Monday, July 30, 2012

"Diberint Baby"

I used to be able to hide things from Callie and she would forget about them, never worrying about them again. That's no longer the case. This girl has a great memory, especially for things she really likes.

This is Callie holding My Twin Doll that my mom bought me for Christmas when I was a little girl. They had a catalog with different hair color/style/thickness, eye color/shape, eyebrow color/shape, and everything else to make the doll look like the child (hence the name). They even let you add things like birth marks and moles. So, needless to say, this is a special doll.

In the process of unpacking and organizing things, I made the mistake of opening my box of sentimental childhood things with this doll in it while Callie was nearby. She immediately saw my doll and wanted her. I didn't want her to have her because I was afraid she would ruin her. She started crying and I could see that she desperately wanted to play with her, so I gave in and let her. Ever since that day, I have tried hiding My Twin Doll in hopes that Callie would just forget about her, but every time, within days (or sometimes hours), Callie comes to me asking for the "diberint baby" (translation: different baby).

Sometime last week, I once again hid my doll from Callie, sticking her on a shelf up high in my closet. It had been days and it seemed she had finally forgotten her. Today, as she was piling her dolls in Maddie's infant tub, Callie came running up to me asking for the "diberint baby". I tried to play dumb, but she even took me into my closet, reaching right up to that shelf where the doll was hidden. There's no fooling her.

I guess My Twin Doll with have to become that special doll that Callie gets to play with on request, because she's apparently not going to forget about her.

Friday, July 27, 2012

3 Months

Madison turned 3 months on Wednesday! It is crazy to me how fast time has gone. In my head, she's still a newborn. I have absolutely loved being with her 24/7 to hold her and watch her and snuggle with her. With Callie, I was away student teaching all day for months 2-5. I only saw her in the morning to feed her, dress her, and drive her to Grandma's. Then late afternoon I picked her up, drove home, and had to juggle feeding her, preparing my teaching, spending what little time I could with Jason, cooking/cleaning, oh and trying to relax. That experience has made me so grateful that I have the blessing of staying home with my kids.
At 3 months, Madison is a very smiley baby. It's so easy to make her smile. She's a very happy girl.

Our move to Texas messed up the beginning of her sleeping through the night. I think she's only done it twice since. On a normal night she'll go to sleep around 9:00, wake up at 2:30, and then again around 6:30.

Nursing is still going really well. I can't complain too much about not sleeping through the night, because I prayed so many times while pregnant that nursing would go well this time around, even if that meant sacrificing some sleep or something else. I just desperately needed nursing to go well, and that prayer has been answered (every part of it).

Madison LOVES her big sister. Anytime Callie is in the room, Madison looks around to find her and frequently smiles at her.



 Madison has become interested in toys. She loves laying on her little play pad with jingly toys dangling above her. She hits them and sometimes grabs them. 

On Tuesday, she rolled over from her tummy to her back for the first time (and the only time so far). Then yesterday she rolled over twice from her back to her tummy. I tried so hard all day long to get a video of it. I think I took a dozen videos ranging from 5-10 minutes, but didn't catch it! Maybe today.

One of my favorite things in the world is when Madison and Callie look into each other's eyes and smile. There's so much love there, and it's so amazing to watch.

On a different note, Callie has been driving me crazy!!! I love her so much, of course, and about half the time she is such a joy. But that other 50% of the time (maybe I'm exaggerating, but that's what it feels like), she is so whiny! She cries and whines and gets into trouble and doesn't obey me. I know she has been having a hard time lately with my giving attention to Madison, we did just move, and she is 2 (I guess they call it the "terrible two's" for a reason) but goodness! At what age will the whining stop? Probably never...

Good thing she's so cute...



Wednesday, July 25, 2012

"My Naners!"


Once upon a time (today), Mommy was putting Callie and Madison's clothes away, when all of a sudden... 
Callie started stealing all of the hangers! She put them all in one big pile on her bed.
 Repeatedly, Mommy asked Callie to bring back the hangers, but Callie would not!
Instead, Callie would protectively shield her hangers with her hand while defiantly saying, "my naners!"

