Amaya's Potty Chair

A month or so ago, we bought Amaya a potty chair. Now before anyone gets too excited, we're nowhere close to getting Amaya potty trained. It's just that every time anyone uses the bathroom, she tags along, so we thought this would give her something to do. She's been very interested in it and can now sit on it by herself without one of us putting her on it. Amaya can also say potty and poopy, so we'd like to think we're in the beginning stages. For now, we're content with her playing with it, putting her babies on it, and opening and closing the seat. But, what I wouldn't give to not have to change her diaper anymore!

Happy Anniversary Mommy and Daddy!

Today is my Mommy and Daddy's 4th wedding anniversary. I'm not exactly sure what this means, except that I get to play with my Grandma and Grandpa Horning tonight! I love it when they come over because it usually means that I get spoiled. Grandparents are great, aren't they?

Mommy is busy getting ready for our trip to Nebraska, so that's why I'm blogging today. I'm so excited to meet Hope and to play with Joshua, Jordan, and Hannah. My cousin Hannah, just had a birthday - on Easter - so she'll get to open up a present from us and Hope gets to open up a present too, but maybe I can help her. Mommy and I went shopping a couple weeks ago for Hope and got to pick out all sorts of my favorite things!

We've been spending a lot of time outside with the weather being so nice. The only problem is that I don't want to come back inside. Mommy is washing my coat for the second time this week. I like to play in the dirt and the grass, so I get a little dirty. I'm hoping that in between packing, doing laundry, washing dishes, and wrapping presents, Mommy and I can go outside today.

Mommy and Daddy got a sad e-mail this week. Our neighbor, Esther - the one who lived across the street and made the best chocolate chip cookies ever - died on Monday. Mommy and Daddy knew that she was very sick, but it still came as a shock.

Well, I should go help Mommy fold some laundry and help pack some of my toys and books. Bye-bye - Amaya

Weaned

Sadly enough, last night I put Amaya to bed without nursing her. For the past few weeks, she's becoming increasingly more distracted while I nurse her and hasn't had much interest. I figured the day would be approaching soon enough, and we decided that we'd start the week off sans breast-milk. From what I've now experienced, weaning Amaya was harder emotionally for me than physically. And as expected, Amaya did just fine last night. She even fell asleep before her Lullaby CD got to song #3! Looking back at those first few weeks of nursing her, I remember cringing every time Steve said, "I think she's hungry." I was tired and sore and never imagined that I could stick with it, although now I'm glad I did. But realizing that our little baby isn't such a baby anymore is very bittersweet.

Recap of our Week

Once again, it's been a very full week for us and unfortunately, all three of us have had varying degrees of a nasty cold that I'm suspecting we picked up in the nursery.

Nursery Duty: Once a month we volunteer in the nursery. Our church has three nurseries available for children under the age of 2. The Bluebird nursery is for babies 6 week old to about 13 months; the Bunnies group is for babies 13 months - 18 months and the Butterflies are for toddlers 18 months - 24 months (or thereabouts). The past two weekends, we've been scheduled to work in the Butterfly nursery. We usually bring Amaya to whatever nursery we work in because it's easier on her and easier on the other volunteers. Our first week was a little bit of challenge because we had several toddlers experiencing stranger anxiety, but eventually we got everyone calmed down. This past week went SO MUCH BETTER! At one point, we had almost everyone sitting down at the tables eating a snack and we had a lot less tears! It's fun to watch Amaya interact with the others kids, but because she's a good 4-8 months younger than everyone else, sometimes she gets a little overwhelmed. It's amazing how just a few short months makes a world of difference.

Dermatology Get Fit/Biggest Loser Challenge: My work department started a friendly competition a few weeks ago in a Get Fit Challenge. Our nurse manager is the captain of one of our teams and we have log our activity each week. At the end of 13 weeks, whichever team has logged in the most hours wins. This weekend, our group went bowling, although I'm not sure that I burned very many calories. Steve and Amaya came with and Amaya had a blast watching the flashing lights, touching the balls, walking up and down the hallway, and being held by my co-workers. Steve bowled a 150 something and I didn't break 100 - maybe we'll do better next time. The other competition is the Biggest Loser Individual Challenge. All we have to do is weigh ourselves at home on the same scale, and at the end of 13 weeks, we report our starting weight and weight lost. I've lost 6 pounds in the past 2 1/2 weeks - definitely not Biggest Loser results, but I'm definitely happy with the progress - and I'm FINALLY at my pre-pregnancy weight!

