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Alanna Moments

It occurs to me that I haven't posted many Alanna moments as of late, but there definitely have been some. So here are a couple:

Alanna has been infatuated with the idea of the Easter Bunny this year. As it's not even April yet, I didn't really feel like digging out the Easter decor and instead took the Capitalist way out. I picked up a pink egg decorated ice cream bucket and some plastic eggs during my weekly grocery shopping to the tune of about $1.50 total I believe (in my mind far more economical than spending an hour digging through decor in the garage to find the right bin, bring it in, dig through for the eggs and a basket, and then put the rest back until April). She's been busily hiding eggs in the living room and then searching for them. It seems that each time she hides them she manages to not find all of them, but then the ones she didn't find the last time turn up the next time with two new eggs missing. Here's an example to make that a little less confusing for you, she'll hide 12 eggs (2 of each color) then find only 10--say a pink and green one are missing. The next time she'll find 10, but this time it will be a blue and purple one missing.

I made Alanna a fort this past weekend using sheets, card table chairs, and duct tape--duct tape is the bond that holds us all together after all. She promptly moved her doll houses in and declared that no cats and no brothers were allowed in her fort. I'm really not sure where she got the idea that she has brothers since she's an only child, but she seemed rather adament that they were NOT allowed in her fort.

More Watchful Waiting

So the plan for now is more watchful waiting. The dr agreed that Alanna's facial cyst (technically a vascular malformation) had definitely changed. He stated that sometimes they do that unexpectedly and that his recommended course of action for now was to watch and see what happens. The likelihood (crossing fingers) is that the swelling will reduce and color return to normal. Apparently, these can change due to an accidental bumping of the area or viral infection. He did agree that surgery was the ultimate resolution, but would still prefer to wait until she's a little bigger to further reduce the risk of any damage to the facial nerve. He requested that we call if it begins to look worse rather than better and he'd get us right in and to come back in a month.

Where do Hiccups come from?

Last night on the way home from picking up Alanna from daycare, she got the hiccups. She proceeded to tell us that she needed to get home to look in the mirror. I asked her why and she explained that she needed to look in her mouth in the mirror. Again, I followed this up with a why honey? She told me that because she had hiccups, she needed to look in her mouth to see the frog that was there.

Now, before I thought it through, I explained that there wasn't a frog in her mouth and that hiccups don't come from frogs. This then immediately was followed by her asking...well where do hiccups come from?

Awwww....shit. I hadn't really considered that I'd have to try to explain to a 3 year old where hiccups come from. I should have stuck with frog in the mouth--that one's easier ;)

Jeb piped up that hiccups are an involuntary reaction of your diaphragm..blah blah...to which Alanna looked unimpressed. So, the final verdict from Mommy was that hiccups happen when you get to laughing too hard.

I'm not sure I'm up for the next hard questions to come...

Alanna on Sharing

We've been working a lot with Alanna on the concept of sharing. It's hard for a toddler and for the most part, she's pretty good about it.

In the mornings, she has a habit of wanting to bring something (usually edible) with her as we leave the house to head to daycare. So instead of simply saying no, we've begun telling her that if she wants to bring something along that's fine, but she has to bring enough to share with Trayton and Dylon too. Sometimes, she's ok with that and others she will leave whatever it is she wanted at home.

Earlier this week she wanted to bring an apple. We said that was fine, but that Gloria would cut it up so that she could share it with her friends. She held on to it all the way to Gloria's house and was pretty quiet actually. We got there and I took the apple from her to get her out of her carseat and found....she'd taken itsy bitsy nibbles out of it ALL over...each side had at least two or three nibbles. Not enough to eat it, but enough to mark it as hers. There would be absolutely no way to cut it without hitting a bite mark. Little turkey had basically used the "if I lick it, it's mine" strategy.

Get out of my Pumpkin!

I am beginning to wonder if perchance Alanna is struggling with the concept of sharing. In social situations which I've observed, she's done rather well....or so I thought.

Last night she was playing with her little Cinderella playset. Storybook Playset The companion set has a little pumpkin coach and I was watching her from the hallway when I saw her march the little princess up to the coach and state, "Hey, you're in my seat. You're in my car. Get OUT OF MY PUMPKIN!" She was apparently the voice of the princess talking to whichever little figure was in the pumpkin coach at the time.

After I stifled a giggle, I walked over and asked, "Honey, shouldn't they share the pumpkin?"

Her answer?

"No, Mommy. No!"

Cruisin'

So much to catch up on! Well, this is as good a place to start as any:

December 14-19 we went on a Cruise with 16 other family members. My mom and Joe decided that they wanted all the kids/grandkids together for the holiday this year and instead of us all trekking to someone's house we hopped on a boat out of Tampa to the Western Carribean.

