The First Year

Amelia's First Year from Annie Nihls on Vimeo.

Dearest Amelia,

I am infinitely proud to be your mama.

Mountains of love and kisses forever and for always and more.

One.

Happiest of first birthday wishes to our darling Amelia Lee.

{Full update on all of her adventures to come...}

11 months old

Today Amelia is 11 months old. Weepy slash joyful mama over here.

This past month was pretty major:
*She rang in a brand new year for the very first time (albeit fast asleep)


*She started feeding herself with a spoon
*She now pats US on the back
*She started standing unassisted (not pictured...)


*She got her 8th tooth


*She mastered pushing things around the house and walking behind them {like her push cart, trash cans, baskets, sewing machine case, boxes, etc.}


*She started to actually sort shapes with the shape sorter


*She developed an interesting obsession with her socks
*She waves (especially when anyone puts on a coat)


*She consistently put herself to sleep at night (sometimes after playing in the crib for a WHILE)
*She started sleeping 7-7 (yip!)


*She had her first tubby date with a boy


*She got her first passport


*She developed her first crush on an older boy (and a DIFFERENT one from the tub date--she's keeping her options open)


*She took her first steps (!) (not yet captured on film)


*She started really playing with her friends


*She had her first snow day (Blizzard of 2011)


*She said her own version of Jack (the puppy I sleep with WHAT OF IT) in a sweet little whisper. DAH-DAH is still going strong and MUMMA when she's upset (along with plenty of other indecipherables).

She is wild and wonderful and hilarious and mischievous and brave and stubborn and silly and serious and curious and crazy and quite definitely has a mind of her own. And we love that little mind (and that little body) to infinity and back again.

Double-Digi's

Welp, Amelia is officially ten months old. TEN months. The beginning of the pre-teen months. For a baby, that seems real old, right? She is dangerously close to one whole YEAR. (Although apparently we still count in months. Keep up.) That also means that toddlerhood is right around the corner. How has this happened? IDK but this age is truly so much fun (and so funny)(and occasionally so frustrating)!

Favorite food: Banana (and frozen veggies) (also: things she can feed herself)
Favorite drink: mama's milk (still going strong ~5x/day)
Favorite music: Reggae
Favorite toy: Stackable wooden rings
Favorite toy that's not actually a toy: Remote controls, iPhones
Favorite book: I'm a Bunny
Favorite facial expression: scrunched-up nose smile (I keep telling her to be careful not to smile her face off.)
Favorite thing to do: MOVE (crawl, climb, stand, pulling up, etc.) (usually with a toy in her mouth)
Favorite noise to make: YAHYAHYAHYAH (2nd place: DAH-DEE) (honorable mention: mumma)
Favorite Christmas gift: the farm
Favorite new skills: waving, dancing/bouncing, shaking her head, clapping
Favorite toy in bath: the ever classic rubber ducky
Favorite thing to do in the kitchen: destroy the ever classic tupperware drawer (unfortunately most of our tupperware is glass...) OR go after the bottle of beer or wine that are so smartly being stored on the floor
Favorite thing to do in the car: eat snacks (and play with her very own set of keys) (oh, and pull off her shoes & socks)
Favorite seated position: Indian-style
Favorite thing to do when getting up from naps: hugs (aka: my favorite thing)
Favorite friends: Lola, Bowen, Willie (my parents dog), Daddy
Favorite thing to smile at: Babies!
Favorite time to go to bed: 7pm
Favorite time to wake up: 6:45am (usually...)
Favorite evening activity: bath
Favorite place to visit (so far): Bebe&Pop's home in the woods
Favorite game: peek-a-boo
Favorite person to look at: herself

Mostly, she likes a lot of stuff. So that's nice. There are plenty of non-favorites too though, so don't be fooled. The least favorites include: getting her diaper changed, getting dressed, getting something taken away, growing a tooth that appears to be DRAGGING it's (teeth)feet, sitting in the car for too long, getting her face and hands wiped, not being held when all she wants to do is be held, etc. and she certainly let's us know her preferences (especially with a vigorous head-shake) but we're a pretty well-rested, happy bunch over here these days. (*knock on wood*)

3/4 Year Photos (A Whole Lotta Mills)

NINER (and a half...)

(family photos by Tara Vorhes)

So, yeah. I'm a little late on this monthly post. It's been a busy December! For some reason I decided it would be a good idea to make all of our Christmas gifts this year. Genius with an almost-toddler for a daughter. Especially since she likes me to be paying attention to her. At ALL times. (Except for when she wants to chew on her favorite toys: cords.)

ANYWAY. Miss Mills is now 9+months and is growing and changing and learning and discovering and interacting and talking and moving (and getting frustrated) and being delighted by the world around her. She has alllllll sorts of fun tricks these days and we are so enjoying her.

