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!
