voicemail from Ant saying that Mo wasn't doing well at all and that she had had an "episode" when she came back in from going outside. She was wobbly and disoriented and couldn't stand or walk. We decided that we would just keep an eye on her and take her to the vet when I got back if she was still struggling. When I got home on Saturday, she seemed ok. Not good, just ok. Until today. She was pooping this gooey pumpkin grossness, wasn't eating well, seemed very uncomfortable and breathing very heavy. I took her outside when Ant went to class and she made a huge mess on herself so I decided to give her a bath (crying the entire time). Usually when I clip her nails she fights me, but not today. She just sat there. Usually she shakes like crazy and rolls all over the place like a crazy dog when she is wet, but not today. She laid down on the floor and didn't move for about 2 hours. Ant got home from class, took one look at her and said, let's take her now.

I was a mess. I just knew this was it. I just kept praying that she wouldn't be suffering. I wasn't ready, but I hate seeing her like this. Then again, are we ever ready to say goodbye to our first baby?

We got to the vet and they rushed us back, seeing how in distress she was. I cried some more. They came back with a list of tests and procedures they wanted to to, which added up to $360 that we just don't have right now. The vet tech told us about a credit program that we could apply for that we wouldn't have to pay interest on for at least a year. So we made the decision to do that and go for it. (The grand total ended up being $411… ouch.)

The prognosis was that she has heart failure in her right side and possibly some in her left. This is causing her organs to not quite function properly, leading to fluid build-up, which leads to shortness of breath and pressure on the lungs. The doctor compared it to being really pregnant and having so much pressure on your lungs that you just can't get a deep enough breath. They had oxygen on her and they drained a lot of fluid out of her belly. They started her on a med called Lasiks (sp?), which is a diuretic, to make her pee more fluid out. We also got 2 other meds for her heart that she will have to be on for the remainder of her life.

I was incredibly thankful for this "good" outcome. I actually didn't even think we would be coming home with her, so when I say good, I mean, still here. Since we've been home, she hasn't been much better. We are supposed to monitor her breathing and call the doc in the morning to let her know how she's doing. Tonight when I took her out, I had to wipe her butt (sorry, I know it's super gross) and I was wiping blood. I was shocked to see it and I have no idea what's causing it, but I will definitely be asking the doc about that in the morning. She still seems uncomfortable and is still breathing really fast and hard. She won't even eat vanilla yogurt with her meds in it like she always used to. She just turns her nose up to it.

Again, I just keep praying for God to tell us when enough is enough. It's so hard to see her like this. Sorry this is such a long and sad post. Please pray for us as we make these tough decisions and try to find a way to make these new payments. Please pray that MoMo would go in peace and not suffer at all.

Good night.
k-

yep, it's that time

2011-07-31T11:39:00.000-07:00

amelie has started to show interest in the big potty and she's been "announcing" when she goes poo poo, so we did it… we got a {little} big girl potty!

she doesn't know this yet, but it sings and congratulates her when she actually goes in the potty! (not sure how i'm going to demonstrate that one yet)

we obviously have a lot to work on. stay tuned…

a wonderful first

2011-07-27T19:25:00.000-07:00

i was sitting on the couch tonight playing with amelie and i randomly blurted out, "amelie, i love you…"

much to my surprise she replied without hesitation, "i love you, too!"

oh.

my.

goodness.

i almost cried it was so sweet. she is so dang lovable.

it only took 20 months, 27 days, 18 hours and 11 minutes to hear it :)

in awe

2011-07-20T19:04:00.000-07:00

she never ceases to amaze me.

she's a sleeper.
she slept until 10:30 this morning (and yesterday and the day before) and then got fussy around noon and told me she wanted to go "nie nie". i complied (but assumed it wouldn't go over well) and put her in bed. she slept until 4:30. all day. while i got some much needed work done.

she's brilliant.
when ant got her up from her nap she pointed to the letter E on her shirt and said "Eeee!". no idea where that came from.

she's talented.
she was watching Baby Miracle, The Story of Jonah and the Whale today and started singing along with one of the Bible songs. no idea she knew it.

she's content.
we went to Target tonight and a mother of a little girl the same age commented on how well behaved she was (we had run into each other a few times in the store). not the first time that's happened and I DON'T take it for granted.

