Play Date II

Well, allow me to be the first to admit that I was very, very wrong about the play date. Amelia absolutely loved it. Not only did she forget that she had actual parents, but she also apparently forgot that she hates baths. She also came the realization that her house is an utter disappointment by comparison...the only thing we have here are 5,000 of her own toys. Who wants to play with your own toys when your friends have all new things at their houses?!? Needless to say, this was the first, but will be nowhere near the last, play date with Mackenzie - who Amelia let us know on the way over there is "her best friend".

Play Date

Amelia just got invited to her first play date without her parents. Now, we are excited about this proposition. We will get to go grab a bite to eat or shop without wrestling her or repeatedly answering "Hey Guys, what you doin' Guys?". On the surface it seems like Amelia is going to love it. She will be going over to her BFF Mackenzie's house. She loves Mackenzie and her mom. So, it would appear as though all is well. However, I have a sneaking suspicion that she is going to approach meltdown as we try to exit stage left. We shall see. I hope I'm wrong.

Too Much

Meggan had me remove the Doppelganger post because that little Amelia look-a-like was creeping her out.

Stress Is Bad

People always give us a hard time about boarding Sophie when we go on vacation. Some of them think it is mean to not include her...Others simply think we are fools for spending the money. I try to explain that Sophie isn't your average dog. She is actually the 9 pound living, breathing embodiment of stress. She isn't one of those little dogs that sits around and shakes all the time. That said, if there is the slightest introduction of ANYTHING new, all hell breaks loose. She can't even get in the car without a Xanax or two. If it wasn't so expensive, I'd fill her water bowl with Margaritas every day just to give her a break. So, to any of you who feel we should bring Sophie with us and put her through the stress of travel, I give you exhibit 1 - a gift she left me yesterday after freaking out all day while roofers worked on our house.

(yep, that is what you think it is and yep, that probably breaks every rule of blogging and yep, it is disgusting and yep, Sophie needs a therapist)

How Do You Know?

One of my biggest gripes when Amelia was a baby was that it was very hard to tell what was bothering her when she was sick...and she was sick all the time. So, as parents you just have to do your best to look for signs and do what you can to help. Now, flash forward a year or so to a new and improved Amelia that talks more than almost any human could bear to hear. I assumed this would be a huge help in the area of sick child diagnosis. However, we have encountered a problem I never anticipated...she likes to pretend...and she's really good at it. That said, I really have no way of knowing when she is sick or when she is going for an Oscar. After all, this is a girl who cried, shedding actual tears, for almost an hour saying she "broke her crown" after watching a Humpty Dumpty video. So, tonight she has whined multiple times that her head hurts. When I asked her why, she said it was because "Mackenzie hit it...with a hammer". Sure, I suppose that could have happened, but it is more likely that Amelia has now decided to combine the truth with her make believe stories in an attempt to really confuse her parents and make them look like complete morons.

Accent

If any of you knows where Amelia has picked up her very Southern accent (not the cute Southern Belle one, the Billy Bob Thornton one) can you please let me know so I can put them in a headlock?

Thanks

The Forgotten One

Not too long ago, I posted a picture of Amelia wearing a shirt announcing the impending arrival of our second child...and I haven't really mentioned it since. The funny thing is it has kind of been that way around our house as well. We planned it. We are extremely excited about it. We are even transitioning Amelia's room because of it. Yet, for some reason, I'm not sure it has really settled into our minds. We feel badly about the lack of attention the pregnancy is getting these days. That said, I don't know how to fix it. I refuse to shortchange Amelia during her remaining 6 months of being the sole focus. She deserves it and she'll never get it back. I'm sure we will do a better job once we know the sex and start putting a name with the preparations. Until then, I suppose we'll just keep ignoring the growing bump and the nice sympathy gut I am sure to gain.

Mission Accomplished

Amelia's surgery was a smashing success today. She was a very good sport about the whole thing. Sure, there were some rough times in the recovery room. But, even those were mild compared to the kid next to her who kept screaming "HELP ME" at the top of his lungs. Apparently, everyone comes off of anesthesia in their own way. Once we got her home, she eventually came back around to nearly her old self. With a little luck, she will be far better than her old self in a few days. Thank you all for all the well wishes.

Wish us luck

At 6 a.m. tomorrow morning we will walk into the ENT's office and begin getting Amelia ready for surgery on her ears and adenoids. While the long term hope is that it clears up her ear infections and chronic coughing issues, the immediate prayer is simply that all goes well. So, please keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we go through this routine, yet scary procedure. They say the only minor surgery is surgery that somebody ELSE has to go through. Well, that doesn't count when that somebody is your sweet little baby girl.

Fast Friends

With Meggan roaming the streets of New York City this weekend, I had my mother and brother come up to help me wrangle Amelia. While she had a great time playing with all of us, it was obvious who she enjoyed the most - Her Uncle, Keith.

He watched her play in the pool...


She explained the meaning of life...


He taught her how to throw...


She taught him how to take a rest on someone's head...


He showed her how to give a back massage...


She taught him how to feed a giraffe...


He helped her stay cool in the fan...


She helped him get suckered into buying her a pink elephant...

Late to bed, early to rise

At 9:15 tonight, Amelia was still awake and asking to dance. I'm not even exactly sure how we missed bedtime by an hour, but I'm fairly certain of 2 things...1)it has something to do with the fact that Meggan is not here to regulate us and 2)Amelia will still wake up at precisely 6 A.M.

Good News!!

