Another?

Since Alanna turned 2, we've been talking about whether or not we want another child. Both families seem to think that we definitely do want another child. The argument we keep hearing from them is "You can't just have one"...as if they were potato chips or something. Where is it written anyway that we can't just have one?

The bad part or good part depending on how you look at it, is that this skewed logic seems to be sinking in. I wouldn't trade my little brother in for the world (of course, had you asked me when I was 10 I would have traded him in for $10). Having a sibling teaches one a lot and once you're older, it's nice to have that fellowship and comraderie to talk about your parents and understand EXACTLY why you're both so messed up.

What we keep coming back to though is the inconvenience factor. Perhaps that's just selfish of us though. Alanna is finally at the stage that is just really fun. She can communicate with us in a way we can understand. She's almost out of the dreaded diapers. She eats what we eat. She sleeps most of the time through the night. I'm really just not a baby person at heart. Maternity leave was not overly fun for me and my idea of a good time isn't getting blurped on and having to get up 6 times during the night. Not to mention $$$$$. Daycare already costs about $500 a month and that amount would go up. They say that going from one child to two is a huge financial and lifestyle difference. Whereas two to three isn't as big of a deal (I suppose you're already beat down by then.) Truly though, money is definitely an issue. We want to be able to provide for our child (children if that happens) in such a way that is comfortable. We want to be able to have a nice home, go on vacations, and help with college costs.

At the same time, we love Alanna so much and I'm sure having two would just double the amount of cute factor moments that occur. So that being said, here are some possibilities for names if indeed we do decide to have another:

Boy--
Spencer Bruce
Corvin Drake

Girl--
Amelia Layne
Aria Grace
Ariella Grace
Arabella

Christmas 2005

This Christmas was all about Alanna for sure. It was so much fun to see her little face light up when we finally got ready to open all of the presents that had accumulated under the tree. True to tradition we put them in little piles for each person in anticipation of doing the round robin opening where each person opens one at a time, but Alanna's pile dwarfed all of ours easily.

When she realized that she actually got to open them, it was pure delight for her. She was so intrigued by each gift that she wanted to spend time playing with each one before opening the next. Even then we had to coax her to open the next one because she didn't want to stop playing with the one before it.

The prime rib turned out divine. It practically melted in your mouth and smelled so fantastic while it was cooking. However, it will likely be a while before I spend $100 on a piece of meat for the holiday dinner again.

The rocking horse was a huge hit. She hopped right on (with Daddy's help) and pulled her pink cowgirl hat off of her head saying "Yeehaw!!". We're not sure where she learned that from, but think we've tracked it back to Sesame Street and the little cowgirl on there.

I was said to see Mom & Joe go. As I've gotten older, my relationship with them has vastly improved. Not that it was ever poor by any means, but it's more relaxed now and adult. More like having good friends over for a few days versus your parents. They were so sweet and brought up my daybed from home, so we redid the downstairs office/gaming room and it's so much more homey and organized now.

Things Alanna got: (or should I say--how the munchkin made out like a bandit)
Rocking Horse
Dora DVDs: Fairytale Princess & Cowgirl Dora
Blue's Clues DVDs
Veggie Tale DVD
Little People House, Castle, Train, Nativity, Santa set
Disney Princess Dress Up Trunk
Clothes (really cute clothes that mommy thought were far neater than she did--yup she's a kid!)
This animal barnyard music piano that will put mommy & daddy in the loony bin
A really neat travel chalkboard
Lots of cool art things including a smock
And many more things that now live in my living room/toy room that don't come to mind at the moment.

Things Jana got:
Beautiful sapphire/diamond three stone ring for my right hand
Tempurpedic pillow
Hand made Recipe Book from my wonderful soon to be sister-in-law (next Friday in fact!!)
Incense Feng-Shui set
Patricia Cornwell book
Cabella's full body wrap blanket
And other wonderful things for the house like sheets, towels, and such.

