But I finally got a photo of the girls together and both smiling:
It Only Took Me 11 Months
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Category Archives: Alethea Margaret
Dr. Puppy, Paging Dr. Puppy
Alethea has two passions at the moment when it comes to play time. She loves toys that make music and she adores playing pretend. Her stuffed dogs and baby dolls go to the park, they take naps, go trick-or-treating and lately, they’ve also been spending a lot of time at the doctor’s office.
Of course, no real doctor would dream of doing an exam without gloves, so naturally Alethea pulls hers on before each check-up:
Yes, those are socks, not latex gloves. (On a funny side note, for a touch of realism, Alethea usually opts for her blue socks when she plays doctor, but on this particular evening, the blue socks were on her feet, so the yellow ones had to do.)
“Hello, Doctor Alethea!” I said.
“No, Mommy,” she replied, “I’m not Doctor Alethea! My name is Doctor Puppy!”
“Dr. Puppy, can you please tell me what’s wrong with Baby Doll?”
After a thorough examination, Dr. Puppy was ready to deliver her diagnosis.
“Baby Doll needs a band-aid!”
Thus saith Dr. Puppy.
Giving Thanks
Sorry for being a bit out of touch over the extended Thanksgiving weekend. We were busy enjoying ourselves at my grandparents’ house in Iowa along with my parents, sister Genna and her fiance James. A good time was had by all. There was lots of lighthearted conversation, some football watching and of course, eating! And because no feast would be complete without pie, Grandma made two, a caramel banana cream and an old-fashioned cherry. Alethea said she liked the cream pie the best, but she didn’t object to scarfing down the cherry either:
Genna, James, Peter and I stayed up late Thanksgiving night to play a hotly contested game of Settlers of Catan. James came out victorious in the end, but if he hadn’t won right when he did, Peter would have won on the next roll and I would have won on the roll after that, so yeah, it was a close one!
I also got some work done on my Christmas decorations. Here’s one of the supplies I was using:
Five points to anyone who can guess what the mystery material is. Five more points if you can also guess what I used it for. (And anyone who was with me in Iowa doesn’t get to answer!)
All in all, it was a relaxing, fun, tasty and surprisingly productive weekend. Hope yours was full of happy things too!
Changing Seasons
The last few days have really felt to me like a shift from autumn to winter. Here’s why:
*Saturday morning, Lydia woke up at 6:00am and wouldn’t stop crying, even with me holding and rocking her. So we went to the doctor as soon as they opened their doors. She’s got an ear infection, in both ears. Welcome cold and flu season.
*Once we got home from picking up Lydia’s antibiotic prescription, she zonked out for hours. Poor baby. But since Alethea spent the night at Gramma and Poppa’s (thanks John and Denny!) Peter and I were child free for the remainder of the morning and early afternoon. We got major yard clean-up done. In fact, I think this is the most prepared for winter our outside spaces have ever been. Goodbye leaves!
*As you can see from the above picture, we didn’t get our yard clean-up done a second too soon. While we were moving the last bags to the curb, it started snowing and kept snowing for most of the night. Alethea was just dying to get out and play in it, so that’s just what we did on Sunday after church. Welcome snow!
*Sunday night I made Sweet Potato and Red Pepper Soup. It’s one of our favorites! Welcome soup weather!
* Yesterday I did some more work on my budget Christmas decorations. This time it wasn’t painting branches though, it was peeling labels off of wine bottles! Welcome Christmas decor!
* That afternoon my mom came over and we took the girls to Menard’s to visit their Enchanted Forest. Alethea and Lydia both thought all the lights and trees were pretty wonderful. And I actually found a lawn ornament that I would consider putting in my yard. Yes, really! Welcome twinkle lights!
Goodbye Autumn! Welcome Winter!
Red in the Face
Today Peter’s mom came over to watch the girls while I ran errands. Alethea, as always, was excited to see her Gramma and everything was proceeding like a normal Wednesday morning. Before I left the house, Peter’s mom and I worked on breakfast for the girls, who were playing in the living room.
At one point Alethea came over to check on our progress. She stood lost in thought for a moment staring at Denny’s bright red shirt, when she suddenly exclaimed, “Gramma, you match Clifford!!!”
Yes indeed, at that moment we all matched nicely: Denny with her red shirt, Clifford (’cause he’s a big red dog) and me, oh yeah, with the bright red face.
Out of the mouths of babes…
At least Alethea said ‘you match Clifford’ and not, ‘you look like Clifford’. I suppose that would have been worse. And fortunately, Gramma Denny has a great sense of humor and was in no way offended.
I only hope Alethea hasn’t ruined that piece of apparel for her. Denny, if we have to buy you a new shirt to keep you coming around our house, we’d be happy to pick one up for you!
Playing Catch Up
I hate being sick. Like this weekend. I spent a lot of it on the couch with a horrible headache and achy muscles. More than not feeling good though, I hate falling behind around the house. What a mess!
I’m glad to be feeling better, but I’ve been playing catch up in my cleaning, so forgive my lack of blogging.
I’m going to go finish washing the dishes and then I’m going to do this:
Nighty, night!
Election Day
Don’t forget to vote!
Lydia’s Ten Month Update
Saturday was Lydia’s ten month birthday. Happy birthday, Sweetheart!
I can’t believe I’ve only got two months left before my baby turns one! Where does the time go? Remembering how quickly Alethea’s first months went by, I’ve tried to be very deliberate to savor every moment of infant closeness that I could with Lydia, but somehow it went even faster and now I’m sitting here, thinking about my pre-toddler, who shows me every day, “Momma, don’t cha know, I’m not a baby any more!”
