Christmas in California

Whenever we are in California for Christmas, we love to go see the lights in the Long Beach neighborhood of Naples. These homes are built along canals.

Anna started off pretty excited, but soon the stroller lulled her to sleep.
The face house is one of my favorites. Every year I look for it.


We loved the warm weather while we were in California and decided to take Anna to the beach. At first she was a little nervous about the waves. I guess I'm a bit of a novice because I didn't roll her pants or my pants up high enough. Before long we were both soaking wet. Only Dan was smart enough to keep his clothes dry.


Dan's mom has a tradition of putting Crackers by our plates for Christmas Eve dinner. Each Cracker looks like a paper firework. When pulled apart, it pops. Inside there is usually a fortune, a paper crown, and a toy of some sort (think crackjack sort of toy).
Of course Anna had to put out her stocking for Santa on Christmas Eve before going to bed.
Christmas morning: Santa brought Anna a grocery cart and she LOVED it.
Anna got a plastic banana, tomato, pear, and carrot in her stocking. It wasn't very long before the banana was also being used as a phone.

Button, Button

Anna's really into buttons these days. Usually she's wearing an undershirt so she just has to feel for her belly button, but I've caught her lifting up other kids' shirts and saying "button" as she points to their belly button. She also likes to point out buttons on our shirts. And she loves the panic button on our key fobs. We don't love listening to the car alarm though so we try to discourage that one. But it is funny to see the smile on her face after she sets the alarm off. It's probably a face that only a mom or dad could love.Sunday night she pointed to a freckle on Dan's leg and said "button." We thought it was hilarious. Then tonight she pointed to a zit and said "hurt?" What a sensitive child, even if she is pointing out embarrassing imperfections.

Temple Square and More

We thought it would be a great idea to take Anna to Temple Square in downtown SLC to see all the lights--that is until we had to fight the traffic and find a parking spot. In years past we just rode Trax, but we figured with a kid it would be easier to drive downtown. But then we couldn't find a place to park thanks to everything going on at the Conference Center and I forgot the stroller. We finally found a place to park about half a mile away. And it was so cold! The photo above is of Anna in front of a Christmas tree in the Joseph Smith Memorial building.
Anna loved the mural on the wall behind the Christus. She kept pointing and saying "moon, moon!" I didn't even know she knew what a moon was.

I crack up every time she tries to wear our shoes.
One of the best things I purchased recently was a toy shovel for Anna. Whenever I shovel the snow, she wants to use one of our big shovels and that leads to a lot of whining and crying since they are too heavy for her. She loves her shovel and often has to play with it for a few minutes before I can get her to get into the car. I just might have to start hiding it.
For Christmas my mom gave my dad a toy top with the idea that he would share it with Anna. She thought it was pretty cool.
My mom also gave her a Leapfrog Counting Candles Birthday Cake. It has little candles that light up with the touch of a button and you can even "blow" them out. We just let her play with it in the box since she didn't want to wait for us to take it out. Later that night I took it out of the box and put the box on the pile of recyclables. She found it a few days later, took it out of the pile, and stuck her cake back in it. I guess she figured it wasn't as fun without the box.

Christmastime

Anna loves the Christmas tree and slowly, all the ornaments are working their way towards the top out of her reach. In the morning when she gets up, she wants the lights on and she likes to stop at the tree on the way to getting her diaper changed and point out the "sheepies" and the Snoopy ornaments. She also likes to throw them over the stair railing. Then she'll hold out her hand to me, say, "c'mon" and lead me towards the stairs to go get the ornaments. So far she hasn't tried to climb the tree, but she has pulled pretty hard on a few ornaments, causing the tree to lean dangerously. Just one more reason why we don't have any of those pretty balls on our tree.
This photo has nothing to do with Christmas--I just thought it was cute. Anna decided that she wanted to eat her dinner with a very large spoon. I indulged her and took a picture. These days, Anna loves to help. She wants to help make the brownies, do the dishes, anything we are doing. She's also become quite the monkey-see-monkey-do. The other day I noticed that she had my nail clippers and was trying to cut her own toenails with them. Another day, I was in the bathroom combing my hair after a shower and Anna was begging for lotion. I gave her some and she immediately smeared it on her forehead because I usually rub moisturizer on my face after a shower.

