Family Time

Little A and I go on walks every morning, almost always with a friend. This time poor little A fell in a mud puddle. She was so excited to splash in it that she didn't notice the pile of dirt right before it. She was SO shocked! I felt so bad for her but couldn't help but laugh.

That night we had planned on playing croquet in the backyard for family night, but we got rained out. So, Allan and A cleaned up the basement, and I designed a little croquet course out of A's toys. It was so much fun! Little A especially liked crawling through the box at the end.

This is what little A does when I take a shower. We bring a bunch of toys into my room and she plays, otherwise she can't go 3 seconds without opening the shower curtain to make sure I'm still in there, lol!

Later that week little A had an ear check-up, to see if her tubes were unclogged. She did so good at the doctors, and her ears look great! No more clogged tubes! After her appointment we did a bunch of shopping. When we're in a bigger city we always stay and do any extra shopping we can. Little A was SO tired. We went to her favorite place to eat, Panda Express, but she refused to eat anything. While we were in the last store she conked out, and then slept the entire way home!

My Dad, step-mom H, Gram, and sisters got together this last week. It was so fun! It's been a while since we were able to do something like that. We are so grateful to K6's in-laws who let us use their lake cabin and boating stuff!

Dad, H, and Gram arrived Saturday night and stayed with us that night so we could all go to church the next morning. We fed everyone that night. The boys (B and J) found our room of empty boxes and used them to slide down the stairs. We got a lot of laughs out of it. K4 also slide down the stairs in the boxes because she's awesome like that! It was way too loud for our little A; all the giggling and shouting overwhelmed her, and she cried and cried. Thankfully K3 and C brought their dog with them. I took little A outside, and she forgot all about the noise as she giggled and squealed, and chased their dog. This girl sure loves dogs.

The next day we headed out to the lake to celebrate P and B's birthdays. B turned 9, and P turned 3. Little A mostly swung on the swing. I tried to get her to eat some cake, but she apparently still doesn't like cake, ha! They all stayed out at the lake that night, but we went home to get little A some rest so we could have a good day the following day.

We met everyone at the lake for breakfast, A swung on the swing again. Then we headed down to the lake to play. Little A loves the sand! She could play in it all day if I'd let her. She also loves to eat the sand. At one point I leaned down and whispered in her ear "You're not supposed to eat the sand." She then leaned over to my ear and said "Pst, pst, pst." Lol! It was darling. Between Allan and I we probably told her 50 times to not eat the sand. Poor girl had some sandy poops for a couple of days. She wasn't a fan of those. Somehow I doubt that she learned her lesson though, ha!

 Grandad and the kids had fun building castles and smashing them.

My dad and H brought their kayaks, so Allan and I took a turn on those. I loved it! I like those so much more than boats! I love the rowing, and the soft lilting of the water. Allan really liked it too. I also really like canoeing; we did a lot of that growing up.

We also took little A and cousin P out on the kayaks. They loved it!

 Everyone worked together to build a big sand castle.

The kids smashed it the next day :)

We played a game of croquet in the sand.

The daddy's took a break to be with their little girls.

 Mama got in some time with her girl too.

This handsome man went water skiing for the first time in his life! He did pretty well too. He got up, ha! He said he wasn't up long enough to really know if he enjoyed it though, lol!

What a stud!

We took little A out on the boat, and she went tubing. It's super slow of course, but she loves it! Allan and I went tubing too, but there wasn't enough people on the boat to really go fast. It was more a nice little cruise in the water. B and J also went tubing, and J tried skiing. Little A enjoyed feeding Daddy sandy cookies.

The boys and their mama's loved the 4 wheeler, especially B.

We camped out that night. It was the first time I got to try out our new cots. They were super comfy! That is the first time I've ever been camping and not woken up freezing cold and stiff as a board. I think I bundled up little A a little too much though, when I got her up the next morning she was pretty warm. She slept pretty well though, SO much better than our attempt at camping last summer.

Allan had to go to work that morning so he left around 6am. We had a nice breakfast and a little ride on the boat, A and P slept pretty much the whole time on the boat that day.

Then we got lunch, cleaned up and went home. Little A was exhausted. She slept the entire way home, including a stop at K6's house to drop off a headboard! It took her a couple of days to get back to normal after all of the fun!

They got Gram out on the boat that afternoon!

We tried to take it easy this week. Trying to get back in the potty training mode and on a normal schedule. A is doing great with potty training. She usually has one or two accidents a day if we stay close to home, if we are visiting other people she has more. She started pooping in the potty too! Yay! She is still trying to tell me, but I don't always understand until she has an accident. She's been saying more and more since her last doctor appointment, so I'm hoping she'll start saying potty soon, that would be very helpful!

We discovered our community garden this week. It was fun to show A all of the plants and let her help me pick some food. Mostly she enjoyed swinging on the swing.

