Along with teaching Amaya to obey, we're trying to teach her to be patient and wait. This morning, Amaya was actually looking forward to go to the nursery while I was at Bible Study because she got to bring her new kitty that we bought for her at IKEA. So for the hour while we were getting ready and eating breakfast, Amaya was repeating NON-STOP, "Kitty. Ma-na (Amaya). Go play." (By the way, she's been doing awesome in the nursery! The daughter of one of my co-leaders for the study volunteers in Amaya's class and they developed a great friendship!")
After lunch, we worked on getting some laundry done and started packing to go see Baby Hope! I was TRYING to explain that we would see Hope on Saturday, but she doesn't quite understand the concept of time. So... I've been hearing, "Hope. Now." Over and over and over and over....
In an attempt to distract her, I mentioned that we had swim class tonight. Will I ever learn? Now it's, "Ma-na. Pool? Swim? Pool? Ma-na?"
It's going to be a loooong afternoon of waiting....
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
New Neighbors?!?
One of the things that we LOVE about our house is our neighbors. We've been very fortunate to be blessed with great neighbors. Several months ago, our dear neighbors Herb and Esther moved and shortly thereafter Esther passed away. The house has been on the market until yesterday when the sold sign got hung up. We've only seen a few people look at the house and they've been young families. We're anxious and a little excited about who moves across the street. Will they have kids? A little girl Amaya's age? Teenagers? Will they have noisy dogs? Will they have more cars than garage stalls? Will they keep strange hours? Maybe we'll be friends? Time will only tell....
Friday, October 16, 2009
Happy Birthday Mom!
Today we're celebrating my mom's birthday! We were planning on having everyone over to our house for dinner, but unfortunately my brother's family has come down with the stomach flu. :-(
We'll still plan on having Mom and Dad over though. Amaya is SO EXCITED for Grandma and Papa to come over and play!
Happy Birthday Mom! We hope you have a great day and we're glad we can celebrate your special day with you! You are the greatest and we love you so much!
We'll still plan on having Mom and Dad over though. Amaya is SO EXCITED for Grandma and Papa to come over and play!
Happy Birthday Mom! We hope you have a great day and we're glad we can celebrate your special day with you! You are the greatest and we love you so much!
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Fingerpainting
With the past couple weeks of cold and rain, I've needed to dig out some fun projects for Amaya to keep her busy since we've been unable to go outside much. I bought fingerpaints several months ago, but have been too afraid to try them with her because I imagined paint EVERYWHERE. (I didn't need to worry too much!) My little neat freak was nervous at first about getting her hands "dirty."
She soon found out it wasn't too bad and actually a lot of fun!
Our finished projects... and of course, I couldn't resist doing a couple of pictures myself.
She soon found out it wasn't too bad and actually a lot of fun!
Our finished projects... and of course, I couldn't resist doing a couple of pictures myself.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Potty Training Elmo
Yesterday morning, I took Amaya to the bathroom right away after she woke up and she said, "Privy (privacy), Mama." I left the bathroom to go and make our bed and when I peeked in on her, Elmo was on the potty and she was reading her favorite book - "Elmo at the Train Station" to him. She then gave him a sticker and said, "Good bob!"(Good job). "All done, Mama!" I went into the bathroom and picked up Elmo and his bottom was SOAKED! Amaya had successfully gone and then promptly put Elmo on the potty. Amaya looked at me with this great big smile and said, "Elmo, BATH!" Sure enough, Elmo desperately needed a bath in the washing machine. I guess Amaya figured as long as we're training her, she might as well train Elmo.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
MN Zoo with Grandma and Great Aunt Janet
One of my very favorite places to go is the ZOO and this time I got to take two of my favorite people - my Grandma Horning and my Great Aunt Janet all the way from Arkansas! This was the first time my Great Aunt Janet has been to the Minnesota Zoo, so I showed her all of my favorite things!
All of the animals were pretty lively and putting on a great show for all of us. Here is a picture of the wolverines wrestling in the water.
Here's a picture of all us - except Mommy...
We've gone to the zoo several times already this summer and the tigers have always been hiding. But, they decided to show up to see Great Aunt Janet! The tigers are Daddy's favorite and I liked them too!
