Alethea's 2nd Birthday Celebrations! My baby is TWO!!!!!

               Wow, I can’t even believe we just finished celebrating our sweet little girls 2^nd birthday.  It doesn't seem like she has been around that long and yet it feels like she has always been a part of our family.  We love her so much and are so blessed each day by the fact that God has placed her in our care.  So this month we had the pleasure of celebrating 2 years of life for her.

Not the most amazing pic, but she is sporting her birthday shirt. :-)

                I wanted to make her birthday special for her, but at the same time, the stage we are in life, there wasn’t a lot of time or energy to plan a big shindig.  So we just kept it simple and kept the focus on making her feel special.  My brother, Camden, and my parents, Mamaw and Papaw, came to visit for a few days prior to her birthday and stayed until the morning of her birthday so it was really special for her to get lots of extra attention and love around her birthday.  She loves all three of them very much!

Alethea cheesin' it

                Since my family was leaving the morning of her birthday, we had her “party” the night before she turned 2. J  It started with dinner and I made some of her faves which included homemade chicken nuggets, homemade russet and sweet potato fries, and steamed broccoli.  All three were served with ketchup (yes even the broccoli) and she loved it!  Then after dinner I sent her on a walk with Mamaw and Papaw so I could get things set up for cake and presents. J  I decorated everything in Minnie Mouse (table cloth, napkins, plates, party hats and stickers for the bday girl), set up all of her presents on the table behind her chair, and put out the balloons we had purchased (including a Mickey and an Elmo balloon).

Birthday Dinner

digging in

Everyone except Mamaw enjoying dinner

                Prior to sending her off for a walk we had told her she was going to have a party to celebrate her birthday so when she returned that was the first thing out of her mouth “pahtee Lala?” (translation: party Alethea?).  So cute!  Of course we said yes and told her to come find her seat at the table.  She came around the corner and shouted “MINNIE!”  She loves Minnie Mouse a bunch!  We told her to get in her chair and the first thing she said was “pahtee hat” (translation: party hat) and made sure everyone had theirs on and then she said “cook Lala?” (translation: cookie Alethea?) since she had seen me making her cookie cake, lol.  She is not a huge cake fan, but she LOVES cookies, so I made her a homemade cookie cake and decorated it in strawberries and homemade whipped cream in the shape of a 2.  She absolutely loved it and we even let her have 2 pieces because she loved it so much and we couldn’t say no to the birthday girl. J

Birthday girl's seat

All the goodies

Cookie cake

"pah-tee hat"

Loving her cake...even though she didn't want to blow out the candles because they were "hot"

                After cake she had a blast digging into her presents.  She got a play dough set, cookie cutters, and a Dr. Seuss book compilation from Mommy and Daddy.  Mamaw and Papaw gave her a super cute outfit and an amazing toy organizer that is definitely Mommy’s favorite present. J  Uncle Camden gave her some awesome play food that we are putting away for a few months so she can have something mid-year that is new to play with, but she was dying to open it, lol.  Uncle Cody and Aunt Justine gave her a new Louisville shirt, a doctor kit, and several great books.  Granpeg and Grandaddy got her a very cute outfit and an Elmo book that sings If You’re Happy And You Know It.  She also opened a dress from Grandma Dorothy that had come in the mail earlier that day.  Plus earlier in the week Grandma and Boppa’s package full of a doctor kit, Elmo sheets (for when she gets her twin bed after we move), Clifford books, and some new snack cups.  Grandpa also sent her two more books and a seated spin toy.  And then someone very sweet sent her a magna-doodle in the mail, but don’t know who yet.  She is one very blessed girl.

She loves Elmo and she loves books so this was perfect

Checking out Mamaw and Papaws card....she was so into the cards, lol

investigating her play dough set

Presents done, time to play with balloons. :-)

                And if that wasn’t enough celebrating for our sweet 2 year old, the celebrations continued on her actually birthday.  Before my family left, we all sat down and enjoyed birthday cupcakes (homemade muffins with homemade strawberry cream cheese to top them) for breakfast with Alethea and sang her happy birthday.  Then after Daddy went to work and my family left it was a day all about having fun with Alethea.  After we both got ready for the day, we headed out to Target to pick up more glow sticks and simply walk around the store which is one of her favorite things to do.  Then we went to the pet store to look at the fishes, kittens, “piggys” (guinea pigs), birds, and more.  She had a blast at the pet store and just kept walking from one animal to the next.  We went to grab some yummies to eat before heading to Marble Slab Creamery to pick up her free ice cream cone (in a cup of course).  This was her first time getting her very own ice cream and her first time ever trying an ice cream cone.  The flavor I chose for her was cinnamon and she loved it as well as the cone.  I truly thing she ate more than half of it for herself and then Mommy just had to finish it off, lol.  So fun!

