Allie's Broken Arm

We have a tall, plastic laundry basket that has always caught Allie's eye as something that is fun to play with/in/on. Every time she would do so, we'd tell her to get out and that she could get hurt. Well, our words finally came true, sadly. It is a hard way to learn a lesson, but on February 20th, 2012 Allie broke her first bone. She was playing in the laundry basket when it tipped over and she caught herself with her left arm just right - or just wrong. She has tipped over numerous times in the past, and she has even cried after doing so, but I knew it was different when I picket her up and her cry was different. Her body composure was different, too. I glanced at it quickly and called Jared to see if he could come home right away. Then I examined her arm more and it was pretty obvious that she has broken her arm. Her forearm was bent and very tender to the touch. She asked for a band-aid to make her arm all better. I told her that we would go to the doctor, where they would take a picture of her arm and give her a BIG band-aid. I then showed her pictures of some casts online so that she could have an idea of what to expect. Jared then got home and we went to the walk-in clinic.

Here's the picture (x-ray) of her arm. It is a very bad picture of the x-ray, but the bone (the radius) on the right should not be bent like it is. There was a crack clean through, but since she is a child it bent more. The doctor said that if it had been an adult, it would have separated and possibly come through the skin.

 Here are some pictures of her arm before her splint.

She needed to have a splint on for a few days to allow the swelling to go down. She was a champ and didn't cry at all while getting it on.

She was quite the little trooper. Having the splint didn't slow her down at all. She was back to her crazy self only 2 hours after the break. 

Originally they told us that she'd get the cast on Thursday or Friday (she broke her arm on Monday), but she ended up getting it on Wednesday. It made us feel better for her to get the hard cast on. Yet, it still hasn't slowed her down at all. We let her pick her color, and she had been saying she wanted blue, but she ended up picking green. For the next couple days after getting it on, she would say, "Green is my favorite color." She is such a funny girl. But she makes a green cast look good!

 

She will get the cast off next Wednesday, March 21st. It will have been 4 weeks. Amazingly, Allie has hardly even mentioned it, though the day after getting it on she said, "Mom, my arm is feeling A LOT better. Can you take this off now?" But today she told me that she didn't want me to take it off after I referenced when she gets it off. We'll see how it goes. I'm afraid it will not be tear free since she really does not like loud noises. We'll report on how it goes.

Snow Day - February 2012

We really haven't had much of a winter here in Oklahoma. Our first snow that really stayed around for even a day was February 13th. I kept telling Allie that we would go out and play in the snow, but because of Rachel's morning nap, a lot of the snow had already melted by the time we got outside. She didn't mind or know the difference, though. She still thought it was magical and enjoyed playing in it.

Rachel didn't get to play in it too much, but she sure was cute all bundled up.

 

Rachel: 6 to 8 months

This post overlaps a little with Rachel's milestone post (click here to see), but there are some pictures that we haven't shared yet. I must say that I am a proud mama. I just think that my girls are so cute and I love their pictures. I can never decide which ones I want to share, so I usually end up including a lot of pictures. I don't think that the grandparents mind too much. Hopefully no one else does either.

Rachel is a drool machine. She either goes through several bibs or several outfits a day due to getting soaked with drool. Below is a picture of what she looks like if we don't put a bib on her.

Dec 27, 2012

Her drooling has definitely been an effect of teething. We have mentioned her first two bottom teeth coming in. At this point, she has the two on the bottom, and almost three on the top. Her front left tooth is just starting to cut through, and she already has her front right tooth along with its neighbor.

All kids and babies love boxes. Rachel is no different. Rachel had so much fun playing in and with this box.

Jan 6, 2012

I talked about her beginning to crawl a little after 6 months of age, but here is a picture of her lifting her front up on her 6 month birthday.

Jan 6, 2012

6 Months

 Rachel loves to pull herself up. Since she first time doing it, she has just gotten better and faster at doing it. She will use anything she can to help her, including our legs.  Here she is hanging out between Daddy's legs.

Jan 19, 2012

This picture of Rachel reminded me of this picture of Allie taken February 2010 (7 months).

 Rachel's hair is growing so quickly. We got to put her first little elastic and bow in for church toward the end of January. It is so fun being able to put cute bows in her hair. I just need to get better at leaving enough time for myself to do my hair and the two girls' hair.