In order to avoid a toddler tantrum, sneaky Mommy diverted Callie's attention to a new game and was then able to retrieve the hangers to hang the clothes at last!

The End



Wednesday, July 18, 2012

This is the position in which Madison likes to sleep. On her side with her head pulled back. Of course I put her "back to bed" as is now being recommended, but this is how I find her every morning. I think we usually found little Callie on her back with her arms raised and spread out, but these days she also prefers her side.

Madison has been sleeping in her pack-n-play since we moved to Texas. She and Callie will eventually sleep in the same room, but Maddie hasn't been sleeping through the night since we moved so she has been sleeping in our dining room, since that's the only out-of-the-way place for her pack-n-play. Well, out of the way is a relative term. I'm waiting for her to move in the room with Callie before I can put our kitchen table in a usable spot and unpack my digital piano.

Which reminds me of some things I have learned about house keeping in a tiny apartment.

I always thought that a smaller home would be easier to clean, but I guess that's not true when you have nearly the same amount of belongings as you did in a home more than twice the size.

If I don't keep on top of things, continually cleaning up little messes, our house quickly reaches a state of chaos in which it is impossible to function. This is especially true in our kitchen where I have less than half of the counter space that I used to.

In the process of unpacking and living with a toddler I have realized that all of the floor space that isn't covered with furniture is needed for walking. The only place this isn't true is the girls' room. So when you have something like a bouncer sitting out, you can't really set it somewhere out of the way without putting it on top of the bed, on a box in the closet, or in the other bathroom that we don't use as much. It's kind of amusing to me.

By the way, I'm really not saying all of this to complain.We won't live in this tiny apartment forever. It's just a means to an end--a house! I just want to share the things I'm learning and laughing about :)

So with that, I'm going to go work on making this apartment a little easier to live in.
This morning I found Callie kneeling at her bed, folding her baby doll's arms, praying.

"Father Heaven, thank you day, gwama, sister, mama...amen!"


Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Smiles






Now that Jason isn't using the computer all of the time to study for the CPA exam...here are some updates in pictures:

I turned 24. Jason made me this awesome and delicious cake! The one and only birthday when one pack of candles is perfect.

Cute little Maddie, just shy of 2 months old. She makes this little face that makes her eyebrows a certain shape--sort of a rounded peak on the outer half. Those eyebrows remind me of my mom's whose eyebrows can make that same shape. This picture almost captured it.

Whatever I do with Maddie, Callie wants to do with her "Hebby Baby" (heavy baby, so named because she's filled with water, making her quite heavy for a baby doll).

It's tummy time for everyone!


Grandma Black with the girls--so sweet.

All of the cousins on the Allphin side. We bribed them with smarties to get this last picture of them together before moving to Texas.

Provo to Dallas

A week ago we made our big move to Dallas. On Monday and Tuesday, we loaded up a big yellow moving truck with the help of our family and neighbors. On Wednesday morning at 6:30, we left Provo and began our two-day drive to Texas. Thankfully, my parents drove with us to help out. Most of the way, Jason and my dad drove the truck while my mom and I drove the car with the kids. I left expecting the worst--a toddler that would need constant entertaining and would hate the long trip, and a 2 month old baby who would scream almost the whole way because she hates her car seat. Luckily this was not the case. Both girls slept a good part of the way and Callie was pretty good at keeping herself entertained. What I hadn't planned on was being sick, so I was pretty miserable. We ran into a really bad thunderstorm in New Mexico with high winds and pouring rain. It was pretty scary to drive in, but we made it through safely (although the girls' car had a close call...let's just say that fatigue, sickness, and horrible weather are not a good mix...).

Almost 47 hours after leaving Provo, we made it to our apartment in Dallas.

We had planned on my brother-in-law Cory coming to help us unload the truck that evening along with Jason, my dad, and my mom/me (when our hands were free). Also, my dad was planning on calling some friends and previous ward members to come and help. We figured we would unload part of it that first evening and the rest the next day or so. Well, Cory had a big problem at work he had to solve so he was running late, and everyone my dad called were either busy or out of town.

