Trick-or-treating

Alena met Tillie at a fancy retirement village to hunt for delicious Halloween treats. The residents really gave the good stuff--lots of chocolate! And no one said "no candy for babies!" Alena went as a flower and Tillie as a strawberry. Maybe Alena will think it is more fun next year: but at least this year she stayed awake the whole time.

Tillie sampling her candy while Alena looks bored.

It is hard to crawl in this crazy suit!

Cannibal!

Welcome, Jones!

We adopted a kitty from the Humane Society yesterday. His name is Jones, and he is about 6 months old. He spent the first night under the couch, but the second he came out to play. Sometimes Alena thinks he is really neat and crawls over to pet him, but she also is able to ignore him (which is probably a good thing.) He ducks under the couch when she gets that look in her eye.

Alena is shredding a newspaper for Jones to play with.

Cell phone trumps cute kitty.

Jack-o-lanterns

We carved Jack-o-lanterns the other day while Alena slept. Dad created a crying baby pumpkin and I made a frazzled mom. Alena is really big into pointing right now, as you can see.

Flaming cauldron

I plugged in our flaming cauldron in honor of halloween. It is Alena's new favorite thing in the house. She likes to point at it and say "da," whatever that means. I don't let her play with it, but Dad and grandpas do! Here is Dad telling her to touch it just a little. Yeah right, Dad.

Halloween is coming!

Here is Alena making her scariest face in honor of Halloween. Pretty scary for someone whose costume is a flower.

Eating soup

One of Alena's favorite toys is her play soup can. She likes to try to put the lid on it. Recently she has been working on getting the soup on her spoon.

Thanks for coming to my party!

More birthday!

Which present should I open first?

Getting the crowd pumped up

Look at how dirty my hands are!

Eating cake

Here Alena is eating her birthday cake. She was really tired at this point, but the pure sugar revived her.

Alena's birthday!

Alena had a fun 1st birthday yesterday from start to finish! It is hard to believe that she is so old! Dad gave Alena updates throughout the day on what was happening last year at that time--"last year at this time mom was just getting induced," and "mom started pushing at this time." He even showed her how she was finally born (it wasn't quite as graphic as it sounds.)

We had 2 grandmas, 2 grandpas, 3 great-grandparents, two aunts, 1 uncle, and 1 cousin come over to celebrate. That's a pretty big crowd for the little girl! We started out with lunch, then presents, then cake, then nap. It was a full afternoon. Here are a few of her pre-party pictures. Party pictures are soon to follow.

We asked Alena if she felt older. She is using a remote like a big girl, so you decide.

Alena got to open one present early so she could figure out the logistics of opening gifts. She was a fast learner.

Showing off her birthday girl shirt and her spoon and alphabet soup. She likes to stick the soup in her mouth and crawl around. Dad asked if he should dress her in her birthday outfit or her birthday suit. Fortunatly he went with outfit.

Kitty time!

Friday night we went to Mimi's house and ate pizza with Mimi, Alan, Sarah, and Emily. There was a little pre-dinner entertainment with all of the kitties that live on the farm. Alena loves Mimi's kittens, and there was one that really loved her. He would rub against her and she would grab him and squeal. He wasn't scared of her at all! These pictures remind me of when I was a baby (right up to the big stocking cap!)

Turn around, Alena. There is a kitten stealing Daddy's glove!

A kitten hiding on the wheel of our car.

Here is the kitten who loves Alena. The only time she wants to practice walking is when there is a kitten to try to pet (a grown-up cat isn't even enough motivation.)

A parade (and babies not smiling at the camera)

Thursday night we headed over to the big city of Marion to hang out with the Girards. There was a homecoming parade and the babies begged us to go. We finally gave in and strolled over. It was a fun time (I just couldn't manage to capture any smiles. I think there was too much to see to worry about looking at the camera!)

Can't you just feel the anticipation?

Alena with some of her loot. On the way back to the house she ate a dum dum as well as most of the stick.

Maren preferred to just admire her candy

Alena gave Maren her excersaucer back now that she is almost one and no longer needs baby stuff. Maren was not deterred by her size--nor the fact that it was folded up--and had to get in it for old times sake.

Frog friend

Alena loves playing with her frog. He is a puppet who croaks out fun songs when his mouth opens and closes. Alena likes to dance to her music. If it comes from one of her toys, she will bob her head--if it doesn't come from her toys, she will not dance.

Helping in the kitchen

Alena loves to hang out in the kitchen. As soon as she hears the dishwasher open, she crawls over as fast as she can to help unload.

I don't know if I would consider this helpful, but here is Alena playing with kitchen towels. Lately she attempts escape as soon as her diaper is off. This particular night, she crawled off and promptly peed on the carpet. I said "Alena!" and she smiled and took off into the kitchen (no, she wasn't getting the towel to clean up the mess.)

Here she is opening one of her favorite drawers. They are baby-sized, just for her!

Feeling better

Alena is finally feeling better after her sickness. She is making up for lost time and sleeping more than ever. She also had to get out after being around the house so much.

Yesterday we went to Target and they were handing out samples of Cream of Wheat. Alena loved it and ate Mom and Dad's samples, so we had to get a box (SpongeBob SquarePants highly sweetened, of course.) Later we went for a walk past the high school because the marching band was practicing. Mornings that I have off, we like to go listen to them. But this was extra special because the flag girls were twirling flags, Dad came along, and Alena got to ride in the wagon.

We had the first fire of the season last night. Dad started it while Mom made supper. Alena was very mad at first becasue she was not allowed to touch the fire. After ten minutes she gave up and tried to beg food off of our plates instead.

Riding in the wagon with her leaves

Standing is the best way to ride in a wagon

More pictures from Minnesota

Smell my pajamas

We got back home today from my cousin Steve's wedding in Rochester, MN. We had a fun time, but unfortunately Alena came down with a fever and didn't sleep at all last night (nor did Mom or Dad). So I will post more pictures of the festivities later after everyone is rested. Here are a couple of pictures of the cousins.

Alena loves to smell her pajamas. If they are on the floor, she will crawl over to them and hold them to her nose. She also likes other people to smell them. Here she is giving Finn a whiff.

Visiting Finn in baby prison

Looking out the window with cousin Lily

Unpacking

I had packed Alena's bag for the next day, and then I put it in the kitchen so she wouldn't mess with it. Then I went outside, and when I came back in, this is what I saw. (She had removed half of the bag's contents before this video.) This is a long video (almost 2 minutes) but the surprise is at the end. Cameras with video function--perfect for sneak attacks!

Fluffing diapers

Alena likes to get her diapers out and shake them. She believes by doing this she is increasing the absorbency and comfort.

I've been spotted!

Crawl over the obstacles...

...get the camera!

Cell phone trouble!

As I mentioned before, Alena loves cell phones. Namely sucking on them. She somehow shorted out my phone so it thought headphones were plugged in so the only way I could talk on it was over speaker phone. While I was reading the manual to figure out if there was a solution to this problem, she ate pieces off of the phone book. And she figured out to flush the toilet. The little trouble-maker was sent off to go out to eat with Grandma and Grandpa so I could stay home for a much needed relaxing evening. Too bad it is such a crappy tv night and I just finished my book. At least my cell phone is working again.

Can't you see the mischief in her eye?