In attendance were:
Mom & Joe
Nate, Rhonda & Tiffany
Grannie
Mac, Mystie, Chase, Tori, Dawsyn & Morgan
Ginger & Brian
Lori & Scott
Me, Jeb & Alanna

When we left it was pretty darn cold here...about 10 above or so. Florida was a welcome change and upon arrival that evening, Alanna wanted to get into the pool with her Uncle Mac and cousins. There was a small snafu with the flight on the way out due to a storm that morning. All flights into Chicago were cancelled, but I'm pretty impressed with Expedia. Our itinerary had already been adjusted and we were rerouted through Dallas with only an hour and a half difference from our initial flight time. Overall, we got there about 4 hours later than anticipated, but still no real hassles which was very nice.

Alanna warmed up to everyone by the next morning and she and Dawsyn were best buds for most of the trip.

The ship was absolutely HUGE. Honestly, the rocking didn't bother me and was rather relaxing really..especially when trying to go to sleep at night.

The major problem we ran into on the ship was the toilets. Alanna was absolutely TERRIFIED of them. Similar issue happened on the airplane. She has no problems with potties in stores like Target or what not, but is deathly afraid of the airplane and ship potties. This led to an accident on the airplane right before we landed in Tampa which meant Mommy and Alanna needed to open the suitcases off of baggage claim to change clothes, but we wanted to be in shorts anyway.

Back to the ship potties...Alanna is potty trained and even does pretty well at night. So, Mommy in her infinite wisdom (haha) only brought pull-ups for nighttime and to my credit I did bring a few extra, but not enough for her to wear every day all day. Alanna would look at the potty and flip out.

I thought I had the solution, I really did. See, there's this kid's daycare with activities on the ship called 'Camp Carnival' and they have a potty chair!! Problem was, she wanted absolutely NOTHING to do with Camp Carnival. And honestly, can't say as I blame her. They didn't let the parents come in at all. Now this may be fine for a child who's in a daycare center or in school, but for a child that is used to a family type environment, this can be very scary. Had they even let the parents in for say the first morning for an activity or two she would have been fine, because she would have had a chance to acclimate to the new people with Mommy or Daddy there to show her it was ok. Hell, she would have been fine if the waiters were the daycare staff since she got more of a chance to get acclimated to them in one meal than to the staff in the Camp. Soooooooo...no on board daycare for us and no potty! Luckily, her cousin Morgan is about her size and still in diapers so I was able to beg some off of Mystie.

The cruise was nice, although not something I would try to do again with a 3 year old. Maybe a Disney cruise where there would hopefully be more options to keep her entertained and let Mommy/Daddy have some time too.

We did port in Cozumel and the weather was gorgeous. About 91 degrees. We had to take a small transport boat into land as Hurricane Wilma had demolished (and I do mean demolished!) the areas where the cruise ships used to dock. The shore looked very banged up and there was construction going on everywhere. We went to Playa Mia which is a paid inclusive beach and it was beautiful. Deep squishy sand and clear blue/green water. Alanna had an absolutely wonderful time playing with Dawsyn and Morgan in the surf. I was able to sneak away (thank you Aunt Ginger!) for about 30 minutes to get a massage on the beach. The masseuse was good and the price far less than in the spa on the boat, but what made it very nice was the sound of the birds, the breeze, and hearing the water hit the sand. What I didn't think about (DOH) was that the masseuse would use oil on my back. Now, for the most part, I don't tan or burn really. Actually, I'm still rather pale even after sitting on the beach. But, my back was a different story. I wandered past the drink hut on my way back to sit in the surf with the kids, picked up my pina colada, and plopped down to promptly and literally BAKE my back. My back was as red as Santa's hat. Ah well..thank heavens for aloe.

Got some wonderful pics as did everyone else and waiting for the collected cd of photos from Mystie so that I can go through them and create our after the holidays greeting letter (in lieu of Christmas cards).

Santa 2005

The Logic of a 3 Year Old

Part of our weekend activities were to put up the Christmas tree and decorations. We got everything taken care of and Alanna was preoccupied for a bit with her Dora game, so I decided to go ahead and wrap the presents we have to just get it out of the way and remove them from their various closet hiding places.

After lunch, Alanna went into the living room and spied the presents. Here is what ensued:

A: 'Mooooommmmy, I pick a present to open?' In this plaintative little cute voice.
M: 'No, honey, it's not Christmas yet. We need to wait to open our presents.'
A: 'It IS Christmas, I pick a present.' Absolutely convinced in her knowledge of what day it is.
M: 'No, sweetheart, Christmas won't come for a while yet, we need to wait please.'
A: Stomping into the dining room and taking my hand, 'I show you, Mommy. It is Christmas.'

