Family Get-Together Pictures

Here are some pictures from our get-togethers with lots of family.  My hands were pretty full most of the time, so I didn't take too many pictures!

Loving the rocking horse from Granna and Papa!

Fun riding with McKayla

With the Farris ladies!

Papa and Molly

Daddy loves holding a sleeping Amelia!

Lily helping Nancy.

Maybe we shouldn't take the picture of Meme with her great-grandkids at the end of the evening.

Bama sure does love Amelia.

 Loved this picture of Lily with Bama and Amelia in the back.

We have such wonderful families!

Merry Christmas!

I hope you all had a wonderful and merry Christmas today! It's always fun to celebrate the birth of Christ. We had a great day, so I thought I would tell you about it.

First, we received the wonderful gift of rest from our girls. We put Lily to bed at about 7:30 last night (a little early but necessary given her lack of sleep recently), and she stayed in bed until 7:25 this morning; yea! Amelia went to sleep about 11:45 last night; she was still sound asleep when I woke her up at 7:45 this morning to eat; yea again! It's amazing how much we needed that sleep and how good we felt afterwards. It was awesome! It gives us hope that someday (hopefully soon) we will once again get sleep.

Ryan met Lily as she was coming out of her room towards ours this morning. She looked to see if Santa had eaten the cookies and milk she and Ryan made for him last night (he had), and she noted that the stockings were full. Then she came in to our room, said "Hi Mommy! Cart-ta-toons?" as she does every morning. We watched Curious George for a few minutes and then I went to feed Amelia while she and Ryan watched Mickey Mouse. After Amelia was fed, the four of us went out to see the crumbs Santa had left and check out the toys he left for the girls. Lily was very excited to see she had received a ride-on Mickey Mouse airplane and a new teddy bear. She just wanted to ride on that airplane! It was great to watch Christmas through a 2-year-old's eyes. Amelia received a shape-sorter toy and one of those toys with the beads on the wire like you see at pediatricians' offices. At the moment, I don't think she is very excited about them, but one day she will like them! We finally convinced Lily to look at the stockings that Santa had filled for us all; she received some new paintbooks and a little Goofy doll while Amelia received some car seat toys, books and a snuggly blanket.

After seeing what Santa had left as "prizes" (as Lily still likes to call surprises), we opened our gifts from one another which was lots of fun. Lily wanted to help open everyone's gifts. When she would open one for Amelia, she would look at it and then take it over to Amelia who was sitting in her bouncy seat and would put it on her feet. It was pretty sweet to watch. Several of the gifts for Amelia were hand-me-down toys from when Lily was about that age. It was funny because Lily seemed to like those toys (like Randolph the green-nosed reindeer rattle that she played with all the time) though she obviously didn't remember them. She seemed pretty bored with the gifts that Ryan and I received from each other though we really like them (especially my gift certificate for a massage at Spa Sydell - thank you!!!).

After opening all the presents, we checked to make sure Rudolph had enjoyed the bowl of water we had set out for him which he had. We finished baking the breakfast casserole, got dressed and headed over to my brother's house to celebrate with my family. Christmas brunch is one of our favorite meals of the year; we start talking about how we are looking forward to it the day after Thanksgiving. I brought the apple-cranberry casserole, Wayne makes the egg and sausage casserole, Mom brings garlic-cheese grits and biscuits while Meme makes gravy for the biscuits, sausage, country ham and bacon (we like meat in our family!). It is absolutely DELICIOUS! Lily was occupied playing with McKayla and Molly's toys so she didn't eat much other than the country ham, but she had a lot of fun.

After enjoying breakfast, Meme, Randy and Georgia left to visit some of our extended family while the rest of us opened more presents. Lily was thrilled to get a rocking horse from Granna and Papa; she absolutely loved it and refused to share it with Molly (she is usually pretty good about sharing). She also loved the little drawing lap table that Wayne and Dianne gave her. Again, she helped open the presents for Amelia, Ryan and me; she is really getting the hang of ripping wrapping paper off! It was a great time spent with family.

