Monday, October 24, 2005


Alanna loved the petting farm. This goat was begging her for more food.

We went to Sever's Corn Maze last weekend. Alanna and Daddy played in this huge pit of corn kernels.

Alanna was practicing last night for Halloween. She's a Bumblebee Princess this year.

Monday, October 17, 2005

I've Become 'Mom'

Somehow this weekend, I became 'Mom'. I'm no longer 'Mommy', but now 'Mom'.

I don't like this transition at all. I tried doing the thing where when Alanna says 'Mom' I repeat 'MomMY', but it doesn't seem to have stuck. She's now decided that my new name is 'Mom'.

I'm not really sure why this bothers me, but it does. I'm not ready to be 'Mom'! 'Mom' makes me feel older and worse yet, makes me see that my little girl is growing up far too quickly.

Thursday, October 06, 2005

Click Monkey

Alanna has been getting very good with her toddler software and her use of the mouse. She practices/plays a little at daycare daily and then also a little at home.

So, for her birthday I found her a used P3 on Ebay to buy with her birthday money from relatives (some also went into her 529 plan). I set her up next to my computer on her small table with her chair and loaded on her toddler software. We also found a child's keyboard/mouse set online that's pink and is more geared to her size (about 2/3 the size of an adult keyboard/mouse). She came downstairs and was in heaven!

This is the point where we were shocked. We didn't realize how good she'd actually gotten. For most all of her games, she doesn't need our help any more. She can click the matching colors, follow the directions and does very very well.

We've implemented the no computer until after dinner rule as well as the time limit and will stand to that so that she doesn't become too much of a computer geek like us, but I think it's good for her to get the skills and far better than tv.

Birthday Party

We had Alanna's small birthday party on Saturday and it was very fun. It really was more of a get together with other adults that happened to have kids too, but everyone had a nice time.

Everyone showed up about 1pm and we had a taco bar and cake. Alanna picked out her own balloons and cake a few weeks prior at Cub so Jeb picked them up in the morning while she and I were at her Circus class. We had saved a couple small presents from us and she got two others to open which she was thrilled about. I also had purchased a custom birthday hat for her from a lady off ebay that makes them with chenille and the boa feather material. It was absolutely adorable. After I get the pictures uploaded, I'll put one here too. It was yellow, with a purple number 3, Dora, and pink feathers at top and around the rim.

She got some very fun farm animal soaps/tshirts/wash mit from Aunt Woogie and Uncle Scott. The blue fizzy ones btw (Woogie!!) stain your bathtub...was able to get the blue ring off the sides, but I think going forward no more fizzies, just soaps ;)

She got a couple cute Olivia books (I'd never heard of Olivia, but she's this darling little pig) and this fantastic fleece Dora Princess no-sew blanket as well. I'd never seen these before, or I guess if I have I didn't realize how simple they were to make. She absolutely loves it and because it was personalized for her that makes it that much more special...it's also SUPER soft!

So on a quick tangent, I'm now addicted to making these. I made two blankets/pillows last night and they turned out really cute. I believe they're what I'm going to be doing for Christmas gifts as well. I found out that JoAnn fabrics will take Michaels' coupons. And since both have a 40% off one item every Sunday paper, you can actually use BOTH in the same purchase one for each piece of fleece!! So that makes each blanket between $8-$15 depending on the patterns--too cool!

Then the kids pretty much went off and played and the adults hung out and played Killer Bunnies. Again, if you've not purchased this game or played it, you are truly missing out on a lot of fun. We incorporated in the new 'Kinder Bunnies' and now have only not played with the White and Steel decks which maybe we'll get a chance to use in the next week or so.

After the first round of bunnies, we ate cake, then started in to round two and everyone headed home about 9.

Definitely a busy day, but all in all a success.

Flying Trapeze

This week's Circus class went a little bit better. I was able to sit with the other parents for most of it and didn't have to get up but a couple of times to redirect Alanna so that she stayed in line with the group. They actually did a few different things this time from last week.

They started again with taking the whole group for stretching/dancing, then came out to do the round robin of activities which this week started with Trapeze! They had two large mats about 1.5 feet high each stacked so that the kids could climb up on them and then take hold of the Trapeze bar. The kids would then swing forward, bend their knees and swing back and then forward again before letting go to land on a mat below them about 3 feet. Alanna did very well but like several of the kids wasn't as excited about letting go.

Then it was on to the somersaults which she's getting very good at, the balance beam and the little rainbow that they were to climb up and slide down. The only thing she really had trouble with this time was standing in line at the Trapeze since that one took longer for each kid to take their turn.

Then they split into two groups and Alanna went to go learn to throw and catch scarves. They took scarves, threw them into the air and then caught them and then took it one step further to clapping in between throwing and catching. She did well with the throwing and catching, but couldn't quite get the clap in between.

Next they came over to the jump rope. She's still having a bit of trouble with jumping with both feet together versus run-jumping or prancing over, but she got it a couple times and we'll keep practicing with the mini trampoline at home.