Happy 1st Birthday, Amelia!

What a fun day we had today.  Daytime with Mommy, and evening with Daddy.  (Matt and I both had classes today, but I took a vacation day from work...)

Lia and I played in the morning, then morning nap, then Skype with Grandma and Grandpa Cromer, then shopping for party supplies (!!), then back home for lunch, more playtime, and bathtime with her new bath toys (a birthday present from her day-care provider).  Then afternoon nap, then up in time to see Dad arrive home from class.  Then Mom left for class.

Then, dinner with Dad, Skype with Granny Callie, playtime, and phone call with Grandpa Sharp.  Then bedtime.

We got a lot of good pictures and some good videos today.  So many options to scrapbook!  However will I choose just a few?  :-)

I'm looking forward to the party on Saturday morning.  During Lia's naps today, I wrapped presents and worked on her baby album/scrapbook.  I've got up through Month 10 complete!  Woohoo!

And now it's bedtime.  How I wish I could spend every day hanging out with my wonderful daughter...

1-year Orthopedic Check-up

Lia had her 1-year check-up at the Orthopedic Specialist's office today.  Good news - her hips look good, and there's no "clicking" or other major issues.  Bad news - the hip sockets are still on the shallow side and need some extra help to grow in well and quickly before additional problems can crop up.  So, what does this mean?  We have a brand new brace - a Rhino brand product known as the "Cruiser" (seriously?) - which Lia will have to wear overnight while she sleeps for at least 4 months until her next checkup.  I'm sure she's not going to like it for the first couple of nights, but I'm hoping that she doesn't mind it too much overnight.  I really am not looking forward to comforting a "braced" baby again, but I am overwhelmingly grateful that not only is this something we will only have to deal with at night, but in all other ways, she is healthy and happy.  We are so lucky in comparison, so I'm not going to complain.

Another cool thing about this brace - it is no where near as restrictive as the Wheaton-Pavlik harness was.  Check out what this little boy is able to do while wearing the brace:

http://www.mefeedia.com/watch/32783962

I had to install a plug-in to watch this, but this little boy is so cute, it was worth it.  Looks like he's a full-time brace wearer.  What a pro!  Anyway, please pray that Lia's hip sockets will grow fast and in the right way!  Next checkup is in early January, so we'll know more then...

More Fun on the Stairs

We've had a breakthrough...  Amelia climbed down the stairs by herself tonight!  She was very cautious about it, of course, but she built on her "I can get down from the couch by myself" skills and applied them to the stairs.  What a pro!  We had a ton of fun laughing and clapping as she went down and back up.  She had a blast practicing mostly on the top two steps.  I'm so proud of her!

And, the first time that she made it to the bottom, I clapped loudly, and she joined in.  I don't know if I've seen her intentionally clap yet, so she must have been pretty excited, too!

Way to go, Amelia!

Trip to the Zoo

On Labor Day, Matt and I decided we wanted to do something fun together (since we have so little time together lately because of school and work), and since we also wanted to keep Amelia occupied, we headed off to the freebie zoo in town.  As anticipated, it was packed!  We arrived just as they were opening up additional parking spots, so we got to park right away.  Woohoo!

Lia has been to this zoo a few times now, but each time she is more and more engaged in the activity around her.  This time, she actually noticed the animals in addition to all the other people.  It was tons of fun watching her "ooh" and "ahh" and stare intently at the animals which were actually moving.

We also watched the "creature feature" demo where the zoo staff put on a cute little skit geared towards kids while they taught about some of the smaller animals like pigs, ducks, chickens, and rabbits.  It was cute and gave us a chance to let Lia eat a banana.

On our way out, we walked through the garden and stopped to take some pictures with the whole family, thanks to the random person who offered to be our stand-in photographer.  What a beautiful day to spend at the zoo!

Getting crafty...

Just before Labor Day weekend, I had an itch to get crafy and make a highly impractical baby dress in an effort to teach myself/practice my sewing skills. I had seen a dress idea that I liked, and I attempted to copy it. Unfortunately, I didn't realize that the only tulle I would be able to find is the scratchy, stiff kind and not the nice, soft, flowing kind. Yes, I could spend money to order the right fabric online, but this was a cheap practice attempt at sewing, not something that needed to be perfect. So, I made due and ammended my original plans.

After a couple of failed attempts at cutting the tulle to the right size and shape, here was the final result:

Feel free to ignore the baby drool on the front of the dress. Oh, and did I mention how impractical this dress is?? :-) But hey, I still think it's pretty cute for my first solo clothing making attempt!

And check out the buttons! I finally learned how to sew button holes and attach buttons using my sewing machine. Woohoo!

Now I finally feel comfortable with the idea of making halloween costumes or fun costumes for dress-up when Amelia gets older. And maybe I'll even make some fun clothes while she's still little enough to not care if they aren't perfect? I'm so wishing I had a serger and a ton of spare time... :-)

Trip to the Playground (pics from late August)

Lia: Mom, can we go to the playground?

So Matt and I decided to take Lia on a walk and stop at a nearby park while we were out.

