Big Sisters Aren't Supposed to be THIS Big!

Amelia has had a pretty big summer! In a very short amount of time she has become a big sister, a chef, an architect, an artist, and a child prodigy! Let me elaborate:

Amelia loves to help me with EVERYTHING, including cleaning, cooking, and taking care of Jack. Anytime she sees me get the vacuum out she has to "help mommy" by holding the loose cord for me;) And for months now she takes it upon herself to use her wet wipes to clean anything within reach;) Every morning now she runs to the kitchen, drags a chair to the stove and says "I help cook mommy"! Usually though around supper time when she wants to "help" mommy is short on hands/time/energy, so I just give her a bowl with dry pasta and let her go to town stirring and measuring. Sure she gets almost every spoon and bowl she can reach dirty but it keeps her busy and she has a blast! Here's the little chef in action:
Now I don't claim to be the most artistic person, but I do remember how much I loved getting messy in art class (well I probably just loved cleaning up to be honest, but for blogging sake...) Our girl has become obsessed with painting recently! It all started a few weeks before Jack was born I let her play with some finger paint, you may remember a previous post with the picture of all the paint on her. Well we have a full blown artist now, wanting to paint any and all the time!

Little Painters first trip to paint pottery at Fired Up!

Now I've always known that Amelia would have to have a little tomboy in her because Chris planned to take her hunting and fishing just as much as any boy. So I'm not surprised that she can blow a goose call better than some men I know! Here she is at a Ducks Unlimited dinner we went to in the kids calling competition:
I have to say probably my favorite thing to see Amelia learn is how to become a GREAT big sister! She shows Jack so much love and affection it just melts me! She loves to wash him in the bath, and knows she can only wash his legs and belly and mommy does the rest;) And anytime Jack even opens his eyes she runs to him yelling "baby waken", her version of "the baby's awake" So sweet!

Architect isn't something I would typically call a 2 year old, but if that 2 year old loved building blocks as much as this one, then an architect she is! Amelia has recently discovered how fun building blocks can be with a little imagination, we've had rocket ships blasting off, tall towers knocked over, tiny houses for Little People...fun fun!

And finally yes we have a child prodigy! Ok maybe not but we did have a very proud mommy last week when we were told that our girl talks VERY WELL for her age! There was a speech therapist at her babysitters house for another little boy there and heard Amelia talking and told our babysitter that she was amazed by her speech;) Of course Amelia's been talking forever it seems like, and she's always had a pretty good vocabulary, but here lately she just DOES NOT stop talking! In the car, at home, in bed, all the time she is so curious and funny! And it's not just how much she says, but how she says it-always adorable but surprisingly easy to understand! With her increasing vocabulary I've found it hard to keep her vocabulary list updated (*see right side*) so I've changed it to our words of the week, because even I am surprised by the words that come out of her mouth ( and I'm not talking wordie-dirties either lol)!

So we leave you for now with my brave girl befriending a giraffe at the zoo;)