She proceeded to lead me over to the patio door and point outside at the snow.
A: 'See!!! Snow! It IS Christmas!'

Gotta give her credit for the correlation. I explained that the snow was part of winter and that Christmas is in the wintertime, but not for a few weeks still. She seemed to take that well and hasn't touched the presents since or asked about them again. Jeb's laying bets that we'll come into a living room full of wrapping paper one day this week. I think she'll wait....we'll see ;)

Some Catching Up

I guess I have a little catching up to do. I've been fighting off the crud for the past few weeks off and on and just haven't felt much like writing.

So, some recaps:

Halloween--
Alanna went trick or treating with Daddy and had a lot of fun. She came home with a ton of candy and is still 'pretending' trick or treat around the house from time to time as well as reading and re-reading her Dora Halloween book. Mommy took her to a community Halloween party earlier in the weekend and her absolute favorite game was the cake walk. She simply wanted to walk around and around and around to the music the whole time. I remember cake walks growing up--they pasted numbers on the floor and you walked until the music stopped, then someone drew a number from a bowl and if you were standing on that number you won. In those days though you actually got a cake. We used to have them at the church and you'd walk over to a table with all these cakes people had donated and got to pick one. This cake walk was simply for little pieces of candy and the numbers were on big pumpkins. Alanna didn't care though and just was excited by walking to the music.

Circus Class--
Alanna is no longer going to her circus class. The third class, she started exhibiting some signs of being frustrated with it. She wasn't at all interested in doing the stretching with her class and kept insisting that I be near her during the class. We thought maybe it was because she wasn't feeling the greatest and they'd had a week off.

The next week, I talked it up on Friday before class. She told me, "Mommy, I don't like Circus class". I asked her why and she said, "I'm too big." She says that rather than 'too little'. I explained that she was just the right size and that she'd get to see her friends and maybe jump on the trampoline and do somersaults. She told me, "I don't want to go." To her credit, she didn't whine or throw a tantrum, this was all matter of fact. So I told her we'd talk about it in the morning and see how she felt then. The next morning, she said the same thing, so we decided that we wouldn't go for that day.

Then the next week, we tried the same tactic. I told her that we'd be going to grandma's house after circus class on Saturday. She said she didn't like circus class. So, I again asked about somersaults and the trampoline. She told me, "Mommy, I do somersaults at home instead. I don't like it." So we decided that we were done with Circus class for now.

I think a lot of it was just too much too fast for her. She's never really had structure since she's always gone to an in-home daycare. They do activities, but not on a scheduled timeline. This was 60 minutes of structure from the moment they walk in the door until they leave. Even the rotations through somersaults, balance beam and such were structured. Nothing at all wrong with that, just a bit of an overload for her. And I think she knew she was the youngest/smallest which I'm sure also had an impact on her. We would never tell her she's last in the class obviously, but kids are darn smart and maybe we'll try it again if she's interested when she's older.

New Classes--
Since we believe that we do need to start introducing Alanna to some more structure in her life in preparation for preschool in a couple years. So, as Circus Class proved to be too much, I thought I'd check out some of the Community Classes instead.

She's now taking 'Pint Sized Picassos' on Tuesday nights for an hour. We've been to one class and she LOVED it. It's much more her pace and she's not the youngest there. They do an activity that's guided by the teacher for about 10 minutes, then they have open play while they set up for the next activity, then 10 more minutes painting or what not, then open play and so forth. She did great and was very proud of her artwork. I bought her a little door hanger at Ren Fest that has some clips on it for hanging artwork and she wanted it up right away.

She's also taking 'Kids in Motion' on Saturday mornings for 45 minutes. Jeb took her this weekend and again, she had a blast. This class uses sports concepts to do structured play. She's at the older age spectrum for this group which should also help build her confidence before we jump her into the next class. They played hockey with those big foam noodles, kicked soccer balls into nets (yes, uncle Scott will be pleased), and then played with a parachute. Remember doing those parachute games in Elementary school? Those were fun.

So I think we're now on the right track for getting her some structure, interaction with others her age, and not overwhelming her either.

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.

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.

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.

Kof Kof

She's too smart for her own good.....

Yesterday, we didn't have daycare, so I stayed home with Alanna for the day. Got in her 3 year doctor's appointment and all looks good. The kid has eyes like a hawk though and in the process of getting her ready for the doctor's, I was pulling out some barrettes which happened to be in a little travel thing with some additional items, one of which was a Triaminic Grape Cough Strip. She spotted it and immediately wanted it. I explained, "No, honey, those are for when you're sick, they help you feel better; they're not candy."