In the meantime, Jason and my parents started the unloading. I was in the house trying to keep Maddie happy and keep Callie inside (she of course wanted to run around outside, and who could blame her after spending two days in the car?). After 10 or 15 minutes of unloading, these random guys started bringing stuff into our apartment. My first thought was that we had some really nice neighbors, but then I noticed one of them had a BYU shirt. My next thought was that we had a lot of LDS people living in the complex and maybe they were friends who just decided to come help. Either way I was extremely grateful. We ended up with about 5 of them helping to unload the truck. Within about an hour the truck was empty. My mom told me later she had been praying for help in unloading the truck. The Lord definitely answered those prayers.

After the truck was unloaded, we discovered what had happened. Another family just a couple of buildings away moved in the same day. The guy was also starting at PWC and is also LDS. They had called and asked the Elders' Quorum to come help them move in. A couple of the guys that came to help us had first helped the other family move in and then came over when they saw us moving in. Another couple of guys thought they were helping the family who had asked for help. One guy said he was walking by, saw someone wearing a BYU shirt, and decided to join in. We have not yet met that other family and I feel bad that we stole their movers, but we sure are grateful we had some help!

My first thought upon entering our apartment was: This is a LOT smaller than I remember. How in the world are we going to fit all of our stuff in here? I still have a ways to go, but the answer has been a lot of creativity and not wasting space. Although I have made a lot of progress, it's hard not to look at all of the boxes everywhere and think: will this ever end?!

(Note: This picture does not include all of the still-packed boxes in our apartment. This is just a taste.)



We went to part of our new ward on Sunday. The building is between our apartment and Jason's work, and the ward is huge! They had a homecoming for a mission president and his son who just returned from a mission, so there were more people than normal, but it's still a really big ward. They opened both overflow rooms to fit everyone. We got lost trying to find the church building, so we got there late. Callie was still getting over being sick and was a mess the second hour, so we left after spending Sunday School in the hallway with screaming kids. I can't wait to go this Sunday so we can actually introduce ourselves and meet people.

While I have been turning this apartment into our home, Jason has started work at PWC. His first day was Monday and so far he's just training and will be for a while. He's been taking the train to work. There's a stop half a mile from our apartment. There are about 20 other new employees, one of which is that other LDS guy, but he hasn't met him yet.

Aside of moving in, we are also having a Black family reunion of sorts. It's been so fun seeing everyone again and being so close to them. It's also really fun having all of our kids together to play. It's too bad we can't be close to both the Allphin and Black sides...We'll just have to keep trying to convince the Allphins to move to Texas.

Happy 2nd Birthday, Callie!

Yesterday, Callie turned 2! She had a surprise birthday party in Utah, before we moved, with the Allphin side of the family. We had a barbeque and then we played. Little did we know that day that it was the last time the Allphin family would all be together (minus Kyal, who's on his mission) before we moved to Texas.

 Callie had a birthday party with the Black side of the family last Saturday. We celebrated Callie's birthday (07/10), Ethan's 9th birthday (07/11), and Makayla's 1st birthday (07/15). We had the party at my parents' house that's up for sale. We had a patriotic themed party and we swam and ate lots of yummy food!




 We started the day of Callie's birthday with the Black family tradition of a pancake breakfast. Previous to this picture being taken, there was a lit candle in the pancakes that she blew out before I could even get a picture. After this picture, her pancakes were covered in banana and cool whip (I haven't yet introduced her to syrup--too messy).

That evening we had a spaghetti dinner (one of her favorites), cupcakes and ice cream, and then we took the rest of the evening to open her presents and play with them. She has been busy playing with her new toys ever since.

  

Dear Callie,
I can't believe you're two years old already! Here are some things that I love about you:

your beautiful, curly hair
your sweet smile
the way you say "yep" and "semmen" (seven)
how talkative you are
how gentle and kind you are to your new baby sister
the way you take such good care of your own babies
how much you adore your daddy
the look in your eyes when I sing to you
your fun, teasing nature

You're such a sweet girl and you have brought so much joy to our family. I love you!

Forever yours,
Mommy