Amaya's Summer Activities

Movie Time

The local theater had $2 morning matinees of previously released kids movies this summer. We saw Charlotte's Web, Shrek the Third, and Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs.

Computer Time

Amaya loved her computer class. Amaya hated her spanish class. She said the teacher was mean and threw her out the window. Both classes were at Snedigar but on different days. When she noticed us heading in that direction in the car, she'd always ask which class we were going to. She begged not to go to spanish class. The poor sweetheart. I finally let her stop going to spanish towards the end. (The a/c broke down in the building her class was located in so we got moved to the employee break room in another building.)

Dance Time

Amaya loves, loves, loves to dance.

I included this picture because it shows Amaya talking to one of her 2 little friends that are a sister duo whom know the FAVRES! They've hung out at the FAVRE's home when they lived in Green Bay. The sister duo are the girls in the black leotards with the colorful skirts. Their mom and I love chatting about the Pack while our girls dance.

An Action Shot
And Another Action Shot

Run Time

Slide Time

Birthday Party Time

Amaya and Jaxon waiting patiently for cake at little Brooks birthday party.

The Birthday Boy

Kate and Jaxon chatting it up.

Amaya pushing Jax on the swing.

I had the cutest picture of Amaya and her friend Will at the party that was suppose to upload here. Don't know what happened. :(

Soccer Time

Pre-practice stretching.

Cheering on her "teammates."

Soccer Stop

Running Drills

Kick that Ball

Hula Hoop Time

You go Amaya!

More drills.

Great dribbling Amaya!

Way to control the ball!

Notice the dress and sneaker look. Didn't you know that's the latest thing? :) Atleast to Amaya. I was rarely able to convince her to wear pants or shorts to soccer. She very much prefers to wear dresses.

But, the dresses don't slow her down.

She shows the soccer ball who's boss.

Play Date Time

Amaya enjoys just hanging with her peops. Here she is with Jax being silly.

Amaya also enjoyed playdates with her other friends. I just don't take pictures as often anymore.

Puppet Show Time

Enjoying a Cinderella puppet show with one of her good buds Brooklyn.

It was cute.

Pool Time

Fun in the sun with Ellie, Brooklyn and Alexis.

We also enjoyed pool time with Brooks, Ben, Jax, and Felicia at various times during the summer but I neglected to take pics.

*Other summer activities Amaya enjoys include sidewalk chalking, hop scotching, bubble blowing/catching, waterparking, splash pading, lunching, bounce housing, and gym-going. Don't have pics of these fun activies, but she loves them no less.

The Many Faces of Amaya

Sweet

Little Lady
Annoyed

Ear-to-Ear Smile

Superstar

Strong and Tough

Exasperated (these dance moves are hard to learn)

Impatient (let's get going already)

Stay tuned for pictures from summer later this week....FINALLY.

Amaya Update

(Falling asleep at dinner, see story in paragraphs 3 & 4)

I have been a bad blogger this summer. It didn't really register that I hadn't blogged all summer until Scott got a hole-in-one and I went to blog about it. Oops. I hadn't even uploaded any photos since May. Guess it's time to upload, edit, and print the entire summer's photos, all 1000 of them. Then I get to put them all in albums. Fun. Anybody enjoy that task? If so, first of all you can come help me....then you can go see a therapist. ;) The finished product is worth the effort, though. Amaya loves to look through our photo albums and someday she'll cherish having them. So I shall keep doing it.

Now that our summer photos are on our computer, I plan to start a series of blog entries entitled Amaya's Summer Fun to share what she has kept us busy doing all summer long. But first, since it has been soooo long since I've blogged, I thought I'd simply do an Amaya update. The photo above inspired me to do so.

The above photo was taken early last week. Amaya had about a 10-day period of record eating even for her. And those of you who have seen her eat know it would be hard to top her normal eating. But she did. I shall give you an example. I swear on the bible and all that I hold dear none of the following is an exageration.

The first day of this tremendous growth spurt started with Amaya eating her usual piece of pb and j toast with some milk. She then asked for a 2nd piece and ate 3 of the 4 triangles. Then she proceeded to ask for a bowl of cantaloupe, followed by a piece of cheese, then blueberries (where she consumed half of the container). She still wasn't done. After eating all of that she asked for grapes and ate atleast a cup full. When she was finally done eating "breakfast", we went to the gym. We would normally eat lunch when we get home at 11am, but I thought there is no way she will be hungary already, we'll swim first. But nope, she proceeded to ask for a ham and cheese sandwich, eating the entire thing sans the crusts. Then she asked for some cucumbers and some peppers, along with some more milk. Sheesh. I couldn't eat that much. I was beginning to think she had a tape worm. I couldn't keep her full for about 10 days like I said above and during this time she'd take naps in the afternoon where we couldn't get her to wake up even at dinner time. We make her wake up and she'd just fall asleep at the counter as you can see above. It was so funny. She'd sleep for up to 3 hours where as her norm lately was to more often than not not even take a nap. Well, it was indeed a growth spurt. She gained 2 lbs. and grew 2 inches. We could see her dresses visibly getting shorter and shorter on her. So bizarre when it seems they practically grow over night. She now weighs 30# and is 39 inches tall.

Other than growing, Amaya stays busy dancing, talking, "playing soccer", talking, playing in general, including playing princess and toy story, swimming, doing art projects, doing puzzles, reading books, going to the park and more talking. She loves to play with all her friends and frequently tells me she misses them. She loves playdates. She loves ponies, mermaid and buzz lightyear. Those are her current faves. She already has her wishlist ready for Santa and reminds us daily, but atleast she understands that she has to wait for Christmas. Got to love commercials. We do limit her t.v., but the sheer volume of toy commercials on one episode of Yo Gabba Gabba is plenty to get a toddler in a toy frenzy. Got to love marketing. We hear daily that she wants a mermaid scooter, a barbie pool, a pink pony like Brooklyn's, and a big, big, big buzz light year. Boy, she's going to have to be a very, very good girl!

