Archive for the ‘Allyssa’ Category
It has been ages since I last posted to this blog. According to my looking through the past posts it appears like my past post was on May 24th. If you have read anything of this blog since, you can see that much has happened since then. I won’t bore anyone with the repeating of what you know has happened. Instead I will attempt to do an update on some of the things that haven’t been posted. Please do not think this is a complete list of other things that have occurred but it is some of them.
Currently when we’re out and about, Allyssa has two favorite games. They are both where you each take turns either counting or going through the alphabet. She now get bored counting somewhere in the mid to late thirties, but typically we will only count up to twenty and then switch sides. We will also switch sides when doing the alphabet and she knows them both very well. We are working with some flash cards, the only word she always recognizes right now is “ice cream” but she will go though the letters and the pictures of all the other flash cards easily.
Allyssa has unfortunately started trying to be a picky eater. Perhaps that’s the wrong way to put it, it would be more accurate to say that she often decides that she doesn’t want to eat when it’s meal time. She’ll say she’s not hungry then, but just after we leave the table she’ll want some sort of treat be it M&Ms or cookies, or whatever.
Eating isn’t the only thing that Allyssa can be stubborn about. She’s also that way about potty-training. Yes, we are currently working on potty training, but progress seems to be very slow. We have even purchased big girl panties for her but even that doesn’t seem to be incentive enough to try to remember to use the potty rather than go when- and wherever. When we are home she is on the potty for 15-30 minutes every hour, but she still seems to be able to go when she’s not on the potty. Sometimes I think she misses, because she is still sitting in the high chair because she hasn’t finished eating yet. But as much as I want her potty trained, she has to eat more than 2 or 3 bites of food for a meal. (Yes supper tonight was a bad night for her and eating. The sad part of that is what we had for supper was tacos and refried beans which normally she really likes. But not tonight apparently.)
Well those are my thoughts for the moment, I’ll try to post more again later. Promise not to hold your breath though.
Yeah, I know, heart attack time right? Since moving back to Holmen I have been so busy trying to find a job that I just have not been able to do much of anything else. Then last month I got involved in writing some plugins for the Wordpress software which has taken up quite a bit of time. One of those plugins I wrote was for sharing recipes, called Recipe Share, on Wordpress blogs. For fun, I added that plugin to this site so I can share some of my recipes – there is one up already.
Allyssa is getting bigger and is really smart too! She knows the entire alphabet and can count to ten, though some days she needs a little coaxing to get through them all. She is also at that stage where she wants to be “naked”, well, except for a diaper, and refuses to wear clothes. She also refuses to sit on the potty so potty training is progressing very slowly, or not at all right now.
Her favorite movie right now is Cars. Well actually, it is Mater and the Ghostlight which is a bonus on the Cars DVD. I think I have seen that over 100 times already. It is kind of annoying too, because every time Mater breaks his headlight she has to scream out “he broke his light!” Oh well, she’s still the most wonderful part of my life right now.
The job market in the area is crap, and although there have been a couple of options, none of them have panned out. So, Laura and I have decided to use my knowledge to build a business. We are working now on a Business Plan and actually have about a half dozen customers already, so it just might work out. The trick will be to actually keep working towards that, and not playing games on Facebook (hint hint Laura).
Shoot, gotta get back to work now. In case you don’t hear from us in the next couple of months, just remember that it is NORMAL to for us to not update the blog, so things must be normal.
Growing up in a house with two geeks for parents, it comes as no surprise that that Allyssa is going to be one as well. When I walked out of the bedroom/office for lunch today, this is what I saw, and I just had to snap a picture of it. She is just sooooo cute!
So, what was she doing? Filling up the screen with the letters a and z, and of course screwing up the windows so Laura had to move them back where she liked. Yes, this is Laura’s computer, because my brand new Dell has a bad hard drive. You can read more about that and my fun with Dell Tech support on my GrandSlambert blog.
So, while we are on the subject of Allyssa, perhaps an update is in order. As you know she is 2 years and 2 months old now. She is still on the petite side but that it is OK, she is cute. She is also very smart and can recognize most numbers and quite a few letters. Her speech is still a little hard to understand, but she can say a lot of words now. Of course, I love it when she says “I love you”, even if only mommy and daddy understand what she is saying.
