A Christmas Story

Dear Santa,


I would like a Barbie pink Escalade with spinners and Bluetooth, an iPod Touch, a puppy and diamond earrings.  I've been a good girl since I was born 5 months ago. 


 Thank you, Amelia Turner


This was Amelia's first Christmas and it was so much fun!  She didn't get the pink Escalade, but I forsee her asking us for one in the not so distant future.  Unfortunately one of the presents she did receive was her first cold.  Other than that little snag, she had a great Christmas.  We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day at the Garza household.  Tons of people and food!  There were plenty of people there to shower Amelia with tons of attention and kisses.  Of course, she's probably lost part of her hearing since it gets so loud over there.  We have pictures with Santa to show off.  And we had a little Santa (Dexter - the white Chihuahua) and his reindeer (Bug - the black Pug).

Going to see Santa!

"I'm not scared"

Santa Dexter, Baby Amelia & Reindeer Buggy

Christmas Eve

The Turner Clan

Christmas morning!  Amelia got presents!

She's getting the hang of opening these things.

On top of it being Christmas, Amelia turned 5 months old on Saturday the 26th.  Happy Birthday, baby!  Some of her new developments include putting her foot in her mouth to chew on it and turning over from tummy to back (still working on that one).

We hope that all of our friends and family had a wonderful Christmas holiday!  I wish we could have spent time with everyone.  

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!  

Love, 

Martin, Liz, Amelia, Bug & Dexter

Vaccinations with a side of Turkey

Last Wednesday Amelia had her 4 month vaccinations - the day before Thanksgiving. You go to the doctor's office with a sweet baby perfectly happy and smiling, and she's completely oblivious of what's to come.  About two seconds after she gets stuck with the needle, her happy, smiling face turns to terror and her lips take on a different shape.  Then the curdling scream emits from this beautiful, peaceful baby.  And she's staring at you wanting to know why you did this to her.  It's absolutely heartbreaking.  It took about two full days for her to start feeling better, which meant she was very upset all through Thanksgiving.  Normally she's not a fussy baby.  So it's really hard to see her so upset and to have big, wet tears streaming down her face.  But she eventually felt better and all is well now.  Because she was so upset on Thanksgiving, we didn't take very many pics.  But here are a few.  And there are some really cute ones the day after Thanksgiving!  Enjoy:)

Days before Thanksgiving

Cute bum!

Thanksgiving & Amelia's 4 Month Birthday!

Day after Thanksgiving

Say what?

Ahhh....

Yes, I totally know how cute I am:)

Turn, turn, turn

Last weekend Amelia discovered she could turn over from back to front.  It's been really cute to watch her do it - over and over and over and over again.  Then, bedtime came.  And the turning didn't stop.  The problem is that she can't turn herself back over and she gets stuck.  This created two sleepless nights for everyone.  Then, by suggestion from Jayne (thank you), I was told to put blockers next to her so she couldn't turn over on her own while she slept.  It seems simple enough and I should have thought of it sooner.  But my initial thoughts were that she just wasn't sleeping for other reasons.  Martin and I think she may be teething.  All the signs are there - fussiness, drooling, using her tongue to rub her gums and she wants to chew on everything.  It seems a bit early since she's not even 4 months yet.  Anyhow, this week has been eventful.

To add to this weeks events, our friend's 5 year old daughter Emma had another successful brain surgery to remove a tumor on her brain stem.  Emma has proven to be a remarkable little girl and is recovering well.  Therapy will be on going and possible radiation to make sure all cancer is removed.  Everyone - please keep Emma and her family in your prayers.  Here are some photos from Emma's birthday party.

Emma

Amelia

Not quite big enough yet...

Happy 1st Halloween

Halloween - according to dictionary.com it has the following definition:

Hal⋅low⋅een

[hal-uh-ween, -oh-een, hol-]

–noun

the evening of October 31; the eve of All Saints' Day; Allhallows Eve: observed esp. by children in costumes who solicit treats, often by threatening minor pranks.

However it should have another meaning:

A day for parents to torment their children by dressing the children in uncomfortable and ridiculous costumes for their parent's amusement.

As you can see, Martin and I are those parents...

Enjoy:)

Amelia - le fleur

In the garden amongst other flowers

This one is going in a frame!  I love how precious she is.

