Playing House

We are away this week. In a home. With a mini van and bikes on the front lawn. A fenced in backyard with a dog. And 5 kiddos. Sounds like a painting.

The kids (minus Amelia) belong to my brother. We are playing parents, the grown-up kind. With just one baby, I still feel like a kid myself. We live in a basement, we have 1 car, we can take Amelia everywhere with us and she adjusts. This 5 kid thing, phew, kids are busy. Soccer, piano, reading, homework, instruments, chores. I'm exhausted for them.

And like always, I want 5 kids of my own. Maybe even 8. I thought to myself the other day, I can't imagine a stage in my life where I wouldn't want a newborn baby in my home. I suppose I'll grow up and my life will progress with time, but really, I can't imagine it. I'm smitten.

Click

The past week or so, something in Amelia has clicked. 

• She is eating again! I think it must have been teething, she still hasn't popped her first tooth. But now she will open her mouth and eat the food, even if it doesn't seem like she enjoys it. At least she's cooperating!
• She laughs when we tickle her now. And then cries when it gets too much.
• She plays peek-a-boo and cracks up.
• She smiles a whole lot. Before it was hit and miss. Now I feel like she smiles anytime I want her to.
• She tries to click her tongue like us. And she is still doing her shy, hand-by-her-side, very delayed wave.

 We went to our favorite park this weekend. Here are some more happy swing shots. Aren't they extra fun with her in the pictures?

 She'll get the hang of our self-taken family pictures one day...

And Mills sat up by herself all day today and played. It's so funny, she acts like she's so busy fussing with all the toys around her and will not look up until I call her name a few times. She finally looks up at me like, can't you see I'm busy mom?

7 Months

Here are the stats:

• 16 lb 1.5 oz, skinny mini
• 27.8 inches, still tall
• And still a big head

No ear infection so that is good news. We need to work on her eating habits. She currently arches her back and tries to run away from anything on a spoon. Unless it is our grown up food, that she would climb over any obstacle for. Too bad almost everything we eat has meat or dairy that she cannot have yet. I will have to do meal planning now with her in mind. I am just going to try every day 4 times a day and she'll have to learn to love food, right?

Any advice out there for picky-eater babies?

I'm a Spoiler

Miss Amelia rules this household.

Every day I wake up with these goals in mind:

• She will fall asleep on her own for all her naps, I will not rock her to sleep each time.
• If she wants my glasses or the remote, I will not give them to her.
• I will not carry her everywhere I go just because she cries when I leave the room.

And every day I break my goals. It is hard to stick to my guns. It is hard to realize, in the moment, that not spoiling her now will lead to long term happiness for the both of us. I like the quick fix.

I do have an excuse right now, she's been pulling at her ear and I suspect an ear infection is causing this extra need to be held all the time. We're seeing the doctor tomorrow.

But excuse or not, I have a lot of learning to do.

Quite the Life

We went on a walk to the library yesterday. It was 70 degrees, the sun was in and out of the clouds, the wind was blowing. It was perfect. I could live in that weather every day. And the girl, she loves the outside. I offered her a toy while she was laying in her stroller and she looked up at me like, what do I need a toy for?

We've been spending a lot of time outdoors lately.
Each day we climb our way out of the basement and go to the backyard. She loves laying or bouncing on the trampoline. This is the life I guess.
She also loves the swing. She gets a look of terror if I push her too high, but it quickly turns into a smile. We hung out in Provo while Juan took a test. It was beautiful outside and she just sat and ate puffs and chewed on her book. She prefers to eat her books rather than read them.
And here she is discovering grass. She moved her body around the whole perimeter of her blanket feeling at the grass. The jury is still out on whether she likes it or not.
And one last look of ponder. She's got so much going on in that brain of hers.

Yummy Finds

The first 4 years of our marriage, I was either going to school or working full time. Juan and I had the agreement that since we were away from the house an equal amount of time, that we would split household chores evenly. In reality, Juan ended up doing mostly everything- dishes, laundry, dinner, and we traded off cleaning the bathroom. But still I would say, "when I stay at home, I'll take over, I promise."

You know how when you say something like that, in the back of your head you don't even believe the words you're saying?

Well let me tell you. I'm doing it.

And while I'm not a great cook, I have been trying new things and am finding I somewhat enjoy it.

(Random picture from the internet. Mine almost looked this good, ha ha.)

I made Thai Peanut Chicken the other night and loved it. I followed the recipe, and doubled the sauce like the people in the comments said to. I loved how it had a spicy kick, and Juan liked it as well.

I know this doesn't count as cooking, but this dessert is super yummy, especially frozen. And was so easy to make!

My favorite cooking sites are mrshardingcooks.blogspot.com and www.ourbestbites.com. I am trying this orange chicken next. And while I'm at it, I better not pass up these. Best chocolate chip cookies ever? We will see.

Please share yummy recipes or cooking sites.

Shy Girl

First of all. The very next day after I posted these words:

"She's an awesome napper. 2 hours in the morning, 2 hours in the afternoon, 1 hour in the evening. And don't forget, a straight 10 1/2 hours through the night!"

She was done with her awesome sleeping. She takes 1 hour naps, if even. And she woke up at 3 am for 3 nights in a row. She even woke up at 12 am and 3 am in 1 night. Yikes. Lesson learned, I guess.

One night, I found her like this. She was so tired, she fell asleep while rubbing her eyes:

We have had Ginger & Sam in town this weekend and sometimes Amelia just gets tired of people. Last night while we were playing games, she was hiding from us all. I caught this cute video of her:

And in this second video, we had been trying to teach her to wave. I know she's only 6 months. But when I brought her downstairs, I caught her practicing to wave! Ha ha, she has to get it just right on her own time before she's going to show us.