Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Oh, Hello There

It's been a few years since our last update and many things have changed.  Not only is Amelia now 4 1/2 years old, but she's been a big sister for almost 8 month!! Thea and I created another little ball a joy that goes by the name of Pearl Kaliani DeCoste.  Born on September 12th 2013, Pearl is everything you'd expect a little girl with that name to be.

Last week Pearl found her crawling stride and is quickly learning the art of standing. Over the past few weeks her personality is starting to develop.  Thea and I think Pearl will be much more calculated than her sister.  Pearl observes and soaks her environment in much more than Amelia ever did.

There are a ton more pictures of Pearl but this set should bring you up to speed.



 

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

It's been a while...

Sorry for the 3 month gap in posts, it's tough finding time with a 1 year old smart "ass" running around the house :-). Every day Amelia grows and learns more and more and is quickly becoming her own little person. The little person she's become in totally a blend between Thea and me. I'm having the best time of my life playing with and learning who our little "Chochi" is becoming. Life doesn't get any better than when I get home and say "Where's my girl" and at first I hear Amelia's heavy footed run/waddle towards me, then to see her big smile and excitement to give me a hug and tell me about her day. Granted she's telling me all about her day in babble, it's all makes scence to me. This moment justifies all the sacrifices worth it!

Amelia loves to be out and about and makes sure everyone withing ears reach knows she's there. Other than being a baby model, the perfect job for Amelia would be a Wal*Mart greeter. She loves to tell any and everyone hi and if someone tells her hi back she'll say it back. Amelia will play the hi game until the other person gives up. Much like her daddy, she likes to get the last word in.
Some time last month I was surprised and had my heart just about ripped out. After being huged and brought up to speed on her day Amelia had a few new things to show me. Thea's dad asked her "What does a cow say?" and Amelia eyes got huge with excitement said "MMMOOOOOOOOOOOOO", then I heard the sound of a lamb, chicken (with chicken arms). Since then Amelia has expanded her aminal repitwar to dog, cat and monkey. Animal sounds are super cute, however nothing beats her robot moves! That's right ROBOT moves!! When asked "What does a robot say" Amelia says "beep beep beep" and alternates her arms going up and down.

The other morning I decided taking a shower with Amelia would save some time. Everything worked out great however there was a minute of "awkwardness". Amelia looked up and me and asked "what's that?" I then asked "what's what?", Amelia pointed at my "manhood" and asked again "what's that?". This question caught me off guard so I side stepped it with questions about how old Amelia is and where her ears are. That seemed to work, for now...

To me Amelia is just a little baby girl, but Thea's dad pointed out she's as tall as the stools in his kitchen. This little bit of info blew my mind, but who cares! Amelia will always be my little girl. As Amelia grows so does her vocabulary. She started putting two words together. So far Amelia will say "hi fish", "right dere" and "um, don't know". She's also starting to speak more and more Cambodia every week. Her little FOB voice is super cute!!







Monday, November 30, 2009

368.4 Days of Amelia!

Can you believe our sweet little girl is a year old? Doesn’t it seem like last week that Grandma Kim, Grandpa Sean, Uncles Eddy, Jeff, Ryan, Paul, Richard and Aunties Robin, May, and Rathana were all spending Thanksgiving eve in St. Vincent's waiting room until 4am (Thanksgiving morning) awaiting Amelia’s arrival?

Before we talk about November and Amelia’s birthday party, lets talk about October and Halloween. Amelia was the sweetest Tinkerbell the world has ever known! Thea and I took her to Cedar Hills Mall for some trick or treat action. Amelia had no concept of Halloween or candy; however, she did love all the kids dressed up as animals. Her eyes got as big as her cheeks when saw a little boy in a cow costume. Amelia pointed and took off running towards him, when she reached the little boy she had not idea what to make of him. All she could do was smile and laugh.

November update!!! This month has been amazing. Amelia’s little personality is certainly developing. We taught her to make a monster face, which she makes while wrestling with daddy. J Amelia has also learned the meaning of the word "NO". Maybe that's because daddy uses it a lot. When she doesn’t want to be picked up or give something up to daddy, she’ll shake her head and say "No, no, no" and mean it. Amelia loves books, she’ll point to one and say "BOO BOO," when she wants Thea or me to read to her. Two weeks ago Amelia would show where her ears, hair, toes, belly and other parts when you asked. But now, she will only respond when she feels like it. It's the cutest thing when we would ask “Amelia, how old are you?” and she would smile and show you one finger.

