September 11, 1999
Happy anniversary Grandma and Grandpa!

So much has happened to Amanda the last few months. The biggest event happened August 27th. She took her first steps. For weeks, she had been standing up leaning on things barely putting any weight on her feet. By mid august, when she got really nutty she would yell wave her arms and let go for a few seconds. Shortly after that, she would crawl into the middle of the room and just stand up. She stands and yells and yells until you look at her then falls on her butt. Well the weekend of August 27th, she walked finally stepped between Al and my chair. All that weekend, she would stand up and yell, and you'd look and make a fuss and she would take a step or two and then fall. It was toooo cute.

A couple of days after that, she came down with a sinus infection and needed breathing treatments 2X a day. Then, she caught a bad bad virus had a high fever and didn't eat for days. So she hasn't walked or even stood too much. We'll get her going again this weekend.

One of her favorite things to do right now is to put all her toys into a wagon she got from Grandma and Grandpa for her birthday. Last weekend, I was napping (the whole preggo thing) and she climbed in -- Al freaked out it was soo cute. Now she climbs in all the time and rocks it until you take her for a walk in it.

As I was typing this, Amanda figured out how to climb into her rocking chair (mine from when I was little). She was sitting in it and rocking and I didn't think anything of it. Well I looked behind me to check and she was standing in it. I went to get her down and it fell and she bonked her head. :-( Poor baby. I guess learning new things can be hazardous.

Manda has also said her first word. We *think* its flower. She started saying it pointing to our flowers. It sounds like "dadin". She points to flowers everywhere and says it. Now she says it for almost anything colorful ... So we're not sure. But it is definitely the first word she says regularly. We think she's saying daddy too, but its sometimes hard to tell the difference between flower and Daddy. Oh yeah, I almost forgot... she waves hello and goodbye to everyone and everything. She waves and hollers at the top of her lungs. The hollers are starting to sound like hello and bye.

She is such a daddy's girl... I kind of hope we're having a boy so I can have a mamma's boy.

July 5, 1999
Amanda is sooo funny sometimes. We've starting feeding the dogs outside because Amanda is really interested in everything they do. Well last night we found out how much she's been paying attention. We had put water out for them. Amanda went and got their water dish, dumped what was in it (of course) and sat it down on the carpet. She leaned down and brought her face to the bowl and stuck her tounge out to get some water. We were laughing hysterically. Talk about a Kodak moment. She thinks she's a dog

She is now starting to take little steps between chairs (holding on to both). She also is starting to take steps down the furniture and around chairs. When I get ready in the morning, I put her in our very deep garden tub (that we can't fill with hot water, but that's another story...) to play with some toys. On Friday, she learned to step up on the rail. As soon as I saw her she wiped out and hit her head. She's very brave though, she recovered pretty quick.

Amanda had a pretty rough week last week. On Monday, she had her 1 year shots and Al said she was very brave. (I think I get more upset when I get my finger pricked.) She was up 1/2 tuesday night and then just had a horrible time teething. She would jam her hand in her mouth and scream and scream. She's feeling much better now.

When I dropped her off Wed morning at Reba's she stuck her lip out and gave me her sad sad cry. It nearly broke my heart. I sure hope this stage doesn't last too long. She made me feel like a spec of dirt. I'd give my right arm to stay home with her, but we just can't do it.

Aunt Michelle came down this weekend and we went to the park and Amanda went swimming. Boy did she like it. We liked it too, she was dead tired Saturday and Sunday.

We're almost 1/2-way through my pregnancy. Amanda has no concept that there is another baby on the way. I feel bad for her because it will be such a shock!! I think she'll see the baby and poke its tummy and expect it to squeak like her baby doll.