Salome

Our cat no longer hides from us. She is good with the girls--very patient with all their ways of showing excitement and love. I appreciate the fact that Salome doesn't jump on any of the kitchen counter tops or the table. She only jumps up on the soft furniture.

Playhouse

The girls were in the playhouse in the backyard so I opened the window to take a picture. Mena yelled, "No, mommy!"  Maggie adores her big sister!

Daddy Time

Cuddling with Daddy and watching ESPN.

Gone to live with Jesus

Here Mena is telling Aemilia good-bye. I'm not sure that Aemilia ever was a healthy guinea pig. She just wasn't as vocal as my other guinea pigs and she never ate fresh fruits and veggies like my other guinea pigs. Then her eating and drinking dropped way down. I took her to the vet and he said she had pneumonia. I hand fed her apple juice with the medicine and attempted to hand feed her canned pumpkin. I couldn't get her to take much of either. The night I couldn't get her to drink more than 2 ml of apple juice I knew we had to make a decision. I talked to the vet and then talked to Gene. I just didn't want Aemilia to die a slow death that we had to watch here at home.

I told Mena I was taking Aemilia to the vet and he was going to send her to live with Jesus since she was so sick. Jesus would take care of her. Mena responded, "With Grandma Frye with Jesus?" I said, "My Grandma Frye, your Great-grandma Frye, is in heaven with Jesus." "She take care of Aemilia?" I may have lied to Mena, but I said, "Yes, Great-grandma Frye will help Jesus take care of Aemilia since she is sick." "Where is Jesus?" "In heaven" "Where is heaven?" "A long ways away." "oh." So hopefully Grandma Frye isn't cringing too much in heaven over us sending her a guinea pig! When I got my first guinea pig she told me I couldn't bring "that rodent" into her house :)

Maggie's 13 months

We noticed on December 3rd that Maggie's 8th tooth had broken through the gums. Maggie is now walking all over the house and even carries toys around with her. Maggie has learned to make the kissing sound. She'll give you a kiss if you ask and she'll make the sound when she wants you to give her a kiss. I really like how when I pick her up at daycare and give her a hug, she'll start making the kissing sound now!

Santa

We saw Santa this year at the mall where you can only have a picture if you buy their expensive pictures. Both of the girls cried when we tried to put them on Santa's lap. As soon as we were away from Santa then Mena excitedly told us how she got to see Santa and he gave her this candy cane. It was cute how fast she forgot her tears. Mena is showing me her candy cane in these pictures and Maggie is watching her eat it. Maggie was ready for a nap when we got home.

Roseola

Maggie had Roseola and missed a whole week of daycare. At first she was throwing up. Then the vomiting stopped and she just wanted to be held or go to sleep. Gene took her to the doctor and the doctor was baffled. He guessed it was a viruus and we just needed to let it run it's course. Then a high fever hit. Then the rash broke out all over her torso. Gene took her back to the doctor who said that's roseola and once the rash breaks out to tell them what it is, she's no longer contagious. I took this picture one of the days I was home with her. She had taken a 4 hour nap and I was getting her baby book finished. I needed a picture of her in her pj's. She was crying to be held but I thought I'd try to get a picture. As soon as she saw the camera she pulled out her smile. When I set the camera down she cried to be held and we rocked for awhile. Mena and I both got sick later in the week, but not as bad or as long as Maggie. Friday of that week all 4 of us were home since Gene had to take care of the girls while I was in bed sick. By Sunday we were all doing fine and we were back to work/school/daycare that Monday. What a week!

Mena's Christmas Program

Grandma and Grandpa Frye came for Mena's Christmas Program at our church.  Here Mena is up in front of the church with her Cherub Choir.  Mena stands nicely and looks all over the church while her friends are singing.  The week after this her choir had a Christmas party and then are taking a 3 week holiday break.  The first Wednesday of this break Mena was very disappointed when I told her she wasn't going to choir that night.  She cried all the way home from daycare and cried again when I left for my choir practice.  She really likes choir and I now hear her singing the songs at home and in the car.