We came home and both girls took nice long naps which allowed Ryan and me to rest and take naps too; we're really enjoying this sleep-thing! After we all woke up, we played with the new toys, read books and simply enjoyed our time together. Mom and Dad came over to visit and see what Santa brought the girls which was nice. We ate some dinner, gave Lily a bath (she enjoyed her new bath toys) and put her to bed. Ryan and I are watching "Get Smart" which is pretty funny; hopefully Amelia will go to bed soon and get another good night's sleep.

What a wonderful day! I will put up some pictures very soon so you can see the fun we had. I hope your day was as great as ours!

What A Night!

Tuesday was a great day. I put Amelia down Monday night about 11:00, and she slept until 4:30 on Tuesday morning. She went back to sleep easily after nursing and slept until 7:45. Ryan had two closings in the morning and then came home early; we were so excited to have our friends, the Sepulvedas, stop by for a visit too on their way through town as they headed to Birmingham. We had a nice evening spending time as a family and put Lily to bed without any problems. We had great hopes for the evening of finishing up some last minute Christmas details, giving Amelia a bath, etc.

Then, 8:30 came around. I was drying my hair when I see in the mirror that Ryan is holding Lily as they walk into our room. Lily is covered in vomit...gross. Ryan had heard Lily crying and saw on the monitor she had gotten out of bed, so he quickly put Amelia down and went to check on Lily. This made Amelia mad, so she was screaming from her room as we tried to calm Lily down. I was in charge of cleaning her up while Ryan went to clean up her room. We remembered from last time that the doctor said to keep her up for at least 30 minutes after she throws up to make sure she's okay, so we started watching Mickey Mouse and Little Einsteins to keep her awake and alert. Unfortunately, she threw up several more times as we watched, so we had to keep resetting our limit. It was terribly sad to see her face as she was getting sick. She was so scared, and there was nothing we could do to help. The worst part was she kept saying "water please" but we couldn't give that to her because she was throwing up the liquid we had given her too. A friend suggested today that we give her small ice chips if this happens again which I thought was a good suggestion. Finally, just after midnight, we were able to put her back down to bed for the night. She was back in our room at 7:25 this morning though, so today (Christmas Eve) has been a little rough as she is simply exhausted. She even put herself down for a nap at 11:15 this morning which is nearly 2 hours before her normal nap time. Thankfully though, she seems fine, so we think it must have just been something she ate.

The hardest part during all of this was trying to keep Amelia settled too. She has a very difficult time getting to sleep before about 11 each night unless someone is holding her. Anytime one of us would put her down, she would start screaming while we were trying to help Lily. Really quite frustrating. She finally fell asleep at about 10:30 (and slept until 5:45 this morning!) but it was not fun running between the two kids for several hours.

We know we are so blessed to have two healthy children and everyone has nights like this every so often, but that was not very comforting last night! Here's hoping we have a better night tonight.

Christmas Get Togethers

We love Christmastime! We have already had three of our family Christmas get togethers, and they have been so much fun.

Last weekend, my mom's family was in Birmingham to see my cousin Jason graduate from Samford (congratulations!). We knew we wouldn't be able to drive up to Tennessee this year for Christmas, so they came over here after graduation instead of going home. We were thrilled that Granny, Johnny Wayne, Nancy, Deanna and Jason were able to meet Amelia. We enjoyed a wonderful dinner and time together opening presents. Lily loves to open presents whether they are for her or not! Granny gave Lily a Sleeping Beauty DVD autographed by one of her friends who was the original voice of Sleeping Beauty; pretty cool! We're keeping it out of her reach for now though I know she will treasure this someday. The girls and I also had brunch with the family the next day while Ryan went to church. This was a wonderful weekend spent with family we don't get to see enough.