she's faithful.
every night when we are having our family hug before bed, she now bows her head and says, "Pay"… waits patiently (with her eyes wide open)… and then says, "AH-MEN!" with much excitement.

it may sound to you like i'm trying to brag, but believe me, i'm not (we have many moments that aren't so sweet). i'm simply trying to document how amazing amelie is so i can look back on these times and ~~cry~~ smile. :)

every day is new and every day is blessed. thank you, Jesus, for such an amazing opportunity to raise this sweet, smart, kind, funny, lovable little girl.

story time

2011-07-14T15:24:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time…

to be continued, i'm sure…

Pop & Amie

2011-06-15T19:24:00.000-07:00

I just caught a great moment of Amelie playin' with my dad, aka Pop.

It was MUCH better in person, but you get the jist.

I LOVE it!

Just click HERE to see it!

Sure!

2011-05-30T18:16:00.000-07:00

Amelie's new saying…

This is her and Reagan playing in a hotel room in Orlando a few weeks ago. She adores her "Rea Rea" and thinks she's hilarious. I just love it when she responds to us with a loud and clear "SURE!" She gets that from her daddy cause I don't think I use that word too much.

Productivity

2011-05-29T20:05:00.000-07:00

I am going to go to sleep tonight feeling very accomplished!

Amelie recently decided to turn almost every vegetable down. She used to gobble up anything we gave her, but now it's a constant battle to get her to eat most veggies. I recently purchased the cookbook Deceptively Delicious. I've heard about it for a while, but never felt I really needed it. I heard a few friends talking about it and liking some of the recipes so I decided to go ahead and give it a try. Yesterday I went to the store and bought lots of produce. I spent most of last night and all day today cleaning, prepping, steaming, baking, pureeing (is that even a word?), bagging, labeling and freezing everything I bought. PHEW! Here is the outcome:

So, now we have stocked the freezer with butternut squash, yellow squash, spinach, cauliflower, sweet potato, carrot and beet purees. Now I'm ready to try some of these recipes out so our baby girl can eat some healthy food!

I tried my first recipe today as well and it was actually a hit! I made the rice balls recipe from the book. It consisted of chicken (I used leftover rotisserie from the other night), cheddar cheese, sr cream & sw pot puree. You mix all that together in a food processor, stir in brown rice, roll into balls, then roll in egg and spinach puree mixture, roll in panko (I like it better than breadcrumbs) and cook in a little olive oil in a skillet. They were VERY yummy! Amelie ate 2 or 3 and Ant, his friend Joe and I ate quite a bit, too. AND I had a lot of the mixture leftover that I froze so we can make more another day… yippee!!

I just hope I can keep this up so we can all get more veggies in our diet :)

My DISCLAIMER: Just because I am adding veggies to her food doesn't mean I'm going to stop offering her veggies on her plate along with these recipes. I think it's really important for her to know that she needs to eat veggies, but this is just my way of getting MORE nutrition in her meals.

18 month talkin' fool

2011-05-01T14:12:00.000-07:00

Amelie turned 18 months old yesterday… crazy how time flies. I know I say that all the time, but it's true. And you really don't understand it until you have kids. It goes by SO fast. I'm trying to soak in every second, but it's difficult to stop and bask in every second. This blog is a way we will be able to look back years later and enjoy the big moments and some small ones, too. Even though I haven't been that great at blogging consistently like I wanted to, at least I have the major events documented.

Amelie is a HAM! She has the funniest personality. We are constantly laughing at the things she does and says. She's so sweet and cuddly and smiley and giggly and wiggly and dancey and many, many more things. She LOVES to eat (you can tell by the size of her belly!), play in the water, take baths, play with clothes (random, but true), play with her cousins, climb all over mama and daddy, DANCE!, read books, etc… She is a TALKING FOOL. She will talk your ear off. No clue what she's saying most of the time, but her vocab is starting to flourish BIG time! She says so many words, ah-like so:

And there are many more things that video didn't cover. Personally, I think she's a genius to be talking at such a young age, but I'm her mama, so I'm kinda biased.

WOOK!

