Harrington House

Now Don't Make Her Start Counting

What I see:  

Amelia standing at the top of the stairs, all dressed up and ready to go, waiting on her Daddy to finish getting ready for church.

What I hear:

"C'mon Daddy!  Let's go!  Daddy....Daddy...c'mon!  Let's go!"

Then, Amelia's fingers go up.

"ONE.....TWO...............Daddy, I'm at TWO!......"

Mike and I both about fell out in the floor!  Hahaha!

(I sorta wondered what would've happened if she'd have made it to THREE.)

(I probably don't want to know....)

Amelia's Saturday Checklist

1.  Enormous hair bow.....check

2.  Best Friend Binky......check

3.  Naked Barbie doll.....check

4.  Sunglasses (on a rainy day, no less).....check

5.  One highly entertained Momma.....check

I love you, my sweet, silly girl!

Fun, Fun in the Summer Sun

Excuse me, Young Lady!

But who told you that you could turn TWO already?!?!?!  It certainly wasn't your Momma!!

Oh my goodness gracious!  How did my little Amelia Kate turn two years old already??  I knew it would come fast.  I knew I'd be one of those mommas saying "Oh, I remember when she was tiny..."  Well, that day is here.  And I'm saying that.

I remember the day she was born and that moment she was placed in my arms!  I can still see that tiny face with her eyes open looking around.  She didn't cry at all.  It was one of the sweetest, most cherished moments in my life.  I will remember it forever.

Now, Amelia's birthday was actually on April 21st...just a few days after Jack's birth day.  (How in the world did I manage that?)  Since I was in the throws of bringing a newborn home this year (and since Amelia is too young to notice), I actually waited till the weekend to have her birthday celebration.  It was extremely simple this year.  But I was so thankful that my momma ("Chewmomma" as Amelia calls her!) and Aunt Kiki & Uncle Derrick got to be here to celebrate with us.  

We ate big...on strawberry cake and ribs...

Amelia made her way to the cup cakes before the party ever started...

She also made her way to the deviled eggs.  When she started using them to finger paint on the table, I took them away.  She was not happy...

Bless her heart!  I'm the mean old mommy making her cry on her birthday!  (Can you see the deviled egg paint job on the table?)

She even gave Jack a nice pat on the head with caked-up hands.  Jack's head smelled so sweet after that!

Anyway, I thought I'd share some of what Amelia is doing these days, now that she is TWO!

She is talking more and more each day.  I am LOVING the new things that come rolling out of her mouth.  I love getting an idea of the things she is thinking about.  And I'm so proud...sometimes I can hear her little southern drawl...love it!

She is starting to write some of her letters.  They are very crude, but recognizable.  So far, she is doing "W," "V," "L," and "A." 

She loves to sing and dance.  I find her almost daily entertaining herself in front of the mirror.  She will go on like that for almost 15 minutes straight.  It's absolutely hysterical.  I hide and watch her and try to keep my laughter to a mild roar.

She is an all-out outside girl!  Thank goodness!  We are outside people.  If only she would leave the bugs alone.  Poor little guys just don't stand a chance...

She's a big helper and loves to help me do laundry and sweep the floor.  She also likes to pick things up and put them in the trashcan.  I have no idea what I have unknowingly lost in there.

She likes to give me back massages (pinches my shoulders), brush my hair (Whoa!  Bang a brush on my head and sometimes get it tangled), and rub my feet (squeezes my toes...no heel action yet...we're working on it...haha!).  Oh, but the other day she pointed at the bottom of my feet during a rub session and told me they were dirty.  Time to get out the Ped Egg.  She also points to freckles and calls that dirt, too.

Memory lane...

Happy Birthday, my Amelia Kate!  Mommy LOVES you! (...loves you more than you will ever, ever, ever know...)

Girly Closet

So I still have some more final touches before I unveil Amelia's new big girl room.  Before I moved all of her clothes from the nursery into her new room, I wanted to finish up the closet.  So we spent a good chunk of the day holed up in that tiny closet.  (Our secondary rooms are practically glorified closets themselves...the closets...you can imagine.)

Actually, Mike was the one who spent most of his day holed up in there.  Due to the paint fumes, I kept myself and Amelia preoccupied elsewhere.  But I still managed to come in every so often to earn my title as "Foreman," as Mike likes to refer to me during most home improvement jobs.  I admit...I am very particular.  ;o)

No need for nicknames.  I see the writing on the wall, Mike...literally...         (Good one, honey...haha)

Thanks for working so hard...and for putting up with me!

I've hunted everywhere in my files for before pictures of the closet, but I can't find them.  It just had that white wire rack system.  I really wanted wooden shelves.  We are slowly but surely replacing them in all the rooms.  