Some of Ryan's Birmingham family was in town last week, so we had Christmas with them yesterday. Lily was overjoyed with all her new Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Care Bears and Finding Nemo toys and books; we have been been reading and playing with them almost non-stop. Of course, the best present was the time Liz spent here helping out with the girls so Ryan and I could rest a little bit. Big time thank you!

Saturday night we got together with my dad's family at my cousin Jodi's house. This is always a fun time that starts with tons of delicious food. We realized on the way out there that Amelia is not a big fan of her car seat. Unfortunately, it took us almost an hour to get there through traffic; our nerves were shot when we arrived but handing her off to Papa and talking to family made it better. Amelia did really well once we arrived, and Lily had a blast playing with a rocking horse in the playroom. I always love the tradition we have of reading the Christmas story and then listening to Meme talk to the kids about the meaning of Christmas. We also sing a Christmas carol and Silent Night was chosen this year. Lily looked terrified when everyone suddenly started singing; if you had heard us, you would understand why. This was a great evening!

I'll try to post some pictures from these soon, but things are a little hectic right now trying to get the last minute details finished before Thursday.

We unfortunately are not going to be able to see Ryan's Florida/Chicago family this year at Christmas. It's just too much to try to travel with a newborn. We're going down to Lakeland in May for his cousin's wedding though, so we'll be able to catch up with everyone then and introduce them to Amelia. In case you're wondering, my mom is going with us then so she can keep the girls during the wedding so they don't disrupt the ceremony or reception. Anyway, we will miss seeing them, but hopefully they always know we love them and are thinking about them!

Update on Lily

I have been trying to keep up with some of the fun things Lily has been doing these days; there are a lot of them and I know I haven't recorded all of them, but here's some of them...

Remember that our mailman came to the house as Santa Claus to bring gifts and take pictures with the girls? Well, a couple of days ago, I had to sign for a package that the mailman was delivering and Lily answered the door with me. She stared at him and waved to him as he left, but as I was closing the door, she looked at me and asked "Santa Claus?" I replied "He does look like Santa with that white beard, doesn't he?" She said "Yea!" and then ran off to play. Can't pull much over her these days!

She is saying lots of funny things too, so here are some of my favorites. "One more time!" as she also holds up one finger. This is when she wants to do something fun again. FYI, she usually wants to do whatever she is asking for more than only one more time. "Hi ya!" This has become her new greeting. She'll say "try again" when something doesn't go the way she thinks it should. For example, she will build tall towers with her blocks and when the finally fall over, she'll laugh and say "try again!" "Let's go!" This is a favorite of hers when she wants you to go to her bedroom and play which is often. She now loves to sing too. When you ask her to sing though, instead of singing any kind of a song, she will bust out with "Laaaa! Laaaa!" It's adorable.

At school, they obviously tell them to "listen" at various times. When I tell her someone is coming to visit, she will say "listen," put her hand up to ear and turn towards the door. After a second, if the person hasn't arrived yet, she will say "no, try again" and put her hand back up to her ear. It's pretty cute to watch.

It's so interesting to me to watch her watch a tv show now. She has really started to participate with the shows. For instance, Mickey Mouse will ask which "mousekatool" should be used to assist with a task at hand and then pause; Lily will answer him with the correct tool. She will also count with them which is great. I also love to watch her with the Little Einsteins. They ask you to pat your knees to help Rocket blast off for their mission. Lily will say "more power!" and pat her knees. Then she raises her arms (like they instruct) and says "blast off!" It's really cute to watch.

As I said above, she likes to play in her room. What does she like to do there? Climb onto her bed. Sometimes she will use the little step stool that we have at the end of her bed, but she really likes to hoist herself up over the guardrail, Army-Commando style. Really, I think she has to be pretty strong to do this. She thinks it is so much fun. She also loves to try doing somersaults. She has successfully gone over a few times, but typically she kind of falls to the side. She likes that though; it makes her laugh. She has one of the best laughs. I could listen to it all day!