Jan 22, 2012

It didn't take long for Rachel to begin walking along furniture once she could pull herself up. Baby-proofing just keeps getting more and more difficult.

Feb 1, 2012 

Each month seems to fly by faster than the previous. Here's Rachel at 7 months (well, just one day before).

Feb 5, 2012

Rachel really loves dogs, real or fake. She has gotten to crawl after some real dogs that are luckily very patient with babies, and she loves Allie's stuffed animal dogs. Here's a little video of me making Rachel laugh with Allie's Roxie dog. (Named after Roxie, who was her friend Lily's and now is Maria's dog.)

It seems she has learned a trick or two from the dogs she has been around. She likes to carry toys around with her and her favorite mode of carrying things is in her mouth. She has done it with several toys, but I wanted to catch this one on video because I knew that my dad would love seeing that my baby girl likes the soccer ball.

In honor of her 8 month birthday, I took some pictures of Rachel in her birthday suit. Really, I was letting a diaper rash air out and wanted to make sure I got pictures on her 8 month day. She pulls the birthday suit off quite well, I must say.

March 8, 2012

I wanted to try and get a picture from a different angle, from further away, but all Rachel wanted to do was crawl to the camera. She's coming to get me!

Something else she discovered while in the buff was that she could stand up by herself. We were amazed. So she was standing up unassisted at 8 months, though luckily she has not been practicing this skill too much. Later when she had some clothes on, we caught her wanting to take a few itty bitty steps. Watch out world!

The next day, she learned about pulling all the tupperwear out of the cabinets. She seems to be learning that this is the only cabinet we are okay with her pulling things out of. But we still need to watch her closely.

March 7, 2012

Each day brings new things, and it is so fun to watch Rachel learn and develop. She is almost always so happy and smiley. It is a joy for all of us to have her in our family.

A little of Allie and Rachel together

I've mentioned it before, but Allie and Rachel really love and enjoy each other. It is one of the greatest things to watch them interact and laugh together, or watch them make each other smile. If Allie is ever awake and Rachel is still sleeping, Allie will always want to wake Rachel up. Luckily, she has learned that that is not a good thing to do. But as soon as Allie hears Rachel making noise, she will run to see her. I wanted to capture it on camera because it is really cute to see Allie's excitement and Rachel's tired smile. I think Rachel's response to Allie is a little less than normal due to me being there with the camera, but it is still super cute.

Here are some pictures of the two together.

 Jan 19, 2012

Jan 26, 2012 

 Feb 8, 2012

We went to visit some friends who live about three or four blocks away, and since we don't have a double stroller, I had both girls in the same stroller. They were happy at the beginning, but were ready to be done after the short walk.

Feb 16, 2012

March 6, 2012

We are not wanting to offend anyone with the next picture, but it gave us a good laugh getting this one. As we posted before, Rachel's thighs are pretty close to the same size as Allie's, and they have been for awhile. Once when giving the girls a bath, I asked Jared whose bum looked bigger. We really couldn't tell. We find it so funny that our baby's bum is about the same size as our 2 1/2-year-old's bum. We took a picture to capture it and planned on having you guess whose is whose. I'm guessing it won't be too hard to tell, though the angle of the picture exaggerates the bum on the right just a little, I think.

Jan 26, 2012

These two keep us busy and are a joy to have around.

Silly things that Allie does

Allie kind be very particular about some things, including how she puts toys away (sometimes), what clothes she wears, and how she eats food. I need to start writing things down because I can never recall examples when I get to blogging. However, we have some pictures of her eating her vegetable with a careful method, so I can't forget about it.

Allie will carefully place a pea, kernel of corn, or other small piece of vegetable/food on her spoon or fork one by one. And they must be just right. Then she'll take a bite, and hopefully every piece makes it into her mouth.

Allie is able to put her clothes on by herself, so some mornings Jared or I will help her pick clothes out. We open the drawers, and she picks what she wants to wear. Then she gets to put them on, and we'll help her if she needs. Sometimes she will put her underwear and shirt on, but then run around without pants. We'll ask her to put her pants on, but she doesn't listen. One morning this had happened, and Allie kept complaining that she was cold. I told her to put her pants and socks on. But she insisted on putting her boots on because they would keep her feet warm.

There have been other times when she may or not have pants on and I want to put socks on to keep her feet warm, but she insists on putting her boots on for that purpose. Perhaps the boots are warmer than I imagine them to be.

