Alissa is on the move

It is amazing who quickly Alissa is learning to walk. I can see a big improvement each and every day. She went from just taking 4 or 5 steps one day to walking across the room the next. She can now change directions and make turns when walking. She gets so proud of herself when she makes it to her destination especially when it's to Rod or I. She now trys walking pretty much everywhere instead of crawling. She doesn't always make it to her destination so then she crawls the rest of the way. She still hasn't figured out how to get up off the floor without pulling up on something. Rod and I have actually seen her do it once or twice, so we know that she can, but we figure that she just doesn't realize it yet.

She is growing up so fast. She is now officially a toddler. No more babies in our house. Of course, she will always be my baby whether she likes it or not. I think she really likes it right now since she is so spoiled!

It's not the Easter Bunny

Thanks to Pappy Windle we now have a baby bunny. Bill found this baby bunny at work. He orignally thought that it would need bottle feed, but soon found out that it can eat clover and other grasses. This bunny loves to eat! I couldn't keep him in clover he would devour it. I did buy some rabbit food and he does eat it, but he still prefers the clover.

I knew that Leah would fall in love with the bunny as soon as she saw it. She loves to sit and hold him. He's still pretty skidish, but is getting friendly every day. Leah loves to hold him in her lap for hours. We make her sit in the pack and play with him because we don't want him to get loose in the house.

When the bunny gets out of her lap he'll hop around the pack and play. The first few days he was even hard to catch in the pack and play. Now he is more calm and will sit in one place and let Leah pet him. Caleb likes to get in the pack and play but wants little to do with the bunny.

The bunny is scared of Alissa. Everytime she gets near the bunny she tries to poke it's eyes. Now if I get the bunny near her, the bunny tries as hard as he can to jump out of my hands. He's a smart guy!

Right now the bunny is living in our kitty carrier in the garge. I did ask my dad about the rabbit cages that I used to have when I had bunnies. Not sure what shape they'll be in, but he figures that they're around somewhere.

Alissa is Walking (at least she is trying really hard)

Alissa is nearing 13 months old now and up until that last week she had little interest in walking. Rod and I have gotten her to take a couple steps between us, but she really didn’t even want to do that. She realized it made us happy so she would do it for a couple of times for our benefit. This last week, however, she has decided that walking would be pretty good. She now loves to walk between Rod and I. She is also trying to walk some on her own. She will pull up and then you can see her thinking about whether or not she should let go and try to walk to something nearby. She is trying it and falls most of the time before she gets there. Her max is about 5 steps. It’s cute because she gets really excited and her body ends up going faster than her legs and then she falls.

It’s all so bitter sweet watching her learn to walk. I am sad that my baby is growing up, but I am glad that she will be walking soon. It will be nice when she can walk around outside instead of crawling in the grass and dirt.

Kindergarten

Last week I had to go and register Leah for Kindergarten. It really doesn't seem possible that I would be doing this, but I went and registered my baby. I am so glad that Kindergarten is only a half day everyday. However, if all these proposed changes take place, it could be full day by the time Caleb starts. I am still hopeful that this won't happen.

Registration was very strange. I am a people watcher and it was very interesting to see all the different kinds of people registering their kids. Some were very prepared, as I was and some had no clue what they were supposed to bring. Other people had big piles of papers and were trying to figure out what they needed. Some let their children run around the place like it was a zoo while the principal was trying to talk. It all made me wonder who Leah will end up being friends with and how am I going to let her go to school with over 300 other students. I guess she will really only be with half of these since it's only half a day.

I guess the real story here is that I am so not ready for this step in life as a mom. I know that Leah is more ready than I am, but as far as I am concerned August should still be a few years away! This is going to be a really big step for me as a mom to let Leah go and trust God to protect her. On a positive note, I think that this whole experience will really help my prayer life.

Projects

We've been very busy the last couple of months working on projects around the house. These projects were things that we had planned to do during the winter and are just now getting around to or projects that just came up and need our attention. Either way, we've been very busy with them and are finally getting somethings accomplished. However, there is still always plenty more to do around here.