Yes, she is two, and believe me she is really going through the terrible twos something fierce. She is very demanding and wants to watch Thomas the Tank Engine all day long. When she does not get to, she throws a screaming fit that you would not believe. We are still trying to figure out how to deal with that, but we know that it is a phase, and we will get through it.
Usually offering to take her to the pool stops the tantrum, but we cannot always do that. She really enjoys going to the pool and has become quite the water baby. Though the pool we have here is not the best, it is large enough that we can enjoy it, and if we go during the day when most people are at work we have it all to ourselves. Unfortunately, during the day it is in direct sun, so we try to go later in the afternoon when the pool is in the shade.
I think we might be spoiled living where we are. Wood burning fireplace, private fenced in back yard, pool and walking distance to just about everything we need. I would have been a fool to leave, and I am so glad we are staying. I just wish we had more room here but it works for now. OK, back to school for me. I just started my second block of classes and have a lot of work to do.
We had an early start today. Shane had plans, but he hadn’t double checked the dates. Apparently the computer he’s using had Monday listed as the start of the week rather than Sunday and that threw off his calendar. So we had some change of plans needless to say.
Since we had an early start to the day and no plans, we ended up deciding to check out Union Station. Being the train buffs we are we had decided to see the KC Rail Experience. We are not sure if we missed something of the show or not, but there didn’t seem to be much to the display. It was informative, but Allyssa doesn’t like standing in one area long enough to listen to the narration, and certainly doesn’t want to stand there while you read a display. Which is probably why it seemed a bit small to me.
There had been a slight mix up with our tickets and we were able to get into Science City as well. There was certainly a lot there for children to do, learn and see. It was more for children older than Allyssa but we still found lots to do, and she had a great time.
With the ticket mix up, we were also able to see a show in the planetarium. I liked what I saw of the show, but by then I was so tired from the early rising and walking all over Science City that I ended up dozing off and missing part of the show.
We enjoyed the day so much, we are talking about purchasing a membership to KC Union Station. If we go more than 2 times as a family the membership will pay for itself. Another reason to consider it, is that they have a Half Pint Program which is aimed towards children 3-6. While Allyssa would be a bit young for that at the moment, she is a very smart girl and won’t always be too young. Besides the Half Pint program is 1/2 price for members.
Yesterday, as a family we went to the Kansas City Northern Railroad. It was Sunday afternoon, we hadn’t done much over the weekend and were looking for something different to do. Someplace on the web, Shane found the Kansas City Northern Railroad and since this is a train family, it was definitely of interest.
It is not an large railroad, but they take you around the area twice for $.50 a ride. They have a tunnel, S-curve, a wooden trestle bridge, and a road crossing you go over, so as you can see a little bit of everything. Allyssa went on the ride three times, and would have gone at least three more if we had let her. It’s a short drive from home, about 20 minutes so we will definitely be going back again.
I can hardly believe that Allyssa is now two years old. It seems like yesterday I was in labor and then held this precious little baby girl in my arms. Time sure passes in the blink of an eye.
This morning, Allyssa and I slept in a bit (OK as usual), arising around 11 or so. While I made homemade pancakes for breakfast, Shane helped Allyssa as she chose her outfit. I think those overalls are getting a bit short on her and may have to be put away soon.
After brunch, we be brought out her presents. She enjoyed opening her gifts without a doubt. From mom and dad she received Thomas & Friends Water Tower Figure 8 set, the Figure 8 Expansion Pack, Rosie, Annie & Claribel, a musical caboose, as well as Thomas. She also received a Winnie the Pooh matching game. There is just nothing for games out there for two year olds. Most of the “little kid” games are all for ages 3+. That’s okay, she’ll have hours and hours of fun with her Thomas trains.
We didn’t do her shopping until Friday. Yes, she was with us, but that allowed us to find out what she liked. And when it was time to actually purchase, momma distracted her by taking her to other sections so we could “look around”. Daddy would then purchase the items and put them in the trunk. It worked rather well, once we could get her distracted.
