Amélie 3 Years Old

My eldest is three years old. She's a little miss - dainty, sweet, funny, delicate and beautiful. She's such a mini-me in so many ways. She doesn't like to be messy (i.e. asks for a napkin and wipes her mouth after each bite of spaghetti, points out any crumb on the ground and loves to pretend to vacuum). She loves her play kitchen and playing hostess. She lines her toys up in straight lines and always wants everything to be perfect. She says, "I love you, mommy" spontaneously and give me a big hug. She loves being creative, practicing ballet and singing more nursery rhymes than I even know. She tries to count to twenty and most times forgets the number six. She says the cutest things and makes me laugh all day, but also knows just how to push my buttons too. 

As she's growing, she's not just my daughter, but becoming my person - my little friend who I chat with right before she goes to bed. She loves when I do her nails and when we have picnics together outside. She helps me bake and is always up for wiping down the kitchen cupboards. She's my little buddy, sidekick and darling girl. 

I love that she loves chicken nuggets (my fav), broccoli, sweet potato fries and mango. She'll request miso soup, but more often bowls of her ultimate favorites - 'belly pasta' (star pasta with bone broth & parmesan) or 'daddy egg' (poached, soft-boiled or over-easy eggs). She loves chocolate cake, apple cinnamon rice cakes and animal crackers too. Most days, she wants to play or watch a show over eating, but we get through it even if there's some promises of sweet treats at the end. Speaking of shows, she's mastered how to use a tablet and has her favorite shows on Netflix she navigates to herself. She's starting to learn her letters and drew the perfect 'x' yesterday without prompting. 

Her English accent is adorable and I can't wait until we visit America so everyone can point out the little phrases she's picked up and tones she uses. She says, 'would you mind..' and 'please may I..' which is all very polite and nice. She's great at preschool now - going two morning and one full day, which is where she is learning from the other children around her and mimicking what she's learned at home. She'll start official school in September 2018, which is scary and exciting at the same time. 

She's also the best sister who can be a bit too loving at times, but it's just in her nature to be affectionate. She loves pushing Clara on the swings and giving her kisses. She also does not like it when Clara destroys the toys she's worked so hard on arranging, but will also bring special baby toys to the park with us so Clara has something as well.

I can go on and on about how wonderful Amélie is, and despite how difficult it is sometimes to take care of an emotional toddler with tantrums and all, thinking this will never end, I do know she's growing up to be such a sweet girl who will definitely have a bright future ahead of her. I mean, she is finally sleeping in her own bed, in her own room and has been fully potty trained for a year now so that's a good start right? But really, she's a superstar and she's three! 

Also, here's a little recap of what we did on her actual birthday this past Tuesday: 

^^We had lunch outside at the playground (sandwiches on whole wheat bread, grapes, snap pea crisps & green tea lemonade for me), then went to the library for books and songs. 

 ^^We baked some cupcakes for Amélie to bring to school and made some marshmallows too.

^^We did one last happy birthday after dinner plus got the cupcakes all ready for school the next day. 

It was a great birthday, but I'm happy to have our regular routine back again too. 

Amélie's 3rd Birthday Fun

We opted not to have a big birthday party for Amélie this year, mainly since I know she'll be asking for one with all of her friends in the coming years. I thought we should keep it small with just family and it was a perfect way to celebrate this year. We headed up to Nonno & Nonna's house and luckily had sunny weather for a really lovely Sunday lunch ending with lots of birthday presents. 

Menu

Strawberry Lemonade 

(made with just blended strawberries, lemon juice, honey & water) 

Grilled Herb Shrimp Skewers

Grilled Steak 

Grilled Chicken with Barbecue Sauce 

Vegetable Skewers

Caprese

Zucchini and Spring Onion Orzo 

Assorted Berries 

Homemade Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Whipped Cream Icing* and Chocolate Sprinkles

*this is my new favorite - just some heavy or double cream whipped up with powdered sugar, vanilla extract & cocoa powder

Amélie was the cutest when we sang happy birthday to her. She had the sweetest expression on her face and you could tell the pure joy she was feeling. I still can't believe my baby girl is already three years old. Here are some pictures from the past weekend and another post dedicated to Amélie will follow soon too! 

