Meet the "Manny"

I'm going back to work next week!  Thankfully, I'll only be working part-time, two days a week.  My brother, Steven, was nice enough to come stay with us in DC and be our nanny, or as he likes to call himself, the "Manny."  He's going to watch Amelia if I have to go into the office and help me out while I work from home.  He'll be with us for a few months, so we're excited!  After he leaves, Amelia will have to go to a daycare two days a week... so we hope he stays for a while ;0) 

Uncle Steve

Thankful

Amelia decided to take a 4 1/2 hour nap during her first Thanksgiving.  She slept through the whole thing!  We think she's going through a growth spurt.

Best Thanksgiving day memory:  Jimmy and Amelia dancing to Taylor Swift... so cute!  She was smiling and laughing and eventually fell asleep.

I made my mother-in-law's signature dish:

Nancy's World Famous Crowd Pleasing Broccoli Casserole (It's topped with Chez-its!)

We loved her pumpkin picture so much, we decided to try a Thanksgiving theme.

Big smile!

Lucy "Snout" wanted to participate in our photo shoot too, ha ha ha.

"Bad kitty!  Get out of my picture!"

"Stop smelling my head; that tickles!"

"Please don't stare at me."

Sleepy time

Amelia's favorite sleeping spot.  She falls asleep when ever I carry her around in the Ergo.

I love my baby ;0)

Heads up!

Amelia has never really liked tummy time.  However, in the last week, she has really started to hold her head up!  She can hang out on her tummy for a few minutes now before she freaks out.

Okay, I'm done!

Molasses-Spice Cookies

My weekend baking project was Jimmy's favorite cookies: Molasses-Spice Cookies.  I used Martha Stewart's recipe and they turned out great!  I have two cookie exchanges in December, so I'll probably make them again soon since they tasted so yummy ;0)



A visit with Santa

Amelia met Santa for the first time!  She did great and didn't cry at first.  However, she wouldn't look forward for the picture, so she ended up sitting on Santa's lap for a long time.  After a few minutes, she started to cry.  We wanted a picture with just Amelia and Santa, but it ended up being a family picture... oh well ;0)  We'll see how it goes next year. 



Newborn to infant

Now that Amelia is 12 weeks, she is no longer a newborn; she has graduated to infant status.  My baby is growing so fast.  According to our scale, she now weighs 11.2 pounds.  She has doubled in size since she was born!

She is now smiling more than ever!  It seems like everything makes her smile and she is such a happy baby.  She coos and we have little conversations with her.  We always wonder what she is trying to tell us.  She also laughs out loud and squeals, which is hilarious.  We've been trying to record her smiles, cooing, squeals, and laughter, but as soon as we get the camera she stops!  It's very frustrating, ha ha ha. 

Amelia's new piano which she loves to kick, kick, kick!  She smiles and laughs when she hears the music play.

Amelia has discovered her hands, which she stares at intently.  She examines them and moves them around.  It's really cute because she always has a serious face when she does so.  She also sucks on her fingers and her fist, which is nice because she is learning to self soothe herself. 

Serious face Amelia checking out her hands

(The Ed Hardy shirt was a gag gift from a friend)

Since she was about a month old, she started sleeping about 4-5 hours at night.  Now, she sleeps about 5-6+ hours at night, so I usually only have to get up with her once for a feeding and diaper change.  We cannot wait until she sleeps through the night!

Amelia's new thing is falling asleep while she's playing.  It's super cute!

Amelia is now big enough to fit into her cloth diapers, so Jimmy and I are very excited.  Her cloth diapers are so cute!  It's especially cute because the cloth diapers are much thicker than disposables, so they make Amelia look pear shaped... it looks like she has a huge ba-donk-ka-donk. 

Amelia rocking out her cloth diaper

Does this cloth diaper make my butt look big?

Check out the junk in the trunk!



Pear shaped Amelia

Jimmy and I bring her everywhere with us when we can.  She's definitely a travelling baby!  She goes out with us to run errands, shopping, out to eat, and we even take her out when we go out with friends.  I take her out for walks almost everyday too.

All bundled up and ready for a walk

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet

Amelia has MANY nicknames...

