Nielson Christmas Party

Last night we had a great time at the Nielson Christmas Party. Mia was very good, and did her best to keep up with the big kids. She was walking all over, giving hugs, and she got to unwrap her first Christmas present...a cool Nielson backpack! She also enjoyed eating some party foods (cheesy potatoes, cheese, crackers...mommy's favorites too!). The pictures show the cutest things she did. Sophie Bruns & Mia were giving each other hugs for like 2 minutes straight, then she took a picture with Parker Stecher and crawled up on his lap, and finally mommy and daddy got a great picture in front the Christmas tree. Do you notice Daddy's new hair cut?!

Baby's First Thanksgiving

Last week we celebrate Amelia's first Thanksgiving. We went to Macomb on Wendesday night and spent Thanksgiving day with Grandma, Opa, Uncle Carson & Aunt Krista, and other family and friends. It was a fun day, and Mia tried her first turkey and mashed potatoes. However, she wasn't too thrilled about it because she was on medication for croop that makes you fussy. :( But she did get to enjoy another Thanksgiving meal this past Wednesday when we celebrate with our small group. She had lots of fun being at Grandma's though, and Grandma even hung a swing in her doorway to keep her entertained. She loved it! Mom, Dad, Uncle Carson & Aunt Krista went shopping on Black Friday and Mia stayed with Grandma and Opa. The most exciting purchase was a new flat screen TV! We love it! Mia is still not quite herself this week, but I think she's finally starting to get over this sickness. She's still explaining lots on her feet and starting to walk even more. She's enjoying having our Christmas tree up and ripping the ornaments off the tree too! I'll post some more pictures in another post.

She's walking!

Look at Miss Amelia! She is walking all over the place! The farthest she has gone is from one chair to the other, and she is continuing to walk more steps each day. I think that she will definitely be walking by Thanksgiving, if not Christmas!

Halloween

We have SOOO much to update!! That last big event was Mia's first Halloween. She was a pumpkin, and probably the cutest one you have EVER seen! We went trick-or-treating down our street to visit David & Barb Clark (she got a juice box!), and then came home to a great party with Grandma & Grandpa Havens, Grandma Angie & Opa Jeff, and lots of friends too. It was a great day!

First Steps!!

Last night Mia took her first steps!! I wasn't sure to count that as her first steps, but my friend Chrissy assured me that that was walking! She was standing up at the chair by Chrissy and then turned and took 4 steps to her stand up toy that was about a foot and a half away. We cheered her on and a few minutes later, she went from the chair again, about 2 steps to my arms! I cannot believe this happened so fast! We'll see if she keeps this up! This morning when I tried to get her to do it again she wasn't as brave. I am sure though, that she will be walking by the time she is 10 or 10and a half months! That is something I cannot believe!!

Yesterday we had a fun day too! Daddy had the day off and so he came to the Y with me for my fitness class, then we went to Shop-Ko and found lots of things on sale (Mommy's favorite thing), and then in the afternoon we sent to visit Mia's friend Parker for a little Play Date. For dinner, we had friends over, and Mia took a bath with her friends Dannica & Eliza and then they all happened to have the same kind of pajamas! They were so cute!

Mia loves Grandpa & Daddy

Mia had a great weekend with the Pilger men. On Sunday, Grandpa Pilger came over for lunch and to play. Then Grandmpa babysat Mia while Mommy and Daddy went to Lowe's to find a new bathroom fixture, and while we were gone, Mia took a little nap on Grandpa. I think it made Grandpa's day! The next day, it was Daddy's birthday, and Mia watched daddy blow out 25 candles on his birthday cake! We had a fun time at Pizza Hut with friends, and our friend Chrissy made Joe's request of pistachio, pistachio cake! Yum!

Milestones

Amelia is crawling. Full-out crawling all over the place! She loves to crawl over to the computer tower to push the buttons, to the TV case to kiss the glass, and of course, to the foot stool to play with mommy's book. How do they always find the things that aren't toys? She also has been trying to stand up at the chairs, foot stool, toy basket, etc, and today she stood up at her Leap Frog toy (all by herself!). And the most exciting thing of all is that she has a TOOTH! It must have come in last night or this morning sometime, beacuse after I picked her up from the day care I happened to feel her gums and there it was! It's her bottom left one! So today she's been drooling A TON, and I think it push its way through the rest of the way. So this new tooth may explain the fussiness, runny nose, cough, and awful sleeping habits. It all makes sense now!

