Two too!

This post is long overdue. Alyssa's birthday was over a month ago, and I'm just now able to take the time to write about it. I'm sitting at the car dealership waiting for word on our new Chevy Traverse (yeah!) because Alyssa thought the CD player was a slot machine and inserted two quarters into it one day while we weren't looking. Thankfully the damage to our pocket book wasn't too bad as they were able to fix it in house as opposed to having to take the whole CD unit out and send it off to a special place to fix it. So now onto the our little two year old...

Alyssa started her birthday celebration on Friday evening with a photo shoot at JCPenny's, she was very excited about it, and she was quite the model. She really enjoyed being in front of the camera, and she listened so well to the photographer. Watching her it was kind of funny because she would concentrate really hard on following the photographer's instructions, but she did great and the photos turned out awesome!Na and Pap Pap (aka Nana and Grandpap) arrived Friday in time to go to take pictures with us and then enjoy dinner out. Grandma and Grandpa arrived on Saturday afternoon while Alyssa was napping. While she napped, I finished making her birthday cake and we got the house decorated with fish and balloons. Once it was time to open presents, she was in her glory. I don't think she'll have any trouble knowing what birthdays are about now. Some of her favorite gifts are puzzles, books, a stick pony, a rocking chair, Aquadoodle, and even roller skates (Just wait Wally and Dena!). Aaron & I got her a kitchen set and it was (and still is) so fun to watch her play. She loves to use her imagination to make all sorts of food and is very particular about making sure things are put away in their correct spots. Since then she's got some new food for it from Grandma & Grandpa; her specialty is eggs and toast.

After a yummy dinner of chicken parmesean prepared by Aaron, we enjoyed birthday cupcakes and ice cream. The pictures tell you just how much she enjoyed it. Since her birthday, it's obvious what she associates with birthdays. She sees candles and says "a-pee-bi-day", the same goes for cupcakes.

Alyssa has finally hit her language explosion. She's saying new things each and every day. Aaron and I often have to use context to figure out what she means and serve as an interpreter for others, but she's made real progress in the past two months. Some of her favorite words are "two" and "me too". If there are two items together, she'll yell "two!" This goes for food, toys, books, and more. One of the funniest uses is when she wants one of us to carry both her and Lauren up or down the stairs, she'll say "two!" She also loves to say "me too" about things. If you say something about Lauren, she'll often say me too. It's so funny. She's also putting words together to make her meaning known.

One of the big transitions that happened on her birthday was that we transferred her to a toddler bed. It took her a while to figure out that she could get out of it on her own, but now as soon as she wakes up in the morning, she runs over to our room. She hasn't given us to much of a headache with it. She's still pretty good at going to bed most nights without any problems.

She's recently started to enjoy watching TV and movies. She often comes in our room in the morning and she'll watch Choo Choo (aka Chugginton) or Handy Manny. She also found another cartoon that she likes - Oswald, but it's older (apparently) and isn't on much. So Aaron will pull it up for her on YouTube. She'll ask for her favorite episode by name "Oswald, big banana day". She also has discovered the joys of Rudolph, Snow White, and even Happy Feet. She can't watch all of it, but she has her favorite parts. She'll sing and dance with Santa to "Jingle, Jingle, Jingle" and loves to sing "heigh ho!"

She had a great check up with the doctor shortly after her birthday. She weighs a little over 30 pounds now and if my memory serves me right, she's somewhere right around 3 feet tall.

She continues to be an amazing big sister and has even started helping around the house. She enjoys setting the table, putting things back in the refrigerator after dinner, and switching laundry from the washer to the dryer. She also is good about cleaning up if you ask her, she'll even say "ee-uh" which is her way of singing the clean up song.

Sorry for the delay in getting this posted, the end of the semester was pretty busy for me, and we also made a trip to PA for Thanksgiving (during which we discovered that Alyssa gets carsick). We celebrated Christmas with Nana and Grandpap this past weekend, are headed to Minnesota tomorrow for 8 days, and then will come home to a visit from Uncle Wally & Aunt Dena over New Years. It's so great to see everyone! I'll post again with all the fun adventures of the girls with Ha Ho Ho (yes Ha, that's what Alyssa calls him) shortly after the New Year. In the meantime, we wish you a very Merry Christmas!

