21 Months ~Amelia~

Growth: 
Weight: 24.8 

Height:  33”

 

Clothing is basically the same as last month.  I am pretty sure I have all of Amelia’s 18 month clothes out of rotation (as if I’ve had enough time to actually pack them away!).  She is in 24 month and 2T items.  Diapers are still a size 4 and shoes a size 5-6. 

 

Mobility/Coordination:  This girl can go!  She is very fast on her tummy going down the stairs now and can keep up with her brother.  I can’t wait to see what’s in store for the summer once we can get outside more!    

Language/Communication:  Amelia’s communication is still growing quickly.  She is saying more two word phrases and her favorite lately is “up mommy.”  Her answer is “noooo” to any question you ask her but she finally nods her head yes.  She replies with “I la oooh” when you tell her, “I love you.” 

Personality/Amelia-isms:  Amelia’s personality is still evolving but she still likes to think she is the one in charge.  She is very independent and determined.  

Sleep:  No news here… One nap in the afternoon and then bed at 6:30-7 and sleeping through the night.

Eating:  We typically eat out once or twice a week and she has really been making this task difficult lately.  Most of the meal revolves around getting her to sit still or sit down or actually eat some food.  When possible we strap her in the high chair which she hates!  Overall, she still eats like a bird and eats only when she feels like it.        

Teeth:  No news here.   

Illnesses/Owies:  We walked into Amelia’s room just last weekend to check on her on a Saturday morning (still sleeping at 7:30) only to be met by a terrible odor.  I initially thought maybe she had pooped and fallen back asleep.  However, upon closer inspection I found her sound asleep and both her and her bedding covered in vomit.  Poor girl puked in the night and never once cried or woke us up. 

The rest of that day followed with several move puking incidents but no fever or any other symptoms.  The bug only seemed to last about 12 hours because she woke the next day and never slowed down.   

Brother/Sister Moment(s):  Amelia and Grant still enjoy playing together and usually manage to keep the spats to a minimum.  We’ll enjoy these days while we can!

Firsts/Adventures:  It was a relatively quiet month after all of the Christmas festivities subsided which was nice.  We celebrate New Year's Eve with our close friends Mike and Jenni and their daughter Addie.  Amelia was a champ and made it until midnight!

Grandma Cheryl and Pa were in town to celebrate Grant’s 4^th birthday.  Amelia loved the balloons and cake and they both really enjoyed their grandma and Pa time.  

   

Amelia still seems to be indifferent to snow.  She recently wanted nothing to do with it at daycare when they went outside.  She wouldn’t even leave the sidewalk and when they put snow on the sidewalk and tried to get her to step in it, she refused.  However, she had a blast at a recent ice fishing outing in which she got to ride behind a 4-wheeler on a sled. 

Likes:  Dumping milk/water out and smearing on table (this is on mommy and daddy’s dislike list!) ~ taking socks off ~ taking hat and mittens off the minute you put them on ~ reading ~ dog (a new stuffed animal from grandma Cheryl and Pa) 

Dislikes:  being told no ~ eating at dinner ~ empty milk cups ~ wearing hat and mittens ~ wearing socks 

Toddler Moment(s):  Things have been about the same here with Amelia showing her occasional sassy side by stomping her foot and blowing raspberries when she doesn’t get her way.  Time out is becoming more prevalent and the words “no” and “leave it” seem to constantly be coming out of our mouths. 

Potty Training:  We’ve had two successful potties on the small training toilet!  The first ever was mid-month and the other more recently.  A step in the right direction!   

Happy 4th Birthday Grant

Happy 4^th Birthday Grant Irvin!!

I think the most exciting thing for me this year was that Grant got to choose his own birthday theme and absolutely loved it.  He loves Legos and for him it was an obvious choice when I started throwing ideas out there for him to choose amongst.

It was so fun getting him more involved in the decorations and letting him pick the color of his balloons and the fire engine balloon to go with the bouquet.  He opted for red, green, and yellow lego bricks for his cake and lego cookies.  Otherwise, I kept it rather simple other than making lego heads out of empty red vine and cheeto puff containers as well at marshmallows.  

 

Best Friends!

We had a house full of immediate family, grandparents and a couple of close friends.  Overall, it was the perfect day because he had such a great time.

Another year older and hard to believe… We love you so much Grant!    

~Christmas 2014~

Christmas this year was jam-packed as usual but we had such a nice time as a family and with family.  We worked very hard this year to keep the focus on Jesus and his birth and talked about it with the kids frequently.  As special and magical as Christmas can be, we always want the emphasis placed on the true reason and that is the fact that we are truly blessed and saved by grace because our Savior Jesus who was born on Christmas and died for our sins so we may be forgiven!     

On Christmas Eve we had two stops... the first being my Aunt Jackie’s house on my dad’s side.  The kids had a great time playing (and exploring her not necessarily kid-friendly home because let’s be real… people who don’t have small children don’t have to worry about that stuff anymore!).  Matt and I spent most of our time following the kids around asking them not to pick this or that up or stopping Amelia from opening some random drawer with scissors in it.  It was mostly relaxing though and not overly crowded so that was nice but it was a little exhausting at times.    

