A Long Overdue Post

I have been getting quite a few comments about my laziness in updating Amelie's blog. So instead of catching up on my New York magazine subscription while Amelie naps, I decided to finally write an update.
Amelie is moving right along- crawling like a maniac now! She goes everywhere and somehow has the innate ability to know exactly the things she's not supposed to be getting into (ie. the dogs water bowl, the toilet, the television cords) and hone right into them. The baby gates went up this weekend along with the drawer stoppers and light socket plugs. Life as we know it is dramaticaly different now! The one plus side to the crawling is now she has a little more independence and isn't so concerned with Jeremy and I giving her 100% of our attention 100% of the time. She is able to entertain herself a lot better now and that is a welcome relief.
This past week my dad spent the week with us and we had a great time. I realized after he left though, that I didn't get one picture of he and Amelie together! Oh well, hopefully next time. For a while Amelie had a pretty strong fear of anyone that wasn't me or Jeremy but she seems to be outgrowing it. She loved smiling at my dad and is now a little friendlier with strangers too. She also let Jeremy's friend Erik hold her on Easter which was a feat because she hasn't let any man (other than Jeremy) hold her in months!
Other than crawling, new things Amelie does are- pull herself up to standing from a crawling position and a sitting position, eats all kinds of new foods, feeds herself cheerios and puffs, waves, sways back and forth to music, stands on her own for a couple seconds at a time and moved up to her big carseat! She also has four teeth now- two on the top and two on the bottom. She is a wonderful baby- so much fun, a great sleeper, smart and curious. Jeremy and I look at each other almost daily and make a comment about how lucky we are.
I've had a lot of trouble uploading video to this site so I've posted all our videos to my youtube account. You can look at them by following this link: http://www.youtube.com/rastellar
Here are some new photos:

Amelie's first snow storm

A visit from Matt, Mel and Reilly (and Maura too!)

Amelie turns 7 months old
We traveled to Las Vegas in March for my sister's wedding.
The happy couple.
Amelie loved the Ritz! (teaching her young)
Amelie tried swimming again- and loved it, again.
The Ritz in Vegas is modeled to look like Florence. Not quite the same as the real thing, but we still had a fun and relaxing time.
For a couple weeks Amelie had this habit of squinting her eyes as hard as she could whenever she smiled, it was pretty funny- she thought so too.
Love the red converse sneaks from Heidi, Bertrand and Jonah!
One of the first sunny days of spring.
Amelie turns eight months old!
Amelie's first Easter.
Amelie experiments with hair accessories.
Amelie on the move.