Going to Class

I took Miss A to attend a class on "Becoming a Big Sister or Brother" at the hospital. I say "attend" and not "participate in"... because that definitely explains her level of involvement. The class was held during her normal naptime hours, so I couldn't have expected too much. Obviously they are set up to deal with older kids - she barely met their threshold for age.


Here she is during the opening movie. All the other kids (well, all 5 of them) were sitting in a half-circle on the floor around the TV. But not her. I had to threaten a few times that we would leave. But she knew that wouldn't have been a cool thing. Plus, there was a plate of cookies in the back, and she figured she wouldn't be allowed one if she didn't make it to the end.


And here she is sitting backwards in her chair, ignoring the teacher-- because the lady behind us was much more interesting. (It's true, unfortunately.)


Things got a little more interesting when it was time to hold and swaddle the "pretend babies" (uh, otherwise known as DOLLS). Aleaha knew how to do that part, so she felt a little more at ease.


This was as close as she would venture to the circle. That's the back of her pony-tailed head, with one hand firmly clenched to the table.

On the way home, Aleaha fell asleep in the car, as expected and appreciated. But not before I tried to drill her -- uh, I mean, reinforce with her -- some of the objects of the class. When I asked her what she remembered, she said: "Mom, we had juice and tookies!", and then the clincher.... "Mom, we got to ride in the elebator!"

So much for learning important things like, "Don't let Noodle play with anything smaller than your fist."

Obviously we will have to parent both of them closely! ;)

Our Little Helper

She doesn't look thrilled here, but that's just because she was self-conscious that Mom was taking a picture in the grocery store. We stopped in at the First Alternative Co-op store the other day, and they happen to have "doze yittle drocery tarts" that she has wanted SO BADLY to push. We went to Trader Joe's a while back, all jazzed with the expectation of her being able to push her own cart there. But it turns out that "bad people have stealed them all," and TJ's has chosen not to replace them. So, we were really happy to see that our local Co-op has a few.

Aleaha can do so many thing now. It's an amazing evolution to witness, really. I'm grateful for the chance to be a parent and see this.

We have FINALLY finished Aleaha's "Big Girl Bedroom", and she's moved in. I'm so proud of her! I painted the room last weekend, we had the carpet installed during the week, and Daddy replaced all the outlets and switches on Saturday. Then we set up her Big Girl Bed (twin bed). She has had two nights in there so far. It's such a big step. Although last night, at one of her awakenings, she asked to go "back in my trib".

Speaking of her, uh, accent, I've taken note of a few funny pronunciations:

Ba-dee-ya (tortilla)
Balicious (delicious)
Bamote (remote, as in remote control)
Bazzert (dessert)
Baputer (computer)
Tichen (kitchen)
Dop (stop)
Boke (poke)

There are a few more, but I can't recall them at the moment.

Oh, and then there's the little gem from this morning, on the way to school. We were following a police car...

Aleaha: "Hey Mom, yook. Dere's a pleece car in front of us."
Mom: "Yeah, there is."
Aleaha: "What are those letters on the back?"
Mom: "Well, how 'bout you tell me what those letters are."
Aleaha: "P-O-L-I-C-E"
Mom: "That's right. Do you know what that spells? That spells 'police'."
Aleaha: "Oh. Well. That makes sense."

hehehe. She's got a fabulous grasp of the obvious. :)

Another story....

I told Aleaha that her soon-to-arrive little sister (still called "Noodle") wanted to get her a special birthday present, and I was thinking that she might want to have it early. Aleaha was totally intrigued at this prospect -- not just the getting of a present, but the fact that Noodle had worked this out with me. It was a Bob-style stroller (3 wheels, with a little place underneath to store/carry more stuff, which she is REALLY into lately). She was thrilled, and immediately took to filling it with a swaddled baby doll and an assortment of other things to push around, one of which was her cell phone. She proceeded to push it around the kitchen, but then suddenly stopped, grabbed her cell phone, and had this conversation:

Aleaha: "Yeah, hi-yo. Are you dere? Yeah, uh, tank you for da Bob. I really, really yike it. It's just yike my udder one, but it hodes more stuff. Yeah. Uh-huh. OK. Yeah. Alright. Bye."

I asked her what that conversation was all about. She replied, "Noodle wasn't dere. I had to yeave a message. I wanted to tell her tank-you for da Bob."

And finally this little quip:

Mom: "Aleaha, if you were a horse, what kind of horse would you be?"
Aleaha: "Mom, if I was a horse, I wouldn't be A-yee-ah!"
Mom: "Yes, I know. But if you were a horse, what kind would you be?"
Aleaha, quick as a whip: "A bucking horse, Mom."

Touche!

The Zoo

We finally made it to the zoo this year. We tried three times to plan for a day to go, during the week (fewer people to contend with), with decent weather, and the first two times we had to give up due to rain. We didn't get many pics ... Mom had the camera, and mostly I just pushed the empty stroller and found places to sit (stroller wasn't quite sturdy enough to hold my mass, or I would have insisted that they push me!). But it was a really good day, even if we didn't document it thoroughly with photos.


