Snow Day!

Yesterday, Alyce and I, Mommy, went outside to play in the snow! Our neighbors, Jeff and Liz, asked if we wanted to come out and play while they were shoveling their driveway. I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to get Alyce out in the snow, since I didn't want to take her out by myself, being 7 months pregnant and all.

At first, Alyce was a little skeptical of walking in the snow, but after a few minutes she had no problem trouncing through the snow. It's not easy to walk in snow when it comes up to your knees or higher, but she had no trouble. After a few minutes of being out there, she walked to the front porch and was looking in. I think she was ready to go in. Then I laid down in the snow and made a snow angel, which got Alyce interested once again.

We decided to go to the backyard and see if we could get some sledding in. We don't really have a very steep hill, but Jeff and Liz were able to go down a few times. While they were making paths in the snow, Alyce found her slide and wanted to go down that. So, she did that a few times after I got some of the snow off of it. When Alyce saw what Jeff and Liz were doing, she wanted to give it a try. She was all smiles sledding down the hill. However, after only going down two times, she was done. So, we didn't get any pictures of that.

Alyce had found her wagon earlier and she wanted to go for a ride in that. Well, Jeff had to tip the wagon over to get the snow out and then try and pull it through the snow. I don't think it was very easy to pull the wagon through the snow, but Jeff had no troubles!

Soon it was time to go in and warm up! It was a good thing Jeff and Liz were there to play too because I don't think Alyce's snow day would have been very exciting with just Mommy. Thanks Jeff and Liz for inviting us out to play! We had a great time!

Some Cuteness

It has been a long time since I posted some pictures of Alyce. It has been so cold lately that we haven't had a chance to get her out and about for some decent pictures. Instead these indoor ones will have to suffice.

.Com

Alyce's vocabulary is taking another step. In the past few weeks all sorts of new words and phrases have crept up. This past weekend I heard a commercial that had a website address with a .com. I asked Alyce if she could say Dot Com. Sure enough she responded with a perfect "Dot Com". Other neat phrases that Alyce has parroted is "Prize Puzzle" from our favorite game show Wheel of Fortune.

On Sunday night the family was sitting down for some pizza. After dinner we gave Jake our dog a piece of pizza. When we put the pizza in Jake's bowl Alyce let loose with the comment "Jakie eat pizza". Alyce is kind of behind when it comes to speech development. At this point 2+ years she should have some limited two word sentences and maybe some three word sentences. Alyce has put two words together but it is usually at our request. She will say things like "love you" but only after we ask her to say it or she will repeat something we said. In this case Alyce had a three word sentence that she put together on her own. Another two word phrase Alyce made on her own is "daddy home" when I came home from work earlier this week.

Missing My Daughter, My Daughter Missing Me

For the past week and a half I have been working on the guest bathroom in our house. I am doing some updates to get it ready for Alyce to use by herself and for the new baby. The changes being made aren't really important but this project has consumed all of my free time. Sadly that free comes at the expense of spending time with Alyce. I need to do this work outside of her sleeping times because my sanding and banging would keep her up. Mommy doesn't like tired babies. I can't say that I am a fan either.

I am missing Alyce, missing sitting in the living room with her and playing with the marble track, wooden train, and legos. I still get her lovely personality, typically in the form of her saying "daaaaadeeee" from the bottom of the steps while I am standing at the top of them. Mom has been great in my absence. She has been getting Alyce changed at night and brushes her teeth. I just have to spend a few minutes singing lullabyes and put Alyce to bed.

Mom and I can tell Alyce is missing me too because as of late Alyce has been very affectionate. When I get home she wants to be picked up whereas she used to just give me a hug and the go back to playing. Last night when it was time for her to go to bed she gave me an extra long hug. This morning I stayed at home a bit late because of some snow and Alyce sat in my lap while she played with some blocks.

I am almost done with the project. In the end I think it will all be worth it. So fear not big girl your dad will be back to his old self very soon.

Sometimes They Don't Listen

Alyce like all kids has her bad days. Yesterday was one of those days. Mom, Alyce, and I went over to our neighbor's (Jeff and Liz) house for dinner last night. Jeff and Liz prepared a great dinner consisting of pork chops, corn, mashed potatoes, and strawberries. Alyce was in a great mood the entire time bordering ecstatic. She was running around the house, playing with toys, and trying to pet their kitty Pumpkin.

