Ketchup

According to Lena, ketchup is great as face paint and for styling your hair. She calls it "chechup."

Contests!

Check out the contests that are going on at 5 Minutes for Mom. Lots of neat prizes. Just click on the button on the right (on my blog) that says Christmas Giveaway, that is red and white with a package on it. It will link you to 5 Minutes for Mom. My favorite is the Born Free bottles that they are giving away. Have fun looking!

Friends

This is Lena and her friend, Jenna (dressed as a bee), at our church Fall Festival sunday afternoon. Look at the height difference. Jenna is two weeks younger than Lena.

First-time "Treater"

This is the first time for Lena to do Trick-or-Treating. She of course looke adorable in her crayon costume. We only went to two houses, which were 2 couples from church we are friends with that live within a mile from us. When they opened the door, Lena would only say "Treat!" It was quite cute. Sam and Sarah loaded Lena up with tons of candy. And while we were at Joe and Kim's, Lena played with their cat, Lucy, and fed her a treat. Lena seemed to enjoy the evening, but was ready for bed when we got home.

Preschool Costume Fun

Yesterday was the costume parade/trick-or-treating and carnival at preschool. Of course being a teacher, I had to dress up, so....I dressed up as my favorite children's character, Cat in the Hat. Also, it was the only costume I had on hand (leftover from Sing Song). Lena's costume was a pink crayon, and she got lots of oohs and ahhs, and "O how cute!" The next question was of course, "Did you make her costume?" I was very proud to say that I did make her costume. I really enjoyed making her unique costume.

The Pumpkin Patch

I took Lena to the Pumpkin Patch last friday, and she had a lot of fun running around and playing with the pumpkins. She was so distracted with seeing everything, that it was hard to get good pictures, but I got a few. We didn't take one home, but Lena gave the ladies in charge hugs for letting her play.

Another Contest!

Okay ladies, it's another contest! It's pink, and you all know that pink is my favorite color, so of course I had to share the news of the contest. Also, this one helps support something that hits many woman, breast cancer. October is breast cancer awareness month, so 5 Minutes for Mom
is giving away one Casio Pink EX-Z75 digital camera to one lucky winner.

Come on! It pink, and it's for a good cause!

GREAT CONTEST!!!!!!

Hey everyone! Go on over to 5 Minutes for Mom and check out their latest giveaway. It is awesome! They are giving away Western Digital Passport External Hard Drive ---3 of them!
This is a really cool external hard drive that lets you back up all your pictures, some documents, music, video, etc. It holds a lot. Plus, it comes in cute colors! This allows you to take with you all your important things that you don't want to lose. I don't know about the rest of you, but I would just cry if my computer shut down and I couldn't get to all my pictures. GO NOW to 5 Minutes for Mom and sign up to win your very own Passport.

Who does she look like?

Win a Dyson Pink All Floors Vacuum!

Hey girls! 5 Minutes For Mom is GIVING AWAY one Dyson Pink All Floors vacuum! This is part of Dyson's goal for helping to find a cure for breast cancer. The vacuum is only found at Target, and they are selling fast! SO.......if pink is your favorite color (It's mine!), then head on over to 5 Minutes For Mom and register to win a pink vacuum. And even if pink is not your favorite color, head on over there anyways. A free vacuum is still nice!

Be careful what you say.....

So....James and I have noticed now that we have to be careful about what we say, and the tone we use when we say things. Now that Lena is nearly 21 months (on Sept. 8th) she is paying more attention to what is being said. James and I are always saying to each other, "Honey, honey", and the other one answers "What!?". Well, the other day we were driving in the car, and from the backseat we heard Lena say, "Honey, honey. What!?". She says it all the time now. It really makes you stop and think about what you say when your toddler comes back and repeats you. It just makes me glad that we are not people who say ugly things. Thank you God for giving us toddlers to keep us in check.

She sings

Today was the day that I went up to the preschool to get my room ready for school to start next week. I had some paper stars on the table. Lena picked one up, said "Star". She looked at it and then sang, "Twinkle twinkle little stars", with the correct tune. I guess that would be her first 4 word sentence and also the first song to sing that could be recognizable. It was sooooooooo cute!

