Five Step Program

My new years resolution to be a better blogger is really not working out for me. But what can I expect when I have such a bad track record with my past resolutions? I might as well just decide to fail! :)

Ok, now that you know I feel bad about the lack of communication, I can move on.

The biggest news I have to share (as some of you already know via facebook) is that we found out Monday that we are having another baby girl! She is healthy and functioning as planned at this age, which was a huge relief to hear. I was more than excited leading up to the sonogram, which can probably account for part of the reason that the whole thing seemed very anti-climatic. With Allison, I was alert and focused on the screen, Frank was pacing the room, and the moment we found out the sex we were beaming and ready to make phone calls. This time, when we were told 'it's a girl!', we remained calm and viewed it as more of an interesting fact than life changing news. Don't get me wrong, we're very excited about our new addition, but it's just such a different feeling with the second child. I find myself pondering how Allison will adjust, and ways to prepare her for the change, and wondering how my heart will find room to love another one just as much. All that will work itself out, I know - but those are the things on my mind.

I'd say the most frequent question we are getting these days is regarding the baby's name. We attempted to keep Allison's name a secret, because quite frankly we don't desire any else's opinion (which is inevitable). We also think it's a fun surprise, but our families don't really share that excitement. We haven't decided for sure yet if we will share her name in advance, but I think we will most likely keep it to ourselves. So far, though, we have not been able to stick with a name yet, so there is currently nothing to share anyway! I'm sorry if this is disappointing. We love our families, but Frank and I really cherish keeping some things between us.

The next thing I'm asked about is my back. All I can say is praise the Lord I'm still up and moving!! I don't have a single doubt in my mind that God is keeping me in good health so that I can continue to take care of Allison without burdening family and friends. I have been virtually pain free for almost 4 months now - which is longer relief than I've found with any other treatment. Last week I had a scare where I pulled my back putting Allison in her car seat, and I was in so much pain the next day that Frank had to come home from work to help with Allison. I was in tears that night thinking that it might be the end for me, but after a weekend of rest and ice packs I feel like new again. Really, this is a miracle. My back has never healed on its own.

Now for the explanation on the 'Five Step Program'. This will take a little explaining, but stick with me. As I mentioned in my last post, we got Allison a toddler bed that we planned to move her to some time before her sister arrives. In my head, I was thinking we'd wait until she turned two so that I could explain to her how great it is to have a 'big girl bed', and how she needs to give up her bed for the baby, etc. Right now, she knows that it's called her 'big girl bed', but the phrase 'big girl' has no meaning to her, and therefore no perks. Well, earlier this week I watched her attempt to climb out of her crib while I was putting away her laundry. Once I noticed that she was basically just laying on the front bar I ran over to save her (afraid of the fall) and at that point she felt like it was safe to let go because I was there to help. But that was that. She didn't try it again for a few days and I assumed she had forgotten this new trick. Yesterday, though, she was really fighting her nap, and made the decision to go for it. I was watching her in the monitor, and when I realized what she was doing I ran for her room to stop her but it was too late. She had already hit the floor and was screaming. I comforted her for a little while and then put her back to bed with the assumption that that had to have hurt too bad for her to try it again. Wrong! Just two minutes later I see her hiking her leg up on the front bar again, and this time I REALLY ran. But she was too fast and I again found her flat on the floor, and crying even harder that time. It took a lot of rocking, singing, and playing to get her to stop crying and my mama's heart wouldn't risk her doing it a third time so I gave up on the nap all together. Obviously, the crib is out, because it's not safe anymore so I needed a plan. A 'program' if you will - to make the transition to her new room.