Lia:  Look how tall I am!

Big girls aren't afraid of the slide...

Lia: Eek!  My legs are sticking to the slide!!

Lia: Maybe it would be fun to climb up?  Or not...

Lia: Let's climb the stairs instead.  Oh look!  A leaf!  Just what I've always wanted, Dad...

Lia: Wait - Look!  A puddle!  What fun!

Lia: Is it time to leave already?  I was just getting started...  :-(

And then Matt and I went back to walking.  Gotta find time to get some exercise in while it's still warm!

What a Fun Day!

Amelia and I had such a fun evening!  Matt had to work today, so after church, we went home and prepped for the afternoon while making lunches for the week.  The afternoon plans were to attend the lake baptisms that our church was having at a nearby park/lake after Amelia's nap.

Lia didn't really nap.  I ended up taking her shopping with me just to help put her to sleep for a while.  I had her in the carrier, so my back is a bit sore, but she did sleep most of the time while I was shopping, which I'm sure made the evening go a bit easier.  Whew!

We went minimalist on our picnic dinner:  I brought a sandwich for me, and I had some chicken, veggies, yogurt, cheese,  and formula for Lia.  The service was nice, and Amelia played well and stayed happy while watching other people and swinging her hands to the music when the band was playing.  She let some of the other kids help feed her and play with her while we were eating after the service.  And, she wanted to walk everywhere, so more strain on my back while I held her hands and she walked all over the park.  She also got to play with one of the older girls in the sand on the beach.  Needless to say, she got a bit messy from all the food and "nature".  Wet wipes helped, but I knew a bath was in order.  After a quick trip to the DQ with friends, it was time for bed... or so I thought.

We got home, and Lia was immediately back in good spirits.  It was bedtime, but her whole schedule was off from her afternoon nap.  So, bathtime!  She loved bathtime.  She stayed in the bath about twice as long as normal just playing in the water.  I got her out to change her into her diaper and PJ's, and she seemed happy enough until I laid her down, then she got upset, rolled over, and speed-crawled back to the tub, looking longingly at the water.  Back in she went, and immediately she began smiling and playing with her bath toys again.  We had a fun time with bath time tonight!

Then, when she was finally reaching to be let out of the bath, we only had a little bit of trouble getting into PJ's.  Playtime ensued.  Oh my, does this girl have energy!  I had a fun time working on getting her to take her evening bottle and go to sleep.  It was almost 10pm before she finally fell asleep!

What can I say, like mother like daughter, I suppose...  Though I'm a night owl myself, so this is fun for me.  More time to spend laughing and smiling and playing and snuggling with my baby girl!

Climbing the Stairs

Amelia is still fighting her cold (she's been coughing today), but she's in good spirits.  She has a ton of energy right now, so I was running around on the floor with her, and I saw the cat wanted to go downstairs.  I was opening the gate for the cat, and Lia "helped" me to open it.  I'd tried in the past to see if she could climb up a stair, but we hadn't had much luck.  It had been a while, and now that she's climbing all over everything else, I figured we should test for any new stair climbing abilities.  She easily managed the top three stairs a couple of times and then got distracted by Daddy in the living room.  Fun times!

Not feeling so well...

I picked up Amelia today from daycare and found that, as expected, she was still dealing with a runny nose and a bit of coughing today.  It's been about 2 weeks since she was first feeling sick, but things have seemed to be on the mend lately.

That is until dinner time.  Lia had practically no appetite for solids, and even though she wanted some milk in a bottle, she didn't take down very much.  She played for a while after dinner, but was showing obvious signs of being over-tired.  (She was mostly lacking some of her normally strong motor control skills and was getting into a lot of small accidents.)  I went to put her down for a post-dinner nap fully expecting the normal few minutes of crying as she realizes she's in need of her nap, but instead I heard nothing.  The poor girl just looked up at me with a blank expression.  She felt a bit warm, so I figured I would check her temp after she had a nap.

About 1.5 hours later, she was still sleeping.  I went in to get her up for diaper change, PJs, evening bottle.  She woke up without a sound, and she still had the same blank expression.  She sat through a diaper change without a peep.  She let me put on her PJ pants without a noise.  She was even hotter than earlier, so I craked out the baby Tylenol.  She took down only about half to a third of what she normally would for a bottle, and then she let me rock her while she stared off into the room.  I did my best to comfort her, and as her eyes were fluttering closed, I went to lay her down.  She again just looked up at me from her crib, barely moving and lightly, though desperately, holding onto her security blanket.  I think I got one small smile out of her during this entire scenario.  This is not my normal baby.  Poor thing...  She must be pretty miserable to actually want to be in her crib, or she might just have absolutely no energy left to protest...

I just went in to check on her.  She's been in there while I've been typing this post.  She's still awake, but she let me leave her in her room again without complaint.  I really hope she's feeling better tomorrow...

Baby steps...

