7/13/12

Alayna ate all of her prunes and about half of her oatmeal at breakfast.  At lunch she ate everything -- hashbrown and burger casserole, biscuit and mandarin oranges. 

Alayna loved how well her skirt flared out when she was spinning around in a circle.  She dis it over and over and it was so cute because she would look down and just chuckle watching it. 

Alayna was going from family picture poster to poster today and examining each one.  She was identifying many of the names of mommies, daddies and siblings, as well as the actual Little Treasures kiddos. 

Alayna really likes to try to do things that are a little risky on a pretty regular basis.  For example today she had one of the big blocks balanced on its end and then was trying to stand on it and balance while holding onto the couch.  It tipped or slipped out from underneath her several times before she managed it, but she kept trying. 

Alayna had a couple incidents today when she was determined to take a toy or push in between a couple kiddos and would not back down until either we intervened or she got hurt.  On of the times specifically she was trying to push in between Morgan and Kenzie (where there was no room) and Kenzie attacked the right side of her face before we could get there.  We put a cold cloth on it and gave her lots of snuggles and it doesn't look like it will leave a mark, but...  : ( 

Alayna had moments of cuddling with both Gary and I, but I don't think it was any more than on a typical day.  It just seemed like it because I was well aware of it being her last day.  Speaking of that, I just want you to know how much I have loved being about to take care of our sweet little red-headed Alayna.  Thank you so much for the privilege and pleasure.  She has grown and developed so much and so well during this time and I love to think we have been a part of those changes.  I love the bond we have with her (she really does love both Gary and I pretty equally) and how fun loving and just plain old loving she is!  I am sure she has given more spontaneous hugs than anyone else we have ever had.  The enjoyment she gets from making others laugh and be happy is also a treat and there have been many times where we have stopped whatever else we were doing to just observe and enjoy those moments along with her and the other party.  Her love of and gentleness with the babies is another thing that has been just precious.  She was never overbearing, but always friendly and interested in them.  Please keep in touch, post lots of pictures and Alayna comments on Facebook and know that all of you will be missed and in our thoughts and prayers.  Hopefully you will be back in the not-so-distant future and be can reconnect in person then.  : )   I haven't had the time to copy Alayna's pictures yet, so I will let you know when they are ready (before the end of the month) and we can find a way to connect and get them to you.  Love you guys!   

7/1212

Alayna was "reading books to my baby" for a long time and was even asking the doll questions and pointing things out to her, which was very cute. 

Alayna carried a bunch of the big blocks over to the box and put them in helter skelter then climbed in the box with them and played for about 20 minutes.  She didn't build anything with them or even put any of them together, just played in there along side of them.  She got a little frustrated a couple times when she was trying to move around and the blocks were inhibiting it.

Alayna told me she had to poop today and went.  She also has been telling either Gary or I that she has to pee at least half of the time now so that is awesome.

Alayna made a "tree" with the big blocks today and then brought it over to show me saying, "Look at the tree I bought.  It's for my birthday!"   I could see no resemblance to a tree, but she was very excited for her 'birthday tree'. 

Joslyn had done something that Alayna didn't like during outside time and Alayna came up and told me, "Jozzy was being a bad choice!"  Hmmm...  Usually we word it a little differently, but she did get the point across!  : ) 

7\11\12

Alayna ate seconds on whole wheat toast and all of her mixed berries at breakfast. At luunch she ate all of her bean soup, kiwi, ham and thirds on saltines. Alayna ahd Thomas kind of took turns bugging each other thisw morning, with Thomas being substantially more active in his pursuit of making Alayna angry. To start out with, he was determined to thwart her when she was trying to hook all of the big blocks together to make a sidewalk. After a couple reminders and then distraction and redirection attempts, I finally must moved him to the other side of the room. Within a minute, Alayna had followed him over to that side and was harassing him by trying to take the phone he was playing with away. So went the morning -- first one then the other! Alayna gathered up quite a pile of books today and took them to the big yellow chair. There were probably about 8 of them. When she sat down and started sing-reading them, I realized that every book she had selected was a book with musical tune for it. I just can't believe that was a coincidence. Alayna has been listening pretty well this week -- much better than a couple days last week. She has also been doing great pottying on the toilet. Alayna loved chasing bubbles when we first went outside (after sun screening, that is). She just races around like crazy. She catches or pops many of them, but even if she does touch even one of her mad dash through, she is laughing and her eyes are sparkling like she had popped the whole batch. I love her enthusiasm.