Thea bought an igloo tent from IKEA that Amelia loves. The first night Amelia decided her favorite toys and stuffed animals belonged in her tent with her. Amelia’s face is all smiles when she’s playing and wrestling with daddy, piggy or giant bear (courtesy of Uncle Ryan) in her tent.

Thea did an amazing job decorating the house and cooking until 3am to make Amelia’s first birthday one to remember! Amelia had a great time playing and seeing here huge loving family! Even after an hour nap (in her tent) during the party, that night she slept for almost 11 hours. Thanks to all our friends and family for sharing her special day! Enjoy the Halloween and birthday pictures below!

Oct, Halloween and Pre-Birthday Party Pictures:


Birthday Party Pictures (More on the way):

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Amelia is a walking machine!!

That’s right folks, Amelia is strutting her stuff all over the place. In less then a week she’s gone from taking a few baby steps to walking across to the room. It’s amazing how quickly children pick up walking and just about everything else you can teach them. Amelia has been a little sponge this past month, learning how tons of things work, especially mommy and daddy! When she takes a big fall she looks to see how mommy and or daddy react. Thea is definitely the nurturer where I play more of the “coach” role. Thanks to Ed and Erin we’ve got a gate to prevent Amelia from venturing too far into the kitchen. Amelia has been working really hard to break out of her “area”. She’s figured out where the ends are how to squeeze her body against the gate and the wall. She hasn’t made it out yet, but it’s only a matter of time.

Amelia is also learning what her boundaries are. Like most baby children she loves electrical outlets. Even though ours are protected she still is fascinated by them. The first "no" is typically just the warning, which she sometimes responds to, but if she doesn’t, she will get the disciplined “NO”. Being a selfish dad, I like to give out the disciplined “No” because Amelia will get a little sad and walk over to daddy and give me a big hug to tell me she’s sorry. (Disclaimer: the disciplined “No” is only used when necessary).

Our little girl has also become such a little love. She loves to give kisses to all her stuffed animals. Her favorite thing to kiss is other babies! Every time she’s around another baby/toddler Amelia has to hug and kiss each one. A few weeks ago while we were up in Seattle, Samuel (Bong Nan and Big D’s little boy) was crying about something and Amelia worked her way over to him and gave him a big hug and kiss as to tell him everything will be alright!

It’s amazing how many times Amelia loves to hear the same song over and over and over again. I’ve probably heard Elmo sing his ABC’s 14,987 times since buying her Singing Elmo this past Saturday. One a super positive note, if she had to choose to listen to Elmo or Daddy sing, I’m about 89% positive Amelia would pick Daddy. There’s no better feeling in the world when your little girl places her head on your chest and listens to you sing while she’s playing. It’s simply the best!!!!

Walking videos to come soon!!!

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

3/4 Year Post

Can you believe our little girl is almost full year old? Amelia is in her first visible “sponge” stage; she’s learning new things like crazy. My heart crumbles every day as she quickly becomes a little person and less of my little baby girl. Apparently Amelia has been was crawling for a few days for Thea or I noticed, but my mom didn’t want to ruin the surprise. One day after work she placed Amelia in the middle of the living room and told me to flick the door stop. When Amelia heard the sound of the spring vibrating she darted straight for it. My ticker skipped a beat and I filled with excitement watching her motor across the floor. Having a mobile child sure changes how you look at your living room!!! We’re constantly moving chairs and ottomans to block things around the living room.

Crawling stopped my heart, but when Amelia screams “DADDY” (yes Daddy, not dada or dad or da da da da, but the full word Daddy) my heart implodes! Unfortunately Amelia doesn’t just come out and say Daddy when I walk in the room yet. To get her talking I’ve got to butter her up a bit by playing and laughing with her. After a few minutes of playing she’ll try to say anything. We’re working on “please”, “thanks you” and ofcourse “Mommy” :-)
Here are a few other “tricks” Amelia does these days:
• Point at each finger as you count to 5 in English and Cambodian
• Combs her hair
• Says Ke when she sees a cat, Pu for dogs and Li for lights.
• Points at Mommy, Daddy, Grand Ma and Grand Pa when you ask her where they are.
• Dances to David Bowe and various others
• Smacks her lips when she’s hungry
• Loves to drink out of Daddy’s cup
• Bites while playing (not sure who she get that from)

Amelia may only be 9 months, but dang she’s only fits into 18 – 24 month old cloths. By this time next year Amelia and Thea can share cloths!! That should save me a few dollars… :-)

Enjoy some of her most recent photos!
Update
Amelia has graduated to big girl car set. Oh what a day!! :-)