We've reached another milestone...  Amelia walked (with the aid of a "walk 'n ride" walker) all the way across the living room on her own!  I was playing with her in the office when she started pushing her activity table across the carpeting, so I decided to put her near her walker to see if she'd go for it.  She pulled herself up and just started toddling across the room.  She seems so excited to be growing more and more mobile each day.  This girl loves being on the move!

Super-baby!

Yesterday, while I was picking up Amelia from day care, her day care provider, Pam, informed me of Amelia's newest super-baby power:  While Pam was turning her attention for a moment to one of the other kids, Amelia managed to climb up to the top of the kiddie-sized picnic table.  When Pam looked back at Lia, she was just sitting there on top of the table, probably looking pretty overjoyed at her major accomplishment.  Keep in mind that Lia is still not yet walking on her own, but she isn't letting that stop her from getting at high in the sky as she can.  Watch out, we've got a climber!

Question for other parents out there - is this something that all kids end up doing before they start walking, or do we just have an extra-risky child?

Fun photos from July so far...

Visiting family in WI

WI Dells!

Lia hates bedtime and naptime...  :-(

Helping Mommy unpack

Walking along the Mississippi

Sandboxes rock!

Lia is pulling up on everything and climbing everywhere.  It's a full time job wrangling her right now!

Lia - Ovens are hot. Not safe!

9 Month Catch Up

Now I've gone 2 months without posting.  And I've gone a few months without scrapbooking.  Way too busy.  I thought summer would get easier, but the extra free time just means we commit to more random activities.  Anyway, for the family members out there who may still check this on occassion, here's the catch-up:

Month 8: April 21 - May 20

• Introduced a bunch of new foods - blueberry puffs, mango, apples, bananas.
• Work Weekend at Camp Forest Springs!  Lia had a blast, but had trouble taking her naps due to all the activity.  (I learned my lesson the hard way that when visiting strange places, Lia needs to get away to a quiet place for her afternoon nap...)
• First Easter!
• Started "creeping", a.k.a. "army crawling", and soon after started rocking on her hands and knees.
• Got the hang of sitting on her own.
• Garage sale mania!  Getting clothes for the next year.
• Started playing with musical toys.  She loves the lights and sounds!
• Lia had a grand time playing disc golf with Daddy and hanging out with Daddy outside.
• General fun an mayhem ensued as Lia began investigating her surroundings in a more active sense of the word.

Month 9: May 21 through June 20

• May 21 - First tooth is coming in!  Poor baby - drooling, crying, fever, needing cuddles/baby orajel/baby tylenol.  No fun.  Also got a bad case of diaper rash.
• Rash stuck around for over a week.  Had it looked at - it was worse than just a rash.  We had a mix of antibiotics and "poop goop" to fight it.  It's just now starting to look cleared up.  A month of rash!  Yucky...
• More improvements in sitting on her own.
• Measuring around 17 lbs
• More new foods: pears, strawberry banana puffs, yogurt, eggs, Cheerios, chicken, Kix, and even a bit of cheese.  Let's just say she really loves her yogurt.
• Attended the parade and fireworks in our town.  Lia did great at both.  Only a little nervous during one of the fireworks launches, but for the most part, she seemed to enjoy the activity and the new experience.  (And the fireworks kept her up past 10pm!)
• Starting to stand more while holding onto tables/couches/etc.
• Can hold her own bottle and can use a sippy cup pretty well.
• Visited the zoo.  Seemed to like the big cats the best.  :-)  Not sure if this was her first trip, but it was the first one where she could actually see the animals.
• Finally seems to like her bath time.  (Frequent "soaks" during the fight against the diaper rash seem to have helped with this, in addition to the rubber ducks and rubber frogs from Granny Callie.)
• Record high temps in early June!  Lia survived pretty well.  :-)

And those are the highlights.  Pictures to follow soon....

Happy Belated Earth Day, Everyone!

Life has been absolutely nuts for the Cromer family as of late.  Due to this fact, it wasn't until today that I was able to get pictures off the camera and onto the computer.  Also, this is the reason for my severely limited blogging in March and April.  Let's just say I'm looking forward to the end of the semester...

Anyway, today we got to do something really unique.  Matt, Lia, and I hauled ourselves over to our nearby cloth diaper store (www.allthingsdiapers.com) to participate in "The Great Cloth Diaper Change" event.

The purpose of the event was to set a world record for the most cloth diapers changed at one moment in time.  We had to sign in, use a ticket to enter (and only one adult per baby was allowed to help with the diaper change), and before we started, we had to hold up our babies and the fresh diapers we were planning to use.  Then we had to wait for the signal to start, then change our baby's diaper.  Finally, we took an "after" picture of the babies in their fresh diapers. The whole event was video recorded (for proof, I'm sure), and the start time was centrally coordinated.  So, today Lia helped to set a world record at the ripe young age of 7 months.

It was fun to meet and talk with other parents and babies.  Lia had a grand time checking everything out and talking to the babies she met.  The store provided snacks and door prizes.  Speaking of door prizes, we won a fun new diaper cover that we're going to have to try out.  Check out some of the pics from the morning:

Some of my favorite pics from the last month or so....