Playhouse Disney Live

Ryan and Lily had a daddy-daughter date last Sunday evening. They went to Phillips Arena to see Playhouse Disney Live, and both had a fantastic time! We knew Lily had to go see this show as soon as we heard about it. All her favorite characters from her favorite shows were going to be there...Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Little Einsteins, My Friends Tigger & Pooh and Handy Manny. The animals were in costumes but the "people" characters were real individuals; of course, Rocket was there with the Little Einsteins too. Ooh and Aah made an appearance before the show started; Lily loves to see these monkeys! They had great seats too which made the experience even better. I am putting a few pictures up that Ryan managed to take. I hope they get to go on dates like this for many years to come because the bond between a dad and his daughter is a very special one. Lucky for Lily and Amelia, they have an amazing daddy!

Visitors and Dates

We are very lucky to have some of Ryan's family visiting this week. Bama and Kendall came over on Tuesday. Kendall had to leave today to return to work, but Bama will be here until Sunday. Not only is it WONDERFUL to have people here to help with both the girls, but it allows Ryan and me to have a couple of dates...yea! Last night we went to Parkway Point to see the movie "Four Christmases" with Vince Vaughn and Reece Witherspoon. It was hilarious! We both loved it. We had gift certificates that also gave us drinks and popcorn. What a wonderful treat!

We are also excited that tomorrow evening we get to go to dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, Nava. I cannot tell you how much we are looking forward to their cheese fritters appetizer; it's delicious. Again, we have Buckhead Life gift cards so dinner will be free; that makes the dinner even better!

We always love to have family come and visit; the dates are an added bonus!

Update on Amelia

Amelia had her one-month check-up with Dr. White yesterday. She is doing great! She weighed in at 9 pounds, 5.5 ounces which is in the 50th percentile. Her height is 21.5 inches which is also in the 50th percentile. Since she was in the 50th percentile for both of these when she went in for her first check-up, this is a great sign that she is growing at a good, steady rate. Thankfully, there were no shots at this appointment. Dr. White said she looked and sounded good and would see us again in a month. I can't believe she is already a month old!

Amelia has settled into eating about every 2.5 to 3 hours during the day which is nice. We put her down sometime during the ten o'clock hour at night, and she sleeps until about 2:30. I feed and change her then put her back down until she wakes up again at about 5:30. After another feeding, she goes back to sleep until about 8:00 or 8:30; I typically wake her up at this time to get her day started and get her used to a routine. To be honest, I will be happy when she drops the 5:30 feeding; I can handle getting up once during the night, but I hate that second wake-up call! Of course, it will be nice when she drops that 2:30 one too!

There are two issues with Amelia that we're having now that I would love to figure out. First, she is still falling asleep when she nurses. She eats for about 10 minutes and then falls asleep. I try really hard to get her to wake up (I don't want her to think that she needs to eat to fall asleep) to either eat more or just "play" for a little bit, but it just doesn't seem to be working. The other issue is that Amelia has been really gassy for several days now. I have decided to pretty much cut dairy out of my diet for several days to see if that makes a difference. Lily had similar issues when she was a baby and this helped, so I am hoping it will help Amelia too. However, if any one out there has suggestions for either of these issues, I would love to hear them.

Sleeping Lily!

Remember the music idea Ryan had to help Lily stay in bed? Well, it seems to work! In fact, it seems to help her sleep a little longer when it comes on. Last night, we put her to bed and reminded her to stay there until she heard the pretty music this morning. The alarm is set to start playing at 6:45, but she stayed in bed until 7:25! Hopefully this trend will continue!

Pictures with Mandy

We were so thrilled that my cousin, Mandy, was able to come the day after Thanksgiving and take pictures of our precious new little one and our family. We were so impressed with what a great job she did! I still haven't downloaded all the pictures, but I am putting up two of my favorite ones. Pretty cute kids, right?

