Amelia is 16 months old today. This time last year she had just turned 4 months old and wasn’t even eating solid foods although we’d been given the green light for rice cereal. She wasn’t yet mobile, just a roller, and it would still be three months before she’d start doing the army crawl. These days she’s ALL. OVER. THE. PLACE.

Here are 16 facts about our sweet “Mewa Gwace” on her 16 month birthday:

Her new favorite game is to “hide” beneath the couch cushions.
She will stick her tongue out and go “pbbbbbbbtttttttt” if you say “tongue” and then stick your tongue out at her.
She loves her Spot the Dog books.
She has started saying what sounds like, “Here you go,” only it comes out “Eeeego.”
She loves to take a bath and splash like crazy.
She loves to play peekaboo.
She typically goes to sleep at 8 and wakes at 7.
She got her first love “bite” at daycare this week from a little boy who decided to cut his teeth on her chubby little arm. I guess it looked tasty.
She is wearing size 18 month clothes (most of which were big sister’s) and a size 4 diaper.
She loves to “hide” under the kitchen table with Jack the dog.
She is the youngest grandchild on both sides of the family.
She favors her left hand.
I found out I was pregnant with her two years ago this Saturday. (Pregnancy tests from the Dollar Tree really work.)
She still sometimes takes two naps a day at home. And it’s amazing what I can get done on those two-nap days.
She loves to share yogurt with Daddy.
She always wakes up happy.

Here are some pictures of Amelia from one year ago today…

Shortly before I got pregnant with Caitlin I started seeing a new dental hygenist. At my first visit we discussed the standard safe conversation topics: work, marriage, kids, flossing. She was inquisitive about when the hubby and I were going to have kids and when I told her we were probably going to start trying to have a baby in the near future, a little light bulb went off in her brain and she started asking me questions about our baby making strategy (OK…not that specific). She wanted to know how we knew we were ready (like you’re ever truly ready to have kids!) She told me that she and her husband had been trying to get pregnant for several months. The conversation then rapidly crossed over the TMI line. She started telling me details of their baby making parts and what might or might not be wrong with them. There I was, a captive audience with no choice but to occasionally nod and mumble “Uh huh” while saliva dribbled from my mouth because she was oblivious to the fact that I needed spit siphoned out of my cheek pocket. By the time I left I knew more about her menstrual cycle than my own. I saw her again while I was pregnant and then after I had Caitlin. She was still trying to get pregnant. The last time I saw her she told me that she and her husband were splitting up. Although I truly felt sorry for her, the last thing I want to hear while I am having my tartar scraped is the state of someone else’s uterus. I began to dread each appointment. I wondered if she got this personal with all her patients or if she read something in the grooves of my teeth that led her to believe I was the pour your heart and soul out to type? Shortly thereafter a new dentist moved to the first floor of my office at work and I signed up as a new patient to have the convenience of getting my teeth cleaned on my lunch break without even leaving my building (and to also take advantage of their free custom teeth whitening kit offered to new patients). I love my new dental hygenist. After appropriate small talk, she gets down to brass tacks and cleans my teeth. There is no vagina monologue, and for that I am thankful.

Where’s the Beer?!

Originally uploaded by blondemom.

We had a great weekend with many hours spent outside walking, biking, and swimming. I tried to stay away from my laptop as much as possible, although the darn thing kept calling my name.

In more randomness:

Caitlin had her 4-year physical Friday and weighs 35 1/2 pounds so she must be consuming some nutrients. I told her pediatrician she was a bit of a picky eater and especially stubborn when it came to eating veggies. His response, “Oh…she’ll eat vegetables when she’s eight. I wouldn’t worry about it.” She is 39 and 3/4 inches tall, which puts her at the 41st and 50th percentiles for weight and height. As she sat on the examining table waiting for the pediatrician, her tan little legs kicking the side, I couldn’t get over how “big” she looked. Sigh…here is one of my favorite posts from earlier this year that describes a lot of what I feel these days about watching my baby girl grow up.

Just because it’s cloudy outside, doesn’t mean you can skip on the sunscreen on your back and shoulders. Ouch!

My new Trek bike was ready on Friday. I LOVE it! If it has been years since you’ve ridden a bike, though, your knees will curse the day you decided to take up biking again.

Do not order chicken nuggets and fries at a Mexican restaurant. (You’d be better off sneaking in a Happy Meal from Mickey D’s for the kids.)

Left to her own devices after supper, Amelia will forage for cheese crackers and beer. (Click on the picture to see a few more pictures from this weekend on Flickr.)

When someone says Nashville what do you think of? Country music, big hair, the Tennessee Titans, Keith and Nicole…the epicenter of blogging in the South?

I missed out on a great Nashville blog party last night downtown at Wolfy’s and sponsored by WKRN. For you non-Nashvillians, WKRN is the local ABC affiliate and has been remarkably proactive in supporting and promoting the blogging community (which I didn’t even know existed a year ago). Nashville is Talking is WKRN’s blog aggregator and they have even employed a full-time blogger monitoring the conversation that Nashville bloggers are having. Several bloggers that I read regularly (points to blog roll) were there….Busy Mom and the blogger formerly known as Lucinda (who now has a cool writing gig with our alt weekly paper, the Nashville Scene) and Shauna at O, Pish Posh! and JAG at I’m About to Be Brilliant, who worked with the hubby years ago.

