Yeah superstar!!! 

Melie's first foray into hair apparel. 

The dreaded tummy time. (This was taken seconds before the face plant and blanket sucking occured)  

Yummy Hands!!! 

Up, Up and Away

This past week, we have been out or had people over almost every night and Meals has been very good, taking it all in stride. She has been in such a good mood with lots of smiles for everyone. Yesterday her run of uninterrupted cheerfulness was broken and she started to get fussy when we tried to put her down and she woke up crying a few times (this isn’t usual and it breaks my heart cause, she seems to confused and upset when I pick her up she snuggles right under my chin and wimpers). Last week a couple hours after I published my post about her good sleeping routine that we were getting into and it all fell apart and she has gone back to cat napping, bah!!!! I hate the cat naps because she doesn’t get the same quality sleep, I don’t get as much done around the house and it means many more trips up and down the stairs for me :) I have been getting lazy though and letting her fall asleep on her play mat while she sucks on a very soggy bunny or mousy then taking her up to bed. ah well. She seems to have grown and become so much stronger in the last week, she loves standing these days and now she when you pull her up to sitting if she can find something to brace her feet against she keeps pushing to stand up. Now that she has figured this standing thing out she seems to get bored when you just hold her, she wants to be up looking around. I hope all the standing she is doing isn’t putting too much stress on her legs. Her upper body isn’t nearly as strong as her lower body she still doesn’t like tummy time and got quite annoyed when Jeff tried to make her do baby push ups. We are trying to put her on her stomach more to strength her neck and arms but true to her laid back nature after a minute or two of lifting her head up and looking around, she will drop head into a face plant and start sucking/chewing on her blanket, I think our daughter might be special. Denise tells us that tummy time now affects future penmanship; I guess she will follow in the long line of chicken scratchers. Melie has started rolling from her back to her front now, well almost… she gets right over on her belly but she still hasn’t worked out how to get her arm out from under her. She also manages to travel all over her crib her favourite position is still sideways across the crib with her feet kicking her dragonfly. I am starting to get a little nervous about her moving around in there though because this morning I went to find her with both legs stuck in the bars, think it might be time for illegal bumper pads. She also likes getting involved in her feeds now, she has to get one of her hands in there and this has now made feeding her more of a sport trying to keep the nipple in her mouth while her hand is pushing it out of her mouth, ahhh!!!! I have tried to use this new found obsession of hers to my advantage by trying to get her to hold her own bottle but to no avail, the other hand has no interest in holding the bottle, it has to be holding my fingers or grabbing at my shirt. OH well. I am usually just happy if I can get her hands out of her mouth long enough to get the bottle into it. This weekend we did stuff around the house and visited with my family as my aunt and uncle were in town from New Jersey, so nice to seem them and introduce them to Meals. Sat night Jeff had poker and I went to Jen’s to hangout with her and the girls and watch Big Brother. Last night we had big family dinner at my parents and Rich and Jeff cooked, oh was it ever yummy!!!! Hmmm leftovers. This week is shaping up to be another busy one with one of the highlights being my dad coming for dinner on Wed. night, this will be the first time he has met Melie, exciting.

I like drooling.  

Play, play play!!! 

Look at me, I'm standing!!! 