Screech

Lauren gets a lot of different nicknames... Lolo, drooly, smiley, stinker butt (when she poops!), and as of late, her nickname is Screech. Over the past week, she has started to really explore what she can do with her voice. She loves to make all sorts of different noises and she just smiles when she screeches, it's too cute! Aaron recorded her yesterday morning and we wanted to share it with all of you.



She is becoming a little girl slowly but surely. She watches everything that goes on, her eyes just follow Alyssa wherever she goes and she loves to be played with, talked to, etc. She's doing a great job of sitting on her own, and she doesn't like to sit back in her bouncy seat any more, she wants to sit up in it. I try to tell her to relax, but she's working on those ab muscles (maybe I should take some lessons from her).

Lauren has been drooly for a while now, and just this weekend, we saw her first tooth poke through. So there's one tooth, we'll see if any others follow here in the near future. In the mean time we hope you enjoy our little screech and I promise to post again over the weekend all about Alyssa's 2nd birthday :)

Trick-or-treat

What a fun weekend! We enjoyed a beautiful weekend here in Michigan, perfect for fun with ghosts and goblins, or a monkey and a bumble bee in our case. We weren't sure how the girls would do in their costumes, would they enjoy wearing them? Would they want to take them off? Would they be scared of other kids in costumes? But they totally rocked this weekend.

Each of the neighborhoods in our area could choose to do trick-or-treating on Saturday or Sunday. Our particular neighborhood chose Sunday, but friends of our who live nearby are in a neighborhood that celebrated on Saturday, so we went to their place yesterday evening and Alyssa did her first trick-or-treating. She caught on pretty quickly...she'd walk up to a door and upon our prompting, she'd say "treat" (she can't quite get out trick-or-treat) and "tayn" (thank you), and then smile because she'd get a piece of candy. She and her buddy Gavin made out pretty well, and they were so cute because they just started holding hands and going from door to door together.

Tonight, one of the neighbors invited us to a party at their house before trick-or-treating. They live on a street that connects to ours, and there are a lot of families with kids on that street, so we got to meet some more folks. Aaron & I both really enjoyed it, and Alyssa loved running around after the other kids, even if they were all older than her. And of course everyone else was happy to hold Lauren and cooing over how cute the girls were. Both girls kept their costumes on for about 4 hours, with no problems. We left the party, and trick-or-treated at the houses in the cul-de-sac, and Alyssa did great. And then we came home to hand out our own candy, and Alyssa loved handing out the candy every bit as much as getting it. She sat on the front steps for a while with me and handed it out, then she'd look out the window and look for more kids. She kept yelling "more kids", "mom, more kids". She really enjoyed the whole Halloween experience. And although Lauren wasn't able to go door to door, she made an adorable little bee and was so agreeable during the whole experience.

And just to give you a little update, Alyssa is continuing to add more words to her vocabulary, although she does often need us to translate. She knows that she's going to be "two" next weekend, and she likes to "re books", her new favorite is "Baby amals". Lauren has started to sit on her own, we don't leave her too often as she'll still fall, but she's able to hold herself upright for a few minutes at a time on occasion. She's also starting to "giggle" a little, although it's kind of funny. We tried to get some video of her doing it, so I'll try to get that on here in the near future. In the meantime, we hope you like the photos of our little monkey and bee!

Fall Fun

Fall for me has always been associated with the beginning of another school year, and it probably always be. But this fall was different in a way because not only was it the beginning of another school year but also it felt like our new beginning here in Michigan, of us all exploring our new surroundings and enjoying every minute of it. One of the things we loved about living in Minnesota was all of the green spaces, but here in Grand Rapids nature surrounds us. We have trees and wildlife in our backyard and trees line nearly every road we travel on. This didn't strike us when we visited the area in April to find a house, but it did when we moved here this summer and saw all the green leaves. But these leaves over the past month have transformed into a palette of bright colors. There are colors that only can be found in nature and when the sun shines on them, they take on different hues and are truly brilliant. I've spent a lot of time over the past month traveling around Western Michigan to observe pre-student teachers, and being able to see the amazing colors was by far the highlight of this travel.

