Allison has found her thumb. It's really kind of funny because she can't keep it in very long and while she's sucking she makes all kinds of slurping noises and pokes herself in the eye with her other fingers. And she has a hard time getting it in her mouth and has to turn her head way to the side to try to get it. But at least half the time when I go in to get her up from her nap now she has her thumb in her mouth. I can't blame her - I sucked my thumb as a child, so I guess it's okay for awhile. I don't know, is there more risk of germs from her thumb (if people have been playing with her hands or she has been grabbing things) or from a pacifier?
Emily loves books, and now Allison will too, we hope. Allison actually watches while Emily "reads" the books to her. It is so adorable.
Compare this photo below to a similar photo from the January post. My, my, my has she grown! Look at those chubby legs!
I love this picture! Daddy reading stories to his two little girls. Emily keeps asking if Allison can sleep with her in her bed...we say not until she is bigger, but for a few minutes before bed it is fine and dandy. As long as mommy or daddy are in the room!
Emily's friend Mason got to come play one afternoon the week before I went back to work. (Oh, did I mention I went back to work three weeks ago? Thankfully they are letting me work reduced hours and work about half of them from home! Kevin takes care of Allison while I am at work, since he does a lot of work from home as well.) Emily and Mason had fun playing in the backyard and changing their clothes. It really wasn't as hot as it might appear, although it was nice weather. Emily picked out her own clothes, so I guess she thought it was pretty warm. They went behind the orange tree in the back and dug in the dirt and got all muddied up. Mason was wearing Emily's clothes so she didn't get her own all muddy. It did come out, thanks to OxyClean. That stuff is the best.
Emily and Allison hanging out in the morning. It's hard to get a cute picture of them together, but at least they are both kind of looking at the camera. Emily loves to sit with Allison and try to cuddle with her. I think the cuddling will be more fun for both of them when Allison is a little older.
Allison was blessed in church on March 2. For any of you who are not LDS, a baby blessing in our church is similar to a christening. Kevin, my dad, and Dave (Kevin's mom's husband) participated in the blessing. Allison got to wear the dress that I was blessed in when I was a baby, which is also the same one Emily was blessed in. So if it survives another generation, I guess they will have to fight over who gets it next. Her hair started out with a little white bow in it, but it fell out and left her with a mini mohawk. Still cute though, I think.
Last Valentine's Day (not a few days ago, a year ago) my mom sent Emily this giant heart-shaped mylar balloon to have blown up. Well, we never did blow it up. It hung out in Emily's closet for awhile, then we took it out and hung it on her wall with blue painter's tape, then we took it down and it hung out in the closet again. So when it started getting close to Valentine's Day again, I took it out and we were determined to have it filled with air. I carried it around in my purse for awhile, then had it in the car, back and forth into the house...we even took a special walk down to Walgreen's one day to get it blown up but they couldn't do it.Finally, two days AFTER Valentine's Day, we were coming out of the supermarket and I asked the guy helping us out if they could fill a mylar balloon for us. He happily agreed to help us out, so after loading the groceries into the car he took the balloon inside and brought it back out all filled up, and with a bonus weight on the bottom to keep it from floating away. All free of charge, too. What great service! Needless to say, Emily was elated to finally have her Valentine's balloon. By now you're wondering what this has to do with a pickle, huh? You'll see...
Once we got home, Emily stayed in the driveway playing with her balloon while I unloaded the groceries. She was so happy throwing it up in the air and watching the weight pull it back to the pavement. She climbed on the neighbor's rocks and saw how high the balloon could go in the air. We took pictures. It was so much fun. After about my third trip inside, I hear shrieking coming from Emily outside. I rush out not to find her injured, but the string on her beloved balloon broken, and the balloon floating away into the blue sky, getting smaller and smaller until it became a small shiny dot in the vast blue. I don't think I've ever heard her scream so loud and for so long, even when injured. It was the worst possible thing to ever happen in her 3-year-old life. I could not console her. So I took pictures and video to document the event (FYI, looking at them today, Emily laughed).
