If you want your child to sleep through the night...make sure they get good naps!

Well, after our 5 Christmas celebrations I promised Amelie we would stay home all day on Monday so she could get proper naps and play with all her new toys. Then Abby called and we were going to go over and visit with her, Sammy, and Tova. I got Ami all bundled up and in her car seat and we were walking out the door when I went to reach for my keys...that were no where to be found. After 40 minutes and 3 phone calls I realized that I had left them in the center console of Tyler's car. So, I ended up keeping my promise after all. And you know what...she slept through the night. She woke up 2 times and fell back asleep and didn't get up again until after 6am. Glorious sleep.


Here she is playing with her music table from Grammy Tracy.


Now, here she is climbing up her music table onto the table next to the couch. You turn your head for 1 second...



Playing with her sit and scoot from Tova. She goes crazy with that thing. Walk/running and shaking it around like she is Godzilla.


Sometimes she plays so hard that she falls over and just lays there for a few minutes flailing. PS: the sweet animal print outfit is courtesy of Grammy Tracy.


Today we went into Richfield to do a little shopping and returning of items and we were in the toy aisle at Target. I was testing out toys on her to see what she like best. It ended up being a mini Elmo that laughs and talks when you shake him around. She loved it. I also got a soft storage ottoman on sale that we will use for a coffee table. I've been looking at that ottoman every time I go to Target (which is very often) and I was really pumped that it was on sale. I slammed it into my shin when I was loading it into the cart and felt like an idiot, but it was worth it.

As I was loading everything into my car, there was another mom with a child about the same age as Amelie loading her loot into her car as well. It was weird, like watching myself in the mirror. Her child was also screaming and I felt compelled to talk to her, like I do all other moms with young kids. Like we are all in some type of club that we didn't have to sign up for.

Here is something interesting. When I was in 4th or 5th grade, my teacher had us write to soldiers who were in the Gulf War. I corresponded with a man who sent me a couple of letters, one with an Army can opener among other trinkets. For some reason I remembered that and as I was telling the story to Tyler, the soldiers name popped into my head. I thought I'd look him up on Facebook for the hell of it and what do you know. I found him. How strange. I wrote him a message and he wrote me back confirming that it was indeed him. Technology blows my mind.

Tonight we went to my parents house to have dinner with Great Grandma Mike, Tova, Abby and Sammy. She gave the kids some gifts and Sammy got to show off his walking skills. Yeah, he's walking already. Not even 10 months old yet and walking like a mini Frankenstein. It's so cute. Amelie took 1 step today all on her own. She sometimes will take a mini side step to get where she wants to go, but not walking yet. She also looks like she is thinking about walking, then slowly lowers herself into a crawling position and shoots across the floor. I know that when she starts walking it's all over...but I don't care. I love watching her learn all those new things. *Side note: I'll be purchasing a play yard tomorrow to keep that girl contained.

And now, a rare moment where she sits still in my lap.


This is that last few seconds of her throwdown with her penguin. She straight attacked that thing.

White Christmas

We went over to my Grandma and Grandpa's for Christmas Eve. It was an hors d'oeuvres Christmas again this year. I love it. A little sample of a lot of food. Although, it is much easier to overeat that way. I feel as fat as my Wii Mii says I am. How insulting that a video game tells you that you need to slim down some. Anyways, she crawled all over the place, had a great time, wore herself out. It was really difficult to get her to sleep, and she woke up 3 times in the night. I was tired on Friday.

Uncle Tyson came over earlier that day and gave Amelie a rockin' red plaid suit from the Gap. I washed it so she could wear it Thursday night. She also wore it today. In fact, we all wore red plaid today. I don't even care if you think it's dorky.

Friday we went to my parents. We grilled shrimp, chicken, steak, asparagus, mushrooms and twice baked potatoes. It snowed a LOT. I loved it. My mom went CRaZy with presents for the babies. It was awesome. She got some super fun toys, I got my red plaid gear, my dad gave Tyler some Zubaz. My dad was laughing so hard I thought he was going to choke.



This is how happy she was about all her presents.


Her aunt Tova gave her a ride along toy that converts into a walker. She loves the bells and whistles on it and I am certain that once she figures out how to walk, she is just going to start running.


We went out to Shakopee today for Christmas with some of Tyler's family. Amelie was going crazy. I fed her a little bit of turkey, some squash and some mashed potatoes. It was pretty fun. She was super hyper, she slept the whole way home. We even took the long way so she could nap longer. She sure resisted going to bed again tonight. She screamed and cried and finally fell asleep.

I love all the Christmas joy and family visits, but it will be nice when we get back to her regular sleep schedule. She just won't nap anywhere else but her swing.

