School Time!

Amelia! You're such a big girl now! You started school about a month ago and so far, so good. You struggled a bit at the beginning and even now, when I drop you off you try to decide whether or not you want to cry (you almost always decide not to). You still like to just 'sit on a chair and not play with anyone forever!" and they have a special chair for you to sit on, but the teachers tell me you only last for a few minutes before you're up and playing.

This school (called nursery here, but it's basically pre-school) is great, there is so much for you to do and play with! Every day they have several different tables set up with all sorts of fun things to play with. One might have play doh, another might have paints and paper, another legos, and yet another might have dinosaurs and farm toys. Plus there is a great kitchen area, reading area and entire outside area. You are totally spoiled for choice. Everyday I come to pick you up, you run out to me with a smile and show me the book you picked out for us to read tonight.

School has also given you so much more confidence. You're not scared of other kids and even join in playing with kids you don't know at the park. I'm so happy that you're happy. It was very difficult for me to send you to school. I knew it would be good for you, but you're my baby and I didn't want you to leave me! You and I have spent every day together for your entire life, we had a great rhythm and I so enjoy spending time with you. But you're such a clever girl, I knew you'd love it and it would be the best thing for you...and I was right. I still miss you though!

Let's see...what else is going on? Oh, it's almost Halloween and you're so excited to dress up as Woody from Toy Story. Aunt Cyndi sent you a super cute costume and we got you a cowboy hat. The first time you put everything on you kept saying 'howdy howdy howdy' and 'yeehaw cowboy!'

You still love to sing and I find that you're learning lots of songs, because you come home and sing songs that we've never sung together. You still love to make up your own songs and quite often in the bath or when you're playing on your own you'll sing about what you're doing, it's hilarious. I haven't managed to get it on video yet, but I'll keep trying.

As always, you're our joy and Dad and I love you so, so much. You light up our lives and everyday we thank Heavenly Father for letting us be your parents. We love you!

Love,

Mom

Olympic Fever!

We are smack in the middle of the Olympics! We love living here in London and experiencing the atmosphere that can only come from an event like the Olympics. We've also been lucky enough to be able to attend a few of the events. You've come with us to three different events and you have been such a trooper. Dad and I are so proud of you! Yesterday we went to the Olympic Park and women's field hockey. You made everyone around us laugh by yelling out 'You can do it!' 'Come on, go!' You also serenaded the players with a very enthusiastic rendition of Old MacDonald had a farm. You are such a crack up. Yesterday we also went to watch women's football (soccer), we saw Japan v France in the semi final match. You were awesome there as well. You loved looking at all the people in Wembley and cheering on the teams. We have so many fun pictures of you at all the events. I hope you remember at least a bit of it! Some other miscellaneous things you've been doing lately... George the Monkey is your absolute favorite friend. He's the only stuffed 'friend' that gets the privilege of sleeping with you in your bed. And he's never called just 'George', it's always 'George the Monkey'. You love him so much. The other night at dinner, he was sitting on your chair with you and Dad asked if you'd like to say the prayer. You replied that George the Monkey wanted to pray. Dad and I agreed (thinking you'd just say the prayer) and Dad started helping you pray. It went something like this: Dad: Thank you for this day You: Hoo hah hah hoo hah (monkey talk) Dad: Thank you for the food You: Hoo hoo hah hoo hah It continued like that the entire prayer! You were speaking 'monkey' for George the Monkey. It was all we could do to keep from laughing. I wish I could say that this only happened once, but nope, George regularly helps us pray! It's also so much fun to see/hear you play with your toys. When you do the 'voice' of a character that has a deeper voice, you talk in this funny gravely voice. It's hilarious. You still love to pretend to be various animals. You're often a monkey (which is when you'll only say 'hoo hah'), a baby panda (which is a high pitched voice), a baby bird (squeaks), a little mouse (more squeaks) and a dog (called Grommit from Wallace and Gromit). You still love Mr. Bean, Mickey Mouse and of course Curious George. You still love to sing and your new favorite song to play on the iPod is 'Somebody that I used to know' by Goyte. It's so funny that that is the song you've latched on to. You also love "Do they know it's Christmas" by the Bare Naked Ladies and 'Life's a Happy Song' from the newest Muppet movie. So at the very least you have eclectic tastes! You're continually a joy for us Mia, and Dad and I still comment to each other how much we love you, how much you make us laugh and what a funny kid you are. Every night I thank Heavenly Father for trusting me to be your mom and for blessing me with such a beautiful, kind and funny daughter. Love, Mom

Wet Ball!

Amelia: Mommy, my ball is wet! Me: Wet? Is it from your juice? (she'd spilled some earlier and I thought maybe I'd missed wiping part of it up). Amelia: No, it's from my mouth. Good to know kiddo!

This and That

Amelia...you have just been so hilarious lately. I'm so loving spending time with you and being your mom. You are super cute. You love to sing and make up some great songs. And you're starting to use such big words! The other day when Dad and I were still in bed, you came into the room, and we said 'Do you want to climb up and cuddle with us in bed?" and you listed off a variety of things you needed to do, which included breakfast, playing with 'George the Monkey', playing on 'Big Pod', playing Happyland and you concluded all of this by saying 'I'm just too busy." I know it might not sound as funny on paper, but it was hilarious. We've been working on potty training you. You'll do almost anything for chocolate chips, but you also have the option of collecting stickers and when you get 10, you get a doughnut (one of your current favorite treats). It's slow going. But you're getting better at telling us when you have to go potty. You've also been doing so well at nursery in church, the last few weeks you haven't even cried. And all the workers say you're such a good example for the younger kids. And you especially love snack time. You're still pretty shy around other kids, you still prefer grown ups. You're super polite and always say 'Yes please' and 'No thank you'. It's super cute. You and Daddy make up such fun games. Your current favorites are 'Cuddle Now' which involves Dad chasing you around the house saying that in a funny voice. You also play 'Eagle duck' which is a puppet of an eagle that grandpa sent you, Eagle Duck involves Dad chasing you with the puppet on his hand. Sensing a trend here? You love being chased. You ask me to chase you several times a day. You also love being tickled. You're such a happy girl, always ready for a laugh. You're also growing up so quickly! You've gotten so tall! I was just noticing the other day that you're becoming all legs. And your hair has such a cute curl to it, you truly are a gorgeous girl. But more important than that, you're clever and you're a hard worker. You love to help clean and do laundry. Another fun phrase you're saying now, is when you are kind of upset you'll look at me (or Dad) and say 'DON'T YOU EVER!!!' But you never complete the sentence (Like don't you ever take my toys etc). It's become kind of a joke now, but we still haven't figured out where you picked that up. You also love saying 'Go Abadas!' when you're excited about something. Abadas is a show on Cbeebies, but you hardly watch it. So I'm not sure why you picked it up as your catch phrase. Today it started raining after quiet time. So we put on your wellie boots, grabbed our umbrellas and headed out to splash in 'muddy puddles' you love doing that. We just walked around our neighborhood for about an hour, jumping in puddles and getting wet. You loved it. You always love any chance you can get to splash around. You've been so great about going to bed lately. You don't even like me to cuddle you much anymore. Which does make me a little sad, that was our time to catch up and talk about the day. But I'm glad you don't cry when I leave you. And as much as you love playing with Daddy, you still only want Mom to put you to bed. Sometimes I love that. Sometimes I'd love for you to let Dad do it. You're such a joy Amelia. I can't believe you're going to be 3 soon. When we ask you what you want for your birthday dinner, you've only said 'apples and oranges', hopefully you give us more to go on! You also still love Mr. Bean and wanted a 'Bean' party. Thankfully you've changed your mind and now want a Postman Pat party. That is much more doable! We are going to have a gathering in the park like last year with all your friends, hopefully you'll play with some of them. Love you baby panda!

People!

The other day on the bus, the funniest thing happened. Often we talk about people, like you will comment 'there's a lot of people on the bus' or 'people are going to sit in that seat'. Very often when we get off the bus, you'll shout, 'bye people!' I never thought too much about it. Until the other day.

We were on the bus, coming home from the Science Museum (which you absolutely loved!). And it started to get crowded, which is no big deal. A man sat in the seat next to me (we were in the wide area where strollers can go) and started talking to you. You were having a good time. When he turned his attention to something else, you decided to try to get his attention. You wanted to show him a picture in your Teletubby book. You said 'Hey look at this!" When he didn't notice you, you tried again "Look at this!" He still didn't know you were talking to him. Finally you looked straight at him and yelled "People, look at this!"

It made me chuckle, and dad and I talked later if maybe you thought the names of everyone we saw on the bus and out and about are 'people'. Who knows, it sure was cute though!

I Show You!

Your new favorite thing to say is 'Mommy, I show you. I show you Mommy!" You'll keep saying that until I say "Okay, show me." And then you'll do something silly, like make a high pitched noise or sound. Or spin around. It's super cute.

The other day, I taught you how to play hide-and-seek. You keep calling it peekaboo. You love playing though, it's your new favorite thing. You don't quite understand the concept. I'll count and then come to find you and you'll pop out of your hiding place (usually the same place every time) and say 'You found me!' When it's your turn to count you only count: 1,2,4! And then come and find me. It doesn't give me very much time to hide! But you still love it and love finding me. It's truly your new favorite game. It'll be fun when you're older and we can play hide-and-seek in the dark with the whole family, like I used to when I was younger.

Babysitter!

Amelia,

Last night you had your first night time babysitter (that you were old enough to remember). Dad and I got tickets to a really cool night time talk show called the Graham Norton Show and we were so excited. We asked a girl in our ward, Abby Tingey to babysit you. You were so excited for Abby to come, you talked about all the things you were going to do with her, like playing Play Doh, choo choo trains, animals and all sorts of fun things.

When she came, you were a little unsure, but apparently you didn't cry and had fun playing. Until bedtime that is. Ever since we moved you into your 'big girl bed' you've not let anyone put you to bed except for me. Not even Dad, and you'd choose Dad over me almost always.

So we told Abby to let you stay up. She said you started to really cry when she put you down, so she let you stay up and you eventually fell asleep about 10pm. After watching videos of yourself on the iPad.

Overall it seems like the night was a success. I hope you're not too grumpy today!

You are getting cuter and cuter every day. I just look at you and want to give you hugs all the time. You're talking so well and you play so cute. You've really started to get into playing with all your little animals. You create very elaborate situations and talk for them and I can't help but listen in to you as you play. You've got such an imagination, I love that! I love that you like to play pretend.

You're still also my cuddly girl. There's not much you love more than to climb up on my lap for a cuddle. Your favorite foods currently are cherry tomatoes (you say "Mia wants to eat them like a ball") cucumbers, daddy chips and anything mint flavored. Also at dinner you'll bypass meat for veg (you especially like peas and broccoli), and you're still a very good eater...when you want to be. You're still very stubborn.

Recently we've hit a few museums. Last weekend we went to the Museum of London Transport. You loved climbing on the trains and big buses. You especially love getting in the driver's seat and pushing all the buttons. You're so cute!

That's it from here.

Love,

Mom.

Big Girl Bed!

Amelia! Stop growing up so quickly! A couple of days ago we decided to take the sides off your cot and transform your bed into a 'big girl bed' you are so excited to sleep in it! You love it. You kept getting on and off the bed saying 'Mia has a big girl bed'. You even danced around and sang a little song about it. Dad wasn't so sure about you being ready for a big girl bed, but I knew you were ready. You've slept great in it and have had no problems. Dad just wants you to stay his little baby girl forever. I don't blame him.

You're also talking so much! You've got such an imagination. You loved Christmas, you weren't quite sure about opening all the presents, but you sure loved all the toys! This year was dominated by Toy Story. You got a cool light up Buzz from Santa and Woody and Jessie from Grandma and Grandpa Ngai! Grandpa Kinsel sent you a puppet of a bald eagle and you love it. You keep calling it a duck though. I keep correcting you...now you call it 'eagle duck'. You're sure cute.

Lately you've also been saying 'Mia love (fill in the blank). You're exploring this concept of loving things. When we hear the lift for dad coming home from work, you'll say to me over and over 'Mia love daddy, mommy!' And Daddy just loves to hear that. You also say "Mia love Mommy" and "Mia love Jessie" or whatever. It's so cute.

You love to play with your toys, you have such a great imagination. You love dumping out the container holding the toys and placing them on top, you always have them in a certain order.

Lately you've been really cute in saying good bye to things. When we get off the bus you'll shout 'bye bus! Mwah' (or however you make the kissing noise). And lately you've responded for them so you'll say 'bye bus!' and then you'll say 'bye Mia' as if it were the bus saying that. Does that make sense?

You're pretty much the cutest girl in the world and I love you more and more every day. You're so loving and fun. I love being your mom!

Love you!

Mom

P.S. You're still into Mr. Bean. You got a GI Joe (except of the British variety...an RAF Gunner) for Christmas. It has dark hair and you call him Bean. Your dad and I love it!