Back from Texas

It's official: Alyssa is now a cross-country veteran.  In other words, she has successfully flown from North Carolina to Texas and back again unscathed.

Since my parents can't make it here for Christmas this year, our little trio made a trip out to Richardson, Texas for Halloween.  Not only did we have a great time, but Uncle Jeff was also able to stop by for some Alyssa face-to-face time.

Check out the photos below for some of Alyssa's reactions, including her first trick-or-treating experience:

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To the Fair

We took Alyssa to the fair for the first time last weekend. We had a great time... perfect weather! Allison came with us, but unfortunately I managed not to get any pics of her. We all enjoyed watching Alyssa check out the animals (and people, too... she's a real people watcher!) We had lots to eat including roasted corn, apples, fresh grape and apple cider, Mt. Olive pickles (which Alyssa loved!), fried pickles, peanuts, and my favorites, honey cotton candy and fried twinkies. Yum!

We got to see some of the characters from the PBS shows (including some stand-ups of Curious George, Elmo and other Sesame Street critters) and Alyssa thought it was great. I held a baby chicken for her to touch... she wasn't too sure about that! She was also quite fascinated by the cows. It is funny to think how gigantic they must look to a baby since they are bigger than us as adults. What a shock to see them up close!

Check out the pics!

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Tutu Cute

I made Alyssa a tutu a couple of weeks ago... I had gotten the idea from various websites I found in my quest for crafty things to do this Fall. She wasn't too sure what she thought of it at first, but she really enjoys it now. She is becoming quite the little girly- girl... she loves to wear jewelry and carry purses and dance and sing into her microphone (or anything that looks like one). Check out the pics!

Also included are a couple of pics of her now curly- blonde hair. What a difference a year and a half makes! Her hair is curly like this in the humidity, on a windy day, or after a bath. I love it and am so jealous!

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Score: Bike- 1, Jennie- 2

Ha! I'm going to win! In his post, Mike alluded to MY biking experience. It has not exactly been a smooth ride, but I will survive!!!

To begin with, we had the odyssey of getting both bikes home (mine from my parents' house and Mike's from the store). We were both wrecks... driving highway speeds with a bike strapped to the car did not seem very stable, even with the bike rack. My bike was relatively simple to get into working order (we thought). It was in pretty good shape considering that I haven't ridden it in at least 12 or 13 years. Just some cleaning and a bit of grease for the chain!

Assembly and modifications took a bit longer than expected, however! Mike's bike had to be assembled. That took a few hours, thanks to the ridiculous directions that were included. I had the fun tasks of assembling the baby seat and mounting it on my bike and also changing out the seat on my bike. Just a short test ride with the old racing seat was very uncomfortable, so I decided I needed a new w i d e r seat to accommodate my new w i d e r Mommy backside! We were very glad that my parents kept Alyssa for the afternoon... she may have picked up a few expletives otherwise!

Our first ride went relatively well. Alyssa wasn't wild about the helmet, but we had a few ideas on how to make it better. My brakes weren't great, but we figured it would be easy enough to tighten them up. The problem was with stamina. Good grief! I knew we were out of shape, but I really struggled with the hills in our neighborhood. I guess we'll have to work on that!

In hindsight, I'm now thinking that it wasn't wise to ride two days in a row... the second ride started out okay, but quickly got painful. The gears decided to change in the middle of a small hill! My feet slipped off the pedals and I nearly ran into a neighbor's car (thankfully, I only had to use it to catch myself with my hands... no damage done). The pedals ran into my shins! I got a HUGE knot on one of them, as well as a nasty gash and multiple bruises. My legs look like I have been through a battle. Thank goodness for jean season!

By the end of the ride, my thighs were so tight that I could barely walk to get into the house. My shins were sore from the bruises and the gash. I was exhausted and got into a fit of laughter (you know the kind where you are so tired that everything is funny?) This used to freak Alyssa out... maybe she thought I was crying? But this time she got in on the game and was fake laughing with me. She was actually bending at the waist and slapping her knees while cracking up. If only I'd had the video camera out!

So, long story long, we have our work cut out for us with the new hobby! My brakes need some work, and we are getting a new baby seat that goes in front under the handle bars... we're thinking that Alyssa might enjoy the scenery more than the view of Mommy's w i d e r rear. I'm tired just thinking about it!

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Side note about the pictures... Alyssa is playing with her Little People farm lately and LOVES it! Thanks Karen! She is really imaginative for being so little. I've actually seen her making the animals "walk" around the barn and putting them to sleep in the stalls for the night. She even kisses them and gives them hugs!

Alyssa’s first wheels … sort of

Jennie and I have been itching to get out of the house more often now that summer has officially retired.  My immediate suggestion was to get some bicycles and a child seat so that all three of us could benefit from the beautiful fall weather.

After retrieving Jennie's old bike and making use of my generous birthday gifts (my birthday was on the 9th), the three of us recently participated in our first family bicycle trip.

As you can see from the photo, Alyssa was pumped up and couldn't wait to get her helmet on.  Actually, her reaction to the helmet wouldn't qualify as a highlight of the ride, but overall she seemed to enjoy the trip immensely.

And how did her parents fare?  I felt a bit out of shape, but the new bike performed up to my expectations.  In particular, it seems that gear shifters have come a long way since the old mountain bike I owned back in middle school.  Smooth and much easier to determine the shift points.

Jennie, on the other hand ... well, I'll just let her make a post about it.  :D

P.S. I just noticed that I haven't made a real post since the beginning of the year!

Howdy!

Have a great day!

No, No, No!!!

As much as I hate to say it, we hear this a lot right now! The little monkey has picked up a few bad habits to which we respond "NO!" Now, on top of the habits, she also says "No, no, NO!" back to us, most often with a little finger wagging to boot!

Yes, she was telling me "No!" about her socks!

We have a climber! Alyssa has figured out that she can climb on the couch. This by itself is not a big problem. It IS a problem when she uses it to get on the end table (with the glass insets) or the half wall (Yikes!) Just today she decided to make a game of it... she climbs up high enough to get my attention, waits until I head over to get her down and then throws herself back into the seat, giggling the whole time! It is nerve- wracking (and funny, I can admit... just not to her!)

We've had a bit of trouble with mealtimes for the last couple of months. We're never quite sure of the reason, but she very often throws food on the floor. We thought we had thought of (and tried!) everything to fix the problem! We thought it could be just that she was testing us... a little bit of defiance (you can just SEE the gleam in her eye as she dumps some banana!) We thought she didn't like what she had in front of her (except she'd still eat some of it). We just didn't know!

Thank goodness for blogs! I happened to read my friend Rachel's blog... one of her kids was up to similar antics! Although we had tried (and failed) with munchkin utensils, we hadn't tried them again since the food- dropping began. Rachel said that they had started giving him a spoon just to hold during mealtimes, so we tried it. Bingo! Alyssa is getting good feeding herself if we help her get the food on the spoon and the spoon is enough distraction to keep her eating. Yay! Now we have a strategy! And we just clean her up and let her get down to play if she starts tossing food after she has eaten enough to be satisfied.

Oh, and she likes to play with light switches. She is fascinated with what they do! Such a smarty!