3 Month Pics

Amelia Helen Reitsma - 3 months

3 Months (almost)

I can’t believe Melie will be three months on Wednesday. In the last month Amelia has become quite interactive and much more aware. She is still a fantastic sleeper and is a very happy laid back baby. Meals has figured out what those things on the end of her arms are for and had become very adept at grabbing things, from my hair and necklaces to her stuffed animals and of course she is very good at getting those fingers and thumb in her mouth. If we sit her up and put a toy in her lap her arm will fly around a little then she gets her hand over it and starts grabbing at it, something must actually be going on in that head of hers. Amelia has also found her voice, she is still pretty quite most of the time with just little coos and quiet giggles but a couple weeks ago she started making this squawk/squeal that I think it absolutely hilarious. I call it the baby teridactyl, it usually starts when she is excited and is accompanied by lots of arm and leg flailing. For the last little bit we have been pulling her up to sitting, she seems to like it. While you are pulling her up she looks pretty stunned, at first her head would fall back then after a couple tries she started holding her head up. Once she gets up her head kinda bobs around abit then the big smile forms, love it. Yesterday I was pulling her up and she actually tried to lift herself up too, it was accompanied by quite the look of constipation. She also likes trying to stand up now, she wobbles around and is showing some early signs of having her daddy’s dance moves. Melie can also see farther now and recognises Jeff and I, it is so sweet to watch her look around then catch sight of one of us and give us a big smile. Melie is still sleeping through the night but we are now getting on a pretty good napping schedule now too. She gets up most days around 7 or 8am then heads down for a nap around 9 or 10 and usually sleeps till lunch time when she gets up for another bottle and some more play time then goes down for an afternoon nap. Depending on when she gets up from the afternoon nap she either just stays up after that until bed time or sometimes she will have an evening nap. After the afternoon nap is when she seems to have the most energy and usually can handle staying up for a few hours without getting overtired or fussy, this works out well cause then Jeff and I can both enjoy some play time with her. We have also been trying to get her into a regular bedtime around 8 or 8:30ish, sometimes it happens and sometimes it doesn’t J. You would think that with all this talk of sleep Jeff and I would be very well rested but you would be WRONG. Although we have a baby that sleeps through the night we have two cats that think 4 or 5am in the morning is the perfect time for them to get there love and affection that they have been missing since Melie came home. Maisy likes to come in yelling every half hour or so (and this isn’t a nice cat meow when I say yell I mean yell) and Dexter thinks walking across our pillows (and often my hair) and sleeping on my head is quite nice. I have been rather grumpy with the cats lately and on Saturday morning when I found Melie’s eye medication with Maisy’s patented teeth holes in it, Maise was almost the first eviction from our house. Cat for sale!!! This weekend was pretty quiet for us, Friday night, Rich, Jeff and I went out for sushi and then saw Batman Begins, I really liked this batman I think it is my fav. Meals, stayed with John and Denise for the evening. Sat was filled with errands and chores around the house and of course Harry Potter arrived so there was some reading. Sunday we got some much need rain. Jeff worked on the basement, Melie and I went for a walk in High Park in the rain and then we went for dinner at Mom and Daryl’s for Sunday night family dinner. Melie and her new camel straight from Auntie Julie and the Austrailian Outback. I think we will name him "Humpy".

Eye Update

Well Meals went to the doctor yesterday to get her eye checked out. I was convinced that it had moved beyond a blocked tear ducts because there has been so much goop coming out but NOPE. According to Dr. Vickers the white of her eye is still white so nope no infection we just have to wait it out the tear duct and keep massaging her eye. The skin around Melie’s (a bunch of people have asked, we pronounce it meelee, yes like the bug) eye has become irritated so Dr. Vickers did prescribe some ointment for that which seems to be helping. Now that the eye crisis is over I have moved on to a new crisis, I think due to this crazy heat and us not having AC Meals has become dehydrated. She has been drinking a tons lately, like a whole big 260 ml bottle in one feed, so I thought she would be fine but I have been noticing that she has not had many wet diapers in the last day or so now she is getting abit of water too. Meals is not so sure about this whole water thing, “What is this !@#$ coming out of my bottle!!!!”. Here is “white trash” Melie in her diaper getting her first non-milk feed and me sweating (thank goodness the house as cooled down abit, dinner time is usually the hottest). This morning I tried giving her water in a sippy cup (doctors suggestion), the face she pulled when I first put the thing in her month was priceless, she has very expressive eyebrows!!! She did take some more water this morning so I am feeling abit better, our afternoon at the pool should also help. Yipeee!!!! Reitsma Resort here we come!!!! Tuesday night Jeff had is gourmet group with the guys (no my husband isn’t gay but he is a very good cook) and Rich and I played soccer. Now that all the parents are back I got mom to babysit her while I played soccer. I was quite entertained when I got back to their place to pick her up around 9:30 and mom was half asleep in the chair and Melie was on her mat wide awake with her full attention on Law & Order. Apparently mom was ready for bed but Melie was quite enjoying TV (I’m a little concerned about her taste in shows at this age). Last night, Sarah, my (not evil) step-mom, came for dinner while she was in town on business. She said it was to see us all but I think Meals might have been the real attraction. Here are Sarah and Melie cooling down in front of the fan and Sarah practising her windblown look. Here’s Dr. Evil at work “and for my next evil plan…”

Happy Girl!!!! 