2011-02-11T11:09:00.000-08:00

Amelie and I went to Michael's the other night. We were walking through all the isles and all of the sudden I heard her saying something new and it took me a minute to figure out what it was that she was trying to say. She would point and then I hear, "HUUUAWWWHHHH (big gasp)… WOOK!" (LOOK!) She was so excited to see so many cool things (especially artificial flowers and ribbon) that she just had to make sure that I was seeing everything. She said it over and over and I got the biggest kick out of it.

It's so awesome to get to see things through her fresh, innocent eyes. It reminds me not to take things for granted and to appreciate the small things in life (even if they are artificial flowers).

She is my joy and I thank God for letting me be her mom every day :)

Aren't you loving the nakey hiney, one knappy santa slipper on, one off look? I am!

air jordans and a bike ride

2011-02-02T18:36:00.000-08:00

We took a trip to Atlanta for our 1st anniversary when I was 7 months pregnant. We have some good friends up there who have a hook-up at a great consignment. Ant found a pair of gray and lime green high top air jordans and it was love at first sight. We had no idea if we were having a boy or a girl at that point, but the exact words that came out of my mouth were, "you better bet if we have a girl, she's wearing those!" So we got em (at a REALLY great price, along with all kinds of goodies… thank you Lynda and Kevin!) They are size 5. Amie is just now fitting into them and they are stinkin' cute!

Ok, so it's not the greatest picture of Amelie, but you have to admit, the shoes are pretty awesome… especially with her sweet skinny jeans.

On a totally unrelated note, we FINALLY got to take my new bike for a spin! Ant got it for me for Christmas and mom and dad got a nifty little seat for Amelie to ride with me. She absolutely loves it! I am quite fond of this seat because she is in front of me and if I happen to fall, I feel much more comfortable knowing that I can try to protect her with her being in front instead of behind me.

Again, not the greatest picture of Amie, but she was distracted by the creepy man on the street trying to strike up conversation.

With spring coming up, I know we are going to be doing LOTS of bike riding!!

15 months

2011-01-30T12:00:00.000-08:00

Amelie is 15 months old today. Wow! She's getting so big and soaking EVERYTHING in. We are amazed how much she is learning every day. She is an awesome communicator… she tells us when she's hungry (which is pretty much all the time), when she wants to go night-night, when she wants milk, etc. She LOVES to dance!! This is her gettin' down to her favorite video:

I'm pretty sure she got her dance moves from her:

Here are some of her recent milestones: (i'm recording all this mostly for my memory, so bare with me)

• walking and running
• "jumping"
• talking A LOT
• signing and communicating really well
• eating A LOT (pretty sure she's a bored eater)
• sleeping for 11-12 hours a night and still taking 2 naps during the day
• 2 teeth on top, 4 on the bottom and 1 starting to poke through toward the back (not sure if it's a molar)
• "reading" lots of books (she constantly wants to read!)

spoken words:
her favorite: HI!
mama
dada
go
no
momo
up
dog ("daw")
more ("moe")
night-night ("nie-nie")
cow
moo
duck ("duh")
quack-quack ("kah-kah")
nose ("nooooh")
mouth ("mow")
roar ("RARW!")
baby
water ("wahwah")
me
uh-oh
good girl ("goo gurrrr")

signs:
more
please
cat
dog
bath
eat/hungry
milk
apple
baby
all done
flower
ouch

associations:
eyes
hair
nose
mouth
ears
belly
lion
cat
dog
hippo
bath
night night
dance
jump
milk
put your boppy (paci) in your bed
shoes
feet/foot
hands
hat
water
last bite
… there's really too many of these to keep going!

greatest show on earth!

2011-01-22T19:58:00.000-08:00

Our amazing friends, Todd & Timi, were so generous and got us a sweet deal on some circus tickets. We were really excited… a lot for ourselves, but mostly for Amelie! We went with our friends, Ginny and Bob and their 3 kiddos and had GREAT seats. Turns out, Amie could care less about the circus.