My favorite animals this time were the bears! I saw a lot of bears in South Dakota, but these bears were HUGE! One of the bears decided to put on a show for us and he slipped into the water and was right at the glass swimming in the water! Mommy wished she had our video camera, but we only got this one picture.
We spent most of the afternoon at the zoo and even though I was tired, I didn't want to miss out on any of the fun. I ended up fall asleep as soon as we left the zoo. Daddy must have worn out Mommy, Aunt Janet, and Grandma too, because they fell asleep too.
Just a couple days ago, I showed Mommy one of my bear figurines and said, "Zoo? Janet? Plane." I miss you Great Aunt Janet! Come visit soon, otherwise, I'm going to have to convince Mommy and Daddy to come visit you!
-Amaya
All of the animals were pretty lively and putting on a great show for all of us. Here is a picture of the wolverines wrestling in the water.
Here's a picture of all us - except Mommy...
We've gone to the zoo several times already this summer and the tigers have always been hiding. But, they decided to show up to see Great Aunt Janet! The tigers are Daddy's favorite and I liked them too!
My favorite animals this time were the bears! I saw a lot of bears in South Dakota, but these bears were HUGE! One of the bears decided to put on a show for us and he slipped into the water and was right at the glass swimming in the water! Mommy wished she had our video camera, but we only got this one picture.
We spent most of the afternoon at the zoo and even though I was tired, I didn't want to miss out on any of the fun. I ended up fall asleep as soon as we left the zoo. Daddy must have worn out Mommy, Aunt Janet, and Grandma too, because they fell asleep too.Just a couple days ago, I showed Mommy one of my bear figurines and said, "Zoo? Janet? Plane." I miss you Great Aunt Janet! Come visit soon, otherwise, I'm going to have to convince Mommy and Daddy to come visit you!
-Amaya
Monday, October 12, 2009
Boating on Cannon Lake
It's October 12 - Happy Columbus Day - and it's snowing.... Hmm... not quite the weather I was wanting for October. While we're stuck inside and Amaya is happily playing in her "fort", I thought I'd enjoy looking at our pictures we finally got downloaded on the computer and post some of them. The next week or so, I'll try to get caught up on the rest of our summer pictures, since it looks like WINTER is already at our doorstep.
Grandpa and Grandma Horning invited us to go boating on Cannon Lake in Fairbault, MN. They hadn't boated there before, but thought the lake was beautiful - and beautiful it was!
What we didn't realize was how SHALLOW the lake was. Getting the boat in the water wasn't a challenge for Grandpa and Steve (they've got a pretty good system in place), but another group of people got their pickup truck stuck while getting the boat in the water! Grandpa to the rescue! He was able to use his truck to pull theirs out! Who would have thought it would be that difficult? While in the water, I think the deepest we got was only 10 feet! Most of the time we were between 4-6 feet of water. The water was also a yucky green color despite the gorgeous blue you see above. The weather was AWESOME and as usual, had a great time - especially when Grandpa drove really FAST!
Afterwards, we went to Perkins (surprise, surprise) for dinner. Amaya was most definitely Grandpa's girl and wanted him to color over and over with her. We wished we could have gotten on the boat more this summer, but there's always next summer with plenty more lakes to explore!
Grandpa and Grandma Horning invited us to go boating on Cannon Lake in Fairbault, MN. They hadn't boated there before, but thought the lake was beautiful - and beautiful it was!
What we didn't realize was how SHALLOW the lake was. Getting the boat in the water wasn't a challenge for Grandpa and Steve (they've got a pretty good system in place), but another group of people got their pickup truck stuck while getting the boat in the water! Grandpa to the rescue! He was able to use his truck to pull theirs out! Who would have thought it would be that difficult? While in the water, I think the deepest we got was only 10 feet! Most of the time we were between 4-6 feet of water. The water was also a yucky green color despite the gorgeous blue you see above. The weather was AWESOME and as usual, had a great time - especially when Grandpa drove really FAST!
Somehow, Steve ended up getting the camera and decided to take a picture of Grandma's cute hat! Now, where can we get Amaya one of those to match?
This is one of my favorite pictures of Grandma and Amaya. Pure happiness despite having to wear a bulky life-jacket.
Here's a picture of Steve...
