National Blueberry Pancake Day

Thursday, 1-28-10

Apparently, today is National Blueberry Pancake Day. Who knew that there was such a day? So, of course, we had to celebrate and recognize this wonderful day by having blueberry pancakes for dinner!! There's nothing better than having breakfast for dinner! Amy was especially excited since I think breakfast is her favorite meal of the day! Yum!

A Pre-Lunch Night-Night with Daddy

Wednesday, 1-27-10

One of the reasons I started this blog was to document the little things that happen in our everyday life that I'm afraid that I will forget over time. Today, one of those little things happened. Kurt came home for lunch which is always a treat for Amy. Amy loves when Daddy comes home to have lunch with her and she gets so excited that she'll wait by the door for him to come inside! This morning, Amy found some of her blankets in the laundry room and promptly brought them out to the kitchen/family room. From time to time, she would lay down on them and say "night night" as if she was going to sleep (it should be noted that Amy has gotten up extremely early the last two mornings - we're thinking her teeth are bothering her...again). Well, when Kurt arrived home for lunch, she grabbed him by the finger and led him to the blankets. She told him, "Daddy, night night." When Daddy didn't lie down the blankets right away, she grabbed him by the finger again and pulled him down on the blankets. So, Amy & Daddy went "night night" while Mommy fixed lunch...and snapped a few pictures of the precious scene!

The New Little Cook in the House

Sunday, 1-24-10

Amy received a kitchen for her birthday back at the beginning of December. We purposefully didn't assemble it until this past weekend because we wanted it to go in the basement once it was finished and there simply wasn't room anywhere else with all of the other stuff that we were "storing" until the basement was completed. However, this weekend, Kurt put the kitchen together and Amy couldn't be happier!! She has had so much enjoyment "cooking" and "eating" in her kitchen. She now constantly wants to go downstairs and "cook." Sometimes, if I'm not able to go down when she wants, she becomes frustrated and a little impatient!! However, generally she can tolerate waiting a few minutes. There are times where I like to believe that she understands my explanation of why we aren't able to go downstairs, but I'm sure I'm fooling myself!! It has been so fun watching Amy enjoy her kitchen so much. It is amazing to see her little imagination going as she plays in the kitchen. She even has used my exercise step as a "table" for her food...and for her to sit on! What a cutie!! Thanks Uncle Tim & Aunt Thuydung for an awesome birthday present for Amy!

As you can see, she was wearing her Colts jersey due to the Colts playing in the AFC Championship game yesterday. I think she is the cutest little Colts fan!! We're looking forward to having our Super Bowl party and cheering on the Colts to victory!! Go Colts!! :)

Morning at the Museum

Wednesday, 1-20-10

This morning, Amy & I visited the Children's Museum with good friends, Jen & Alecia. When I told Amy that we were going to the Children's Museum, she became so excited!! She remembered playing with the ducks in the water, which is her favorite thing to do there followed very closely with riding the "horsie" on the carousel. As a note, it is simply amazing how much Amy remembers...at times it is a little frightening for her mother who wants her to forget certain things. For example, before we left this morning, Amy saw me getting some of her favorite yogurt-covered raisins to take along with us. I meant for these to be used as a snack for the car ride home. However, come lunch time, Amy clearly remembered that I had brought some and didn't really care for my answer of "not right now." Apparently, I have to learn to be a little bit more sneaky about certain things! :)

Amy enjoyed playing with the different toys/exhibits at the Children's Museum. As mentioned, she loves playing with the "duckies" at the water exhibit. Today, she managed to not get her entire shirt sleeves completely soaked...just the cuffs! I love how curious Amy is and how she loves to explore the different areas of the museum. It seems that she finds something new and exciting to do each time that we go. This time, she discovered the life size doll house, which occupied her attention for awhile.

By the time we were leaving, Amy was worn out from all her excitement. What a wonderful morning to spend with friends!!

Snow Fun?

Friday, 1-15-10

So, yesterday it finally warmed up enough for Amy & I to go out and play in the snow. Fortunately, we got so much snow last week that there was plenty of snow to play in despite the warmer temperatures that we have been having, i.e., warmer as in the 30's! So, after doing a few errands in the morning, I asked Amy if she wanted to go outside and play in the snow. She became so excited and wanted to go THEN!! I explained that we needed to put on a few more clothes and her new boots. So, I got her all bundled up - two pairs of pants, a shirt, a jacket, and then her winter coat. Gloves, boots, & hat on!!! She is ready to go!

She hasn't worn mittens all year and she wasn't quite sure about them. I think she also was wondering what exactly I had her dressed in!! But, she was ready to go play in the snow!

So, we go outside to our backyard. I open the door and we walk out into the snow. She looks down at the snow and then looks across the yard.