Santa Claus!

We were very lucky on December 6 to get a visit at our home from Santa and Mrs. Claus! Not surprisingly, Lily was a little hesitant when they first arrived, but as soon as he gave her a little present (Little People's Christmas Time is Here book), she was very excited. He also brought Amelia a little book (Snowy Bear and Friends book) which Lily opened right next to Amelia so she could see what her present was. Then, Santa read a couple of books he brought to her. She didn't want to sit in his lap as he read though; she wanted to sit in my lap and look through the books. Finally, on the promise of stickers from Mrs. Claus, she sat in his lap for about a minute to take a picture with him and Amelia. We are thrilled to have these special visitors come to our house!

Lily Update

It's been awhile since I have posted...things have been a little crazy around here lately! We're settling into being a family of four. Lily has adjusted pretty well to having Amelia around. She is so sweet to her little sister. She looks for Amelia as soon as she walks into a room. When she finds her, she very gently pats her head and says "Hi Mia!" She can't easily say Amelia yet so we hear Mia a lot. As soon as she hears Amelia cry, she'll alert us by by saying "Mia crying!" Seriously, it's the smallest little whimper and it will be like the National Weather Service alerts with "Mia crying! Mia crying!" Then, most of the time, she'll run over to her, pat her gently on the head and say "It's okay Mia." She has gotten into telling me that she should "eat more" to get her to stop crying. If I'm feeding her, she loves to bring blankets over for her because she likes for things to be "cozy." She loves getting a clean diaper out for Amelia too; this is probably because they have little Sesame Street babies on them which she likes to see, but hey, it helps! It's really so sweet to watch her with Amelia. I hope this will lead to a lifetime of a close friendship for them.

I was very concerned how Amelia's middle-of-the-night waking would affect Lily. Unfortunately, for the first couple of weeks, Lily was getting out of bed in the middle of the night which was so frustrating. However, once we went back to turning on her humidifier (we sneak into her room after she falls asleep because she was getting up to turn it off), she has gone back to sleeping through the night. She has still been getting up in the 6:00 hour which we hate. We are not early-risers! Ever since she was about 10 months old, Lily has been sleeping until at least 8:00 in the mornings so this is big change. We are trying to get her to stay in bed until 7; we think that's reasonable for a two-year-old who goes to bed at 8PM. We are trying something new to help with this. We have put an instrumental CD in as her alarm clock and we are trying to get her to stay in bed until she hears the music. The last two days she has gotten up before it went off, but Ryan took her straight back to bed where she fell asleep. It even seems like the music helps her sleep longer as she was there until 8:15 this morning! I'll let you know how this strategy goes.

Even though it's frustrating to us when Lily gets up before we want her to, it's still really sweet. We let her get in bed with us after 7, so she can watch Disney cartoons or, as she calls them, "car-ta-toons." She likes to get under the covers with us (and the baby doll she brings from her bed) which I like because it can give us some snuggle time. Also, while she watches and we continue to sleep, she will just lean over and give me a kiss on the cheek or pat my head. It's the sweetest thing in the world!

Overall, I think Lily is beginning to settle into her role as big sister. She is such a sweet little girl, and she seems to be totally in love with Amelia. She has her moments of jealousy, but she is really doing great. I think we are very fortunate to have two wonderful little girls!

Woo-Who!!!

Lily has started cheering for things by saying "WOO-WHO!!!" For instance, we turned on Wheel of Fortune a couple of days ago (Maybe I'm a dork, but I love this show), and the audience started clapping when Pat and Vanna walked out, so Lily looked at the tv, started clapping and saying "woo-who!!!"

She has picked up another funny little mannerism. Today, she was playing and apparently, it took some strength to move in just the right way. Once she was done, she wiped her brow with her hand and let out a big sigh like "That was tough work." She has done it a few times and I think it's hilarious to see the look on her face when she does this; being a 2 year old must be exhausting work!

