Warning: Graphic Details

Let me start by saying we had a wonderful time in Texas, and we’re all excited about moving there.  That being said, the trip got off to a ROUGH start.  Our flight was delayed for four hours both because President Obama flew into SFO and the weather was bad, so they wouldn’t let any other flights take off or land.  We didn’t get into our hotel room until after 4am, and we woke up the next morning at 9am to go check out the first neighborhood on our list.  Other than being really tired, we had a fun time looking around.  

Up to this trip I have pureed Amelia’s baby food at home, but with traveling that obviously wasn’t possible.  I bought Earth’s Best organic baby food to feed her that first night.  Two hours after feeding her, after we were all asleep, we heard her vomit (she had only done this one other time when I had to give her this same brand of baby food from a jar).  Our poor baby was covered in vomit, so we cleaned her off and laid her in bed with us; about 5 minutes later, she vomited again.  Again,  we cleaned her up, thinking she didn’t have anything left to throw up, we laid her between us.  She vomited again,  but this time starts to choke on the bile.  

Mike and I are pretty upset at this point because of how intense the choking is.  He calls the front desk clerk and tells her about Amelia and asks where the nearest emergency room is; the girl tells him she doesn’t know and that she’s with customers so she’ll have to call him back.  Right after he hangs up, Amelia starts vomiting and choking again, so we call 911.  The girl calls us back and says she doesn’t know where any hospitals are and we ask her to bring up extra towels.  A few minutes later she knocks on our door, she’s talking on her cell phone and hands me the towels and walks away.  I’m not sure I’ve ever been angrier in my life!  The paramedics show up and observe Amelia; she throws up two more times but doesn’t seem to be having an allergic reaction (no rashes, swelling,  etc.).   Two hours later,  Amelia is feeling and looking much better!  She slept between us soundly the rest of the night; I woke up the next morning to her stroking my cheek and cooing at me.  

I would say those 24 hours were probably the worst of my life!  Poor Noah -- he was such a trooper,  but he was so scared for his sister!  We tried to make the rest of the trip really fun for him so that he wouldn’t hate Texas.  The next morning, Mike talked to the hotel manager, who was very apologetic about the girl’s behavior the night before and refunded us our money.  We switched hotels,  and the rest of the trip was a lot of fun!

In all, we visited eight different suburbs of northwest Dallas,  and our two favorites were Flower Mound and Highland Village.  In general, we thought they had more trees, rolling hills and land for each house.  The people were so friendly,  and it’s amazing how much more affordable Texas is than California! 

After spending five days in the area, we are really excited about the move!  Some of the highlights of our trip were going to the Stock Yards and eating in Sundance Square in Fort Worth.  We also went to quite a few parks to let Noah play, one of the parks was probably the neatest (Castle made out of wood) I've ever seen and it's in Flower Mound!

A rat on a cat on a dog.

Only one where Amelia was looking at the camera.

Matchy Matchy

Since there is no guarantee Mike will be in town next Valentine’s Day due to traveling when he starts his new job, he made this one extra special!  Usually, I am VERY hard to surprise, but he succeeded this year in completely surprising me.

Sunday afternoon was a little crazy in our house, Amelia had vomited, had diarrhea, and went potty all over her dress while Mike was changing her.  The dog had just peed on the floor, and I had told Noah for the hundredth time to pick up his Legos because we were getting ready to go to a friend’s house for dinner and I kept stepping on them.  Needless to say, I was not in the best mood, but that soon changed; I went into the bathroom to get ready and Mike had left my card and gift on the counter . . . talk about perfect timing!  My gift was the woman's version of the watch I had bought him for his birthday.  He had been eyeing the watch whenever we were at Macy’s.  Well, not only did he love the watch, but I did too, and I was always borrowing and wearing it.  

