Motherhood

Last night when I thanked Andrew for cleaning up Amelia's numerous messes around the house, he responded with, "Thanks for watching her make messes all day." Just another one of those times when I am grateful for a husband who understands and appreciates the reality of motherhood! I am so lucky.

Here's just one of those messes I watched her make yesterday. At 16 months it is apparently more fun to throw playdough and cookie cutters on the ground and look at the pretty designs they make than it is to use them on the table.

And here are some bonus pictures I found that I hadn't yet posted:

This one was taken by our friend Kristin at the park a couple months ago.

This is when we made a gingerbread house for Christmas...she was very helpful.

She was very skilled at taking off candy...not so much at putting it on.

Only 1 nap a day stinks.

I am in mourning.

Amelia has officially given up her morning nap, and I miss it so much! I loved getting 2 breaks a day and I really liked our life on a 2 nap schedule. It seemed to leave just enough play time, errand time and ME time. I keep hoping her one and only nap will start to lengthen and she'll sleep the better part of the afternoon, but so far, no such luck. I don't know what to do with her for these extra hours and am kind of going crazy. Any ideas?

What am I going to do when she goes to no naps a day??? Preschool.

Here is what we did yesterday during some of our quality time together (about 10 minutes because that's all her attention span lasts...by the way, I am finding out there are lots and lots of 10 minute intervals in a day.) We finger painted using a mixture of flour and water. The directions said to add food coloring, but I didn't feel like changing my clothes for the activity and didn't think Amelia would mind (she didn't), so we just finger painted in white (but I gave her green paper to add to the fun).

Here is a video after her paper turned to mush and she used it to wipe the rest of the finger paint onto the floor. Don't worry, as you can see, Cash licked the floor clean for me.

Amelia also had her first haircut the other day. She had slowly but surely grown a mullet (exhibit A) and I felt bad for her, so I trimmed up the back (exhibit B). It's a little short (but better than a mullet) and I think it looks cute. The pictures aren't the best, but they were all I was getting that day, so here they are.

Exhibit A: Mullet

Exhibit B: no mullet