It's about time I took a turn contributing to our blog. Today seems to be a quiet day. With Amelia's head on my lap snoozing away, I will try to get something down "on paper". Reading blogs is easy but managing two hand typing is altogether different. During late night feedings, I try to keep myself awake by following some parenting centered blogs. My favorite blogger right now is Ilana from Mommy Shorts. She actually makes me laugh out loud which can be quite a feat after the 3rd wake up in the middle of the night. Recently she published a post called "9 Things I already know about my Baby Girl". I chose not to read the article so I could borrow the idea for our blog without stealing her actual content.

So here it goes (in no particular order)... The 10 things I know about Amelia before she is even 3 months old:

1. Amelia loves her bath time - This might be the favorite part of her day. Amelia usually takes a bath first thing in the am when she is nice and alert (and is most in need of a scrub down). She goes nuts kicking her feet and overflowing the tub. I am guaranteed smiles and some strange attempts at words. We use bath time to start her sign language training. I sign "again" to ask her to kick her feet again and she politely obliges. She's a genius really!

2. Amelia is all about the food (just like her Papa) - This was evident while I was pregnant. I used to feel her starting to kick as soon as I would open my mouth to take a bite of something. I know it isn't physically possible for her to have smelled the food but as her father's daughter, I am convinced she had a 6th sense that food was on the way. Now that she has joined us in the real world, Amelia watches me like I am a moving cupcake. She gobbles her food with lots of moaning, groaning, snorting and blowing milk out her nose. We seriously can't take her anywhere classy these days!


3. Amelia loves to have her hair styled - If you are not a dog lover, it might be best to skip this one. Our dog, Abby, has completely taken to Amelia and assists in the care taking.  This means every time Amelia makes a noise or lets out a small cry, Abby is there to do her part. She delicately checks to make sure every hair on Amelia's head is in perfect position. This sometimes puts a smile on her face and at least stops the cries. The hairstyles on the other hand are less than desirable. The most common look Abby creates is the comb over.

4. Amelia has a stretching routine first thing in the am - Again this started in utero as well. For those of you who follow me on Facebook, you may remember my mentioning how I could feel her stretch in the mornings. This may sound silly but every morning when I woke up while pregnant, I would sing "Good morning Sunshine" to her. Within the first few notes, she would start her stretches and kicks. Abby (likewise) would stretch and do her little howl knowing it was seconds before I would be letting her out. Today the 3 of us continue this same routine but we wait for Amelia to stretch first. I am not yet ready to start waking her up unnecessarily.

5. Amelia is already Papa's girl - One of Amelia's favorite places to be when she is just a little fussy or when she is getting sleepy is to be snuggled up on her dad's chest while he walks around the house. It is cute to watch cause she just leans into him. I don't know how she keeps her balance but with her Spiderman grip and blind faith, you can see the comfort wash over her.

6. Amelia does not like to be moved while sleeping - Let me be specific, she can be moved easily when deep in sleep. I often multi task when she is in my arms or when I am wearing her around the house. What she does not like is to open her eyes in a different location from when she closed them. When we do this (which is all the time), she wakes up with first a shocked look and then a glare at us that says "what the hell? where am I this time?". It makes me laugh every time.

7.  Amelia is a happy baby - It's easy to get a smile from this little one and for that we are grateful. It is not uncommon to see her smiling in her sleep or to hear her giggling when others in the room are speaking or laughing. The vibrations from my stomach when I laugh silently at something is enough to get her grinning from ear to ear.

8. Amelia is a music lover - We use music to entertain Amelia constantly. She has her favorite lullabies, Christmas music, and Disney (to Adam's dismay) music. I played piano for her every day before she was born and continue to do so. My "go to song" for her has always been "Dark Angel" from Blue Rodeo. The lines "Cause there's this face that I know that I've never seen. Sometimes I feel I'm livin' in someone else's dream.." always choked me up as I was anticipating her birth. Now almost 3 months later, she is fascinated by the piano keys and will soon be reaching up to bang out a tune. (See Adam's post Music soothing the Savage Beast)

9. Amelia is a little socialite - She loves to entertain or attend parties. She basically just loves to be passed around and meet new people. It is the easiest form of entertainment for her (I mean us). If you come to our home, you must be prepared to be greeted by us passing you our baby before we even say hello. (See Adam's recent post on the slew of visitors.)

10. Amelia likes to be entertained  - Like all babies, Amelia likes to take in the world around her. Her need to avoid boredom is new so we keep trying different things till we find something that works. The newest form of entertainment is for her to sit on the counter (with me holding her) and watch Adam cooking dinner. It's like her own cooking show but she can smell all the items and and her Papa uses different voices to explain what he is doing. She finds this quite intriguing.

AMF starting her morning ritual.

 

Abby sensing trouble at the old mill. This is the look she gives just before running to touch up AMF's hair.

 

...and just one little touch up here.
 (The quilt AMF is sitting on was made by her grandmother. It was actually a quilt from when Adam was a baby. She sleeps with it every night.)