Ten Months

Amelia turned ten months old last week. We celebrated by going to visit my family in Texas--which also meant our first attempt at air travel as a family. Mercifully, Amelia continues to be a good traveler. There was lots of crawling back and forth between our laps and we had to resort to every single trick we know to keep her entertained, but there was no relentless screaming or crying or unfortunate mishaps wherein one or all of us require a change of clothes. Ok, Amelia did have to be changed out of the cute dress I put her in to greet her Nana, but that happened in the airport where I had easy access to a changing table, so it doesn't count as a mishap--just situation normal.

Ten months is proving to be particularly exciting. Amelia is on the verge of walking. She's been cruising around the living room for a while now, but in the last few days she's made dramatic progress. She can stand up on her own without relying on something to pull up on and will even take one or two steps before slumping to the ground. Crawling is still faster for her and I think that is the main reason she falls down. She likes to go fast (we are in North Carolina, you know) and she doesn't have the patience for walking yet. Also, much to our displeasure, she has discovered the stairs and has figured out how to climb them. She is, of course, thrilled with her new skills. She started clapping in the last month, so we always know when she's happy with something.

Other fun things about her right now that I don't want to forget include:

• She loves blueberries. She gobbles them up with both fists faster than I can put them down on her plate and she makes funny num-num noises while she eats them.
• She is very sensitive, dissolving into tears when teased (by her Daddy mocking her runny nose and her Aunt Susan trying to play monkey in the middle, no less!) or caught off guard by a stranger. Jason is horrified that he might have to reign in his sarcastic sense of humor.
• She is wild about other kids, especially bigger kids around 4 or 5 years old. She greets them all with a wild squeal and frantic waves.
• She seems to love music--all kinds. Everything from the children's CDs we keep in the car to Arcade Fire, Flo Rida, Bach, and my own atrocious voice will have her bouncing up and down.

Very Fun iPhone App

You probably already know about this, but I just bought my first iPhone app (after owning the phone for nearly six months): Camera Bag. It processes your photos using 12 different retro filters. I love it. Here are some fun images I've been playing around with:

Instant:

Magazine:

Lomo:

Plastic:

Six, Seven, Eight, Nine!!?!?

Amelia is nine months old! We have no idea how or when this happened. The last thing we remember is that lovely weekend in Wilmington and then BAM! Here we are. The reality is that the last few months have been the most intense of my entire working career. (For all of my publishing pals, I had six projects going to print in a six week period--almost 2000 pages. Yes, it is a miracle that I am not in some sort of stress induced coma.) On top of all of that, Amelia has grown and changed dramatically. I'm sure it's safe to say she's been doing the most intense work of her young career too. The thing that has been the most shocking to me has been her shift from needs to wants. She used to need to eat and nap and have her diaper changed. Now she needs those things, plus, she wants very desperately to squeeze Olive's face and rub her nose on Olive's fur. She wants to eat the remote control. She wants to play in the fireplace. She wants to open and close the doors on the TV stand. Perhaps you are noticing a theme? If we were playing Jeopardy the clue would be "Things to which Mommy must say No! all day."

It is exciting to see her turning into a little kid, but also a little sad. So that we can remember all of the stages of our sweet baby girl, here are the last few months in photos.

First Easter egg hunt:

In her lovely Easter dress (she was not really sitting up yet at this point, but we were giving it a try. She did a serious face plant shortly after this was taken because I was not fast enough when she started teetering--a Bad Mommy moment):

The first few bites of solid food! She was well past six months when we finally gave this a try, so it was a hit immediately. She was more than ready.

Bath time is now serious play time:

Amelia crashed the party at our ten year (!) college reunion--and passed out:

This is how she falls asleep when she is resisting a much needed nap:

Starting to crawl:

The most desired object in the house (we have since had to quarantine Olive's dish behind a baby gate. Poor Olive can't get to her own food without a lift.):

Chilling at the beach on the Outer Banks:

She loved the pool at our beach house:

Very suspicious of the man taking our photo at the Cape Hatteras light house:

World's cutest pirate, Salty Amelia Jones:

At the Black Beard museum on Ocracoke:

Now insisting on eating foods that she can feed herself, she shuns the purees:

Spying on the neighbors:

Eyeing Dad's lunch:

At her nine month appointment she was 27 inches tall and 16.4 lbs. This was also the first appointment where she seemed to have any sense of her surroundings. She did not like being weighed and measured and screamed her head off the entire time. She was very nice to the doctor though and was a real champ when she had to have blood drawn for a lead test (due to the age of our house). Put that on the list of world's worst jobs--drawing blood from babies!