Cuteness

You gotta check out the video clip at Adventures in Babywearing. Just click on the link below. It is SOOOOOOOOOO cute!
http://www.adventuresinbabywearing.com/2007/08/surely-youve-never-heard-it-said-so.html

Sweet Girl

I just love this picture of Lena. It was taken right after Church a few weeks ago, and she just posed so perfectly. Isn't she just the cutest little girl you've ever seen?! Of course, I might be a little biased. I love taking pictures of the cute things that she does.

She gets it!

We have been working with Lena trying to teach her how to count, what her colors are, her shapes, identifying things, the alphabet, etc. Would you expect anything different from a preschool teacher? She knows most of the shapes, can name nearly every major body part, knows a few letters, and is still working on her colors and counting. For a while, she would just say "2" for everything, then it went to 5, 6, 8, and lately 1, but she would never put any numbers together to count. Tonight, she climbed on top of some plastic drawers in her closet and squatted down like she was going to jump. She then said, "1, 2, 3!" She didn't jump, but she counted to 3! I was so excited for her! Everything we've been trying to teach her, she gets it finally. I knew she would at some point, but its just exciting when it happens. I never get tired of seeing the look of excitement when a child learns or discovers something new. Of course, the teacher in me had to take it further and start teaching her that the number 4 comes next.

Can you tell I'm ready for school to start? Teacher work days start the last week of August.

Bye bye summer!

"Pray?"

That seems to be one of Lena's favorite words now. That and "Amen!". I think we pray maybe 3 or 4 times at meals. She just loves to pray. Sometimes, in the middle of the day, she comes to me and grabs my hands and says, "Pray", and bows her head. So we sit there and pray. I lose count at the end of the day of how many times we prayed during the day. It doesn't get annoying, but instead she is inspiration to me--to pray more. Here I am, the parent, trying to make sure that I lead a good example and leave a legacy for my child, and she is the one showing me the example. I guess I did something right. It warms my heart every time she wants to pray. At dinner, (Sat. night), she said, "I pray", so she gibbered a couple of words for a prayer, and then Daddy prayed. It was sweet.

Great Contest

Check this out! 5 Minutes for Mom has teamed up with Best Buy for a contest where some lucky person gets to win a 37" Flat-Panel LCD HDTV!!!!! Check in with 5 Minutes for Mom and see what it is all about.

I hope I win this. James has a birthday in few weeks, and I KNOW he would LOVE this.

Cute Lena Moment

Yesterday in Church, we were singing "Blessed be your name", and when the song ended and everyone was sitting down, Lena decided to belt out, "Maymen!", which is her version of amen. The people around us just smiled. Amen is one of her favorite words lately.

When we sit down to eat at the table, we always hold hands and pray. It sure does make you feel good that you are doing something right when your toddler holds out her hands and says "Pray" before you can say it to her. And she loves to say "Maymen" at the end with enthusiasm.

I love being a mom!

Does it count?

Tonight, James was making brownies, and after he put them in the oven, he took the bowl over to the table so that he could eat the leftover brownie mix. He gave Lena a taste of the brownie mix. She said, "Mmmm, good. Amen!" She said the words somewhat close together, with only a couple of seconds in between, so does that count as a three word sentance? Anyways, it was a cute moment.

Another Contest

Hey everyone! Adventuresinbabywearing is having a contest where someone gets to win a $50 shopping spree at kangaroodle. Also, Mama Speaks is a cool place to visit. Go check them out.

Snack Time

Lena decided for herself that it was snack time. So she climbed up into her booster chair, grabbed the box of cheese nips, and poured them all onto the table. I told her she needed to tell Mama that she wanted a snack instead of helping herself, and then made sure to take advantage of the photo op. My silly girl.

No more crib

As I posted before, Lena got out of her crib last sat. after nap. Well, since then, she hasn't been sleeping as well, and it has been harder to put her to bed. So....Thurs. morning, I pulled her mattress out of the crib and put it on the floor for her to sleep on. That afternoon I put her on the mattress on the floor for her nap and told her to stay there on her bed and go to sleep. I told her that if she got off of her bed, that I would spank her. I walked out and closed the door, and then came back about 5 min. later. I found her off of her bed reading a book. So I spanked her, put her back on the mattress, and told her to go to sleep and that if she got off her bed that I would spank her. She cried about it. I went back in 10 min. later and she was asleep. We are now going on 3 days and nights of putting her to sleep on the mattress on the floor without any problems and no more spankings after that first one. She is sleeping longer, and waking up happier. We are working on getting a bed so that she doesn't have to sleep on a mattress on the floor. So far, this transition has been really good. She was ready for it. Thankfully, she doesn't know how to open doors yet. Although, that will come in time. Hopefully not for several months. Our little Sweet Pea is growing up.

