Amber clapping

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Amber's a stinker

So, for about a month now, Amber has been trying to stand/pull herself up on us.  She seems to think she can only use us though or maybe she just doesn't feel secure enough if we're not there to hold her if she wobbles too much.  And she does wobble.  She almost looks like she should have a hula hoop around her.  Probably just likes to dance like her dad.  I'm still trying to decide whether that right leg (the inverted-at-birth knee) is putting equal weight on it.  The right foot seems to want to be a step behind the left when she's standing.  A trip to the orthopod may be in order.

On Tuesday I started hearing 'nnn-da' here and there amongst the silly sounds.  When she cries a sad cry it's 'mmm-boo.'  So, she's having fun and says dad and when she's sad she says mom....  Sounds about right.  Yesterday, I was on my way out the door for work and she started to cry when I left the room.  When I came back she sighed and stopped screaming, but when I actually left after that she screamed.  All this while Daddy was holding her.  I guess she might like me around.  Either that or she was hungry and she thought she wasn't going to get anything if I left.

Amber has 2 teeth on the bottom now and I think she's working on some more because she's been biting toys and drooling and crying a lot again.  Not to mention waking up at 3 or 4 for no apparent reason, and even Daddy* can't get her back to sleep.  I end up having to feed her.  Not a good habit to form.  * When Amber was getting up in the middle of the night a few weeks ago, and I thought she was hungry so I would feed her, I was losing way too much sleep.  She didn't seem to eat when she would wake up later in the morning so we figured she'd just gotten herself on a weird schedule by habit.  Ken started getting up when she would stir and as soon as she would see him coming she jerked her head to the side and went back to sleep (that what she does when he puts her to bed at night)!  Problem solved!  I get to stay in bed and not wake too much and not lose an hour of sleep feeding her, and Ken gets to pop out of bed and right back in after re-swaddling her and only lose 5 minutes of sleep. 
This better start working again soon.  Right now we keep trying Daddy first and when all else fails I feed her.  So either teething or growth spurt in progress...

Along with trying to pull herself up, from a seated position she bops up and down like she's either going to stand up or go on her hands to crawl.  She'll reach way out to get a toy or something and sit back up, too, but she's never happy on all fours or on her tummy.  And the magic of the changing table has completely disappeared (used to make her chatty and happy- no more).  So she screams a lot when she's laying down.  Rolling from back to tummy and crawling are going to take a while.

I think my favorite and most recent milestone would be clapping (pat-a-cake)!  She'll almost do it on demand, too!  Just say 'yaaaaaaaaaay' and clap a few times and she'll clap, too :)

I'm back

I should be sleeping and I'll kick myself in the morning but for once I had to take advantage of this late night inspiration... Andrew's birthday party is finally up!  Hopefully tomorrow I'll get to post what Amber's been up :)  Oh and if you've been having trouble leaving comments it should be easier now- I changed a setting that was making it weird.

Andrew's Party

We were fortunate enough to rent the pavillion at Everybody's Playground in Horsham for Andrew's third birthday party, thanks to our friends S & J who still live in our old neighborhood (you have to pay 5x as much if you're not a resident).  It was HOT, but the pavillion had a great breeze coming through it and provided shade so it was bearable, especially since we did it early.  Poor kid turning one had his after us and it was just not worth it.

Uncle Kevin made Andrew a Lightning McQueen cake to go with his Disney's CARS theme that was spectacular.  I couldn't get the candles to stay lit (told you it was a great breeze), but Andrew didn't seem to mind.  He just wanted to eat McQueen :)  We also had a pinata my parents found of McQueen and friends in the new kid-friendly style that you pull strings on the bottom and the candy falls out instead of beating it (or friends) with a stick.  The video oughta be funny since the first time the kids pulled the streamers just came out.  Our ribbon pulling pro, Reese, was able to get that puppy to give up the goods!  Thanks Reese!

And there was lots of playing on the playground by all of the kids!  Got some cute shots of neighbors and friends, but forgot to take advantage of all the cousins together for a photo.  They're getting so big!

Happy Birthday Big Boy!  Love you!!

writer's (no Mommy's) block

This is what I was afraid of with starting/having a blog.  Writer's block.  Or more accurately Mommy's block.  I have things I want to say, but worry whether they are publishable (that is not a word, right? lol).  I want to tell you about Andrew's birthday but ever since it happened he's been making me crazy and I don't have the good vibe I want while blogging.  Not to mention I've had a total of about 19 hours of sleep all week.  So, here I am more or less complaining instead of sharing happy thoughts.  I know they can't all be happy thoughts, too, but most people want to read those instead of these sad, self-pitying ones.  And I definitely don't think you want to read about how I'd like to defenestrate things/people on a daily basis.  Did I mention I don't like my boss?  Nope, I just re-read and saw I didn't so- I don't like my boss.  I liked my boss at my old job but she had a crappy boss so I guess I didn't like it there either.  Boy, this IS turning into a gripe fest.  Please stand by while we dope up the author and look for the exciting and cheerful updates that should hopefully follow.

This is probably my newest favorite photo!

The big 3

We had a nice day for Andrew's birthday yesterday- rain, humidity, mugginess....  Didn't stop us from going to the pretzel place to order his party tray and having a pretzel dog (which the dog got half of).  Aunt Rosie came by with Claire and we went shopping at Toys R Us with Andrew's birthday gift cards from Sandrina & Jim.  We got a great Under Sea puzzle that he's already really good at, some new paints and a Color Wonder book of opposites.  Gram and Nonni came over for cake (frost and top your own cup cakes mm mmmm!) and Daddy brought home balloons, which he wanted to take to bed, but settled for leaving them in the middle of the living room for when he got up this morning.  Nice day.

my baby likes me

Today I got home from work a little late and was trying to quickly get ready to go up to my parents' for dinner when Ken brought the baby into the room.  She must not have really noticed I was home prior to this visit because she did a tiny double-take, smiled with the softest, sweetest expression on her face and gave a gentle sigh  aaaaaaahhh.  Then when she thought I was moving toward her she reached out for me to take her...
she melts my heart <3