Steps in the Right Direction

Hey everyone!

It's been a long time since I posted. My excuse is that I was working . . . but that's all in the past now! Summer has arrived!

We have already been to the library, to have lunch with Dan at work, and set up a blow-up froggy pool in the back yard, and summer's only been here for 4 days!

But the most exciting thing is that Delaney has started to pull up on furniture and cruise around! It looks like our little darling is FINALLY going to start walking! I was so proud of her the other day as she climbed up the stairs by herself . . . but life just got a lot more interesting. I will need to pay a little more attention as she is wandering around the house!

I will probably be starting a new blog soon. I figure, each kid gets their own blog for the first year (okay . . . maybe a little longer). To see Alan's blog, go to http://alansamazingadventures.blogspot.com. I think I will start my OWN blog now! Any ideas for a really stellar name for the new blog?

Happy Summer!

Our Little Reader

Delaney's First Pigtails

Like how the pigtails display the bald spot? I thought my little girl looked so grown up in her very first pigtails. I squealed in delight, which made her squeal in delight too. She could tell there was something special about her - she kept looking up at me with a big smile! I took about 25 pictures on three different cameras and then text messaged one to Dan, my mom, and Dan's mom. Can you tell I was proud?

A top view

Sept 27 - Great Grandma Dorothy, Great Grandpa Don,

and Grandpa Grape came for a visit.


Playing with Great Grandma

Clapping with Great Grandpa

Alan gets in on the fun, too!

Greeting the Grandpas

Just a few days ago, we went for a walk at the County Park again. I was driving home from work admiring the beautiful leaves, and just spur-of-the-moment decided we should go over there and collect some. (Okay, yes, I know this is probably illegal . . . "take only pictures and leave only footprints" . . . but I do not follow either one of those rules. You will have to ask Dan about what I LEAVE at the park. Email him at djh@fdrdesign.com and ask. Really.)

But back to the topic - these are pictures from our walk in the park.

Alan gathering pretty leaves

Showing off what he collected in his bag

This is my attempt at taking a picture of Delaney in her front carrier (there was no one else at home to take the picture . . . and I have tried having Alan take a picture for me. I will not try that again for a while.) Delaney enjoyed the walk immensely, being carried facing outward in the front carrier. I think she thought she was flying. Her little arms flapped almost the whole time!

September 20th - Alan and Delaney visited Auntie Laura
and Uncle Daniel and spent the night!
These pictures are of all the kids in the van on the way to church the next day - 5 kids! (Laura and Daniel have 3 beautiful girls. Lillian is 4, Abigail is 2, and Rebecca is 1.)
I was completely shocked and amazed to see them pull up to church EARLY with all the kids looking happy, well fed, and nicely dressed. This is better than I do any given Sunday morning with only two kids. Go Laura and Daniel.

This night at Laura and Daniel's was Delaney's first overnight away from us. She did great, but I couldn't stop thinking about her the whole time!!

Other firsts for Delaney:

• First two teeth came in!
• She has started pushing herself around (backwards) on the hard wood floors of our home. This sometimes occurs sitting up and sometimes on her tummy. WOW does she look proud of herself when she does this.
• She has begun to imitate the way I point when I read to her. So, after I read a couple pages, she will point to the same pictures and say "ba, da, da!" and look at me, expecting to be told how smart she is. And I do. Every time!
  

Fun Fall Memories

We live across the road from a County Park with mowed trails, so we put the kids in the wagon one evening and went over there for a "nic nic" (translation . . . picnic). As you can tell, Delaney loves riding in the wagon!

Alan, Laney, and Mommy on our "nic nic" blanket. We spread it out by the river.

Daddy and Alan enjoying their food.

Delaney gets super excited when she sees her Daddy and loves spending time with him. Usually when he gets home, she will hear him come in and start arching her neck and head to try to find him. Then, when he comes in the room, she starts smiling and clapping. She just glows when he holds her and talks to her, and she loves to tell him all about her day!

