Good-Bye Aunt Ellie…

We’ve been privileged to have my uncle Greg and aunt Ellie living only ten minutes away.  When I first moved to this area to attend college, they often had me over, or Ellie and I would go out to breakfast.  Since we’ve been married, they’ve continued to be everything one could want in aunts and uncles, and then some!  They’ve helped us so many times–from helping us move into our new home over nine years ago to using their mini-van to pick up furniture we’ve purchased, to letting us borrow their folding tables, helping us with our fence replacement,  having us over for countless meals, and much more.  Since Amelia arrived, they’ve been great in often watching her for us, especially during my years of frequent doctor appointments and dentist visits, but not only then!  Often Ellie would include Amelia in outings she was taking her neighbor kids on, and would frequently take Amelia out to Chuck E Cheese, to lunch, or to local zoos and farms.  Amelia loves spending time in their home with my cousins and their many pets, not to mention great food, a basement full of toys, and a swing!  However, Uncle Greg took a great job in North Carolina and moved there in January.  After selling their house, Ellie joined him there at the end of March.  We were able to see her a few last times and took this picture after having dinner with her.  We’ll all miss having them so close by!

We said Hello and Goodbye again to our friend Brad, who was home on leave after completing boot camp for the Marines.  Amelia decorated our sidewalk with many messages for him, including “Cheer cheer cheer cause you are here” and “First time seeing you in months!”

We said Goodbye to Amelia’s betta fish, Dan.  He lasted over five months.  You can see his bowl on the counter, and him on the floor.  While Amelia was eating breakfast Thursday morning, I spotted something on the floor and bent down to pick it up, not realizing it was Dan!   We don’t know if he jumped or if Nutmeg helped him along!

That night we said Hello to a new pet, a goldfish named Marmalade.  Would you believe, goldfish cost only thirteen cents at the pet store?

We said Hello to our friend Lori’s new baby, Bekah!

At nearly a month old, she stills weighs about two and a half pounds less than Amelia did at birth!  I’m not sure I’ve ever held such a light baby!

I love babies!

After seeing the top of my head in that picture, I said Hello to my hairdresser and will be seeing her tomorrow.  :-)

Amelia said Hello to this dress we found at a thrift store.  She thinks it looks like a “Laura dress”  (Laura Ingalls Wilder), although I think it’s of late 70′s/early 80′s vintage–it reminds me of dresses I wore as a child.  She got so many nice compliments when she wore it to the chapel–one woman even said it reminded her of her own wedding dress.

And we said Hello to Spring!

Amelia continues to entertain us with what goes on in her head (and what comes out of her mouth!).  While driving home recently, she wanted to tell us a St. Patrick’s Day story.  The title was “Annabelle and the Hamhocks,” and we heard all about how Annabelle went outside and there were hamhocks swirling around in the air and she caught one and kept it her whole life, even when she was 80 she still had her hamhock.  Finally I realized she meant “shamrocks.”

We were watching American Idol together and a boy came on to sing who has sort of a funny-looking face.  She said, “Does he have science fiction?”  I kept trying to get her to explain to me what she meant and she grew increasingly frustrated, finally saying “SCIENCE FICTION!  You  know, like Baby Faith at church!”…at which point I realized she meant Down Syndrome.  I have yet to decide if that’s a story Faith’s parents would appreciate hearing or not!  (also, now that “Baby” Faith is five years old, I think we need to work on calling her something else…we always said Baby Faith so as not to confuse her with Amelia’s other friend Faith…)  (and no, the singer on tv does not have science fiction…I mean, Down syndrome!)

Recently I was wrapping some gifts for my soon-to-be sister-in-law’s bridal shower.  I thought I might have just enough paper left to wrap the two boxes in the same print.  I wrapped the smaller box first, using just enough, and then laid the bigger box on the remaining paper.  It didn’t quite meet–I was lacking about three inches.  I turned the box this way and that, even on end.  Amelia watched all this with great interest.  Finally she looked at me and said, quite seriously, “The box is always the same size.”  She got me there.  We bought new wrapping paper!

Amelia received a fish bowl and gift card to a pet store for her birthday from Grandma Sharon.  She chose a blue betta and named him Dan.

Nutmeg gets even more enjoyment out of the fish than Amelia does!

Dan brings a lot of cheer to our kitchen!  I make sure to move him when baking to avoid flouring him!

We often catch Nutmeg drinking from the fishbowl.

Several times the cat has dislodged Dan’s plants and we find them floating at the top.

Amelia lost her third tooth!

She is most often found reading!

The first week in November was parent observation day at Amelia’s dance studio.  We both attended to see how much she had progressed and if she was enjoying herself or not.   We only had a week after this to decide if she would continue, as recital/costume fees were coming due already even though the recital isn’t until the end of May.