Amelia playing with candleesticks

Goofy Gooses

 

After Jackie’s house, we were off to Matt’s grandpa Cliff’s house (his dad’s dad).  There is always a very large group there and it’s always a nice, loud and fun time.  Matt’s dad… I mean Santa even made a special appearance!

Grant with Santa aka Papa George

Santa and his kids

Santa and his children in law

Amelia wanted NOTHING to do with Santa

On Christmas morning Matt and I were awake before the kids and patiently waiting.  When Grant first wandered down the stairs, he was the least enthusiastic little boy I’ve ever seen on Christmas morning with a tree full of presents in front of him.  (Our little Grant is not a morning person at all… under any circumstance apparently.)  Once he woke up more, he was very excited and Amelia followed suit tearing into their presents from mommy and daddy, Santa, and Grandma Cheryl and Pa.  After a relaxing morning, we were off to our first stop of three for the day.

 First on the list was Matt’s parent’s so the kids could open their gifts from them and we could wish them a Merry Christmas.

The 2^nd stop was my grandma’s house on my dad’s side.  A delicious meal followed by some relaxation and kid’s play time with some new toys then we were on to our final stop for the day.

Matt’s grandma on his mom’s side was the last stop.  I am sure you can imagine that by this point the kiddos were rather tired.  They both fell asleep in the car on the way there and continued to sleep until we woke them up about an hour later.  They woke in relatively good spirits considering and we rounded off our Christmas day with the Pipping side of the family before heading home to crash!

20 Months ~Amelia~

So far the late fall/early winter festivities have proven to be a great time.  Amelia is taking it all in stride and taking it all in.  Because of lack of snow we haven’t really had the chance to play in it at all but we are hoping we’ll see some soon.  

Daddy's little girl

Growth:

Weight:  Forgot to take it this month (oops!) 
Height:  33”

Nearly all of Amelia’s 18 month clothes have been taken out of rotation.  She is in 24 month and 2T items.  Diapers are still a size 4 and shoes a size 5-6. 

Mobility/Coordination:  We affectionately refer to Amelia as “Meals on Wheels.”  Although I am not a fan of the nickname “Meals” it is definitely fitting for how active she is.  She is getting much faster at going down the stairs.  She sits down, turns onto her tummy and goes sliding down.

She now gets her coat on by flipping it over her head if you lay it down on the floor in the right direction.  

Decorating Christmas cookies

Language/Communication:  Speech has continued to grow exponentially.  Amelia can say shoe off, milk please, more please, owie and stop it.  “Please” comes out more like “peas” and is absolutely adorable when she still pats her belly for the sign language.    In the spirit of Christmas, she also likes to point out “Mary” “baby Jesus” and “Joseph” in nativity scenes.  When asked what a cow says, Amelia replies with a very boisterous “Mooooo” and when asked what a sheep says Amelia replies with an equally enthusiastic “Baaaaa.”   

Personality/Amelia-isms:  Amelia is still our mini little fireball.  She’s mostly happy and silly but lets you know when she isn’t or doesn’t want to do something. 

Bucket head

Sleep:  No news here… One nap in the afternoon and then bed at 6:30-7 and sleeping through the night.

Eating:  Amelia still pecks at her food and generally doesn’t eat much.  You’d think she’d wither away but she definitely has not.  We’ve found that she seems to enjoy eating during the day more than eating a big meal at supper.    

Teeth:  Amelia popped her lower left incisor this month.  That means she is done until her 2 year old molars decide to make an appearance.   

Illnesses/Owies:  None

Helping decorate the Christmas tree!

Brother/Sister Moment(s):  Amelia is beginning to understand the concept of sharing and she is usually ok with it.  Of course her and Grant have their spats but if I say “wait your turn” she is usually content waiting. 

Firsts/Adventures:  We’ve had a lot of fun this month.  Thanksgiving was very nice and the weekend after we went and cut down a Christmas tree.  Amelia loved riding in the sled to pick it out.  We decorated a gingerbread house together and went to the Wisconsin Dells for our annual Fisher Christmas Vacation.  She wanted absolutely nothing to do with the Santa we saw there (and same goes for the Santa we went and ate breakfast with and Papa George dressed as Santa).  Amelia was initially timid in the waterpark but warmed up quickly.  It wasn’t long before she was trying to wander to the pool/slides on her own (normal fearless Amelia tactics).

Come play with me Vada!

 Likes:  stickers ~ park light show ~ unzipping zippers ~ taking her socks off ~ wearing shoes and trying to put them on ~ reading (she will actually sit still for an entire book now!) ~ picking out the book we read each night (usually the Noah’s Ark story we have) ~ helping unload the dishwasher ~ singing and being sung to ~ blanket or “bah-boo”

Dislikes:  eating at dinner ~ empty milk cups

Toddler Moment(s):  The unfortunate problem of being a younger sibling is you learn both the good and bad behaviors of your older sibling.  Amelia has taken after her brother when she doesn’t get her way by stomping her foot, grunting, and blowing raspberries.  This type of behavior didn’t start in Grant until quite a bit older it seems!    

Potty Training:  No real strides in the potty front.  Amelia still only likes to sit on the small potty but that only lasts for about 10 seconds tops.