Just before we left on Friday, the mailman had arrived. The timing was great since that meant that Allyssa received her cards and gift cards before we left. She enjoyed having her cards read to her and looking at the pictures. With her gift cards she picked out a table for her Thomas things which came with track and some Thomas like train pieces. The size of the track and such matches the Thomas things she received today which is the main reason it was selected. She also picked out a slide. This is a Little Tikes slide which can be used indoors or outdoors, but since we have a secluded outdoor area with nothing for her to play with that is definitely going outside.
This may make it easier to have her go outside to play while mom and dad stay inside, and watch her through the wall of patio doors. So far she hasn’t liked being outside if mom or dad aren’t with her. And even if we have to go out with her some of the time, she has things to play with rather than looking for someone to always play with. Like when we take the ball outside to play.
When we were visiting family in March she received her birthday gifts from grandma. She received a twin stroller and a diaper bag for her babies. She had received twins as big as she is from grandma about a month before. Grandma keeps her very well stocked in dolls. She already has a barbie doll as well, but she’s still too young for that so that one is up and way until she’s older.
We tried to find out what Allyssa would like for supper, but we don’t think that Allyssa was understanding us. She wasn’t hungry at the time, and everything we suggested she kept saying no. While I was at the store picking something up, I also picked up a balloon for her. She loved it when I walked in with the balloon. She certainly managed to tangle herself up in it quite well, but she was definitely having lots of fun too.
When I returned, Shane had decided that everyone should go out for ice cream. He had gone online and found an ice cream place nearby that we hadn’t been to yet. So we went. It wasn’t that far, but it would be a bit of a walk if were to attempt to walk to it in the future. It’s about a mile or so. After ice cream we drove around a bit, attempting to get to know the area a bit better. This particular time we went east, and learned we only want to go so far east in this area. But if we hadn’t tried we wouldn’t have known and now we do.
Allyssa slept through part of the drive, but when we returned home, it was definitely nap time. Everyone laid down, apparently we are all tired from our SCA event yesterday. Not that it was a hardship to have some extra sleep. After our nap we had supper which was enjoyed by all.
While we didn’t follow the traditional order, but she did receive a birthday cake. After supper I made some pineapple upside-down cake. That was chosen since Allyssa love pineapple in general. For some reason I think she was too full to truly enjoy her cake though since she didn’t eat it all, but she certainly had a lot for supper so it is understandable.
Just one extra note, you can click on any of these pictures to see a larger view.
I learned a valuable lesson today about quality time. Allyssa wanted to spend some time with daddy after dinner and I had every intention of doing this. We started watching the Bee Movie together when I stupidly got on the computer and read an email which got me working on something that certainly could have waited. Guess I wasn’t thinking, because when I was done:
Allyssa feel asleep waiting for daddy to do something that could have waited until tomorrow.
I guess I need to really pay attention to what I do with my time. I start school on Monday so time will become even more precious than it used to be. I have a schedule planned for Monday through Friday:
- 7:00am – Wake Up
- 8:00am – 1:00pm – Work
- 1:00pm – 2:00pm – Lunch and exercise
- 2:00pm – 4:00pm – School Work
- 4:00pm – 5:30pm – Work
- 5:30pm – Make dinner and spend time with the family before I go to bed.
No planning work or school on Weekends – those days are for family time. This looks like it should be good right? Hopefully I can stick to it, but I will need Laura’s and Allyssa’s help in several ways:
- While I am at work, they need to avoid distracting me.
- Have lunch ready around 1:00 so I can eat and exercise before school work.
- While I am at school, they need to avoid distracting me.
- At 5:30, they have to tell me to stop and be with the family.
I am sure if we both work at it, I will get on the schedule and be able to stick to it. It’s gonna be a long, hard 2 years with work and school, but I know it will be worth it. After this, we shall see if I continue for my Bachelor’s degree. You ready for this, Laura?
P.S. I should add that I did spend a few hours with her playing with a ball, potatoe heads, blocks and things before we started watching the movie. But it probably wasn’t enough.