• Words: She doesn't "talk" so much as she jibber jabbers. A lot. But some sounds she makes include: mumma, daaaaaaa, baaaaaah, hi, yaaaaaaaaa, lkdakojoidhifaaaaa, etc.
• Likes: bath time, cords, her red balloon, blocks, pulling herself up on anything possible, when we make animal sounds, looking at pictures of herself, remotes, making noise, dancing!, crawling on everything--she's FAST, being held , banging on the computer, chewing on things, playing with anything she's not supposed to, banging on things, the dustbuster, plants (eating dirt), and um, a bunch of other stuff. She's pretty awesome like that.
• Dislikes: being strapped into the car seat (but once we start moving she's usually fine), getting her diaper changed, getting dressed, waking up from naps, having something taken away from her (she laughs if/when I say "no"...HILAR), not being fed immediately after getting out of the bath/not being fed immediately when she wants to eat, and some other things I'm sure.
• Sleep: She sleeps! She usually naps about an 1hr15min-1hr30min in the morning and again in the afternoon. I appreciate the consistency. She's still sleeping through the night, but was waking up pret-ty early for a while. She now sleeps anywhere between 6:30-7pm to 6-6:30am. We sometimes hear her cry out around 5ish but she goes back to sleep, thankfully! Of course there are variations to this, but Brad continues to remind me that she's not a robot. I guess he's right. She's a munchkin!
• Eating: She's been eating "human" food for the past couple of months and she keeps me guessing. She very much prefers to feed herself (shocker!) so I am trying to figure out different things for her to try. She is still a big snacker and would eat puffs and baby mum-mums all day if I let her. She still loves her oatmeal and banana and adores being able to feed herself banana. She likes to chew on apples in the mesh feeder. She drinks water out of her sippy cup. She loves to share my smoothie in the morning. I've given her little chunks of all sorts of other stuff (i.e. cheese, turkey, pasta, frozen veggies, cooked veggies, clementines, etc.) but she usually ends up spitting it back out. But she does a great job at getting it in there! I keep reminding myself it's just practice. She still nurses 5 times a day, which is fine by me. Sometimes she even lets me listen to music or talk to Brad while she eats--big development for us.
  
• Playing: Millie loves to play. We have an ottoman in our living room that holds all of her toys. She likes to stand at the edge and pull random things out (and fling them around the room). She lets me get through a whole book without ripping it out of my hands and sometimes more than one book at a time. She is starting to dance (or, rather bounce) whenever she hears music. Adorableness. She loves to play peek-a-boo. A lot. She even plays it by herself. She's starting to clap and also wave--exciting!
  
• Moving: She is always on the move. For sure. She crawls everywhere she can and loves to explore our condo and will undoubtedly find something to play with that she shouldn't. Typical. When I don't hear her, I'll call out her name and she will crawl back in view and flash me a toothy (albeit mischievous) grin. She's just so flipping curious! She has stood unassisted a few times, but just for a few seconds.
  
• Social: Amelia's got quite the social life. We go to a music class once a week and Mom's group another day. She crawls all over the other babes and usually steals their toys. She's got a few other best baby friends and gets so excited when we see them. She's also got some buddies at the gym daycare and some days doesn't even seem like she cares when I return to pick her up! She is still pretty reserved when we're out and about and doesn't just hand out cute smiles to anyone--but when she does it's so special.
  

We are all looking forward to sharing her very first Christmas with her! Joyful holidays!!

A Weekend Away

Last weekend was a momentous occasion (why can I never correctly spell occasion on the first try?) for me. It was the first time I was away from the baby over night. And it turned into TWO whole nights away. It was marvelous but I missed her sweet face every minute. Or almost every minute (ahem).

We dropped her off with my parents with her schedule (they asked!) and a list of some "helpful hints." Oh, and a shitload of milk. And a bunch of other stuff. Those babies sure don't pack light. (Oh, and she slept through the entire night both nights like the good grandbaby she is!)

We stayed at the B&B where we stayed the weekend of our wedding. Back then we had filled it to the brim with our favorite peeps and partied our asses off. While we had the same room, it was quite different this time around.


The skies were sunny and the air crisp--just like our wedding day. We drank cocktails saddled up at the bar and stayed up past our bedtime. We took pictures of the sunrise and then lazed around all morning, drinking coffee in bed. We ate lunch at the bar, drank bloodies, and watched football. (And Michigan won, finally!) We walked the streets and dipped into cute shops and galleries. We made a list of our goals on a cocktail napkin. We had dinner at Everyday People where our rehearsal dinner was held. Just the two of us.



To be honest, we talked about our little miss a lot. But we also talked about other stuff. Important stuff. Where's-our-life-headed type of stuff. And it felt great. And strange. And wonderful. And we reminisced. And we made plans for our future on a cocktail napkin.



We walked to brunch early the next morning, but all I really wanted to do was to go snuggle our girl. She is the biggest part of my life right now. And that's okay. And that's grand. And I love my little family more than I ever imagined.



p.s. A HUGE thank you to my wonderfully supportive and generous parents who watched Amelia for us. You're the coolest. ily


p.p.s. When we met them at our favorite coffee shop to drop off the carrier and some more milk, little miss thing acted as if she didn't even know me! I was surprisingly sad about it. But it showed me just how much she loves and trusts Bebe & Pop, so I really can't be too upset about that!