Amelia is 4 months old

My baby is four months old.  She had her checkup today.  She's 13lbs and 13ozs (52nd percentile).  She's 24 inches long....only 29th percentile.  This makes me wonder if I finally have my shorty!  Will this little girl look like a real Dennis?  She sure does look like a chunky monkey.  The doctor thought I was kidding when I told her that my grandfather was less than five feet tall and that my dad was almost as short.  She should see Aunt Betty, Uncle Gary and Uncle Charles.  I don't know how our generation didn't end up short.  I guess a few of them did, but most of us are average height. 

We have the okay to start with food this week.  So we are adding veggies to the list of foods.  I've never been good at one at a time so I hope she doesn't have alergies.  I'm going to give her peas tonight to see how she likes them.

She's really a beautiful little girl.  Yesterday, I dunked her right under in the water...twice!!!  She came up smiling and licking her lips both times.  She loves the water and she is not afraid of it at all.  Water baby!!!

Father's Day and Vacation June 2010

j

Last June we spent our vacation week in the mountains at Jo and Zac's cabin.  We knew we wanted to have another baby and I felt like time was running out.  The break was just what we needed.  We left a family of six and came home a family of six with one on the way.  This year, we rented Barry's house on Lake Lanier.  Peyton spent Father's Day out on his sailboat.  I know it was the best present we could have gotten him.  We also bought him new running shoes and running clothes for the Peachtree Road Race next weekend.  We looked everywhere for a new fish finder, but there were none to be found up here.  I think so many dad's have boats on Lanier that they sold out of them everywhere.  The kids are out in the lake, swimming with their daddy, and our little Amelia is lying on the floor taking a nap.  She's a real blessing.  It's been a tough vacation having a baby again.  The freedom that we had last year to do "big kid and adult" things is gone.  It's been replaced with bottles and diapers and midnight feedings.  I'm exaughsted and I feel like I need a vacation, but I'm also re-energized from my one on one time with my kids.  Samantha and I have played games together for two days.  She's got a great personality and she's not a sore loser at all.  Sabrina and I can't play games together.  I try, but I get really frustrated with her competitiveness. She has to win all the time.  There is no way around it.  She will change the rules in order to win.  Beanie and Destiny have formed an alliance on this trip.  Beanie wants to be a big girl like her big sister.  I bought the kids another karaoke machine.  We are going to sing again tonight before we leave.  Peyton and I took the boat out last night.  We left Michael in charge long enough to sail for an hour.  It was so great.  I couldn't believe how much I remembered.  I even brought the boat in to dock without the motor...which is really hard to do.  I had the perfect tact and just glided right in.   We have enjoyed the house on the lake.  All of the kids have had a chance to fish, swim and sail.  The girls shared a bedroom overlooking the lake on the main level.  Michael had the room next door to them.  Peyton and I had an upstairs master that was huge.  It was complete with a sitting room and a walk in closet that we used as a changing room.  Amelia has really grown this week.  I'm so thankful that I've gotten to spend this time with her.  I watched her roll completely over for the first time on Father's Day.  The whole week has been about watching her do new things.  She started holding her bottle on Tuesday.  She won't let you prop it for her at all.  This can be very frustating when she's sleepy, but she pushes it away trying to pull it towards her.  She's very fussy because she wants to do so many things that she can't do right now.  She wants to put her toys in her mouth, but she can't....so she screams.  Poor thing....trying to be a big girl already.  She seems to be a mix of Samantha and Sabrina. When she smiles, it melts my heart.  I finished an entire book this week...The Castaways.  I had no idea it was about a couple who drowns on their sailboat....until I started reading it.  And then I head out on the sailboat the next night...too funny! Kim and Chris came by to visit yesterday for a couple of hours.  They were looking at campsites in the area to decide where to put their boat and camper for a week later in the summer.  The girls are going to start school in a little over a month.  They are not babies anymore.  And soon, Amelia will be past all of the baby stuff too and we'll be doing "big kid" vacations again.

Jordan

Jordan was diagnosed with Osteosarcoma a little over three weeks ago.  She had her first round of chemo last night.  This has been the most heartbreaking month of my life.  We all love Jordan so much and it really hurts to see her hurting.  She's so young.  Her prognosis is good, but the treatment is painful and will take months to complete.  She will lose the tibia in her right leg.  They should be able to replace it with an internal prostetic.  She will have four rounds of chemo...surgery on the leg...another couple of rounds of chemo and then....we check to see if it's been sucessful.  This morning, June 30, 2010, she is doing well.  The chemo has been tough, but she is not as sick as we expected....at least not yet.  We'll just have to keep praying that the treatment is less painful than predicted.  Samantha heard the medicine would probably make her sick and said, "Well, Momma.  She's just going to have to take it to get better.  Even if it hurts.  We need her to get better."  What a sweet little girl.  The kitty that Sabrina is holding is Jordan's new kitten.

Happy Birthday, Ty!!!

We went to the fire station in Conyers on Saturday to celebrate Ty's birthday. The girls really enjoyed the puppet show and touring the fire house. The firemen were really good with the kids and taught them so much about fire safety. I think they were more than a little disappointed in how little time we've put into teach our kids how to react if a fire happens. We were all instructed to do fire drills at home. They are right. We need to teach our kids how to stay safe if a fire occurs. The girls have been living in their hats and blowing their whistles since the party. This was a great birthday party...and I think Melissa's cheese dip was the best dip I've ever had!!! Yummy!!! Notice that we all take tons of pictures of Mary whenever she's around. She will stop whatever she's doing to pose for the camera. She's just so cute, you can't help but focus on her.

Happy Birthday, Destiny!!!

Our beautiful daughter turned ten today. I wish I had been there when this little girl was born. I can just imagine how gorgeous she must have been with that dark curly hair and those almond eyes. Destiny is growing into a lovely young lady. She has been so understanding this week. We've had so much going on with Jordan and hospital visits that we didn't put much focus on her birthday. At the last minute, we decided to have a cookout today. We played in the pool, grilled out burgers and hotdogs, and ate cake and ice cream. We only invited daddy's family for this little gathering. We are planning another party later in the summer when Jordan can get into the pool too. Aunt Jenn brought Mary and Ty and Grandmother and Granddaddy came by too. Destiny is going to spend a few days with Grandmother beginning tomorrow. She was finally able to open her presents that we put away at Christmas time this year. Remember....she opened them Christmas Eve and hid them from us so we had to take them away until today. She was so happy to finally have her Nintendo DS. I'm happy too because it was really expensive and I hated having it sit in my closet for months. Mary and Amelia both had a lot of fun in the pool. They were nervous at first, but really started laughing and having fun after a few minutes. The pool is a real hit.