Christmas Decorations

I set up the tree, put on the lights and garland, and then asked Mena if she wanted to help decorate it. She was very excited. She tended to put two or three decorations on the same branch so I later went to spread them out when I added a few more ornaments. We put a small princess tree in Mena's room that has lights and plays music. The first couple of weeks Mena played those songs all day long every day so that I was beginning to ponder removing the batteries when she wasn't looking and telling her it broke. There is no volume control and it's LOUD so we can hear it throughout the upstairs of the house. We aren't hearing it as much now that she's had it for three weeks. I was worried about what Maggie would do when she saw the tree. She inspected a few ornaments the first weekend it was up and since has pretty much ignored it. That was almost too easy!

Grandma's Helper

Mena helped Grandma decorate for Christmas when she spent the night. This is what Grandma said about decorating together: "When I set up the nativity, I handed Mena the pieces, and she put them up. The animals are in front, Joseph is facing away from Mary & baby Jesus, and the Wise Men are not together. I told her that the sheep didn't usually stand up so if they laid down that was okay. When she put baby Jesus in, she said, "He lays down right?" She loved putting the ice cycles on better than the purple glass balls. She also liked putting 2-3 ice cycles together!! It was fun having a kid to help me decorate again!"

While Mena was at Grandma's, I thought Maggie would be thrilled to have Mommy and Daddy to herself. I was surprised that instead of trying to get our attention, Maggie was totally focused on playing with her toys. I think she was thrilled that no one was around to take her toys away! Maggie was particularly focused on the picnic basket that she got for her birthday.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We celebrated Thanksgiving at Grandma and Grandpa Frye's. The first picture is of Jake and Maggie taking turns with the toy. Luckily, Maggie is pretty laid back about toys being taken from her; Jake decided when it was his or her turn and she just let him take it and waited for him to give it back. The cousins get along well! Grandma Frye took the picture of Gene, Jen, and Mena. I took the picture of Maggie and I by holding the camera out in front of us. Mena is quite the Grandma's girl. She was cozy on Grandma's lap. Mena got to spend the night with Grandma. When we were getting ready to leave Mena said something about "my grandma." I asked if she would share Grandma with me and she said "yes." I then asked if she would share Grandma with Grandpa and she said, "no." Grandpa laughed along with the rest of us.

Happy 1st Birthday! Cake

Maggie gave us strange looks while we were singing "Happy Birthday" to her. She wasn't sure she wanted to taste the cake or frosting. Then she licked her lips and decided this was good stuff. She dug right in after that!  Tyler was disturbed when just a little frosting got on his finger--so different from Maggie!

Happy 1st Birthday! Presents

 

 

Maggie's stats from her 1 year check up:  30 inches tall (76%), 23 pounds 2 ounces (90%), Head 18.75 inches (95-98%).  Maggie now has 7 teeth (4 on top and 3 on bottom).  She walks while holding only one of our hands and within a week of her birthday, she took 2 steps on her own and began standing up on her own in the middle of the floor where there was nothing to hold onto.  Maggie has quite a few "words" that she is consistently saying that I understand (others don't always understand them):  uh oh, ow, hi, no, more, num (yum), ya, go, woah.  I haven't used sign language consistently with her since Maggie is using so many words.  Maggie is wearing size 18 month clothing.


Maggie wasn't sure what to think of our party or opening gifts. Mena was very excited for Maggie's party.  Maggie was very excited to find the toys inside her presents that Mena helped her to open. Maggie's enjoying her new puppy, picnic basket, swimming penguins, and gas station with car wash. We had my family over to our house for supper and cake with ice cream. The new table Gene and I found on craig's list worked wonderfully! We added in the two leaves and were able to fit 10 people around the table. The big kids sat at the picnic table.