Sister play

Amelia reads!

Amelia read her first word completely on her own and without prompting today. She read "HATS" out of the book "But not the hippopotamus". The word HATS is on a sign in a picture, not in the normal text. She was sounding it out while I played with Erica and then declared "Mommy, this word says hats!" So proud.

Erica is 8 months!

As I was nursing Erica at 11PM (and 2:30, and 5) last night, I was trying to remember those first few days with her. It seems like ages ago and I can't even picture her then. (Good thing we have thousands of pictures to help me out). She is growing so fast and is so desperate to be mobile. She still doesn't roll over but planks if she's on her belly and tries to sit up if she's on her back (this makes diaper changes quite difficult). Her new favorite thing is holding my fingers and 'walking' around chasing Amelia. Maybe she will just walk and never crawl or roll over. She is not content to just sit anymore and often ends up face-planting in an attempt to move forward. 

Erica is super distracted while nursing and whenever she hears anything she stops nursing and won't go back. I try to nurse her upstairs in her room before or after sleeping so she is more focused but often lose her attention quickly. There is just too much going on in the world! The past few mornings, I've brought Erica in to get Amelia up and she squeals in delight when she sees her sister. It's so cute. Amelia is so excited to hug Erica in the morning and ask her if she had a good night. Erica responds by bouncing on her bed and pulling Amelia's hair (which Amelia doesn't seem to mind). 

Erica can take down a whole squeezy pack of baby food in one sitting as well as tons of Cheerios, puffs, graham crackers, bananas, and whatever we are eating. She also loves yogurt mixed with baby cereal and any kind of puree. She eats lots of finger foods and crackers and is trying new things every day. She may not sleep, but she's our good eater. Can't have it all, I guess. Erica is also almost drinking out of her sippy cup by herself. She can hold it and tip it up but doesn't make it quite far enough to get water out. She seems to prefer drinking milk out of the sippy over the bottle too. Guess there is nothing wrong with that. 

She is babbling single syllables like "dadadada" and "babababa". She also blows raspberries all the time and loves to squeal. She's quite loud and Amelia has told her multiple times that if we want to yell, we have to go outside first. She copies coughs, sneezes, and hiccups and tried to make an echo sound in a hollow container yesterday after I demonstrated. She's turning into a real person!

I have no idea how big she is but I'm guessing around 20lbs. She's outgrown all 9-month clothes and is popping out of most of her 12-month outfits. She and Tristan are close to the same size and a stranger asked me if Amelia and her were only a year apart today.

Since she doesn't roll over, getting pictures was much easier than it was for Amelia at this age: 

Trying to sit up

Amelia: crawling instructor

Trying to crawl and NOT happy about it.

July went by way to fast

July has been hot, and since Reeds don't like the outdoors, we've spent much of it inside. Call me boring, but I'd rather be comfortable and bored than hot, sweaty, covered in sunscrean/sand/sweat/salt or other s-words and outside. We have ventured out a few times and thankfully Amelia is scared of sunburn and bugs which helps the "time to go inside" plea. We have spent a lot of time with family and friends, as the pictures show. Erica is growing up fast-she is so close to crawling! 

Hard Hat PJ Cousins

Reading to Lily. Amelia has been "reading" a lot. Not only does she memorize books but she can sound out some words and can piece together others based on the letter sounds and the context. She read "Babies R Us" on the sign and the bag yesterday, read the title of two books in the store that she has never seen, and read "Bath Toys" on a sign too. Pretty impressive.

Strawberry picking over 4th of July weekend. It was HOT and since we've had so much rain, a lot of them were rotten. Not as good a harvest as last year but still got 20 jars of jam out of it!

Amelia wasn't much into the strawberries but loved the straw. She spent the whole time picking it up and throwing it saying "This dry grass wants to be over there"

 Erica got her hands on some strawberries too. I only looked away for a second!

Naked girls in the pool on a hot day. Now Amelia asks to "get naked and go in the pool" every day.

Hanging out with Noah.

Cousins. Hard to believe they are two years apart!

Poor Tristan and his broken leg. He made a pretty impressive lego tower though!

Amelia loves her new sandbox. She's finally old enough that I feel comfortable leaving her outside to play by herself. She is very good at staying where I told her to stay and I can see her from the kitchen window. She's growing up so fast.

Erica envious of Amelia's tablet.

Teaching her sister how to play with electronics.

"You have to let her do it herself so she can learn"

Can't get enough of this cutie!

Planking.

Phew, that was tiring.

"Mommy, I want to run in circles around Erica while she tries to learn how to crawl." Way to rub it in, Amelia. By the way, she is not crawling here, just leaning. This is seconds before she faceplants and screams.

And she is still so cute!

Amelia Quotations

Me: Who is my sister?
Amelia: Auntie Stephie
Me: Who is your sister?
Amelia: Erica
Me: Who is Erica's sister?
Amelia: The fun, crazy, loving girl who is jumping on this orange futon and going like this (flops on her belly)

"Sometimes you have to do things you don't want to do. Like mow the lawn, or wash the dishes, or eat."

"That fan is like God, that's why (she means because) it makes the wind, and the sky, and the rain, and the trees. But the fan is white."

"The futon is such a nice couch that becomes a bed and such a nice bed that becomes a couch. That's so cool."

Me: What do you want to do when you grow up, Amelia?
Amelia: Umm...probably do the things I want to do.
Me: What are some of those things?
Amelia: Ummm...hold Erica. And paint with paper and probably some water and other stuff. And hold Erica.