Easter egg hunt

We all went over to Gpa and Gma Jensen's house for dinner and an egg hunt. Gpa and Gma Ossman made it out as well, as did cousins Emily and Tillie! There was a big egg hunt with 69 eggs. It was a mad dash. The neighbors even came out to watch the excitement! Alena's favorite thing from the easter bunny was a cool new flower balloon (though she received an assortment of other things.) She had such a fun day that she didn't want to take a nap. She finally fell asleep while Daddy was holding her. Sleeping babies are such cute babies!

Scouting for more eggs with Grandma Diane

Grandpa Ed explaining proper egg hunting technique. He has finally taught her to say "Pa" fairly consistently. Didn't he say if her first word was pa that she would get big money for her college fund? I think I remember that conversation.

Baby-cessories

Alena likes to fully accessorize her outfits. On Wednesday, Aunt Melissa took her and Tillie to the St. Patrick's Day parade where they scored some cool bead necklaces. Throw in the jelly bracelets from Dad and the purse from Grandma Diane and you have a complete ensemble!

Grandma Dee will be happy to know that Alena is tucked away in her crib and had fallen asleep within a couple of minutes of getting in the car. It was a busy weekend for the little girl and she needs her beauty sleep.

Cat-cessory--I have no doubts that Jones will be wearing complete outfits before long.

Slack rope walking

I already forget why we thought it would be fun to try slack rope walking. We have seen people doing this in a park in Minneapolis, so Ben decided to google it and see what came up. We ended up taking a flat nylon rope and stretching it between the pickup and the tractor. Balancing is harder than it looks. I was finally able to walk the length without falling maybe 1 out of 10 tries. Our next attempt will be stretching the rope across the pond or riding the unicycle across it. Or maybe I will juggle while walking across. I haven't decided yet. Thanks, Dad, for the technical support.

Bracelets

Daddy bought Alena some cool new jelly bracelets.

Alena takes bracelets very seriously.

Stand up and walk

Alena has gotten pretty good at walking. She walks mostly on her tiptoes which is a fun way to do it. If she reverts back to her knee walking, if you tell her to stand up and walk like a big girl she usually will do it. Here is the way she usually stands up. I think it is how the T-2000 did it when he was a baby.

Mirror

I didn't want the first picture on Alena's blog to be her grumpy face. So here is one of her admiring herself in the mirror.

Happy birthday Daddy!

Sunday was Ben's birthday. Alena wasn't making any noise in her crib but I figured at 9 o'clock she would be ready to get up so I opened her door. Big mistake. Alena usually likes some quiet time in the morning to reflect on what she is going to do that day and I interrupted that. We had to deal with a grumpy baby all morning. Not even going down the slides at the park would cheer her. Fortunately she was in a better mood that afternoon.

As a birthday treat Ben and I went skiing in Dubuque on Monday. It was a lot of fun! The last time we had gone was in Aspen 9 years ago, so we thought we did pretty well. There was a slalom course with a timer set up in one section so we did time trials. That was my favorite part of the trip. Ben enjoyed going fast down the "mountain." We are currently a little Olympic crazy in our house and Ben thought that watching all of that tv helped him improve his skills. So the household results in the slalom: Melissa 23.54 sec, Ben 24.98 sec. Ben definitely won the downhill portion even though we don't have an official time. And I won the tie-breaker of most wipe-outs.

Someone woke up on the wrong side of the crib

But not too angry to open presents.

Sliding

Alena really likes going down slides. Unfortunately, the weather has been so cold and windy we don't get out as much as we would like. Saturday it warmed up to 25 degrees so we headed to the park. Alena will enjoy the playground much more when she doesn't have to wear a big snowsuit!

Monday was daddy daughter day. Alena and Dad went to the mall so they could play on the indoor playground. It is all about being healthy, so there is an apple chair, a toothbrush, a lizard in a shoe (we don't understand that one), and a broccoli slide. Alena liked the toothbrush when she was little, but now that she is big the broccoli slide is her favorite.

Valentine's day treat

We made the heart-shaped frozen yogurt treats from Angela's blog. Alena would shiver at every bite, but she refused to put it down.

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!