Look Out

Meggan is flying to Manhattan this weekend

+

My mother is coming up to hang out with me and Amelia

=

There will be absolutely no sign of adult supervision in this house

Lesson Learned

In general, I feel like the best way to get Amelia to do the things I want her to do is to let her see me doing them myself. I eat peas when I don't want them. I wash my hands when they are already clean. And yes, I occasionally fake-sit on the potty. However, tonight, I didn't completely think things through before I made my deal with her. For some reason, Amelia had no interest in brushing her teeth tonight. More importantly, she had even less interest in me helping her brush her teeth. Thus, I made her a deal...if she let me brush her teeth, she could brush mine. What the hell was I thinking?!? After we were done with her, I had to hand over my giant, electric toothbrush and let a 2 year-old do work. She wielded that thing like some sort of foaming light saber. I'm not sure if she brushed away any plaque, but I do know if any was present, she would have beaten it into submission. I'm lucky she didn't knock out any teeth, let alone clean them. To top it off, do you know what happens when you pull a buzzing electric toothbrush out of your mouth? Well, let me tell you...it turns into a vibrating toothpaste slinger from which there is no escape. So, at the end of the night, our final tally was - several clean teeth, two dirty people, and one big mistake.

Home Sweet Home

Well, we were somehow able to peel Amelia from her grandparents' grasp and bring her back home today. Overall, I think the trip was a success. I do have to admit that Meggan and I spent roughly 85% of our time at the beach talking about Amelia. So, in that vain, I'm not sure we got a real "break". Also, as only our luck would have it, our alarm went off at 6 a.m. the first morning - the exact time Amelia wakes us up each day. I'd like to give a special thanks to the person who left the alarm set when they checked out of the hotel.

From all reports, Amelia handled herself like a big girl and didn't get too upset that we were gone. Naturally, she repeatedly inquired as to our whereabouts, but that was about it. In fact, when we arrived back from the beach, Meggan and I camped beside her on the bed as she napped. I anxiously awaited her waking up to see her daddy and jumping with joy at the sight. Yeah, I didn't get that. Instead, she opened her sleepy eyes, looked at us, and said "I don't want to go home".

The only saving grace we had as we convinced her to cheer up about being stuck with her lame parents is that her aunt and other grandmother are coming this weekend and her grandma and grandpa will be coming up next week. So, she'll only have to deal with us...and our silly rules like "no fruit snacks at bedtime"...for a few days.

So Far, So Good

We have arrived at Grandma and Grandpa's. Additionally, we have seen Sadie, Bear, Aunt Kim, and Uncle Jay. Operation: Ditch Amelia is well underway.

Fingers Crossed

In the 2 years and 4 months of Amelia's life, Meggan and I have spent roughly 6 nights away from her together. Additionally, I have spent another 8 nights away by myself. This means that I get Amelia's morning wake up call (I eaaaat waaaaffless, I need cookie bar, I sleep mommy-daddy bed, etc.) approximately 59 out of every 60 days. Well, guess what...this weekend will consist of a few of those sweet, sweet mornings where I get to sleep in. Meggan and I are heading to the beach for a little privacy and as stated on the video in the previous post, Amelia is excited to be seeing her Grandma, Grandpa, Sadie, Bear, Kim, and Uncle Jay. Now, the one tiny detail she doesn't know yet is that mommy and daddy won't be there. I figure it is probably best to let Grandma and Grandpa figure out how to break that news to her.

Dinner Time

Here is a snippet from a typical dinner at our house these days. A few things you need to know going in... 1)Amelia plays in Home Living with Mackenzie every day. 2)We are going to see her Grandparents this weekend along with their two dogs Sadie and Bear, as well as Amelia's Uncle Jay and Aunt Kim. 3)Amelia is mesmerized by the ability to wiggle your eyebrows. She keeps working on it, but usually ends up with her eyes closed more than anything else.

Say What...

I have been asked why I stopped posting any of the "conversations" between Sophie and Amelia. Well, the reason I don't do that anymore is because Amelia does all of her own talking these days and it is far better than any of the crap I was writing. For instance, just today she said...

"Happy Birthday to you. Happy Birthday to you. Happy Birthday dear Mimi. Happy Birthday to you." - while singing Happy Birthday to her aunt, Stacy. So, while her heart was in the right place, I don't think she understands that you don't sing Happy Birthday to yourself for EVERYONE's birthday.

"Be quiet! You need put your listening ears on. Do you want go to timeout, Sophie? Do you?!?" - to Sophie when she would not stop barking

"Get out of my mouth, bunnies! Go to your house! There nothing in there for you!" - to the "bunnies" in her mouth we search for each night with a toothbrush.

The Bombs Bursting in Air...

Amelia got her first taste of fireworks tonight. It was a trial run of home based fireworks used as a test to see if it would be worth our time to battle the crowds to go see a professional display. For the first few tries, it was looking as if she had found her new favorite hobby. It was all well and good with the ground fireworks that just spray colors and sparkles. However, the joy quickly ended with the introduction of the loud explosions. She immediately went from "more fireworks" to "I scared. I want to go inside, daddy. I no like fireworks." Given the fact that a kid in an Iron Man mask (which for some reason freaked her out) completely ruined her playground experience yesterday, I can't really say I was surprised by her reversal. Oh well, I guess our schedule for tomorrow night just became clear.

So Grown

Here is a picture from our shopping trip today. Amelia is on the phone trying to negotiate down the price of her new big girl bed. I guess she didn't like the offer enough because we are still searching. I was surprised to see her business prowess not get taken seriously since she was wearing her finest "cat wearing sunglasses and flower hat" shirt.