It’s taken
me a while to finally write this so hopefully I don’t forget anything. First of all, let’s start with some family
fun. We finally finished P90x this month
and boy were we glad to be done with that.
Don’t get me wrong, it is a great workout. However, at least for me, I felt a lot of
pressure to do it EVERY single night and keep up with the workouts. That was just too much for me at this point
in life, especially when the time Ben and I are able to do it together isn’t
until 8pm when Alethea goes to bed. I
have, and I think I always will be, a morning workout person. Mornings are just my thing!
Also, this month we celebrated
Easter as a family of three for the second year in a row. We didn’t really make a big deal out of
things as far as Alethea is concerned since she still isn’t really aware of the
concept of the Easter bunny or the resurrection of Christ. So I think next year will be the first year
we try to celebrate with Alethea in mind (though we haven’t decided yet what we
want to do about Easter baskets and such).
The best shot we were able to get of our family on Easter Sunday
All Alethea wanted to do was run around, but I love this dress made by her Great-Grandma Dorothy
Ben turned 27 this month so we
had fun on one of our few family days going out to celebrate that. Alethea and I took him disc golfing which
everyone enjoyed. Then we took him out
to a burger joint called Sesame which was amazing. I am so thankful this wonderful man was born
27 years ago. What a blessing he is!
The birthday boy is getting a little help from his baby girl
We found a huge pine cone out discing
Snack cup + disc = one happy girl
Hole in one?
This month also marked the end
of craziness for Ben. Hallelujah, I finally
will have my husband back! He was a
command fitness leader at work which involved a lot more hours at work. It was a great opportunity for him and he
wouldn’t have traded that, but it was just a lot of extra stress on our little
family. Thankfully he has turned over
that duty and is on to training to lead the Enlisted Math division. Yay!
He has also begun his final year of graduate school. As he says many days, it is a good thing he
started this program before Alethea arrived because he finds himself often
wishing graduate school didn’t take away from family time. He may not have started it at all if she was
here sooner! However it is a blessing to
have it all paid for and it will open up a lot more opportunities in the
future. So for that we are very
thankful. And one last note for Ben is
that through all the hard work these past four months, he lost 35lbs. (I am a
bit jealous of that!) He was already
handsome, but now….well I will keep those thoughts to myself. J
To sum up the month of April for
me in one word, it would be STRESSED. This
month was a very big challenged for me physically and emotionally, but by God’s
grace I made it through and have grown because of it. I have a lot of respect for parents who take
care of their kids all alone on a regular basis because there were many
days/weeks this month where I felt like a single parent. That can be wearing on you for sure!
(especially since Alethea went through a week of crazy clingy behavior that I
was left to tackle alone) Don’t get me wrong, I love Alethea to pieces, but I
also love the chance to leave her with Ben and not be responsible for her, even
if just for 30minutes. This month, I
learned a ton about how to get a lot accomplished with a kid in tow and I think
Alethea and I are getting pretty good at that.
I also learned that I am still a stress eater. Not such a fun lesson to learn, but a good
reminder that I still have some learning to do when it comes to coping with
stress. So no 35lbs lost for me (though
part of that being that I simply don’t have that much to lose either)! I also learned to be more thankful for the
moments that our little family gets to spend together. Too bad, it takes not having that time to
realize it.
Now on to Alethea, who turned 14
months old this month. And to celebrate,
Alethea and I participated in what was called the Great Cloth Diaper
change. She and I were part of helping
set a new Guinness Book of World Records record and raising awareness for cloth
diapering. Definitely some fun times
with my sweet girl. Her stats this month
are up to 23lbs 9.6oz and 32.5inches tall.
She is growing like a weed and already fitting into many 24months/2T
shirts and dresses!
Ready to change diapers at the same time!
trying to get a pic of my 14month old, but she wouldn't look at me
Time for rearranging of furniture after we got back home from GCDC
This month also marked the
arrival of her 7th tooth on April 22nd (the one to the
right of her bottom teeth). That makes
for 3 teeth on the bottom (a fourth on its way) and 4 teeth on the top. And she is making good use of those,
especially since she learned how to bite things off from food this month. Unfortunately the time she and I both
realized she could was when she decided to bite off half of my Cadbury Crème Egg. I was expecting her to lick it like she has
often done with food in the past and instead she ate half of it! What a stinker! I am very thankful for this skill though
because it has opened a lot of doors in the area of eating.
looking at her Daddy while eating the last of the dried blueberries
We bought strawberries at the Farmers Market and she loved them!
Strawberry face!
She ran her first high fever
this month of 102.7, which we are still not really sure why. She ran the high fever for 2 days and then
low grade for a day, but there were no other symptoms to be seen other than her
being a bit more lazy. Then she had a
runny nose for the next two weeks…so who knows.
I am just glad she isn’t feverish anymore and we were able to manage it
with only 2 doses of Tylenol (each before bed at night).
One of my favorite phases has
been entered this month. She has
discovered a love for kisses! We first
discovered it when she kissed our good friend’s new baby girl Laura on the arm
and there has been no turning back since.
She doesn’t always do it on “command”, but she kisses everything (as Ben
says, “she would kiss a rock!”) and blows kisses all the time. We love it.
It is so precious to see her learning to express love in such a sweet
way. Now we just have to be careful that
she doesn’t smother Laura with kisses. J
She has also moved out of her
growling phase (which we have attributed to imitating the dogs). Now she has
taken to imitate the dogs when they bark which usually sounds like “buff!”. Typically this is not imitating our dogs
barking (thankfully), but our neighbor’s dogs that bark all the time! We
have also begun busting out the kiddie pool a bunch this month. We have even gone over to our neighbors so Alethea can have fun in the pool with her buddy Elise. Alethea is such a water baby and I love
seeing her excitement about it! She has
developed quite the love for sidewalk chalk as well and I only have to keep
stop her from eating every once in a while.
This has been a great outside activity because I happen to LOVE sidewalk
chalk and it is super easy to clean off of Alethea too.
A little indoor pool fun
all smiles in the water
Playing with her bucket
water int he bucket makes it even more fun!
wet duck!
"which color shall I choose?"
First beach trip with Daddy
One last cute thing that has to be mentioned about this month is Alethea’s
love for laundry, or rather her love for me doing laundry. She loves to climb in the dryer and play as I
load and unload it, which works out great most of the time. Plus she loves to play in the clothes basket
while I fold (thankfully not once they are folded). She even sometimes will hand me clothes to be
folded. I have a feeling she is going to
be a great helper at times as she gets older.
So proud of herself
What a goof!
I almost forgot to mention that she got to try strawberry pretzel salad for the first time. She even licked the blades of the mixer. This is a huge favorite in my family and licking the blades was always quite the privilege growing up. She has since helped me bake several times, just avoiding the hot part.
Finger lickin' good
love this face!
We love every moment we get to spend together and I am looking forward to
updating on how much better of a month May is. J
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