My little entertainer

Oh, my peanut keeps me laughing. Yesterday she got into my T-shirt drawer and put on all my shirts. The funniest part is hearing her say 'shirt'...the 'r' is not really heard.
This morning I got up early and started cleaning the house (hence the horrible outfit...and Cara, if you're reading this, I sadly still have my cherry shorts and wear them all the time). I find it best to do some chores when Alison's either sleeping or watching Sesame Street. I didn't quite finish before Sesame Street was over, but Alison volunteered her services to help. She insisted on wearing her sandals (with socks), jacket and hat. I can't imagine life without my little entertainer.

Dressing up

William came over to play this morning wearing camo rain boots, a sweatshirt and a red M&M hat. The second he took them off, Alison jumped in them. She walked around all morning in his boots and spent a majority of the "play time" trying to get his jacket on. At first William was not sure how he felt about a girl wearing his very manly attire, but I convinced him she just wanted to pretend to be him and it was a positive thing. If only Alison had some clothes that would fit him...I think I need to find a tutu.
I stripped Alison down after a very messy dinner and put her clothes aside to stain treat right away. I started cleaning up the dishes and noticed it was very quiet. When I peered over the counter I found Alison trying to put her clothes back on. I love watching her learn new skills!
Speaking of skills, this girl can sing! I'm just joking, but the last couple of days I've heard her sing to herself 'happy birthday to daddy', 'O where is my daddy'(the Veggie Tales Hairbrush song...we sing it at bathtime), and 'Ole' McDonald'. It took me awhile to figure out what she was trying to sing, but let me interperet for you.
Happy C-Du Daddy!=Happy Birthday to you, Daddy
E-I-E-I-O Ruff, Ruff!=Ole' McDonald had a puppy

Well, play group #4 is in the morning and I just pulled banana muffins out of the oven in preparation. I'm curious to see if anyone eats anything this week...I'll keep you posted!

Musical Girl

Alison has grown up with lots of different instruments around her. She loves to strum the guitar, shake an egg shaker, and bang on a djembe. She finally figured out how to make the harmonica make noise. I told her to basically grunt or hum through it. It's pretty funny to hear her grunt while blowing on the harmonica. Now if I could just teach her not to put the whole trumpet mouth piece inside her mouth.....

Play Group

I'll start this post with a cute picture of my peanut. Actually it's probably not the best picture, but I thought her pigtails were just too cute...that was until she fell off the slide and the bow impaled her head. For some reason Alison is head accident prone.

This morning at biblestudy we were discussing Psalm 108. We came to verse 3, "I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations; I will sing of you among the peoples" and one of the women questioned why we don't proclaim God's goodness and share with others what He is doing in our life, even in church. My first thought was because I feel like others don't really care or I'm too concerned about what they think. Well, that's just silly. So in light of what God taught me this morning, I'd like to share a small tidbit of what He's doing in my life.
God has opened up so many doors and changed me since moving to Virginia. A few weeks after moving here Ben and I joined the YMCA and got accounts set up at the library. I started taking classes at the Y and taking Alison to 'Story Time' at the library. The doors of meeting women with young kids were being flown open and all of the sudden I had a boldness that I've never had. I began praying for all of the women I was meeting and my journal pages were filling up with new names. I felt a little stocker-ish, especially when I resulted to parking my car by the clubhouse to watch the woman in our neighborhood pick her child up from the bus stop to see which house she went in. When we took this job I questioned God whether He really had the right people. I'm not outgoing. I'm not the person who seeks people out to invite them to Church. I'm quiet and reserved and felt inadequate for such a big job as working with a church plant. But God gave me a love for these women and a boldness I didn't expect. 6 weeks ago I personally invited each woman and her child that was at story time to my house for a play date. It was definitely God talking that day, as I approached complete strangers and asked them to come to my home for a morning. I knew they must think I'm completely crazy, but God answered my prayers and 4 women showed up (well, technically 5, but one woman didn't come in because she didn't know where to park). That first week, I had been sicker than a dog the day before but couldn't cancel because I didn't have anyone's information, they just had mine...not so helpful. Ben helped me sanitize and I made it through, but I was the worst host ever. But God was still faithful and the women expressed interest in continuing meeting. So I decided we'd meet every other Friday and got everyone's information. Since then we've met 2 more times each with 4 women coming, but not always the same 4. The kids do really well playing and the moms seem to really enjoy having some adult conversation. I did learn last week not to make chocolate chip cookies, because as soon as one woman said she was on a diet no one else would touch them. Thankgoodness for my little garbarge disposal, Alison. Last week I started inviting women from the Y and even a lady I met at the park. My list of moms interested is up to 10. I'm really excited about this huge door God has opened in my life. I pray that some day it could turn into a MOPs group, but since Hope doesn't have a building or the people to watch kiddos right now, it will have to stay a play group for awhile. I'm also praying for these women's families and that Ben and I would eventually be able to get to know them and ultimately share Christ with them.
And speaking of playing, Alison had a blast playing with Ben's hoodies last night. With all 4 of her "eye" teeth coming in, you will often find her like this...with all of her fingers in her mouth, to cover all 4 spots.

