Sweet Amelia. We are in the dog days of summer so it is appropriate that you have mastered the word "Max." This month, we celebrated the 4th of July at a cookout at Stella and Bailey's. Accordingly, we watched you increasingly learn to play independently. You will sit very contently on the floor and play with toys, intently and imaginatively. You may partly prefer to play alone because Aubrey has the tendency to play a little rough with you. But you also are developing a sense of curiosity so tend to engage with her and whatever she is doing. In the past few months, your exploration was based on the new places you could get by crawling. Now you seem to be exploring the finer details of your surroundings. Don't worry, even though you can be more than content on the floor playing with the Little People Cinderella's castle, Mommy and Daddy continue to take you out into the world for more experiences. After tagging along to do some shopping for boots for Aunt Jessica's wedding, you took another trip to the zoo. You road the train and the carousel. At Pelicans, Aubrey took Daddy's snow cone so he shared hers with you...just don't tell Mommy. This month, you also had playdates with Madeline and Durham and played in the church nursery.Unfortunately, it wasn't all fun this month. You have been crying in the nursery at times, having a little separation anxiety from Mommy. You caught hand, foot and mouth so we were forced to miss both Durham and Bailey's birthday parties. Also, when we came back from the beach, the AC was broken so it was very hot in our house. We all camped out in the family room that night. It has been a relatively mild summer but it was still quite warm that night. Fall, winter, spring, summer...you warm our hearts more and more every season.
