Who is the girl singing in that picture?

When we opened our box of holiday decorations, we pulled out this singing picture frame. It was an instant hit with Amelia. She loved playing the song so much that the battery wore out. I managed to take this short video just before it died completely.



Do you recognize the little girl singing the song? It is cousin Alex, when she was probably about 3. These two little girls look a lot alike! Too cute.

Vacation is...

Hawaii in December. We are having a great time. Sunshine. Warm water. Fresh fish. Tide pools and Beaches. But most of all we love the relaxing time together. Luc is reading Amelia bedtime stories right now. I am gazing at the ocean over my keyboard on our lanai. Not too many days left, but we plan an enjoying every minute of it. Love and kisses.

Halloween 2011

Our Halloween started a couple of weeks ago with a trip to a pumpkin patch, just outside Seattle. Amelia really enjoyed it, particularly since it was so muddy, and we got to go on a hayride! Teh story of "Amelia, mommy, and daddy going to the pumpkin patch" is a common request at bedtime. Amelia regularly asks for various other friends or family to be part of the story - cousin Alex is a regular request.


Even though Amelia had a rough weekend (bad cold), she was very helpful when it was time to carve the pumpkin. We decided to make an owl...


... she loved it!
The final product:

This year, Amelia was a lion. Roarrrrrr! She has been loving her lion costume! She's been wearing it around the house for the last several months (her friend Cara gave it to her last summer), and seeing all the other kids wear costumes got her all excited. Below she's showing off her costume with her friend Leo (Madeleine's big brother - [David and Hannah]), earlier last week.


And last night, after a few kids started knocking on our door, Amelia and Luc went trick-or-treating! We only went to a few houses around our street, but Amelia really enjoyed the experience! I think we might have to expand our Halloween route next year...


Happy Halloween!

Why we like to do video chats...

Amelia has a ball showing off her new skills, toys, and books. Here we were chatting with Grandpapa Bertrand and Kathleen. Amelia wanted everyone to play along. Be sure to bring your favorite instrument, toy, or book to the next chat! She loves to share.

Sleep, sleep, sleep little moo

Amelia is in a very compassionate stage right now. Really taking care of her little animals like they were her babies. She is also really into babies. She wants me to craddle her like a tiny baby and sing baby songs to her. She changes moos diaper, then tries to change my diaper! and asks for her diaper to be changed (she doesn't wear diapers anymore). Last night she was putting moo to sleep by bouncing him! So cute.

A snipet of the moo song that turned into a reading session. Check out the book she picked out at the library. Lots of text!

Not so sweet tooth

The other day at daycare one of the boys was leaving and brought cupcakes for his last day. I was there to share in the celebration. All the kids got little mini cupcakes. Some of the kids were so eager that they asked for two or even three (even though no on got three). Amelia sat there diligently licking the frosting, but never made it half way through. Then she jumped up and was ready to go- having never even taken a bite of the cake. It made me a proud mama. The cupcakes were store bought and had that processed cake/icing.

But it did remind me of this day. My birthday. Amelia and Luc made me this cake. It is my *favorite* cake of all time. I am sure you have seen it before. I just love it. And Luc loves me enough to make it for me. A 3 layer Black Forest cake. Amelia got a little piece, but barely ate that one either.
Instead she went to our cupboard- got out the raw oats and started eating them right out of the box. This picture cracks me up. Here we are eating this decadent cake and Amelia is eating oats!

The cook book that she is stacking her oats on is called Feeding for the Whole Family. I highly recommend it. Especially if you are looking at getting into cooking beans and other grains.

She is so strong...

...pulling her two friends, Sol and Leo, in the red wagon. We all had dinner together tonight and the kids were running around the yard playing. We looked down the side yard and saw Amelia pulling them in the wagon. Leo reading his new book. Sol resting his back against Leo. The two boys content to be getting a ride from their friend. Amelia seemed pretty proud to show off her new wagon.

At the end of the night, Bonnie commented that although Amelia seemed to have her clothes off for most of the night, she managed to have at least three different outfits on during the time they were there. Good times. It seems like to could be anytime now for Hannah. And Leo asked if he could have sleep over. So I think he is ready to come stay with us soon, too!

Amelia misses her daddy

Amelia is now requesting the Amelia song every night at bedtime. It used to be "Little Amelia has a bed" to the tune of Old MacDonald and lots of sleeping animals. But during Luc's last stay on land the Amelia song morphed into a song about Amelia featuring her day or something she likes as specified. Tonight it was the "purple boat song". We've been talking about he is out to sea on a boat. On Monday we were at the Locks looking at boats. Every big boat was pointed at and hinted that it could be a daddy boat. I had to tell her that none of them was large enough to be Luc's boat. And then she said she wanted to go on a boat. I had to tell her that I didn't even like boats. So I sang to her about her going on a purple boat with daddy looking for whales. She loved it. So here are some pictures to remind Amelia of daddy from our visit to the zoo. She rode the carousel with daddy and they feed the birds.


These three pictures crack me up. Luc held a little seed stick to feed the birds and they land on your hand. Amelia was a little hesitant but excited to hold it too. Her expression is just so funny, so surprised as the birds changed places. Can you tell which one she liked better?



And now that he finally has internet connectivity he can appreciate them too!

Purple toes!

