Vrrrrrrr

So many of yoy know that I LOVE ladybugs! I started collecting ladybug stuff at a very young age. I have quite the collection. Amelia's room, our guest bedroom, and the guest bathroom are all decorated with the ladybug theme. I have a ladybug massage pillow that I've had for a long time. I found it in the guest bedroom and thought Amelia would like playing with it. I put new batteries in it and showed her what to do. I pushed on it with my hand and it started vibrating. She took the pillow from me and tried it herself. She seriously played with it for at least 10 minutes straight. She would pick it up, cart it off somewhere, lay it on the floor, and place her head on it for a few seconds so it would vibrate. She did this over and over and over. She took it in the living room, in the kitchen, in the dining room, and by the pool table. Sometimes she will place it on the floor and just sit on top of it while playing with other toys.

I'm Married to a National Champion

Clint plays on a Touch Rugby team, Tumeke Touch. They just hosted the national competition this last Friday and Saturday at Discovery Park in Gilbert. Amelia and I went to watch two of his three games Friday evening. It was chilly outside so we were both bundled up in sweaters. My mom bought Amelia a cute green zip up sweater with a picture of Bambi on the hood and Bambi's ears that stick up above on top of the hood. Everybody thought she looked adorable. I took Amelia home to go to bed and Clint played one more game Friday night. They won all three games and Clint got a try (like touchdown in football). The second game they played was against a team from Portland (This was the team they played last year in Dallas for the championship. Portland won last year and Tumeke took 2nd place). They beat them Friday night 4 to 3!

They had two more games Saturday morning and won both of those games too. They were seeded number one for the semi finals. Amelia and I arrived around 2pm; semi finals started at 2:40pm. It was very cold and rainy. We were both bundled up again and sat under a canopy to stay dry. Their team played the number four team and beat them 11 to 5 I believe. The clouds disappeared and the sun came out and it started to warm up quickly. We took off our sweaters and got to spend time with Clint before the final game at 4:20.

The playing field at Discovery Park is in a basin. There is a decently steep hill to climb up if you want to get out and to the top. Amelia enjoyed walking up and down this hill. We bought a meat pie and sat on the side of the hill as a family, watching the mixed touch team play their semi final game.

Clint had to leave and go warm-up with his team for the championship game so Amelia and I went back down the hill to the canopies where the other kids were playing. Amelia enjoyed following the bigger kids around. Clint's game started a little bit late. The sun was starting to go down and was getting a bit cold so I put our sweaters back on. Before the game started, their team lined up and did the haka (the haka is the traditional dance form of the Māori of New Zealand. It is a posture dance performed by a group, with vigorous movements and stamping of the feet with rhythmically shouted accompaniment. It is supposed to scare the opponent. The New Zealand rugby team, the All Blacks, do the haka before their games). Their team was playing Portland for the championship, just like last year. It was a very intense game. One of our players got hurt and possibly broke his ankle. This was the player that Clint would take turns with to go in and play. Since the guy was badly injured, Clint got to stay in and play for almost the entire game. Near the end of the game the score was 3 to 3 and Clint scored a try, making it 4 to 3. Their team just needed to stop Portland from scoring. Time seemed to pass so slowly. Finally we heard the blow horn, signally the end of the game. Their team had won and were the national touch rugby champs! After all their hard work this last year, it finally paid off. Their team was so excited. They did the haka again after the game.

The award ceremony was held after the mixed team had their championship game. Everybody gathered around and the trophies and medals were awarded. Clint's team got a large trophy that they will keep until next year's nationals. Each player on his team received a gold medal. There were select players chosen to be part of the All Tournament Team and Clint was one of them. He received a special shirt. I'm so proud of Clint and his efforts to play hard. I know winning and becoming the national champs meant a whole lot to his team.

I can't wait until next year's nationals competition! They will be playing on the sports field that sits inside the Walt Disney World park in Florida. They will get package deals where the players and family members who come along get park tickets for Disney World. I have only been to Disneyland once as a young child. My family tagged along with my sister's school trip when we lived in San Diego. It was raining the entire time. Our souvenirs were Mickey/Minnie socks. We took off our soaked socks and put the new socks on, put our feet in plastic bags, then put on our shoes. This was so we could have warm dry feet.

TUMEKE TOUCH...2009 NATIONAL CHAMPIONS!!!

Night Two in Big Girl Bed

Amelia was getting quite upset and cranky so I put her to bed around 7pm tonight. She fell asleep rather quickly. Everything was going great until about 10pm. I was downstairs watching tv; sitting on the couch, which is directly below her room. I thought I heard a small thunk. I muted the tv but didn't hear anything else or any crying. I decided to go upstairs and check to make sure everything was okay. I slowly opened Amelia's bedroom door and shone a flashlight to the ceiling to give the room a glow. I was quite surprised at what I saw. Amelia had obviously rolled/fallen out of bed; I'm guessing hit the comfy pink blanket I had on the floor and then rolled a little further. She was lying on her back with both hands behind her head, still asleep! I went downstairs and got my camera. When I came back up, she had rolled over to her side. I took a few photos- pictured below. I went down the hall to set my camera down and when I came back, Amelia was sitting up rubbing her eyes and looking around in a daze. I wonder what she was thinking in that head of hers. I got down to her level and told her she must have fallen out of the bed. I grabbed her blankie from the bed and the kitty from the floor and rocked her for a minute, then placed her back into bed. She went right back to sleep.

I am just so amazed that she fell out of her bed, which is about a one foot drop, and managed to just roll over and go back asleep without making any noise other than the thud from hitting the floor! What a trooper. I hope she doesn't do this in the middle of the night. I don't know if I would wake up if the only noise she makes is a small thud. I guess if she does fall out again, she will just sleep on the floor until she realizes that she is on the floor. Once realizing that she is on the floor, she will come to our room looking for us or just crawl back up into her bed. I seriously doubt she would just crawl back into her bed in the middle of the night though.