Cats in Love

Milo and Smoochie love to snuggle. Really no caption is needed for this photo.

Ben's Birthday and Alison's sick

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BEN!!!
Well, this post is late, but you'll understand as you read on. I know Ben hates this picture, but I think it's really cute. On Saturday, Ben slept in a little bit and I had Smithfield bacon (which is SUPER good), scrambled eggs, french toast and coffee waiting for him. He opened his presents and after an early nap for Alison we headed to Chesapeake for an afternoon of shopping. It was a cold, rainy Saturday and in shopping world that equals everyone and their mom out crowding the parking lots and stores, which in Ben and Jen's world equals stress. Despite the craziness we still had a fun time and had dinner at Abuelo's, which was one of our favorite places in Michigan so we were so excited to find it here too.
The birthday celebration came to a halt when Alison threw up for the first time. We had a heads up that it might be coming when George called and told us that everyone in their house except for him and William were throwing up (Alison spent Friday evening with the Boomers) and Ben might have to give the sermon in the morning. Sure enough as soon as we put her down for her nap yesterday she threw up all over her crib. I'm adding 'know how to take care of a sick child' to my list of things I wish I knew before Alison was born. They really need to expand prenatal classes. I'll spare the details of our yucky day, but I thought I would document Alison's first time to throw up.

Well, it's taken me all day to write this post, so I'll have to leave the rest of what I was going to say for tomorrow.

A day at the beach

We set out yesterday afternoon for Virginia Beach. We loaded up the van with the bikes and stuff for a day in the sand. We made a quick stop to pick up a helmet and pail and shovel for Alison. I was afraid she was going to hate wearing the helmet, but as soon as she saw it she said, "hat, hat, hat" and wanted to wear it the whole way there. By the way, Alison cannot say words just once. Everything is repeated atleast 3 times. Anyway, I was also a little worried that she was still going to hate the bike trailer. Last year she would scream through the entire ride and people would give us
really weird looks. But she loved it. She rode quietly and pointed out things that she saw along the way. We rode our bikes along the boardwalk and then spent some time on the beach. Little did we know that yesterday was Spring Break and everything was packed, which was not helpful since we didn't know where we were going or what we were doing. The bike path was full of these 4 person bike contraptions that took up way too much space and were slow. Trying to pass them while pulling the trailer with Alison and all of our stuff going into the wind was challenging and definitely a leg workout. By the time we got the beach it was getting colder so we only stayed for about 15 minutes. Ben took
Alison out a little ways into the ocean, but said the water was so cold his
feet got numb. Alison loved playing with her pail and shovel and it made
anxious for when it's really warm and I can lay and relax in the sun while she shovels sand. Oh, I think it's going to be wonderful. We also decided that next time we're going on a Monday when everyone will be at work...and off the bike path.

A few videos

We sing 'If your happy and you know it' at Story Time on Mondays and Alison has finally got it down. I think it's super cute when she says "HURRAY!".


Ben caught this clip the other day while playing. The music is from her princess car that plays a song instead of beeping.

Bye-bye binky!

We said goodbye to a good friend today...the binky. When I was pregnant I didn't want to use a pacifier at all. I had this image in my head of a 5 year old in the grocery store with a pacifier in their mouth, and I didn't want that to be my kid. So I just decided my child would never use one...that was until Alison was a couple of days old. We couldn't get her to stop crying and all of the variables had been checked off our list. It was late at night but I called a pediatric nurse to see what was wrong with my wailing child. I'll never forget her words. She said, "Oh honey, just give her a pacifier. She just wants to suck." It never occured to me that the solution could be so simple. Rick, Rachel and the girls had just gotten to our house to meet Alison and I was about to loose it. Rick took one look at me and said, "let's go." He took me to CVS in the middle of the night to buy every kind of pacifier they carried. We sterilized them and shoved each one in her mouth to see which one would stick. From that moment on I was no longer anti-binky, but I still didn't want her to be the 5 year old in the grocery store either. Alison turned 19 months old yesterday and we decided she was old enough to say good-bye to her companion. Today after church I handed her the pacifiers and told her she was a big girl now and it was time to say bye-bye to the binki. She threw them in the trash and said, "bye-bye binky". I laid her down for a nap expecting her to cry for awhile, but I didn't hear a peep. I'm just amazed at how easy it was. I think Ben and I are having a harder time letting go of our baby than she is of letting go of the pacifier. I know that night the pacifier came into our life was a hard one, but sometimes I wish I could just go back for a moment and hold my tiny peanut again.

Alison thought it would be really fun to eat lunch with her snow hat on. I guess meatloaf tastes better when you're all bundled up.