When we got home she played with her new toys while I made dinner. We were talking about our trip to Spain and it inspired me to make Tortilla Espanola. Of course, I realized I only had 1 egg after I had the onion and potato cooked. Luckily our neighbor raises chickens and sells the eggs, so Ty ran over and bought some. It turned out GREAT and hit the spot.

She just turned 9 months as well. I can't believe I got her to sit still long enough to catch her in this cute pose.

Amelie needs a nap.

This morning we went to volunteer at Feed My Starving Children with Amelie and a bunch of our family. It was fun, Amelie was pretty happy most of the time. We all went to lunch afterwards and Ami missed her morning nap. She slept for 3 hours when we got home (actually, we all did). We did some Christmas shopping this evening and came home and put Amelie to sleep. She was still awake and didn't fall asleep until 11:13pm. Lesson learned. Don't skip her naps. You'll pay for it later.

None of us slept very well last night either. While I was at work she bumped her head. Her doctor recommended that we all sleep in the same room, and that we wake her up every few hours to check on her. The last time she was awake, she stayed that way for a couple of hours. She was also flailing around and I'm pretty sure slapping my face on purpose. She always grabs onto those little hairs at the sides of my forehead and pulls too. She's like, "wake up, let's play," even though it's 4 am. I cried when I got home and saw the bump. It looked a lot better today.



Abby and I dressed her up in Sammy's Santa outfit on Friday.



She can stand on her own. Also, yesterday she waved for the first time. She did it with her hand closed so it was more like she was shaking her fist at Abby and I, but she was making the motion.



I went to lunch on Wednesday and Thursday with friends from high school. I got a picture of her with my friend Stacie. She loved entertaining all the tables around us at both restaurants.


My lil sis and her boyfriend, Tovandy, are coming home from a far off land called Illinois for Christmas. Abby and I are going over to my moms to bake more cookies too.

Ty and I are trying to make some decisions about our wedding. It's really stressful and I don't want to do it. I guess thats why we have been engaged for a year already and haven't set a date in stone yet. Eloping is really starting to look good.

Christmas Cookies are making me fat.

I can't stop eating fudge and cookies. We went to my moms to make Christmas cookies on Sunday afternoon. She made fudge in the microwave. Best. Fudge. Ever. It makes you feel extra guilty though, when you have seen all the not-so-healthy ingredients that go into it. The babes played in the living room with the cookie cutters and Grandpa Jeff.

Then we went to my work holiday party. It was pretty fun. I got a great gift...homemade soaps and lotion. Amelie partied. She was real happy the whole time, her cheeks were super rosy. Her and Tyler went home around 9pm and I stayed until midnight.

We had a lovely Monday. We tried to find a Christmas tree but the place was closed, then we went to Busters for lunch. It was great. Tyler cut a hole in the garage door and climbed through to fix it. It got stuck shut. I watched from the kitchen window.

On Saturday night, this guy and, who I am assuming his girlfriend, came into the bar at 1:55 am. The lights were up, we were finished serving drinks, but I offered to give him a shot instead of the drink he requested. He got all upset with me about it. Like, because he came in at the last possible minute we were going to serve him a drink so he could loiter around while we were trying to empty the place out and clean up. Get real. He yelled at me, told me he was an engineer. He screamed at me, " I'm an engineer, I make $80,000 a year."

It is now my favorite catch phrase.

I took Amelie to the Quarry today too. I got a new pair of jeans. I guess I'll give them another chance. Typically, I hate jeans. I wish it was socially acceptable to wear sweatpants everywhere and for all occasions. I'll keep trying to start that trend.

This evening we got a Christmas tree, put on all the decorations, and had a nice crackling fire. Also, I made French Onion Dip Steak Sandwiches with Carrot and Broccoli Slaw. It was so so good.

Friday list.

Have I mentioned that I like lists?

1. We went to Grandma Tracy's today. I did a little Christmas shopping while Grammy and Ami played.

2. I hate the parking lot at the HUB. A really big moron must have designed it. Complete chaos.

3. I secretly love KFC. Fried chicken really. I love heating the crispy fatty fried fatness.

4. I am loving Madmen right now. I think it is so interesting. Although, it's a good thing I'm not a housewife from the early 60's.

5. I'm starting to enjoy Christmas a little more each year. I actually left the radio on the station that plays all the Christmas music today. Only because the song was the Dr. Suess Grinch one. So FYI Maren...I still hate Christmas music.

6. I hate the way that the News is geared towards entertainment these days. I don't care about Tiger's sexcapades, I don't want to hear about the latest Twitter war...I want to hear about news, actual news. Not celebrity news. I don't want to know a newscasters personal opinion on anything.

