amelia is 10 months old!

can someone please stop my baby girl from growing up so that i can catch up on recording all of the things she has been doing lately!??! my camera is my substitute baby book these days. when amelia does something new, i just run and take a picture of it real quick. even if it's not a "keeper" picture, i can at least go back and look at the date for when she pulled up or for her first table food.

speaking of table food, amelia did enjoy some broccoli a few weeks ago for the first time. i am pretty sure she had more fun eating it than the restaurant staff had cleaning up the mound of broccoli below her chair. i did not care... i was so happy that she was so happy. (she was missing a nap at this point, and the broccoli was a wonderful distraction!)


amelia is learning a few baby signs, and she surely has gotten the hang of "more"! at first, she would sign "more" all the time just because she got a smile out of me. now she is using it to ask to eat. we are working on the sign for "eat", but she will sign "more" after her nap when she is hungry. she does it pretty insistently, but she keeps a smile on her face the whole time!

she is jibber-jabbering all throughout the day. she is saying "dada", and lately she has been working on "mama". she loves to wave bye and usually has a smile on her face. we are enjoying watching her learn new things, and i can't believe that she will be a year old before too long! she is getting more hair, and there's even a part in the back that is trying so hard to curl.

we stayed as busy as ever in november, so i'll just share a few pictures of our sweet girl from last month. this one is probably the heart-melter of the month...


i'd been meaning to get pictures of the girls in these matching dresses all summer, and i never did get around to it. one warm day last month, i finally took some shots. i love the one of amelia watching caroline dance.




amelia modeled some hats for kristie's etsy site...


and then aunt kristie made amelia her own hat that matches caroline's! i love it! (we'll see if the flower survives three months in a car seat with amelia...)



UPDATE (12/12/09): the people have spoken. click here to find kristie's etsy site. she is happy to fulfill custom orders. she is super good at custom orders. (she's super good at pretty much anything.) tell her you found her through tenlittletoes! her yarn is so soft, and it washes well. and it gets chewed on well. amelia has been the devoted tester on that one! (and who noticed the hair stuck to amelia's chin in that last picture!? i didn't notice it till the other day...)

amelia keeps herself busy throughout the day. whether it is getting stuck...


playing peek-a-boo....


or discovering her toys...


...amelia continues to be a content baby. she does keep us on our toes as she attempts to get into everything she isn't supposed to. the kids are learning what toys are amelia-proof and what toys need rescuing. we get creative with ways to block her from their legos or train tracks set up in the living room. just today, ethan told me that we needed to set up a "bear cave" (barricade) for amelia! ha! i have yet to ever use a baby gate in this house, but i have created some award-winning barricades in the last 4 months. (for the record, we don't solely depend on barricades to keep amelia where she needs to be. we are training her to obey us! but it is a work in progress, and with two other children needing my attention, her safety sometimes requires a barricade.)

before long, amelia will be walking and talking. wow. i still feel like i just gave birth to her! (without the sleep deprivation and pain, of course.) we are looking forward to celebrating amelia's first christmas with her. we've already hung her first ornament on the tree, and she is waiting to get cozy in her "first christmas" pjs! so stay tuned for all of that christmas tradition fun!! as for now, i've gotta go see what amelia is getting into!