Day 2 and Slaying the Dragon

Much to our surprise and amazement Alli slept the whole night in her new bed. At one point as we were getting ready for bed, we realized she had her legs hanging off the bed. This woke her up and it took her a good minute to adjust her body to where she wasn't falling off and then she went back to sleep. I was fully expecting her to cry out and need us to go in to her bedroom. She is so used to not being able to get out of bed due to being in a crib for 2 years and never climbing out, that she doesn't get out of bed even after waking up in the morning! Nap time went well too and she didn't cry very long at all before settling in and going to sleep. So far tonight she is doing even better and had quit crying before I'd made it half way down the stairs! We're so incredibly proud of her!

Tonight we went to visit daddy at work. One of his co-workers had been working on a mock wall with a window hole in it. Fire week is coming up and they do a huge open house for the community to bring awareness to fire prevention. Anyway, this mock wall has fake flames made out of wood and set up on hinges so that the kids can spray the fire and be just like the fire fighters. It is a really cute set up and he had just finished it while we were there. Being like big kids, they had to test it out. Alli go her chance to slay the dragon (a term sometimes used in fire fighting) too.

Night 1

We ran out of time yesterday to move Alli's room around and did the switch this afternoon. Alli loves her bed which is helpful but this summer has been disastrous for her sleep schedule. We haven't had a consistent bed time for at least 2 months. So the last few weeks putting Alli to bed in the crib have involved a lot of crying and us having to walk out of the room to let her soothe herself. I knew that the new bed would add an extra level of emotion for her.

We continued out regular routine but as soon as we got close to getting her in bed where we sing songs she lost it and cried. We sang anyway and told her we loved her. We told her to go lay in her bed and we left the room. It was so hard to leave her unhappy but I can't rock her to sleep. Alli has never been a child who liked rocking. We watched her on the monitor and although she isn't happy, she went straight to her bed and hasn't moved. I'm sure it won't always be this way but we hope she will eventually find peace and comfort with the new situation and enjoy bedtime. I don't think it's easy for any toddler.

So here are some pictures of her new room layout.

Here is the other room/nursery. I'm so excited to be able to fit the rocker/recliner in with the baby room!! Once we know the gender, then we can paint and finish decorating. I still need to move all of Alli's things out of the changer table but I'm not immediately worried about that.

Transition Time

As many of you already know, I've been debating for a long time which bed would be the best for our space and for Alli to transition to. After going through numerous ideas (transitioning Alli's crib to a day bed/bed, buying a twin bed or day bed/trundle) we finally settled on keeping Alli in her room but reusing the crib for the new baby. So we are going to move the crib and the changer table/dresser to the other room. Alli will keep her tall dresser and we will get her a new bed. We initially decided against a toddler bed because it uses the crib mattress and Alli would grow out of it quickly, but after looking at costs of beds and potentially not finding one to match her cherry dresser, we found a toddler bed at Walmart that was pretty and cherry. It was SUPER affordable and once we got it home, we realized the cherry matched her dresser perfectly! We are hoping this bed will work for Alli until the next baby is ready to use it and then we will upgrade Alli to a bigger bed.

Last night Alli helped her daddy build her bed. She hasn't understood what getting a new bed really meant but I think as the process went a long in building it, she realized what was happening.
Alli built with her blocks while daddy built the bed.

Headboard/footboard

Alli wanted to help put the screws in

The finished look

As soon as the mattress was on the bed, Alli grabbed her pacifier and blankets and hopped onto the bed.

We didn't let her sleep on it last night because it isn't in her room yet. We still have to move the crib out but it was so late by the time we finished the bed that we needed to get Alli in bed. We will try the new bed out on Saturday when Ben is off to help me move the crib out and get her room situated. I'm excited that Alli loves the bed. We hope this will help the transition be smoother.

Sisters in town

Ben's sisters and brother in law Don were in town this week and we were able to go visit twice in Winchester while they were in. The weather was beautiful and we spent a lot of time outside. The kids all loved the bubbles. Alli was practically running the entire time we were there in Winchester. I love the wide open space of the farm. Every time we visit we realize how much we miss the peace and quiet serenity of the farm and country life.
Showing a little love for big ole Moroni!
My favorite new picture. This just captures her fun spirit and beauty.
Like I said, this girl practically ran the entire time. Grammy and Papa took all three little ones on a mile walk right before we came home Sunday night. They said Alli ran 3/4 of the way. She didn't seem tired at all once she made it back to us at the house. I want an OUNCE of that energy!
Special time with daddy...
On a side note having nothing to do with this post...I just bought an apple corer/slicer...It's my new favorite gadget! Alli doesn't like apple peels and therefore didn't want to eat apples. So I got this bad boy for a decent price and it makes life oh so simple. Now I don't spend 10 minutes peeling an apple and wasting parts....plus Alli loves it! This things makes it so quick and easy that I want to try making an apple pie or cobbler soon. I used it the other night for fried apples and it seriously saved me 30 minutes. That is so worth the $18!

Driving miss Diva

Today we went for a quick trip into town and told Alli we would put the windows down since it was a beautiful day out. Ben noticed as we were pulling out that the sun was in her face. I recalled that her sunglasses were still in the truck, so I reached behind and gave them to her. Now normally her sunglasses only last a moment on her face and then she is pulling them up into her hair like I do once I walk inside and don't need them on my face any more. I've never seen her wear the glasses for any length of time. She realized today the benefit of the glasses keeping the sun out of her face. She thought it was funny that all three of us had sunglasses on and she kept them on all the way to Walmart....she then wore them into walmart for 5-10 minutes. haha. Here are some funny Diva-ish pictures.

Teaching Bear

Tonight we were getting Alli ready for bed and going through our normal routine. We brush teeth, have some brief play time, read scriptures and then say prayers. When we told Alli it was time for prayers, she ran to get her bear. She then knelt on the floor with me and took bears arms and folded them. It was so cute. We couldn't get a picture quick enough before one of the dogs barked downstairs and scared her into Ben's lap. So we asked her again to show bear how to pray and snapped a quick photo. Too cute.

This is an older photo that I forgot about. We put Alli's hair up in pig tails to keep her cool in all this ridiculous heat!

Random

I walked into the living room the other night to find this....I thought it was funny that she was walking around in my shoes and had actually placed them on the right feet.

Tonight I made Veal steak, Macaroni and one of the steamfresh lightly seasoned Asian Medley veggies bag. I knew Alli would eat the macaroni and possibly the veal steak. I get Alli's plate ready without the veggies and then she started shouting and pointing at the bag of veggies. So I pull out a carrot and give it to her. Now she hasn't eaten carrots since I fed her from baby food jars. I've tried steamed carrots and raw carrots. She's had no interest in any of it. Tonight she devoured them. She also ate some sugar snap peas and a few bites of broccoli. Alli has NEVER touched either of the last two foods. We steam broccoli all the time and she NEVER wants it. Tonight was a miracle! I'm so glad to see her starting to branch out in her interests. We've really made some headway lately by letting her see us eating veggies without offering them to her...and then she wants them because we are eating them and she doesn't have any on her plate. Last week the same thing happened when we grilled some veggies. Ben was eating some of the veggies and Alli showed interest. So he offered them to her and she ate nothing but grilled zucchini and grilled mushrooms for about 5 minutes. I'm hoping this phase lasts. Here are some pictures of her being goofy at dinner.
Alli eating veggies and veal steak and totally ignoring the Mac n' cheese...Total Win!