We also went out to visit Nana at her store. It's such a cute store; I wish I could buy everything in it! We went out to lunch at a Crepe place with K6 and P. The crepes are HUGE! I can barely eat one, but A loves the turkey pesto crepe and ate the entire thing! Then we got a raspberry shake. A was loving it until she got a brain freeze, then she wouldn't go near it. Poor girl.

We've had some fun family wrestles and plays in the backyard this week, and Allan and I had a date night - croquet and Frisbee.

I tried to give A her first S'more this week. She hated it. She barely took a bite of it, and then just repeatedly told me that it was too sticky. I eventually just gave her a couple of marshmallows and ate her S'more myself, ha!  She has been very concerned about her hands being sticky lately.

A also clicks her tongue all day long, every day. She likes it a lot and likes to have us click our tongues. Her favorite thing to do for the "If you're happy and you know it" song is "click your tongue", ha! That song gets us through long car rides. Little A has also decided it is time to start dressing herself. One day she had a complete meltdown while I was dressing her and I finally figured out that she wanted to do it herself. She gets so mad at me if I help her at all. I think we have finally entered the 2 year old independent stage, because she has done this with several other things as well.

Retraction

About a month and a half ago Allan and I took care of our nieces and nephew while their parents went on a cruise. After those ten days I wrote a blog post about all of our adventures while they were here. In that post I said that the girls "fought constantly". I have to retract that statement. They didn't fight constantly. They actually played together really well pretty much the whole time they were here. They read a lot of books, painted, did crafts, played puppies in the boxes downstairs, and a multitude of other things. These girls love each other so much! They are such great girls! I love them so much and have missed them a lot since they left!

The Adventures of Little A

I've been trying to work on this post for months, but it has proven very difficult. My mind was so foggy when all this went on that I'm having a hard time remembering where she was, when, but this is where Little A went while I was in the hospital for my surgery.

Little A stayed with Grandma and Grandpa the day of the surgery. Grandma had to go out of town for a week to help with a new grandbaby, so Grandpa and Aunt SG had little A over the weekend. I think she had a really good time with them.

Little A spent some time with Aunt H and cousin J when Allan had to take me back to the hospital. Aunt H was awesome and showed up quick when we needed help. They played for a few hours until Grandpa got home and took A for the night.

Allan made sure to be with her during the day as much as possible. They always played outside together and went on walks. A had a lot of fun collecting rocks to put on the stairs.

He also took her on a little date to her favorite restaurant, Panda Express.

She spent two nights at Uncle A1 and Aunt F's, where she had lots of kids to play with. While she was there she got to go with them to get ice cream at McDonald's. She then spent the rest of the time with Aunt C, Uncle B, and their boys. She loved it there! The boys were so sweet to her. They played at the park, went to a museum, watched Daniel Tiger, and A even braved the little roller coaster they have in their back yard!

She really seemed to be very comfortable at B and C's. After I was released from the hospital they came and took her to the zoo as well. She just loves those boys! They were sad to see her go.


We are so grateful that we have such an amazing, caring, helpful family!We couldn't have gotten through the surgery without them. It was so relieving to know that my daughter was safe and happy when I couldn't be with her. But, I hope to never have to do that again!

Some Fair

Allan's brother M got home from serving his two year mission for our church! We went to visit when he got home. It was fun to be with the family. He gave a great talk in church. We went on a hike as a family, an easier one that all the kids could do. Our niece G let me borrow her sunglasses, for which I was very grateful! Little A loved splashing in the water when we got to the top. She was not happy though when a rock shifted and made her foot stuck.

A1 and F watched little A for us while we went to the Temple. She had so much fun at their house throwing toys (and her cousin) down the stairs, chasing the chickens, and swinging on the swing.

We visited my sister K6 and cousin P another day. Those two always have a fun time together. They played with the pig and goats, jumped on the trampoline, and watched pound puppies. Little A thought it was hilarious when the goats jumped on the trampoline with them!

I decided to make some cookies and see if little A would help me. She usually likes to help with whatever I'm making. I got her all settled, and she helped pour a few things in, and then I put the bowl on the mixer. She freaked out. She thought it was going to be really loud. I told her that Daddy would come and take her away from the loud noise, and she said "Yay!" Then when he picked her up she turned to the mixer and said sternly, "Goodbye!" We got a good laugh out of that!

Little A has really gotten into dancing lately! She has a lot of new moves. Hanging upside down, rolling on the floor, down dog, up dog, stomping repeatedly with one foot, and various wavings of the hands. It is soooo fun to watch her! Always makes me smile!

We must have tired little A out. One morning she was being really fussy, so I asked her if she needed a nap. It was two hours before her normal nap time. She said she did. I wasn't sure if she really understood what I asked her, she says "ya" to just about everything, so I went and got in the shower while she played. When I got out I noticed that it was unusually quiet. I went to check on her and found her curled up on the rug in the living room sound asleep. (Also, she picked out that outfit all by herself.)