Here were my thoughts. There is NO WAY she would get any sleep in her new room right now because it's just that: new. New room, new decorations, new toys, new bed, new freedom. So I decided that we would convert her crib to a toddler bed and leave the bumper attached so that it very closely resembles what she is already used to. With this set-up she can still safely get in and out on her own, but it require a little work to climb over the bumper. The next step will be to remove the bumper - and I'm having a hard time with that one. Allison LOVES that bumper. Ever since she was little she has crammed herself into a corner of it to sleep. She cuddles with it like a stuffed animal, and I'm honestly not sure how she'll sleep without it. The next step is to let her start taking naps in her new room. If the temptation to get up and play is too strong, then she'll take her naps in her tent in the new room instead. Finally, we'll eventually have her spend the night in her big girl bed. I anticipate that is will take a few months and a lot of sleepless afternoons, which I'm not looking forward to, but I guess this is necessary. Perhaps this was the way we should have been planning it all along, and we just needed her prodding to adjust our schedule. We'll see.









Wow. The more I write, the more I realize exactly how much I have on my mind. I think I could write a novel of thoughts at this point. Nothing super interesting, just stuff I feel like recording right now.

I think for now, though, I'll just say a quick 'thank you' to Emily Malone. I read a blog post she had about a week ago (maybe longer) about efficiency. It really made me think of how I'm going to need to restructure my time when I have two kids. Right now, I'm working on making dinners at our house less stressful. In the very recent past I had been waiting for Frank to get home before starting dinner because then he could amuse Allison so I could cook without having her hang on my legs and try to push me out of the kitchen. But I considered what she said about making dinner every other night, and then keeping leftovers so that dinner doesn't need to be a hassle every night. I've been meaning to expand my menu for quite some time now, because I'm getting tired of shopping for, cooking, and eating the same things over and over - and this seemed like a good time to finally do that. I picked out three new recipes to try this week and then made a very meticulous grocery list. I actually had more fun at the grocery store this time since my eyes were looking for new ingredients. Last night I made King Ranch Chicken. It's not difficult to make, but it is time consuming. Frank was a HUGE fan, and I was surprised that even Allison ate it! We ate almost half of it, and I froze the rest. I'm new at freezing food, and a little nervous it will be ruined, but my hope is that I can pull it out next week, and make a wonderful meal of it again. Tonight I tackled homemade baked potato soup, and that was awesome! Probably better than any soup I've ever had. MMMM! So anyway, thank you Emily for taking the time to share your thoughts. I've learned a lot from you - even at a great distance.

Finally, I will make the inevitable comments about the snow in Dallas. Personally, I don't care for snow. I think it's very pretty to look at, but I don't care to stand in it, make a snowman, or even a really good snowball. However, my assumption was that all kids love snow, and I would therefore be a bad parent if I didn't give Allison the chance to play in it. I resisted going out in it all day yesterday since the snow was literally falling from the moment I woke up till I went to bed, and I didn't want to be soaked. Today, though, we had a blanket of about 8-10 inches of snow in our yard, so Allison and I got bundled up to go play in it. The previous day I had been building it up for her. All the blinds were open so she could see out, and we'd talk about snow, and how it's cold etc. She got the idea and would run to the window and yell 'snows!'. (That's another story - Allison says all her words in the plural form right now. No idea where she learned that.) Anyway, I digress. All that to say, I expected excitement from her. However, she is certainly my child in this regard. The moment both of her feet were planted in the snow she started whining and wanted to be picked up. I didn't give up that easy. Just because I don't care for it doesn't mean she can't give it a chance. I moved in front of her to try and get her to venture out farther, but she turned around and ran back up to the front door and started pounding on it. I eventually coaxed her to walk down the driveway, and she fussed the whole time. Then she spotted a section of concrete where the snow had melted and she made her way for it. She plopped herself down right into the slushy puddle, soaking her jeans. *sigh* In my last effort to entertain her outside, I decided that it was quiet enough on our street that I could let Maggie out to run around with us. She LOVES the snow, and Allison liked watching her enjoy it. :) In all, we spent around 20 minutes outside, and then came in to get some lunch. I posted a really funny video of her outside in the snow on facebook. Definitely check that out.

Here's the view from our front door.

These pictures are in order. This is the point where she headed back to the door!

What good would a blog be without a bunch more pictures? Here are some fun ones I've collected in the last month that are unrelated.

Allison loves her cousin Drew!

Well, she's now waking up from her nap, and it's about time to start prepping for dinner so that's all! I hope you all have wonderful weekends!