In late August, Delaney and Alan began going to Fran's house in the afternoons for day care. I miss my Laney and Al, but man are they having fun at Fran's. I think Delaney's favorite part might be their puppy, Halley. Fran says that Laney can't get enough of Halley and strains to touch her soft fur if Halley is running by. (Unfortunately, Halley is probably Alan's LEAST favorite part of day care. We are hoping he will come around!) Alan prefers all the boys - there are TONS of brothers for him at Fran's. Logan (7th grade), Tanner (4th grade), and Riley (5 yrs) are Al's older bros. They are Fran's sons. Younger than Alan are Isaac (2) and Nolan (9 months, only 4 days older than Delaney . . . born on Delaney's due date!!!). So Alan has a lot of playmates. And Delaney will be a tough girl, because at day care she is the only girl!!

I have the privilege of job sharing with Nolan's mommy, Diana Smith, this year. We are splitting a third grade classroom morning and afternoon. It is truly a dream job for me right now. It is the perfect amount of working in the adult world (as much as 3rd grade can be considered the adult world!) and spending time with my kids. And I am amazed, but with every boy in my class, as I look at them each day, I see Alan's face. Maybe that's why God gave me quite a number of "difficult" boys this year . . . because somehow compassion for them is just oozing out of me. I love those boys, and having a boy of my own gives me a small glimpse into how those boys in my classroom are viewed by their moms. And somehow, that helps.

Laney has been able to put puffs into her mouth quite successfully for a few days now. She is also more dexterous when playing with toys. Today she was able to take the rings off of her ring post. She was quite proud of herself. She doesn't have teeth yet, so not eating anything that requires chewing! But I love that toothless grin, and I will enjoy it as long as it lasts. Fran probably will too . . . because if I remember correctly, my last child's teething experiences drove her to need a glass of wine after a full day with him. :) Hope Laney's a little calmer!

Well, it's getting late. Over and out.

Goodbye, Dave

On August 5th, we lost Delaney's future step-grandpa, Dave. He passed away at his home from a heart attack. He meant so much to Grandma Gloria and to all of us, and we are all grappling with this loss. I have posted a couple of pictures from our recent trip to the Water Park in Alexandria. As you can see, Dave loved Alan and Delaney as though they were his grandchildren. That day at the Water Park, he held Delaney the entire time while Alan and Grandma Gloria and I went swimming. He didn't mind . . . in fact, he even claimed she was a "chick magnet" since all the ladies would smile at him and make conversation with him while he held her.

Dave and Delaney


I am sad to think that my kids will not have the chance to know Dave. He loved Grandma Gloria so very much, and Alan and Delaney too. I look forward to telling them about him when they are older. He made a difference in many kids' lives as a teacher and a coach at Proctor High School. His daughter, Ashley, meant everything to him. What he meant to us was a kind step-grandpa who always had time to play with cars, help Alan build with his "gears", help Grandma Gloria babysit for the weekend, or hold our little baby girl. Dave, you are and always will be dearly missed.

The Kids are Stampin' Up!

This was taken by my camera-phone, so it's not the best picture, but it was really her very first ponytail!

Striking a pose out on the porch as we were playing outside one afternoon.

Laney's first boat ride up at Grandma Gloria's cabin.

Alan and Laney chillin at the cabin.

If you are on Facebook, you may have seen my recent status: "No matter how awesome anyone says it's going to be, don't take your kids to one of those Stampin Up parties." And how true it is. As you may have guessed, I tried it. It seemed like a good idea at the time. I mean, the party was at my friend Carol's house, and she has kids. Brady is 9 and Peyton is 6, and they have been at Fran's Day Care with Alan, so they all know each other. Carol assured me that her kids would play with Alan, everyone would think Delaney was cute, and that our friend Michelle would also be bringing her 2-year-old and infant along. "And there's free food!" she said, and that sealed the deal. I decided it would be fun.

The day arrived, and as happens many times with small children, we were running late. We arrived at Carol's house about 15 minutes late . . . but the woman running the party was already in full swing with her presentation. To my dismay, we entered Carol's living room to find two tables of calm, silent women who were beginning a small project while they politely listened to the salesperson speak. Not. One. Child. The Stampin Up rep smiled and invited me to have a seat . . . of course the only one left was across the room and in the middle of all the women . . . but what choice did I have? So I hoisted Delaney's baby seat above all the heads and convinced Alan to (loudly) follow me over there. I figured once we sat down, he could "help" me with my project and hopefully it would keep him happy. Where were all the kids??