Acting Up

Well, we figured it was bound to happen. Amelia turned a week old yesterday which is exactly when Lily started acting out. For only the second time in her life, I had to give her a spanking; she kept getting out of her bed at nap time. I had to reminder her today that she would get a spanking if she got out of bed at both nap time and bedtime. She has started ignoring us when we talk to her, throwing toys, climbing on everything, getting out of bed and generally pushing her limits and our patience. We knew this would happen as she adjusts to having Amelia in the picture, but it sure can be frustrating. We're trying to be consistent with our discipline, but that is difficult when we're tired and frustrated. We try to spend as much one-on-one time with her as possible. However, this is especially difficult for me as I have to take a lot of time to nurse and care for Amelia. I know Lily just wants our undivided attention. We both know that Lily is a fantastic child who is just trying to figure out what is going on; we're hoping she adjusts quickly and returns to her normal self soon.

Interesting (to me) side note about her getting out of bed...she gets out of bed to turn off her humidifier. She now hates to have it on. We think this is because of a scene in Finding Nemo where he tries to stop the machine in the fish tank that sounds like the humidifier and he almost gets hurt. Ever since she got the Nemo doll, she has been sleeping with it, and as soon as it's time for her to lay down, if the humidifier is on, she starts saying "oh no Nemo!" She becomes nearly hysterical if we don't turn off the humidifier. I guess this is just something she feels like she can control.

A Few More Pictures

Here are a few more miscellaneous pictures from our time at Northside Hospital and our first couple of days at home.

Ready to head home.

Meeting our friend, Doug Rohan

Papa loves Amelia so much!

Meme is thrilled to have another great-granddaughter.

Happy to have Bama holding her.

Thanks for visiting!

A few pictures of some of the family members that came to visit in the hospital and meet Amelia.

Sweet Girls

Just a few pictures of Lily being sweet to Amelia. "I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship..."

Hold Her

So it's a big adjustment for a two-year-old to have a new baby sister in the house. Lily has done pretty well though. She is very gentle around Amelia, and she loves giving her kisses. She does not, however, like it when I go to another room to feed her; it will take awhile for her to get used to sharing me with Amelia. One way she copes though is asking (rather, telling) me to have Bama "hold her" (meaning hold Amelia) when I come back in the room, so she and I can play together. Well, today Lily walked over while Amelia was lying on the couch next to me fussing a little bit and wanted to pick her and "hold her." We decided to give it a try. We had her sit on the couch and put the Boppy pillow around her. Then, I laid Amelia across her lap; she really didn't have to support her because the pillow did that. Amelia was crying though (it was time to eat) which Lily didn't seem to like or understand. I am attaching some pictures of Lily getting ready to hold her and then the two of them together; it was absolutely precious to see.

Speaking Whale

Lily has picked up the funniest little bit recently. You know she LOVES the movie Finding Nemo. One of the parts she likes the best is when Dori "talks" to a whale. She has learned to talk like a whale herself. So now if you ask her to speak in whale she will say "Hel-looooo Daaaad-ddddy." And then she cracks up. She loves it if you speak to her in whale too. It's really funny to hear and watch. Lily was thrilled when Bama surprised her with a stuffed Nemo the other day. She has been sleeping with it, helping him swim around the room and generally having a great time with him. It's so cute to watch.

I am also attaching a sweet little picture of Lily from school last Monday. One of the teachers was able to get her to sit still long enough to "fix" her hair in this little braid. I was amazed she let her do that because anytime I try to play with her hair, she screams bloody murder. Anyway, I thought it was cute and thought you might like to see it too.

Amelia has Arrived!