This month Lydia did a lot of growing up. Most notably, she is now pulling up to standing all the time and everywhere. She still army crawls around the floor, but as soon as she reaches a chair, bookshelf or the stairs, she promptly pulls herself up to her feet so she can take a look around. She also does some cruising around while holding onto furniture and seems to be contemplating how she might be able to go no handed. This girl wants to get walking!
Lydia is also starting to communicate more. She regularly uses the signs ‘more’ and ‘all done’ when she’s eating. What really surprised me though was the other day when I asked her if she was all done, she made the sign, but then also said, “Ah da!” Her first words! I probably wouldn’t have even believed my own ears, but we were over at a friend’s house for a playdate and my friend totally heard it too. I shouldn’t be too surprised though, since Lydia clearly understands so much of what is being said around her. If you ask her, “Where’s your water?” she will look around and locate her sippy cup with her eyes and she makes excited noises whenever I ask her, “Do you want to nurse?” What a smarty pants!
As far as physical changes go, this month Peter and I have both noticed that Lydia’s eyes are turning brown and she is definitely getting more hair. She has a couple hairs that are maybe an inch long in the back. It’s still a ways from a full head of hair, but it is something. As far as the eyes go, they do still have a blue/gray ring around the outside, but the middles are pretty much solid brown. Oh and teeth, gotta mention teeth! After a marathon month of teething in September, we ended October with the same six pearly whites. However, the last few days have been a drool fest, so perhaps the remaining two of her baby eight are on their way in.
Lydia’s very most favorite activity is eating. She loves trying new foods, her recent favorites being turkey (lunch meat) and raspberries. You’d swear those berries have wings the way they disappear off her highchair tray! She is really starting to get the hang of her sippy cup and is interested in bowls and spoons, although she seems to view them more as playthings than eating utensils.
Speaking of playthings, she also enjoys playing with toys, as long as she’s sure they belong to her sister. She can spot a baby toy a mile away and regards them with utter contempt. But if she gets her hands on something that she’s seen Alethea play with, she’ll spend minutes on end trying to figure it out, even if it is nothing more special than a comb or bottle for Alethea’s baby dolls. This of course drives Alethea crazy and leads to a fair amount of conflict in our house on a daily basis.
The girls do occasionally have moments of playing together nicely. I think these will happen with increasing frequency as Lydia becomes more and more interactive. However, I still have to remind Alethea that Lydia is not yet so grown up that she can pretend to ride her like a horse.
I’m sure that it’s not wise to wish for time to stand still, but I’d almost like to hit the pause button in this month. And it’s not the impending holiday season that’s got me worried. I’m just not sure that I’m ready to give up my sweet baby girl and get a toddler in her place.
My dear little Lydia, your Mommy and Daddy love you more than you’ll ever know! Try not to get so busy growing up that you forget that we’d still like a cuddle ever now and then!
Busted!
A couple weeks ago, I hosted a baby shower at our house. So for a while, we had blue balloons randomly floating around our house. Naturally, Alethea thought that was pretty cool, but I started getting sick of them, so one by one, I was slowly popping and disposing of them.
Finally, last Sunday, we were down to two balloons. The girls hadn’t played with them for days, so I felt pretty safe popping them and tossing them in the trash. I did wait until the girls were safe in bed, just to avoid any scenes, but I didn’t think anyone would miss them.
Then today at breakfast, Alethea looked around and said, “Where are the balloons that we used to have?”
Gulp! Quick thinking me said, “I think they popped. They’re gone now.”
Alethea thought about that for a second and then asked, “Mommy popped them?”
I tried avoidance, “Maybe…”
Alethea wasn’t settling for that, “Mommy popped them?”
Time to fess up, “Yes, Alethea, Mommy popped them and threw them away.”
But what I want to know is, how did my little girl get so smart so quickly?!
Happy Halloween!
Alethea was asking all day when it would be time to go trick or treating, so she was delighted when it was finally time to get her costume on and head out the door:
Before we left the house, we coached her to say ‘trick or treat’ and told her that she needed to say ‘thank you’ when someone put something in her bag. She followed the rules very carefully.
At one of the first houses we went to, Alethea got a kit-kat bar, but Lydia got a tootsie roll pop, and boy did she think it was cool!
From that point on Alethea was determined to find someone to give her a sucker too! She took her home-made trick or treat bag door to door in search of someone with cheap candy, but wouldn’t you know it, all of our lovely, generous neighbors seemed to have mini candy bars.
We were down to the last two houses on our street when finally we found someone with suckers. When I told the nice lady who answered the door that Alethea was in search of a sucker, she gave her not one, or two, but three!
At that, Alethea handed me her bag full of chocolate bars, unwrapped one of the suckers, and shoved it in her mouth. Then as we walked down the drive way, she looked up at me and said, “I’m cold.”
“Should we go home now?” I asked her.
Despite the dum-dum hanging out of her mouth, she managed a big, “Uh huh!”
Once home, we let the girls enjoy the spoils, although Lydia mainly just had cheese crackers, because she found the sucker a bit hard to eat.
Alethea was mystified by her sister’s apathy towards the tootsie roll pop and proceeded to polish off two suckers and a kit-kat bar before we cut her off for the night.
I may have slightly over-estimated the amount of candy we needed. I think our numbers were down this year. Still, by giving out handfuls at the end, we managed to nearly run out by the time we turned the lights out.
So, all things considered, I’d call it a successful Halloween!
Hope yours was great too!