When it was time to eat is where the bad stuff started to happen. Alyce, bless her heart just couldn't stay seated. She would eat a few bites and then want to get out of her chair to explore the house again. We don't really mind if she eats a lot. She isn't losing weight and doesn't ask for food later in the night, but we want to keep her in her chair until we are done eating. Last night she was just all over the place. I put her in the naughty corner after a warning and that seemed to adjust her attitude for a few minutes. Her naughty behaviour returned and I threatened to and eventually took away her baby doll. The loss of baby doll resulted in some tears and her return to her seat. However, even after a few minutes even the loss of baby doll didn't seem to have an affect. By that time dinner was over and the point became moot.

This was one of those situations where you wonder what you can do when your child really starts to disobey. We could of removed her from the situation by taking her back home or possibly a longer time in the naughty corner. I guess I need to read a few books on how to discipline a child. Throwing up our hands and letting her have her way is not the way we want to start things.

Simple But Profound

So Alyce gets it. Well she gets something. Something simple but profound. Yesterday Mom and I were in the Kitchen talking about something unimportant when Mom has a really big sneeze. A few seconds later Alyce comes running into the kitchen with a tissue in hand. She walks over to mommy and hands it to her. We didn't ask her to get a tissue. We haven't ever asked her to do something like that. Yet somehow she put all the pieces together to know that when Mom sneezes, she needs a tissue, and that she could / should get her one.

Pretty profound.

Little Ballerina

Monday night the family sat down after dinner to watch a new show on the television "The Superstars Of Dance". While the show wasn't that exciting Alyce did something very cute that I wanted to share. One of the acts on the show was an individual ballerina. The ballerina had the outfit, toe shoes, the whole thing. Alyce must have thought that what she was doing was pretty neat because she put her arms and hands straight out horizontal to the ground and started running around the house on her toes. She did some hops while she was running and maybe a spin or two. I am looking forward to getting her into dance class.

Carousel At The Mall

Friday the family went to the local mall for some shopping and a trip to the food court. After dinner we walked through the center of the mall and Alyce noticed the double decker carousel. Of course we couldn't resist the opportunity to get Alyce up on a horse.

Once Alyce was up on a horse and strapped to the seat she grabbed the brass pole with a vice like grib. She didn't seem scared. I think she was just concentrating on keeping her balance because she couldn't rely upon her feet for support. Alyce was interested with everything on the carousel and not interested in mommy trying to take her picture.

Once we started moving Alyce really started to have some fun. She kept saying Wee! over and over again. I got Alyce to wave at Grams, Grandpa, and Mom a couple of times during our ride but once they were out of site her free hand was back on her horse.

Eventually the ride came to an end and Alyce was ok with getting off her horse. I think she was a big fan because later on when getting ready to go home she wanted to ride the carousel yet again. Sadly we had to say no to another ride, but Alyce seemed ok with that and we were spared of any tantrums or crying spells.

Pictures From The Past

I've been doing some cleaning up of all of our digital photos and I am coming across a lot of old pictures of Alyce. I think for the past two years there isn't a picture of me unless she is in it. There are barely even any pictures of me on this blog. In any case I figure I would share some pictures.




We probably overdid the whole bundling up thing. But she does look comfy in this picture. Luckily the new baby will be this young during the summer and won't be subjected to so many layers.

Alyce after a bath. This was back in the day where we had to put her in baby tub in the kitchen sink. Oh how they can grow. I love the froggy blanket. A little too girly for the upcomming boy though.

Make Believe Continues

Today while Mom doing other things around the house Alyce was continuing her make believe play. Alyce was pretending to do some cooking on her stove. She would cook something in a pot and then bring it to Mom to eat. Apparently Alyce alternates between cooking vegetables and ice cream. It must be some version of deep fried ice cream.

Make Believe Hair Salon

Yesterday Mom and I were enjoying a lazy morning. We were sitting in bed watching some morning television while Alyce played with her new baby doll Molly. After a while we noticed just exactly what Alyce was doing with her time.

Alyce was pretending that she was washing Molly's hair. Alyce had taken a bottle of travel shampoo from who knows where, turned it over, and pretended to put some into her hands. She rubbed her hands together and then massaged the imaginary suds into Molly's scalp. Apparently the lather wasn't to her liking as Alyce kept getting more imaginary product from the bottle and repeating the cycle. I figure when she was done Alyce would have put most of the bottle in Molly's hair had she actually been doing it. What drew Alyce away from doing Molly's hair was to do our hair. Alyce stood behind us on the bed, went through the same motions as with Molly, and started running her hands through our hair. She did a great job cleaning our hair of imaginary dirt. If felt good having little hands give us a head massage. It was a very enjoyable and entertaining experience. I'm looking forward to an imaginary foot massage.

Fun at McDonalds

The family went to McDonalds for lunch today. After we ate Alyce got to go onto to playground. She got up pretty high into the jungle gym and I snapped this picture. Of course she didn't want to get out of the gym and I had to go in and get her.