The first 10 minutes of the show she would look at the all the action and then look back at me with the most worried look on her face, like, "help me, mama!," but after she realized we were no, in fact, in harms way, she seemed to kind of enjoy the show a little. Every now and then she would look at a lion or an elephant and point and say something, but the rest of the time she spent trying to talk to Rush (one of our friend's kids) and just going back and forth between our laps… she really got a kick out of that. At intermission, Ant went to get some cotton candy. I was so excited cause I just KNEW she was gonna love it. Ha! She was actually quite terrified of the cotton candy. We would hold it up to her mouth and she would brush it away and turn her head in fear. Then she just got a kick out of feeding it to us… so we ate a lot of cotton candy. I was actually pretty ok with that :)

ready to go to the circus!

not really sure what to think…

still not sure, but trying to enjoy it!

pretty :)

ginny + bob + hawk + stella + rush = one awesome family!

like i said… terrified.

more than a 5K, giving thanks & independent steps!

2010-12-15T10:51:00.000-08:00

November was a busy month!

Amelie's birthday was a blast, which quickly brought us into november (which flew by way too fast). I was so busy preparing for her birthday (in a totally fun and awesome way), so after it was all done, I sat down at night not knowing what to do with my boring self.

The weekend after her birthday, my mom, Amelie and I headed up to Atlanta to do this: ZOOMA. Funny story… (well, not at the time, but I guess it is now). This was my first official 5K which started at 7am. The night before Amelie ended up in my bed (which was a first) because she wouldn't sleep in the hotel crib and I didn't want her to wake up the entire hotel with her screaming. Therefore, I got very little sleep. So, here I am functioning on probably 3 hours of sleep (if that) and it was about 35 degrees outside with frost on the ground… COLD! Long story kind of short (but not really), I ended up starting with the half marathon group instead of the 5K group that started only 5 minutes after the HM peeps. I was doing really good (for hardly any training) for the first 3 miles. Then I hit the mile marker that stated I was at 4.5 miles. WHAT? That's when I started to second guess myself. I texted Ant (yep, I had my phone in a 5K) and asked him to refresh my memory on how far a 5K was, cause I thought I was going crazy at that point. I just blamed it on my sleepy stuper and kept going. After about 5.5 miles, my legs were not wanting to go any further (did I mention there were ridiculous hills???) so I decided to break down and ask a group of ladies if they were with the 5K. "No… we're in the half marathon," they replied. CRAP. yep, I was that girl. Eventually I found out that I wasn't the only one… phew! That made it a little better, but not much. So, I had to get a cop escort back to the finish line (classy). I was so embarrassed, tired and annoyed at myself. Eventually, I had to laugh it off and all-in-all it was a great trip with my mom and Amelie :)

That next monday was my birthday and unfortunately Ant was right in the middle of finals so we didn't do much that day. I worked, he worked… BUT I had a little chat with Amie the night before my bday and told her to let me sleep in for my birthday. She listened and I got to sleep until 9:30!! Ant made a fantastic dinner: carrabba's chicken marsala (my fave), garlic mash and extreme brownie cookies!! And yes, they were extreme… perfect mix of chewy and gooey at the same time in cookie form. yum! Ant also got me a beautiful bouquet of 100 peruvian lilies… they were gorgeous! I have an amazing hubs!

For thanksgiving we went down to Spring Hill to stay with Ant's mom for about a week. It was a nice, relaxing week. I ate a lot of cookies and we had a fantastic t-giving dinner and lots of PIE! The Saturday after t-giving we headed up to my mom and dad's for the fitz/win/pal t-giving. We had yet another fantastic meal and we basically just sat around and laughed at the cousins playing with each other. Amelie was so excited cause she can walk with the big ones now :)

Amelie learned to walk! She was determined and she has finally ~~mastered~~ figured out how to walk. It's so stinkin' cute and she's so proud of herself!

Here are some more pics from last month…

look what i got for my birthday, guys!!

all bundled up at the 5K in atlanta… brrrr!

at the winery at Chateau Elán

she's a bubble elf

"everyone is thankful for ME!"

my rea of sunshine :)

tried really hard to get a group shot and this one cracks me up!

she loves her dada!

forgot to mention that amie got a bad case of hives on and off for a few days :(

she'll appreciate this pic later, i'm sure of it.

To see more pics… visit our flickr

birds, dwarfs, ladybugs, a russell, a max and more!

2010-11-04T14:52:00.000-07:00

here are some pictures of our friends and family from the party:

the old email posse reunites

snow white, the witch and her dwarfs

Lee, the giraffe and Quin, aka the best Dopey EVER

Max from Where the Wild Things Are:

Aunt Hazel was Russell from UP:

genius!!