House: Steve has been working on getting all of our paper-work ready to refinance our house. Eventually, when Steve has to do his internship during the third year of graduate school, he'll have to cut back his hours again. With interest rates as low as they are and receiving some advice from Steve's dad (a realtor), we thought we'd jump at the opportunity. We locked into a rate of 4.5% and will be saving about 160 dollars per month. We'll plan on paying our current mortgage payment to reduce the principal and hope to get our house paid off in 20 years instead of 30.

We've been in our current house for 2 years now - where did that time go? We continue to love our neighborhood, but recently found out our dear neighbors across the street have moved up to the cities. Herb and Esther welcomed us into the neighborhood with open arms and always managed to give us an occasional batch of her famous chocolate-chip cookies. Steve and I have always enjoyed looking at other homes and with Steve's dad being a realtor, we frequently attend his open houses. This weekend, we looked at a house priced at over a million dollars. After walking through the entire house, we were disappointed. Even with the amenities, it still wasn't home. We'd have to spend thousands of dollars to redo counter-tops, floors, the lay-out etc. We looked at another house in the $600,000 price range, and while we loved the house - it didn't have much of a backyard. When we pulled up into our driveway, I was glad to be home. We'll miss Herb and Esther, but we still know all of neighbors on our cul-de-sac. It's a quiet neighborhood, kid-friendly, close to our church, close to our family. Our house is just the right size - not too big, not too small, it may not have a whirlpool tub or sauna or granite countertops, but it's home.

Maggots: My department at work has done maggot debridement therapy on necrotic ulcers for a few years now, but because of my maternity leave and part-time hours I haven't been able to assist with this treatment until this week. It may sound gross and disgusting, but trust my squeamish stomach, it's not all that bad. These little buggers work really hard at cleaning up difficult to treat ulcers and don't get enough credit for the work they do. Unfortunately, it's a very difficult procedure getting them placed on the ulcers and contained. My co-worker and I spent about 2 hours tracing the ulcers and developing templates for the "cage" to contain the maggots and then spent another 2 1/2 hours placing the maggots on the ulcers. It's a time consuming process, but well worth it in the end.

That's our week in a nutshell... this week shouldn't be too busy. Steve doesn't have school this week because of Easter, so Amaya and I will enjoy having him here.

One Nap?

Amaya and I are conducting an experiment the next few days with her napping schedule. For the record, she's never been the greatest napper. Her morning nap is anywhere between 30-45 minutes long and her afternoon nap is about 30 minutes-alone, and another 1-2 hours if I rock her or sleep with her. When she was a baby, I'd almost always rock her to sleep and then try to transfer her to the crib or the carseat and she'd wake up within 5 minutes. Talk about LIGHT SLEEPER! So, I'd eventually end up holding her while she slept. As she got older, when she'd wake up in the afternoon, I'd rush into her room and pick her up and either rock her back to sleep or we'd just lay down together and both take a nap. Granted, I don't mind taking naps with her - it provides great snuggle time and rest! The problem is that I get NOTHING done and it isn't a good habit for Amaya to get into.

Amaya generally sleeps well during the night, except for the fact that she's a night-owl. We put her down anywhere from 8:45-9:30pm and she wakes up between 7-8am. We really shouldn't complain, I mean she's sleeping through the night, right? I decided to try eliminating her morning nap yesterday after getting home from Bible Study. I get home around 11:25am and Steve comes home for lunch around noon, so I have a little more than a half and hour window to put her down. Yesterday, for whatever reason, I thought I'd keep her up and see how long she lasted. Around 2pm, she was nearly falling asleep playing with her toys, so I put her down and she was out for 2 hours, woke up, and then I rocked her back to sleep for another 45 minutes. AMAZING! Once again today, I woke her up at 7:30am and put her down at 2pm and she's OUT! (fingers crossed) I'm hoping that we can eventually get her to bed a little earlier too, so that Steve and I can have some time together before we crash. We'll see how it goes ... now maybe I can get some scrapbooking, cross-stitching, books read, puzzles done, recipes organized, etc.!

Oh Where is that Doggie in the Window?

Our next door neighbors have a cute little dog named Comet. Every so often when Amaya hears him bark, her little ears will perk up, her eyes will get really big, and she will say, "Gog? Up!" Translation: "Mommy or Daddy, can I stand on the bay window ledge and watch the doggie?"

Updates

Where have we been? It's been a busy couple of weeks! The weather has been beautiful this week, so Amaya and I have taken advantage of it and have spent quite a bit of time outside. She's really good at finding rocks, sticks, leaves, and PUDDLES! Amaya has changed so much just within this past week. She now prefers to WALK EVERYWHERE. No more crawling for her! She's also picking up a lot more words - just last night she saw a picture of a train and said, "choo, choo." Her most used words are, Da?, ma, da-da, hi, bye, uh-oh, up, ball, baby, yum, and go. If you ask her to repeat any word, she has her own version of it - buttons are ba-ba, dog is gog, etc. We've taught her some sign language - milk, more, please, thank-you, but we may not need to teach her much more if she continues talking at the pace she's going. Amaya also knows quite a few of her body parts - eyes, ears, mouth, tongue, hair, feet, etc. It amazes me how quickly she picks up on things!

