Grateful Girl!

During prayers tonight, Bethany started listing off the things she is thankful for. We started off our prayer as usual & she then started rattling off everything she wanted to thank God for.

Here is her list, "Mommy, Daddy, Elmo, Zoe, Sarah, Annabelle, Brian, Max, Grandma, Grandpa, Achoo, Baby" A few of these got listed a couple times through out the prayers.

To clarify who some of these people are: Elmo & Zoe are from Sesame Street (of course); Sarah, Annabelle, Brian, Max are kids from the sitters; Grandma & Grandpa & Achoo are all the Grandparents. It was really cute when I started to pray with her, that she cut it and started her own list of things to be thankful for. Usually, she just listens to what I have to say & chimes in with an "Amen" at the end! Tonight was a little treat for me to hear what little Bethany had to say!

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Here are some moments over the past few days that I am thankful for: silliness & outdoor playtime!

Silliness:

For some reason Bethany just wanted to play UNDER the kitchen table Sunday night. That is where she ended up enjoying her cheese stick snack! What a silly girl!

Outdoor Playtime:

Bethany & I got to play outside today. What a gorgeous day! We got to have a good time playing on her bike, coloring and playing catch this evening. She loves being outside & since I am such a wimp when it comes to cold temperatures, we don't get out often in the winter!!! Plus, today was one of the first days in a while we didn't have after-school meetings or other obligations! What a great thing to be thankful for! I am hoping this nice weather keeps up...there is nothing worse than bitter cold days after we get teased with weather like we had today!!!

Something's Cooking!

Look how orderly her kitchen is! Everything has their spot!

I love my "Cookie" (aka...pancake). It is my favorite food item.

Time to sit down to eat! Gotta have my "syrup" (aka soda pop) to pour on it!.

Opps, Bethany "dropped" her califlower.

"I get it!" she proclaims as she retrives the lost item!

All Smiles!

Big Girl Bed Update

Ok. So there are no pictures...but you'll survive! Here is the update on Bethany's transition to the big girl bed since her first night there Monday.

Tuesday:
As Cory was taking out trash from the newly defined "baby's room" upstairs, Bethany follows him in and points to the crib and says, "Night-Night." He gently tells her that the crib is now Baby's bed and she will sleep with Elmo in the Big Girl bed. Then get ready for bed, she has no desire to go to her big girl bed. Bethany and I lay down together we read our 2 books, say our prayers, and sing songs along with glow worm. As we are laying there, her hold on me becomes tighter and tighter. She is snuggling me in a way that makes me puddy in her lil' hands. I tell her "one more song" with the glow worm. The song ends, I give her a kiss and tell her night-night. She screams the loudest, blood-curdelingest scream there is. I leave her feeling horrible. Cory rushes upstairs thinking she fell out of bed and was in immense pain. Good News: her crying lasts only 30 seconds or so. She quickly got over being left alone and plays another song on the glow worm herself & falls asleep!


Wednesday:
We go through the routine: 2 books, prayers, a few songs on the glow worm. We say good night to everything in the room & I get up from the bed. She only whimpers softly as I leave. (Still knowing that this breaks my heart to hear her even whimper!)


Thursday:
Thursday...routine again...2 books, prayers, a few songs. We say good night and that is that. She rolls over. Grabs her blankie and sucks her thumb. She is adjusting to this whole big girl thing rather smoothly.


I am very proud of her. Especially since earlier in the week, she didn't want to sit in the bed to put on her shoes because (of what I assume) is to be bad associations with the bed. Now she sat on it to look at books after bath time. I suppose it just takes a few days to adjust to a whole big bed and a whole new room. I am glad she'll be used to the big girl bed well before Baby2 comes along....as I am sure the presence of Baby2 will be a big enough adjustment in itself!!!! Although, Bethany does hear about Baby2 pretty often. Yesterday she lifted up my shirt to try to give Baby2 her blankie by pushing it into my crazy-looking belly button. She was soooo sweet, "Babeee, Blankiee???". How about that for a good big sister!?!?!

A President's Day of Change!

This President's Day brought Great Change to the Milles Household. First off, we changed Bethany's diaper like half-a-dozen times. So that is a pretty significant change...but that isn't a change that is worthy of post on the blog. So...here are the real changes that are pretty significant in our little lives.

Change 1: BIG GIRL BED!