Snow White and her dwarfs… and a tree, and owl and max

the palamaros :)

the other tree (matt) and a ladybug (noel), but she had already taken her wings off

aunt jenn was a duck, but then she became a flapper girl.

there's flappers in the forest, right?

happy owl!

katie b (a lightening bug) and jenn (when she was still a duck)

nana (sleepy) and quin (dopey)

aunt lucie (bashful) and dopey

my cute hubs

minh-thi's hooters

SO many more HERE

Amelie's 1st Birthday

2010-11-04T09:06:00.000-07:00

I would definitely say the party was a huge success!! We had wonderful family and friends there to share Amelie's big day with us. Most dressed up as a 'forest friend' and it was so awesome to see the creativity that everyone put into the day. Amelie was the most precious little owl and she was in a great mood all day… all smiles and kisses for our guests. She absolutely LOVED digging into her cake (and then 'sharing' it with her cousin, Quin). I had so much fun planning and creating this party for her and even though she won't remember it, I know we will be able to talk about it and blog about it and show her pictures so she knows how great it was :)

To see all of the pictures from the party, visit our flickr album HERE.

a year ago today

2010-10-30T17:00:00.000-07:00

wow. one year already. i can't believe it.

photographer

it all started HERE

Even though we had a pretty rough start, I would say this past year has been absolutely blissful. Amelie is growing so fast and she is the sweetest, funniest little thing. She continues to amaze us every day by growing and learning. It's a blessing to us that we can call her our daughter and that God chose US to raise her. It's something that's so surreal, you can't even put it into words.

As of the past 2-3 weeks, Amelie has changed so much…

• She is wanting to walk so bad! Sometimes she tries even if we aren't there to catch her. All of the sudden you'll see her out of the corner of your eye and then you hear a thump. Good thing she's a good faller because she just smiles at what she just accomplished, gets up, and tries again. She's determined to walk!

• She's eating like crazy. Anything she can get her hands on, she's eating. She's totally over the baby food and all she wants now is something she can pick up and shove into her mouth. Green beans, black beans, lima beans, peas, sweet potatoes, carrots, squash, zucchini, rice, bananas, cantaloupe, berries, cheerios, etc, etc, etc.

• She's starting to understand words and I think any day now all of the signs we've been teaching her are going to kick in.

• She loves to read books and watch her 'God Made Me' and 'God Made Animals' videos.

All-in-all, life is good and she seems to enjoy it, so I think we're doing a decent job so far!

I'm so excited about sharing these pictures we had taken a couple weeks ago. It's taken everything in me not to share them sooner, but we really wanted to show them to our families in person before we shared them online. We found an amazing photographer here in Savannah, Michelle Morris. She was SUCH a pleasure to work with and she is SO good at what she does. You can totally see that in her work. Ah-like so…

To see ALL of the pictures, go HERE. Make sure you turn your volume up when you watch the video… it's simply beautiful!

I seriously can't wait to share the details about Amelie's birthday party… that's coming soon!

Lastly, Ant and I want to thank everyone who has prayed for us and supported us over the past year. We are incredibly blessed to have all of you in our lives! Thank you for loving our daughter and helping us raise her to be an amazing woman of God!

(If you can't click on the links, go to http://palamaro.blogspot.com/)

baby steps

2010-10-17T13:07:00.000-07:00

Amelie took her first steps this week! She took 2 the other night, but today we got about 3 on video. She is so proud of herself! She is letting go of the furniture more and more and she doesn't realize she's standing on her own until we get excited and then she gets scared. It's pretty funny!

We're only 13 days away from her 1st birthday and we're so excited! I've been busy making all kinds of goodies and costumes for the party. I can't wait to post pictures!

ALSO, we had our first professional photoshoot on Thursday with an amazing photographer. (I can't share who she is yet because she *might* have a picture up already :) She is fantastic and we've seen a sneak peek of the session, but I can't share it yet because it's going to be a surprise for some :) I can't wait to share, though!

Here's just a few pictures from the past couple of weeks…

just sittin' pretty

one of her favorite things to do… watch momo eat

watching momo eat again

smiley baby!