New Accomplishments!

Yesterday afternoon, Lena learned something new! When she woke up from her nap, I heard her talking to her animals in her bed. I was about to go get her when I heard a thud, and then Lena crying. I ran into her room only to find her not in her bed, but on the floor! Yes, Lena figured out how to climb out of her crib. She was just fine and only cried for a short bit. She has been trying to create nearly every piece of furniture into a jungle gym, and the day before learned how to climb in and out of the bathtub, so I should have known that climbing out of the crib would come soon, but I was surprised and not ready for it. I did hear that when your child gets to be 35 in. you should move them out of the crib. Lena was 33 in. a month ago at her 18 mo. checkup. We are still trying to decide between teaching her to stay in her crib, and going ahead and moving her to a big bed. Right now, I'm leaning towards moving her to a big bed. We saw a neat expandable bed at IKEA that can start out as a toddler bed and then transfer into a twin bed. I don't know what we'll end up doing, but I guess we better make up our minds soon.

Contest fun

Hey friends! At 5 Minutes for Mom, they are having a July 4th Giveaway! So head on over there and check it out. There are a lot of great prizes that could be won!

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to the BEST Daddy in the whole world! James is a wonderful daddy to Lena. She just thinks the world of him. She can't wait till the end of the day for him to get home from work, and when she hears him come in the door, she runs to him saying "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy!" and gives him the biggest hugs. I knew he would make a great daddy, when my nephew attached himself to him before we had been married a year. I'm so blessed to be married to such a wonderful husband and father.

Father's Day 2006-Lena is 6 mo. old

Like Father Like Daughter--Big cheesy grins.

Contest!

At 5 Minutes for Mom they are having a contest where they are giving away two gift baskets with new baby toys made by Playskool and CVS/Pharmacy. Be sure to go check it out!

Pudding

Last night, Lena and I thought that we would make some chocolate pudding.
She had a lot of fun helpingmix it up and tast testing. I think she got her love
of chocolate from her Daddy and her Granna.

I better taste this, just to make sure it's good.

Yum! It is good pudding!

Having a baby changes everything

I was recently taking a poll online on a baby website. One of the questions was:

What does the phrase "Having a baby changes everything" mean to you?

Here is my answer:

Your thinking changes, you no longer think about just yourself and your spouse. You think about your child, and how you conduct yourself will affect your child. How your money is spread out is different. You no longer have the same amount of spending money for yourself, you have to buy diapers, clothes, doctor's visits--and they are more important than that new shirt or pair of shoes you've had your eye on. Your schedule changes. You no longer get to stay out late, or be able to go somewhere on a whim. Bedtimes and naptime are important, otherwise the rest of the day is cranky time. Your sleep pattern changes. You no longer get to sleep in when you want to. But, amidst all these changes, come a lot of wonderful unimaginable changes. Your sense of joy changes from the things you used to love, to getting that toothless gummy grin. Even those slobbery kisses (that do eventually change to sweet ones), put a smile on your face. You find yourself having spent half of naptime just watching your child sleep, in awe of their beauty and amazed at the fact that they are yours, and the other half of naptime catching up on your sleep. And who can forget how your heart leaps when your child first says, "Mama", or "Dada", or how proud you feel when the doctor says your child is smart. Yes, having a baby changes everything, but the positives outweigh the negatives. For me, having a baby changes everything for the better, and I wouldn't ever exchange my "Mama Time" for the times I had before having a baby.

I'm so proud to be a Mommy. This is the job that gives me such joy.

Dreams

It is interesting how dreams are. Some are good, some are weird, and some are scary. Some dreams actually come true. Last thursday night, I dreamed that we went to Midland and was out with my family. In the dream, my sister-in-law forgot to pack diapers for her son, Lena's cousin, who is two weeks older than Lena. She asked in the dream if she could use one of Lena's diapers for him. Well, the next morning, I ended up packing double the amount of diapers and wipes in Lena's diaper bag. Well that day we went to Midland to go to my niece's high school graduation. We went out to dinner with my family, and sure enough, my sister-in-law (the same one from the dream), realized she didn't bring the diaper bag and asked if she could use one of Lena's diapers for him. Freaky, huh!? Like I said, it is interesting how dreams are. There have been some other times that some dreams have come true, but the one I like the best is when I dreamed when I was pregnant with Lena, (before we found out she was a girl) that we had a little girl with curly blonde hair and blue eyes. Well, that certainly came true. I like to see how dreams come true. Of course there are times I wake up in a sweat and pray really hard that dream that woke me up would not come true. Dreams are interesting.