               We had to go home for nap time, but after nap time was over the fun didn’t stop.  While anxiously waiting for Daddy to get home, we went for a walk around our neighborhood.  Alethea loves to go for walks and simply be outdoors so this was a hit.  Then Daddy got home and we hopped in the van and headed to Alethea’s favorite restaurant (and Mommy and Daddy’s too), Mellow Mushroom.  She loves pizza and she actually ate almost 2 entire medium slices by herself (minus the crust on one). 

We had such a fun time making her feel special and attempting to make the day/days as much about her as possible.  I think she loved celebrating her birthday this year and she even learned how to hold up 2 fingers and say that she is 2.  Though I don’t think she really gets what that means, lol.  She loved her “pah-tee” and she loved her day of fun so I would say this year was a big birthday success.  So thankful for our big 2 year old Alethea!

When looking for pictures, I realized I don't have any from her actual birthday...oops...must have been too busy having fun. :-)

Pregnancy Update: 24 weeks

I found this little diddy on a website I enjoy reading and I decided it would be fun to do...even if just this once. :-)

How Far Along: 

24 weeks

Due Date: 

June 13^th, 2013 (ish)

Boy or girl: 

We shall see upon arrival!  At first I was always telling everyone that we would love to have a boy, but would be happy with either.  Though that is still true, I feel like I truly am at a point where I would love to have either.  There are so many positives either way.  Obviously it would be nice to add a baby boy to our family since we already have a wonderful little girl, but then I also think about the fact that I never had a sister so that could be a really special thing for Alethea (and our family) as well.  Plus we already have all the stuff and know what to do with girls, lol.

Bump Picture: 

Baby Development:  

At week 24, baby's see-through skin is gradually becoming less translucent and is starting to look more opaque, like your own, but with the beauty of a new pink glow, thanks to the small capillaries that have recently formed. Plus, baby’s getting heavier and now weighs 12.7 to 20.8 ounces. She's 10.5- to 11.8 inches long now, too -- nearly an entire foot!
There's a lot happening inside baby as well, and while baby’s lungs have developed, they couldn't work outside of the womb yet. But the fact that baby’s lungs are fully formed means that baby’s closer to being ready to survive (and thrive!) in the outside world!

Symptoms:

I really feel like one of the biggest symptoms of late is simply increased movement on baby’s part.  The pregnancy has been just as easy going as it was with Alethea.  I am beginning to notice more signs up hip pain if I push it too much but, with running regularly, that is really minimal so far.  And I am going to start at the chiropractor next month hoping to do some preventative treatment for that as well as prep for birth.

Currently craving: 

I am not sure that cravings really exist.  I think I want things just like I would when not pregnant and just have to keep reminding myself that just because I am pregnant doesn’t right me the ticket to stop being healthy.  But don’t get me wrong, I love me some ice cream, pizza, and cookies every once in a while, but that is no different from normal life, lol.

Currently Avoiding: 

Nothing.

Belly button status: 

In, but it never went out with Alethea so I am not anticipating it this time around either.

Movement:

Feeling lots of it, particularly after meals or if I am wearing something with an elastic band.  Baby is not a fan of pressure on the abdomen and tends to “fight” back, lol.

Name:

We have pretty much narrowed down the girl name choice and the boy’s name is narrowed down for me, but Ben wants more time to think about it. J

Any appointments?: 

Glucose test/appointment March 6^th and I am bringing 100% OJ not from concentrate (1 ingredient) instead of the ridiculous orange toxins they provide.

Any baby related purchases?:

Nothing this week, but I am happy to say that we have all of our newborn fluff stash.  Now I am just trying to keep myself from prepping it as long as I can because I am dying to get it all ready to be worn. J  We also have a going home outfit for either gender. I am trying to reign in the planner in me so I have stuff to do later in the pregnancy.

Alethea: 

She still doesn’t really know what is going on, but I have purchased some new baby books off of half.com and she is really enjoying them so far.  She knows there is a baby in my belly, but I am not sure she really gets what that means since she thinks she has one in her belly too, lol.

Finally a January Update and 23 months!

            Wow, I have waited way too long to write this, but I figure I better go ahead and write about January before I forget all the details, lol.  January has been a busy month full of traveling, potty training, grad school, work, and surgery.  We have been going non-stop in some senses it seems.