I have many things remaining on my list of things to do around here. I have a list for myself and then of course I have a list for Rod. Rod loves the “honey do” list, but the things on that list I cannot do myself. I am reasonable because I have plenty on my own list, it’s longer than the one that I have for Rod. Although, Rod does end up having to help with parts of the things on my list. Unfortunately, it just seems like there are never enough hours in the day and the weekends are packed full. Here is my list:

A mural in the playroom
Paint all the doors in the new part
Refinish my kitchen cabinets
Add handles to all the cabinets and drawers
Repaint Caleb’s Room to match his comforter instead of the nursery (It will be hard for me to do this since I painted that room as the nursery and it turned out so cute.)
Expand the garden including putting up a new fence
Finish landscaping and planting bushes around the planter box
Plant grass in the backyard where the construction destroyed it
Weed all flower beds

Some of the things that Rod and I have been working on and even finished include the workout room.

This room did have a carpet wall and some mold issues. We got rid of the mold about 2 years ago when we redid the downstairs bathroom. Finally, we now finished the wall and repainted the room. The workout room is now functional again and Rod is happy to be able to use his weights again and I have been using the treadmill again.

We also took the mirrors and paneling down in the playroom. Here’s a picture of it in process.

In addition to the mirrors, we boxed in the duct work that was put in the ceiling when we had the heating and cooling ductwork run from the old part to the new part. The room turned out pretty good.

In the fall, we had to have part of our septic system replaced. We were not happy about this, but it was a necessary and very expensive thing. After they were done, we ended up with a very large dirt pile, many ruts and a very large and ugly grate in our backyard. We knew that we had our work cut out for us come spring. After much debate, we decided that the best way to disguise the ugly grate was to cover it with a flower box. We priced flower boxes and Rod decided to build one instead. Two weekends ago, Rod built me a very nice flower box to cover the grate. It looks so much better already. I am also going to do some other landscaping around the crate which includes planting bushes around it. I also bought a fountain to put in the backyard. Once we are all finished I think our backyard will look better than before.

Once Rod finished the box and we moved it on top of the grate, we filled it with dirt. I haven’t planted anything yet since it’s still pretty cold and I haven’t decided exactly what I am going to fill it with. However, as soon as Caleb saw this box filled with dirt, he decided that it was his new play place. It’s where he spends all of his time when he is outside. He loves playing in the dirt and he has moved all of his sand box toys to the dirt. His sand box is mostly empty since they have spilled it all out, but we think he likes the dirt box better because it is up at his level to play in. We are thinking that before I plant, I am going to need to refill the sand box and put the sand box up higher so that he will stay out of my flowers!

Now, just to find enouth time in the day to complete the rest of our projects!

A Wonderful Easter

We did have a really nice Easter Holiday minus a few colds. The kids had a lot of fun and really made out with new toys and candy. On Saturday we went to the egg hunt. The kids had a great time and got some candy and lots of other toys. Leah's preschool which is in a church had a great egg hunt for the kids and the kids got to pick out prizes in the end, like sidewalk chalk, sand toys, balls, and stuff animals. That's the first egg hunt that I'd been too that wasn't all about candy, but the kids loved it and had fun picking out the prizes. Alissa was able to pick up the eggs and place them in the basket and everyone watching were saying how cute that she was.

We also colored eggs on Saturday evening. The kids were very excited about it. Once Rod got out his old under shirts to put on so that they wouldn't ruin their clothes, they were even more excited. Leah and Caleb were really into coloring the eggs. This was Alissa's first time and she was really confused by the whole process. She thought that we were crazy. Rod tried to get her to put the egg in and she wouldn't do it. Once it was in, he tried to put her hand in to get it out and she started to scream and cry. Maybe next year she'll think it's more fun.

On Easter Sunday, the kids looked really cute in their Easter outfits.

On Sunday after church the kids got their Easter baskets although they had already seen them. I had them hidden in our bedroom and they walked in and saw them. Luckily, I caught them and they didn't get to explore too long so there was still a little bit of surprise left.

Happy Birthday Alissa!

Tomorrow is officially Alissa's first birthday! I can't believe that a year has gone by so quickly. What happened to my little baby?

April 10th 2008

We had Alissa's birthday party this weekend. Although Alissa was overwhelmed at first, everything turned out really nice. The day was warm enough to go outside some. Thank you to everyone that came and those of you who weren't here, here are some pictures so you don't feel left out.

The cake and her own personal cake to dive into.

Eating her birthday meal of lasagna and grapes

Is this mine?

I know what to do with this!

Yummy!

Present Time

That was a lot of work! I am getting tired.

It's been a wonderful year with Alissa and we looked forward to many more years. We know that she is going to be a handful and a girl full of determination.