Alaina

Of course there's lots to tell about Alaina, cute little punkin. This girl always keeps me smiling! Like right now she just picked up a battery before Landon could get it in his mouth and she said, "ha ha ha!" This is a new thing she's been doing that cracks me up. It's hard for her to control the stops between ha's so it's really jerky and ever so funny. Something I should try to catch on video because describing it doesn't do it justice. Anyway, she had a birthday on January 17th and it was hilarious. She got these little battle bugs that vibrate and Brice got them because he knew she'd both love them and hate them at the same time. She's love them because she loves bugs but she's hate them because she has a little bit of sensory processing stuff and vibrating is totally outside her spectrum. After touching them once and freaking out, she would only watch them, utterly excited but she refused to touch them again for a good couple of weeks.

She also went to open her last present but we had used double stick tape and when she opened the first part, the tape stuck to her and it freaked her out and she wouldn't touch it again. This picture is her trying to hide from it because it "attacked" her. Funny little thing.

And here's her showing off her cute new jammies from Auntie Angel

Alaina was at the store with me and she pointed at a cake mix with hearts and stuff on it for Valentine's day and she pointed to it and said "Birt-day!" I don't think I'd said anything to her about her birthday coming up, but apparently she just knew. So I went with that and did a heart themed birthday for her.

I've been asking family to get my kids gifts that don't have a ton of pieces, are an activity or outing, or are consumable. My mom got Alaina a paint by numbers picture (consumable) and Alaina had a great time painting her horsies.

I'm an advocate for babywearing. It's good for attachment between wearer and baby, good for baby's development in many ways, and helps keep mom from getting flabby. I make and use all kinds of carriers. I love them. Alaina, it seems loves them too. She will frequently bring me a doll or stuffed animal and a carrier of some kind and say, "carryr" or "dolly ride" to ask me to help her put it on. Here she is with a blanket used as an African kanga carrier.

As soon as I put a carrier on her, she goes and checks it in the mirror (even though she can't see the mirror) just like mommy does, making sure that dolly is nice and secure. This is her looking over her shoulder trying to see how it looks in the mirror. Funny girl!

Here's a picture of me carrying Landon in an African kanga. It's a great carry because there's zero weight on your shoulders.

And here's a couple of Alaina with her mousie in a carrier that I made for her.

Alaina thinks time out is funny. She goes gladly every time I threaten her with it. Asking "Do you need a time out?" gets a smile and a happy child running for the nearest corner. Ugh. What do I do with THAT!? See? Happy as a clam as I call her out of time out.

Alaina's at the stage where she loves to be a helper . I love this stage. Most of the time...

I came downstairs one cold morning to find Alaina all snuggled up in a cozy blanket with a huge bag of animal crackers. Despite the fact that I can tell she understands the no-food-out-of-the-kitchen rule very well, she is constantly taking food wherever she wants if I'm not sitting right there babysitting. But she was so cute all curled up in this huge blanket so I had to take her picture instead of scolding her.