Snow!!

Need I say more? 

Is dinner ready?

She got her own bib out, put a bowl on her tray (I took it back to put food in it) and the next thing I hear is her squawking, and hear she is. She only just discovered that she can climb onto a chair, and tonight discovered that she can get to the table from there. I think she may have been going to attempt to get into her chair but got distracted. Watch out world!!

ps. To anyone worried, this is not something we let Amelia do, or will encourage. I didn't know she could do it. Now I do!

Who do you sleep with?

Amelia's slept every night in her room now since we started. She wakes up once or twice, and I either spend the second half of the night with her, or manage to get back to my own bed. I'm so pleased and proud of her, although she hasn't seemed to really have noticed much, except when she wakes in the night and I'm not right there, but even that's been not bad at all. These are the guests she invited into her bed tonight, and she had me kiss them all too, how could I refuse? When she slept beside me, she never slept with a stuffie or doll, and didn't really seem too attached to them either. During the move, this Shirley Temple doll re-surfaced, (that our grandma had given to me and Molli as children), and Amelia fell in love. In my ideal plan in my mind, Amelia's first doll would be the Waldorf doll that Molli is making that we were planning to give to her for her second birthday, in time for the new baby in the house. We have put a rush on that doll, it will be more cuddly than this stiff plastic one. Amelia has tried a few times to go to sleep resting on Shirley's belly, but it's just not made for that!

Amelia is very sweet with Shirley, she doesn't do everything with us, but when she's around she'll join us for storytime, get kisses if she falls, walk up the stairs (which is tricky if you already are using your hands to get up the stairs), watch bathtime (from a safe distance) and, of course, go to sleep with us. Sometimes, some of the stuffies will join us in our activities too if they happen to be around (like tonight).

It's interesting for me to watch this play naturally unfold, I don't remember playing with animals or dolls much as a child, I wasn't a tomboy and we did play with Barbies but I never was much into dolls like this that I remember, granted my memory is not that good... But the play that Amelia engages in with these has unfolded quite by itself. The first time she found the doll, I showed her how to hold her gently, and once she dropped her down the stairs and Lance told Amelia that's not how we play with dolls and gave Shirley a hug for the fall, and that's all the guidance Amelia has needed. When the child is ready the doll shall appear???

A first pony tail

Amelia has a hat with tassles on it, and she calls my pony tail or bun a tassle too and so i put one in her hair for the first time. She loved it!

Another first; tonight I put her to sleep in her own room for the first night-time sleep. (waa for me, she may be ready for her own room but am I??) She's had about 6 naps in there so far. I didn't think I'd start transitioning her for another week or so, but the way the night-time routine went it just happened. I have her on foam on the floor and just went to check on her, she's now on the floor on the other side of the little room(she's rolling into the bi-fold closet doors as I . We'll see how this progresses 

just woke up

This is Amelia just after her nap at the top of the stairs. (please note the lovely colour of our carpet, they've said we'll get new carpets in the spring) 

all gone

and this is her with Baa the goat on the empty empty living room floor in the old place.
No pictures of the new place yet, next week I hope to be able to settle in and just putter around in the new place.

Does anyone know of any alternatives to the ugly and expensive vinyl liners for cupboards and drawers? Does martha make anything half decent? All we've seen so far is shiny silver, busy blue delft flowers, dirty-looking faux stone and textured white. No nice soft martha colours. Yet. 

All hands on deck...

or, No time to play.

It's amazing to watch learning in action. Amelia had been watching me as I was dismantling the bed, but she was also climbing in and out of the bed frame, so I was a litttle surprised at how fully she understood what the process was.

As for our move, we are basically all out (just a few odds and ends, you know how much fun those are!) and the cleaning left to do.