Runny nose

On Tuesday, Mia started showing the early signs of getting sick. Poor girl now has an awful runny nose and is coughing because of all of the drainage. Nightime is the worst, and for the last two nights, she's woken up 5 to 7 times. She HATES the little nasal aspirator and has learned what is, so of course, she jerks her head away when she sees it coming. I bought these great "Boogie Wipes" and they do work great at cleaning and moisturizing her nose, but she doesn't like those either, so she turns herself away. I'm hoping that she starts to feel better, simply so she can sleep better at night (and I can too!). She's still in good spirits during the day though, and is enjoying being a crawler and getting into all sorts of things!

Changing WAY to fast!

A few days ago, we took Amelia to North Park, which is a few blocks from our house. She is now big enough to swing in the tot swings, and she liked it! It's hard to believe how fast she is growing up. At 8 months, she has been in 9 month clothing for about 2 months and will soon be growing out of it. Now that it's cooling down, she's wearing long sleeves and bib overalls, which make her look like a big girl, not a baby girl. It's hard for me to fathom how much she has changed. Her hair is much longer, and much blonder (the thing EVERYONE notices). She's starting to crawl, or shall I say, army crawl around the room. She can get up on her knees, but hasn't figured out how to actually crawl, so she just kicks and pulls herself to where she wants to go. Suddenly, she's across the room and I have no idea how she got there. She's maneuvering herself under tables and foot stools, and I've already started changing the room to "baby proof" it a bit more. I wish that I could stop time and enjoy her a little big more at this "just-before-mobile" stage. Soon we'll have baby gates everywhere (Mac will probably go crazy), and I won't be able to leave her in one place and come back to find her in the same place. She's eating all sorts of foods now too...cereal, fruit (her favorite is apples & blueberries), vegetables (squash is still her fav), meat (beef, chicken & turkey), and I think soon we might start cheerio's. Except she still has NO teeth! A friend told me that the later they get them, the better their teeth are, so hopefully that is true. I'm thankful for no teeth as I am still nursing too! We are also on an excellent routine with morning nursing, playtime, cereal & fruit, then nap. Then more playing, vegetables & meat at dinner and another nap after mealtime. She sleeps through the night AND for the most part, always sleeps past 8:00 am. She's starting to say "mama" and "dada," but I don't think she's connected that that is who we are. Just cool sounds to make. So basically, she's growing too fast. Make it stop!

School Starts

Today is the first day of school for Joe. It has been a great summer having Joe home more than previous summers. With only 5 weeks of 1/2 day summer school, and 1 week of training, it allowed Mia to spend mornings and a few weeks having daddy home. Plus we were able to do a lot more this summer, and I feel like we were always on the go. We are so thankful for the nice long summer, and will try to keep ourselves busy while daddy's at work. On Wednesday, football will start, so I need to get started on Mia's "cheerleading" onesie. Her and Parker (Coach Stecher's son) are going to be the team's and their daddy's biggest fans. Today I also will continue my training to teach a deep water fitness class at the YMCA. I'm excited, because it will give me a break in the day from 24 hour baby care, and will be a good way to get into shape. The pics are from our last minute trip to the Quad Cities for one last fun day before school.

St. Louis

Early Monday morning, we took a trip down to St. Louis to visit the St. Louis Zoo as well as Grant's Farms. We arrived around 1:00 pm, and spent 4 hot hours at the zoo. They had great exhibits, including the elephants and the penguins which were our favorite. Mia even had her first ride on a carasel.

After the zoo, we checked into our hotel, ate dinner, then spent the evening in the indoor/outdoor pool swimming. We had a great stay in the hotel, and then left to go to Grant's Farms, which is where the Budweiser clydsdales are. They had lots of cool animals like tortoises, goats, elephants, yaks, buffalo, etc. Joe's favorite part were the 2 free beer samples per person! We invited the Marlin family, and had a great time spending time with them too. It was fun seeing their two girls get excited over the animals.

Summertime

Yesterday I got a few cute pictures of Mia with Taylor. She loves that girl!

Just a little while ago, we got back from a photo shoot with Jodie McNally! We got some family pictures, Mia pictures, and even some Joe & Amanda pictures. Just from looking at a few on her camera, I know that they turned out awesome, and I can't wait to see all of them! Mia was a great little model, and looked beautiful in all of her outfits. She didn't start to fuss until we got into the car, and then crashed when we got home. Smiling and looking pretty wears you out!