Expect more frequent posts now that life has settled down a bit around here. In fact, somehow in the last few months we actually managed to get a few projects done around the house, including a bathroom makeover that I adore.

Wilmington Weekend

In an effort to prove to ourselves that we can, in fact, be spontaneous with a baby, we decided at the last minute to go to Wilmington for a night last weekend. It was windy and a little cool, but Amelia still got to dip her toes in the Atlantic Ocean for the first time.

Amelia continues to be an easy little traveler. She even napped at just the right times, allowing us to have a lovely, peaceful sunset dinner on the river.

Five Months!

If you think your life is dragging by too slowly, I recommend having a kid. It's like hitting fast forward. Wow. I can't believe Amelia is five months old already. A single day with a baby can seem like an eternity (especially if you're the primary or only caregiver, as I learned when Jason was recently out of town on business), but collectively weeks and months go by in a flash. At her four month appointment, Amelia was 12 lbs 7 oz. and 24 inches long (or is it tall now that she likes to stand up?). She might be close to 14 lbs by now.

As far as development goes, she's doing all sorts of things these days: awesome belly laughs whenever I tickle her ribs or do anything else that she thinks is great, reaching for and grabbing things, putting her pacifier in her mouth by herself, rolling over from front to back (though not regularly or with much intention) and side to side, blowing raspberries (I have a great video of this but can't get it to upload to the blog), focusing on the pictures in books when I read to her, oh and, um, CUTTING TWO TEETH! Already! I'm guessing they'll be out by the end of the week.

She has lots of likes these days too, including her dog Olive who she just discovered in the last month or so. Watching Olive run around the living room is a favorite afternoon activity. Of course, Olive is still not too sure about Amelia. Amelia also likes chomping on her little hands or chewing on my knuckle, listening to me sing (her favorite songs include the Hokey Pokey, the theme from the Monkees, and the Muppet Show theme. I have no idea why these are the few songs from childhood that I can remember.), her Sofie the Giraffe toy, standing on top of any surface and "dancing," and being lifted up in the air by her daddy. She's also really fascinated by any new experience, like watching the cashier at the grocery store or going on a hike at our favorite state park. It's been fun watching her watch us.

Of course, our greatest achievement in the last month has been establishing a regular bedtime and bedtime routine. I can't even put into words how much this has improved our evenings, so, I'll just leave you with a photo of our little Sleeping Beauty.

We're back!

Many things have happened in the last two months that have kept me from blogging. I went back to work. Jason went to Europe for 10 days. Our camera broke. My mom came to visit. We went to Maryland. American Idol started. As a new working mom (more on that another day) I have a million reasons to avoid blogging. But an awfully fun reason to get back to the blog arrived in the mail last week: our new camera. A Canon G11 to replace the above mentioned broken camera. I love it. I realize having a fancy new camera does not necessarily make me a great photographer, but I sure feel like one when I'm using it.

Texas Christmas

Because we are crazy, we loaded up the Family Truckster and drove to Texas to spend the holidays with my family. Yes, drove. To Texas. With our 10-week-old baby. And our dog. Did I mention that we're crazy?


Here's my view for the entire 2,900 mile+ round trip:

Actually, the drive was not nearly as bad as you would imagine. Amelia appears to be a born traveler (for now anyway). She slept most of the drive and only lost her mind twice--first in Atlanta traffic and then in Houston traffic. And who could blame her? I wanted to be screaming my head off at that point too.

Here's our first family Christmas photo (taken at my sister Susan's house where we spent the holiday):

Amelia and Nana:

Amelia in her Christmas dress laughing at Nana (Nana is apparently the most amusing person on earth):

She is smiling all the time these days and we've even been graced with the occasional giggle. She thinks it's really funny when we dance for her and she's obsessed with ceiling fans. They're hilarious, apparently.

I had to include a shot of Amelia and the play mat because it was an absolute must-pack for our trip--she loves it and it buys us the occasional free moment. (Great big kiss to Katie for this awesome shower gift!):

Amelia and "The Oldest Cousin on Earth":

Amelia and Aunt Cindy:

Have I mentioned how nice it is to have so many people around who want to hold your baby?

Amelia and the super clever baby tent (that she didn't really want to sleep in. I'm hoping that will change soon.):

With her cousins on Christmas morning:

More Christmas morning:

The cousins:

Amelia was really not a fan of this family tradition:

After Christmas, we headed north for New Year's Eve. Here's Amelia meeting her Uncle Paul.

With her wacky cousin Dylan:

Yes, we obviously know how to ring in the new year:

Amelia was passed out before midnight.

And, a very serious face before we began the long trip home:

Overall, a very relaxing vacation, despite the long drive and challenges of traveling with an infant. Definitely a major confidence booster. We can take her anywhere!