Alena's dance

Alena is still playing with her Winnie the Pooh birthday card. It plays music when opened--good enough to dance to!

Strolling

When I was cleaning out the basement I saw our rollerblades (which haven't been used in a couple years.) We went to the Cedar Valley trail which is paved, flat, and straight--all of the things I need before I will strap on rollerblades! Dad tuned up the jogging stroller and got the brakes working. On the way to the trail it was raining, but nothing would deter us! It stopped right when we pulled into the parking lot and turned out to be a nice day, though a little cloudy.

Dad pushes Alena while she eats a cookie. She also brought her phone call just in case any important calls came in. Alena always comes prepared. Although she did forget her ducky hat. Dad was nice enough to share his red hat.

Mom passes Dad and Alena at the finish line, then turns around to gloat. Let's see you guys make fun of my pants now!

The end of the ride.

Alena and the kitties

Alena still really loves the kitties--and they are pretty tolerant of her. Ruby loves to jump in the bathtub after someone takes a shower so she can sit in the puddles. She also likes to help Alena take her bath.

They can't wait for the water to turn on.

Alena gives Jones a good ear scratching--and he allows it!

I love you, Jones!

Ending the nap strike

Alena has decided that taking naps means missing out on too much fun. She is therefor being difficult when it comes to naps.

Jones stops harassing Ruby long enough for a nice nap.

Alena finally falls asleep after a long day of refusing to nap. This was at 5pm. I took her out and put her in bed. She slept until 6:30 the next morning.

One more of the little flower

I couldn't resist a couple of more pictures of Alena in her flower costume. The following two were taken on halloween night. She was actually much happier wearing the costume the second time around (not that you can see that from these photos!)

Ruby

Silly Aunt Kristina--Alena isn't a kitty!

Jones and Alena looking at birds

Make yourself at home, Ruby!

Alena and the cats

We are now a two cat household. When I was picking up Jones last week, I found a kitten that seemed so sweet, I had to have her! She is a calico and her name is Ruby. When I brought her home, Alena was so excited. I think she thinks every time I come home now I am going to be bringing her a new kitty. Not so! This is the last one for awhile.

Ruby is very confident. As soon as she came out of the carrier she started playing and acting like she owned the place. Jones was immediatley smitten and kept making little meows and following her around the house. I told him to play a little hard to get, but Jones is a lover, not a player! After a while they were chasing each other up and down the stairs (with minimal hissing.) Later, Jones took a nap on my lap and Ruby took one on Ben's.

I will post pictures of Ruby soon. Here is a video of Alena trying to play with Jones. Sometimes it works out better than others. She has a tendency to smack him with the stick so he has to be a little cautious.

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.