Tonight is Mia's first Maple City Cruise Night. We're going to go to the car show to volunteer at the Rainbow Riders food booth, and also to hang out with friends. Joe wants to get a picture of Mia on the hood of a car...we'll see about that! The summer is slowly fading away, and soon Daddy will start school back up. His official first day is a week from today. But we have had a fun summer, and it was been great having him home more compared to summers in the past. Next week we're taking one last mini vacation to St. Louis before school starts.

Amelia's Dedication

On Sunday, August 1st, Amelia was dedicated to the Lord at River of Life International Church by our new pastor Robb Duffie. We had over 20 guests in attendance, including my parents, Joe's parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and close friends. It was great to have everyone there, and Amelia looked absolutely beautiful in her dress! We were able to get lots of good family pictures, and afterwards, we had all of our guests over for lunch. Amelia had a busy weekend with Grandma & Grandpa Havens visiting, and now she's taking a long nap to recover!

Squash!!

Two nights ago, Amelia started eating vegetables! Joe wanted to start with squash, so we tried that, and she loved it! She likes it a lot more than rice cereal, and even opens her mouth now to get ready for the spoon. She's eating about 1/3 to 1/2 of a 4 oz. jar each feeding. We'll stick with squash for a few more days, and then we're going to try sweet potatoes. She gets so messy now when she eats too. I practically have to give her a bath after she eats, because she'll put her hands in her mouth and then touch her eyes and hair, and eventually she's covered in a combinations of spit, squash, and cereal. But luckily, at this age, it's still cute!

Sleeping through the night...

Two nights ago we started "ferberizing" Amelia, which basically means we let her cry herself to sleep with hopes that she eventually stops doing it and falls asleep! The first night, we put her down at 9:30 pm, and she woke up at 11:30, cried her eyes out for about a half hour, then fell asleep until 8:30 am. WOW! However, the half hour of crying was pretty tough on Mom...not su much Dad, because I think he slept though most it! Last night we had company, so Mia didn't get to sleep until 11 pm. Thinking that she was going to wake up two hours later and cry, we were pleasantly surprised when she slept until 7:30 am! Hopefully the 3rd night goes just as smoothly! Right now, she's even taking a nap and it's been about and hour and half. Lately, she's only been taking 30 minute naps, so I'm thankful for this long nap. Today, we're also going to start vegetables! Joe wants to start with squash, so we'll see how that goes!

Our surprise company was my cousin Doug and his family (Renee, Jessica & Spencer). They are from Hudsonville, Michigan and stopped by on their way to St. Louis. We had Los Ranchitos for dinner, and then they spent the night. It was great to have family visit, and we were happy to house them. We all had fun catching up, and that might be the reason that Amelia is so sleepy today. That and maybe her 3 shots yesterday...SO much excitement!

6 Month Check-Up

Can you believe that Amelia is 6 months already?! Today she had her 6 month check-up and was a whopping 17.1 pounds, 27.5 inches long, and her head had grown 2 inches!! So, for that one person who voted for 17 pounds, you were the closest (haha, that might have been me!). The doctor gave the okay to start other foods, so we are going to start vegetables tomorrow, and then add fruits. She's also doing great with all of her motor skills, and he had no concerns about her development. She was such a brave girl too and didn't take long to calm down after her 3 shots (notice the band-aids...). Now she's fallen asleep in her bouncy seat after a tiring hour at the doctor! Poor girl!

Loving Summer

SO much has happened in the last few weeks! I apologize for not updating sooner! Amelia turned 6 months on June 30, so we started rice cereal. She is doing so good, and we are going to start vegetables & fruits next week or the following week. She is rolling over all the time, from belly to back and from back to belly. She's super strong, and trying to scoot too. She is also really good at entertaining herself, whether it be in her bouncy seat or activity mat. She's been enjoying having daddy home in the mornings, and soon he'll be done with summer school and we'll be able to do lots of family activities. We're hoping to take some trips this summer to Ohio, Minnesota, and St. Louis. It's going to be a busy end of the summer, but we're excited! Yesterday, we spent the 4th of July at Twin Maple Campgrounds for an Auliff Family Picnic. Mia even got to go swimming just like Mommy used to. It was lots of fun to see family, and all of her little cousins. When we got home, we another cookout with friends in Monmouth, along with fireworks!

