Cuddles

Alice was really happy this morning when she got up. You know, being especially cute and smiley. She even rocked back and forth (her version of dancing?) while listening to some music with Tom. Then she threw up. Thinking maybe it was a fluke I fed her some scrambled eggs. Then she threw up. And she threw up again.

Anyway, she continued to be so cute and happy even after throwing up. She cuddled with me and sucked her thumb for a while. Why does it take being sick for my kids to get all cuddly? I don't get it. How can I train them to like cuddling with me more? I guess I've just made them too independent.

Evening Visitor

We had a fun visitor this evening. We have a baby of our own, but for some reason Abby and Sophie were pretty stoked to have an entirely NEW baby in the house.

Little Olivia was very free with her smiles. I think she liked having other kids to smile at. While Abby and Sophie enjoyed our little visitor, Alice didn't seem to like me paying attention to anyone other than her! When I was rocking her to sleep (for a pretty short lived nap) I couldn't help but think her awesome Grandma Harriet would love to switch places with me!

Basement facelift

We're still working on finishing things up in the family room downstairs, but I had a request to see a picture of the paint job I did downstairs. Anyway, here it is. It's a little difficult to tell the color I used since it isn't super dark or anything. It is called Imperial Sand - and it's pretty much a warm tan color. I think it turned out pretty well, certainly better than the stark white from before. The couches are new and I still need to figure out a good room configuration. Our room is really narrow - it's like 12 feet wide and 20 feet long, so it's tricky to find something functional that also looks good. We'll probably settle for functional.

We also got a new TV. It's big. WAY bigger than our 32" tube TV we bought 8 years ago. Hopefully this new TV lasts us at least 8 years. We still need to get some sort of console/entertainment center for underneath. I'm thinking something wood and black, maybe kind of chunky? Who knows, but I'm looking for a deal so it could be a while. In the meantime, coffee table it is.

Happy Groundhog's Day Alice!

Alice just had her first birthday on Tuesday. She doesn't seem like a 1 year old to me, she's still just my little baby. I took her in for her 1 year check-up yesterday and she is almost 19 1/2 pounds. I can't remember all of her other stats, but she is pretty much in the 30th percentile for everything. She's just my little stinker baby. I keep thinking she is kind of big, or average since she is bigger than her cousin Liam. I suppose I need to find another baby for reference!

Alice loves her mommy and would happily let me carry her around the house for pretty much everything. She has been a great blessing and is really a pretty easy baby. She has her moments, especially with her tendency to scream for attention at mealtimes - but she just wants me to know when she needs more food. She's a great eater and a wonderful sleeper. Alice can say a few words, although the only one she says consistently with an obvious reference is "Po." We probably should have given the dog a harder to say name. I hate to lose out to him.

Anyway, here are a few pictures from our celebrations. Alice especially loved her birthday cake, but kept getting angry when she couldn't get the chocolate off her fingers by shaking her hands. (I thought it was funny.)

Happy 6th Birthday Abby!

Abby turned 6, there's no way around it. She got 2 cakes and a pie from her various celebrations. I think she quite enjoyed it all!

We started her out with breakfast in bed. I think she had to lay in bed for about 30 minutes waiting for her breakfast. It doesn't work quite as well when they wake up too early!! Abby thinks everyone gets breakfast in bed for their birthday. I told her it's actually not that common and she seemed pretty surprised.


Abby kept begging and begging to open her presents. I always thought there needed to be some sort of ceremony or singing or something, but I guess it doesn't need to be that fancy. Kids just want their presents ASAP. (At least my kids do.)

We went out to dinner, then took a pie over to Tom's parents' on Abby's birthday.

Abby had her "friend" party on Saturday. We borrowed a projector and showed a movie on a big screen for the girls. Tom made some Abby dollars that the girls could spend at the concessions stand. They ate so much popcorn and candy that they hardly touched their cake and ice cream.



All in all, I think Abby had a pretty great birthday, which is the point - right? Anyway, now I'm the mother of a beautiful, smart, funny, sensitive, six year old girl. Aren't kids great?

100 Posts?

I just went to put a little post up about Alice standing up and I noticed I am at 100 posts! I'm a long way away from some of my super blogger friends, but this is pretty good for me. Can I count this as journaling? Cause I always peeter out on those keeping a journal goals really quickly. Anyway, I'll get back to what I was going to post originally.

Alice has been randomly standing up in the middle of the floor pretty often lately - so I thought I would take a little video of it today and share. It's not much, but I think it's fun. Alice taking those first steps isn't too far away!



Alice is a funny kid. She started out pretty quiet, but has figured out that she needs to yell to get attention sometimes. Her yelling pretty much comes out at the dinner table. She yells pretty quickly when she runs out of food. Taking her to restaurants can be kind of dodgy, especially once I run out of whatever snack I brought to keep her satisfied before the food gets there. I guess being the third child has taught her some tricks to making sure she's noticed.

Waffles

I'm not sure why, but I think it is the cutest thing to see Alice eat a waffle.