Fast forward to this morning. I set her on the potty and started to fix her hair. Here's what ensued:

Alanna: "I hurt"
Mommy: "Where do you hurt, honey? Show me."
A: "I sick"
M: "You don't feel good?"
A: "Yes, I sick." Accompanied by a frownie face.
M: Feeling her forehead, "Hmm..you don't feel warm."
A: "I sick. I need grape." She looks to the drawer where she saw the grape strip yesterday.
M: "Honey, those are only for when you're really sick. I don't think you're really sick."
A: "I sick." Pouting face.
M: Getting the grape strip out and reading it. "Hmm..well this says you only need it if you're coughing, are you coughing?" More a rhetorical question than anything.
A: "Yes, *kof kof*" Most pathetic little fake cough ever.
M: Struggling not to laugh. "Hmm..well that didn't sound like a real cough to me. It also says it's for runny noses and you haven't needed a kleenex at all today."
A: "I sick." Accompanied now by lots of forced sniffles.
M: "Honey, medicine is only for when you're really sick. Taking it when you're not sick can make you feel yucky." Alright, then Mommy was naughty and caved in (bad mommy) and broke of a teensy weensy sliver of the strip and gave it to her. She ate it happily.
Daddy: "Do you feel better?"
A: With a huge smile "Yes!"

Hoh boy. So now I need to lay the hammer down if it happens again. It's that uncomfortable position of not wanting to second guess her symptoms if she really is sick, but also not wanting her to keep using ploys to get her way.

Running Away to Join the Circus

A coworker mentioned this to me a while back and I thought it sounded really neat! There is a school over in St Paul that is for the Circus Arts Circus Jueventas.

We went ahead and enrolled Alanna in their toddler class and her first class was this past Saturday. There were 12 kids there and she was the youngest having just turned 3. She actually did really really well aside from the structure piece of the class. There were about 4 parents that needed to be near their children during the class and I was one of them, but I think in the next week or two, I'll be able to sit back and just let her do her thing without having to be right there.

They started off with some stretching and she had a little trouble understanding what they wanted her to do, but figured it out halfway through with some help. Then they started into this round robin type routine where they began the kids starting down a ramp with a somersault then moving on to standing in a hula hoop and throwing rings over a cone, then to a balance beam which was not the traditional beam, but more like two flexible pipes duct taped together, and finally to a little 'hill' (Alanna called it a rainbow) that they had to climb up on one side and slide down the other. Then they repeated that cycle several times and near the end doing backwards somersaults instead of frontwards. Alanna caught on to the rotation near the end, but I think it was hard for her to stay in tune with where she should be going next versus just wanting to play on whichever one struck her fancy. She practically raced across the balance beam.

Then they split the kids into three groups and started them at different stations. Alanna started on the trampoline. She was to jump in one spot, circle her arms back, then stop on command putting her hands palms forward in front of her, then arms up above her head before walking back. She did really well with the stopping and putting her arms up, but wanted to run in place jump rather than jumping with both of her feet together.

Then she got to move on to the handstand/balancing area. There were two wooden blocks for her to put one foot on each. Then they had her lift one leg at a time and balance. Then they flipped her upside down to do a handstand. She has fantastic balance and did great with it!

Lastly, they took turns on the globe. This is a huge ball that they stand on and balance. She did great with it and actually turned around once without losing her balance.

So now, we practice. We got a little mini jumper trampoline to work with her on and I brought my pilates mat upstairs so that she could somerault and we'd do stretches. I was really worried that she wouldn't like it, but as soon as we got home she wanted to practice, so we'll see how next class goes.

Two Ships in the Night

I'm a little behind in some of the things I wanted to blog, so forgive me as I ramble on.

This happened this past August while my mother and stepdad, Joe, were in town.

Joe keeps trying to corrupt Alanna in a haha funny look what Grandpa taught her type of way. For example he'll ask her if she wants a chew just to see the look on my face of horror.

We were in the van heading over to Lori and Scott's house and we drove past the movie theatre where we had gone to see 'Madagascar' recently. Alanna picks up on the smallest things sometimes and it never ceases to amaze me. She looked out of the window, saw the theatre and exclaimed 'Mad Ass Car!' to which mommy calmly replied, "Yes, honey, that's where we went to see the movie 'Madagascar' emphasizing the pronunciation. Joe latched right onto this and thought it would be fun to teach her some more words that sound like swearing.

He looked at her and said, "Alanna are you a Little Ship?" Mommy new perfectly well that Alanna has no problem saying her 'P's' even though Grandpa Joe was surely hoping they would come out like 'T's'. She replied, "I'm a Little Ship" and Mommy quickly jumped in and said, "That's right and Grandpa Joe is a Big Ship, isn't he?" To my delight, she replied, "Grandpa Joe is a BIG SHIP!"

Ha!