Well, you know...

My big girl!

I have a good reason for not posting more often. It begins with an "A" and ends in "melia".

Just a few things I need to write down so I don't forget.

First, I had a dentist appointment on Monday for a cleaning. When I spoke with the receptionist, she said it was totally fine that I bring Amelia with me. So, I showed up, they put her in her car seat on the side table of the receptionist desk. She was awake and happy - smiling at everyone and being cute. Suddenly, one of the hygenists walks to my chair with Amelia in her arms. She only had to utter, "I started to pick her up, and..." before I saw it. The flowered leg of Amelia's romper was yellow - the yellow that signifies a major blowout. I was torn. Of course I felt that, as her mom, I needed to get up and take care of it. However, if I get up and spend 10 minutes cleaning up my baby then that means the dentist is that far behind, if not more, for the rest of the day. The sweet girl who brought Amelia to me asked if it was okay if she changed Amelia's clothes and diaper. I told her thank you and apologized profusely. Next, one of the receptionists brought me the removable section of Amelia's car seat that was yellowed with poo. She showed it to me then stuck it in one of the diaper disposal bags I had with me. Fortunately, when I washed it that day the poo came out. The sweet hygenist who cleaned up my kid came out and told me that the poo was all the way up her back to her neck. Seriously. I was beyond mortified. She's only ever had a blowout at home when D or I could quickly take care of it. No wonder she was so happy and smiley - she was working on something! Anyway, I apologized to the entire staff and ducked out after my appointment.

I took a plain card with a patterned front and attached a wallet-sized photo of Amelia (the one where she's smiling over D's shoulder) to the front. I then drew a "thinking" conversation bubble above her that said "THANK YOU!" On the inside, I thanked the staff and apologized again for the huge inconvenience. Then I baked some homemade chocolate chip cookies and put them in a box with the card taped to the outside of the box. I dropped them off yesterday and today I came home to find this message from my dentist on our answering machine:

"Hi this is for Jamie. Jamie, this is Dr.[dentist's name here] and I just want to thank you so much for the cookies you brought and the very nice note. So this is kind of like a 'thank you' for your 'thank you'. [chuckle] Anyway, the cookies are unbelievable - I love those cookies and I love the way you cooked them - they're perfect. And also I think that's also very nice of you to be so thankful - that just really made our day and I just wanted to say thank you and we all enjoyed the cookies. There's still a few left we haven't eaten them all yet but you did a great job and we all appreciate it. Okay well, hope everything's going great - have a good day."

I thought it was really nice of him to personally call and thank me, especially since the whole purpose of the "thank you/sorry/I'm embarassed" cookies was to hopefully clear the air (figuratively and literally speaking) after my daughter poo-pooed at his office and took up his staff's valuable time.

Anyway, had to document that...the first time my daughter's bodily functions caused me embarassment. Note, she didn't cause me embarassment - just her bodily functions.

Yesterday Amelia and I went to my inlaws' house so that my mother-in-law and sister-in-law could can some dill pickles.

***Okay, it's now a week later. Oops.***

I need to write about what I have on my mind now, so I guess whatever thoughts I had a week ago will never be recorded. Oooh well! The baby is sleeping and, since she's reverted back to a not-so-great sleeping pattern I figure I should hurry up and post so I can go to bed. Lately she's been sleeping SO lightly. She only sleeps about 4 hours at night and when she wakes up I feed her then she has the hardest time falling back to sleep. Finally, after putting her pacifier back in every 5 minutes for 2 hours I have to get up and feed her again and by that time I'm awake and she sleeps for the rest of the morning. It's been weird. I hope it's a phase and that she goes back to sleeping at least 5 or 6 hours soon. Also, I'm not used to having to be quiet when she's sleeping. When she was real little I could do anything with her in the room and she never budged. D and I could pass her back and forth or put her in the Boppy while she slept and she stayed sound asleep. Now, her eyes pop open if you so much as shift her in your arms or crinkle paper while she's sleeping.

We were in Oregon last weekend. It was so much fun. There are so many babies around Amelia's age down there. A dear family friend threw me a baby shower for Amelia and everyone who was there (with the exception of the hostesses and my mom) was either pregnant or had a baby under the age of 8 months.

Here are the babies!
L to R: Lucy (8 months - she belongs to a friend from high school, Bev), Anna (4 months - belongs to Carrie), Amelia, Madison (2 months - she's 5 days younger than Amelia and belongs to a friend from church, Missy), Kate (3 1/2 months - Lindsay's baby), and Will (3 months - belongs to another friend from church, Crystal).

There are SO many pictures from this weekend and most of you have seen them if you're my friend on Facebook, but here are a few!

Millie smiling at her granny & then one of the two of them (in the 2nd picture it looks like Amelia has a tooth, but nope - it's just her drool glistening)...


Sisters with their baby girls in matching dresses. I have a lot of baby weight left to lose (but I have a pretty little girl to show for it)!

Amelia loves her cousin, Caleb. This picture cracks me up...especially because you can see Kate's fat thighs in the background!


Amelia's uncle Chris entertaining the babies. Poor Anna is teething so she was constantly chewing on something!


Happy birthday to my sweet, loving husband who is a wonderful daddy. I'm a very lucky girl! He bought his birthday gift from me already so he made it easy on me. There is a funny thing to our little family about our birthdays. I was born on 6/1, D on 9/2, and Millie on 7/3. So, 1-2-3! Anyway, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, D! I love you!

Amelia's been in bed now for half an hour so I better go. She woke up wanting to eat so I fed her but she fell asleep and was unwakeable so she's a ticking timebomb. I can't remember the last time I saw her eyes close all the way when she's been sleeping. Poor girl probably hasn't gotten a real deep night's sleep in a long time.

Only a little over a week until Chicago!