While Clint and I were in the bathroom getting ready for bed around midnight, we were very startled when we heard a soft noise and a pink blur coming toward us. I almost had a heart attack! Amelia had fallen/gotten out of bed and came looking for us in our room. I put her back to bed and we went to bed ourselves. Around 3am I woke up when our bedroom door slowly opened and I heard Amelia walking in. I was groggy but took her back and put her in her own bed. Seriously in about two minutes, here she came again, this time with her blankie. I almost wanted to just put her in our bed and see if she would sleep with us because I was so tired and didn't feel like getting back out of bed again. But I knew that if I started this, it would probably happen every night thereafter; she would learn that if she comes into our room in the middle of the night she can sleep with us. I definitely do not want her to start that habit! So I got out of bed and put her back down, and this time closed her door. She never did get back out of bed or make any noise until the morning. Unfortunately she woke up around 7am and since the door was closed, she stood there and tried to turn the knob. I was still very very tired but she had about 12 hours of sleep so I knew there was no way she would be going back to bed.

I hope night three is better like night one; I need to catch up on my sleep!

Big Girl Bed

Yesterday I decided that I wanted to convert Amelia's crib into the transitional bed. I thought about all the big milestones or events that will be taking place from now until her 2nd birthday and I wanted to be able to space them out so they won't all happen at once and possibly be traumatizing for her. Aside from needing to move her into a big girl bed, in the next few months I would like for Amelia to not need a pacifier when sleeping. I also want to try and start potty training around 18 months and hopefully have her trained by 2 years old. At 18 months she will be in nursery at church and I don't plan on having to stay in the room with her the entire time, but be able to go to my classes. She recently got two molar teeth and a lower tooth in all at about the same time and still has more teeth that need to come in. Teething has never been fun for Amelia. So after looking at all these events, the two I felt that I could control were moving her to a big girl bed, and getting rid of the pacifier. Since the pacifier helps when sleeping, especially with all the teething that's been going on, I just don't think I am ready for that battle quite yet. I tried to see if she would take a nap without it a week ago but she just screamed bloody murder forever. I don't have the heart or guts to do it yet. Maybe in the next month or two after she has gotten accustomed to the big girl bed and teething has gotten better.

So Amelia and I went up to her room and got to work. I took the front crib railing off and attached the two little crib 'doors' to the front. Amelia had fun playing in the room with everything while I was doing this. Once I put the mattress back on, she helped me put her toys on the bed. She crawled up on the bed and played for a little bit while I really baby proofed the room. I figured that now she will be able to get out of her bed, anything that seems remotely harmful better be taken out or put out of reach.

Last night I rocked her for a few minutes like usually at about 7:30pm. She was excited to see some new pictures of herself hanging on the wall so wasn't exactly laying down in my lap. I had a nice comfy blanket on the ground right where the opening was in between the two crib 'doors' in case she fell out during the night. (When in the crib, she would roll around quite a lot and kick her feet against the back of the crib railing. She also likes to sleep short ways in the crib with her feet near the back railing and her head near the front railing.) I figured she would probably fall out at least once during the 1st night in her big girl bed.

When I went to bed, she was laying long ways in the bed snuggling with her blankie. Another blanket had been pushed off onto the floor so I picked it up and put it near her feet. I myself had a tough time going to sleep because I was so nervous. I just laid in my bed waiting to her a thud followed by crying. I finally fell asleep but woke up a few times when I could hear her rolling around. Amelie never did fall out of the bed; if she did, I didn't hear anything and she got back into bed all by herself. I highly doubt that though.

Clint got up and went to work around 5:30am. He leaves our bedroom door cracked slightly when he leaves. I always leave Amelia's door cracked so when I check in on her before going to bed, the doorknob doesn't make a bunch of noise and wake her up; she is quite the light sleeper like me. Around 8:40am I heard my door open and the little pitter patter of feet walking toward my bed. I sat up and her comes Amelia with her pacifier in her mouth! It was kind of a nice way to start the morning :) When she was in her crib before, I would wake up to her making noise by playing and talking to her toys, saying uh-oh over and over again because she went poo poo, or by crying. I'm excited that her first night in the crib was so successful!

I was a little worried how she would do during naptime in the big girl bed because it is daytime and she can see the books and toys in her room better. I rocked her for a few minutes and laid her down around 11:35am. I could hear her talking to toys and pushing her glowworm toy, which sings music. I would say she fell asleep sometime before 11:45am. I went to check on her since I didn't hear any noise and this is what I saw:

Her room is actually quite dark during the day due to blinds and window curtains, so I used the flash and nighttime setting on my camera. I hope she doesn't fall out! She has been asleep for almost an 1.5 hours so she will get a pretty good nap. She got around 13 hours sleep last night and with this one hour nap so far, that makes 14.5 hours. According to Babycenter, the average 12 month old child needs 13.75 hours of sleep total for the day and the 18 month old child needs 13.50 hours of sleep. So I figure that since Amelia is 16 months old, she should get an amount somewhere in between. She usually always gets at least 14 hours of sleep total everyday. Maybe that's why, for the most part, she is a pretty happy baby; and why she can get cranky if she doesn't get put down for a nap three hours after waking up in the morning.

I love my little Amelia to pieces and I am so glad that she is growing up into such a smart and healthy girl. It helps me to forget all the tough times I struggled through in the first 4-5 months of her life. I can confidently say that she is going to grow up into a very wonderful and special young lady and that I was an integral part.