And that was about it for our playtime in the snow!! She wasn't interested at all in playing with the snow. I picked up some snow and threw it across the yard to show her that she could play in it, but she didn't like it. She didn't like the snow being in my hands - I wore gloves and in the past, she hasn't been too fond of stuff on my hands, whether it is sticky cookie dough or gloves. I asked if she wanted to play in the snow and she said no. She wanted to go back into the screened-in porch where her "summer toys" were. So, we went back into the porch and she played with these items for quite some time. She went down the slide a few times, but really enjoyed playing with her baby duckies!! At one point, I brought some snow from outside to put in her water table, but she didn't like that either. So, the snow stayed outside while we played in the porch. Luckily, the sun was out so the porch wasn't as chilly as outside and we were able to take our gloves/mittens off without our hands/fingers getting too chilly. So, I guess our first experience with sun wasn't exactly as I imagined it would be, but I'm sure she will "warm" up to the snow over time. Maybe she needs to go outside with Daddy next time who might be a little more adventurous than Mommy!! :)

New Snackin' Spot

Wednesday, 1-13-10

During the last week or so, Amy has been wanting to eat her snacks at the island in the kitchen. We have had some concerns with this location as Amy would have to sit on the bar stools that don't have a back to them. However, after much insistence on her part, we decided to give it a try. The first several times, Kurt or I were sitting right beside her and even had our hand on her back. However, Amy has done surprisingly well on the bar stools. Although she sometimes will twirl around, which gives me a heart attack, for the most part, she will sit there and eat her snack. She seems so proud of herself that she is able to eat at the island!! We also have discovered that Amy LOVES blueberry muffins! She helped make them this morning and then ate almost half of them throughout the day!!

Ms. Amy

Saturday, 1-9-10

On the way to church today, Amy had to wear her sunglasses and insisted on wearing her hat in the car as well. She was so happy wearing her accessories and munching on her snack of Honeycomb cereal!! She continues to bring a smie to my face on a daily basis!

Couch Shopping - Amy Style

Saturday, 1-9-10

We decided to go look at couches this morning for our basement. Our goal is to have the basement finished enough to host our annual Super Bowl party down there rather than in our family room. So, we need furniture. Although Kurt's brother said that it could be a "bring your own chair" party, we (or should I say, I) thought it would be a good idea to have a couch or two for people to sit on!! So, we headed out this morning to check out some of the furniture stores. Amy seemed to have a field day in the different furniture stores! At the first store, she literally just ran around the entire store, going in a circle! She would climb up on some of the couches, letting us know if they were soft or not. At one store, she discovered a rocking horse, which she promptly climbed up on and starting rocking away!! In fact, she didn't want to leave the horse, or the store for that matter! At another store, they had a Lego table that she enjoyed playing with. Amy seemed to enjoy shopping for couches so much that she let us know that she didn't want to leave a few of the stores! At the end of the morning, Amy was satisfied with her couch shopping, although we still weren't able to decide on anything to buy. I'm sure Amy will enjoy going couch shopping again soon!!

Amy enjoyed rocking on the horse!

Amy was attempting to get the Lego pieces out of the side bag - she preferred to climb up on the table rather than walking around to get them. After getting a Lego piece out, she would drop into the other bag, saying "bye bye." :)

2-Year Well-Child Doctor Visit

Monday, 1-4-10

Amy had her two-year well-child doctor visit today. Poor thing - she does NOT like going to the doctor's office. She must have a great memory because ever since she went to the doctor for her ear infection, she becomes so upset when we have to go. Today, she actually became upset even before we left the house! I told her that we were going to go see the doctor, and she started crying and began clinging to me! I had told her earlier in the day that we were going to be going to see the doctor, but once she realized we were actually going, she didn't like it! I was able to distract her by reminding her of the fishes in the doctor's office and we picked out some books to take for the car ride. Once we got to the doctor's office, she did okay, though every time the nurse came to call someone back, she clung to me. When it was our turn, she cried almost the entire time we were there. She didn't want to get on the scale for her weight and she had a hard time standing to get her height measured as she was wanting me to hold her. She calmed down once the nurse left, but as soon as the doctor came in, she began crying again. Poor thing! I feel so bad for her as I know she is scared. I tried distracting her with various books or Little People - I took the Little People doctor, but she initially didn't want to play with him - she only wanted to play with the king and the mommy! Luckily, Kurt was able to meet me at the doctor's office so there was another set of ears to hear what the doctor was saying. Overall, Amy is healthy! Her ears look fine, which was reassuring to me since she had been rubbing her ears against her shoulders. She weighs 27 pounds and is about 33 1/2 inches. Amy had to have her second Hepatitis A shot, though the good news is that she won't need anymore immunization shots until she is five years old (except for the flu shot, though hopefully she will be able to have the nasal spray like this year). Poor little girl was so tired at the end of the appointment from all that crying!! She was able to tell the doctor "bye bye" and gave him a high five as he was leaving the room! I can't believe that she is getting so big! It is going by so fast!