While Bethany and I were out to lunch with Grandma today, Cory got busy rearranging Bethany's furniture from her baby room to her Big Girl Elmo Room. As soon as she saw her bed and all her furniture in her room, she laid down in her bed ready for her nap. Cory had a couple last minute things to fix up in her room, so we went to play for a bit. When he was all done, Bethany went straight down for her nap. We figured that was one thing...the real test will be tonight. However, we went through our evening routine: Homer on tv, upstairs, book, bed. This time she wanted to be cuddled a little bit more than she usually does, but right now she is upstairs in her big girl bed for the first night!!! Cory did report that she was still playing with her glow-worm...but hey...she is in her bed. What more can we ask for. I was so worried about this transition & it turns out to be no big deal. What a big girl! I am so proud of her!

Change 2: Bethany's First Haircut!

We went to the "Hairy Elephant" today to get Bethany's hair cut for the first time. Her bangs were driving me nuts. I am sure if she was able to articulate her frustration of having hair in her eyes 24-7...then I could say they were driving her nuts too! She was such a good girl during the hair cut. She got to sit in a little car & watch Elmo, while the nice lady went to town on her hair. The beautician was so good with Bethany...even with the applesauce in her hair! (Dinner always ends up in Bethany's hair somehow!!!)

Here is Bethany's first picture right after her hair cut.
Notice the cute butterflies in her hair!

She even got to play after the hair cut. That is pretty exciting in Bethany's opinion. She didn't want to leave...AT ALL!! She made that abundantly clear to all in hearing range! :o)

Change 3: Bloomin' Violet!

After having this flower for a couple of years, it is finally blooming again. It hasn't bloomed since the original flowers fell off, it has been a blob of green leaves that Bethany likes to pluck off. Finally, one brave lil' flower decided to join our family. I was so surprised to see it, I figured I'd share it with the world! :o)

Valentine Goodies!

A Valentine Armadillo? What's that?

The Valentine Armadillo stopped by our house this Saturday & dropped off some goodies for Bethany. Bethany got her first MagnaDoodle. She loves to "dolor" with it. She has gotten quite good as you can see from her scribbles...(err) priceless works of art!



She also got 3 homemade Elmo/Zoe Pillows! Now she won't steal Mommy's neck pillow. She got one gigantic rectangle & 2 smaller pillows.


Here is Bethany just getting up her Sunday Nap using her Elmo Pillow for the first time! When she got out of the crib, she wanted to bring the pillow with her....which is a funny sight being that the pillow is over half her size! :)

Hopefully, you also had a nice, loving visit from the Armadillo! We don't want to be the only family on his Valentine route!

Table for Two!!

Want a Seat?

We are in the tax preparation business for our family. We buy the program and plug in different folk's numbers & we get a nice little kick back in the end. (Although, we would do them for free!!!) However, with our profits this year, we bought Bethany & Baby2 a table to sit and color or read at. Bethany loves it already! :o) This table she can actually get up and down by herself. Hopefully she won't mind sharing the other chair with Baby2 once Baby2 arrives and actually cares about things like coloring at tables! :-)

Fishes, Monkeys & Peacocks, oh my!

We took advantage of the outrageously good weather on Saturday and took Bethany to the zoo. Grandma M. got to go along with us. It was a ton o' fun, as you can imagine!

First we went to the Children Zoo, to take advantage of it being free during the first hour of Zoo's opening. Bethany enjoyed the fishes!

She couldn't quite figure out the playground...but really who goes to the zoo for the playgrounds?

Next, Daddy wanted to visit the Monkey house. Bethany loved the Monkeys! Her little commentaries were pretty funny. She told us about them sitting, eating, sleeping & even remarked on their "poo."
On our way to find the entrance to the Bird House (which I always get confused at that portion of the zoo...) we found a male peacock strutting his stuff for the three hens around. The hens couldn't care less about his magnificent beauty. They were too busy finding some good grub around the area. The poor guy. I suggested to him that he lights some candles and plays some sweet music for the ladies. That should get them!!! At the end, Bethany got to ride her first carousel. She was a little tired and fussy at the point.
But once the ride got going, she was grinning ear-to-ear!

Finally, it was time to go home. We had a great day at the zoo! It is so much fun now that Bethany is learning her animals and really gets what she is seeing!

I need...

Can you figure out what she is saying...

Cory and I really have been working on our listening & critical thinking skills this past week or two. Bethany has started blurring all of these so-called-words together, expecting us to understand what the heck she is talking about. We have finally figured out what the little girl is trying to communicate to us. She used to say "noi" when she wanted something. Now it is, "I heheNee **insert object here****. " This all started with apples. "I hehehypal" We were wondering why she was thinking she was hyper. But after awhile, we realized she wanted apples. Now we are getting used to her blurred sentences. I did feel guilty for a while there not knowing what she was saying. We tell her to use her words instead of whining & when she was using her words...it wasn't making much of a difference as I didn't know what in blazes she was saying.

Good thing we are learning just as quickly as she is! :)