Where the Wild Things Are*

We've created a monster.  A very cute one.  Amelie is now a professional crawler and is surveying every corner, crevice and lint in the house whenever she has the chance to.  As you probably already know from the last photo that I left you with, she is also on mission to pull herself up to a standing position on anything and everything in sight.  It's no wonder since the name Amelie means "industrious, striving, eager".  Be careful what you name your children!



Amelie in the Crib Stand* from Shirlpearl on Vimeo.


Another recent milestone Amelie has reached and is experimenting with are her vocal chords, especially growling and one pitch singing.  Ever since she was a baby, she would coo while we sang her to sleep.  The growling, I have no idea where it's spawned from aside from the fact that as a newborn infant, she used to sound like a barnyard full of animals.  Not kidding here. 
 
Here is Amelie's version of singing.

Amelie The One Pitch Singer* from Shirlpearl on Vimeo.

Sharing the Love*

From a mother to a mother or friend to a friend, we love to share our great finds and things we love.  Here are a couple shout-outs The Park household has grown to love and find hard to live without lately...

AmelieProps*

Bellarina Blooming was absolutely right.  After trying out a bunch of sippy cups, the Munchkin Mighty Grips Trainer Cup came in first place.  The biggest problems I had with the other ones were that they'd leak or Amelie couldn't suck any water out of the spout (i barely could on the Born Free sippy).

Amelie loves, loves music.  But then again, what baby doesn't? Amelie's fabulous Aunt Jenny got this dvd set by HBO called Classical Baby that visualizes great classical music through music, art and dance.   It keeps Amelie enlightened for hours and me some peace while on the computer.

MommyProps*

We all look for a humidifier fit for our babies.  Can I tell you how much I love this humidifier?  It barely makes any noise and it creates a beautiful mist.  It's from Bubang, a korean company that makes small home appliances.  Oddly enough, i can't find their products anywhere online, not even their website!  But thank God for the wonderful H-Mart, where I got this one.

Other mothers will have experienced the season of major hair loss about 3 months after giving birth.  I was pulling my hair out, pardon the pun, trying to find a way for this madness to stop!  This shampoo proved to be true to it's word and I am now a happy camper.

DaddyProps*

For the loving fathers and husbands who spend their late nights up with the baby or mother, I found that this rewarded my exhausted husband in the morning with a nice boost:












Now this wouldn't be an Amelie entry without her in it so I leave you with a photo of how I found her after her morning nap...STANDING!

It's the Little Things*

Slowly little bits and pieces of our personalities are coming out in Amelie. I guess because I'm such a visual person, I notice things that other people usually don't. I love to take in the bigger picture and then explore and soak things in little by little with all the senses...feel the texture, taste and smell the flavour, see the beauty and hear the music it makes. This is one prominent thing I've noticed that she's inherited from me is her attention to detail and thorough exploration of things. While I'm on the computer or doing laundry and I let Amelie loose on the floor, I come back to see her scouring the floor and playing with a strand of hair, or poking at a piece of lint, loose thread, crumb, tiny piece of paper and even gnawing on the garbage can (that's for another entry). Or we'll give her a colorful toy that lights up and has doodads all over it and what does she do, she flips it over and examines the screws and on-off switch first!

Here's our little Inspector Amelie hard at work.

Inspector Amelie* from Shirlpearl on Vimeo.

The Climb*

We all look forward to the mobility of our babies growing up. The very first being, the crawl, whichever way they choose to. There are many different kinds of the first crawl. There's the push-up crawl (the baby has his hands and feet on the ground and his bum up in the air), the creep crawl, the belly crawl (also known as the commando crawl), the classic crawl (baby alternates arms and legs, getting the arm on one side to hit the floor at the same time as the leg on the opposite side), the bear crawl (baby walks on all fours, arms and legs unbent), the crab crawl (baby pushes with arms instead of pulls -- which has the unintended, and frustrating, consequence of sending baby backward), the leapfrog crawl (baby makes a bridge with her arms and legs and then thrusts forward), The roll (some babies get so good at rolling that it becomes their primary way to get around). Whatever strange type of crawl your baby has, it's normal so don't sweat it if they look like inch worms or spiderman!

Oh, by the way, there is a great effort going on by Seventh Generation called The Million Baby Crawl. Why are they crawling, you ask? Well, did you know that since 1976, the US Environmental Protection Agency has required safety testing on ONLY 200 of the more than 80,000 chemicals on the market? We need a stronger chemical law to keep our family safe and healthy!! Lend your name to the cause and help babies everywhere grow up in healthier environments by demanding toxic chemical policy reform from Congress! Say NO to Toxins and Join the Crawl! Okay there was Amelie's little soapbox speech...

On a more personal crawling note, Amelie started off doing the army crawl. I hoped that she would someday realize she has knees and continue on to do the classic crawl but she's caught up in a mish-mash of all the different crawls together but has adapted her knees into her technique which I'm so proud of her for doing. Go Amelie-poo! As you all know from her first crawling debut video, she loves her Graduates Fruit Puffs and Happy Baby Puffs. Due to popular demand, I'm posting her debut video so you can compare that one with her current mish-mash crawl. She's finally due for a treat. Enjoy!

Debut Crawl*

Amelie's Determination Crawl* from Shirlpearl on Vimeo.

The Climb*

Amelie's Climb* from Shirlpearl on Vimeo.

Clap your hands, say "yeah!"

It's amazing how easily a baby can be taught how to do something and then correlate it to their emotions. About a month or two ago, Amelie learned that she can put her two hands together palm to palm. Her father then taught her the joys of clapping. Now whenever she's happy or even sad, she'll clap. I think she is also a natural encourager of people. When people do things well or makes her happy, she claps with abounding joy. Amelie takes her clapping very seriously. She always seems to be examining her clapping techniques and endlessly in awe of the use of her fingers and hands staring at them all the time. Ah, the intrigue, curiosity and amazement of our firsts. I love living so vicariously through her again!



Here is her happy morning clap.

Paper trail*

Amelie loves paper. She loves to read it, feel it, eat it, rip it, examine it, you name it. We've been meaning to buy a paper shredder for quite some time now but with recent events starting to unfold and develop, I think we'll hold off. Our daughter has become quite proficient at shredding paper that's handed to her in bundles. That's right, only in bundles. I guess she doesn't find single paper challenging or interesting enough. I also noticed that she sometimes loses focus and doesn't quite shred the paper in it's entirety so I'm going to have to work with her on that or we'll have to end up spending money on a shredder.