Lately she's also into washing her hands and in the middle of eating, sometimes she'll start whining, "han, han!" meaning that she wants me to wipe her hands off. She still eats with her hands, as well as utensils, but I guess sometimes she doesn't want her food to mix.

Last night was the ward Christmas party with a special visit from Santa and Mrs. Clause. Anna just wanted to stand where she could see Santa and say his name over and over again. I don't think she even knows what he does, but I've mentioned it to her before, and she picks up much more than I realize these days. But when it was her turn to sit on Santa's lap, she wasn't interested. She just wanted to stand about three feet away (out of Santa's reach) and stare at him. So with my help and a candy cane, we got a photo close to Santa.

When we got home I asked her if she liked seeing Santa and she very clearly said, "yesh." But when we asked her if she wanted to sit on Santa's lap she said, "no lap." We'll try again next year.

Thanksgiving

Every year I make a pumpkin pie because I like it and it's tradition, an apple pie because that's my favorite, and a cherry pie because that's Dan's favorite. Turns out that Anna LOVES pumpkin pie, which is sort of funny because she loves pumpkins too, but I doubt she knows that the two are connected. My mom was eating pumpkin pie and tried to give Anna some of the whip cream, thinking she would like that. But Anna turned her down and went for the actual pie itself. Later that evening, she pulled herself up onto a chair and found someone's left over pie. Do I sound like an awful mom, letting my child eat other people's left overs? It was only a little bit of pie and hadn't been out for very long, so I figured I'd let her have it. Besides I was playing Settlers of Cataan and so close to winning. I ended up losing though. Go figure!

Little Talker

Anna has become quite the little talker lately. I'm surprised at how many words she knows. Of course the key is to decipher what she's saying. Mostly we talk about food. I swear when she says bread it sounds like butt or bud. The other day during lunch she was pointing and saying, "bud! bud!" I couldn't figure out what she meant because there wasn't any bread out. Finally I pointed to the package of tortillas and asked if that's what she wanted and she said yes. So I explained that we call those tortillas and gave her some. A few minutes later she said "ti! ti!" with the same intensity as before. Once again it took me a few minutes but I finally figured out that she wanted more tortilla.

In the last day or so, she's really been into applesauce. But when she says it, it sounds like "I saw" or "aa-saw."

We put up our Christmas tree on Friday night and Anna loves it. We have several Snoopy ornaments thanks to Dan's mom. In the morning, Anna likes to stop at the Christmas tree before we change her diaper or get her breakfast. She also likes to point out the different ornaments and say "Snoopy" or "baa" for the sheep.

Saturday night Aunt Christa babysat Anna. They had a pretty good time. When I got Anna up this morning, I was sure she said, "Where's Christa?"

A few weeks ago, I picked up some candy for a sister I visit teach and I thought it would be a good idea to get Anna a piece of Laffy-Taffy to help her into her car seat. I'm not into bribing Anna, but I love to get a treat whenever I go out and so sometimes Anna gets one too. As I unwrapped the candy, I thought, I better only give her half of this candy, but then I reasoned, she can't get into too much trouble with the whole piece. When I went to get her out of the car, I found a big wad of Laffy Taffy stuck in her hair. Oops! I stuck her hair under running water and it came out pretty easily.
Anna had her first bout of the stomach flu last week. I knew she was sick when she got up from her nap and only wanted to sit on my lap. Eventually she started to perk up and get down and walk around. That's when she barfed. So after changing her, I set her on the couch to watch Sesame Street while I cleaned up her barf. When I came back to find her, I noticed that she was sticking the thermometer in her sleeve, taking her temperature. Too bad it's not that easy when I'm trying to actually take her temperature.