We, like much of the rest of the country, have had above average temperatures this fall.With the warm temperatures and the sunshine we were able to enjoy quite a bit of time outdoors. Alyssa gets so excited to go outside and explore, she's even started to say "outside". And Lauren's eyes just dart all around, checking everything out. She's so alert and observant, always taking in all of her surroundings. Alyssa has particularly enjoyed going down the slide in the backyard and landing in a pile of leaves, and she's very meticulous about making sure all the leaves are piled up. She makes sure that none are left under the slide. When she goes down, she'll even lift her arms and say wee!

We've gone to a few different parks in the past several weeks and enjoyed the trees, trails, fresh air, and play equipment. Most of these pictures are from our time at different parks, and while they don't do justice to the colors around us, they do show how much much the girls have enjoyed the time outdoors. We're keeping our fingers crossed that we can continue to be outside for a few more weeks before the weather turns colder and we have to bundle up in snowsuits :)

The sweetest words...

So I've had a rough week, feeling like I'm not being a good mom, wife, or professor. It bothered me that when Alyssa woke up in the mornings, she'd say "Bye mommom" and I felt that I wasn't getting the time (both type and quality) with my family that I wanted. And I had to leave early this morning for a conference in Bloomington, IN, missing Lauren's four month check up. So I was feeling kind of bad until I just called home...Aaron put me on speaker immediately and when I said hello, I heard Alyssa yell "mom!" So I tried talking to her, but she wanted to go eat yogurt, so I was going to let her go and said "I love you". Aaron asked Alyssa can you say "I love you momma"... and it happened, she said it - loud and clear "love you mom!". I couldn't believe it. Of course we couldn't get her to say it again, but she did it - I can't wait to get home on Sunday evening and give that little girl a hug. I love you Alyssa!

Lolo

Before each of the girls was born, Aaron did a lot of research into how common their names were, what people with that name thought of their name, what their nicknames were, etc. Nowhere in any of the research that Aaron did did the name "Lolo" come up for Lauren, but that is her new name. Alyssa has been calling her "Lo" for a few weeks now, but it has recently become "Lolo." The name is catching on though. I've heard Aaron referring to Lauren as "Lolo" and I think that what they're calling her at day care. We'll see how long it lasts...and what she thinks of it as she gets older.

Go Twins!

We may not be in Minnesota to cheer on our Twins in person, but we are definitely cheering them on from here. The girls both wore there Minnesota t-shirts today for the start of the series with the Yankees and Aaron and I are planning on watching as many of the games as we can. We've also been practicing with Alyssa saying "Go Twins" (it's not quite as clear as Go Vikes!).

Music to my ears

It's amazing how quickly days go by here at the Menke household, between work, keeping up with the housework and family time, there hasn't been much time for blogging. It's funny though because every now and then I get an idea for a blog and what I want to write about but then 3 weeks pass and there's way too much to put into one post. I usually put off writing not because of the writing part because of wanting to include pictures and/or video which means downloading them onto the computer. But I don't have to drive out to campus this morning and everyone else is still sleeping, so it gives me a few minutes to write.Our house lately has been filled with new, sweet noises. To some, they are not that meaningful but to me (or us) they bring a lot of joy.


First, Lauren has begun to "coo". She's been doing it for several weeks but her little noises just fill my heart with joy. Her whole face lights up when you talk to her and she just glows. She loves getting attention, and she isn't particular about who it comes from - Aaron, me, or Alyssa.


She's getting so strong. She loves to stand with you supporting her body and she's working on sitting on her own. I think she's going to hit some of the large motor milestones early like Alyssa did. She has rolled over (from back to tummy) a few times, but she often just can't seem to pull that last arm through. It's funny sometimes because her whole body will be flipped, and she'll be pushing her butt up in the air, but that one arm is pinned beneath her body. The other night when she woke up in the middle of the night wanting to eat, she was lying on her tummy in her crib. In the last post, I had Lauren was sleeping better and she is, but she's inconsistent. One night she'll sleep through the night and the next, we'll be up twice with her. Usually though she'll eat a little bit and then fall right back asleep. We're trying to figure out right now a new formula to give her to supplement the breast milk that she gets because the Similac that she had been eating was recalled due to beetles and their larvae being found in it (Don't get me started on how gross this is!). The recall says that it's not a health risk but may cause some babies GI discomfort, which Lauren has had of late - lots of gas and some spitting up and she had slowed down on her eating for a few days as well. So we'll see how she likes Enfamil - keep your fingers crossed!