We painted the walls the same color as the bedroom (Behr "Pismo Dunes").  I promise it doesn't look as loud in real life as it does in the photos!  The shelving and the clothing rods are white.  The below photo is a bit more true-to-life on the color.

We actually used stair treads as the shelves and painted them white.  I wanted rounded edges and was planning to sand them, but then I saw the stair treads at Home Depot and got those since they are already rounded in the front.  I'm so glad we did. 

I have some little white storage baskets that I am going to use to store her shoes and socks and other bitty baby stuff.  I'm going to make some tags for each basket later this week.

The iron brackets on the left ends of the shelves are from Anthropologie.  I got them a couple years ago when they were on clearance for next to nothing in the store.  I think they look so perfect in Amelia's new closet!  

Once I get more finished, I'll show the rest.  

In other news, Amelia has a lot of "owies" that we have heard about all day.  Yesterday, she was playing outside barefoot and barelegged and fell a few times on the back patio, sustaining several scratches.  As soon as she woke up this morning, the first thing she told me about was the "owie on toe." 

Once we got inside yesterday evening and I started investigating her "owies," I realized she in fact did have a whole slew of them.  But you know, we have to keep up that Southern stereotype that we all go around barefooted all the time...  ;o)

 

And my favorite part of the day today...she sang "Amazing Grace" for the first time in the bathtub tonight, and it was far and away one of the sweetest things I have ever, ever heard...ever!   Oooh! 

I hope y'all have a wonderful Sunday tomorrow!  I'm off to watch my alma mater....

 

GO BIG RED!

Meatballs & Baby Powder

(I couldn't think of anything better to title this post than that.  The two are thankfully unrelated.)

This is the spaghetti and meatballs that Mike fixed for me!  He made the meatballs from scratch, too!!  I was totally impressed.  (And this wasn't even one of his Love Dares!)  Seriously, they were better than any meatballs I've ever had.  He made them with ground chuck, some fresh herbs, garlic, and parmesan.  He even made enough so I could freeze some for after the baby!  I think he knows the way to my heart is through my stomach!  Hahaha!  (That's really not a joke.)

And now, about that baby powder...

Miss Amelia Kate was in the master bathroom by herself for a mere 2.5 seconds this afternoon.  This being the same bathroom I had just spent a couple hours scrubbing.  This also being the same bathroom that has this glass shaker with powder in it...

Apparently, this shaker is just entirely too tempting to leave alone.

She came and got me and pointed in the bathroom and kept saying repeatedly, "It's a no-no.  It's a no-no."

Um, yes, Amelia, that is a no-no.  (I think she has it down pat that certain things are no-no's, but she is still a tad fuzzy on no-no's being the things we don't do.)

This little pile on the dresser, complete with tiny finger tracings, is just a mere glimpse of what I found.  (I tried to photograph it, but on the white tile floor, it didn't show up well.)  And if you look at the bottle, it may not look like much is missing.  But, trust me, it is a lot when it's out of the bottle. 

But I must admit...if I wasn't the one who had to clean it up, it probably would have been a fun no-no.   

WHAT! It's Not Summer Yet?!

This seems like the longest winter ever!  Summer, come already!

I have been just craving strawberries and biscuits for weeks, so I picked some up yesterday, and that's what we had for dessert last night.  I was worried they would taste like, well, grocery store strawberries, but they were surprisingly really, really good! 

  

After I mixed some sugar with them, I had them sitting on the dining room table till the biscuits were done.  Some time later, I noticed that Amelia was being awfully quiet.

Oh yeah...she had found the strawberries...

 

Using the spoon didn't last long.  She eventually just started grabbing handfuls and shoving them in her mouth.  Now, my girl loves her fruit...and when you cover it in sugar, you just can't expect her to leave it alone.  ;o)

When she finally realized I was behind her, she turned around and looked like a chipmunk!  I was laughing entirely too hard to even get a good picture!  (Plus, I figured as fast as she was plowing through those strawberries, I best put the camera down and get me some before she ate them all...)  

Jumpy!!

This cold, cold weather is bad news when you have an energetic toddler ripping through the house!  No park, no stroller rides, no walks down the street...what's a  momma to do?  Well, I took Amelia to one of those indoor gyms for kids.  Now, I admit, the idea of all those germs really bothered me (you know, indoor where the good, disinfecting sunshine couldn't get to them)...but I figured I just have to put some faith into her immune system and go for it.  The place I took her is right up the road, is pretty inexpensive, and she LOVED it! 

I didn't get a single picture of her face because she did not stop once!  And I think this is the first time I didn't have a bow in her hair while we were out and about.  Y'all, that jumpin' is hard work...the child can't be bothered with hair accessories at a time like this.  At least she had a pink shirt on. 

