January Happenings

January was a very busy month for us. It started with a trip to visit Allan's family for a baby blessing. While there we went to the children's museum for the first time. I already wrote about that in the last post. While we were there we also sold our Buick

and bought a truck! Allan's wanted a truck for a very, very long time, but we didn't think we would be getting one for a few more years. However, he was praying one day and had a thought come to him to get a truck. He told me, and I thought he was crazy, but I prayed about it too and the answer was to get a truck. We got a great deal on this truck and have already put it to good use.

The following week we had some people over to measure for carpet for our basement and bought a chest freezer that was also delivered that week. We worked on the basement a lot that week, finishing the baseboards and making sure it was completely ready for carpet.

We also had our first date from my year of planned dates. It was to make a work of art. We have a bunch of picture frames that needed to be painted, so we painted those.

Little A and I got out to enjoy the snow as much as we could. It's a good thing we did because it didn't last very long. It had all melted by the end of the month.

We had a couple of fun play dates with little A's friends. They all played kitchen and pushed her wheeled toys around the house.

We also played a lot of bows while little A was getting over a cold. I am so relieved that she can have a little cold and not get an ear infection from it!

I hurt my wrist while I was exercising and had to go to physical therapy for it. I've always had really tiny weak wrists and ankles.

It was warm and humid most of this month. The humidity caused a ring of ice to form around the antennas of all the trucks at Allan's work.

We've done a lot of playing kitchen and piano. I love having her little kitchen in our kitchen. She does a really good job of "cooking" in her kitchen while I'm cooking dinner. We've had a lot of fun with the tea set that Grandma and Grandpa gave her for her birthday. 

When little A doesn't want to play kitchen while I'm cooking I ask her to play me a song on the piano. She is always happy to oblige. I love watching and hearing her play!

I already mentioned in the last post that little A's birth family came for a visit to celebrate her birthday. A loved the food she got and they were all amazed that she finished almost all of it. She is a really good eater and has out eaten me a few times. However, she has started to slow down recently.

She has also loved to pull her toys around in her Lego wagon.

It's been so warm out that we've pulled all of her outside toys out into the yard again. She loves to sit in her chair,

play on her play set, and draw with the sidewalk chalk. We have a cement walkway and patio in our yard and have made good use of them! She has also mastered going down the slide and going up the stairs to our back porch by herself. We also run around in the grass a lot and talk to the neighbors dog over the fence. It drives her crazy that she can't see the dog, but she loves to go over and talk to it.

I've mentioned before how much she LOVES picking out her own clothes. She almost always chooses a matching outfit, but every now and then she gets a little crazy. One day she was very insistent that she wear a certain pair of shorts. It is still a bit cold for shorts, especially in the morning, so I put on some leggins under them. She also chose a flower printed shirt and a purple animal vest. It was pretty awesome!

Another day she was very insistent that she wear two different pairs of shoes, lol! That was our errand day and everyone at story time and the grocery store sure got a kick out of her shoes!

The third week of January the contractors came to put carpet in our basement! Hurray! Right after they got there they tested to see if they could nail the tack strips in or if they had to glue them. The person who came to measure earlier that month was supposed to have done that already, and before he left our house I asked him specifically if they could nail the tack strips in, and he said they could. (It costs a lot more to glue them down.) So the contractors come up and tell Allan that they have to glue and that it is going to cost almost four times what the quote was. Eesh. Fortunately Allan has learned some negotiation skills at work and after a couple hours of talking Home Depot acknowledged that they had made a mistake on their end and stuck to what they quoted us. Phew! 

The baseboards that Allan worked so hard on are pretty beat up, but the carpet is fantastic! We love how it looks, and it is so cushy! We have already moved most of A's toys downstairs and play most of the day down there. I am loving that my dark wood floors look so much cleaner!

When Nana and Pops came back from Disneyland we had them over for dinner and they brought little A her birthday present - some adorable Osh-Kosh overalls and shirt! I am in love with them. She had just out grown all but one pair of her overalls, and they are her favorite things to wear so it was perfect timing too!

When we took all of her toys downstairs I pulled out a box of dolls that I had been saving for her. They were mine and my Grandma's. She has fallen in love with the Grandpa doll. This doll, and the matching Grandma doll, was made by my mom for my Grandma. Little A was thrilled that they were both wearing overalls, ha!

After a disappointing phone call with the specialist I am seeing Allan brought me home some flowers. When they were on their last leg I let little A have them. She loves to rip them up and rub them in her hands and on her face. She also loves to taste them, but does a pretty good job of refraining.

Allan is such a great father. He loves to be with little A and tries to take time every day to play with her. There are a lot of days that he comes home really tired, but he pushes through and plays with her. She has really started to love the time with him. 

Especially when he lets her drive the car. ;)

At the end of the month we headed back to visit Allan's family again so we could go see Beauty and the Beast. Little A took a nice long nap on the way there. She is so darling!

We stopped at the children's museum again, gotta make that long car ride worth it! She loved this swan this time! We played with a baby boy for a while too, and she LOVED that!

I've said before that Little A is a very sweet girl and when other kids take things from her she just goes and finds something else to play with. We were playing in the "store" at the museum and a little boy ran over and grabbed her shopping basket right out of her hands! She actually tried to take it back this time, but after a couple of tugs she let go and walked away to find something else to do. She never once looked upset, but she did give the boy quite the look, like "well that was a weird thing to do." The boy's poor mom was so embarrassed. Allan went to find another basket for little A, but she took off to another area to play. By the time he found one we were long gone. Poor guy. He's such a good Dad!

We took her up to the helicopter this time. We weren't sure how she would feel about it because it is loud, but she LOVED it! She thought it was the coolest thing ever! While we were up there she made friends with another little girl, and they played blocks for a while.

Beauty and the Beast was really good! Allan and I had a lot of fun. I am so grateful that I have a husband that enjoys going to musicals and other performances. 

I also went to see "Into the Woods" with a couple of my sister's in law. I love this musical and thought that they did a really great job with it! I was a little disappointed that they left out some songs, but it would have been forever long if they'd kept everything in.