7/10/12

Alayna ate all of her dried apricots and most of her whole wheat bagel at breakfast.  At lunch she ate a couple bites of her tilapia and all of her applesauce and her peas and pasta with cheese on it. 

Alayna cracked me up today when she announced she was "going swimming with mommy and daddy and Gabe and Gramma Laurie and Grampa Forrest and Debbie and Holly and ..."  She just kept going and going until I think she had included about the whole family.  By the end I think she forgot what it was they were all going to do.  : ) 

Alayna was really into building with both the duplo blocks and the big blocks.  She was mostly just sticking the duplos today into tall towers, but making the big blocks into "motorcycles" and a "truck like great-grandpa's". 

Alayna was playing with the little plastic gorilla in the animal set we have out right now.  She said, "great-grandpa has a gorilla in his house!"  We cracked up.  I am sure it is just a picture or stuffed animal or something, but I had a hard time getting the image of an actuall gorilla wandering around a great-grandpa's home.  : ) 

7/9/12

Alayna ate almost all of her bran flakes and craisins at breakfast.  At lunch she ate all of her tropical fruit, most of her cheese pizza and a tasting bite of her summer squash (subbed for cauliflower)

Alayna crashed as she was walking across the floor today.  When she got up she looked at me with a kind of sheepish look on her face and said, "Silly Layna!"  It was pretty cute! 

Alayna spent quite a bit of our inside time playing Mommy and taking very good care of her dolly.  She did it for at least 20 minutes.  She was cuddling it, feeding and wrapping it up.   

Alayna was super excited when we told her we were going to go outside and "do bubbles".  She loves chasing them and invariably pops lots of them.  She just buzzes around there like a little worker bee.  She also had one of the bubbles pop in her eye, which is never very pleasant.

7/5/12

Alayna ate all of her blueberries and cinnamon raisin English muffin at breakfast. At lunch she ate all of her potatoes, canned cherries and chicken on crackers and then had thirds on just plain saltine crackers. Alayna made Emily and Riley her goal today as far as making the kiddos laugh. Riley was laughing almost before Alayna started showing off, but she had to work a little harder for Emily. At the time she started trying, Emily was actually kind of pouting because something hadn't gone quite right. It didn't phase Alayna. She just worked harder until Emily was also cracking up! Way to go, Alayna! Alayna has been dry and clean all morning. She hasn't told me at all, but I just had her go potty e very hour and she ended up peeing three times and pooping once. Several of the kiddos were talking about different types of wild animals today so I decided to gt out my computer and show them the Sea World and San Diego Zoo pictures from our trip. Most of the kiddos sat and looked at them through the whole thing. Alayna asked very sweeetly, "Can I go play?" after just a minute or so. I guess she wasnt very thrilled with my photograghy skills! : ) OUtside Alayna was pushing the merry-go-round and riding bikes mostly. She didn't really care if there were or were not children on the merry-go-round, she pushed it just the same either way. For a while when she was riding her bike, she kept tipping over on purpose and laughing at herself. Silly girl!

7/1/2012

Alayna wasn't here all morning due to going with grandma, so I don't have a lot to blog about. At breakfast she ate all of her banana and about half of her cheerios. She spent time exploring the new toy exchange for a while then chose to spend most of her time cutting apart and putting back together the Velcro fruits and vegetables. She liked trying to get them to fly off of the top of the kitchen set when she cut them apart and would crack up each time they did fly off. There was a doe walking down the street and the kiddos all enjoyed watching that, of course. Alayna stayed at the window for quite a while after it had left, watching to see if it came back. Alayna was also playing with and around Riley, trying to get her to laugh at what she was doing. Riley did laugh a couple times and made Alayna's day. She has been dry for me, except when she came back wet with Grandma.