GiGiMa reading a book and she LOVES it!

still reading…

Until next time…

overdue happenings & 11 months old

2010-09-27T10:16:00.000-07:00

i feel like i start all of my blogs off by saying some form of, "man, i'm not good at keeping up with this blog!" so I won't say it again (although I kind of just did). let's just say there's lots to catch up on.

so, the last time I blogged was when amelie turned 8 months old. as of thursday she will be 11 months. holy cow, where did this past year go??!! i can't believe she's almost ONE!!! i know everyone says this, but honestly, Ant and I thank God every day for giving us a perfect angel of a baby. seriously, amelie is such a joy. she wakes up with a huge smile and most of the time it never goes away. she has an awesome personality and most days i find myself saying, "i wish i knew what you were saying!" (i'll probably regret that when i actually do know what she's saying.)

what she's doing now:

• eating LOTS and liking everything we give her. she especially loves cheerios, lemons, green apples (anything sour, really), squash, peas, green beans, etc, etc. she hasn't rejected anything we've given her yet. (i told you she was an angel!) i always say i hope she has her daddy's taste because i annoy myself with my pickiness. so far, so good. she's still on formula, although we are giving her less now because she eats so much food. we can't wait to stop with the formula. it's expensive, it's stinky and i'm just over it!

• she goes to bed around 9-9:30p and wakes up around 9-9:30a. again… ANGEL!

• she is wanting to walk so bad… always standing up and walking along anything she can get her hands on. sometimes she forgets that she needs to hold onto something and just lets go. she will stand on her own for a split second until she realized she can't quite do that yet. however, she is a great 'faller' and doesn't think much of it when she tumbles to the floor. she also figured out that she can climb on the couch if she stands on the bumbo. needless to say, we don't keep the bumbo by the couch anymore.

she's very sleepy in this picture, but you get the point

• she is babbling and talking like crazy. definitely a loud mouth! she's always finding new sounds to make. also clapping and raising her hands when we say, "tada!"

• she's slowly starting to understand signs. she learned her first word about a month ago… "doggie". it's an understatement when i say she loves morgan. she LOVES her! she always grabs her ball and just holds it so that momo will come close to her. then she just cracks up when she comes close. she also loves to give her kisses. the only reason why momo 'lets her' is because she can't see her!

• she loves to play in her 'house'. we were given this cute interactive house that makes sounds and sings, etc. we put it in front of our fireplace and all of her toys are 'inside' the house. she spends so much time in there. she will crawl through the front door and sit in there and play with her toys for a long time. it's so stinkin' cute! we've tried to get a video, but she knows when we sneak up on her and then tries to reach for the camera. we'll keep trying, though!

Other happenings…
Nana and Pop came to visit. They came up to spend some time with us and keep Amelie so Ant and I could take a day trip to Charleston to celebrate our 2nd anniversary.

Here we are in Charleston (a little windy by the water!). We had an awesome day and as much as we were missing Amelie all day, it was so great to spend some time together, just the 2 of us. We had some amazing food and literally walked the city 3 times. (My lesson learned… don't wear flip flops next time… it's not a fun end result) We also went to the SC aquarium. NOT worth the money if you are thinking about going… it was pretty disappointing.

Thanks Mom and Dad!!

Hanging out at Griffin Park when mom and dad were in town.

Amelie loves to watch the fountains!

Amelie absolutely loves her cousins! Lucie, Reagan and Quin came for a visit and we went to the park to play.

We tried to get a group shot, but this is the best we could get. Ha!

Givin' Reagan some love… she loves to give kisses!

We also got a visit from Grammy (Ant's mom), but I didn't get any pictures on my camera. Sorry Marian!

And then we got a visit from Amelie's aunties Hazel and Minh-thi from Orlando. We had a fabulous time and I was on cloud 9 when they were here! I love hangin' out with my girls… I miss them SO much! Amelie loved it too because she got LOTS of attention and kisses :)

Needless to say, we've had some GREAT times these past few months and love to have visitors. Other than that, we've been staying busy… Ant finished his summer quarter with ALL A's!!!!! and he started his fall quarter a couple weeks ago. I've had some changes with work and at first I was a little freaked out, but God continues to bless us and He constantly reminds me that I need to fully trust in Him because He always provides!! He has brought some new clients in that have been a pleasure to work with and I am so thankful that I'm able to work at home and spend time with my baby girl while I work. I don't ever take that for granted.

