Dr Appt

Grant reading to Alayna while waiting...

Feb 17, Alayna had her 2 year dr appt. She weighs 23lbs 10oz which is the 20th percentile and is 33.5 inches tall - the 30th percentile. This continues to follow her growth chart as in the past - so that's great! What do we have to look forward to in the next year? Well - we can switch to skim milk. Hooray. You'd think that would mean we now only need to buy one kind of milk right? WRONG - Grant is still drinking whole with Carnation Instant Breakfast for the extra calories :) Oh well! We've been buying 2 kinds for 2 years - why stop now :) What else? This summer we will need to work on learning how to pedal on a bike - which Grant learned last summer so hopefully that will go well. We also have to work on things like knowing colors and drawing circles.
She does know her alphabet, can count to 10, knows she is a girl and NOT a boy, etc. As far as colors go - she starting to be able to pick things out if I ask her to point to the red something or blue something - but if I ask "what color is this?" - the answer is likely to be blue (no matter what).

Going into the dr appt Alayna informed me she was going to cry (apparently she remembered from last time). I tried to talk her out of it, but she did in fact cry. She was very skeptical of the dr when she was checking her out, but she let her do everything she asked. HOWEVER when the nurse came back - she knew she was getting a shot. Only one shot this time, but the real bummer was the finger poke for the lead test. The finger poke was first and they literally poke her finger and then collect blood from the poke into this little tube. Well - Alayna's blood came so quickly and I believe they told me it was thin - so it wasn't collecting into the tube - it was just making a huge mess all over. The nurse had to get a 2nd tube and Alayna was just have a fit. She was so sad. Once that was over - they put a huge band aid on her finger. I think that was almost as traumatic as the poke itself. The shot in her leg was not enjoyed, it was like bad icing on top of a crummy cake, but her finger - she couldn't get over. I gave her a sucker before it all even started and she didn't eat it for over an hour. Typically they are gone in minutes - this one she held on to the whole time we were with the nurse, leaving the office, driving to Kohls and half way through our shopping excursion. When we got home we took the HUGE band aid off and put on a smaller hello kitty band aid...that seemed to make it all better :) Crazy - next time I'm going to remember to bring them along with me to the appt!

Overall - she's a healthy little 2 yr old!

Alayna at 2

WOW - our little girl is TWO!!! Crazy to think - it's gone so fast! What is Miss Alayna doing at 2? Well.....
- size 4 diapers
- still mostly 18-24 mo clothes and going into some of the bigger 24 mo
- loves to sing - when getting in the car she ALWAYS asks for "hippo" or "little people" - the favorite "car" music these days. "hippo" = I'm a little tea pot on a CD with a hippo on the front. She sings a long to most of the songs; when singing them later on her own she tends to pick a portion of the song and repeat it over and over but it's so FUN to listen to her
- is in tumbling class and loves it...it's a great date with Daddy
- overall a pretty happy girl that is full of spunk!
- has a big sassy side right now...oh to figure out how to "control" that :)
- is in the process of getting her bottom molars
- the other last 4 teeth that have been working their way in over the last few months are about in - so that meant it's time for the NUK to go BYE-BYE
- Just to reiterate - last week (Tuesday) Brian cut the tip of Alayna's nuk. Now there is a gapping hole in the top and it doesn't work like it should. She's not totally willing to give it up yet and occasionally I find she's had it in her mouth but often I find it in the corner of her bed or on the floor. Tonight I put her to bed and she asked for it but I told her it was broke and moved on to something else and she went to bed without it. It was rough the for a while. She was only used to having it at naps and bedtime, but the second night when she went to bed she cried for an hour before allowing herself to go to sleep. It's hard for her to calm down...when we rock-a-bye at night she just talks and talks and won't let herself quiet down before going to sleep
- we read books before bed, then "bye-o-bye for 2 minutes" while listening to lullaby music and then go to bed
- loves fruit, juice (which she rarely gets so she downs it when she does :) ), pancakes & mac n cheese
- still loves purses & bags
- Grant and Alayna love playing "puppy" together. Sometimes it's enough to kill your ear drums, but it's hard to tell them to stop when it's the one thing they will play together that keeps them occupied and not on top of eachother :)
- Likes to put make up on with me in the morning - we put on lotion, blush and then some lip gloss...no eye stuff though :)
- Likes getting her hair dried
- LOVES to pick out her own clothes. Socks seem to be a big favorite item to pick out daily. Her favorite piece of clothing overall seems to be her "sweater" - a little blue hooded sweater from Children's Place that she picks out to wear whenever it's clean. She looks in the closet and if it's not there she asks "where's 'my sweater'?"
- becoming very independant - do it "myself" is heard OFTEN
- she's so much fun and I can't wait to see what this next year will bring.

