first day of school

I'm a little late on this one since this is the second week of pre-school. But we did take pictures the first day. I'm a little nervous about what number three is going to do to my ability to keep up on picture taking and all of that. I can keep it up, right? Anyways. She's doing great. She just soaks it all up. I love hearing her chat about all the happenings at pre-school after. Her preschool teacher is one of those women who you just know she was born to be a preschool teacher. The first day of school I did her hair in pigtails and since then she's asked me to do her hair the same way because her teacher told her on the first day that she liked her hair.

Amelie so far

I never got around to writing a birthday post so here it is just super late!
Four years. I have had her for four years. It seems like she's always been in my life and and yet it really has gone by in a blink. At four she is just as fiery as ever. I kept thinking it might be just because she was going through a stage but still she holds her ground on everything.  She has a strong personality for sure, sometimes when she's just full of attitude it's so hard for me not to laugh. Looking at her with her hand on her hip and her sassy face you just know she thinks she is so fearsome.  I am sure though that the same traits that make us raise our eyebrows now will make her pretty darn amazing later. I know she'll have big dreams and have all the gumption she'll need to reach them.

  She definitely wears her heart on her sleeve. But she knows how to love us just as strongly. She loves babies as all little girls do but I'm always surprised how she is still so in love with her little brother. Whenever he's doing something especially cute you can always count on her to say "Mom, look how cute this is."
Photos of her are scarce lately because this is the response I get most times when I pull out the camera.

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She's the best cuddler. As a baby we rarely got the chance to snuggle with her, it just wasn't her thing. It's grown on her I guess. She likes to crawl into bed in the morning and curl right up to me. I love it. After years of being one of those kids that needs the bare minimum of sleep, she is catching up for it now. It's not until 8 or 9 that we see her sunshine face roll out of bed. I hadn't had her taking naps the last year or so because if she had one she would be up until late at night but now we're back to naps and most days she has a good two or three hour nap. It's amazing what a difference a nap makes too.
Speaking of naps,  lately while she is trying to go to sleep for her naps she will come down stairs ten minutes or so after I laid her down. She'll walk towards me stretching our her arms and yawning like she just woke up and say things like "Oh, that felt good," or "I slept soo long."

She has the best memory. I wish I could remember everything so quickly. She loves her music loud and to swing high and could read forever. She wears skirts everyday so she can "spin fast" and is a little foodie in the making.
I'm so lucky to be able to watch her grow and can't wait to see what's in store for her.

the party!

The party went so very well. I think they all had fun. They looked sweet all dressed up.  

My mom brought these little fan plates. I think they worked just right.

I felt bad we didn't have enough little kid chairs. But I didn't think they would mind kneeling too much and I don't think they even noticed. It was fun watching them find their names.

 I could have just sat there and listened to their conversation forever. I love little kids minds. It make it all worth it to see her so happy.

Amelie wanted to pour everyone's drinks. Isn't that tea pot perfect? We gave them sugar cubes to put in their lemonade. They had a field day with those.  No one really drank it thankfully. There was tons of sugar in those drinks. Tons.

We put lipstick on them and had them try to kiss the frog. It was funny.  

The big moment. She wished that she could go on a daddy-daughter date. Cute right?



LOVE.

I was going through some old photos and came across this one. I just want to eat her sweet baby toes. I made her that cake for her first birthday, after we gave her rights to it. We fully expected her to dive right in and she would barely touch it. Didn't want to get her hands messy. Even after I stuck her hands in she would just stick one little finger in and lick off the frosting. She always has kept us guessing.

P.S.- I got that frosting that color by adding a little bit of powder from a lime jello packet. I was so proud of myself.

Image from Amanda Perrin

a letter to amelie

dear amelie (who by the way is still sleeping at 8 o'clock, woo hoo!),

today when you wake up i'm going to shower you with attention. i know that this week has been pretty rough with your brother and his little tummy and he's needed lots of my time. so today's your day. i'm going to let you choose whatever you want to do, anything at all. maybe we can cuddle up on my bed with a big pile of books and read, which is most likely just what you'll want to do.  or maybe we'll play dress up and dance to "you are my sunshine "  over and over again, since you love that so much. maybe we'll make pancakes and smoothies with straws, your all time favorite breakfast. whatever you want. you've been such a trooper all week and you completely deserve it.

love you bug,
love mom