She does what she’s told, but she’s not into it–clearly bored and would rather be elsewhere.  However, she really wants to be in a recital because she thinks once she has participated in one, she will be a ballerina.  She doesn’t enjoy her lessons at all, but has been suffering through it to reach her end goal.  Part of me thinks that’s really good for her, a great life lesson–so much of life is suffering toward a worthy end.

However, the recital/costume fees were really ridiculous, plus the monthly lesson fees do add up, and she enjoys her ice skating SO much more, and those lessons are SO much cheaper…and her teacher said she could tell she’s really disinterested…the three of us went around and around…finally Ben did something I never would have come up with…

He offered her cash in the amount of 1/3 the remaining cost for the year.  I said, “You don’t give that kind of money to a six-year old!!”  First she said she didn’t have anywhere to put that much money.  Then I had to explain what kinds of things one could purchase with such an amount.  She took the deal and a few days later asked if it was enough to get an American Girl doll.  It is.  She’s thrilled.  Ben thinks he made out great on the deal, and so does she.  Go ahead and judge us; we’re doing the best we can!

Ben took Amelia to an orchestra performance for children.  They were encouraged to wear costumes, and beforehand were given the opportunity to try out some instruments.

Amelia, Miki and I went to Springdale Farm for a field trip.

…alternately titled, “The Second of Two Parties Celebrating Amelia’s Sixth Birthday”…

Amelia turned six on a Sunday…here we are leaving for church.

Amelia wore a dress that my aunt Dulcie gave her at her first party!

After church we went to a farm for apples & cider, picked up some Chinese food for lunch, and went home to get the house ready for the party.

For her party, she insisted on wearing the same dress she wore at her 5th birthday party!  It barely fit her, but she really loves that dress.  We got it at a yard sale for five dollars, so I guess we got our money’s worth if she wore it for two of her own birthdays!  She received a gold fish bowl and gift card to pick out a goldfish from Grandma Sharon:

Two of her friends came with assorted family members, plus Grandma Sharon, Aunt Miki, Cynthia, and my uncle Greg & aunt Ellie and cousin Heather.

Playing with her friend Sonja:

She chose brown frosting…brown is her favorite color!

It had been a long day…

This is what happens when you treat your child like a princess all day long!  It’s a good thing birthdays only come once a year!

At her check-up the day after her birthday, she was still at the 95th percentile for both height and weight, as she has been her whole life.  Two of her six-year molars are in, and the other two are mostly in.  She hasn’t lost any more teeth since the two she lost at 5 1/2, but at least 3 are loose.  We had her pictures taken and will send them out in a few weeks with thank-you notes….and now she is six.

…alternately titled, “The First of Two Parties Celebrating Amelia’s 6th Birthday”…

Amelia turned six on Sunday, October 25th.  The first of Amelia’s parties took place at my parents’ home in Randolph on the 22nd.  All 4 of my grandparents were there, plus two of my aunts (one from Las Vegas, one from Randolph), and my brother and his fiance.

Here’s Amelia with Grandpa Gary:

and opening gifts with Grandma Celeste.  My brother and Erin are sharing a chair in the background:

Aunt Dulcie and I kept pointing our cameras at each other at the same time accidentally!

Reading to Great-Grandma Faith the next morning:

Out to lunch in Ellicottville…

This would have been a lovely 4-generations shot if only *I* had been in the picture instead of Aunt Dulcie!  That’s Amelia, my grandma Faith, and her two daughters, Dulcie & Celeste (my mom).  It’s a great shot anyhow!

My mom with her sister and their mom.

Amelia received an ice-skating outfit for her doll and tried it on her first thing when we got home!

Making cut-out cookies!

Grandpa Buck (Ben’s dad) stopped by for a few days (he lives in Texas, but was traveling in the North East).

A tree in our neighborhood:

Pictures of Amelia’s 2nd 6th birthday party should be coming soon…stay tuned…

Amelia started ice skating lessons a few weeks ago…

That’s Amelia with her cousin Daniel above.  They’re in the same lesson group.

We were invited by Amelia’s friend Faith (in the pink hat).  Her family heard about this ice skating opportunity for home schoolers.  We go on Tuesday mornings for an hour.  Each student gets a 15-minute group lesson at some point in the hour, and 45 minutes of free skate.

Amelia loves it–she keeps saying she likes it better than dance class and is always asking when we can go again.

Our friend Andy was in town–he played the tuba in our wedding.  He is in an Air Force band out of Massachusetts and they were in town for a concert.  We spent some time with him at the Fox’s house and Amelia was introduced to “Hungry Hungry Hippo.”  It was a hit!

The next night we went to his concert.  We have seen a few of them before, but this one had some memorable numbers.  There’s Andy standing by the flag.  We played percussion together in college.