First time mom lessons

First time mom lessons I have learned:

1. It's okay when your toddler refuses to eat meat. She substituetes it with veggies, and it's just a phase.
2. When you encourage your child to foster a love of reading, be prepared to read each of her books a million times a day.
3. "No" becomes a favorite word, even though you're sure you weren't the one to teach it to them.
4. Your child surprises you every day with something new they have learned.
5. Slobbery kisses are the best.
6. Toddlers are good at hiding things :)
7. How to multitask beyond the meaning of multitasking.
8. You don't have to buy the expensive diapers--the cheap HEB brand works just as well.
9. Getting a puppy is like getting another baby--only with a lot of bark.
10. What the meaning of a schedule is--and it's okay when it gets changed. Tomorrow is always another day.
11. Meals and food prep. are scheduled events.
12. Babysitting trade-off with other moms is a wonderful thing.
13. No matter how much you thought you knew about children before having them, you still learn new things every day.
14. Sleep is a luxury.

This is just the beginning of what I have learned in the last 17 months.

Sleep is a word in house again!

Lena is over her fear of going to sleep alone in her room! Yay! Last night I left the lamp on in her room and let her cry it out. She was in and out of crying for nearly 10 min. before falling asleep. She also woke up at 6:00 am, but she did sleep completely through the night in her own bed all night. We were so happy to get sleep last night. Now I know not to put her in her bed right when a storm starts, but rather just wait a little till it ends. The lessons you learn when you're a first time mom.

Back to no sleep

Well, we're back to the no sleep topic. Only this time, it's not because of not wanting to go to sleep without James there. Lena is now afraid to sleep by herself alone in a dark room. On wednesday night, when it stormed, I put her to bed at her normal time, but that was when the storm was just starting. The lightening and thunder scared her, and since then she won't sleep at all in a bed alone in a dark room. Last night I tried putting an extra night light in her room so she would have 2, and it not be so dark, but she wasn't going for that. I even tried putting her in the pack n' play in our room to sleep. The only way that she would go to sleep is to sleep in our bed with us. That is not a normal thing for us to do. Sometime around 12:30 am, I moved Lena from our bed to the pack n' play. There was a night light right by her bed, so she had plenty of light. She slept there till about 5:30 and then woke up with her scared cry. I was so sleepy, I just put her back in our bed. She sleeps just fine for her daytime naps in her own bed. It's just at night now, she doesn't want to sleep where she can't touch us and know that we are there. I'd love to break her of this, I just don't know how yet. I don't want to have to go to bed every night with a toddler in my bed.

No makeup

Adventures in Babywearing is having a contest. They are looking for pictures of bloggers
without makeup. Looks like a fun contest. http://adventuresinbabywearing.blogspot.com




Without absolutely no makeup



With full makeup

Sleep Update

The last few nights have been better for me with getting enough sleep. I decided what I needed to do is wear myself out more during the day, and then at night I'm so tired, I am able to go to bed at a better time. Last night, I went to bed about 11:00 or so, and Lena woke me up at 6:45, and I got right up and wasn't tired. In fact, I have so much energy, I don't know what to do with it. Of course, this is the day that Lena is more tired than usual, so I don't have her to wear me out as much. Maybe I need to work out. I need to figure out how to manage my time better so that I can squeeze in time for working out. I would love to lose some weight. Only 24 lbs to lose to get back down to prepregnancy weight! Anyways, I was derailing from the subject of sleep.....
I think I've figured out how to get more sleep. This summer I plan to take Lena to the library, the zoo, the park, playgroups, etc. Since I won't have preschool, I'll have some time flexibility for those things, and they should help wear me out.

Cooling off

Daddy got Lena a new water mist hose for the
yard. Lena and Daddy enjoyed cooling off with it.

Frustrated

Lena loves her playscape, but is a little frustrated
that she can't stand up in underside of it. Maybe
we'll get her a playhouse at some point.

Lena just got a new watering can and
wanted to help Daddy in the yard today.