Alyssa has been making lots of sweet noises as well. I've never tried to hide the fact that she's a daddy's girl at heart, and I love the fact that she adores him (and rightly so!), but sometimes it stings a little when she doesn't want you or when she always wakes up in the mornings screaming "Daddy". But there have been a few mornings as of late when she'll wake up and say "Mom" over and over. That brings joy to my heart. And it's funny because no matter which of us goes to get her out of bed, she'll always ask for the other, kind of like "Hey, where is Daddy?" or "Where is mom?" Aaron says she looks for me every morning when she gets up because I've already left for work. My favorite part of the day is walking in the door after work. Alyssa will say "Mom" and run over to give me a hug (the cutest little run ever) and Lauren will look for me when she hears my voice.

Alyssa has also begun to say more words. I keep posting about this because I think I want her to be able to express herself and show off her fun personality in words, plus I'm a language geek so it's fun watching what sounds develop in what order. She's trying to say more, but to most people it's probably somewhat unintelligible. But she's added lots of words to her vocabulary. My favorites are Lauren (which sounds like Lo), plane (main), puddle, Duke (the neighbor's dog), and bike (bi). Boy does she loves bikes and she wants one so much. She spots people on bikes that I don't even see until she points them out. At Babies 'R Us last night, she pulled the tricycle off the shelf and was trying to ride it. Aaron and I may have to get her one here for the fall (we were hoping to wait until next spring), but we'll see.Another of her favorite words is "dri" and she loves to drive the cars with the "geez" (keys). She'll put her seatbelt on, pull down the visor and look at herself in the mirror, turn the steering wheel, turn the radio up, put the windows up and down, etc.

She loves to do whatever mom and dad are doing these days. This also means she asserting more independence. She is fiercely independent right now, wanting to try to do everything herself (a good and a bad thing). She wanted to start potty training and we had some success but then as quick as she wanted to do it, she wanted to stop. And now she doesn't want anything to do with the "potty". It will come, right?

Living next to the high school, we also get lots of noises from that direction. We get the garbage trucks coming early in the mornings (not enough to wake Aaron up most days!), the squealing tires of teenage hot shot drivers, the PA system for football games, and the marching band. Alyssa loves the drums and her ears pick up on them the moment they start to play. Her eyes light up and she starts patting her legs which is her way of playing the drums. There's many a night that we take a walk over to see the drums play, but once we get there she often loses interest and just wants to climb on the bleachers.

The new sounds that bring joy to Aaron's ears are the sounds that come from our new speaker system. The main level of the house and the deck were wired to have sound for each room on its own volume control, but we didn't have a receiver to distribute the sound to them until a few weeks ago. After a very long night at the store (that's a story for another day!), we bought the receiver and a TV and now Aaron can listen to his sports or music all throughout the main level of the house. This was all set up just in time for football season, so he's loving watching the games on the new TV, sitting in his new comfy chair (living room furniture was just delivered last week!). The only thing that could make him happier is a Vikings win (I keep telling him to cheer for the Steelers).

We're looking forward to a weekend full of nice weather which will allow us to check out ArtPrize in downtown Grand Rapids this weekend and host our first neighborhood barbecue. Aaron's parents spent a week with us at the beginning of September (which was a tremendous help because day care was closed for a week) and we're looking forward to another visit from them, my parents, and the Krautkremers during the month of October. We were able to see our friends Jen & Ellen over Labor Day when we attended out first U of M (Michigan, not Minnesota) football game. We love hearing from all of you - your voices too are music to our ears. I included a few videos below to let you hear the girls voices; we hope you enjoy them!


Just a photo of our latest visitors. They were here about 2 weeks ago and Alyssa still asks for them. We told her the baby deer are with their momma, so now she'll raise her hands and ask "Baby?" and then say "Mom." Too cute!

Change of Plans

Isn't it funny how whenever you have plans made things change? Well, that's what happened to us this weekend. We had planned on Aaron taking the girls Saturday afternoon for a walk through downtown Grand Rapids while I went to a workshop and then going to a free country concert on Sunday afternoon.