One morning Jared let me stay in bed and he got up with Allie. When I got up, he showed me what I had missed. 

What's in your pajamas Allie?

 

A baby elephant!

Allie showing the baby elephant coming out of her belly.

I think most kids like play dough, so these next pictures aren't necessarily silly. Allie has learned to appreciate and enjoy creating things with play dough. It has been fun letting her play with it without having to worry that she will eat it. We'll ask her, "Are you supposed to eat it?" She will then reply, "NO, it's a toy, NOT food." That's right. I still check on her to make sure, but she has actually been really good about not eating it. But that doesn't mean she hasn't created food to pretend eat.

Allie made an ice cream cone and ate the cone first.

She will make other things, too. Like a temple.

This temple has a "Lehi" on it. I'm pretty sure she means Angel Moroni.

Allie has also made several snakes with play dough, which leads me to a funny Allie comment. I was helping Allie in the bathroom, and after she finished her business, she looked in the toilet and exclaimed, "A snake maker!!" I kinda chuckled and asked, "Your bum is a snake maker?" "Yes!" she replied, quite excitedly. I couldn't wait to share that one.

Allie will say funny things so often, but I never remember them. Again, I really should start writing them down. One day Allie was being quite ornery, and I asked her, "Allie, are you being ornery?" And her answer was, "Yes, just like Daddy." I couldn't stop laughing for awhile.

Yesterday we were babysitting a 4-month-old baby boy named Tyler. He had a poppy diaper while he was here, so I changed it. Allie was watching, and even after I had wiped him clean, she kept saying, "He has a BIIIIG poop." I chuckled to myself and taught her a little about anatomy. She then kept telling him, "Tyler, you have a penis. Tyler, you have a big penis." Ah, the things kids say. I just hope she doesn't use her new word in public and embarrass us too much.

Rachel really likes her food

Not that it is much of a surprise, but Rachel really enjoys eating solids. We first started giving her rice cereal a week or two before 6 months. It took a couple of weeks before she could keep much in her mouth, but she would always get excited when her rice cereal was being made. Her favorites are sweet potatoes, squash, and bananas. Peas give her a nasty diaper rash, so we are avoiding those for a little longer. Allie likes to feed Rachel, but very little food makes it into Rachel's mouth when she feeds her.

Rachel's first time with peas. 

She had already tried rice cereal and sweet potatoes before this.

First time Allie started feeding Rachel. I had answered the phone and turned my back to them. I knew it was going to be messy, but I had to capture the moment.

Here's a little video clip of Allie feeding Rachel.

Another day Allie let Rachel have the spoon. Rachel was very happy to get it.

I don't remember when we first tried puffs for her first finger food. I think it was pretty close to 7 months, perhaps a little after. Rachel was so excited to grab and put food in her mouth by herself. It is cute to see her excitement when she sees me grab the puffs container and then as I get them out for her. In the video below, there is a better reaction to her seeing me grab them toward the middle or end of the clip.

It has been nice having a baby who eats well. I was always stressed about whether Allie was getting enough. I knew she was getting the quantity that she wanted, but, because she was so skinny, I always wondered whether she was getting what she needed as far as nutrition goes. But since Allie turned out well, I now really don't stress about Rachel at all. She is chubby and eats a lot. We love it!

A few of Allie's favorite songs

Allie really fell in love with Jingle Bells around Christmas time. She sang it everywhere and all the time. We recorded her just a few times and have made a little compilation of her singing her favorite Christmas song.

Here's another, somewhat long, but funny video of her singing Jingle Bells. It shows just how crazy our little girl can be.

Another one of Allie's favorite songs is the ABC's. Here's a clip of our non-stop Allie singing it at the dinner table.

Allie's Answers to some Gospel Questions

Two of Allie's cousins got baptized in December, Bella (Maria's daughter) and Hailee (Nathan's daughter). They were going to show a video of their cousins' answers to some gospel-related questions during the time that they were getting into dry clothes. Due to some technical issues, they didn't get to show it at Bella's baptism. And I am not sure whether they got to show it at Hailee's baptism or not. But Allie's answers were pretty cute. It took several shots to get her to answer (almost) all of the questions we were supposed to ask her. The girl cannot stay still. But we love her.

Shot early December 2011