Some Kings

For something, Amelia says someking: "Mama, I want to tell you someking."

Both tickets and receipts are recickets.

She very seriously refers to her toes as her piggies.

Other than that she is mostly a very grown up speaker. She speaks in long paragraphs. She is asking why. Why is today Thursday? Why is this shirt short-sleeved? And the last week, looking down at the damp rock in her hand: "Mama, I'm licking this. Why am I licking this?"

 In other news, this is a miracle post. I started it on Thursday, May 10, but today, when I HOPE to actually post it, is May 29. (Happy Birthday Udi!) About a month ago, I (very suddenly, with no thinking through) decided I was just done with putting Amelia in her room to nap. It very rarely resulted in actual napping, and very often resulted in stress for me and probably for Amelia too. Her quiet playtime was punctuated with lots of "MAMA WHERE ARE YOU"s and "MAMA CAN YOU HEAR ME"s. I think that for a long time the quiet playtime in her room was good for Amelia, but then it just stopped working. I feel like she was old enough to know I was just leaving her in her room but not old enough to really understand exactly why I wasn't coming when she called, and it didn't feel like the right thing anymore. So we stopped doing it. For awhile, we tried to keep the daily schedule as though it included a nap. I tried having quiet time in Amelia's room with her. I took piles of books to her bed, hoping we could peacefully read and maybe even drift off to sleep, but, um, have I ever met Amelia? The child fights sleep like a superhero. We would read books for 30 minutes or more and then Amelia would jump on the bed. So now we sort of go with the flow. Lots of times if we go on a walk or take a drive Amelia will fall asleep, having what Dr. Sears calls "the moving nap" (for the record, I don't always like Dr. Sears, but this is a very reassuring article from him that I read about dropping naps). Sometimes I can wheel her stroller in the house and still get a few things done. Sometimes I cannot. Overall, though, I am more relaxed now than when the idea of a daily nap ruled our schedule.

For the record, baby sleep is insane. If I had to do it all over again I am not sure if I would try harder from the beginning to follow some sort of schedule or just be MUCH more relaxed, assuming the baby will sleep when they sleep. For example, right after I stopped putting her in her room to nap, Amelia had a 2-week period of waking up between 4:30 and 5:30 AM. I obsessed over her sleep. Was her bedtime too early? Too late? Was she suddenly napping too much in her stroller or the car? We tried putting her down earlier, later, not letting her nap, going to great lengths to get her to nap, and she kept waking up early. Then one day she didn't. Then the next day we had some visitors who had to make an early flight. One visitor in particular who was pretty vocal. We forgave him because he is under two years old--but the interesting thing is that even with her loud and lovable calling from the bottom of the stairs, Amelia did not wake up early. WTF.

As you can see, Micah and Amelia had so much fun.

So now I am trying to be more relaxed. If she falls asleep during the day, great. If not, we will put her to bed a little early. We have also been occasionally giving her dinner very early, at 4:30 or 5:00 in the afternoon. Especially on days when she doesn't nap, eating early seems to perk her up and let her enjoy her last couple of waking hours. I will say I have been trying pretty hard for the moving naps, because they are at least a little break, and she does get fussy in the mid-afternoons, and since it is summer and there is lots of park playing, trike riding, and garden watering to be done, it is nice if she can stay up a little later.

This picture gives clues to Amelia's southern roots.


Speaking of gardening, our urban garden is planted and growing. We got a spot in the community garden just half a block down the street too. So far we have harvested radishes and arugula and strawberries (that's the strawberry patch to the right of the trike above.) We planted lettuce but it did not grow. Bad seeds? Soon we should have snap peas too. And we have planted corn, beans, pumpkins, cucumbers, zucchini, and peppers, basil and tomatoes. 18 tomato plants, to be exact. And Amelia planted this sunflower, which she started from seed at the Botanic Gardens. The seedling survived her planting it by herself, which included her dropping most of its soil, flooding it with a completely full pitcher of water, and then stepping on it.

 Part of the problem is that she was much more interested in this tiny stroller.

 This is a wider shot of half of the front garden. We do expect the tomatoes to get much taller.

The other half of the front yard. Our neighbors probably think we are pretty strange.

Here are some more Amelia and Micah pics.

What else? It has to be quick because it's getting late in the day--6:15 am already. Haha. Amelia LOVES dolls. She has many dolls and has borrowed two more from her friends. Each one has a name: Rosy (after a doll at Nanny and Popa's house), Tillie (after a girl in our music class), Margaret (after Udi), Emily Elizabeth (after the girl in the Clifford books). For awhile, Rosy was named Harry, after grand-uncle Harry. Sometimes, the doll's names will change, often to Lindsey. Amelia likes to change her name too. She will say, "I'm Emma." Or, "I'm a lizard." Or last night:

Amelia: I'm a dinosaur! (roars)

Me: Oh no! There's a dinosaur after me!

Amelia (roars and runs around the table): After after after after after!

Just a note, the music class we are going to, Music Together, is great. It is so much fun. Amelia loves it and she sings all the time. Also, she had her first dentist appointment. She let the hygienist count her teeth and obliged to look at the instruments but did not get her teeth cleaned. She would not open her mouth for the dentist either. He did not seem to have a way with toddlers. But the hygienist thought her teeth looked good. It was a relief, since tooth brushing is pretty hit or miss around here. We try.

Oh, and to tie up a loose end from a previous post, Amelia has a new cousin! Second cousin, I guess. Her name is Magnolia. She is lovely and I will try to remember to ask her mom if I can put her picture on the blog.

In conclusion, miracle post. Good day to you!