Dad's Obessions

A co-worker came into my office today and said it was too bad I didn't like the princess. Here is a picture of the wall behind my computer. I don't think there are enough Alice pictures. Eight are visible here...more on the other walls and tabletops.

Night with dad

Mom had to work late tonight so I had dinner and bath duties with the princess. So, we had some fun at dinner.

Beeping Sleauty

For those of you who have no idea what the title of this post means, it is a Spoonerism.

My father called me Beeping Sleuty all the time so the term is near and dear to my heart. Alice is most definitely a beeping sleuty.

Animal Sounds

Just a quick funny... Alice and I have been reading animal books lately. She points to an animal, I tell her what it is and then tell her what sound it makes. In one book there was a lion, a tiger, and a cheetah. I told her each time that they were really big kitty cats and that they said ROAR. I try to get her to repeat what I am saying but she rarely does.

Last night, we were reading a book that had owls in it. I asked her what an owl says (previously 'learned'). She straightened her back and very proudly said ROAR!

First Day of Spring

We decided to take advantage of the sun yesterday and we went to the park around the corner from the house.

Where to begin...

There is so much to tell you about the last couple of weeks...This post will be a number of individual posts in one, I think. Bear with me.

I can see clearly now...
Alice had her eye surgery last Thursday. The morning went smoothly, we arrived at the surgery center at 7am, moved to the exam/prep area by 8am, and were done and ready to go home by 9:30am. Before the surgery, the doctor talked to us about probing both ducts instead of just the left/problem duct. We agreed that it would be a good thing to do just in case. The nurses came in to introduce themselves to us and then essentially scooped Alice up and took off with her before she could realize what was happening. I was strong through most of the morning until I heard her crying up the hall - that is when I broke down. John and I gathered our things and walked to the waiting room. No joke, 10 minutes later, the doctor was out of the OR and sitting with us. He said that both ducts were indeed blocked and were now clear. He was confident that she should not have any problems in the future. We were then brought to a private room to await our girl. Fast forward 30 minutes later, we arrived at home and Alice slept until 1pm! She seemed to have a fairly easy time with the anesthesia. She was in such good spirits that afternoon that we even took a trip to Bridge Street to let her run.

Is that your FINAL Answer?
Alice has decided that she wants to be ON every table in the house - her play table, the coffee table, the kitchen table, every one. With her play table for example, she will stand in front of it and hoist her knee up on it, stop and look at me. I will tell her NO and she will just freeze as if she is waiting for me to give her a different, more Alice-pleasing response. If I say NO again, she will look at John to see what his answer will be.

Look Who's Talking
Alice is talking more and more. Most of what she says is just babbling but she is adding lots of new sounds. The latest is a dub-a-dub-a-dub or bud-a-bud-a-bud that is just too cute when she gets going saying it loud and fast. I am ready for her to say Yabba Dabba Doo. We obviously talk to her so much using words that she cannot possibly say and we are stunned sometimes when she repeats things. She is getting appropriate sounds but to the beginning of words but not the end of words. Dog is Daw, Ball is Ba, etc. On Monday, she was playing with the US State magnets on the fridge while I was making dinner. She handed me the NY magnet and I told her that Mommy grew up there. I pointed to and said Syracuse and I swear to you, she said "Syracuse". Of course she would not say it again but I know she said it. She is an excellent mimic, she said "circle" last night after John said it about a dozen times. She makes the same sounds we make, all the time! (And how lucky for me....John started singing her "Who let the dogs out" last night just to teach her the woo woo woo part. Yeah, I am really looking forward to hearing that constantly.) The coolest thing so far is what happened Tuesday morning. John went in to wake her up for school, she stood up in her crib, took her pacifier out of her mouth to give to John and said, "Here's this". We are not calling Mensa yet but we are thinking about looking up the number just to have on hand. lolol

Let's just sit and chat
This one may be mildly inappropriate but it is too funny not to share. Alice has a meltdown if I close the bathroom door when I am using it so it has just become easier for me to go to the bathroom with the door open - I know, TMI. Anyway...Alice has started wanting to close all doors... room doors, cabinet doors, fridge doors. Problem solved for my bathroom situation, right? Wrong. Alice wants to be IN the bathroom with me when she closes the door. OK, well, that is not that big of a problem except for the fact that she has decided that this girl time in the bathroom is the perfect time for a chat. She insists on crawling up onto my lap while I am on the toilet. She just sits there and talks to me. Oh, and she takes a wad of toilet paper, rubs/wipes her little nose then turns to me and rubs/wipes my nose. The other night, after Alice was in bed, I was in the bathroom. John comes to the closed door and says, do you need me to sit on your lap? ha ha ha....very funny.