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

7 Months of Amelia

Month 6 has been so exciting for Amelia, Mommy and Daddy and now we’re onto month 7!! Amelia has become quite the momma’s girl! Once Mamma walks in the room, Amelia can careless about how much fun she and Daddy are having. All her attention is focused on getting Thea’s attention. It’s super cute to see Amelia get excited to see Thea. She wraps her little chubby arms around Thea and a place sloppy kisses on Thea’s cheek. Yes I admit it, I’m super jealous, but I know my day will come! It kinda already has in the form of sounds. Each morning Amelia love to talk and whisper DA DA DA DAD. She probably doesn’t understand what she’s saying, but the simple fact that she saying it melts my heart.

Amelia isn’t doing a whole lot of crawling yet, she really dislikes being on her belly any longer than she needs to be. She will just roll over onto her back and try to sit up. We let her struggle a few times then help her up. She has learned pretty quickly that flinging herself backwards when she’s frustrated hurts her head. Thea and I think Amelia is going to skip crawling all together and start running pretty soon. She loves to stand against the ottoman or against daddy and bounce up and down. Amelia stood with out help for almost 10 seconds the other day. She was smiling as if standing was the best thing since eating grapes through a feeding net.

Thea and I have been pretty lucky in the teething department. Amelia started pushing out her third tooth a few days ago, which is the upper front left tooth. Thea and I think she’s gonna have the DeCoste gap. Anyone who’s seen my grill knows what I’m talking about. Fortunately for Amelia, her gap will be fixed with modern brace technology. J However, Thea’s excited to take the first picture of Amelia and daddy smiling together after both of Amelia’s top teeth come in.

Amelia also has a new best friend, her Auntie Monica. Having Monica in Portland has been amazing!! Not only is she great company for Amelia, Thea and I, but she’s also a blessing. Monica has been able to care for Amelia while her regular sitter is on vacation. Watching those two play is super cute. Amelia really enjoys the Jane Fonda work stretches Auntie Monica helps her with. Auntie Monica continues to tell us Amelia needs a kitty or puppy and we continue to say hellz no! But when I see how excited Amelia gets around the neighborhood cat “Kit Kat” or hear stories of how excited she gets around a puppy…..who knows what will happen in the years to come. This month would have been super stressful and crazy without Monica. WE LOVE her so much!

UPDATE:
Amelia's 4th tooth is on it's way down. Soon she'll have 4 front teeth...

Until next month…..

Thursday, June 4, 2009

6 Month Update...Yeah 6 months!!!

Holy cow has time just flown by! Can you believe our little girl is 6 months old? While looking over past postings and pictures it was hard for me to "keep it together". For 15 minutes I sat here at my desk replaying the memories of when Thea and I first meet Amelia after 27 hours of labor, our first night at home alone as a family, how much Amelia loved her first bath and how much Amelia hated her second car ride. Seeing how much Amelia has changed and grown in just a short amount of time is insane!

In the past 30 days, our little girl has grown up so much. Amelia has pushed out two baby teeth. We've been pretty lucky so far with Amelia's teething. She's not too fussy and the cold teethers seem to really help. Two Sundays ago, Thea and Amelia went out for a day on the town. Little did Amelia (or daddy) knew that she would be getting her ears pierced. I must admit she looks so much cuter now. A few nights ago Amelia started playing "peek a boo" and melted my heart. She wasn't using her hands to cover her face, but she would slowly move her head into Thea's chest then turn real fast at me and scream. At first I didn't get what she was doing, but Thea knew right away. I left the gym early because I couldn't stop smiling and wanted to play with her more. At her 6 month appointment, we found that Amelia weighs 19 lbs and is 27.5 inches long. Unfortunately during the same visit Amelia was given a few more shots which she didn't take too well. Poor little girl cried so hard she pooped twice, one outburst even got on Thea. :-)

Pa-Pa (Amelia's baby sitter) is gone for the next 3 months or roughly the entire summer. We're sure Amelia will miss her "big brothers" Isaac, Ethan and Andrew. Amelia is nothing but smiles and laughs around them. The boys sure do love spending time with Amelia as well. Each morning when I drop her off, at least one, two or all three of the boys stand at the top of the stairs waiting for me to leave so they can start playing with Amelia. Once they start running down the stairs, Amelia screams or yells and laughs at them. I'm sure we'll be talking to Bong Pat to schedule a few play dates while Pa-Pa is away.

Time to go for now, we can't wait to share what happens this next month!