LOVE YOU LAYNA-BEAR!!!!

Happy 2nd Birthday Alayna

Hooray I'm 2! (wearing the birthday outfit Mommy wanted me to wear. I like the shirt, but needed skittles once again to put the skirt on :) )
Look - Grant got me these cool blocks that have strings to make necklaces. What a nice brother!

This baby walks and talks and lays down - I'm not so sure I like it though

We went to Ted's for breakfast

Grant and I both ordered a pancake with strawberries and whip cream. Mine came out with 2 purse candles!

CHEESE!

Don't let this picture fool you - we both ate about 2 bites of our pancakes...I guess a plain pancake with butter and syrup would have been a better choice. We ate Mommy & Daddy's breakfast instead

Then we went to Monkey Joe's

It was a lot of fun!

After naps we opened one of my other presents of hair accessories and makeup - Grant is drying my hair

Daddy had a meeting at night so he came home early for dinner and we had cake as our first course

So far - being 2 is pretty fun!

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! Hope you had a great day with your loved ones! We did! Mommy and Daddy gave us a couple Valentine's in the morning (I got Toy Story 3 and some silly bands and Alayna got a backpack with dress up shoes inside and silly bands).

Then Daddy and I surprised Mommy and Alayna with flowers and dinner at Firefly. It sure was yummy! We even all dressed in red :)

We all had a great Valentine's Day! Hope you did too!

Alayna's 2nd Birthday Party

Feb 12, 2011 was the big day for my 2nd Birthday Party. It was so fun! My family came to make it really fun and special for me - I'm so glad they could all come. My Great Grandparents couldn't make it this time b/c they weren't feeling up to it and some live too far away, but hopefully we will see them soon. I woke up from my nap, right as the guests were starting to arrive. I wasn't really my normal chatty self - I was more reserved and wanted only certain people to hold and talk to me. Mommy thought it was a bit strange.

Here I am waiting in my chair to open presents. This was a lot of fun! I now "get it" and it's like to do this!
Mommy, Daddy, Grant and me

Thanks for your help Daddy

The purse cake Mommy made for me. When she asked me what kind of party I wanted while we were at the party store - I said a very grumpy "no" to each suggestion. Then she mentioned pink and purple - I liked that. So going with pink and purple - Mommy added in the purse theme - I am quite a fan of them you know.

With my cake

Blow 'em out

Grant gets a turn too

Mmmmmm...cake with mint chocolate chip ice cream

And this is me rockin' like Papa on his guitar. I borrowed Grant's, but Papa did bring his to sing Happy Birthday to me. Thanks Papa!

I received lots of great gifts and had a lot of fun playing with my cousins. Thanks everyone!

Mommy got me this outfit for my party. She thought it was really cute. I like the shirt - it's the number 2 with my name on it! BUT - I'm not such a fan of that tutu skirt! But hey - I got a whole pack of skittles (snack size) to wear it - so I guess it wasn't all bad. :)

Boys & Girls Night

Last week we were getting ready for my birthday party so Friday night called for a boys and girls night. We all went to McDonald's to eat and then Daddy and Grant went to get Grant's haircut and for pretzels at the mall. Mommy and I picked up some glittery fingernail polish and painted my toes and fingers for my party.