Things Jeb got:
Dragon Eggs
LotR collector's letter opener replica sword
GeoMags panels set
Monster Manual III for D&D
Frostburn for D&D
Draakar cologne
Pocket Ref Book...COOL book!!
Spiderman 2 DVD

Link Toddler Ware

Alanna in her snazzy new Link shirt from Shop of Scott . Check it out--all the cool toddlers will be wearing them soon!

Cindy Lou Who

Alanna looking like Cindy Lou Who

Toddler Creed

Got this in an email and thought it was darn cute and true!

Toddler's Creed
If I want it, it's mine.
If I give it to you & change my mind later, it's mine.
If I can take it away from you, it's mine.
If I had it a little while ago, it's mine.
If it's mine, it will never belong to anyone else no matter what.
If we are building something together, all the pieces are mine.
If it looks like mine, it's mine.

For the most part, Alanna isn't too much into the "mine" phase. She is, however, vying for control of the Toddler Underground at daycare.

There are three 2ish year olds at daycare. C (2.5), D(will be 2 this month), and Alanna. There's definitely a power struggle going on. For almost all of last week C was getting in trouble for pushing Alanna down like a weeble wobble. This continued through Wednesday at which point Alanna began screaming her head off if C would come within 3 feet of her. Then on Thursday we get the report that Alanna was put in time out for biting C. So, a part of me wants to give her a high five for not taking the bullying and the mommy part also wants to make sure that it doesn't become a habit. It's awfully hard to find good daycare for a biter ;) Turns out, she was in fact provoked by C, but that she was provoked about 15 mins earlier, then sought out the opportunity for revenge. So it was premeditated biting. Well, at least she thought about it and the consequences before doing it, right?

The Wonder of Being 2

I'm consistently amazed at how my daughter views the world. I was discussing it this morning with a coworker and he remarked that children are constantly piecing together how the world works and relying on that to change how they interact with things. And that as adults, we may comment that it was so much easier to be a child, when in fact it wasn't easier--it's all a part of perspective. To that child who forgot to hand in their homework, it's a HUGE crisis--whereas we can look back on that as an adult who has battled losing a job and think of it as a simple problem.

She's just started to figure out how the whole opening presents things works. In her reality, as my coworker describes it, whoever opens the gift gets to keep it. She gets so excited when she sees something wrapped or something that comes in the mail like a padded envelope or amazon.com box, that she immediately wants to tear into it. The battle right now is trying to get her to understand that although she's got part of the puzzle right, that it's not entirely a true paradigm for how the world works.

I absolutely love that look of excitement on her face though and I think the holidays this year will be an absolute blast. I can't wait to see her eyes when she opens the custom rocking horse we've gotten for her. How cool is it in a 2 year old's mind to open a package and find a horsie!!

Weekend Update

This weekend primarily revolved around Alanna oh wait, most of my "free" time revolves around my toddler. Not that I consider that a bad thing by any stretch of the imagination, but if you do not care to read about the exciting life of my 2 year old, probably best not to venture much further in this post.

Saturday we went to the Crystal Shopping Center for trick or treating. It was way too cute. The first few places she went, I had to coach her how to trick or treat. She'd say "hi", hold out her pumpkin, then her eyes would get absolutely HUGE when they put candy in it and she'd say in this little awed voice, "thank you!".

In the afternoon we went to the Halloween Hurrah and it was a wee bit crowded, but she had a lot of fun. They had all kinds of little games set up. She could figure them out and it was funny to watch her try to "win". For example the bean bag throw, she just decided to walk up and put all the bean bags in the holes.

Sunday morning I went grocery shopping at Cub . I am very pissed off at my Cub store. They rearranged 5 aisles and completely screwed up my shopping list order. I spent an extra 30 minutes hunting for things. I want them to put it back NOW!

Jeb took Alanna trick or treating last night around the neighborhood and now she has enough candy to last 2 years! With the sugar high she was on last night, I'm shocked she slept at all.

Watched Van Helsing last night. I enjoyed it, but then again there's very little that could have made me not enjoy watching Hugh Jackman. Although I did not like the wench that was his co-star. She was a fine actress, but there is no way in hell that her waist is really that small!!