After about ten minutes of her screaming and running up and down the sidewalk, we got inside and tried to calm down. Smart thinking on my part, I spotted the jar of just-purchased dill pickles on the counter. "Emily, would you like some pickles?" Like magic, the crying stopped! So I gave her two pickle spears in a plastic cup, and that was then end of that.
Oh, and this whole time, Allison was resting peacefully in her car seat.
Well...Allison just went down for a nap and Emily is in the bathtub (and miraculously not yelling for me to come in and play with her), so I have a few minutes of quiet time to finally update this blog. Unfortunately I don't have any new photos uploaded from the camera, so sorry for the lack of images. Allison hit her six week mark yesterday and is becoming quite flirtatious. When she is happy (aka after she just ate) she is very smiley and occasionally likes to play a game with her pacifier where I put it in her mouth and pull it out just as she's closing in on it. She smiles then we do it again. It is so cute! It's like her whole face lights up, mouth open wide and eyes sparkling. It makes all the crying time seem worth it. And she is finally sleeping a few hours at a time at night, so I can get about four hours in at a time. It sounds small, but compared to two hours at a time max for over a month, four hours is a luxury.Since it is chilly winter right now we've been stuck at home a lot, so poor little Emily ends up watching a lot of movies and tv shows all day while I'm tending to her sister. We have been to the park a few times when the sun has been out, but for the most part we stay at home. Pretty boring. Next time we have a child (if there's a next time...) it needs to be born in the spring or fall so we can go outside more. So unfortunately we're not very exciting right now, but life goes on. Well Emily is now calling me to help her spell her name with bathtub letters...
Allison got her bellybutton today. Yeah, it's a major breakthrough for a baby of 18 days. No more icky umbilical cord remains on her adorable little abdomen. Other than that, she has already learned how to control her parents by crying when we put her down, making cute faces when we hold her, and pooping in her diaper right after we change her. Unfortunately it has been rather foggy and dreary outside, making the indoor lighting poor for decent photographs, but we have tried. The flash causes major red-eye issues and I don't have any photo editing software right now to fix it, but at least you can see her cute face and her funny expressions!
This one (above) is one of my favorites - we call it the bird face.
Emily has been working hard for the past two months to earn her princess pillow and she finally did it! She had a chart and got happy faces for doing good things like getting dressed by herself, washing her hands, cleaning up her toys, etc. It seemed like a long time, but she finally filled up the chart and was thrilled to go on a special trip to Target and bring home her pillow.
Emily loves books, and now Allison will too, we hope. Allison actually watches while Emily "reads" the books to her. It is so adorable.
Compare this photo below to a similar photo from the January post. My, my, my has she grown! Look at those chubby legs!
I love this picture! Daddy reading stories to his two little girls. Emily keeps asking if Allison can sleep with her in her bed...we say not until she is bigger, but for a few minutes before bed it is fine and dandy. As long as mommy or daddy are in the room!
Emily's friend Mason got to come play one afternoon the week before I went back to work. (Oh, did I mention I went back to work three weeks ago? Thankfully they are letting me work reduced hours and work about half of them from home! Kevin takes care of Allison while I am at work, since he does a lot of work from home as well.) Emily and Mason had fun playing in the backyard and changing their clothes. It really wasn't as hot as it might appear, although it was nice weather. Emily picked out her own clothes, so I guess she thought it was pretty warm. They went behind the orange tree in the back and dug in the dirt and got all muddied up. Mason was wearing Emily's clothes so she didn't get her own all muddy. It did come out, thanks to OxyClean. That stuff is the best.
Emily and Allison hanging out in the morning. It's hard to get a cute picture of them together, but at least they are both kind of looking at the camera. Emily loves to sit with Allison and try to cuddle with her. I think the cuddling will be more fun for both of them when Allison is a little older.
Allison was blessed in church on March 2. For any of you who are not LDS, a baby blessing in our church is similar to a christening. Kevin, my dad, and Dave (Kevin's mom's husband) participated in the blessing. Allison got to wear the dress that I was blessed in when I was a baby, which is also the same one Emily was blessed in. So if it survives another generation, I guess they will have to fight over who gets it next. Her hair started out with a little white bow in it, but it fell out and left her with a mini mohawk. Still cute though, I think.