I've also been planning Amelie's 1st birthday party and having a blast in the process. I'm SO excited about it!! I'll leave you with one of my favorites. This is what we see on a daily basis…

Nothing but smiles, laughter and sweetness… God is SO good!

For more pictures, visit our flickr.

8 months

2010-07-01T08:49:00.000-07:00

Amelie turned 8 months old yesterday! I can't believe how time flies. It's crazy to think about everything she's accomplished in these first 8 months of her life.

What she's doing now:

• eating cereal, fruits & veggies
• sleeping about 11 hours every night [she's been doing this for a while… we know we are very blessed in this department!]
• sitting up
• standing up holding on to one hand or the couch or whatever she can grab
• rolling around everywhere!
• rocking on her hands and knees
• army crawling and scooting - mostly chasing morgan around the living room
• jumping, jumping, jumping, jumping………… !!!
• babbling "bah bah mmmbhaaaa" - she has DEFINITELY found her voice! it clicked 2 days
ago and all of the sudden we had this loud mouth daughter that talks all the time!
• and my personal favorite… gives kisses and hugs! she wraps her little hands around our neck to pull us closer and then plants huge 'kisses' on our faces. 9 times out of 10, it's on our nose. and when i say "on our nose", i mean, open mouth saliva up the nostrils so you have to blow your nose kind of kiss. it's gross and fantastic at the same time!

We go on walks to the park about 5 or 6 times a week which she loves! She loves to swing and sometimes if it's really hot, we play in the splash park.

She continues to melt our vulnerable hearts every day and she never ceases to amaze us. Praise God that we have a happy, healthy baby!

Amelie wanted to say a little something… click here to watch/listen!

Trip to FL May/June - Next stop: Orlando

2010-06-30T20:39:00.000-07:00

We got to hang out with all of our friends and play in the pool for a few days… it was glorious!

She's a rockstar… must have been all of that

coldplay and mutemath she listened to before she was born :)

watch out, Travis Barker

mushu is playing lifeguard

water baby!!

our family picture [plus jenn's legs]

amie and aunt minh-thi

hazel!

dane, robyn, heather and patrick

we celebrated jenn's bday :)

robyn and patrick

my besties!

the email posse, reunited [and minh-thi and mark!]

amie looks so sophisticated in aunt hazel's headband :)

Stay tuned for the last leg of the trip…

FL Trip May/June - 1st Stop: Spring Hill

2010-06-30T20:17:00.000-07:00

We took a trip to FL and made our rounds between Ant's spring and summer quarters. First stop: Spring Hill!

Amelie started sitting up on her own! She's so proud of herself… can you tell?

We went blueberry picking…

Look how beautiful they are!

It was all fun and games until I stuck my hand in a wasp nest.

I don't recommend doing that… my entire hand was swollen for 3 days :(

She was such a good helper!

That's Grammy off in the distance

Holy Blueberry, Batman!!!

Us with our bucket of blueberries… couldn't wait to eat em!

Uncle Nick came to visit!

We took a trip to Homassassa Springs and saw lots of animals…

That's Lucifer the 30 year old hippo in the background

Grammy is showing Amie the birds… that's her favorite!

Amie took her first ride on daddy's shoulders :)

We enjoyed having the family over for a bbq.

Everyone got to see Amie for the first time since Christmas…

Amie and Aunt Alice

Amie with Aunt La and Aunt Mar

Amelie wore her 'heaven sent' shirt for the first time. Thank you Aunt Debbie!!

We had a great time… stay tuned for the next leg of our trip!

daddy's day

2010-06-30T19:41:00.000-07:00

we celebrated anthony's first father's day by just relaxing at home and then going to the park! ant and amelie got superhero capes so they can fight crime together. amelie was more excited about the ribbon on the cape than the actual cape, but i KNOW daddy will show her how to make 'real' use of the cape as she gets older :)

I am SO thankful that I have such a loving, caring, thoughtful, helpful, faithful man for a husband. He is an amazing father and Amelie is so blessed that he's her daddy!