While we were visiting my family, we had a little girl day getting our nails done. Grandma, Aunt Michelle, Melissa and Alex. Amelia and Bea stayed and played/napped at the house. Amelia was very jealous of all the purple toe nails. Alex offered to paint her nails, she was so excited. Her first pedicure!



Amelia had such a great visit and still asks for everyone. She was sad when her purple toes faded...

Walk down Memory Lane- aka West Lane

While we were visiting my family this summer, I confessed that my favorite Fourth of July parties were the ones in Loomis. We lived in Hidden Valley a community of a couple hundred houses built around a common area of a couple hundred acres that was divided into horse pastures, trails, lakes, and ponds. Right behind our house was a horse pasture with trails. We lived close to the big swimming lake complete with club house, water slide, dive platform, and submarine rock! There is even a little island in the middle of the lake. So we went over for a walk on the trails and swim in the lake. It was a blast.


Amelia wanted to hold hands with her cousin Bea. Pretty cute. Don't let these pictures fool you, the nice patches of shade make it seem nice and cool, but we were sweating! It was so hot that weekend. I couldn't wait to be in the lake! Max and Alex had a great time on the slide. It was pretty fast with a nice launch at the end!

We almost went to the Fourth of July party. What I liked best about them was the cake walk, three-legged race, and big communal BBQ feel of it. The ballpark was complete with games and everyone was having fun swimming in the lake. There weren't fireworks- everyone did those at their house (it was illegal after all). Instead we had a nice Fourth at the house, swimming, BBQ and fireworks were orchestrated masterfully by Max and Alex in the well-watered green grassy field.

Lucky girl with lots of Grandmas

Last night as I was putting Amelia to bed, she said that she loved her Grandma. And that she had 2 grandmas. And I said "and Kathleen" and she got so giddy "yeah". What a lucky little girl! Of course, this was after a wonderful day at home, where she used the potty all day and wore underwear. When she found the phone early in the day, she picked it up and started talking into it. Then said she was talking to grandma! Later we did a video chat with Grandma Carolyn.

It was a wonderful day! Lots of love for the grandmas today! (and Grandpas too!)

So here are some pictures of the grandmas from the summer!

This was the last night of Lucille's visit (more on that soon), Amelia insisted Grandma sit next to her. I think she wanted to have some special grandma time. Notice her shirt- if you think I'm cute, you should see my GRANDMA.

Most of the pictures from our visit this summer were with the horses and the pool. oh yeah- we should share those too! So here is little Bea with Grandma Carolyn!

Bea loves the horses

And Amelia's ride is less exciting since Amelia did not want the dogs in the arena while she was riding. Smart girl. But it was all the video we have...

Adventures with Dusty

Ok. We are back in the archives. But some of them are really cute. Like Amelia's first chance to groom and ride her cousin's pony Dusty. Dusty is a pretty big, but fairly mellow pony. Bea had never been for a ride on her either, so the two girls were on a little adventure together. Bea was pretty at ease around the horses while Amelia showed some hesitation.


First they brushed her. The girls had to crawl up on a step stool to reach her. Amelia seemed to like this part. She was eager to pick her tool and climb the stool. I held her hand for reassurance for the actual brushing. Then the girls tried sitting on Dusty while she was tied up. Bea was pretty happy. So we added Amelia with her. They seemed pretty happy, but Amelia was too crazy about being up there alone when we took Bea off.


So we saddled Dusty up and gave Bea a spin. She loved it. Just what Michelle has been waiting for- a child that is enthusiastic about riding horses! Amelia wasn't sure if she wanted to go. But I am pretty sure she is happy that we were patient. She seemed to like it quite a lot.

Sadly our camera ran out of batteries (or memory) while we were trying to film. But we did get a cute little clip of Bea riding Dusty that we will post shortly!

Sunday: Baking bread and chatting with daddy

We got to see daddy on Sunday. What a treat! He even got all dressed up. We can't do video chats while he is on the boat. But he sent us this still shot and I told Amelia that he sent her love via smileys (which she could see!).


We picked our first zucchini from the garden today. It is beautiful nice, long and skinny. Amelia tried to take a bite out of it- she was so excited. Then we baked some zuchhini bread (with some old CSA zucs). Of course, when I grabbed the camera to take a shot of her helping me bake, she ran off. But the idea is there. She loves to pull up a stool and help us bake.


And a recent shot of Amelia running around eating raw oats for Luc. I am not sure when it became her favorite, but I can't complain.

Way back in JUNE: We drove to Montana for a birthday party!

We had a busy, busy summer and now Luc is gone on a boat. So I can update the blog. Then summer will continue. So, let's go back to June....

It was Zora's second birthday. An event not to be missed. Amelia desperately wanted to go, so we relented. It is only 10 hours in the car. It should be fun. After all, there will be cake. Turns out, it was fun! Setting out on the road in the stylin' glasses. We stopped in cute town, MT and Amelia gave us a tour around town.



There is a great water park not far from their house. We rode over in Z's need red wagon. The girls came well prepared. Zora plunged head-long into the water fully clothed, while Amelia took the more prudent route of stripping down naked before running in.




Party time!


Then back in the car for another 10 hours. Did I mention that Amelia only slept for an hour in the car? She was too excited to sing, puzzle, read, and chat. We went to the library and got 5 CDs for the car ride. I think that helped. So did the train stop complete with 4 crazy kayakers launching into the overflowing MT rivers. They were really friendly and offered for Amelia to sit in their boats (before they launched). She was skeptical.