Catching up on October

Well, it's the end of November and I'm finally getting around to October. Here are some photos of what we've been up to.
At the beginning of October, Dan and I took a short, over-night trip down to Cedar City. We saw the play, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) at the Shakespeare Festival and we also went out to see the Cedar Breaks monument.
In this photo Anna is feeding Dad his corn. She thought that was a lot of fun.
Dan's parents came to visit for Dan's birthday. They brought a cheese cake and an amazingly rich chocolate cake to his birthday party. Anna loved the chocolate cake and I know I let her eat way too much cake and way too much ice cream.
We got our first significant snow in October. Lucky for Anna, I had bought her a snow coat, gloves, and snow boots the day before. At first, it was hard for Anna to walk around in her snow boots and big, puffy coat, but eventually she loved it. She also loved being pulled around in a sled with her buddy Ryelle. Benji was nice enough to pull Anna in his sled. At one point I said to him, "Wow! Benji that's looks like hard work." He shrugged and said, "It's just like dragging all my favorite things." I thought that was so cute.
Just before Halloween, my sister Christa came home from her mission to the Belgium Brussels-Netherlands mission. We all went up to the airport to wait for her to fly in and several of Christa's friends also showed up. Erica brought Christa four or five boxes of Reese's Puffs. I guess it's Christa's favorite cereal.
It's becoming a tradition in our house for Dan to carve the pumpkin. I showed Anna this picture and it freaked her out. By the way, Anna loves pumpkins. Every time she sees the color orange she says, "pumpkin?"
I made Anna's costume for Halloween. She was a butterfly, but I really wanted to make her a tutu. I also make the wings with hangers and tights. Her costume was a bit eclectic, but I had fun making it.

The other day I mentioned to Dan that Anna does a much better job of playing independently if I don't turn on the TV for her. I hate to do it, but sometimes when I really need to get something done quickly I'll turn the TV on. She mostly watches PBS kids. Anyway, that same day, Anna pulled all the books off our book shelf. Then she decided to test out her crayon on a bedroom door, and finally she unrolled a bunch of toilet paper. That was all before noon. I decided to dress her up in the tp so that's where this photo comes from.
I got to babysit a four-month old, Logan for a few hours this month. I was pretty interested in how Anna would react. When she wasn't standing over him saying "baby?," I was holding him and that made her jealous. Still she's getting a little bit better about letting other kids play with her toys. She just needs more interaction with other kids.

Our Tribute to SYTYCD in SLC

Acrobatics

This sweet little girl loves to jump on the couch. Every time we see her stand up on the couch, we tell her to sit on her bottom. We tell her this for three reasons: 1. to preserve our furniture; 2. so she won't jump on other people's couches; and 3. because she doesn't yet seem to get gravity.

Well, last Friday she did her first front flip off the couch. Ironically enough I was talking to the doctor when she launched herself off the couch. She tucked her head just in time and ended up rolling onto her back.

She didn't cry, but neither did she throw up or show any other signs of hitting her head too hard. She did look a little dazed, but mostly I think she was surprised by what happened. Since then I haven't seen her do much jumping. Maybe the idea of gravity is starting to kick in.

Car Seats and Whip Cream

On Labor Day, we piled in the car to meet my family in Orem for lunch, but just before we left, Dan noticed that our car had a flat tire. So we had to switch the car seat to the other car. When we took Anna out of her car seat and then the car seat out of the car, she flipped out. She started screaming hysterically and didn't calm down until the car seat was secured in the other car and she was sitting in it. Then the next day, Dan brought the car seat into the house so that he could take his car to work. Again Anna started crying until it was back in the car (the tire had been patched). I didn't realize that she knew she wasn't going anywhere if the car seat was in the house. She loves to play in the front seat of the car, and occasionally I let her sit in the front seat if I'm just backing the car out of the garage, but if we actually go anywhere, she sits in the car seat. And she does occasionally fight me when I try to put her in the car seat, so her reaction was a bit surprising.

Tonight we went to my parents' house for dinner because my grandparents were in town (did I mention that my family recently left Louisiana and moved to Utah County?). Of course my dad is doing his best to corrupt Anna. He gave her a spoonful of whip cream, but it took her a few tentative touches before she was willing to believe that it was worth eating. Clearly she is a bright child if she knows Grandpa can't be trusted. He is after all, the guy who gave me Tabasco Sauce when I was just a baby. And he gave it to me repeatedly even though I cried every time. He says I kept asking for it, but I ask you, who was the adult in that situation?