Afterwards, we went to Perkins (surprise, surprise) for dinner. Amaya was most definitely Grandpa's girl and wanted him to color over and over with her. We wished we could have gotten on the boat more this summer, but there's always next summer with plenty more lakes to explore!
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Swim Class
Tonight was the most wonderful night and the only thing that would have made it better was if Daddy were here! After Mommy abandoned me in the church nursery for her Bible Study and then dropped me off later at Grandma and Grandpa Gustafson's so she could go to a meeting at work, and then after I took a nap, I FINALLY had Mommy all to myself!
Mommy took me to my very first swimming class! I was so excited but a little nervous too... I thought Mommy was going to drop me off again, but Mommy had her swimsuit on, so I thought maybe she might stay with me. The whole class was full of other mommies and daddies and the 14 other kids - some were even littler than I was! I wanted to jump in right away and got a little squirmy while the teacher was giving out instructions. I wasn't the only one getting squirmy. Two of my new friends from my Gym Class were there too, so I didn't feel so nervous anymore. We sang fun songs, played Ring a Round a Rosie, and played with some balls! I even learned how to float on back with Mommy's help. Some of the other kids didn't like that part, but I really liked it! Mommy didn't want to get her hair wet, but the teacher told us to splash really hard and since I'm learning how to obey, I splashed a lot and I got Mommy's hair REALLY, REALLY wet (and another mommy)! That was pretty funny! I can't wait to go back next week!
When we got home from swim class, Mommy gave me a bath to get all the yucky chlorine off my skin. I tried practicing some of my new skills, but I got too much water on the floor so Mommy cut my bath short. Then we made some popcorn and watched a special Elmo video all about pets! I really want a dog or a cat, but Mommy's allergic and I'd rather have Mommy than have a dog or cat. After the video, Mommy read me LOTS of books. I usually only get to read 3-4, but I got to pick out 10 books to read! WOW! Then Mommy sang all my favorite songs - I really like "This Little Light of Mine" because I pretend to blow out a candle. "Don't let Satan (blow) it out! I love that part! I missed Daddy a lot tonight, because after Mommy gets done singing, I yell "Daddy!" really, really loud and he does crazy dances into my room and tucks me in. Mommy tried to do the same thing that Daddy does, but she's just not as funny as Daddy. I guess that's why God gave me both a Mommy and a Daddy. Now if only Daddy would have been here it would have been perfect. Hurry home Daddy, I miss you!
Amaya
Mommy took me to my very first swimming class! I was so excited but a little nervous too... I thought Mommy was going to drop me off again, but Mommy had her swimsuit on, so I thought maybe she might stay with me. The whole class was full of other mommies and daddies and the 14 other kids - some were even littler than I was! I wanted to jump in right away and got a little squirmy while the teacher was giving out instructions. I wasn't the only one getting squirmy. Two of my new friends from my Gym Class were there too, so I didn't feel so nervous anymore. We sang fun songs, played Ring a Round a Rosie, and played with some balls! I even learned how to float on back with Mommy's help. Some of the other kids didn't like that part, but I really liked it! Mommy didn't want to get her hair wet, but the teacher told us to splash really hard and since I'm learning how to obey, I splashed a lot and I got Mommy's hair REALLY, REALLY wet (and another mommy)! That was pretty funny! I can't wait to go back next week!
When we got home from swim class, Mommy gave me a bath to get all the yucky chlorine off my skin. I tried practicing some of my new skills, but I got too much water on the floor so Mommy cut my bath short. Then we made some popcorn and watched a special Elmo video all about pets! I really want a dog or a cat, but Mommy's allergic and I'd rather have Mommy than have a dog or cat. After the video, Mommy read me LOTS of books. I usually only get to read 3-4, but I got to pick out 10 books to read! WOW! Then Mommy sang all my favorite songs - I really like "This Little Light of Mine" because I pretend to blow out a candle. "Don't let Satan (blow) it out! I love that part! I missed Daddy a lot tonight, because after Mommy gets done singing, I yell "Daddy!" really, really loud and he does crazy dances into my room and tucks me in. Mommy tried to do the same thing that Daddy does, but she's just not as funny as Daddy. I guess that's why God gave me both a Mommy and a Daddy. Now if only Daddy would have been here it would have been perfect. Hurry home Daddy, I miss you!
Amaya
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