Mama...eat...please

FYI - The pictures in this post don't necessarily go with the text. I just like them. :)

I have to skip the trip from Phoenix for one post, because I can't resist bragging on Allison. She had her 18 month check-up last week. Her percentages remained steady: Weight 23.4lbs (29%), Height 32.5in (81%). When the doctor asked if she was able to say 6-8 words, I was proud to tell her that Allison had collected around 60 words! She told me that she expects most kids to start putting words together into phrases by the age of two, but that she felt like Allison would do that well in advance. Cool, I thought - but I didn't expect that to be THIS week!







The first time she did that was on Monday while I was making her scrambled eggs for breakfast (which I've learned she will eat if they are topped with a little cheese and ketchup!). She was hanging on my leg, and I asked her what she needed. She looked up at me and said "Mama, eat, please!". Wow! She had never even put two words together, so I was shocked! Since then she's been collecting more words, and starting to make more phrases. I absolutely love communicating with her because I can finally find out what's going on in her head. I've been writing down her new words to keep track of what she knows, but this will probably be the last list I give here because she is learning so much every day that it's impossible to keep up. But just for grins, here are the words she has learned in the last couple of weeks: water, bubbles, strawberry, banana, cookie, hot dog, cow, please, milk, cup, apple, hat, mittens, pretty, more, Drew, off, push, pull, bear, bow, legos, belly button, chair, eat, cold, book - and the one that will eventually cause me a lot of embarrassment in public - poo poo. :) That one came in handy when her Aunt Jen was watching her in Phoenix, though. Jen reports that Allison was sitting in her lap and looked up at her, pointed to her pants and said "poo-poo!". Well, at least that's helpful!





After Christmas we set ourselves to the task of cleaning out our spare room (or if I'm honest, our junk room) because we needed space to put Allison's new big toys like her kitchen. That room also has her "big girl bed" already in it so she can get used to seeing it and crawling on it before we move her permanently around her second birthday. She loves having a room to herself, and she'll spend over half an hour in there at a time playing alone and pretending to cook. The rest of the day she is pushing around either her shopping cart or her stroller. She likes to run into us or Maggie at full speed and yell 'boom'! Since Frank and I are usually on a couch or chair to keep us out of the way, Maggie gets most of the abuse. The poor dog spends a good portion of her day trying to avoid impact.

Here's Allison the first day I showed her the toddler bed. It was love at first sight!







Here she is looking darn cute in her slippers!





Another big moment for Allison was her first haircut. She was looking a little shaggy, and needed a slight clean up around the edges. We took her to a local kid salon, where she sat in a race car chair watching Finding Nemo while they wet her hair down and then cut it. Allison was so well behaved, that even I was surprised. There was no squirming or crying. She just sat there smiling and saying saying 'cheese!' when a camera was pointed at her. I was shocked at how simple the hair cut was! The lady literally combed it down in the front and made 3 snips to even out her bangs, and then combed down the hair at her neck and made 3-4 more snips to even out the back. Guess how much that cost? You're not going to believe they charged us $19 plus tip for that!! The whole experience was ruined for me at the register because I felt cheated for being charged a ridiculous flat rate when they spent less than 5 minutes with us from wet down to blow dry. Oh well, lesson learned. I'm buying my own scissors and cutting it myself from now on.









I'm ashamed that I didn't actually get a good 'after' shot. But honestly, it doesn't look that different.