As my mom was saying goodbye to Katie and Jamie, Anna pushed my mom out the door, shut it and said "bye bye." So cute!

She's at the stage now where she seems to be learning new words every day. Right now her favorite thing to say is "car" and "cuck" (truck). Lucky for her, we live on a fairly busy street, so there are plenty of cars and cucks driving by.

Half Marathon

So, I ran my first half marathon in Spanish Fork on Saturday and it was grueling. I started off feeling good, but at mile eight, I felt my body start to tingle all over and by mile nine my legs hurt all over. My hips hurt, my knees hurt, my ankles hurt, and all the muscles in between. I admit that I'm starting to think about a marathon, but I was in so much pain when I finished that I don't know how I could run thirteen more miles.

I also learned a few things that I'm anxious to apply the next time I run a half marathon. I have this thing where I like to do something hard more than once so that I can benefit from the experience I've gained and give it another go since I never seem to get it quite right the first time. (The rest of this post is mostly for my benefit, so don't feel like you have to read this if you're not into running.)

Lesson 1: Don't start out too fast. I used to believe that I wasn't competitive because when I first started running, I couldn't really compete. But I'm more competitive than I'd like to think (not that I'm winning any races these days either). On Saturday, I started out with an 8 m. 15 s./mile pace and by mile nine, I didn't have anything left and I had slowed to a 9 min. pace. Everyone I had passed by mile five started passing me and it was discouraging. Plus my legs hurt all over, adding to my discouragement.

Next time, I will start out at a slower than normal pace, so that I can finish feeling strong and I can pass some people instead of being passed myself.

Lesson 2: Wear my Amphipod belt. I have a belt with water bottles and a pouch for food or other small items that I always wear on my longer runs so that I can stay hydrated. For the most part, I really like it, but it does feel heavy and sloshy at the beginning and I thought that going without the belt in the race would be like shaving all my body hair off just before a swimming competition. But I've decided, that it's better to have the liquid I want when I need it, and it's better to start off feeling slow and heavy and end feeling lighter and faster. For the most part, the water stations worked out okay for me, but sometimes the Gatorade was too watery.

Lesson 3: Bring a jacket for after the race. For the most part, the weather was great, and I didn't actually need a jacket, but I can see how I might feel cold if the weather had been just a bit cooler. Without my belt or my jacket, I felt a little unprepared and I think it affected me mentally.

Once I finished my half marathon, I thought I would feel a sense of accomplishment, but instead I've actually felt pretty discouraged the last few days. My legs ached all the rest of Saturday. I probably should have taken some anti-inflammatory pain killers and I know I shouldn't have spent the rest of the day on my feet running errands. Sunday I woke up with sore muscles and that actually felt better. In addition to the pain, I think I have felt woefully aware of my status as an amateur. I like to read books about gardening, quilting, child behavior, etc. but I have no interest in running books. I guess I'm too independent to learn from others, but after my race, I felt extremely ignorant about running something as long as a half marathon. So if anyone knows of a book they like, I'd love to hear about it.

I think I'm also coming to grips with the fact that no matter how well I do, there will always be someone faster or stronger than me. I don't know why this bugs me right now because it's always been this way for me. When I started running in high school, I couldn't even run a mile without walking and still Coach put me with the Cross Country team. But then running a full two miles without walking or knocking a minute off my time became a huge accomplishment for me. Some how, I've got to get back to that mind set, where I'm only racing against myself.

I should also mention how grateful I am to my sister Erica for showing up at the finish line to cheer me on. After such a tough race, I was hoping that someone I knew would be there to see me finish. So when I heard Erica scream out my name at the top of her lungs, I couldn't help but smile and feel encouraged. In fact, I almost wanted to cry when I saw and heard her. Dan tried to make it there to see me finish, but both he and Anna overslept and so he was still in Provo when I crossed the finish line.