In other news, we've added a new niece to our family - Hope Ann Springer. As some of you know, she's had quite the first week of life. Early Wednesday morning, she was taken by helicopter to Omaha because her oxygen levels were too low. After multiple tests the doctors found a minor concern with her airway, weak vocal chords, and a minor heart defect. The doctors believe she should grow out of all of these conditions. She will see the Ear, Nose and Throat doctor again next week for a follow-up checkup, and the cardiologist in 6 months. Thank you so much for praying for Hope. My parents are leaving today to spend a week with them to help them get settled. We plan to visit them for a weekend in mid-April.

Steve and I keep plugging away with work and Steve with school. We're definitely looking foward to the summer. Steve surprised Amaya and me with a trip to the Cities last weekend. We went to the Mall of America to go to the American Girl store - it was awesome! They even had a hair salon for your doll. I'll have to bring my Kirsten doll up there to get her hair done/fixed. Amaya loved watching all the kids her size and enjoyed watching the rides and flashing lights at the theme park. We made a quick stop to IKEA to pick up some frames and went to Babies R Us and bought some baby-locks for our cabinets (much to Amaya's dismay!)

We'll hopefully get a chance to post pictures this week of Amaya's adventures outside and her sitting on her new potty! Until then, we'll leave you in suspense.

WELCOME HOPE ANN!!

I HAVE A NEW COUSIN which brings me up to 10 COUSINS! My auntie Carol went to the hospital early yesterday morning and at 7:21am, Hope Ann Springer was born! She weighs 7 lbs. 13 oz, and was 19 inches long. Auntie Carol said that she has a lot of dark brown hair and dark eyes. I have to wait for a WHOLE MONTH before I can meet my new little cousin, and I don't know if I can wait that long! There are so many things I want to teach her! My Grandma and Grandpa Gustafson get to meet her in a few days when they go down there to help out. (Maybe Mommy won't miss me and I could hide in their suitcase!) Can't wait to meet you Hope!! - Amaya

Lydia's Birthday Party

On Sunday, we celebrated our niece Lydia's 6th birthday! She's grown up so fast and is turning into quite the little lady.


Amaya absolutely LOVES Lydia and watches EVERYTHING the kids do. Amaya is going to have a lot of "buddies for life!" I also think she wants to be a big kid too.



Amaya and Miles seem to get along really well too - and they're even learning to share!

Here are a few of my other favorite pictures from the evening. My dad has a gigantic white board with dry erase markers and this is one of the kid's favorite things to play with - even Miles!


Miles already has a special interest in photography...


Lydia's American Girl Doll with a new birthday outfit.


Grandma Gustafson, Annika, and Ben snuggling on the new couch.


Happy Birthday Lydia!

Amaya, On Her Way to Work (and Play)

Last night before bed I was reading in the book What to Expect: The Toddler Years about how the activities that a toddler engages in are "play" in nature, but also "work":

From the What To Expect website:

10 Ways Toddlers Prosper From Play

1. Playtime is your toddler's chance to stretch her imagination. She can fly, be a ballet star, save the planet, or ride a unicorn without a thing standing in her way. (Reality is so overrated, isn't it?)

2. For toddlers, it's all about learning by doing. Kids make countless discoveries about the world around them through playful explorations.

3. Experimenting through play helps kids figure out what they're good at and that, in turn, builds confidence and self-esteem.

4. Play preps children for socializing with others by presenting opportunities to share and take turns.

5. Playtime enables toddlers to work through emotions such as frustration, anger, and sadness.

6. Play boosts language development. Whether your toddler is talking to a friend, her doll, or even herself, she's talking — and that's what matters.

7. Playtime gives kids a sense of empowerment. (Hey, look what I can do!)

8. Creativity bubbles to the surface as kids build forts, paint murals, dress dolls, or bake imaginary cakes. This type of play also builds problem-solving skills. (How can I make this work?)

9. Using blocks, puzzles, clay, and crayons, as well as buttoning and snapping doll clothes develops eye-hand coordination and fine motor skills.

10. Active play is a great foundation for a lifetime of fitness. A game of tag or a round of hopscotch is actually exercise disguised as fun!

Here Amaya is crawling up the stairs, from the dining room on her way to the living room - also known as her "office". :)