It's been awhile!

So, it's been awhile! But having a new little life to document is motivation enough to keep up with this thing. Let's give this another go...

Claudia is now 4 and SO much fun. Her imagination just runs wild, which is both a good and a bad thing. The timing of having a new baby and Claudia claiming monsters were in her room in the middle of the night was not so good. She's finally out of Pull-ups at night, but still has the occassional accident. Needless to say, we're usually up in the middle of the night with 1 of our 3 children.

Amelia is growing into such a fun little girl. She loves wearing hats, sunglasses, jewelry, shoes, etc. She's my little girly girl and loves to dress-up in everything and anything. As much as she loves dressing up, though, she loves to undress when she goes to bed. We're one little exploration away from a big mess since she loves to take off her pants, but hasn't gotten the diaper off yet. She knows she gets in big trouble for this, so one morning I found her pants on inside out with the tag in front. Ummm, yeah. Totally busted!

Fiona is a dollbaby. Always smiling, talking, already laughing, and so much fun. She's very social so she's always happy just to be around us. She ADORES her big sisters, and their friends as well. She started sleeping through the night around 6 weeks old, thank God. She sleeps from 7:30-7:30 every night, but is the world's worst napper. This poses a big issue for me since I have many other things I need to get accomplished throughout the day. This too shall pass, I think. She's also painfully close to rolling over. I can't believe she's almost 3 months already and about to explode developmentally.

I've turned Claudia on to online shopping. I let her pick her Gymboree order and was so excited for it to magically appear on her doorstep and try it all on. Daddy's in trouble x 3.

Baby Einstein ain't just for babies.

Amelia= Binky patrol.

You have to be a good sport when you're the youngest of 3.

She has to hug all 6 of the arbor vites in the back of our yard everytime she goes outside.

My compromise to a sandbox.

About 20 seconds after this picture was taken, I picked Fiona up to burp her and she threw up all over the chair and ottoman. This is the last time Claudia ever gave Fiona a bottle.

Amelia's favorite thing to do to the baby. Poke her. Sometimes even in the eye.

And video of Miss Fiona laughing:

It's a...

Well, it's been a long time, but I think I have news worthy of sharing.

Had our ultrasound today and found out we are having a very healthy, hyper-active little girl. 3 little shrieking girls running around. We'll understand if your visits to our house are short ones. :)

One is fun!

Amelia finally turned 1 on March 24th! Both easy and hard to believe. You really spend that 1st year wishing time away and dreaming of a time where things will get easier when they're able to do more. And, alas, the time really has gone.

At 1 year of age, Amelia is still a big-time cuddler. Gets frustrated very easily. Is well-known for her choking incidents. Is a wonderful eater and sleeper. She went to bed last night at 7, as usual, and I had to wake *her* up this morning at 9:00. And I thought Claudia was a great sleeper! Amelia and Claudia are starting to actually play together now. In the past if Claudia took a toy from Amelia or offended her in some way, Amelia would just dissolve into tears and come searching for me to defend her. But now she's starting to defend herself and not take Claudia's crap. She fights for herself and tries to stand her little ground.


Extra sauce for the extra special birthday girl

Cake hands



The latest addition to the swingset which Amelia LOVES.

Snoozin on our trip to Michigan to see Grandma Kemp


Up for a quick snack




Then back to sleep

All we get out of Claudia on a trip is drowsy

An immediate tea party as soon as we arrived

A HUGE picture considering Amelia allows NO ONE to hold her but me or Ed.

Out to see the horses





Feeding the horses








Claudia and poor Aunt Terri. I think Claudia has Aunt Terri washing already clean dishes here. She ran that woman ragged.


And last, but not least, this is what Amelia started doing today! She started taking up to 6 steps this morning at our playdate, and this evening she decided to take a stroll across the kitchen!!!

http://www.clipshack.com/Clip.aspx?key=784BDA22AF0A7D56

Tiny dancer

OK, pics first because I don't have the time or energy to rearrange all the pics to the bottom of the text.

Now that Amelia's close to walking, Claudia loves to grab her and lead her around the house.

Riding her bike on a rare warm day. And Amelia refusing her hat, as usual.

Claudia on the 'naughty step' and Amelia offering her sympathies.

Off to our fieldtrip!

Her BFF Gia.

The world is a whole new place from a school bus's point of view.

Last picture in the theater before I almost got my camera confiscated.

Claudia helping sissy with her shoes...which in addition to hats, doesn't like to keep on her body.

New addition to the swingset. I'm so happy that she LOVES it because Claudia screamed and cried at baby swings up until she was 2!

Poor Amelia. In being subjected to watching Claudia's 'Potty Power' DVD hundreds of times, she's come up with a dance to it:

http://www.clipshack.com/Clip.aspx?key=492C6EC1756A554A

She's quite the dancer. I've started taking her (and Claudia, of course) to toddler storytime like I did with Claudia when she was her age, and she loves it. She dances her heart out to all the little songs and dances. There's a freeze dance they do every week and Amelia even knows when to stop and start like all the other kids. And then starts laughing and shaking her egg rattle like crazy, feeling so proud of herself.

It's funny because she'll shoot off big huge smiles to anyone who will look her way, but if she gets a little too close to anyone without me being right by her side, she freaks! She crawled over to some woman's lap, started pulling up on her, looked her right in the face and started screaming because she realized it wasn't me. Same jeans, not the same Mom! I can't wait for the stranger danger phase to end.

On Friday, I took Claudia on her little class fieldtrip downtown to see a preschool concert set to the book 'Where the Wild Things Are'. She could have cared less about the concert. Constant feeding of a snack kept her quiet and in her chair. But the highlight was the school bus ride. She was over the moon to ride a school bus for the first time. I love getting to be a part of all the cute, little firsts in her life.