Walking Buddy

You always hear that it's best to have a buddy to exercise with...well, I found one.  She's full of energy, always moving, very optimistic, full of smiles, and always ready for something new.  She's perfect to workout with!  She is also learning the English language (as well as ASL), she weighs 20ish pounds, stands at about 30 inches, and the cutest little workout partner there is!

For my workouts I usually watch a YouTube video for walking inside.  Often I wait for Elizabeth to go down for her nap, but today I decided not to.  Elizabeth saw what I was doing, and decided it looked fun, so she joined me.  She loved the kicks, sidesteps, and got a kick out of walking forward and backward, and reaching up high.  It sure made my workout time more enjoyable having Elizabeth do it with me.  I am so glad I didn't wait for her to go down for her nap before I exercised.

Side steps...

 Reach up high...

Making faces

Elizabeth loves to read books!  I have found a great trick to get her to lay still and happy while I change her diaper, it's to give her a book to read while I do it.  There is one book that she has been reading a lot the last few days called "Counting Kisses" that she's been enjoying a lot.  She loves it when I kiss her feet, and each time she picks up the book she lifts her feet to me, and makes kissy noises.  She also loves pointing out the dog and cat each time she gets to those pages.  But the thing that amazed me today while we read the book together is when I had the first page open.  On it is a picture of the little baby is crying with tears going down it's cheeks.  All of the sudden I heard Elizabeth start crying, I turned to her, and she then looked up at me with her fake cry face, and then it quickly turned into a huge grin on her face.  She had recognized from the picture that the baby was sad, and mimicked the emotion herself!

Elizabeth has been having a great time making lots of faces.  Not only with the book, but she loves make faces at herself.  She has been loving reflections for this.  Not only does she enjoy the mirror, but she has also found that the TV screen shows her reflection, as well as the computer screen, windows, and other glass surfaces, etc.  She also waves hello and goodbye to her friend in the mirror whenever we go into or leave the bathroom.  She is always on the look out for her friend in the reflection, to practice her silly faces on.

I love my girls creativity!

Cub scouts

I was recently called to serve as an Assistant Den Leader in the Cub Scouts.  This was a surprise to everyone, and I am so sad that I was released as a primary teacher.  I don't know scouts, but I am really excited to work with the Den Leader, and the boys that I taught all last year in primary will all be joining the Cub Scouts this year.  I will enjoy working with them again.  Also, one of the girls comes because her mom is the Den leader.  She's so sweet, and always gives me hugs.  It will be fun to see her at the meetings, too.  Today was my first day going to one of the cub scout activities, and I think it will be a fun calling.

One of those lazy days

Last night we had friends stay the night so Elizabeth stayed in our room.  It started out okay, but it would have been better if Brian and I had not stayed up until almost 2am playing Scrabble, then we would have had more sleep by the time Elizabeth woke up at about 3:30am.  I won't go into details but she didn't go back to bed quickly, and really not at all.  After spending some play time with Brian, she actually ended up falling asleep by herself on the floor next to our bed.  When late morning came, and she finally woke up with was cut to find that she just started to ready books by herself, since a bookcase was right by were she slept.

After this restless night, we were glad that our friends are ones to sleep in, we finally went out for breakfast at lunch time.  We then did a few other things around town, and then came home put the place back together, and chilled in front of a movie.  It's so nice to have a day to take things slow and relax after a crazy night.

Playing doggies

Elizabeth is so creative!  I had such a fun time playing with her this morning.  We played and danced to songs on Pandora, and her favorite game was playing like we were doggies.  We would crawl around and around the couch on all fours together.  I am so glad I put everything on hold this morning to just focus on Elizabeth.  She really brightened my day!

Painting

This morning I was able to finally get out of the house for the first time since Sunday.  I also had the opportunity to do some service for a friend in my ward.  Her family will be moving soon, and are getting their home ready to sell so they asked for some help painting.  It felt so good getting out of the house, and I loved helping out this wonderful family.

