The zoo made it all better

 I've had a rough week. Mills is sick and so we've kept her inside. Juan has been really busy and gone 16 hours a day. I did really good the first few days, cleaning, exercising, cooking, journaling, reading. I read my scriptures every day and prepared my lesson I will be teaching this Sunday. I did a lot of things that I love to do.

And then the emotional meltdown came. And I did nothing. And wallowed. And what brought me out of my rough patch? The zoo! Free day at the zoo, Amelia's first time to the zoo. And a good amount of sunshine. Just what I needed.

Amelia having a stare down with the monkey. She wasn't so sure about any of the animals. 

First ride on the carousel, she loved it. 

 I'd say Amelia was more excited by the kids than the animals. She was constantly waving at everyone, and it was free admission, there were A LOT of kids running around. Her little slice of heaven.

Oh and Amelia is climbing now. She climbs, and then she yells for me to come help her down. (These toys are all my mom's, btw. I can't wait until I get to pick out a dollhouse for her.)

Which she is saying Ma ma now. You saw how excitedly she says Da da, well Ma ma is quite opposite. It's always in a cry, like ma ma please I need you. And she repeats over and over until I come help, ma ma ma ma ma. Melts my heart.

Back to Amelia

I went a few weeks here without writing much about Mills, and I guess she wants the spotlight back because she is going crazy with all sorts of new things. 

First off, because it is too cute, she has said her first word. Da da. Now she's been saying it as a sound for a while now, along with ma ma and ba ba and all sorts of gibberish. But I am hard core, it doesn't count until now. I show her a picture of me and Juan while she's eating, and I've only been doing it for 2 days now, but today I pointed to Juan and I didn't even say anything, and she said, 'da da'. I have a video. Skip to :45 when she finally forgets about the camera and comes out with it. 

And she is now pulling herself to a stand. She surprised us by standing up next to the platform by the fireplace. Then she went one step further and climbed on top of the thing. Silly girl. I have yet to get this on video. 

And she has teeth now! She finally popped her bottom teeth last week! Teething wasn't such the nightmare I have heard it could be. Although she did not drink her bottle for 4 days straight, which stresses me out! Her little teeth are so cute, but don't quite show up on camera yet. 

Here she is at the start of me trying to get a picture of her teeth:

And after about 20 shots:

She is 11 months now. Isn't that crazy? 

My Current Favorites on TV

I love TV. I've talked about a few of my favorites on this blog, How I Met Your Mother which is still a favorite. Glee, maybe not so much anymore. I go in and out of tv shows. But these are my current faves, like the kind I keep on my tivo in case I want to watch them again.

 Parenthood

Aw, such a good show. I am a fan of Gilmore Girls, so it's good to see Lorelai back on tv. But then the rest of the cast-amazing. The acting is so good. And really, I cry almost every episode. And then I cry again when I tell Juan about it. Just touching, real storylines. Love it. I'm loving Hattie and Alex right now.

 Community

I am a fan of Joel McHale on The Soup, so I love him in this. But I love the rest of the cast too, and I love how creative the episodes are. Like the one where they signed up for a pottery class to get an easy A. And the only way you could fail the class is if you re-enacted the pottery scene from the movie Ghost. Hilarious. 

Cougar Town

I know, the original idea of this show just screamed trashy. But listen, my sister got me to watch it again and I love it. Courtney Cox is not a 'cougar', she's dating a guy her own age. So the title doesn't even fit anymore. The characters are the best, and they all just sit around all day, as if their jobs don't exist. Love this one.

Anyone have favorite tv shows to share with me? 

My Perfect Mix of a Weekend

Last weekend was pretty fun. We started it out with a game night with 2 of my sisters:

Heather and Crystal, both looking super cute and colorful. Picture taken in September, check out Amelia's double chin.

Sami, Griff, and Judson entertained Amelia while us girls + Juan ordered pizza and played Museum Caper and Hearts. Amelia loves playing with her cousins. It was such a fun night. 

Saturday Juan had a study group in the morning, so Amelia and I went along to my beloved Provo. We went shopping at Forever 21 and picked me up some earrings for $1.50. It was so much fun shopping with my happy girl.

Then we met up with Juan and hit up Costco. Did you know they sell gelato at the Orem Costco? $1.50 for 3 scoops in a waffle cone. Heaven.

Next up was hanging out with old friends. Not only do we miss Provo, but we really miss our Provo friends! We ate at Sammies with Megan & Dave and Heidi & Nate. And Abby, H&N's little girl who is a month older than Amelia. We had good food, great conversation, and watched BYU lose (sad). Such good friends.

And we let Amelia and Abby entertain us thoroughly. Check them out:

I love Amelia's nervous chuckle. Aren't they so cute side by side? This was right when we got there, they warmed up to each other and were crawling all over and even crying together. Ha ha.

We finished off the night with Juan's church basketball game. He was awesome and Amelia LOVES cheering him on every Saturday night. 

Check out her excitement. And in case we're worried, Juan is getting a haircut this week.

Isn't that such a fun weekend? Family time, Mommy-Daughter time, Couple time, and Friends. I love it.

And we'll leave you a bonus picture of my baby girl looking like she's about 4 years old: