A travel-ful month! (Amelia at 27 + 28 months)

Bad mama, forgot to post these last month! We had a whirlwind October and November with trips to Disney and home to Boston for Thanksgiving. Amelia could not have been more excited about meeting Mickey waiting very patiently in line for 20 minutes. When we finally got into the small room (at the Judge's Tent, Mickey's Toon Town Fair), there was one other family in front of us and Amelia kept looking at me and looking at them anxiously trying to hold back until she could run up and hug... MINNIE. Mickey was a little miffed to be dissed. These days, her favorite thing is her many faces - happy face, pathetic face, suspicious face and my favorite "George getting a shot face" (read Curious George goes to the Hospital). We have a serious love all all the doctor tools - especially the stethescope and otoscope. Many a check-up is had at the Garrett house - come on over! We had an awesome Halloween in NYC too! Our small elephant trekked through the building with her cousin Alexis to knock on many doors and actually said Trick-or-Treat! Thanksgiving in Boston was lovely as always with lots of great food and playtime for the kiddos together.
Check out the pictures here - Amelia months 27 and 28

A trip to SF, a new tricycle - what more could a girl want (Amelia 26 months)

We had a busy month with traveling to SF for a couple days and many trips to playgrounds and merry-going-around-and-arounds. We met up with some cousins in SF and Amelia loved Lucy, though Lucy didn't seem to excited about holding hands with Amelia. We visited a fun museum and lots of gardens! Amelia loved the aquarium at the California Academy of Sciences. There was also this great "little explorers" room at the back just for kids under 5 - definitely a fun place to check out and relax a little bit! They had a wonderful rain forest exhibit with many exotic butterflies that you can see up close.
We also visited a local pumpkin patch with some friends and got our first ride on a tricycle! It's finally fall here and we're kind of settling into a nice pre-school schedule. Amelia is more hilarious every day - favorite games are "horsie", peek-a-boo and hide&seek (mostly shrieking when the seeking part happens). The latest-and-greatest of toys is the vintage Fisher-Price doctor's kit - Amelia especially likes the "steg-o-scope", the "shot" and the "temp-ature". We got in a short hike to a pretty spot on the river (Scotts Run).
Amelia still loves singing - though it seems to be incessantly Twinkle Twinkle. She does enjoy listening to our Sesame Street CDs in the car :)
Enjoy the pictures!
Amelia 26-month photos
Love, Amelia, Andy and Jennifer

I do it MYSELF - sayings of a 2 year old (25 months)

We've had a busy end of the summer! We got to go back to Boston and rode on the airplane in our own big-girl seat! Amelia did great and loved having special snacks (aka Biscoff cookies and pretzels) and little sips of soda. We and some R&R up in Lincoln for a couple days - mostly enjoying the pool since it rained most of the time we were there. We tried out the Hobo Railroad - a pretty fun ride for a rainy day.
We took a trip to our favorite playground with the merry-going-around-and-around (which is Clemyjontri park - a truly awesome rubberized playground for kids in McLean, VA) and also met some friends at the zoo - elephants were a favorite! We took a day trip down towards Annapolis to check out the Maryland Renaissance Festival - very fun with lots of people in costume and free pony rides!
The picky eater has now joined the "one bite club" and at least tries more things - even salad and mustard. One of her favorite meal-time things to do is make faces - and LOTS of them! We've captured a few of the crazy smiles and stuck-out-tongues.
We also started Montessori pre-school. A little teary still, but once dada or mama is gone, Amelia becomes her happy self and likes art and music.
Some favorite sayings, "What a luck", "Mama/Dada want to come play with you", and "I do it myself".
We're definitely in the do-it-myself phase - good thing preschool likes that too. Also, still of interest is Amelia's shadow, squirrels/chipmunks/birds outside our windows and any and all dogs.
Hope you all can come visit us soon! And enjoy the pictures!
Link to 26-month pictures
Love, Amelia, Andy & Jennifer

oh MY - 2 years old already!

We've been having a fun, busy summer - checking out new playgrounds, Sox game at Camden Yards, a little trial potty training, bike riding, hiking visit from Ahma and Ahgong, trying new treats (popsicles and watermelon), visiting Ahyi in NYC and of course, MORE playgrounds. Amelia got to try out swimming this summer (fun) and sprinklers (not so fun). Amelia's recent favorites are the merry-go-round, playing in the laundry basket (aka race car, cave, tub, cage...), lollipops, and a bubble blower gun from Ahyi.
She's talking a ton and says funny things like "Oh MY" and "I don't like Ahma's bying-gi" (bying-gi is Taiwanese for popsicle). She also reports about her funny/scary dreams - like telling the hippo to stop biting her.
She can count to 12 sometimes 14 if she tries and can say her alphabet most of the time. She's even recognizing letters and loves playing with the magnetic letters stuck on the dishwasher.
We celebrated Amelia's SECOND birthday on July 12th! Pink cupcakes with pink frosting - ala Pinkalicious. We've been reading a lot and making our weekly trips to the library, sometimes taking a nice walk on the Capital Crescent trail to get to town.
Enjoy the pictures! Mama's always so delinquent posting new pictures!

