The LORD your God is with you,
he is mighty to save.
He will take great delight in you,
he will quiet you with his love,
he will rejoice over you with singing.
Zephaniah 3:17
Amelia continues to love her tools and I find her frequently sitting in the middle of them, 'working' on her magnetic dress up doll or the furniture, etc.
These 'working goggles' (to be distinguished from swimming goggles) came with my yard sale find and Amelia lives in them some days.
We've been pretty impressed that she figured out the most efficient hand placement for drilling. Patrick thinks its from hours of watching him drill.
Supervising Daddy's painting of our living room.
We tried kids' scissors for the first time. She caught on pretty quickly but hasn't shown any hand-dominance with them.
But sometimes ripping is a whole lot faster than cutting.
Pappy and Grammie stayed for a week after Amelia's birthday with plans to help us on house projects while Patrick was at the office. Boy, did we put them to work! My poor dad probably put in 12 hour days on electrical projects, a lot of it in the attic where it was quite toasty. Amelia did a lot of helping and made sure to remind us that she needed to 'Help. Pappy. Noise."
Amelia's sitting with Grammie, watching Pappy "make noise" but putting up more lights in our basement. No more doing laundry in the dark!
Amelia is quite good and throwing away trash; helping Pappy while he installs a garbage disposal.
She even held the flashlight for him, although she had to be reminded to keep it shining where he needed it.
Reading the instructions on how to install bathroom exhaust vents.
Helping Pappy poke a hole in the master ceiling so we could have overhead lights and a fan. She was pretty excited about this one.
There was lots of fun with Grammie too while Pappy worked!
They decked out the 'fort' Amelia had already claimed under the desk. They did a neat coloring-stones project and lots of reading, tickling and playing with her new birthday gifts.
We tried out our community pool for the first time and although it was chilly at 830am, Amelia LOVED it and asks to return daily. I promise this is a happy, excited face.
Decked out for our walk on the evening of the 4th of July.
Playing at the park
Evening popsicles!
Thanks Grammie & Pappy for all the work you did to help us with our house projects and for all the fun you had with Amelia!
Amelia's birthday ended up on a Saturday this year and so we decided to take advantage and throw a little party for her despite our home not being super party ready. But since all of our guests are good friends from our last stint in NJ, we knew they'd understand; and in reality, it was an excuse for a playdate and to catch up with each other.
A few pre-party family photos
Did you know there is a helium shortage so the stores limit the number of balloons you can purchase? Crazy!
We had a popsicle-themed party; in lieu of cake, I made 'brownie popsicles'.
Because we like to load people up with sugar, we basically served donuts and popsicles (makes sense for a 930am party!) We didn't hear any complaints!
Amelia and I spent the week beforehand making four different kinds of homemade popsicles. We were so happy with how our rainbow pudding popsicles turned out - and they were yummy!
Since all of Amelia's guests were under 5, we borrowed a toddler bounce house from a friend (Thanks Sarah and Dan!) and it made the party. It was the perfect size for the little backyard space we have and the kids LOVED it. Amelia cannot be convinced to go inside bounce houses, so there are no photos of her on it. But her friends were pleased.
Eating a chocolate-covered banana popsicle after playing outside.
Multi-tasking dad
We weren't sure if a piñata was too old for Amelia or not. But we tried it with a kid-sized pole and she loved it. It turned out to be a normal cardboard box that the kids couldn't break open without adult help, but they sure spent a lot of time trying to get them open and no one was bored.
Picking up the candy afterwards. They were all very polite.
Amelia showing off her bag of candy.
Singing Happy Birthday to the 2 year old. When given the choice, she choose a donut over the brownie (no surprise to us) for her treat. Hence the candle in the donut.
Quick photo with the girlfriends she looks up to!
Two events that took place on her actual birthday - she said her first 5-word sentence and she climbed out of her crib during a time out. Looks like the twin bed will be in her room soon!
Happy Birthday Amelia Anne! Daddy and Mommy are so blessed to be your parents and to have been on this journey with you so far. The past two years have been the sweetest yet!
I know it's completely normal and to be expected, but I sometimes think folks raise their eyebrows when they see how bruised/banged up Amelia's little body is. There isn't a day that I don't discover some new bruise or scratch from all her playing (and we haven't even been able to be outdoors that much with all the rain!) She's really tough though; if she hurts herself, we hear a little whine and she'll come asking you to kiss the spot and then moves on. Rarely do we have actual tears or any lingering fussing.
This was taken right after she hit her eye on a drawer pull and cut it in the corner. After I realized it was just a slight bleeder, I was able to convince her to put some ice on it. It was a small shiner, but this photo was taken literally within 10 minutes of the incident; there were tears and "Sing Mama Sing" requests while cuddling, but she recuperated and even asked for "Ice Hurt" while playing later. The photo doesn't show it, but she had a giant bruise on her other cheek from running into an open door the day before.
Someone had fun putting stickers on her face and stroller while waiting at the car shop during an oil change.
The girl loves salsa and can handle a bit more heat than I expected.
One morning after a large diaper haul from Target, I carried each box to the top of the stairs and asked Amelia to push them into her room. When I finished with the last box and came into her room, I discovered that she'd been lining them up from the closet, towards the door. They were a fun train to sit on for a while.
One night while cleaning up, I discovered that she'd taken the extra limes I'd given her to play with and done this in her oven.
After the basement flood, we decided to bring the disinfected baby gear upstairs. Amelia has commandeered them as her own for playing. She's reading to sheep here while sitting in the baby swing.
Helping Daddy with more projects with her tools (yay $1 yard sale finds!)
I have tried to get a video of this for weeks and this is the first that she cooperated, but it doesn't show how cute it is normally. When Patrick started doing a lot of house projects, he and Amelia created their own little dance that he calls "Hammer Time". They stand up and swing their pretend hammers and dance around in circles. All he has to say now is "Amelia, what time is it?" and show her a hammer and she shouts "Hammer Time" and starts the dance. This video will have to do for now.
Daddy's socks make great tights!
I remain fascinated at how much she loves her toddler Bible. She loves books in general and when she's been quiet for long, I find her reading more than getting into trouble. If she's reading her Bible, she stays engrossed for much longer. She's started hauling it around upstairs (it's pretty hefty and takes two hands) and I find her reading to her dolls and animals often. The bookmark is never where we left off the night before. As a friend once said "God has placed a desire for His word deep in our hearts. Even Amelia unknowingly is showing it."
Daddy finished painting her room just before her birthday; it's not completely decorated yet, but we all love it!