Amélie Turns 2!

I can't believe my baby girl is already two! She turned two on Monday and we celebrated last weekend at "Nonno Nina's" house. I opted not to have a big birthday party for her this year, but we had fun doing just something small with family.

 ^^My balloon color selection was a bit off, but Amelie still enjoyed them!

 ^^Nina as Amelie calls her Nonna made tagliatelle with ragu. She ate tons! 

 ^^Little kissy face, she was so excited when we were all singing happy birthday to her. Above is a chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting. 

 ^^Last year, she had baby cake, but this year she got the good stuff. 

 ^^Her toy car!

 ^^Amelie trying to break open the pinata. 

^^Andrea definitely had more fun with it. 

Here's a little update on the little miss:

EAT
Some favorites currently: 
picking out the carrots in her chicken soup
mango
brioche
sweet potato fries
oatmeal/overnight oats
ham & cheese

SLEEP 
So Amélie's been co-sleeping with us since the end of last year and we kind of love it though we know she'll need to go to her big girl bed soon. It ended up happening when she was sick one week and since we were both working and desperate for a full night's sleep, in to the bed she came. She hasn't left since and she sleeps through the night mainly from 8ish to 6ish. She wakes up in the most abrupt way, shouting, "UUUPPppp, UUUpppp" to me and is immediately ready to start her day. I wish she would wake up more pleasantly though she will occasionally wake me up with kisses.

As far as moving her back to room in her big bed, we don't really have a plan, though we probably should since the baby is coming very soon. We'll see how it goes, Andrea jokes that we'll just have to get a huge bed :)

PLAY & GROW
Amélie's number one obsession is Peppa Pig. She knows all the characters, has seen every episode a million times and is just in love. I bought her a Peppa bathing suit for her birthday and the smile and excitement on her face when she saw it will stay with me forever. Her other favorite activities are painting, playing with playdough or playfoam (amazing stuff by the way), picking flowers and making tea. We bought her a tea set in America and she is so cute when she asks if we want tea. She's careful to fill up the teapot with water from her play kitchen sink then ask if we'd like milk or sugar. It's the cutest.

Amélie has always been really sweet, but her girly personality is coming out even more now. She's always very particular about certain things now like deciding which shoes she'd like or which cup she wants to drink her water from. She's also very demanding at times and will whine when she doesn't get her way, but I hope she'll grow out of that phase soon.

Sometimes I just can't help but stare at her pretty little face and wonder how she's grown up so fast. She can count to 10, sing her ABCs, twinkle tinkle little star and get her point across to us most time. I'm so amazed at how much she understands and how many new words she has learned.

Our next challenge to tackle to potty training, which I'm sure will be tons of fun.

Happy birthday Amélie!

Amélie 22 Months

Can you even believe that Amélie is almost 2 years old now? ^^This is her one day last week at a playgroup - she beelined it straight for the painting and was so proud to so off her artwork to daddy when he came home. 

Amelie as a toddler is so much fun. Her personality is so sweet and funny plus with her talking more and more it makes it even better. She knows exactly what she wants and loves to cuddle plus give kisses. She hates being messy and says "uh oh" all the time if somethings spills or breaks. She takes care of all of her babies (stuffed animals) so well - I often catch her putting a bib on one of them and feeding them. I know she'll be a great big sister. 

The number of words she knows and says surprises me everyday - like octopus, plane, snacks, brush teeth, etc. She's starting to put words together, my favorite is when she goes around the house for her bunny and says, "Baabbbyy, where are youuuu??" 

Her favorites: 

brioche

pasta

pears 

scrambled eggs

Teletubbies 

playdough

trying to dress herself 

transferring water from one cup to another 

putting her bunny to bed (she tells him shhh and puts blankets on him) 

dressing up her bunny with necklackes 

painting 

singing & dancing (the wheels on the bus is her jam) 

She also has her fair share of tantrums and gets particularly angry if you try to take her away from playing something she was really concentrating on. She'll throw her food on the ground sometimes and moan when she doesn't get enough attention, but overall she's a very happy toddler. 

