Mardi Gras Madness

Stopping to smell the flowers.


Easing on down the road.


Eating pizza at Aunt Catherine's before the parade.


Staking out our spots on the parade route! Cute faces = moon pie bait!


See what I mean? How could they not lavish her with tons of throws?


Are the MOTs (Mystics of Time) and the IRS in cahoots?


How many beads can a girl possibly wear?

We just got back from Amelia's first Mardi Gras in Mobile. It has been an exciting week. The first thing Amelia did the night we arrived was crawl all over Grammy and Papa Bear's living room! Not just trying to crawl, but continuously crawling and getting to where she wants to go. We need to start putting more tubing on her tank so she can go wherever she wants to go.

Amelia got her haircut while she was there. It is a short little bob and it makes her face look so round, but such a big girl. I think it completely represents her new grown up self.

Monday night we went over to Aunt Catherine's house where Amelia picked up a slice of pizza and began to gnaw on it. We couldn't believe it.

We went down to the parade and things went downhill from there. By that time at night she is usually tired and there were a lot of loud noises. The generators powering the floats sounded a bit like her nasal suction machine, but the drums and horns of the marching bands and the loud steaming hiss of the dragon float scared her and she was crying with tears flowing down her cheeks! She buried her head in my neck. So I spent most of the time standing away from the barracades behind the crowds holding and comforting her while everyone hauled in the loot!

We went back to Aunt Tooty's house for our post parade tradition of drinks and popcorn and guessing the moon pie count. Amelia enjoyed sitting next to the pile of throws. She was awake the entire time until we left at 10:00pm. She was asleep in the car in less than 2 minutes.

We travelled back to Texas and arrived on Tuesday evening. Amelia has three therapies that day and her therapists are amazed with her new skills. She is now pulling to a stand. She did it a couple times in Mobile in her pack and play and now she is pulling up on the couch, on the ottoman and the other day she moved from the ottoman to the fireplace so now she is able to cruise between objects. Just a moment ago I saw her get up out of her little chair, crawl over to the couch and pull up to a stand. She has discovered her toys we keep behind the couch and she has crawled over to them and played with her Little People house.

On Wednesday we went to the hospital and we were interviewed for a news segment on Children's Music Therapy programs. Amelia was one of the first NICU babies at the hospital to receive music therapy. The music therapist and I have kept up with one another and she contacted us to see if we would like to be interviewed. There were 4 segments. One was me talking about our experience, one was with Christine the therapist and then they filmed her playing guitar and interacting one on one with me and Amelia and then shots of a group therapy class. The segment is produced by a company called Medstar that has news station subscribers all over the country. Often when you see a medical news segment on your local news, it has been produced by MedStar. So look out for Amelia and me in about a month! If you don't catch it on the news, it will be available online at Web MD after it airs.

She is getting good at playing peek a boo. Seeing her chubby little hands covering her eyes when you say "Where is Amelia?" is one of the cutest things in the world. Equally as cute is the huge grin on her face when we say "There she is!" We were at Sam's club today and she started playing peek a boo with a lady that was talking to her in line!

Mom taught her how to say the word ear. I was gone and hour and a half and when I got back she swears she said it about 20 times. I haven't heard her say it a single time, but hopefully one day soon.