WKRN’s General Manager, Mike Sechrist, announced during the bloggy soiree that the station is actively seeking video submissions from bloggers for use on-air (and they’ll even pay you if they use your video). Here’s a quick interview with Sechrist, which was shot by Nashville blogger Rex Hammock. For someone like myself who spews incessantly on her blog, I’m actually having a hard time thinking of any video I’d like to pitch. But if you see me driving around town with a video camera aimed out the dog nose smudged window of my SUV, do something exciting. OK?

Oh, and not only was there a party, people, there was an after party. Nashville bloggers know how to throw down. I hope to make it to the next one. In the mean time, I’m off to do a 60 Minutes type expose on why our local meat ‘n three continues to run out of fried okra and to uncover the entrance to hell in Bellevue Mall.

First of all, I’m really grateful that Amelia’s ear infection smackdown days are over. The tubes procedure was not bad at all.

What else am I thankful for this week?

Finally getting a much needed rain (which also means I didn’t have to water my neighbor’s flowers last night for them while they are out of town…bonus! Yeah, I’m lazy like that.)

Great health insurance coverage.

My new bike, which is on order and should be ready this week.

Finally jumping on the iPod bandwagon.

Amelia’s infectious giggle.

The burst of organization that led me to put over 300 photos in chronological order and finally transport them from collecting dust in a basket to actual photo albums.

The hubby’s willingness to spend more time than he probably wanted to in our neighbor’s pool with Caitlin at their July 4th shindig (while I ate and drank and stayed nice and dry.)

Caitlin’s 3 a.m. story about giant pink scary chickens. Who knew that Robitussin was a hallucinogen?

We had a great time at our neighbor’s annual July 4th party last night. I enjoyed chatting with an eclectic mix of neighborhood women (one is a 67-year-old grandmother who is still working at a private university here in town and one mom, 50, has been battling breast cancer) and the conversation quickly turned to our lovely hostess and how she had gone all out on the patriotic red, white, and blue theme. The tables were covered with red, white and blue quilts and tablecloths. The dessert table had quite a spread including a big bowl of red, white, and blue M&Ms and cupcakes decorated with red, white, and blue sprinkles. When I led Caitlin into their hall bathroom to change her into her bathing suit she was delighted to see the tiny red floating candles decorating the tub. Really, if there had been red, white, and blue toilet paper, patriotic hand towels, and an Uncle Sam soap dispenser I wouldn’t have been surprised. Our fabulous hostess even handed out patriotic theme party treat bags to all the kids and cued the patriotic music once everyone carried their lawn chairs and ice cold beers out to the front yard and the fireworks bonanza started. The party was fun and festive, without being stuffy or pretentious. I’m not sure I’ll ever pull myself together enough to be one of those hostesses who has floating candles in the tub. I’m just happy if the toilet is clean. I have come a long way, however, from the college apartment parties: salsa straight from the jar, chips from the bag, and beer out of a can!

The hubby e-mailed me this video clip . It’s about a 4-year-old little boy in a California Mayberry-esque town who supposedly flips off a crowd (he was just crowned Little Mr. Apricot…I think I’d be ticked off, too…I mean will he ever live it down when his high school buddies uncover that dark secret?) Finger flippage aside, I was disturbed at the end of the news clip because they show him playing a game on his Xbox in his bedroom on his own personal TV. Oy! What are his parents thinking?! But then we went to a July 4th shindig last night and our neighbor’s 5-year-old daughter has a TV in her bedroom so maybe I’m just an old finger waggin’ fogey.

I’ll admit I’ve done my share of finger wagging and tsk tsking other parents. The skinny young kid swigging a 16 ounce Mountain Dew outside the Circuit City. Do his parents know just how much caffeine and sugar he is consuming!?! The tween girls at the mall dressed like they are 21 and headed out for a night clubbing. How can their mamas let them out of the house like that!?! The little girl in Caitlin’s preschool class who still pops a paci in her mouth as soon as her mom picks her up. She’s ruining her teeth!! (OK, OK Caitlin had her pacifier until she was 2.)

But at the same time I have lot of empathy for parents now that I’m a mama. I want to hug the new mom in the daycare parking lot whose son cries at dropoff. I go out of my way to hold doors open for moms struggling with squirmy kids and shopping bags and strollers. I gaze sympathetically at the frazzled mom attempting to grocery shop while her kids are apparently auditioning for a new TV series called “My Kids Are Brattier Than Yours!” Ditto for the chicken finger slinging kids at restaurants whose shrieks are one decibel away from shattering glass. I have learned to never say never at things I would have scoffed at pre-kids. Poptarts for breakfast? An occasional one won’t hurt. Staying up until almost 10 to watch fireworks? Oh, it’s a national holiday, why not?

I had a TV in my bedroom when I was in junior high and high school. We didn’t have cable because we lived in the boonies so my TV viewing was limited…Knot’s Landing, Dallas, Fantasy Island and Friday Night Videos. But I was 14, not 4. OY!

So where do you stand on the TVs in kids’ bedrooms issue? We have generally frowned upon the idea of TVs in our kids’ rooms (and definitely no computer access.) Of course if a TV in her room would help Caitlin go to bed at a reasonable hour I might be up for buying her a swank flat panel TV. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

When you have animated dog ear action!?! Happy Fourth of July!