As you can see, many parents participate in this ritual.

Amelia with her buddies - Perrine & Ava

I've always loved Halloween.  And now I love it even more.  Happy 1st Halloween, Amelia.  I hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.

3 Months

I can’t believe it’s been 3 months! Our sweet little girl is 3 months old today and is more beautiful than ever. Before you know it, she’s going to be in kindergarten, then tennis camp, then she’ll be driving, then she’s going to prom. Holy cow – I just saw my life pass before my eyes! Some recent new events that have happened – I started back to work full time (yuck), she found her thumb (yay), she took her first plane ride and was total champ, she’s reverted back to waking up twice a night for feedings (yikes!).

Going back to work has been the emotional equivalent to having your heart ripped out and stomped on. I have not been the perfect role model for the back-to-work-transition. Basically I’ve done it kicking and screaming… and Martin can testify to this because I’ve been kicking and screaming to him. It started out as nightly sobbing, then moved to daily tears, and now I’m down to the occasional mental breakdown. But, it is getting easier. Soon I’ll be like all other mom’s in the workforce, just stick your hand out of the car window and wave goodbye as I’m driving down the street. No, I doubt it. But I will stop crying during the day. Maybe.

Check out this cute photo of her sucking her thumb! This has been many weeks in the making. First of all, she has never taken to the pacifier. And several weeks ago she found her hands and started trying to chew on them and stick them in her mouth. She’s been getting close to just putting her thumb in her mouth for a while now, but it finally happened the other day. For now, we’re so proud. Somehow I don’t think we’ll be so proud when we can’t pry her thumb out of her mouth as she’s moving into middle school. But that’s for another day. For now, I’m a proud mama.

This weekend we drove to Dallas to see our friends, David & Megan and their family. We had so much fun and Amelia was a big hit! Here are some photos of her with friends and in the pumpkin patch.

proud dad

Friends - Erin & Lucas (Amelia's in the hat)

Could she be any cuter?

Mom and Amelia lounging

Our cute Pumpkin

David & Megan with Amelia

So, here we are, 3 months after Amelia was born and we have never been happier. Parenting has been fun but where’s the instruction manual that was supposed to come with this kid? Just when you think you’ve figured something out and all is well, she’ll through us for another loop.  What a ride this is going to be:)

Here she is...

Please welcome Amelia Reese Turner!  Born July 26, 2009 at 07:17 in Houston, Texas.  Amelia weighed 7 lbs 9 oz. The labor and delivery went very well and we had the birth experience that we had hoped for.  I'm sure you all know that we wanted to have a natural delivery - no drugs...  I have to admit, it was the worst pain I've ever felt.  Something similar to having my body split into two halves.  But, in the end, I'd do it the same way all over again.  My water broke on Saturday night at about 8:15 pm, and we went to the the hospital by 11:30.  We always thought that if your water broke, you needed to rush to the hospital like mad because the baby was on it's way.  Actually, you still have plenty of time before anything  happens.  So, we took our time, called family and friends, updated my facebook profile with the news and then went to the hospital.  Our midwife said nothing would probably happen until the morning so we just needed to get settled in and try to get some rest.  We tried, but by 1:30 in the morning the contractions were getting a bit uncomfortable.  By 3:00 am they were down right painful and I was in "active" labor and starting to gently push.    I was able to labor in a jacuzzi tub for a little while which really helped the pain and it helped progress my labor.  Amelia was born at 7:17 am.  Our sweet little girl came out and was wide eyed from the first minute.  She is absolutely perfect!  I realize I'm posting this ten weeks after her birth, but she consumes much of my time so you'll have to bear with the delay.

So here we are, ten weeks later (almost eleven - depending on when I get this posted) and it's been a great ride so far.  Amelia is a great baby!  She's mostly pretty mellow and only cries when she's tired or hungry - just like her mama:)  She's starting to laugh, coo and turn.  And she's a great traveler.  In the past couple of weeks, we've taken a road trip to Austin with friends and we flew to San Francisco to visit the grandparents and her only living great grandparent Barbara "Bobby" Turner.  Here are some photos of her life so far...

Halloween is coming up soon, so stay tuned for some pretty damn cute photos of this pumpkin!  I will try to keep updating often so all of our friends and family can keep up with her life.