In other news
The three of us are coming down with colds so this weekend will be a quiet one. The weather is getting slightly warmer so we have been going for lots of walks and have found a couple of parks that she likes. She LOVES the big slides. We are saving our pennies to buy Alice a wooden swing set but I am not sure if it will happen this summer. We also need to get a fence installed around the pool which is a little higher up on the priority list than swings so... we will be heading to the park a lot instead of the back yard.

John's parents aka ChaCha and Marshmallow are visiting for Easter. Due to illnesses and unexpected events, they have not seen Alice since last May!! (we Skype every weekend but it is not the same) We are all so excited for the visit and I hope that Alice takes to them as quickly as she took to my mom. I am sure she will!

Weekend with GaGa

GuGa is the new name that Alice gave her Gramma (my mom, Kathy) this weekend. We all had a great couple of days despite the fact that Alice is getting 4 new teeth. I have heard that the eye teeth are the hardest on babies and Alice is no exception. Tylenol and Orajel were staples this weekend. The good news is that the two top ones have popped through and her face is starting to recover from the blotchy-ness.

GuGa arrived on Thursday evening with just enough time for Alice to warm up to her before bedtime. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday were spent playing around the house and going for walks. On Monday, we went to the local park and had a blast! As you can see from the pictures below, Alice also had a great time walking around in GuGa's sneakers. She put them on herself and pushed her grocery cart all around the house. She looked like she was wearing ski boots - it was so funny.

Alice just loved playing with GuGa and was happy to let her do things that John and I usually do (diapers, meals, etc) which gave us a nice break. As usual, Alice keep us laughing all weekend. On Sunday morning, Alice, my Mom, and I were all upstairs getting cleaned up. Alice was in GuGa's room when my she got out of the shower. Alice started to leave as GuGa took off her towel to get dressed. Alice turned around, walked over to GuGa and patted her on the bare bottom, walked away, then came back and patted her bottom again. How funny is that! Wonder where she picked that one up?

Alice was very sad to see GuGa leave on Monday afternoon. Typically, Alice cries whenever John or I get out of the car (when she is staying in the car) and this weekend Alice cried whenever GuGa got out of the car. It was sad but very flattering for GuGa. :)

We will not see GuGa again until our beach vacation in August :( but ChaCha and Marshmallow are coming to Huntsville for Easter :) so Alice will be showered with grandparent love again very soon.

Creature of Habit or...

Monster in the Making? You be the judge...

Most of you know from past posts that John has weekday breakfast duty with Alice. Well, John has been out of town for part of this week so I have been on the breakfast shift for a few days. Tuesday morning was my first weekday breakfast in quite a while and wow, what an ordeal.

Alice woke up cheerful as usual and did not seem to mind the fact that it was Mommy instead of Dadidi. (This is what Alice has started calling John. It is the cutest thing - she jumps and down and squeals "Dadidi, Dadidi"). I got her changed and dressed and we headed downstairs for breakfast. She wasn't in her high chair 3 minutes when she started this mad little grunt, pointing to the cup area of her tray. I was obviously not getting her milk cup fast enough. I made 3 slices of cinnamon raisin toast, intending one for her and two for me. I took one slice and broke it into pieces and put it on her tray. Nothing doing. She got so mad at me and kept pointing to my toast. I ignored her while I made the rest of her breakfast. She got madder and madder until I finally gave her the paper plate with my toast on it. She took the whole slices and started breaking it into pieces and ate them all - except the original pieces I gave her.

While she was eating, I put her socks on and started putting her shoes on. She flipped out and kept kicking and yelling at me when I would attempt to put the shoes on. I could not figure out what on earth was going on. She was not in pain, she was eating, she had a clean, dry diaper on. What the heck!

By this time, John called to check in on "breakfast with the princess". I should have zero-ed in on a clue right there. I asked him about the toast - he tells me that he usually just gives her a whole slice and lets her break it up. Strike one, Mama. I asked him if he had trouble putting her shoes on and he said no. Then he said, "Wait. Did you tell her that she was Cinderella and that the shoes were her magic shoes?" Uh, no....Strike two, mama.

Luckily, breakfast was over and we were out the door before I could strike out for a third time. Breakfast went a lot smoother this morning....I was sure to tell her all about Cinderella and her Wicked (step)Mother.