The weekend started out as expected. We took Lauren to her 2 month well check-up at the doctors and she had a perfect check-up. She weighed 12 lbs, 5 oz (around the 90th percentile) and measured 21.5 inches long (around 25th percentile). As Aaron says, short and fat. The doctor thought she looked great and was impressed by how smiley she was and also how strong her neck muscles are. She got her first round of shots, and oh did she scream. She was so red in the face, but she calmed down within just a few minutes. She didn't have any reactions to the shots at all; in fact, we didn't even ever give her Tylenol!

Friday night we went to Best Buy to look at TVs (football season is approaching you know), then got some ice cream and stopped at the park. The park is less than 1.5 miles from the house, but in that short distance, actually once we turned onto our road, all of a sudden, Alyssa got sick. It seemed to come on all of a sudden and was mostly the ice cream she had eaten - ick! Of course it was all over her and the car seat. So Aaron just carried her in the car seat up to the bath tub and got her cleaned up. He thought that because she hadn't eaten much (she didn't want to eat her chicken, pasta & beans for dinner), the carride might have caused motion sickness. She ate a piece of toast before bed and then sacked out.

She woke up early on Saturday, so Aaron brought her into bed with us. She wanted some water, so we gave her some, but I think she drank too much as she then threw that all back up. When we brought her downstairs for breakfast, she said she was hungry, but again she drank way too much and got sick two more times. Poor little thing, she didn't know what was going on. She and Aaron just sat and watched cartoons for a while (the first time Alyssa has really watched TV). When she woke up, she seemed to feel a little better, wanted to eat a little bit and play. So I went to my workshop and left Aaron with the girls. When I got home, Aaron said that all had gone well and they were outside. Alyssa had wanted to swing, so I started to push her - mistake! That brought on the vomiting again.

She slept well last night and then has seemed to be ok today. We've taken it pretty slow with her eating today and tried to keep pushing the Pedialyte (she didn't really want it though), but she seems to be better. So we stayed home today - no church and no concert. So instead of being out and about, we had a quiet weekend at home. But it was family time together which is always good.

I was so thankful for Aaron through Alyssa's sickness - he's much better with that kind of stuff than me. I could never have been a nurse, let's just leave it at that! He really took care of Alyssa, it's no wonder she's a daddy's girl, huh?

Prayer

Just a quick little post to ask all of you to pray for friends of ours. Many of you know (or at least have met or heard us talk about) the Skluzaceks. Dawn recently gave birth to their third daughter - Kennah Jean - at only 30 weeks after a month in the hospital with pre-eclampsia (sp?!). While both mom & baby are doing well, they can definitely use your prayers. Kennah is getting stronger and bigger by the day, but can definitely use the Lord's healing hand to help her along. And prayers for the whole family (Ken, Dawn, Kyla, Keira & Kennah) as they work to juggle schedules and visits to the hospital.

Settling in

Seems hard to believe, but we're now in our fourth week here in Michigan. It's been a busy few weeks, but slowly but surely, we're settling in and making this our home. So far we love the area and adore our new home; in fact, the only thing we're missing is our family and friends.

The drive itself from Minnesota to Michigan went really well. We couldn't have asked for more from the girls; both of them did awesome in the car. I think we all enjoyed our "layover" at Uncle Jim & Aunt Karen's, but we were definitely anxious to get to our new house. It's all that we remembered and we're loving all the space. We're still trying to figure out how all our stuff fit in our Minnesota house as our big kitchen is relatively full and we're working on filling up several of our storage areas.

We had a lot of help with the settling in process. Aaron's parents were here for the first week to help with the initial unpacking, mowing, cleaning, etc. They were a huge help, and then my parents and Wally & Dena came the next weekend to continue the work. By the time everyone left, nearly all of the boxes were unpacked, the house was semi-child proofed and some pictures were hung. Having others here also meant that Aaron & I could go and look at furniture without having the two little ones in tow. We didn't realize what a big deal that was until we tried taking them with us once.

Aaron had to work out a big kink with the whole working from home. During our first days here, his hard drive crashed. This meant figuring out who to call for help and waiting for others to get him what he needed, but he's now back up and running. He commented the other day that he's able to get so much more done from home. Plus I think he likes being able to listen to his Minnesota sports radio shows on-line while he works.

