I'm a Big Kid now!

 

Beware, this is going to be a big one because I have really the whole month of April to blog about.  I'll try to keep it to the key points.

The big one that I forgot to mention last time...I am no longer in diapers!  That's right only pretty big girl pants for me.  I am on 3 weeks now and no accidents.  Well at night they still have me sleep in a pull up, but I'm not sure why because I haven't gone during my sleep for months.  Creatures of habit I guess.  Dad asks me all the time if I need to go potty, he doesn't believe me that I don't need to go as often as him.  One day I will teach him.  I am quite trained to get my M&M after I go, they tried offering me a sticker instead...come on people.  Chocolate or a sticky piece of paper?  Who do you think wins that battle?  They say they don't get candy everytime they go, so perhaps I shouldn't.  Well....I have showed them where the M&M's are so they have no excuses...if they forget, who am I the M&M police?  More for me! 

I'm such a big girl, that I think I can nurse Heidi.  She is having none of
it though!

In other big kid news, I have a boyfriend at school.  His name is Henry.  He has been my favorite since I started in the new school.  We are about the same age and get along well.  The teachers say we are inseperable in the afternoon.  Not sure what that means.  Well Henry let mom in on our relationship this week when she dropped me off.  He came to say hi and asked where Heidi was (I didn't say he was the brightest....I tell him every day that we drop her off in her room first...ahh, beginners).  Anyway, after I gave mommy a kiss bye-bye....Henry came up for his good morning kiss.  I just smiled and happily obliged planting one on the smacker.  Mom didn't get a picture of it, but it was a better kiss than THIS one at my old school.  I was an amateur then!  We repeated our affection in the afternoon when daddy was there.  He had a talk with me on the way home that I should save my kisses for him.  But I really have plenty to go around!  The teachers go running around trying to stop us yelling "hugs" all the time....but that is not as fun. 

Ok, I do like hugs too I guess!

Yuck Amelia!  I try to actually listen to mom and dad and not share germs!  No need to worry about me, my updates are much more relaxed.  I have finally mastered sleeping and napping without being swaddled.  It first happened at school last week, I was quite happy when they just laid me down so I could roll over and get all nice and comfy almost 3 hours later, they realized that I can sleep just fine without the swaddle!  Don't worry, I don't usually nap that long.  Mom keeps talking about getting a video set up just so she can see what I do in the middle of the night, because i end up on opposite side of bed on my tummy most nights.  Sometimes on my side hugging the crib rails.  Whatever works though right?  I sleep 11+ hours and am always happy when I wake up.  Even when Amelia runs in yelling at me to get up and jumps in my crib.  Sometimes I may be a bit groggy trying to figure out what is going on, but I immediately smile once I get my bearings.  Dad says they will have to move my crib down lower sooner than expected if I keep moving around so much and perfect my sitting skills.  I sit quite well and can bend over get things and get back up no problem.  There is an occassional tumble and head smack, but I assure you it sounds worse than it is.  Those darn wood floors. 

Checking BJ out!

Ok, on with the fun of the past couple weeks.  As Amelia mentioned before, we made an impromptu road trip a couple weekends ago to Hartington.  My godfather BJ's dad went to be with Jesus so we wanted to be there to give him hugs.  That I did.  Along with grandma, papa, and so many others.  I'll back up.  The parents, per usual, were all concerned with how the road trip would go...but I think it went splendid.  I slept until we hit Council Bluffs for a break at Bass Pro.  Where I tried to talk dad into buying me multiple things while mom & Heidi went to eat.  I only came out with some twizzlers and beef sticks.  Actually, thinking back....I guess that was a pretty good score.  GREAT snack.  The second half of the trip up went well too, I watched some TV and Heidi just hung out.  Well, that is minus a 15 minute pit stop to calm her down after a teeny 'spell'. 

We saw everyone while we were up there and I was quizzed often on everyones name and who I liked the best.  Like I said before, I have a lot of love to go around peeps!  Some of the highlights of the trip included:


Is this not a good Happy Bday look?