            We had my family in town for the first few days of the new year, but they headed home to continue caring for my grandparents.  We had about a week or so to adjust to our new home after they left and then it was travel time for us.  We headed up to NY from January 12^th to the 21^st.  Since we were unable to travel for Thanksgiving due to expenses, we opted to make a post-holiday trip to NY instead. J

doing push-ups with Daddy

            Our trip to NY was busy but full of fun.  We spent the weekends with Ben’s mom and most of the week with his dad.  Alethea had a lot of fun with all the attention she received.  She really enjoyed seeing her Grandma and Boppa, and her Grandpa as well as G.G.  It was fun to see her have so much fun showing off all of her skills and getting to know Ben’s side of the family better.  One of Alethea’s favorite parts was playing with her buddy EmmaLee.  They had such a blast together despite a 6yr age difference. J We also got to meet up with several friends Ben has known since HS and college and it was a lot of fun catching up with them.  Alethea did awesome with all the traveling, but we were all definitely worn out by the end.  Alethea even fell asleep in the airport which pretty much never happens unless she is in her bed, lol.

Tuckered out sleeping in the airport...

that's what a 4am wake-up call and plane delays will do to a 22 month old

Helping take the outer paper of the T.P.

I know it's sideways, but I love this picture of Alethea and G.G.

Playing with Grandpa

 

EmmaLee!

Ben's mom's side of the family

            This month was quite the eventful month for Ben specifically.  He ended up with nose surgery on the 25^th of January in hopes of correcting his deviated septum and opening up his air passages so he could breathe better.  The end result is hoped to ultimately help him to deal with his allergy symptoms better. It was a pretty rough surgery for him, but will hopefully be worth it.  He also has allergy tests done and discovered that he is allergic to pretty much everything: all trees, all grass, all mold, all dust mites, dogs, cats, and more.  So we have been doing what we can to de-allergize the house, lol.

Snuggles with Daddy to help him feel better and a bit of imitating him, lol

            I have been staying busy with Alethea and my normal cooking and running.  I was even able to maintain my running while we were in NY, which I wasn’t sure would actually happen.  Running in the snow is definitely not my fave, but at least I wasn’t even hot during my runs.  Pregnancy has been treating me pretty well thankfully.  I get tired more quickly, but pretty much life as normal still.

Doesn't look like much yet, but it was definitely cold running in the snow along the lake

            And finally, it’s time for the update on Alethea.  Just when I think she is slowing down her growth some, she gets a bit taller.  Her 23 month stats are 36.25inches tall and 27lbs 9.6oz according to at home measurements.  I can’t believe my baby is over 3ft tall!  Her hair is even seeming to get thicker (not really much longer), and though it has taken almost 7 months, she is finally showing signs of her feet growing again and her shoes getting too small. J

Love this pic of her going "nah-naht" on the stairs

            As a posted separately the end of January marked a big milestone for our family.  No more diaper laundry and underwear 24/7 for Alethea.  She had been peeing on the potty sporadically prior and pooped for the first time on January 6^th, but we officially kicked off potty training on January 26^th.  She has done awesome and I am so glad we made the decision to proceed.  No chance of two in diapers for me come June, yay!

Big girl undies!

            I feel like she is changing so much every day.  She is growing into a little lady and, even if she still looks like my baby with little hair, she doesn’t talk like it at all.  We have been hearing so many combined words and even 3 word sentences this month.  Her language just keeps growing and it is so much fun (though lots of broken record moments) to watch her interest in communicating with words grow.  We can almost carry on conversations sometimes and she loves to respond to questions even when we are pretty sure she has no idea what she is saying “yes”, “no”, or “uh-huh” to, lol.

           She is developing into quite the repeater.  She loves to repeat the ABC’s with me (a great car activity).  My favorite letter she says is W which sounds like “dub-you”.  I also love her heightened interest in her colors.  Red and yellow are her favorite colors to identify, but she is getting awesome at red, yellow, pink, blue, and sometimes green.  Colors are a hard one, but she seems to be picking up on it on her own (definitely no official teaching from us).  She also loves to repeat the words of songs that she hears on the radio in the car.  This ends up being pretty hilarious because she really on repeats the words she recognizes and it is so funny to see which ones she chooses at times.  She also has taken quite the liking to singing and dancing/playing the air guitar while I sing to her at nap/bedtime.  Love it!  It’s looking like early on I have already influenced her with my love of music.  So excited to see how that grows over time. J

Potty training Mickey and Minnie, lol

            We have really been working on eating this month and she has done great with trying things.  She doesn’t always like them, but we at least seem to be getting more tasting happening these days.  In the past, she would just leave stuff sitting on the plate untouched or smeared.  Our new method with her is giving her the same thing as us for dinner every night and she gets usually only one item (sometimes two) that we know for sure she likes.  I am hoping this will encourage her to broaden her tastes over time and be more interested in veggies…eventually. 