This friend has been such an inspiration to me ever since I first saw her.  I wasn't in this ward yet when I first saw her at some conference meeting at the stake center one evening, so I didn't know her name to begin with, but I was impressed and intrigued from that night.  You see, she radiates light, and is in a wheelchair.  When we started attending this ward I was introduced to this woman, and got to know her.  She is an amazing woman!  I learned that she had fallen out of a tree while in college, and broken her back.  But that doesn't stop her!  She is now married, and just had her third little boy this summer, and is an inspiration everywhere she goes!  She is so happy, and does so much!  She does wheelchair racing, and done at least one marathon in her chair.  I could go an and on, like I said, she's amazing!

Kids again

Last night was full of RC's and fun.  Brian got out the little RC helicopter that we got for Christmas, and last years mini RC cars.  We raced around with the cars, and had fun learning to fly the helicopter.  Brian is getting the hang of how to fly it, and didn't crash as often as he did on Christmas Eve.  It was my first time getting to try the ropes with it, and I had a great time trying to figure it out.  It's quite a challenge in our apartment, but Brian learned first hand that it doesn't mix well with snow (or roofs either).  Elizabeth even got in on the fun, and after being okay with the crazy little thing that makes noise and flies around the room, she took over the controls.  It was so fun playing together!

Girls Party!

...in the middle of the night!

Elizabeth has been waking up in the middle of the night every few nights or so lately wanting to play.  Since she is sick and crying just aggravates her coughing, so crying herself to sleep hasn't worked out very well.  So Brian being the sweet guy that he is, has been playing with her when she's woken up, until she is sleepy enough again to go back to sleep.

Well, last night I decided to give Brian a break, and stay up with Elizabeth.  We had a great time together.  Elizabeth is not scared of the dark, and seems to thrive in it at times.  She was having fun putting the Santa hat on and saying "HO, HO, HO!"  She played with her toys, loved playing peek-a-boo in her cardboard castle, we 'read' books (in the dark), sang songs, she had lots of fun carrying boxes around, and other fun things.  We had lots of fun together, and I found that it was easier for me to focus my whole attention on Elizabeth in the middle of the night.  It was easier for me to 'see' her in the dark, and not notice the other things that can distract me.

After all this fun and more, she finally got tired.  I was able to get her back to bed, and go to bed myself when I heard her start crying again.  She tried to play some more, but we were both needing to get some sleep.  So, I rocked her then walked around singing to her as she snuggled against my shoulder.  After singing to her for a while she was okay to go back to sleep.

It was such a sweet night!  Even though I missed out on a few hours of sleep, I loved sharing last night with Elizabeth.  I love my Little Miss Elizabeth!

Cabin fever

Elizabeth has had croup for about a week now, and I can't wait until she is better.  We have only taken her outside a few times since she's been sick, when we thought that she was doing a little better, but each time she seemed to get a little worse.   So I decided that I would not take her outside again until she was completely better.

Well, being stuck inside does not agree with us.  We were okay when we would stay inside last year, but Elizabeth couldn't move around much last winter.  Now she is an energetic toddler that needs to move around, and an apartment doesn't have much space for that.

So with being sick, stuck inside an apartment all day long, oh, did I mention her molars have been coming through, we are both ready for a break!

All dressed up with no where to go!

 

My family is doing a contest with the new year, and one of the things that we need to do is be dressed and ready for the day by 2 pm.  Some might say that this is so simple, but I usually spend my days in my PJ's.  It's even more unusual to find me with both my hair and makeup done.  Come on, I'm a stay at home mom, that likes to be comfortable.

Well, I have decided that this challenge is a good one for me to do.  So here I am today, all dressed, hair done, and even some makeup on.  It feels good to be ready, but weird that I am not going anywhere.  Maybe someday I will get used to it, or find more places to go.