Happy Thanksgiving! Part 3

On our drive back back from Alabama, we detoured through South Carolina to see Aunt Lori.

We arrived in the evening so we had a quick stop at Aunt Lori's apartment before crashing. Amelia loved her fish tanks and her dog.

We had breakfast with a high school friend in Charleston and met his 9 month old, Estelle. It was a nice visit, but let's just say that Amelia behaved as one of "those out-of-control kids" that you might see in a restaurant and judge quickly. We're not sure if it was waking up early or getting back into the car after so many hours, but she was a complete mess. Thankfully we were the only ones in the restaurant and she calmed down once we got outside and let her run around in a nearby courtyard.

We went on a carriage ride through Charleston and I won't bore you with the dozens of photos I have of gorgeous home exteriors and architecture. It was a beautiful ride. And Amelia was really great for the entire hour, watching the traffic, neighing whenever the horse would pop into view and eating the snacks Aunt Lori fed her.

Amelia was pretty cranky this day, continuing from breakfast. But she seemed to mellow out with Aunt Lori, sharing lots of giggles and being more obedient than with Daddy or Mommy.

 

Trying to steal some of Amelia's free ice cream

After a good long afternoon nap and playing dominoes, we visited Aunt Lori's salon on the beach.

and took a sunset walk on the beach itself.

 

On our drive from dinner, Daddy used the word "bozo" in a comment and Amelia cracked up. Aunt Lori caught on and the two of them started this game where Amelia says "doo" and Lori respondes with "bozo" and they burst into giggles. Amelia has been playing this with us ever since we left SC, looking into our eyes and say "doo" and giggling, expecting a "bozo" response. She even did it with Lori over skype since we've returned. This video is really, really dark since it was evening, but you can hear them playing.

 

 

Happy Thanksgiving! Part 2

We headed to Grandma & Granddaddy's house after Thanksgiving lunch, just in time to visit with Amelia's cousins.

They were excited to help her unwrap a late birthday gift and show her how to play with it!

Maddie showed Amelia her doll and all its accessories.

The vacuum-popper that somehow made it into Grandma's shopping cart ended up being a favorite for a few days. I guess Granddaddy knew what Amelia would love.

Motorized bubble wand + windy day = lots of fun!

Granddaddy showed Amelia how to use the remote control for a little robot-wheeled toy. She was transfixed.

Video of Amelia using the remote control all by herself

We enjoyed some afternoons playing outside around their beautiful landscaping.

And many walks in the wagon

Grandma showed Amelia how to use a regular phone. Too bad she hasn't seen one of those in her own house.

Aunt Laura & Uncle Nathan came to visit also for the weekend, but I unfortunately didn't get too many clear photos of them with Amelia. But you can tell the piano was a big hit by the three we have.

Sneaking in one last book before we start our drive home.

Not Amelia-related side note - I ran my first 5K on the Saturday after Thanksgiving and Patrick came with me and took some photos that I promised I would post. Training for it in Virginia made the 38degree temp that morning typical for my training runs, which I'm grateful for.  So here is a squinty pre-race photo.

Beating my goal time! It was hard, really hard. But I'm glad I did it and stuck to my training routine and I plan on trying to do better next time!

Happy Thanksgiving! Part 1

We headed down to Alabama for Thanksgiving 2012. We hoard Patrick's hotel points all year just for our drives to and from Thanksgiving and Christmas. We stopped at a hotel this time that had a pool and a fun sushi restaurant nearby.

Amelia eating (cooked) sushi; she mostly wanted the avocado and rice out of it.

We made such awesome time on the road that I called up my freshman roommate in Atlanta for a quick lunch date and so I could hug her pregnant self. She just had her sweet little girl this week since the holiday.

Once we were at Grammie & Pappy's house, Amelia had fun doing projects with Grammie like paint-by-water and foam stickers. She showed Grammie that she knew her shapes and some colors. Why she couldn't show me that over the last few weeks, I have no idea.

Nice enough outside to draw with chalk! Amelia did a great job not eating it, but apparently a neighbor's dog came over and ate one of the pieces. I guess it's like Tums for dogs?

Reading with Pappy

Helping Pappy stir something

 

Feeding ducks outside of the art museum

Amelia had a lot of fun playing with these animal sculptures/fountains at the museum. And then her shoe fell in the water and she got majorly wet so we ended up with a clothes change inside the museum.

Since we were already inside the museum, we went into their children's section. Amelia had fun exploring the activities that we made just for her age, especially these colored bins filled with items of the same color.

Pre-Thanksgiving hand washing; someone please come help!

Pre-Thanksgiving snack

Amelia had a lot of fun telling her Grammie and Great-Grammie some story during Thanksgiving lunch. She was pretty animated about it, but I didn't catch a good photo.

Four Generations - We are so blessed!

Sick

We had great plans to spend this past week with friends in New Jersey while Patrick was in Wyoming, but unfortunately Amelia started coming down sick on Saturday with it turning into Patrick facing his worst fear of being puked on. (He handled it very gracefully by the way). So we've spent this past week cuddling and snoozing and wiping snot and reading a lot of books.

Can you tell how miserable she feels?

But she can be made to laugh even when sick!

Amelia has a wide range of literary interests, including Mommy's books.

We've kept up with our projects - filling bottles with water, glitter, and assorted crafty/household items to swirl around. She loves them! (the lids are hot-glued on so no worries grandparents!)

Who knew she would ask for her egg carton full of pompoms basically after every meal?

Playing with flour and water after baking with Mommy

Yum! Homemade biscotti is good! And she chews on it for a looong time!

I'm training her to be a fabric lover

Helping Mommy pull up all the dead summer plants and tidying up the front garden. (long overdue)

This photo is from last week, but I had to pull it off my other camera. When we met a friend for lunch, the staff gave her "trainer" chopsticks. I almost gave them back, but ended up letting her play with them during the meal. We brought them home and she likes to use them to pick up large objects in her bowls. It's actually pretty cute.

Also from my other camera - we spent an evening with a friend whose husband was gone last week and decided to throw all the kids together for a bath before bedtime. They look like they could be related. (Her daughter is frequently mistaken to be mine at church).

Although her fever finally broke and she's acting like she's well again, we saw the pediatrician for a quick look at her awful cough. Turns out she's starting bronchitis for the third time so we're looking at using an inhaler for awhile. Poor kid got her daddy's respiratory issues.