Hugs

Last week we were all sick. Little A had another ear infection (the 5th one this year, although it may have been 6; we can't quite remember). I had a bad virus that went around, and Allan got the virus too, although more mildly because he hopped himself up on airborne (that stuff is so nasty, but it works). And my poor mom had pneumonia for the second time this year.

We took A to the doctor so we could get some antibiotics for her and got her weight, and then I measured her a little later at home. She is 31 and 3/4 in long and weighs 22 lbs 4 oz.

And she looks absolutely adorable in overalls and pigtails. They make her look way too much like a little girl though. It makes me sad. We need another baby.

Because we were all sickies we watched a way too many movies. Mostly Winnie the Pooh. A enjoyed wrestling with the pillow and snuggling the afghan my Grandma made for Allan and I when we got married. She has officially adopted the afghan as her own. She is especially thrilled when we let her sleep with it. It's amazing how just putting that blanket in her crib will calm her right down.

I did manage to get our food storage room organized and work on some memory books for little A and her birthmom.

Little A loves to crawl into the center of her toys in the mornings. She nuzzles in and plays for a while and then starts tossing her toys around, because the bigger the mess the more fun it is.

We had some really good snuggles this week. She likes to sit in between me and the couch with the blanket and pillow over her. I have to be super close to her though. So close that she is really squeezed in there. If she's not squeezed in then she is very unhappy.

Little A pooped and peed in the potty! Hooray!!! I was giving her a bath one day after dinner when she started pushing. I pulled her out as fast as I could and sat her on the little potty we bought for her and she went! (I was SO grateful for that potty in that moment!) I read some stories to her about going potty in the potty. She was very proud of herself. Since then she's gone in the potty once or twice a day. She goes every time I put her on. She is pretty timid about things so we are going slowly. She still isn't to the point where she tells me she has to go.

Allan worked really hard and got some baseboards put in! A's room is finished and he has done most of the hallway and half of our 3rd bedroom. He did a really good job! He also got the basement ready for painting! We had the Elder and Sister missionaries over to help us paint and got over half of it done. We would be finished, but we ended up having to do a double coat. We are so grateful for all of the help we had! We are hoping to finish it up this week, and then we can focus on baseboards throughout the whole house. 

When we were feeling a little better I took A out for a walk. She headed to the rocks that are by the nursing home. She LOVES rocks. She had a ball sitting in them, picking them up and showing them to me. She went on a walk with Allan a little earlier in the week as well and met one of our neighbors dogs. This girl really loves dogs, except when the lick her, or when they drool on her. We stopped by to talk to K6 for a minute one day and her boxer, D, came over to say hi to little A. A was freaking out she was so happy and then D shook his head. Drool flew everywhere. A went really still, got this disgusted look on her face and then turned and walked away. K6 and I laughed so hard.

Little A loves to tear up Kleenex. While I was cleaning up after lunch one day she discovered the Kleenex I'd stashed in the diaper bag for church. She had a ball tearing it up and having the occasional taste. She was very upset with me when I cleaned it all up.

Dance classes have started up again! Yeah! I took little A this week, and she had a lot of fun. It took her a little while to warm up to everything, but once she did she enjoyed it. One of the little girls saw that A was holding onto my finger to walk. She offered A her finger and then walked/ran around like that for a little while. That is what helped A warm up. After that she felt like she had a friend. Little A holds on really tight so after a little while the girl ripped her finger away and shook it. She had this pained look on her face, poor thing. A kept trying to grab her finger, and the girl kept pulling away. They were still friends though. A liked walking across the balance beam the best.

We had a little play date with K6 and P. P and A are so funny. They are always so excited to see each other and then either fight or ignore each other. P will often tell little A "no, it's mine, don't take it" and A usually isn't doing anything, lol. Then A cries, P gets in trouble and has to apologize to A. K6 told me that on the way home the other day P pretended to call A and she said "A, I sorry. I so sorry." Ha! So funny! At the end of the play date little A started crying because I took her out of the swings and P immediately started apologizing to A thinking she had done something wrong.

We had to take little A to get her ears checked by a specialist because she has had so many ear infections. It went really well. She was actually really comfortable, which is very unusual for her. It made me wish he was our regular doctor. While we were waiting she made friends with a little old lady in the waiting room. She eventually gave the lady a great big hug. She cried while the doctor looked at her ears but settled down as soon as he was done and then crawled around the room while he talked to us! He told us that she certainly meets all of the qualifications for tubes, but there isn't any emergency or anything and really it's up to us if we want to do it or not. He also said that he feels the main concern for her is how frequently she's been on antibiotics. So, we are thinking about it.

We went to the Temple and took A with us. She had a blast walking around the visitors center and the temple grounds. Mostly though she liked to show her shoes to everyone. She would run up to anyone that went by and lift up her pant leg to show them her shoes. Most people didn't notice, but the few that did really made her day.

At story time this week A took a real liking to the story lady. Afterward while I was looking for books, she walked (that's a big deal right there because she will usually only walk to me) to the story lady and hugged her legs. The lady picked her up and little A wrapped her arms around her neck as tight as she could and wouldn't let go! And now the story lady is absolutely in love with her, ha! This cute girl really knows how to wrap someone around her finger. It really was adorable though.

After church on Sunday little A snuggled me while I read the Ensign, and later while Allan was reading the Ensign she came over and flipped through a different Ensign with him. She loves the Ensign. I'm not sure why, but she  loves to flip through it.