We are so blessed to announce the safe and healthy arrival of Amelia Mary Hooks on November 18, 2008, at 11:44 AM. Ryan and I received a call from Northside Hospital last night that we could come in for inducement at 5:00 AM this morning. It was an early morning, but well worth it! They started me on potossin at 7:30, and they gave me an epidural (the most wonderful invention ever) at 10:00. Ryan's dad flew down and arrived just before 11:00. Ryan went out to talk to him and other family members who had come by, and he came back in the room at 11:30. A few minutes after he came back, Patty the nurse and Libby the midwife agreed "she was ready to walk out" so I gave 1.5 pushes and out she came. I have to say, this was a much easier experience than with Lily!

Lily came up to meet Amelia after her nap this afternoon. Ryan brought her in and she just looked at Amelia. She didn't say anything; just was taking it all in. However, Amelia had bought some presents to give Lily which made her very excited; two new books, a puzzle and an electronic game. That made Lily very happy! After she opened the presents, she just wanted to sit by me and play with them which was fine. Our families were here, so they enjoyed getting to hold Amelia while Lily and I hung out. This has been a great day!

Below are a few pictures of our sweet baby; I'm sure more will come out soon.

Calling Out

There is typically one time each night that Lily cries out for a few seconds and then she rolls over and goes right back to sleep. I'm really not sure if she is having a bad dream or if she is awake because it's usually just a little cry. Last night about 11 as Ryan and I were getting ready for bed, we heard over the monitor a little cry then "Meme! Mommy! Nemo!" So, what does this mean? Was she going in order of what comforts her? Was she dreaming about Nemo and wanted Meme or me to help him? Who knows!

Night-Night

While I always think Lily is adorable, she has picked up this little habit that I think is beyond adorable. She received a Little People lift-the-flap book for her birthday that shows the Little People on a farm. The last page of it has a night scene where all the farm animals are going to sleep and all the night animals come out to play. Lily has started lifting each flap and telling each animal "night night." It's so sweet to hear "Night night horse. Night night sheep. Night night mouse" and so forth. The cutest though is "Night night perse" which is her way of saying goodnight to the farmer. She says "perse" for person because she is learning the difference between one person or multiple people. Her sweet little voice makes me want to read this book all the time with her just so I can hear her say good-night to all the animals...so adorable!

Family of Three Outing

We wanted to have one last little family outing with Lily that would be just the three of us. So this morning, we went to the Imagine It! Children's Museum in Atlanta. It was awesome! We had taken Lily in January, and she had a great time then. However, today, she absolutely loved it! It was so much fun to watch her participate in all the activities. This museum is designed for children under 8, so everything is just the right fit for her age; of course, as she gets older, I think she will find other ways to participate in everything and still love it.

Her favorite thing today was to play on the tractor. They had a replica 1959 John Deere tractor to climb and play on. She would play it on for a little while, come down, play with something else, and then want to go back. If there was another child playing, she would wait until "my turn!" I can really see how going to school has helped her learn to take turns and share. She's really doing great with this concept. Anyway, the tractor was a big hit. You can also see she had fun playing in the little farmer's market area (puppets, play food and books), driving the bus, playing with the moon sand, growing flowers and going down the banana slide.

Unfortunately, our camera battery died about half-way through our trip, so you don't see the pictures of her playing in the area specifically for kids under 5. In here, she was able to "go fishing" with a toy rod for plastic fish which she thought was great; it got her soaked (the rain coats they provide were too big for her to wear), but she loved it. They also have a treehouse playground that she thought was awesome, especially the suspension bridge. In the rest of the museum, she was able to play with the plastic balls and watch how the kid-powered machines moved them all around. Bob the Builder was there today, but she didn't care about him since she has never seen his show. We also had lunch at the Chick-fil-a that is inside the museum; they allow you to bring in your own food and we had snacks, but we always enjoy their nuggets.

This was a great place to spend a morning. I think we will probably buy passes in another year once Amelia is on a one-a-day nap schedule too. We could have stayed longer but nap time called. We could see Lily getting tired a little after noon; the time changed has messed her up and she can't seem to get back on track with her sleeping habits. Hopefully that will change soon.