We started potty training three weeks ago. She is doing so good! The first week I just took her every 30 minutes. She went every time I took her! The second week I put her in panties. She was so excited about her panties, and still is. Every morning she wants to wear all of them, and gives them a lot of hugs! She especially loves the ones K5 gave her, they have bunnies and cupcakes on them.

She has had a few accidents, almost always when we're eating a meal. Otherwise she's doing great! She has started to tell me when she needs to go. She still can't quite say it, but she manages pretty well with gestures. I don't always understand when we're not at home though. She is still working on telling me when she needs to poop.

Little A always has a hard time sleeping when there is a change in her schedule, or she's reaching a new developmental milestone. This has been no different. She's had some nights here and there that she couldn't sleep and has started dragging her blanket around the house with her. We've made sure to have some extra snuggles. :)

We went out for a walk one day and found this awesome fairy broom. :)

Right after we found it we needed to get back quick so A could use the potty. As we were hurrying she tripped and skinned her knee a little. After she went potty I washed it, put some triple antibiotic on it, kissed it, and then put a band aid on it. She hated that band aid and stood there with her knee raised up in the air pointing and muttering at it all distressed until I took it off, ha! Since then whenever she notices the scrape she gives it kisses. We went to the store for some groceries a few days ago, and she sat in the cart saying "Oh" and kissing her knee. She also does this in the car wherever we go.

She finally started trying to say words today! She said shoes this morning and then on the way to church she said bird and tree. She is also saying dog, puppy, down, straight, and a few other words pretty regularly now.

We went to the Pioneer Day Parade. We weren't sure if this would be a good idea or not since she was so terrified at the last parade, but I wanted to try so Allan supported me. :)  She made friends with the elderly couple that we were standing by, showing them all the rocks she found on the ground. She did well for a while, lasting longer than the last parade. A nice girl threw a necklace to her, and she loved that! She was excited about the candy and would try to run out and get some, but then get nervous and come back. Eventually she was just done trying and ran away again. The picture is of Allan and A running away from the parade.

We had a barbeque with friends that night. We have been blessed to make some really good friends who have children around the same age as little A. It makes for a lot of fun get togethers!

Allan gave me a work day. He took little A to the park to play in the morning, and then to a nearby city to run some errands that afternoon. While they spent the day together I sewed curtains and sanded our kitchen table. Allan helped me paint it that night for our date. It was in pretty bad shape, now it is white, and I love it!

We went to the county fair. We always love to go and see everything people entered, and the livestock. We usually give little A a ride and see a show, but we weren't able to make a show this year, and she wasn't excited about the rides.

She loved seeing the chickens and bunnies, but was nervous about all the other animals. I love horses, and we got to pet some of them; A didn't want to though. We saw a lot of really fun crafts, beautiful quilts, and other art. They had a little area where the kids could play pretend: collect eggs, pick apples and corn, dig for potatoes, etc. A liked the apples and corn, but wouldn't collect eggs. She was too afraid of the stuffed chickens, lol!

We also got to meet the magicians bunny; we couldn't stay for the show though. We did get to see the horse show practice for a while. The riders were riding bare back with no reins, it was beautiful to watch. That is how I liked to ride growing up.

Little A has found a new fascination with sunglasses. It's very cute! We need to get her a new pair, her old ones are broken. We ate dinner at the fair that night. We got A a corn dog. It was huge! She liked it, but liked the tater tots that came with my meal better. We had coconut cream pie for dessert, yum!

While we were at the fair little A had to go potty. Allan took her. They have automatic toilets that flush as soon as you get off of them. She did so good until the toilet flushed. It took her by surprise, and she freaked out! After that she refused to go to the bathroom. She is still going at home though. She did really good today. I took her during sacrament meeting, and she did great. Then Allan tried to take her before she went to nursery. As soon as he took her into the bathroom she freaked out and refused to go. He came and got me to try to take her, but she wouldn't go for me either. So we bagged it for the rest of church. When we got home I asked her if she needed to go and she freaked out, so we just took the rest of the day off, and she agreed to start again tomorrow.

Little A LOVES grapes and strawberries. Whenever we go to the store and get some (which is pretty frequently) she rides through the whole store pointing at them and saying, "Mom! MMMM!" I put the grapes too close to her once, and she ate some! This week we went one day for strawberries and another day for grapes. Both days when we got home she searched through the grocery bags until she found the fruit, then pulled it out and brought it to the table to eat, lol! The grapes didn't quite make it to the table though.

Little A also got her first sliver. :( She cried buckets when we pulled it out.

We did some babysitting this week. It is always so fun to have some of A's friends over. We got out the walker for one of the babies, she was too short for it still, but A loved climbing in it, and getting stuck, ha!