The Great Blizzard of 2012

At least so far.  The year is still young and it hasn't even gotten to March yet.  We could have a day of more snow than this. 

A shout-out to the White family for selling us their snow blower.  Lee has never had so much fun.  It took him three rounds to clear all the snow off our driveway.  It would have taken him hours without it.  So thank you.

Alaina enjoyed playing in the snow today.  Joya has not played in the snow yet, for two reasons: 1.) I don't have snow clothes for her and 2.) Even if I did, she can't walk.  The Kimble Family Rule is you must walk if you want to play in the snow.  Just a little incentive for her.  Mommy did take her outside and tried to show her how to eat snow.  She thought that it meant that she should feed Mommy snow.  She didn't branch out and try it herself. 

The best place to play was under the tree, because it wasn't so deep there.  All the other places were too hard for her to walk.

The snow comes up to her armpits.

I'm glad we had our snow.  Now maybe we can move on to warmer things.

Winnie La Pooh

Yep, that lovable, French Disney bear has been making his presence known in our house.  Listen for yourself.

Daddy Makes Life Fun

Yesterday the girls and I went to Target for our daily errand.  As I was perusing some toddler-sized shorts, and lovely couple who must be grandparents themselves stopped to chat with Alaina and admire Joya.

"Oh how sweet!" the lady said about Joya.  "What is your sister's name?"
"Joya Kimble!" Alaina replied.
"And what is your name?" the lady asked.
"Alaina Kimble!  And this is Mommy!" Alaina said.
"Are you having fun today?" the lady asked.
"No.  Daddy had to work," Alaina replied.

I thought it was so precious that Alaina recognized the sadness that Daddy couldn't be with us.  She really was having fun, but only would have labeled it as fun if Daddy had been there too.

Dancing Queen

What you are about to see is the tail end of something Alaina did for the entire duration of the song Lee was playing with.  You'll notice she's only about six inches from the door.  She stayed that way the whole time.

Out of the Mouths of Babes

A conversation in our living room today:

The scene: Alaina was admiring Grammy's painted toenails.  She then was distracted by an owie on Apple Ben's foot.

Lee: "Alaina, what do Apple Ben's feet smell like?"
Alaina: "Compost!"

No hesitation.

With Conviction

For dinner tonight, we had ham and potatoes in a cheese sauce.  The potatoes were cut into pretty small cubes, and you can imagine their color, after they had been simmering in the cheese sauce in the crock-pot all afternoon.  As I dished up dinner, Alaina kept exclaiming about the "pineapples."  Several times I told her that there were no pineapples, just potatoes.

As we were eating, Lee mentioned something about the pineapples to Alaina.

"No Daddy!" she said.  "Not pineapples!"

"Well, what are they?" he replied.

"I.  Don't.  Know," she said immediately, with conviction.

Here's to making unrecognizable food for dinner.

Alaina and Her Daddy

Last night Lee got home from work a little later than usual.  Alaina and I had already started eating dinner by the time he walked in.  Since she was in her chair, she wasn't able to run to the door like she usually does when he comes home.  I told her that Daddy was home, and he walked through and said hello.

Alaina said, "That's my old Dad."

"Your old dad?" I asked.

"Yup," she said.  "He's my favorite guy!"

So cute.  But Lee didn't hear it.  So I told him what she said.  He came in and asked, "Who's your favorite guy?"

"You!" she said, promptly and matter-of-factly.

They celebrated with a pound.  It's moments like these.  :)

Alaina's Prayers

Alaina is getting quite good at praying before meals.  She prays unprompted before lunch every day, and she'll often cheerfully pray before dinner too.  In typical toddler fashion, she prays the same thing every time:

"Thank you Jesus for this food, Amen."

However, lately she'll sometimes pray this:

"Thank you Jesus for this food, Amen.  For the girls to settle down, Amen."

And I say Amen to that.

Ah, Imitation

A little while ago, I was holding and playing with Joya, and Alaina came up with her baby doll and bottle.

"This is my sister, Baby Naomi," she said.  I oohed and ahhed appropriately.  Then she said, "I'm going to feed her.  Give me some space."

Hmm.  She must have heard that a time or two herself.

Making Friends

Today it is 67 degrees outside.  I have the windows open.  And right now, there are kids outside our window, playing around on the ice outside our building.  (Our building faces north.)

Alaina and I heard the kids, and Alaina scampered up on the couch to look out at the kids.  They are right there.  So while I'm in here, typing this, she is talking to them through the window.  She's saying,

"We moved here in the new house!"
"I'll come see you!"
"Don't fall down and get all wet!"
"Hi kids!"
"Whee!  That looks fun!"

I have never been good at making friends.  But apparently Alaina is.  I'll take my cues from her.

Another First

Our old place was 1000 square feet, all one floor.  All the rooms connected to the main living space, so it was easy to keep track of Alaina.  Our new place is actually three stories.  The bedrooms are upstairs, away from the main living space.  I have the baby monitor in our room where Joya is, and Alaina's room is just at the top of the stairs, so I try to keep her door cracked when she's in there so I can hear her.

At our old place, I would feed Joya in the morning and listen for Alaina to wake up.  When she did, I would go into her room and tell her that it okay to get out of bed and come into the living room while I fed Joya.  Here, that is no longer a good plan, since it would involve me A) going up and down the stairs or B) yelling up the stairs.  So I told Alaina that in the morning when her door is open, she can get up.  I figured I would just open her door when I went downstairs to feed the baby, and she could come at her leisure.

The problem with this plan presented itself early this morning.  Right before I go to sleep for the night I open Alaina's door.  That way I can hear her, and her room gets some of the heat from the house at night.  At 5:36am, I heard Alaina crying really sad tears.  Woke me up and got my heart racing.  I didn't even bother with my glasses, I just got to her room as quickly as I could.  However, she was not in her room.  She was downstairs, at the bottom of the stairs in our dark house.  I remember being little and how scary your house is at night when the lights are off.  I ran downstairs and scooped her up.  I told her that if it was dark outside and dark inside our house, then I was in my bed sleeping.  She told me she wanted to get up, but I told her it was too early and to go back to sleep.  I calmed her down, put her back in bed, and closed her door.

I still want her to get out of bed on her own in the morning, but clearly at night I'm going to have to keep her door partially closed.  That way she can't tell it's fully open and will still sleep when it's sleep time.  We'll have to see what adventures await us tonight.

Doing What Little Girls Do

What She Does When She Wakes Up

She still doesn't know she could get out of bed if she wanted to. And if any of you tell her, I'll cut off your thumbs and shove them up your nose.