Amelia listens.  That’s Grandma Sharon next to her.  Miki attended as well, plus the Fox’s and many others.  Andy had many fans in attendance!

School.

While washing her hands after lunch on Saturday, a drinking glass got knocked over, broke on our porcelain sink, and the bottom half of the glass fell off the counter and into Amelia’s leg.

Rest assured I did not take these pictures until after we got home from the hospital!  Actually, Ben took them.  I really wanted to take the camera along to the hospital, but I refrained…I didn’t want to be “that mom.”

I was standing right behind her and saw the glass everywhere…I told her not to move and then noticed all the red on the floor.  I thought it was jam…then I realized we hadn’t had jam for lunch and starting yelling for Ben.  Amelia wasn’t even crying.  I couldn’t see the injury, just the blood, and was holding her shoulders from behind so she wouldn’t step on the glass…Ben ran in, took one look at her leg, and said “Hand me the phone.”

Amelia then experienced her first ambulance ride.  We weren’t at all pleased with that experience, but that’s another story.

The nurse at the ER didn’t even look at her leg (it was bandaged already), just rolled her eyes and said “She can go to the waiting room.”  We waited 3 hours.  Amelia sat in a wheelchair with her leg up and didn’t cry at all.

At one point a nurse checked her in and unwrapped the bandage to have a look–I saw it then and got pretty queasy–I was imagining a straight line like a paper-cut–but no, it was wide open–I hope never to see fat cells again!!

Eventually she got x-rayed (no glass remaining) and a great PA stitched her up.  He was fantastic with her (has 3 young children himself, plus 25 goats and assorted chickens, a pig, and so forth.  Amelia said, “It sounds like you live on a farm.”  He said, “Yeah, but we don’t make any money, we just spend it.”  He also asked which Disney Princess was her favorite–Snow White–he then asked her why and she said “Because she doesn’t let her step-mother kill her!,”  to which Ben responded “Girl Power!”).

She cried a lot when he put the needle in six different places to numb her, but the stitching part was fine.

It only looks like seven stitches, you say?  Well, there are seven more underneath–it was that deep.  In theory those will dissolve, and she’s supposed to have the top ones removed 14 days later.   That will be over July 4th, so we’ll try at day 12, and if they’re not ready, we’ll have to wait until day 16.   She isn’t allowed to get them wet or do any running or strenuous activity.  Thankfully she’s not much for straining herself to begin with–we’re all pretty unathletic around here!  They wanted to give her a brace, but didn’t have any small enough, so they gave her an ace bandage instead.

We went to a graduation party that night and let her walk around there (she had great fun telling everyone her tale–”They said I did better than the grown-ups!” and “I popped open like a pop-open hot dog!”), but when we went to change the bandage that night, she had bled through all 20 layers of bandaging and her ace bandage.  It never had stopped bleeding the whole 4 hours from when it happened until she got stitched, and apparently kept bleeding even after stitching.  Ben put her back together and I didn’t let her walk at all Sunday, Monday or Tuesday.  She’s been stuck on various couches with her leg up!   (Sunday morning I stepped on a piece of glass that got missed during clean-up and started bleeding myself–I only needed a band-aid though!)

She’s been doing a lot of reading and coloring–not so different from her usual routine.  I’m getting my exercise carrying her to the bathroom several times a day, and changing her scenery.

Our friend Betsy lent her several Strawberry Shortcake dvd’s, which are a big hit, as well as a Leapster.  I am so glad we don’t own one of these, but she’s been enjoying it.

Today I started letting her walk on it a little bit–not up stairs or anything yet.  It’s right on the spot where it bends–if the glass had landed an inch higher,she could probably have run around with the stitches in, but it’s in just the wrong spot.

She’s in very good spirits and is enjoying getting to watch a dvd or 2 each day–usually a treat once a week at the most–actually much less often than that.   We’ve been letting her watch Strawberry Shortcake in the morning, and then before bed an episode of Shelley Duvall’s Fairie Tale Theatre.   She cried the whole way through Thumbelina!  I’d forgotten how sensitive she is to anything sad happening!

It was amazing to see how well she handled everything Saturday–we’re so proud of her!

This April was Amelia’s first time making a car for her Awana club’s annual Grand Prix.

She wanted a brown car with blue polka dots, and that’s what she got!  She painted the car brown, and then I added the metallic blue dots.

After the race they had the awards ceremony, and the kids sang songs.

We also visited Lollypop Farm in April…it had been a few years since we’d been out there.

That’s right, Amelia lost her first tooth (literally her first tooth–it came in when she was 4 months old) while on a camping trip, on the day she turned 5 and a half.  You heard it here first…we have a five and a HALF year old, who is missing a tooth.  Wow.