I mentioned reading 'Parenting by the Book' a few blogs ago, and that comes to mind again as I'm now starting to need to practice some of the discipline that it teaches. The book refers to all toddlers as 'little criminals', which I actually think is pretty fitting. My little criminal has started making herself known around our house recently. It's hard to watch my sweet innocent little girl find her mean and defiant side. Since she still can't express herself with words as well as I'm sure she'd like to, she has decided to start yelling something that sounds like 'MMMEEEEE-OOOOOOOOWWW!' when she's mad. Apparently she's a very angry cat. :) Anyway, since you aren't here to hear it, I'll translate. It means (and I quote) 'No I will not do what you are asking me to do, and I'm furious that you think you could impose that on me, so now I'll stand here and stare you down to let you know I mean business! So back off Mom!'. Brevity is one of her strengths. Of course if Allison knew how competitive I am, she'd know that I'd never lose a fight with my toddler, and I certainly won't be disrespected by one. So each time she yelled at me she got popped on the back of the legs, and I made her look into my eyes as I told her 'No' as powerfully as I could without yelling. She'd immediately break down into tears, and I'd leave her to work it out. When she was done, then we could hug and cuddle again. This went on for a little over a week, but each time she said it she got more quiet and unsure of herself. At the end she would put her head down and look at me out of the corner of her eye and say it almost in a whisper, which is still not ok and gets the same response from me. I'm super proud to report that it's now been days since I've heard the dreaded 'word', and she actually seems happier. It's true that kids love discipline and boundaries.

Now for just some really cute and unrelated pictures of Allison!







These last few remind me of a post from Emily not long ago about Luke wanting a ton of Christmas bows in his hair. Allison found her bag of bows and started bringing them to me one by one and leaning her head down saying 'bow!' so I would put it on. We ran out of space quickly, and this was the result.

Christmas Corner

With less than two weeks since my last post, you won't believe how much I have to share! Between Christmas, a trip to Phoenix, first haircuts, pregnancy news, and Allison having a bunch a cute moments, this blog could be quite long. I don't think I'm up to it, so I''ll have to split it out into a few posts. Patience, patience...

I guess I'll just go in order and start with Christmas. Frank and I were both very excited about it this year because we were anticipating a lot of excitement from Allison. We didn't get her much because we never want Christmas to be just about gifts at our house. We obviously want to emphasize Jesus, but also family traditions, and giving to others. So this year we bought Allison a kitchen at a consignment sale, and some pots and pans to go with it. We also got her a few books and some jewelery to play dress up with. She loved the kitchen, and we loved watching her play with it and seeing her mind alive with imagination. It was also fascinating to realize how much she watches me in the kitchen.

First thing Christmas morning.

Opening her stocking filled with some fun jewelery.

She wasn't quite as excited about that as I had expected, but she's a big fan now.













After her nap we had plans to go to my parents house to open gifts and have dinner with my family. We decided to dress Allison up in her Christmas dress and surprise everyone since since she hadn't had a chance to wear it. You can tell she felt very pretty posing in front of the tree. We took a bunch of photos, and I really can't pick. Doesn't she look like a little girl now??









The rest of these are a few pictures from my parents house. We had a great time there, and the grandkids were definitely spoiled! Allison got several new outfits, some fake food to go with her kitchen, and a grocery cart! Our house is filling up quickly! Help!

Opening a present from Uncle Eric and Aunt Amy.

It's a doll! She loves to push this doll in her new shopping cart. :)

Of course, it never takes Allison long to scout out Eric.

A new Elmo toy!

I think Amy had to pin her down for this picture. There was just too much going on!

Baby Drew was also distracted by all that was going on.

Allison opening her shopping cart.

As if all that wasn't enough fun, we had also had a visit from Frank's mom (Allison's Mimi) on Christmas Eve. She also came bearing (too many!) gifts for Allison. She got a pink portable DVD player, several DVDs to play on it, and a baby/stroller combo! I told you Allison was spoiled! She hasn't stopped running over me and Maggie with that stroller since she got it. Apparently it's really funny to hit someone at fun speed and watch them jump!

Allison had just gotten up from a nap when Mimi arrived, and for some reason decided to stay in a pretty grouchy mood the rest of the night - despite all the fun toys! That should clarify her lack of spunk in some of these photos.















That's all for now, but as I mentioned I'm very behind on posts so come back soon for more of our adventures from the last couple of weeks! On a quick side note regarding the pregnancy - I start my second trimester tomorrow and at the moment I'm not feeling too much better for it. The nausea had slowed up for a little while, but it's back now in full force. I'm not sure what changed but this is definitely going the wrong direction!! All that to say that if the next few posts come slower than you'd like, that's probably why.