Well, we were sitting there for a whopping two minutes (just long enough for Carol to offer us something to drink) when Alan spilled his water all over my project and Carol's too. This was when I began to realize that this might not have been a good idea. So poor Carol is frantically cleaning it up while I am whisking Alan away to another area of the room hoping to find something else for him to do. Carol said maybe he would have fun in the basement with her kids (so THAT's where they were!), so we tried that, but of course he had no interest in being anywhere except right by me.

Meanwhile the poor lady is trying to present every cute project and "retiring set of paper and stamps" that she can amidst my "Oh am so sorry about your project" and Alan's broken record of "Mommy come play please!" and pretty soon even a little whining from Laney, who had been forgotten under the table in her car seat. And I began to realize that Michelle and her kids were not there. She had had the sense to stay home with her 2-year-old and baby. Good for her.

I did get the kids to both join me on the couch across the room - I even grabbed a catalog and tried to listen along as the lady was presenting - and we managed to keep an even keel for about 20 minutes. (This involved a truck, a fuzzy doll, and many repeated conversations in fervent whispers with Alan explaining that I was not going to come play right now.) Then Laney started shrieking . . . so I paced with her until the lady finished speaking. I am sure she was hoping I would buy hundreds of dollars of stuff to make up for the disturbance, but I will need to win the lottery before that's gonna happen. We just grabbed the project my sweet friend Carol made for me and headed home. Chalk it up to experience. But no more Stampin Up parties for my kiddos. Not ever.

Some of Laney's other adventures include:

• First trip to Grandma Gloria's cabin in Akeley, MN
• A couple of Wednesday afternoons with Grandma Lucy while mommy went to work
• Clapping for the first time
• Saying "mama" for the first time
• Trying to pull herself forward with her hands while she is sitting up
• Cousin Aiden Frommelt's 1st birthday party
• First ponytail
• Started eating puffs (well she mostly just spits them out)
• Visited Fran and played all morning
• Received a visit from Cami, Micah, Cassidy, and baby Gail

Check back again soon!

Happy 4th!

Happy 4th of July, a little late, from Delaney!! Here she is in her 4th of July dress - although I did not get any of the cute red and blue stars in the picture. We spent the 4th at the Maple Lake Elementary School playground with the Haglins. They have a great little shaded picnic area, and Grandma Lucy decorated it with every red white and blue piece of joy you can imagine. All the cousins got to play together, we had great food, and Alan ran around the bases twice.

During the past couple weeks, Delaney also clapped for the first time, said "mama", and fed herself with a spoon. Well, okay, she TRIED to feed herself. It was quite messy! But it was fun that she wanted the spoon to go in her mouth and she was trying to do it herself.

We have had visits from Linda Weber, Great Grandpa Elmer Whyte, Grandma Lucy, Grandpa Greg, and Grandma Gloria. We had the privilege of visiting cousin Kacie at St. Cloud Hospital on Sunday, and we were able to see her wheeling herself around the room and responding as people greeted her.

Since I have received so many comments on how difficult Alan must be, I feel that I need to call attention to all of the free services he provides Delaney in addition to the trauma.

Alan willingly:

• picks up Delaney's toys when they fall
• "helps" feed her baby food
• tells her "it's okay" while she is getting shots
• insists on hugging and kissing her every morning when she wakes up
• makes her smile and laugh while I am cooking and too busy to play with her
• runs upstairs to fetch diapers if I realize too late that I need one downstairs
• runs to fetch a burp cloth after announcing that "Laney puked!"
• teaches her how to do all the new things like saying words, drinking from a cup, and laying on her tummy
• says "I love you Nay-Nee!" several times a day

Well, I guess my point is that he is my 2-year-old angel sometimes. He is my smart, funny little dude. But the impossible moments are so much more fun to write about! More of those next time.