Bunch of Firsts

This past week has been full of firsts for Meals and I, she had her first sleep over away from us, her first time being babysat by someone other than family and her first real swim and she took it all in stride. On Tuesday morning I went to a spinning class with Leigh at the gym, in the past when I have gone Denise came to babysit for me but they were away so I took a deep breath and took her to the gym day care. Leigh has dropped Ronan off there quite a few times and had said they were great so that helped my nerves, that and the fact that I was only downstairs and they would come get me if there was a problem. I went to my class (ouch!!) and came back and she was fast asleep and I was told she was very good. Tuesday night was soccer, Jeff has organised a team for the summer and we play every Tuesday night. It started last week so we have brought Melie to the last two games because we haven't had any potential babysitters. I must say it is very distracting for me running around on the field and trying to keep an ear opened to listen to see if she is crying. She has been pretty good both weeks, she won't sleep in her stroller but she dances away entertaining herself by looking at the trees and the clouds for usually the first hour then in the last bit the wheels come off and she needs some snuggles and a bottle. Here we are cheering the team on... The parents all came home on Tuesday, after a wonderful trip in France. Everyone came over on Wed night for some pizza and stories and to give us all sorts of gifts!!! fun fun :) Melie did very well and got a number of VERY cute outfits straight from Paris. Here is the first on that fits her... Friday night Melie went for her first sleep over with Grandmamma and Paake's. I surprise Jeff with a nice dinner and evening for just the two of us. It gave was nice because it gave Jeff and I a quiet dinner (and time for me to cook the dinner), a bit more of a leisurely morning and it gave us a chance to see how Melie would react to sleeping in a new bed without us putting her to bed (at this age I'm sure it doesn’t make any difference to her but might as well start getting us all used to it, me especially). It was a lovely night though I missed Melie. I called a few times to find out what she had been up to, I have the upmost confidence in John and Denise's ability to sort her out but I needed updates on all the cute things she had been doing. She did very well and had no problems sleeping through the night there. Denise's sister, Nicole, her husband Danny and their son Patrick were down for the weekend, so they all had a good time babysitting Meals, by all reports Melie and Danny have become very good friends. Sat Jeff and bunch of friends had their annual golf tournament followed by poker in the evening so Melie and I were on our own. We end out to Jen's place and hung out with Jen, the girls, Carrie and Ronan, very nice relaxing afternoon. Yesterday was HOT!!! so we spent the afternoon at the Reitsma Resort in the pool and Melie finally went for a real swim and seemed to enjoy it!!! she splashed a bit and seemed quite content in the water, Jeff was threatening to test out the baby's reflex to swim but I was not for it so Melie's head did stay above water the whole time. Unfortunately this week has also marked Melie's first health problem, she seems to have an eye infection. She has always had one eye that gets a bit goopy, the doctor tells us it is just a blocked tear duct what will unplug in time and we just need to massage it. This weekend it starting getting worse a lot of goop and red around the eye so today we are going in to see the doctor and see what is going on with it. eep my poor baby. Oh also, she has started getting the smelliest farts!!!! they are really quite offensive. She isn't pooing as much now which the doctor tells me is normal because they start processing and using more of the milk. She went three days with no poo, I was getting alittle nervous (when coupled with the smelly farts it was alittle worrisome) but yipee Sat night the evil spirts were expelled and the farts have gone for the most part. Aren’t you all happy I shared, ha ha.

This one is abit older but I forgot to post it, I quite like this pic. 

Really I didn't put her to bed like this!!! 

Uncle Rich and Melie enojying their Canada Day. 

Ribby goodness!!! 

Long Weekend and First Anniversary

Ahhhh, Long weekends are sooo great, especially when we have fabulous weather. Thursday night melie and I went down and watched Jeff and his team play volleyball at the docks. Thursday was really hot but down at the Docks there was a nice breeze, it was a nice break from the heat. Canada Day was action packed for lunch Jeff, Rich, Melie, Marna and I went to ribfest. I think we all (well not Meals) felt sick after but the ribs were yummy. After gorging ourselves we headed to Jeff’s parents to float in the pool. John, Jen and the girls joined us, it is so cute to see Emma and Leah in the pool. Look at these two cuties.

Melie didn’t go in the pool this time, she spent most of the afternoon sleeping and playing on her mat. Melie is obsessed with her play mat still she can amuse herself for hours on that thing, her legs and arms get a very good work out.

On Saturday, Jeff, Melie and I went down to check out Marn’s new condo. It is beautiful and she has a fabulous location right in the heart of the city. After seeing her place we all went up for ice cream at Ben and Jerry’s, Jeff and I felt a little guilty after our day of sloth and gorging the day before but we don’t get downtown that often and Jeff is obsessed with B&J’s Oatmeal cookie Ice Cream. Saturday evening Jeff and I celebrated our first anniversary (it was actually on Sunday but whatever…). We took Meals in her stroller and we went to James Garden on the Humber River. Jeff made us a lovely picnic, yumm complete with cheese plater (yup Aussies, very reminiscent) and a beautiful chicken with tomato basil salad. It was a beautiful night, Jeff and I had a nice quiet meal while Melie played in her stroller. After dinner we headed home and put Melie to bed while Jeff and I enjoyed some wine and watched the highlights from the Live 8 concert. Sunday was quiet, Jeff worked on the basement and I worked on the backyard landscaping. We had dinner over at mom’s, Rich cooked. Melie was kind of cranky all day Sunday, I think she needed to catch up on some sleep. Melie has started moving around in bed a lot again, I found her completely turned around again, had to laugh.

I also changed the pictures on her mobile this morning, I put her in the crib and she started talking away and flailing her legs and arms all over, I think she approved of the change.