7. On that note, I'm tired of people being famous for no reason. Heidi and Spencer, all of the Kardashians, Paris and Nicky Hilton... I really hope that fad goes away before Amelie gets old enough to start wanting to wear the teeniest of skirts, super high heeled shoes, and get a nose job.

8. I love snow and the sound it makes when it crunches under my feel.

9. I also love drinking cold filtered water from my Brita Water Pitcher. So delicious.

10. Beer is delicious. Doubly delicious out of a frosty pint.

11. Lastly, I do not want to plan my wedding. I have been putting it off month after month. I really really really wish someone would say to me, "Hey...I'll plan your wedding for you." That'd be awesome.

Brrrrrrr...!

Today, Amelie took 2 naps for 5 hours total. Amazing. I didn't even get much done besides a load of laundry and a little cleaning. I just rested. She is so incredibly mobile. She doesn't just sit or lay...she's always trying to get loose, crawl around, pull herself up on everything with such an intensity.

Tonight we went downtown to watch the Hollidazzle Parade. To be honest, it was boring. They have to let the traffic through on the Mall, so the parade pretty much obeys the traffic lights. We were in a skyway full of families and saw one float every 5 minutes or so. Amelie got bored and we took off early and stopped in at Gluek's.

Ami and Ty at the parade.

She made a mess of herself twice today. The first time I was able to clean her up without incident and I reminded myself to give her a bath before bed. The second time, when I finished cleaning her up...she peed all over herself. I just went into the bathroom with her and gave her a bath. She had a blast playing in the water. She had 4 outfit changes today. Here are 2 of them:

She had an outfit like the photo above on too, pink tights a pink top and the same white sweater...I didn't even get a chance to take a photo of her before she needed to be changed again. Oh well, it gives me a chance to dress her up in all the cute clothes she has.

I tried to weigh her today, it was dumb. I sat her on the Wii fit when I was done playing with it and it totally didn't work. It just kept telling me that she was fidgeting too much to weigh her.

I wish I knew how much she weighed. She really likes to be held lately and it's killing my arm.

Snow!

It snowed today. I like snow, that's partially the reason that I still live in MN. I like the seasons, I like the cold, I like wearing my rainbow striped moon boots.

Amelie was sick all weekend. She had a fever varying from 99 degrees to 102.9 degrees. She wasn't acting that sick, but is sure freaked me out enough. I took her to the doctor on Monday morning. The doc pretty much looked at her and said she was fine, no infections or anything. We got home and her fever was gone. Since she was sick, I was sick too, it wasn't fun.

I have some photos of our dining room and kitchen now.

The cupboard with no doors is where the dishwasher will go. We are still looking for a light fixture for above the sink.

The beginning of our photo wall in the dining room.

I met Cassie at Houlihan's for Happy Hour tonight. It was delightful to see her and catch up. We were both wondering why everyone was driving like morons. We live in MN. It snows here. Remember last winter...

I've been feeling pretty crafty. I embroidered, made a paper chain, went to a sweet craft fair...I just wish I had more time. I made this candle holder and several more like it to sell on Etsy. Of course, the file is too big and won't upload. I'm really frustrated with technology right now.

My phone is all eff'ed up and it's really irritating me so I'm going to try and figure out what the heck is going on.

Here is my cute child:

December already!?

I feel like I am still waiting for summer to start but actually it's almost Christmas. It's weird, I had a baby and now I feel like I am trapped in a time warp into the future. Sammy just turned 9 months, Amelie is already into her 8th...it's nuts.

9 month old Sammy

Here are some things on a list.

1. I'm so sick of trying to plan a wedding. We keep changing our minds about what we want to do. I'm this close to packing a bag and eloping.

2. Abby and I took the babes on a brisk morning walk...we got to dress them up in their snowsuits and they both took naps.

3. We visited with Grandma Mike...whose name has become synonymous with Chipotle. (The restaurant, not my old cat).

4. I currently love Madmen. Didn't think I would...but then again I thought the same thing about 24. I got sucked into that one BIG time.

5. I also really LOVE It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. So inappropriately funny.

6. I did some crafting with my leftover baby food jars. And also with some tissue paper and sticks. And newspaper and feathers. I get these short little bursts of obsessive crafting and do a whole lot in a little time.

7. I went to a Bodypump class at the Y. It was awesome.

8. I still have own the loudest car on the block. Then I realized, not only do I need a new muffler, I also need an oil change in a bad way.

9. I made eggs benedict. I was nervous about the sauce, but it turned out great.

10. Abby forgot an awesome/annoying toy at my house, a guitar. Amelie loves it. She literally rocks out.

She rocked out so hard today, that I thought she needed some hardcore headwear.

Out.