Great pic of Aleaha and Daddy.


Requested "belly shot" (taken whilst eldest child attempts to climb over fence and pick all the flowers). Calendar says I'm 33 weeks along. In pregnant-old-woman terms, that means I'm about 2 years overdue.


Aleaha contemplates the highest speed the zoo train is likely to reach.


It really was a great day: We started by sleeping in (glory be, even the kiddo!), then broke our fast at The Broken Yolk cafe (which Aleaha calls "The Broken Yoken"), hit Coastal Farm in Albany for a few essentials, then made our way to the zoo. We were there only a couple of hours, and that was just fine. See some animals, dodge some people, eat a sno-cone, and we're ready to go, right? Then, on the way home, we found a Red Robin in Wilsonville and had an early dinner (read: Mom didn't cook a thing that day!). Here's Miss A enjoying a bit of a fuzzy raspberry drink.

Eating, Underwear, and More Eating

Aleaha and Mommy went to Pastini's the other night (while Daddy had a work session for racecar with his crew). It was a more upscale place than I would normally patronize with a little kid, but she was pretty good. Noodles with butter, how bad could it be? And chocolate cake for dessert. Yeah, it rated pretty high.


Should we be seeing this? Clearly not. (First, it's a flash of her underwear, which we are teaching is not something to be shown in public. Second, uh....if I can read it like this, it means they are on inside out!) Obviously there was a dress-yourself opportunity earlier in her day.



Happiness is sharing a big chocolate milkshake with your dad. :)


I've gotten some requests to post "belly shots" here. Will try. We are so danged busy lately it's hard to find a few minutes....

This weekend we finished setting up the pig pen for '09, and we trekked out to the farm and picked up our 5 little oinkers for this year. Pics of those soon, I hope. Two of them are smaller than the others -- small enough to escape through the side pannels of the pen! We had a bit of a situation yesterday when a little one got on the wrong side of the fence. He got a little scared, jumped the hot wire, went through the openings in the pannel fence, and was free. After a panicky moment where we all sort of froze in place, I thought to turn off the hot wire and let his social instinct to be with his friends take over. He quickly found his way back in, at which point I promptly turned the electricity back on, to discourage that sort of thing again! That seems to be the only escapee case. The piggies are pretty fun to watch, as they frolick in the dirt, lay in the sun and shade, and learn to eat from the "big pig feeder". They are still struggling to learn how to drink from the hose, but they are getting there. They were accustomed to living in a barn, no access to the outdoors. So they seem to be understanding that this ranch is a pretty good deal . Yeah, that's the way we want them to think about it.... a really great life. With purpose. A higher purpose. More on that later. ;) (And no, NONE of them are named "Babe" or Wilbur"!)

Mother's Day!

As our Mother's Day tradition (well, second year running), we went to our local cafe for breakfast on Sunday morning. Miss A gave a nice grin for the camera. She loves going out for breakfast, because she can "order pan-takes, syrup, sausage, and eggs", which are her favorites (and I don't make pancakes at home, so that's a real treat for her). She was bit disappointed later that day when we went out for dinner at Elmer's with Gramma Patty, because she couldn't order the very same thing.





She made a lovely 4-course meal for us the other night, and I asked her what was for dessert. She said, shoulders shrugging, "But Mom, I no have anything to make you for ba-ssert." Well, I had stashed this fabulous wooden birthday cake for later in June (do you just love stuff by "Melissa and Doug" or what?!), so I pulled it out a couple of weeks early. Lemme tell you, it's a hit! I've had many quiet hours and some delicious ba-sserts (served with tea or coffee, even!) from this little gift. The pieces stick together with velcro, which can then be cut apart with the matching knife ("Be careful, Mom, it's very sharp and dangerous!").

Feeding MamaLlama

MamaLlama is a slut for alfalfa treats. We recently discovered that she especially loves the cubed form, even over the pelleted form. (Great, those are cheaper!)

Aleaha had fun feeding her while Mom rearranged a few things in the barn. Kept them both busy!

Nigel's Birthday Party

This is a shot from a b-day party we attended last weekend for Nigel, a friend in Aleaha's class at school. It was held in the back area of a local toy store, "The Toy Factory" (great facility). This photo summarizes a good portion of Miss A's attitude during most of the party. She retreated to herself quite a bit. (And when Mom knocked her juice cup over and spilled it all over her from the head down.... well, that didn't help much, I'm afraid.)

Things picked up a bit for her when it was cake time.

Here's a couple of great pics of our friends Leo and Nigel. See, they had a GREAT time!

As we left, I wanted Aleaha to test-ride a horsie on her wishlist for her birthday. I'm glad we tried him out first - he's too small for her. No room to grow. I'm looking for one a tad taller (maybe just one more hand) that we can all enjoy for a little longer. Helps to, you know, postpone the inevitable...."Mom, when do I get my own real horse?!"