Busy June

It's been a very exciting couple of weeks! Daddy ended school, and has been enjoying spending more time with Amelia. He is the outreach worker for summer school, so he works from noon to 5 pm. Our trip to Michigan over Father's Day weekend was great. My brother, wife and daughter, along with my sister, her boyfriend and his son were up, so we were able to get together with my parents and have a good time. I was especially excited to meet my new neice Violet who is just 22 days younger than Amelia. They were so cute together! This past Friday, it was my 25th birthday, and Joe surprised me with a party with all of my friends. We had a great time! This was a birthday I was somewhat dreading; 25 seemed so old to me...that's half way to 50!! But, I do have a lot to show for for my birthday. A college degree, a husband, a house, a van of my own, and most importantly a new baby! Amelia was a little sick this week with what seemed like diarhea and her first diaper rash. Boy, that was not fun changing her diaper! She's still been pooping almost every diaper, but it eventually cleared up, and it doesn't hurt her anymore

Guess what?! I found my feet!

Amelia has found her feet, and now she likes to play with them and put them in her mouth. Good thing she's not walking all over; I would imagine her feet are cleaner than her hands! I think it all began when we started wearing outfits with no footies or socks. This is only the beginning of the many things she's discovering! She now has a great bouncy seat that has lots of toys and can rotate all around. She tried it for the first time today and seemed to like it! We set her high chair up at our table. She also borrowed a Bumbo chair from her friend Parker, and is enjoying that too, although it makes me nervous because she acted like she was trying stand up in it or tip out of it! She's getting to be a big girl with big girl toys too! Today we bought her some rubber blocks, and Daddy insisted on getting his little girl a stuffed frog. It's been fun having Daddy home too, but we're sort of out of our routine. It should start back up next week though when he starts summer school. We are certainly glad its summer, and can't wait to see all that Amelia does! It's bittersweet, as I'm sad my baby is getting bigger, but excited to see all of the fun things she will start doing.

Swimming!

Last night Daddy had to work late, so Amelia and I decided to cool off by going to swim at the YMCA. At first, I wasn't sure if she was going to like it. She started to cry a bit, but after she got used to the water (it was little cold), she calmed down. I started by just holding her, bouncing up and down, then I gradually lowered her in more and then held her by the arm pits with her belly in the water. She got wet all over except for her head, and she even started to kick a little bit while I pulled her around. She floated on her back, and sat on the side of the pool. I think we defintely have a little water baby on our hands!

Visit to MI

This past weekend, we have a great visit in Michigan. My sister and her boyfriend were planning a visit to my parents, so we decided to do so too. Amelia enjoyed visiting with Grandma & Grandma, and Aunt Becky, and she did surprisingly well sleeping there too! The weather was fantastic too. Last time we visited Big Rapids, it was rainy and cold most of the weekend, but this time we were able to enjoy being outside, and Joe even got to go golfing. On our way back we stopped and visited my Grandma in Grand Rapids. She was so excited to see Amelia and she was a perfect angel, not crying once during our visit. My Grandma is almost 95, and when I was pregnant I wasn't even sure if she would get to meet my baby. Now she's seen her twice, and I feel so happy that she's been able to meet her and we'll be able to show Amelia pictures of them together when she's older.

Looking back

I just took a few minutes to look back back at our Caring Bridge website from when Amelia was in the hospital. I copied and pasted the journal and guestbook entires into a Word document so that I could keep the entries for Amelia to read someday. As I look back on that time it seemed to take forever for her to get better, but now I can't believe it's already been over 3 and half months since we left. God answered so many prayers and has continued to keep Amelia safe and healthy. Her life will forever be a testimony of God's grace and power. My how things have changed since then!

Beautiful day for a Beautiful baby

What a beautiful day! Amelia and I were beginning to get sick of the rainy and cold weather. After a week of not sleeping well, I'm hoping that a long walk out in the fresh air will help her sleep better tonight! This morning, Barb Clark babysat Amelia so I could go volunteer in my friend Melinda's classroom. I've been going every Thursday for an hour to read with her students as part of our Pi Phi Alum Club literacy project. This morning, Barb had all of her friends over for coffee and they were able to enjoy Amelia. She did a great job too, and she said she only fussed for a little bit. We just got home, and I think Amelia is ready for a nap! Instead, we're going to run to Galesburg to get stuff for our hot tub! I'm sure she'll fall asleep on the way there though!

Mother's Day

Mother's Day was a great day! It was especially meaningful to me, because it was my first Mother's Day. It started with church in the morning, where I had the honor of giving the Mother's Day message. It went really well, and I think people enjoyed it too. Joe's parents came up for that, and also for lunch. Joe then played "photographer" and took lots of pictures of Amelia and I so we could remember our first Mother's Day. We even all took a little nap in the afternoon! For dinner, we went out to Los Ranchitos, my favorite Mexican restaurant in Monmouth, and the best thing about that, no dishes or cooking for mom!