Here are a few random pics from my phone from the past few months: 

^^decorating the tree

^^a trip to IKEA

^^decorating a gingerbread house; eating at wagamama 

^^swimming in fuerteventura; building sandcastles

^^a vacation outfit from daddy; finishing her dinner 

^^helping mommy clean

^^water play at the science museum; eating her favorite - brioche

Vacation in Wales

We took our first family vacation last week! We were limited with destination choices since we are still waiting for the little one's passports (US & Italian!) so A found a cute cottage rental in the Brecon Beacons in Wales for a relaxing week off. I think Amélie also knew we were on vacation too because most nights she gave me a little break and slept for 6 hours straight. It was nice to have A around for the entire week since he never had any paternity leave. It gave me a little break during the day from diaper changes and keeping Amélie entertained plus it was just nice to spend time together as a family. 

 ^^Our cottage was called, "The Coach." I loved the stone exterior and the grounds of the cottage. 

 ^^The living room area. 

^^Upstairs bedroom.

 ^^First thing after we arrived - find a supermarket and get everything we needed to grill!

 ^^I need to get Amélie a pair of sunglasses :) 

 ^^Bouncy bouncy with dad. 

 ^^I was going to save the barbecued chicken for the next day, but we ate it all that night with the burgers, oops. 

 ^^I had been saving up the graham crackers my sister brought over from the US and the American marshmallows I found at a local shop plus bought a pack of Reese's from the candy store to finally finally make Reese's s'mores!!

 ^^They were incredible. I had s'mores almost every day. And I tried s'moreos too! 

 ^^The rest of the week we explored a couple of cute towns and mainly just took an easy. Here's baby and dad hanging out at a coffee shop. 

 ^^We grilled some more. 

 ^^Jim & Donna came to visit. Amélie hung out in Baby Bjorn, but she definitely wasn't happy in it at times. We were able to do a long walk with her in it - A and I alternating with carrying her, but I think she just needs to be a tad bigger to be more comfortable in it. 

 ^^We checked out an old castle and it's museum. 

 ^^We found a cute restaurant in Cardigan. 

 ^^Delish sweet potato and butternut squash quiche with some very light and fresh salads. 

 ^^Penryn beach, it was a mission to get to and I wasn't in the mood/prepared for sand so we didn't stay for long, but it's very pretty. 

 ^^We checked out Hay-on-Wye, a very cute town known as the town of books. Tons of cute boutiques, cafes and an ice cream parlour. 

 ^^The evenings were cooler so we made a cozy fire and caught up on Scandal.

 ^^We mainly cooked at the cottage, but this was one from lunch one of the days at a pub near the cottage. I couldn't decide on what to get and wanted to try everything so I ordered three of the starters! This is above is linguine with crab. 

 ^^Thai chicken meatballs with egg noodles. 

 ^^Pork belly, onion ring with slaw and applesauce. 

 ^^A's fish with vegetables.

 ^^I indulged that meal for sure. A did eat most of the pasta though! 

 ^^On one of the last days, we checked out a distillery and went on a tour. I was worried Amélie would be fussy, but she slept in my arms the whole time. 

^^Pretty view driving to the distillery. 

We ended the week by visiting A's parents who were so delighted to see their granddaughter. I took the opportunity to have a few more moments of "me" time even it was just to catch up on Pinterest :) Now we are back in the swing of things at home. I think I needed a vacation from the vacation when I got home because there was tons of laundry/ironing and admin to catch up on, but last night the little one slept for a 7 hour stretch! (that's the longest she's ever done!) I feel amazing after such a long period of uninterrupted sleep. I got so much done this morning and am looking forward to the rest of the weekend. A's sister and bf are in town, plus I finally made myself an appointment to get a haircut and the weather is looking good too!