My mom had given Noah a doll when he was a baby that she had to buy for a continuing education class and didn’t need it anymore.  Noah named the doll Sally and even though he no longer plays with it, he hasn’t had the heart to give her away.  A few mornings ago, Mike showed Amelia the doll and apparently it was love at first sight!  I’m not sure she knows it’s not a real baby, but she loves to smile at it either way.

My day is full of laundry and packing -- we leave tomorrow afternoon to fly to Dallas for five days.  We’re all so excited to go explore our soon-to-be new living area.  Our goal is to get a feel for the different neighborhoods we’re considering, so when it comes time to get a house, we’ll know where to look a little better.

My Valentines

 And now a word from Amelia:

On the Move

Amelia becomes more mobile each day, not just crawling but jumping in her Johnny Jump-Up, dancing to songs and now taking small steps while holding my hands.

We enjoyed watching the Super Bowl and the commercials this past Sunday, but I had two definite favorites.  The first was the Volkswagen commercial with the little boy dressed as Darth Vader.   Noah used to dress up daily as Darth Vader and would many times come into our room and wake us up by wearing his Darth Vader costume, imitating his breathing and request his breakfast.  He still wears the costume at least once a week; I’ll be so sad when this stage passes. The other was the Doritos commercial with the pug dog -- our family gets excited anytime we see a pug on TV.  If you haven’t seen either of those commercials, I suggest watching them on youtube.com to get a good laugh.

Amelia’s love for the dog continues to grow: she crawls, scoots or walks while holding my hands the fastest when her aim is the dog.  Lucy returns her love for Amelia by licking her feet when Mike gives her a bottle and sneaking in kisses when she thinks I’m not looking.

 

Noah and I have been busy making Valentines for his Valentine's class party next Monday.  I’m so proud of him because he has done all the writing, who they’re to and a note inside and who they’re from.  Let me just say it isn’t easy to get a six-year-old to sit down and write that much, but he’s done a great job! 

Baby Kisses

We have Noah on a reward system where he gets checks for good behavior and loses them when he misbehaves.  Whenever he gets a certain number of checks he gets a reward.  So this past week, Mike suggested that his next reward be a watch, since Noah always wants to wear one of Mike’s watches.   In the past, Noah’s favorite watch of Mike’s was his calculator watch, so Mike suggested that would be the type to buy him.  Noah responded by saying, “I was thinking something a little more ‘business casual’, from Macy’s or Men’s Macys."  I think we laughed so hard we almost started crying!

Amelia is always doing something new and her latest thing is giving herself kisses when she’s held up to the mirror.  

Noah is a great help with Amelia, when given the chance he loves to feed his sister a bottle.   

Since Amelia spends 95% of her waking time with me, I always like to let someone else hold her so the stranger anxiety doesn’t get too bad.  The picture below is of my good friend Gretchen’s daughter holding Amelia.  Ella has three younger siblings so she’s a natural!

This Friday, Noah’s kindergarten class is having a 100^th day of school celebration so Noah had to make something for the class that consists of 100 pieces.  He chose Legos, so we took 100 pieces and spelled his name. This is the kind of homework he really enjoys!

75 and Sunny... In January

 I love California!  This last week the weather has been amazing; I’ve had a hard time getting anything done because I want to be outside all the time. 

Once every few weeks I try and plan a date for Noah and me, so he can still get some one-on-one time with me without having to share with Amelia.  This past Saturday, I bought tickets to see a hip-hop group called Puremovement by Rennis Harris at Stanford; we had a wonderful time… it was hard to not get up and dance too!  It is so great to spend time with him, just the two of us.
 

While we were gone, Mike was making braised lamb with polenta for dinner.  The recipe was very time intensive, so when Amelia woke up he sat her in her car seat on the floor while he finished what he was doing; when he turned around, Amelia had crawled out of her car seat and was making her way to her OSV (over-stimulation vehicle).  Gone are the days of leaving her in one spot and expecting her to stay.