Mia

Melia

Miels (pronounced like "meals")

The Littlest

Elephante

Stinker

Mi Mi

Booger

Elephante staring at her elephant toy in her elephant shirt

I'm the littlest!

Nomm, nommm, noomm... my hands are yummy!

 Don't call ME a stinker!

It's time to play!

Amelia has such a tough life ;0)

Playing with daddy

(check out the drool!)

 Smiling and drooling

She loves it when Jimmy puts her feet on his face... she loves this game

Amelia and her pink hippo

Giving the hippo some love.  

Amelia loves to stare at the hippo.  She also likes the softness of the hippo on her hands and face.  (Check out Amelia's eyelashes; they're so long and pretty!) 

I love the look on her face... she's such a cutie!

Amelia checking out her rattle.  It's still too heavy for her to hold up for a long time.

Staring at her mobile

Amelia likes to put her hand behind the head and suck on her fingers at the same time.  Apparently, Jimmy used to do the same thing when he was a baby.



Red Velvet

Anyone who knows me, knows that I do not cook.  My husband does 99% of all the cooking and I like it that way ;0)  He's a good cook and even cooks my mom's Filipino recipes.  As for myself, I like to bake, mostly because I love love love sweets (and carbs).  However, I usually bake things from a box. 

My new goal is to be skilled at baking things from scratch.  Red Velvet is my absolute favorite cake flavor and my aspiration is to make Red Velvet my baking speciality.

I made a three layered Red Velvet cake 2 weeks ago (from scratch) and it turned out pretty good.  I used Martha Stewart's recipe since I'm a big fan.  Oh yeah, and the cream cheese frosting was made from scratch too which was also Martha's recipe.  I wish that I had taken a picture because the cake turned out beautiful.  The cream cheese frosting was perfect! 

The cake was yummy, but the Red Velvet taste wasn't quite right (sorry Martha), so I altered the recipe a little bit.  I added cocoa powder, salt, and cornstarch to the original recipe.  I also replaced the white vinegar with apple cider vinegar.  The second time around, I made cupcakes instead of a cake and it turned out AWESOME.  I'm super proud of myself!  I now have my own pseudo-original Red Velvet cake recipe.



I don't have any frosting tools, so I had to frost them using a sandwich bag with a hole cut in it.  I think I cut the hole too big too... oooops!  Otherwise, the frosting might have looked better.

Since the recipe made 24, Jimmy took some to work.  The downside of baking is having too many sweets in the house!  When I made the cake, Jimmy and I only ate half of it and had to throw the rest of it away.  I'll stick with making cupcakes, since they are easier to share!

11 weeks in and having fun

Amelia and I have been keeping very busy during the day.  I joined two "mommy groups" and am active in La Leche League.  Hanging out with and meeting other moms has been awesome!  It's always hard to start new things and I hate being the "new girl," but I'm so glad I did because Amelia and I are having so much fun ;0)

We had our first play date this week and my baby girl was fabulous!  All the other moms were talking about and were impressed with how happy and mellow Amelia was.  My little Amelia didn't cry the whole time and was all smiles.  I was so proud of her and really appreciate that she is such a good baby.  We are so looking forward to all the exciting activities to come! 

One of the mom groups I'm in is only for new moms between 28-35 years old and all the kids are within the same age group.  The parameters are specific, but I feel like most of the moms are very similar to me and we all get along great.  The other mom group has moms and kids of all ages, so it's a little different. 

La  Leche League (LLL) has been a great resource and offers good support for me; it's kind of like a breastfeeding support group.  The meetings are monthly and we talk about breastfeeding issues/problems and then talk about other mommy type stuff... the topic often deviates from breastfeeding to other more general parenting issues, so it's very informative.   

Amelia is starting to fit into her cute little outfits!

Happy Veteran's Day

The military has always been such a big part of my life.  I grew up as an "Army Brat" and I am now an "Army Wife."  Happy Veteran's Day to my heroes...

Jimmy has been in the Army for 8 years and has served a yearlong deployment in Iraq.  He plans to remain in active duty until he retires.

My dad served more than 20 years in the Army and is now retired.  My wedding was the last time he wore his uniform.