Blow them dry

Just to make sure....it's dry

(sorry - no pics of Grant getting his haircut, but I guess he fell asleep on the way there and it took forever for him to wake up to be ready for his cut :) )

Tumbling

Grant and I have been taking tumbling classes. Grant gets to be in the "big kids" class - so he goes by himself with the other kids and their teachers. I am in the parent-tot class with Daddy. We have a lot of fun together. Spectators are only allowed on the last class of each session. So last week Mommy got to come and watch me. Grant's session is twice as many weeks as mine - so she didn't get to see him yet.

Balance Beam
I'm pretty strong - I can hang from this bar by myself

And at the end of class we got to roll down this mat...sometimes I even did summer-saults

Big thanks to Daddy for taking us to tumbling! It's so fun!

Dressing Myself

I've been trying really hard lately to get myself dressed. I know Mommy has a lot to do - so anything I can do to help right? "MYSELF" is the big word - I like to do everything "myself".

Today I picked out Grant's shirt to wear - Mommy didn't think it was a great idea

This is the outfit I picked out myself. Flowered pants, magenta pink socks, and a striped shirt. Mommy even let me wear it all day (we weren't going anywhere :) )

Once again - trying to get dressed myself. (both legs in on pants leg) Don't forget to check for fuz in my toes!

Tried to go potty and finish all up on my own. It's really hard to get the back up on my pants :) No time to waste though - washing my hands is my favorite part!

The BEST Present Ever

Wow - I know I was behind for a long time with our blog updates. I've finally updated to the New Year....but now I'm gonna step back to Christmas 2010. I've not yet shared what our BEST present was of this last Christmas.

We were so very blessed this year with a lot of great memories and even some nice new material things. I could say that I'm most grateful for the camera we finally got. Something we were going to get for last year's (2009) Christmas present to each other, but we never did. But - it wasn't!

I could say - we were most surprised and excited when a new TV showed up at our front door a couple days before Christmas...with my name on it! :) Where did this come from? A really nice thank you gift from my sister. Can't say I was sad to see the big dinosaur tv we had make its way to the basement...but that wasn't the best present ever either!

We were once again crazy busy going from place to place - attending family party after family party. How blessed are we to have so many grandparents still living that we can see so many of our extended family members at Christmas. This is one of my favorite parts of the holidays...but not the best this year!

This year was especially fun to watch the kids. The sheer joy and excitement in their eyes as they finally realize they get to open presents that are just for them and on top of it spend time with Grandparents and cousins. Oh to be little again! But...that wasn't the best part ever either!


Brian and I received the BEST PRESENT EVER on Christmas Eve! We found out we are PREGNANT! We are expecting Baby Meidam #4 and he/she is due to arrive August 31, 2011. What a GIFT! You know - all the material things in the world fail in comparison to this true little miracle we've been given. I know we have a long way to go before this little one is in our arms, but I have to be positive and trust all will go well and come August - we will have another little Meidam to cuddle.


So far I've had one dr's appt at 8 weeks. We heard his/her heartbeat and were given the due date of August 31. I will be 11 weeks tomorrow and have been feeling great with the exception of being tired and needing naps at the same time as the kids on some days (which is easier said than done if Grant isn't napping that day). BUT - I will take it! I can not complain at all compared to what some of my friends have experienced!


We'd greatly appreciate your prayers for this little one and that all will go well with the remainder of this pregnancy. Thank you all in advance!

Forts

Last week we built a fort with Daddy and read books before bed!

Crazy Girl

Alayna is really trying to define her independence lately. Wanting to do big kid things like color with Grant's markers and pick out her own clothes - not to mention putting them on herself.

Here she is all ready to color with Grant's markers - in one of Daddy's old t-shirts. Even if they are washable - I don't care to have to get it out of every shirt she wears :)

Great hat right? :) I think it's cute!

Daddy's Phone

Sometimes when Alayna wakes up in the morning and we aren't quite ready to get up ourselves, she cozies right up next to her Daddy and says "Barney phone?" Which means - can I please watch Barney on your phone Daddy? Boy - she's lovin' it! (and I don't think Daddy's too sad about the snuggle time either.)

Just like Angels

It's these pictures that sometimes help a mom make it through the day :) The little sweet angelic looking children you look at everynight before you go to bed. Just because they aren't there all day - doesn't mean they don't come back in the middle of the night :)