The girls had a little bit of a hard time with the transition. Alyssa struggled with not having any routine during the first week or so and Lauren, poor Lauren, didn't know what was going on and was craving attention. Now that we've got a routine in place, both of them are happier. Lauren has morphed from a fussy little girl into a smiley, hungry, quite pleasant baby. The proof is in the pictures :)Just this week she has started sleeping in her crib in her own room. The first night she woke up at her normal 2:00 or so, but since then she's been sleeping until around 5 am. And this morning, we had to wake her at 7 - we may have turned a corner. Alyssa loves all the steps (Aaron & I hated them during the unpacking phase) and enjoys both her BIG bedroom and her playroom. She also likes to go out and swing and go down the slide. She's also adding new words to her vocabulary - beep, bee, bubbles and bottle. One of my favorites is when you ask her a question she often starts her response with "um". For example, if you ask, "Alyssa how did this get here," she might say "Umm...." It's so funny. She's also started to "sing" along with songs; she may not say the words, but she's making noise to the tune - too cute! Over the course of the summer she has definitely discovered the joys of ice cream, water sprinklers, making music and dancing - oh can she dance (just ask Aunt Karen & Uncle Jim!).



Watching the two girls together is so much fun. Alyssa can't leave Lauren alone, she just absolutely adores her. If she's crying, she wants to giver her a bottle or her pacifier; if she's getting her diaper changed, she wants to get the wipe and diaper; if we're singing a song, she wants to help Lauren do the motions. They took a bath together the other night and both of them enjoyed it. Lauren is starting to respond to Alyssa's antics, which is so great since Alyssa loves her so much. Soon I'm sure they'll be the best of buds.

They both started day care last week and seem to be doing well. Alyssa has a hard time when we leave her there in the mornings, but the day care provider assures us that she enjoys her time while she's there. We've been so blessed to find a kind individual to care for the girls who is located so close to the house.

We have managed to cross almost everything off our list - we bought new living room furniture (to be delivered in another 6 weeks or so), a new patio set, and a new desk. We also set up a new bank account (Wells Fargo doesn't have banks here), found a pediatrician, and changed our driver's licenses and our license plates...so I guess we're officially Michiganders! We've also made several trips to Meijer, started saving our cans and bottles to get our cash refund, visited the zoo, and attended free outdoor concerts in downtown Ada. Walking at night on the trails around our house has also become part of our evening routine.

Our neighbors are very friendly. Most of the families who circle the cul-de-sac have come over and introduced themselves and some even brought us flowers and breads. We decided that we know more of our neighbors here then we did after several years at our house in Bloomington. We're probably the youngest family on the cul-de-sac, but from what we understand the houses on either side of us will be going on the market in the near future (We're keeping our fingers crossed for a family with young kids!) It's nice to be able to greet the neighbors and say hello when everyone is outside. We look forward to hosting a neighborhood picnic soon.

There's so much we've come to love already about the house and the area:
*the vegetation. Everything is so green and full. It's beautiful.
*the wildlife. We have so many birds around the house that are always singing and they're so pretty to look at - there are cardinals, blue jays, and more. There are lots of bunnies and squirrels, but I've also seen a ground hog. One of the neighbors told us to watch out for snapping turtles because they can be big and nasty. Aaron has also seen some wild turkeys in the patch of trees behind our house and we saw two deer cross in front of us on one of our evening walks.
*all the natural light in the house. The windows are all big and there are skylights, all of which let in lots of light. In the mornings, I like to see the patterns on the wall in our bedroom made by the sun filtering through the trees, and I love to see the sun shining in while I shower.
*the walk-in closet! It's so big that we can have all of our hanging clothes in there with room for more. Guess this means I get to go shopping :)
*the local pizza parlor - Vitale's. It's in downtown Ada and they have some yummy pizza!
*the proximity of everything to our house. There are so many stores around, it's super cool. 28th Street is known for having the most stores of any one street in the country, and we're only 3 miles or so from it. Plus there's a mall nearby.

There's still along way for us to go before we call Michigan home, but we're making progress. We're figuring out how to get around and make Michigan lefts. We haven't quite figured out though why people come to the door into the house from the garage if the garage is open though (this has happened on one occasion). Guess that's all for the moment, I better get cracking on my work. The school year will be starting before I know it.

Hugs and love to all of you!