• Celebrating Aunt Rachelle's birthday!  Everyone came over to grandma and pop pops for some steak (mmmmm...) and other goodies (i.e. cake - that I helped make!  And cookies from Aunt Brenda that were awesome...they had m&m's!).  
• Saturday afternoon we drove up to Uncle Matt's cabin and had a ton of fun.  I got to go up in the tree house with the big kids and swing on their tire swing.  I got to sit on the deck with the adults and hang out with everyone.  Pretty sure I was held by a ton of people.  So was I, Heidi, you will soon learn that you don't even need shoes when visiting the cousins....there is always someone carrying us around!  We all watched the final four basketball games, with some people still with a chance of winning the money.  Alas by the end of the night, that dream was over.  (I did end in 5th place though, not too bad!)  Most everyone left in a rush as it was prom night and they wanted to see everyone in their pretty dresses.  I wanted to go too, but they didn't 'promenade' until 8:30....and I wasn't ready to stay up that late.  In fact, I tried to put myself to sleep not long after dinner in the top bunk, I am a big girl after all. But then I realized I just needed that little bit of quiet time (not use to so much activity)....I got reenergized and did get back downstairs for some playing till usual bedtime.  We thought the Noeckers were going to stay with us and party it up at the cabin, but they headed back to Lincoln.  At least we got to spend some extra time with them.  Our little family had the big house to ourselves for the night.  We slept like champs!  We hopped in the car not long after we woke up in the AM and were back to home sweet home by the afternoon.

  

soaking up some Vitamin D with Tanja

Tess, Mallorie, Kaiden, & Heidi

As always, it was a whirlwind of a trip, but it was fun seeing everyone.  They are all getting so big.  Oh wait, is it the other way around? 

Seriously...all this playing is exhausting

I'm just going to go ahead and skip to the next weekend when Papa McLain came to visit.  I was excited to see he was there when we got home from school.  You see he came down to see us, but with the cover of helping dad with insulating the attic.  Yeah, "fun" stuff.  We went to dinner at Johnny's down the road Friday night where papa got to experience first hand how fun it is to go to dinner with the 2 of us and approaching bed time.  He brought us a couple of new blankets from NE.  And with this crazy cold Spring weather, I must say I have been using it more than I should have to be!  I haven't seen grandpa since I was a teeny tiny baby, so I was glad to get reacquainted.  As you can see, I really studied him!  Saturday AM they were busy with the loud machine so me, mommy, and Amelia went to see Lukas and his parents.  They had some milk to share with a new baby friend from church, Megan.  I had fun over there showing off my sitting skills.  Lukas' daddy kept calling me mini-Phil.  That is a complement right?!  Lukas woke up from his nap while we were there and showed us his super cool rollercoaster.  Yes, he has a roller coaster he could ride!  Amelia totally would have loved that, but she was being a baby being scared of their big old dog, who wasn't even nearby.  All right, Heidi....no need to go there.  It was getting close to my nap time...and apparently yours, as you didn't even make it home before crashing!  The rest of us all had some sandwiches for lunch and then I went to take a short nap.  It was actually a really nice Spring day so we spent the afternoon outside hanging out.  We went on a walk and I showed papa how high I can go in the swing.  I think he was impressed.  Then we played some football in the yard.  I guess only appropriate given my outfit choice for the day!  Daddy then grilled us all some ribeyes and we had a good dinner at home and relaxing evening.  It was a fun day.  Dad and papa seemed a bit tired...as they did work hard...I guess insulation for 2k sq ft can do that!  I appreciate it though, I have already noticed that my room feels a lot more like the rest of the house!

We all left at the same time Sunday AM.  Papa to head back up to Lincoln, mommy went to a class so she could finally learn to use her new fancy camera in manual mode (although she better start practicing before she forgets), and the rest of us went to church!  The rest of this week has been cold and rainy so we are hoping that this weekend brings us the sun again!!


 
Puppy update, yes...despite my meltdowns near big dogs, I am still quite obsessed with getting one.  In fact, as we drove out of Lukas' neighborhood the first thing I said to mom was "I want a puppy".  I thought I was getting closer to convincing the parents. They even found a little Marley look a like at a nearby shelter that we were ready to get. But apparently shelters will not adopt out to houses with kids under 5. What? I have to wait 5 more years for a puppy? Needless to say, I am not happy....pet stores here I come!

Amelia & Heidi OUT!

 Oh, mom decided to catch on video my tune that I go around singing ALL the time.