2 Years Old!

Ameliah turned 2 yesterday!  It's amazing that it's already been 2 years.  She's such a fantastic little girl and so much fun!

Some of her favorite things:

1.  The play gym - Dan and Ameliah go to an open play, kids gym a couple times a week, and she LOVES it!  So many fun things to do, and she gets a chance to learn the meaning of the word "share".

2.  Her bead maze - We got Ameliah a bead maze, a piece of wood with bent wires going all over the place roller-coaster style, with beads strung through the wires.  "Mee-maaze!"

3.  Her sleep friend(s) - Ameliah received a pink lamb lovey as a baby gift, and now she and "mah-men" are practically inseparable.  Because of this, we purchased a couple more.  I call them her sleep friend harem.

4.  Applesauce - Specifically the ones that come in the little squeeze packets.  "Bai-lass?"

5.  ELMO!!

6.  PARK!!

Some of her not so favorite things:

1.  Medicine - Good thing she doesn't have much of a problem with teeth coming in, because she HATES to take medicine.  She had an ear infection a couple of weeks ago, and "no med-cine?" has become a regular part of her vocabulary.

2.  The car wash - Ameliah and Dan go to the car wash every once in a while, and it's not a fun experience for her OR Daddy.  Now, we turn onto the street that the car wash is on, and she starts to object.

We love our little Ameliah, and we're looking forward to watching her grow and learn more and more!

Ann & Dan

The Search for the Tree

It's becoming a tradition in the Brown household to put up the Christmas tree the weekend after Thanksgiving.  We thought we'd extract Dan's inner lumberjack and go cut down a tree, as much as can be done at a Christmas tree farm.

Ameliah looking for the perfect tree...

Caught it!

Ameliah wasn't all that keen on helping us decorate, but here's the finished product.  She keeps saying "Ooohh, pretty".  We keep insisting it's not a toy for Ameliah to play with, just to look at, so when she walks by it she says, "No, no". 

We hope you had a great Thanksgiving and have a wonderful Christmas!

Photos by the Sea

We take a break from fun Ameliah videos to share some photos that our good friend, Kristen Scott, took for us.  We went to Magnolia and Manchester-by-the Sea, on kind of a grey day, but it was Ameliah's first time at the beach.

Ameliah had fun playing with the balloons that Kristen brought...

We had a little picnic on the Ocean Lawn at the Coolidge Reservation.

Big Girl Slide

This video chronicles one of the first times Ameliah went down the slide at the park by herself: major milestone :).  She gets more and more adventurous every time we go to the park!

Long time no see...

Hey, All!  I've not been the best at updating our blog... understatement.  So, to reintroduce Ameliah into the cybersphere, I want to post some of our favorite videos we've taken.  Why not start with a naked-baby video?  This was on Dan's birthday (July), so Ameliah (17 months) wanted to read him a book.  Enjoy!

Ameliah's 10 months!

I can't believe Ameliah is already 10 months old! It seems like yesterday we had just welcomed her into our world. Among her new talents are signing "milk" and "tired", high-fives, patty cake, waving bye-bye, and eating finger foods. We're working on adding new words to her repertoire. No steps yet, but she's really fast on all-fours. Baby-proofing is a daily experience, as she figures out how to get into things more and more every day.

This is our little scholar on her 10-month-birthday. She loves to look at the pictures and flip the pages. She even reads the words in her own little language.


Then she figured out that I was taking pictures of her...



The phone is one of the things in the house that she doesn't get to chew on/play with, so of course it's one of the things she wants the most...

Here she comes!

Jet-setter Ameliah to Pacific Northwest

In September, the three of us took a trip to the Pacific Northwest to visit some friends and to watch the Huskers beat Washington (yay!). We had a great time visiting our friends the Johnsons in Portland, OR, and then the Larsons in Seattle.

In Oregon we had the chance to visit a few wineries in the Willamette valley near Portland. Ameliah had fun "climbing" on the barrels.

We had a fun hike up to the Multnomah Falls. It was a pretty easy ride on daddy's back for little A.

We went to visit uncle Mark at the Starbucks a couple of mornings while we were there... nothing like taking a ride to the Bux in your jammies.

We took the train from Portland to Seattle; it was a beautiful ride. I think Ameliah was excited that she didn't have to be in the carseat.

We took a quick peek at Snoqualmie Falls near where the Larsons live.

Ameliah - 8 1/2 months

A few fun pics...

Ameliah has recently figured out how to pull herself up to standing, but hasn't mastered how to get down. This was Ameliah trying to go down for a nap...

Here she is with Aunt Coartney while we were back in Nebraska for Aunt Jenny's bridal shower... note the Husker red!

With Ameliah's new-found freedom in getting around, we finally had to get a baby gate for the top of the stairs. Here's Ameliah testing her limits.

Just bein' cute...

"Hello??"

Go Big Red!

This Saturday was a momentous occasion -- Ameliah's first game day!

Giggles...

#3

#2

6 months...

Laughing with mom....

Laughing with dad....

A few videos....

a fun video

She is just starting to get it. Won't be long till we need to baby proof everything.

Some fun pictures...

Sweet Potatoes

We've been attempting to introduce new foods to Ameliah's repertoire, with not a whole lot of success. First it was rice cereal, then oat cereal, then squash, and, finally, sweet potatoes. You can tell from her facial expressions how much she's enjoying them! We'll keep trying...

Midwest Trip

Ameliah met all sorts of family and new friends on our trip to Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, and Wisconsin! Lots of time in the rental car, but she was a trooper. We had a beautiful day for a baseball game at Wrigley, I wish we could say as much for Kenzie and Justin's wedding. Great days to be out on the lake in Wisconsin too!