Doesn't this look like fun?  I did not want to test my big pregnant self on any of the inflatables for fear I'd pop a whole in something and ruin everyone's good time.  

Towards the end, she was getting pretty good at running and jumping on everything.  But falling down is way more fun!   :o)

Now, let me tell you about... The Fit.

After an hour, she started to slow down a bit, and since it was naptime, I decided it was time to call it a day.  As I carried her out the door, my little lady decided to throw a fit.   Oh my goodness.  Not only did she try to turn herself into liquid several times as I tried to carry her to the car, but she tried that "stiff-as-a-board" stunt, too, making it almost impossible to carry her.  I take it she was NOT ready to leave "Jumpy" (as she calls it).  And after acting like that, there was no way I was going to take her back in there.  I sure didn't want to send that message...you know, have a total come-apart and you get what you want.  Oh no!  

So, when we get to the car, she again turns herself into liquid...in the parking lot...on the pavement beside the car.  Doncha know I just wanted to crawl under the car and hide.  And had it not been for my big pregnant round belly and the fear that I might get wedged permanently under it, I probably would have.   This was by far the worst fit she has ever thrown.  I did NOT get a picture of that part of our day.  I hope to goodness our next trip to Jumpy is not like that!  How embarrassing.

Now, I can't talk about jumping without talking about candlesticks!  So let me show you a new candlestick I found at the thrift store.  It's silver-plate on brass so it's heavy, and the silver is perfectly worn like I love!  $1...Yea!  I have it in the dining room on a table that I just moved in there.  It's the only thing on the table right now, though.

I love honeycomb candles, and I just made a little wreath of boxwood for it.  

And MOST IMPORTANTLY... please keep praying for Harper and Kelly.  The most recent updates sound so good.  Prayer IS powerful!  It is amazing to be witness to so many coming together in spirit and prayer over this precious child.  

"For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst of them."  Matthew 18:20

"Before our Father's throne,

we pour our ardent prayers;

our fears, our hopes, our aims are one,

our comforts and our cares.

We share each other's woes,

our mutual burdens bear;

and often for each other flows

the sympathizing tear.

Blest be the tie that binds

our hearts in Christian love;

The fellowship of kindred minds

is like to that above."

Amelia's First Haircut

And I did it myself!  Eeek!  I always wanted to be a hairdresser simply because I love the sound of cutting hair!  (You should see a couple of my Barbies.  Thank goodness I had some restraint and left most of them alone!)  Anyhoo...we were looooooong overdue on a haircut for Miss Amelia.  It was starting to look like a mullet.  Yikes!  I actually have been waiting to get it long enough so I could save a lock from her First Haircut.

Some befores...

 

   

I wanted to get some "During" pictures, but, well, that was highly impossible, as I am sure you can imagine!  So here are some afters...

   

 

So, I reckon I can now call myself a bonafide kitchen beautician, right?  I promise...I won't do any perms.  ;o) 

Celebrating the Small Stuff

Otherwise titled...

A few days ago, I read this by Emily, encouraging us to celebrate "what is while anticipating what is to come."  I am so guilty sometimes of not paying attention to the small stuff going on with Amelia during this season in her life.  I get caught up in the mealtime (making sure to remember to get that piece of roll out of the toybox), naptime (watching the clock till I can put her down so I can scrub the toilets), and bathtime (saying "No, ma'am" a dozen times while I'm getting soaked from the splashing).  I know that in all of those daily moments, there are little gifts that I want to receive!  I just have to open my eyes so I can open those gifts.  

On Saturday morning, we were in a mad rush to set the Christmas tree up before the party started.  (Mike had had to make a last-minute trip to NYC for a meeting, and, although my pregnant self tried, I could not get the tree out of the attic!  So, we were left with a Saturday morning set-up.)  Meanwhile, during the usually fun and exciting event of tree trimming, our pantry shelves decided to come crashing down, breaking bottles of oil and Karo syrup all over the floor!  While Mike tried to contend with the thick layer of syrup laced with glass shards, I completely lost my cool and hollared at Amelia to "Go play in the other room...now, young lady!"  Afterwards, I returned to the tree project, and I saw this...

    

I know it may not look like much to anyone but this Mama, but it actually melted my heart.  She had been keeping out of our way and busying herself with something that made no sense to me (cans of soda in the Christmas tree box??), but it must have been something that seemed meaningful or interesting to her at the time since she did it.  I know that years from now when my Amelia is grown, I am going to miss the things like this...the cans of soda in the tree box, the half-eaten roll in with the toys, and getting completely drenched while I wash her hair.  :o)  Oh, I wonder what I've already missed...  :o)