Snow day!

The forecast was bad and all of the schools were closed today, so I decided to stay home. The weather ended up not being so bad, but we stayed inside all day anyhow. It was a day of fun playing with the kitties and relaxing in a comfy jogging suit. While she took a nap, I made pumpkin cookies for an afternoon snack!

Alena watching the neighbor snow blowing the driveway. This is as close as Ruby cares to get.

Jones will get much closer. He likes to sit and watch the bird feeder and Alena likes to sit next to him. When she gets too clingy he moves to the other window--unfortunately for him, he is usually followed.

Thirsty kitty

Ben's Mount Mercy art show

For those of you who weren't able to see it, Alena was gracious enough to get some pictures with Dad's art at his show reception at Mt Mercy. Alena loved feeling all of the textures of the clay and had fun walking between podiums. She was the baby of honor because she inspired Dad on the idea of the show. Good job, Dad! It looked great!

Alena liked standing against the wall and staring up at these platters. This gives you an idea of how big they really are.

Alena liked this exhibit the best. Is it because they look like baby bottles (they are supposed to resemble them.) She kept walking back to them and patting them. Dad's show was also a good opportunity to show off her skinny jeans and shiny shoes! Her shoes were a big hit with the art professors.

Celebrity cat

Jones is a star! We always knew he would be famous someday--we just didn't know it would be so soon. He is thinking of picking up some work on the side as a cat food model. Check out his picture with Aunt Kristina on her new job's website.

Gerber baby

We were told when Alena was younger that she looked like the Gerber baby. Well, apparently Alena agrees. Last night she was playing in just a diaper. I had her pajamas next to me on the couch. They are Gerber brand so there is a little picture of the baby on the inside. Alena crawled over to them and pointed to the baby and then herself. I asked her, "Where's Alena?" and she again pointed to the Gerber baby. So she either really thinks that is a picture of her, was pointing to them merely because they are her pajamas, or was joking around with me.

It was a fun weekend. We got to go to Pizza Hut with Grandma Dee, Grandpa Ed, and Aunt Kristina on Saturday night. Sunday we visited Mimi and then saw Alan, Sarah, and Emily's new house before eating at the Stone City General Store. And Monday we went ice skating at Bever park (Alena rode around in her sled and had fun because she could go really fast.) After skating, Alena went down the slide (repeatedly) at the park in her little red snowsuit.

More cooking

I wasn't joking about Alena's love for helping in the kitchen. We made banana bread yesterday. Alena was in charge of mashing the bananas with a fork and whisking the dry ingredients together. She did a good job with both of her tasks. After her nap, she ate some bread as a snack. Very tasty.

Dad helps with banana mashing technique

Official taste tester

Guns are not toys?

One of Alena's favorite toys is Dad's Nerf gun. She will go over to the cabinet where it is kept, get onto her tiptoes to grab it, bring it over to Dad (or me if he isn't around), and say "dat." Which of course means, shoot this gun at the tv. After all six bullets are unloaded, she goes over, pulls them off of the tv, and reloads. This particular night she thought it would be more fun if Dad pushed her around in a box while she played with the gun.

Reloading

Drive over there so we can get those darts

Bang, bang!

Alena finally gets out of the box so she can collect darts the traditional way. The game soon ended with Alena chewing the end off of a dart.

Cooking in the kitchen

Grandma Diane showed Alena how much fun it is to help in the kitchen and now she wouldn't dream of someone cooking without her help! First Alena helped add spices to a bowl for the potstickers I am making tonight. Then she stirred a couple of different cereals together for a snack that she enjoyed later. Jones had to help out as well!

Here is a shout-out to Angela's new blog, Smoothie and Spice. Not quite as pretty as her snacks, but very refreshing. Alena's snack: applesauce and Kix (this is one of her favorite snacks, invented by Dad!)

Add Kix to applesauce. Stir with a spoon or a hand. Enjoy!

Getting big

Alena had her 15 month checkup this week. She was 21 lbs, 15 oz and 30 1/4" tall. We could tell she was going through a growth spurt because she can reach so many things that were high enough just a few weeks ago. The bad news is I had a doctor appointment that same day and found out I was only 5'2". I have always said I was 5'2 1/2" and rounded to 5'3". I even exaggerated out to 5'4" when I played basketball to intimidate the other team. It was a low blow to me, needless to say.

Ben is currently bribing Alena to walk with yogurt drops. She walks over to the yogurt, eats it, then drops to her knees and walks away.

Here are some pictures of Alena and Dad reading stories. Why is everything written in italics? Ruby stepped on some keys and screwed up the computer.

Feeding babies

Alena has a bunch of babies who are always hungry. They all sleep on bunk beds that she got for Christmas from Grandma and Grandpa Jensen. We line them up in a row so they can all have their turn with the bottle. Alena likes to make a slurping sound as the babies eat. Sometimes she feeds them juice from a play sippy cup, and once she was feeding them a chicken leg. She is a good mommy and only occasionally drops the babies on their heads.

She's so good at this she can do it with her eyes closed!

Putting the baby back on the bed to get her ready for her meal

Time to get serious--these babies are hungry!

How is walking going?