I think Amelia’s first tooth will make its appearance soon, at least I hope it does!  We can really tell how much her gums have been bothering her.  I’m always trying to offer her things to suck on to help relieve the pain, and one toy she really took to was a teething rattle.  She discovered that if she move her head back and forth while it’s in her mouth, it will make a squeaking noise, Mike was able to get it on video.

 Noah likes playing guitar for Amelia and she really seems to enjoy it (I think he enjoys practicing more when he has an audience!).

The Little Things

I wanted to take time to write about some of the things Amelia has been doing lately that I really love.  She changes so quickly, and I don’t want to forget each stage!  

When she lies on her tummy and she’s studying a toy, she taps her left foot on the ground in a rhythmic motion.  I think this is so cute because I’m a classic foot shaker, whether I’m reading or lying in bed… so maybe she inherited it from her mommy.

She loves studying faces and if she can get close enough to a face she’ll run her hands all around it, including mouths if you’d let her.   She has such an intense look on her face, like she’s trying to decide how people move their face to form expressions or lips to make words.

At her sixth month appointment, she weighed 17.5 lbs and was 25 inches long.  That is a 4.5 lbs gain from two months previous putting her in the 85^th percentile for weight.  She’s our little chunk!

When she wakes up in the morning or from a nap and we don’t have to rush off anywhere, we’ll bring her in our bed and she lays there with us close to an hour smiling, cooing and grabbing the face closest to her!  She especially loves when Noah comes in, her face lights up and she immediately reaches for him.  She’s one lucky girl to have such a sweet big brother. I know how important they can be in your life since I have two older brothers. I’m very thankful to have them!

A few weeks ago we noticed that she kept taking off one of her socks and holding while she sucked her thumb when she was tired.  So I went and got her a very soft blanket that has a bunny’s head and ears attached to it.  When we lay her down in her crib, we hand her the bunny blanket and she immediately starts sucking her thumb… it’s precious!

When she’s in her OSV (Over Stimulation Vehicle) she puts her hands out to get Lucy’s attention so Lucy will lick her hands.  There was a time right after Amelia was born when I was almost ready to give Lucy away because she was eating Amelia’s toys, going to the bathroom all over the place and just being a bad dog in general.   Now I wouldn’t dream of it, they have a very special relationship… we’re raising quite the pug lover!

Ever since Amelia was a newborn she has made a lot of interesting noises. While in Utah  in addition to cute cooing and babbling sounds, she started making a horrible growling noise that she thinks is funny. She smiles if someone else makes the noise back to her. Sometimes she growls so much that she makes herself cough!

Last but not least, Amelia crawled for the first time on January 12^th!  She hasn’t completely figured out that she can crawl, because if the object of her desire is more than a foot away she won’t try for it. However, if I keep scooting it back as she comes for it she’s able to go quite far!  

Each stage is so fun, I can’t wait to see what’s next!

Dinner Time

It is official, Amelia had her first meal!  She LOVED IT!  It was just rice cereal; I can’t imagine how she’s going to react when we give her real food.  When I’m feeding her, if I take a break and look away to say something to Mike or Noah, she grunts in frustration to get my attention.  Next week, we’re going to try pureed sweet potatoes!

Noah’s kindergarten class met this Saturday to ice skate together at a rink in Palo Alto, it was so fun to get to see a bunch of five and six year-olds try and ice skate!  I have to say, Noah did really well, but it was his fifth time going so he had an advantage.

Mike’s parents came up for a very quick trip to celebrate his birthday which is on January 17^th and to give Noah and us our Christmas presents from their side of the family.  It was so nice to see them.  Also, they brought us Lucy back, but since they left it seems like she is a little down… I think she really enjoys all the space and attention at their house.

Mike’s grandma Sandy makes amazing gifts and this year she made two of my all-time favorites.  My present was an apron, pot holders and a casserole carrier; she wrote a note to go along with the gift that talked about how her grandmother always wore an apron and how special it was to her.  The second present was to Amelia and it was redwork embroidery of a little girl with her handkerchief.  I am so excited to decorate Amelia’s room in Texas and hang it up!