Nursery

Anna went to nursery for the first time on Sunday. She walked right in a didn't look back. About half way through, she had a dirty diaper, so I had a good excuse to see how she was doing. I wondered if she might freak out when I took her back to nursery since this time she would know that I was leaving her, but she didn't. I know I should be relieved that it was so easy (at least for this first Sunday), but I'm sort of disappointed that she didn't miss me more. I guess I was secretly hoping to spend a few weeks in nursery while she adjusted and maybe I still will. I certainly don't want to jinx myself. It just feels like she's growing up so fast and there's a part of me that doesn't want her to.

Here are a few other things we've been up to in the last week.

We had a family picnic in Provo Canyon on Friday and Anna loved the Oreos and all the attention. By the end of the evening she would plop down in someone's lap and then almost immediately get up and move to another lap. This kid is constantly on the go. Lucky for me she still takes two naps (most of the time).
Yes, I do believe in child labor and teaching my child how to work at an early age. I saw this idea on a website, to make my swiffer handle shorter and Anna loves it. She doesn't really get the floor clean, but I'd much rather have her doing this than pulling my makeup out of my bathroom drawer or playing with matches like she was today. A few days ago, she brought me a tampon. I guess those safety latches on the cabinets don't work if I don't shut the cabinet.
This kid loves fruit and especially watermelon, even the rind. On our picnic, she kept trying to bite the rind. I figure she'll eventually realize that the rind doesn't taste half as good as the pink stuff. She would eat only fruit if I would let her, but I continue to torture her by giving her other foods to eat. She's great at eating pinto or black beans and pasta with tomato sauce, but she will not allow me to put cauliflower or broccoli on her tray. As soon as I set in on her tray, she picks it up and hands it to me or throws it. Little does she know that I puree the stuff and hide it in the tomato sauce. Bwa ha ha!

Approved!

It took me much longer than I hoped, but our adoption application is finally approved. Feel free to check out our online profile at www.itsaboutlove.org. The Church has recently revamped this website and there are lots of great resources for women who find themselves in a crisis pregnancy or couples considering adoption, as well as friends and family who want to support adoption.

If you want to see our profile or point someone to our profile, go to this link: https://www.itsaboutlove.org/ial/search.jsf and then search for Dan and Alisa.

Approximately 750,000 teenage girls (15-19) become pregnant each year.* And this figure doesn't include women outside of this age range who also find themselves in crisis pregnancies. We don't need more crisis pregnancies, we just need our society to think more positively about adoption and to recognize it as a positive third option to choosing to abort or choosing to parent.

If you know a young woman in a crisis pregnancy, let her know first of all that you love her and will support her whatever decision she makes. If you share a relationship of trust with her, you might consider letting her know about adoption or about our profile. And you never know when your positive attitude (or negative) about adoption might influence someone who is in a position to choose to place.

We appreciate all of you who hope and pray for us.

*statistics come from a report prepared by the Guttmacher Institute in Sept. 2006.

Lounging and Swimming

This isn't a very flattering photo of me (I know I'm stating the obvious), but I post it because of what Anna is doing. I had just finished running 12.5 miles (I'm training for a half marathon on Sept. 5) and while I was stretching, Anna decided to use my legs as a chair. And because I'm crazy in love with my child (most of the time), instead of making her get up, I told Dan to get the camera. AND I let him take a picture of me in all my sweatiness.
So, it's the end of the summer and I finally got Anna some floaties, water wings, arm bands, or whatever you want to call them. We took a Mommy and Me swim class in April and I've been trying to keep up our skills all summer. Anna's great about sitting on the side and leaning in to be caught and dunked by me. She's also pretty good about kicking her legs when I tell her to. But she has no idea how to do anything that resembles swimming and she's not content to float in her inflatable ring. She wants me to carry her around the pool wherever she directs and usually that is into the middle of a bunch of splashing kids. Then one day while we were at the pool, I learned from a friend that they have floaties for kids Anna's age.

Of course, it's the end of the season so I had to get a pair that Anna will grow into. I figure she's still small enough that I've got to keep an eye on her constantly anyway, so it's okay if they're a little big. She's pretty cute to watch because she doesn't understand the concept of floating on her tummy and dog paddling. Instead she keeps her body perpendicular to the pool floor and kicks madly to keep her chin and mouth out of the water. The kicking usually causes her to spin in circles, making it hard for me to get a photo of her facing forward. But most importantly, she has more fun in the floaties, she works harder, and she takes longer naps when we get home form the pool.