Pictures 23 & 24 months

Amelia 21 and 22 months - Springtime in DC

We've been slowly settling in here... a little routine, some baking, some picnicking, some biking. We loved having Christina, Len, Alexis and Braden visit! We all got to relax, have some good food together and watch the two girls go CRAZY dancing and spinning and chasing each other around. We enjoyed a weekend of biking, picnicking and a trip to the zoo.
Even got a few shots of the girls in a familiar spot (Gravelly Point Park) overlooking the airfield at Reagan - see the comparison pictures. On left - Alexis and Amelia. On the right Jennifer and Christina - HOW FUNNY!



Mama and Amelia have been getting out to meet some new friends and even got to get on a firetruck and met a pirate to get some (temporary) tatoos! Amelia's also gotten a taste of the "good stuff" recently - including popsicles and lollipops - watch out!
Amelia's favorite things are bubbles, hanging on bars, ice cream, dogs and reading books.
One day she said, "Mama buy doggie for Amelia Garrett" and the next day she said, "Dada buy a baby like baby Braden for Amelia Garrett" - hilarious. She can count to 10 (and sometimes to 14) and is starting to recognize some letters - like "A" for Amelia! We're enjoying our spring/summer and it's starting to get hot!
Amelia 21 & 22 Month Pictures

Amelia 19 and 20 months - We Moved!!

Well, we moved to Bethesda, MD in March 2010 - Andy actually started work 2 weeks before and we had a whirlwind of packing and cleaning the house to be put on the market before we moved.
We've been having a lot of fun in Maryland checking out all the new playgrounds.
Amelia's talking up a storm - somehow she just started talking in sentences - well, even if they're only sentences that mama and dada can understand. We are trying out libraries, story-time, music classes, and even Taiwanese school.
Grandma Garrett came to visit us for a couple weeks too and we got to see all the beautiful cherry blossoms and visit the zoo. We're slowly getting unpacked and acclimated to our new digs. Hope everyone comes to visit!


19&20 Month pictures

Amelia - a year and a half (18 months) and talking tons!

Finally got all the vacation pictures uploaded, so you'll see most of the pictures are from our awesome trip to Walt Disney World with our friends the Ismails. Andy and Mike ran the half marathon and Amelia and I did some cheering in the freezing temps. We all had a great time! The kids loved the characters that we saw at many of our meals!
Amelia has changed so much we can hardly believe it. Every day a new word or phrase, dancing, singing, feeding herself with a spoon or fork. It's just amazing. She loves everything from reading (and re-reading her favorite books) to feeding her doll, Miccah Mouf (Mickey Mouse) and Mashimo (her teddy bear). I'm going to have to compile a list of all the crazy words she knows and loves - from crocodile to darling!
Some favorite words:
Animals: Armadillo, Crocodile, Ooh ooh Aah aah/Monkey, Frog, Sheep, Horsie, Penguin, Bird, Turtle, Be-yah (Bear!), Dolphin, Whale, Bunny, Dog, Cat, Duck
Funny phrases: "Amelia Do", "Amelia do it", "I did it", "Mama see", "Show Dada", "Airplane, shooo", "Eat it", "Dump it", "Read please", "Darling!", "Szat" = what's that, "Got it!", "Sit down", "Mama come", "Sit potty", "Hand" - which is what she says when she wants to take your hand and drag you somewhere :)
Amelia even says her whole name if you ask her what her name is you'll hear "Amiya Garrett"!

We also had a lovely Christmas, though I think Amelia liked all the wrapping paper more than what was inside! We also had some great snow after Christmas, though Amelia didn't enjoy lounging in the snow so much.
Enjoy the pictures!
Link to 18-month pictures

17 months and growing fast!

Amelia is talking more and more! We can't even count how many new words she has - everything from snowman to armadillo! She got to play in the snow a bit this last month and mostly enjoyed it in her pink marshmallow suit. We also had some brunch with Amelia's teachers from Bright Horizons which was a fun surprise for Amelia to play with her teachers at home! It was a great Thanksgiving with lots of yummy food at Ahma and Ahgong's and Amelia is trailing after Alexis jie-jie and trying to keep up.Recently, she loves to show things to mama and dada and will often say "See mama" or "See dada" holding up some book, stuffed animal or something.She's also amazing at memorizing her books and knows the words to several books already! She's starting to say her ABCs, though it's mostly garbled. We love when she says "L-M-N-O-P" which comes out more like "em-en-em-oh-pee". She also likes to count the monkeys in her 5 little monkey books.

Fun fun and surely more to come - Enjoy the pictures!

Link to 17-month pictures