You might wonder how Alena is progressing with learning to walk. She is still not sure that it is a better method to knee walking. Most of the time she will pull her legs up if you try to set her on her feet. Unless she is wearing the proper footwear, of course. She wanted to put on Mom's socks and Dad's slippers yesterday morning. In this outfit she was able to walk across the room. Hmm.

Music lessons

Kirstin came to visit to start on the music lessons she had promised to Alena. Alena loved Kirstin and learned so much from her! She came all of the way from Wisconsin (bearing cheese, of course) for the lessons. Come back soon!

Listening to Kirstin describe xylophone technique

Alena shows what she's got; although she was told to use the mallet, Alena thought a golf ball would make a nice sound.

Thanks, I'll practice what I have learned.

Posing in their vests

Birthday time

I survived my birthday. Alena was a big help opening presents. She knew that at my advanced age the repetition of ripping paper could be dangerous. It was the warmest birthday I have had in a long time--it almost got up to twenty and it wasn't even snowing!

New Year's Resolutions

New Year's resolutions they should make:

Replace knee walking with foot walking.
Eat something beside pizza and crackers.
Control jealous rages.

Stay off counters.
People food is for people, cat food is for cats--practice this.
Leave poor sensitive plant alone.

No more chewing the carpet and electric bills.
Exercise to get rid of belly flap.
Stop yawning fish breath in Melissa's face.
Realize that the cursor on the computer screen cannot be caught.

Cousins

Lily and Finn came over to play with Alena's toys. There was a lot to do, including posing with matching sweaters on Alena's new couch!

Finn did not have a matching sweater, but he was invited to get his picture taken anyway.

Finn and Alena help with the recycling.

Dance party!

Guess that tv show

Does this remind anyone of a popular 90s tv show? I already know that Julianne will be the one to figure it out. Yes, I actually did sneak up on him, this is not a joke. Ben is quite the handyman.

Sledding

Here are some pictures of Alena sledding in happier times. She has an ear infection so she hasn't been up to any sledding lately, even though we have a nice powder right now. She is even too sick to celebrate Grandma Dee's birthday. Happy Birthday, Grandma! Your snow fort is still standing in the backyard. How is that for a nice present!

The sled cruises best on packed snow--the alley is a perfect place.

If you pull her fast enough she will raise her arms like a thrill-seeker on Adventureland's Tornado. Apparently Daddy isn't going fast enough.

Sometimes you have to make do with what you have

Happy Birthday Grandpa Ed!

What were you feeding this baby?

Answer:

No, no, Jones!

Who is getting yelled at?

Alena is yelling at someone--who is it, and why?
a.) Jones, eating the phone book
b.) Daddy, playing with Alena's toys
c.) Ruby, scratching the carpet
(No, there is no option of yelling at Mommy. She never does anything wrong!)

Knee walking

This is Alena's traditional form of walking.

Alena Walking

Alena doing a little forced foot walking. She still prefers knee-walking.

Alena's walking update

Alena walked on her feet last night several times, including a 5 foot stretch. Will she be walking today, or revert back to knee-walking? If she does more of that newfangled foot walking I will try to get some video.

Snow baby

We survived the blizzard on Wednesday. It was a snow day for Daddy, even, as all of his jobs were closed! I made Jannie rolls in the tradition of a snow day. We had to keep them in the microwave so the cats wouldn't eat them. Yesterday we forgot to protect them and they were half-eaten on the floor when we came home (at least there were only two left.) Ruby! Alena liked sitting in the snow and eating it. She also liked sledding on Wednesday. Yesterday she hated it. She is a baby of extremes.

Getting bundled up in Cousin Lily's snowsuit. She was pretty much immobile in this thing. She could hardly sit up.

Alena had to sit in the wagon while Mom went up in the garage attic to get the sleds.

A visit with Santa at Hy-Vee. He was a little scary looking, but Alena was pretty much indifferent to him.

Alena and Tillie open an early Christmas present.

Feeding Jones with a spoon

I think that Alena is trying to feed Jones with her spoon. She does some crazy things to him, and he just sits and takes it. Later today she rested her head on him like she likes doing and he licked her hair.

Pictures for Julianne

Because Julianne loves kitty pictures, here are a couple:

Alena giving Jones a hug. Today they were looking out the window at it snowing. Alena was laughing, either at the snow or at Jones.

Here are the guts from the butternut squash. Ruby jumped up on the counter, grabbed the squash guts, and then carried them down to the basement to eat them. This is not good cat behavior.

Decorating the Christmas tree

Saturday night we followed our Christmas tradition of driving the Altima to Hy-Vee and sticking a tree in the trunk. We decorated our Christmas tree on Sunday. Alena was very good at helping. First, she hung the watering can on a branch. Then, we got out the decorations and she got to choose what she wanted to hang on the tree. The first thing she picked up was the only glass ornament I had lying out. Because of Alena's unpredictablilty and the friskiness of the cats (Ruby has already climbed the tree) we did not hang most of our good ornaments this year. But it still turned out pretty.

Mom helps Alena hang up the ornament that she selected. This was a hard one to hang up!

A grumpy baby on a rocking horse