Pasta face! 

 

One thing she tried at dinner one night was apples and peanut butter.  It was a more eclectic meal and I was trying to encourage protein so I offered peanut butter to dip her apples in.  She gobbled all the peanut butter up and then kept asking for more spoonfuls of peanut butter.  She is a girl after my own heart with peanut butter now, though she doesn’t care for it on sandwiches yet.

Alethea and I had a bit of a scary moment this month when I was making our eggs for breakfast.  She usually loves to watch me and always narrates with “hot…egg” which I make them.  But this particular day she randomly decided to slap the burner after I had turned it off and moved the skillet away.  Thankfully it had been off for a few minutes, but she still burnt stripes into her hand.  Totally shocked me, but let’s just say she doesn’t get to watch so closely anymore.  So thankful it was just a minor burn and, after lots of morning cuddles watching Mickey, she was back to normal in the afternoon.

Hand all bandaged up

Back to normal in the evening

Despite her stripes

What a great and full month as our little family of three (and a half)!

Our Potty Training Adventure!

            The journey toward potty training has been a long time coming.  She has been showing a ton of interest in using the potty since the end of November/beginning of December.  However, I felt it was most wise to wait on potty training given all of our busy-ness that was anticipated for December.  Plus, we knew we would be flying to NY in January and didn’t want to have to travel with a child freshly potty trained.  I read up a ton on the topic and then came to the conclusion that 22 months to 2.5years is the prime potty training age and since Alethea wasn’t even going to be 22 months until the end of December that further confirmed my decision.  We did however decide on our method which was largely guided by Lora Jensen’s 3 Day Potty Training.

            Alethea continued to request the potty sporadically (especially during post bath naked time) and we just kept that very relaxed.  We returned from NY the day she turned 23 months and we basically chose to start the process as soon as we could.  We started our intensive 3 days of potty training on Saturday January 26^th.  I wavered a bit initially whether I should start it since Ben was having surgery the day before, but really felt at peace with the idea, was incredibly anxious to start, and I figured we might as well take advantage of the fact we would be homebound for Ben’s surgery recovery anyway. J

            She already had all the undies she had received for Christmas so we were set to go.  We got up Saturday morning, ate breakfast, and then the potty training began.   I changed her into panties and a long-sleeved shirt (her wardrobe for the next day), showed her the potty and explained to her that she needed to let me know if she needed to go poop or pee.  We wheeled her changing table and all her diapers out of her room and said “no more diapers for Alethea”.  From then on it was longs of encouragement telling her things like “You are such a big girl in your big girl undies”, “mommy is so proud of you in your big girl undies”, and “make sure you keep your big girl undies dry and go pee in the potty”, etc.  The premise is lots of positives and no asking her if she needed to pee so we could avoid power struggles.

Potty Training Day 1: So proud of her Minnie Mouse Undies!

            The first few days went great and she was super excited about the potty.  We had accidents of course but by Monday she was really starting to catch on and asking to go potty herself which is the part where she is considered “trained” (though still a work in progress).  She only peed 1/3 days at nap time, but peed all three days at night.  So we started waking her up an hour after going to bed to pee and she hasn't peed at night since.  And in the 9 days we have been potty training she has only peed at naptime 2 times.  She has been in diapers 24/7 since the start and I have been pleasantly surprised with how well she has been doing.   I was expecting way more accidents!

            Our biggest struggle initially was pooping.  The only time in the first three days she pooped on the potty was during naked time because she knew she had nowhere else for it to go (I think), lol.  And then she continued for the next few days to have poop accidents in her diaper even though we would catch her partway through and she finished on the potty (most of the time).  Then we had a breakthrough on Friday night and she got a crazy look on her face and ran to the potty screaming “poop!”.  Since then, she has pooped only in the potty (though that has only been twice).

            The potty is becoming less of a luxury, so we are hitting a bit more resistance to pottying.  However, she is still doing very well.  All of our outings with us have gone wonderful and been accident free.  She did however pee in the nursery at church today, but I know she will catch on to how to tell them there too. J  Sorry that was such a long update about pottying, but I am just super excited about this milestone with our little girl.  She is growing up so fast and doing so well!

In her big girl undies snuggling with Daddy to make his "boo-boo" feel better