Happy Birthday pretty girl!

Okay, so my bites healed up fine, I have some fun scars, whatever.  It's done.  I'm just sick of people saying "oh she's never bitten anyone before, you're fine"... yeah, no I'm not.  Neither had the one that bit me.  UGH.  Anyway.

The last couple of months I've worked a lot of full-time (and full-time plus a day) weeks, so things have been a little crazy, but we did manage to throw Amy a little birthday party at Storybook Island!  We got a little cake with matching cupcakes from Sam's so she had one to smash, and the rest of us packed a little picnic and ate at a picnic table just outside of Storybook Island.  She got some really fun stuff and we went into the park for a while.  She was tired and kinda grumpy all day, but we had fun anyway.  :)

Stats time!  She's a big girl!  Her 1yr appointment was just last week and she hasn't had the vaccines yet because the clinic was out of them, but I should be able to get her in for those this week.

Height: 31 inches (95% for her age)
Weight: 27lb 13.5oz (100%-ish for her age)
Head: 19.5 inches (75% or something, didn't really look at that)

She didn't really like the cake, but she liked
the whipped cream frosting.

She's the biggest of her birth group, which is saying something.  We have some big boys in there.  The doctor isn't concerned about her weight since she isn't walking yet, he's sure she'll slim down a little once she's running around everywhere and it's not like she's a Jabba-lump or anything.  She's kinda trying, but isn't very confident in herself about it yet.  She'll let go and take a step or 2 if she's concentrating on something else, but as soon as she realizes she's not holding on to something she plops down.  She'll get there soon enough, I'm not in a hurry for that.

She LOVES to swing.  She's working on fitting small things into bigger things, signing "all done" and "milk" (possibly more, but it's hard to tell what's a sign and what's just flailing lol), waving, getting in and out of her little car, identifying objects that I ask for, lots of sharing, and lots of destruction when she gets ahold of a magazine.  She jabbers a lot but no real words yet that I've heard.  Grandma says she can say "kitty" but she hasn't said it for me.  However, she does "mow-mow" back at the kitties when they're wandering around the house hollering, which is rather hilarious.  I need to get a video of it but whenever she sees the camera she stops what she's doing and grabs for it.

She loves to smile for the camera, but the flash
always messes it up somehow...

Overall, we're doing well.  I've gotten enough hours this summer that we're working on taking care of bills that we've needed help with in the past and B just got a new job that he likes a lot better than construction.  It's a lot easier on him and the predictable schedule is a lot easier on the rest of us.  On days when we both work, he gets Amy time in the morning, then drops her off with Grandma when he goes to work at 2, then I get home around 5 and we have a relaxed dinner with just us 2, then get her to bed and get my own time (to do stuff like blog!) before he gets home and we get some time together.  It's working out really well.  We do need to figure out health insurance, since our income just bumped us out of Medicaid for Amelia... so that will be interesting... and it's still a bit of a struggle to get the bills taken care of but at least we're doing that on our own now instead of depending on so much help from my parents and the state.  It feels like things are finally coming together a little bit, but I won't let down my guard just yet.

My garden is making a little slow progress, which is good considering how much I've been gone this summer, but there's a lot I want to get done still.  I don't think that list will ever get shorter. :P  Hopefully soon we'll get the front room built so I can get some bushes/ornamental grasses in the ground before fall so we have a head start on next year.  There are some planks of my cork flooring that need to be replaced and the baseboards need to be put in and the floors sealed so more flooring doesn't get ruined by moisture, and at some point the bedroom here and the 2 smaller ones at my parents' house are getting new carpet!  I'm so excited about that, the carpet in my bedroom still smells like unsupervised cats sometimes.  Not fresh, so I know it's not my cats, just leftover from before.  It used to be the least smelly room in the house, now it's the worst... but it won't be that way for much longer.  Long to-do list... and I'm trying to keep exercising on days I don't work, which is hard to do but I just need to keep at it.

Happy birthday pretty girl!  I hope this year is as amazing as the last one was.  I love watching you grow into your own little personality.