July and August Update

Geez, it has been a long time since I posted here. For the past month I have been working hard to finish our adoption application and I'm finally getting to the point where I have to wait for feedback before I can do anymore. I hope we'll be approved in the next few weeks.

Over the past month, Anna has started talking and signing more. I sort of gave up on sign language when she didn't seem to show any interest in it at nine months but then she started to actually do some of the signs a month or two ago. Of course many of the signs look the same. "More" and "shoes" look a lot alike, but if she really focuses, she can say "mo" and she usually only says "shoes" when we ask her to. Learning to sign "cracker" also helped her figure out where her elbow is, but most of the time she still likes to stand at the open pantry door, point to the top shelf, and cry rather than pat her elbow or say "cacka." Other favorite words include no, ball, purple, baseball, touch down (you can probably guess who has been teaching her those last two words), and "thank you." She can also make the sign for thank you and it looks like she's blowing a kiss, which I think is just too cute for words. Her first true word was probably "mom" and that's still what she calls both Dan and I. She can say "Da da" but if I point to a photo of Dan and ask who that is she says "Mom!" Ball was her second real word. It took me a long time to figure out that that's what she was saying at the pool. But she wanted the other kids' balls enough that she finally got the message across to me. She will also frequently pick up just about everything from the TV remote to a calculator to my cell phone, hold it up to her ear, say "hello" and then continue to babble. Of course, I think it's adorable, but I'm not biased or anything.

Here are some photos from the last month.

We finally went on a picnic up Provo Canyon. Anna loved the idea of sitting on a blanket and eating Pringles. Recently she's learned how to pull herself up onto a chair and a few times, she's made it on top of the table. So she's not to keen about sitting in her high chair when she could be dancing on a chair. But sitting on the ground outside and eating, now that was right up her alley.
Anna's also been working on going down the slide by herself.

We've been spending some time coloring, but I have to admit that several crayons have teeth marks in them. My pediatrician warned me that she would try to eat them, but she's so dang fast! I turn away for a minute and she's got a big hunk of purple crayon in her mouth.
Our ward went to see an Orem Owlz baseball game and Anna discovered root beer. I'm learning that if I don't want her to eat junk food, then I can't eat junk food, but despite my best intentions, I continue to be a bad example. She couldn't get enough of my root beer and eventually I had to hide it from her, because she was turning into a sticky mess.
This stream was ice cold, but Anna didn't care and my mom was nice enough to help Anna dip her toes in the stream. I'm glad grandma was there because I probably would have tried to prevent her from getting close to the stream and then it would have been a big kicking and screaming mess.

Independence Day

On the Fourth of July, I got an early start to my day participating in the Freedom Festival 10K with a few ladies from my ward, while my sister Katie and her husband Jack ran in the 5K. It's nice to go to races with friends these days. In the past I felt like such a loner. It was my first 10K and I felt pretty sore the next day, but all in all, I was pretty happy with the race, averaging 8 min./mile.

We decided to take a dip in the neighborhood pool. Anna loves leaning off the side even though we dunk her every time. Those swim lessons we took in April are paying off.

Ooh! Cheetos! This was the highlight of Independence Day: her Aunt Katie brought Cheetos to our family picnic and let her eat some. By the end of the evening I had Cheetos fingerprints all over me.

This was Anna's first time watching fireworks. We can see the fireworks from our front yard, so last year we put Anna to sleep and brought the baby monitor outside. This year, Anna wasn't about to miss the party, but when the fireworks started to go off, she started to whimper and tried to bury her head in my chest. Even though I am mostly selfish and didn't want to miss the fireworks, I eventually took pity on her and took her inside. But as soon as Anna realized that everyone else was still outside watching the fireworks, she pointed at the front door and whined. So we went back outside and she nestled herself between my legs. She was pretty rigid and tense and as soon as the fireworks ended she sat up and started to look for the Cheetos again.