So, that's Amaya's latest. Stay tuned for pics from summer. Happy football season all. Go Pack!

A Special Day Calls For Me To Come Out Of Blogging Retirement

*Saturday morning we were eating breakfast before Scott left to go golfing. He asked me the question he always asks me before he golfs. "What am I going to shoot today?" It's been a tradition around our house that I give him my prediction before he leaves. Sometimes I am right. Sometimes I am close. Sometimes I am pleasantly surpised. And occasionally we have to hit the driving range :). It's a fun tradition.

*Well, last summer I decided it's about time Scott hits a hole-in-one. I planted that seed in his head that he is due. It's time. I tried to 'law-of-attract' that for him. I first mentioned it when we were back for our annual visit to S.D., thus Scott's annual tourney at Dakota Dunes with some of his closest buddies, his brother and his dad. I thought that would be extra special if it could happen then. Nope, not yet. Occasionally since then I will tell Scott today is the day in addition to making my total score prediction. Well, I did add that "today was the day" on Sat. I didn't necessarily believe it. I say it all the time, knowing that eventually it would happen, but who knows when.

*Well, turns out I was finally right.

*Scott arrived home on Saturday with nothing seeming out of the ordinary. He casually held out his score card for me to see. He usually just tells me what he shot, but I didn't think anything of it. I looked at his score and I was excited to see he had a fabulous round. He shot a 73. I was happy for him and said something congratulatory. But he told me to take another look. Now I knew something was up. I scanned the rest of the card and immediately saw the 1 with 2 circles around it. It stood out like a beacon on a foggy night.

*We proceeded to do a bit of celebration. Hugs, high-fives, laughter, some fist pumps, some hoots and hollars. It was like the Packers just won the Super Bowl (law-of-attraction please work again). It was a fun moment I will always remember. Scott will always remember that moment in addition to "the moment."

*THE MOMENT: It was hole #17, 195 yards, at Club West. He hit a 5-iron. He hit it well and the ball appeared to be "right at it." Which means right at the pin for those of you who don't golf. He thought it could go in and conversation among his golf buddies ensued regarding this exciting possiblility. The ball landed directly in front of the pin and rolled right in. Celebration ensues. One of Scott's golf buddies, Mike, took pictures with his phone and emailed them to Scott to capture the event. See below. Then after the round of course they followed tradition and celebrated with a few rounds of cocktails. That was the best bar tab Scott's ever picked up in his life!

*CONGRATULATIONS SCOTT! I AM SO HAPPY FOR YOU! I CAN'T WAIT FOR YOUR NEXT HOLE-IN-ONE! ;)

Busy Little Amaya

It has been a month since I have blogged. [Are you really surprised? ;-) You must have realized I am a monthly blogger by now. :-)] So just what has our little princess been up to lately? Check out the pics and captions to see.

Helping dad with household duties like changing the furnace filters.
Morning lattes with friends.

Date nights with her boyfriend. He likes to take her for rides on his "motorcycle."

He even lets her drive sometimes.

Spending time at the neighborhood waterpark, one of her happy places.

Splash down. The water kind of camouflages Amaya and Ariel.

"This is the life."

Time for the red slide.

"Weee."

Now that is a look of joy and happiness.

Quality daddy time.

Priceless.

Swimming. Even when she is in shallow water where she can touch, she usually opts to swim. Note in the picture above in front of the little boys there is a pink hue and a brown hue just under the surface of the water. Yup....that's Amaya swimming.

Here is a better view of what she looks look when under the water.

She loves swimming soooo much, it just dawned on me that perhaps that is why she loves Ariel so. Perhaps she aspires to be a mermaid. She looks like one here.

Our little swimmer.

Dancing.

Making friends.

Practicing her moves.

Looking cute and being sweet....most of the time ;-).

Playing dolls.

Playing My Little Pony.

Playing kitchen.

Being silly. Brooklyn is like why is she picking up her necklace with her toes.

Taking friends for rides in her jeep. This is Brooklyn's first time riding with Amaya. She's not too sure about Amaya's driving.

Brooklyn's enjoying the drive a little more now.

Sneaking into mom and dad's bed. Amaya had a nightmare a couple weeks back in which she said an astronaut flew over our house and then came in her bedroom window, after which he bit her in the face (as recounted to me) or bit her tongue (as recounted to Scott). After said nightmare, she was scared to sleep in her room by herself. We started to leave her door open at night with the hall light on and that seemed to solve the problem...for a couple weeks anyhow. This week she was back to being scared despite the door open and hall light on. She'd ask me to sleep on her floor. She'd come out 3 or 4 times every night seeking reassurance before finally giving in to her sleepiness. Then one night this week she only came out for reassurance once....so we thought. She just found another way to feel secure. Mommy and daddy's bed. When we headed up to bed after the news, this is what we found in our bed. Little stinker. Now that's thinking. Note the time on the clock.

Playing t-ball and soccer. Haven't taken any pics of soccer....oops.

Holding babies. This is Amaya's first time holding a baby. Her newest little friend Maxdyn (Jaxon's baby sister). Amaya was enthralled and seemed to absolutely love it.

"Look at me mom, I am holding Maxdyn."

"Uh, this isn't fun anymore. She's crying."

"I love pacifiers. This is fun again."

"Oh, she is soooo sweet. This is so fun." Future babysitter? Probably. Future NICU nurse? Perhaps. Future mommy? I'll bet on that. :-)

Toddler love.