Here’s yet another way we know Lanie is feeling better. She was eating a corn dog for lunch, and David was sitting with her while she was eating. When she didn’t want any more she pushed away her plate and yelled, “Done! Done! Take it away!” Not bossy at all, is she?!?

Lanie has had a rough week of it. On Monday, I stayed home to take her to the doctor, and they gave her a flue test and she did indeed have the flu. She had a flu shot in the fall but apparently it wasn’t very good against this strain. So, she was running a high fever, coughing and just generally miserable. Then later in the week she started vomiting anything that she would drink or eat. She basically didn’t eat anything for about 5 days. I think the vomiting was more a result of the medication they gave her, because when we stopped giving her that she stopped vomiting and finally began eating again. Thursday night she seemed so not herself, just sitting on my lap all night long, not saying anything, and all day she had either just been laying on the couch or sleeping. It was so sad to see and made us wrry a lot. She did go to the doctor again yesterday and he said she looked good and we should see a marked improvement by Monday. I could already tell she was feeling better last night. There was no more sitting on Mommy’s lap for hours (which had been nice in some ways, but so sad in others), and she was running around and being her demanding self.

Lanie had a little bit of a fever last night and then woke up with it again this morning. She’s acting happy, so I hope this is just a passing thing and doesn’t turn into the cold that Dave has had the last few days. It amazes me how happy she is even when she isn’t feeling well. We are so lucky!

The other day, my friend who is watching Alana for us while my parents are out of the country made the comment to me that Lanie is “freakishly smart.” I decided to take it as a compliment. Lanie does amaze me all the time with the things she knows. When she wants to, she can count at least up to 12, and she knows quite a bit of her ABCs. She can say several words in Spanish (her favorite numbers are ocho and cinco), and she amazes me with how many things she can identify by name. Yesterday as I was watching Boston Legal, one of the characters said “Massachusetts” and then so did Lanie, and I could understand her! Beign our first child, I am never sure of what she should be doing at what age, so I decided to look at a list of developmental milestones I found on a website. Lanie is way ahead of where it says a 22 month old should be, but I guess when you look at the families she comes from, it isn’t that surprising. Lanie has 4 very intelligent grandparents, and her parents are at least slightly above average, if I do say so myself. But what scares me is that I can see her passing all of us up!

It was so cute, I just had to write about it. This morning, I woke up and went in to get Lanie. She was awake in her crib, and I don’t know how long she had been awake, but she was in a very good mood, talking and laughing, and just having a good time. After I changed her, she went running toward our bedroom. After stopping to say a few things to Philo, she went to David’s side of the bed, and yelled out “WAKE UP, DADDY!” It was one of those things that you just wish you could have caught on video, because it was just so cute!

I can’t believe it has been so long since my last post. Things have been crazy around here trying to get the house ready to sell that there hasn’t been a spare moment to do much of anything else.

Alana is doing great, getting taller, growing more hair (finally), and greatly expanding her vocabulary. She still amazes me every day. She started going to a new babysitter last week while my parents are in Norway for a month. A friend of mine who I taught with is now staying at home with her 5 month old daughter, and agreed to watch Lanie for us. She only lives about 5 minutes away from my school so it is working out very well. Lanie really likes going to see Sarah and baby Sophie each day. Sarah tells me that Lanie is really good with Sophie and she seems to have adjusted really well to the change. She does often ask for her Mormor and Papa but we just keep reassuring her that they will be home soon.

Lanie is also dealing with all of the changes going on around our house. We have been busy packing things up to get this house ready to sell, and making frequent trips to the new house to check on the progress. They are about a month ahead of schedule (which everyone told me would never happen!) so we had to kick things into high gear. Our house is now on the market, so we just hope it sells quickly. Lanie seems to know that something is going on, but not sure what exactly. I just hope she likes the new house and gets used to the stairs fast!

I hope everyone is doing well!

For those of us around Lanie on a daily basis, we can generally understand what she has to say, but, due to some recent additions to her vocabulary, I thought I might post this translation guide so there aren’t any misunderstandings.

First, if you hear her say something that sounds like “damn” she probably wants DOWN. If you hear “shit” she just wants to SIT. And if, you hear the dreaded “f” word coming out of our angel’s mouth, she really is only talking about Swiper the FOX, a character from Dora the Explorer.

The first time David and I heard her say fox we both started laughing. Then, I thought it would be good if I had her call him Swiper instead. Well, she she took the word fox and added the er from Swiper, and you can imagine what that sounded like!

Last week, when we were getting family portraits taken, as we were checking out, she wanted to sit on the counter, and she yelled out “sit, sit, sit.” Of, course it didn’t come out that way, and there was dead silence all around us. So, I said, “she really is saying sit,” and everyone just burst out laughing. She was quite a hit with everyone there.

We are very busy around here trying to get ready for Christmas, and trying to get this house ready to sell, so if you get your Christmas card a little late this year, that’s why!

IF I don’t get a chance to post again before Christmas, I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday!

-Kellie

My little girl is 18 months old today! I just can’t believe it. How quickly all this time has flown. She is getting to be such a big girl now, talking away, running everywhere and definitely developing a personality all her own. She is so strong willed and self confident and I hope she continues to be just as strong as she grows up as she is today.

I took this picture of her in her bassinet just over a week ago before I sold it at our garage sale. I had to keep telling myself that it is just a thing, but it was really hard to let it go. I cried, which I am not sure why I did, but I guess it was just the realization that she isn’t a little baby anymore. I love this little girl more than anything and as much as I have enjoyed the time while she has been small, I also look forward to seeing the incredible young woman that I know she is going to grow up to be.

We made our annual family trip to the State Fair of Texas this past Monday, and Alana had her very first Fletcher’s Corny Dog, and loved it! Now, let me tell you, these are not your ordinary run of the mill corn dogs. No, they are possibly the best corn dogs you will ever have in your lifetime. The lines at the booths are notoriously long and worth every minute! Alana does not generally like the coating on corn dogs, but when we gave her this one she went to town! She ate almost the entire corn dog! A might big feat for such a little girl!

Alana also had some Fried peanut butter, jelly and banana sandwich, and some funnel cake before the day was over, and seemed to enjoy it all. Wasn’t exactly a health food day, but a trip to the State Fair never is. Fisher Price had an exhibition set up showcasing their toys, of course. She loved playing with all the toys, especially the Little People Alphabet Zoo. (I think she will be getting that one for Christmas!) They also had two people dressed up as Little People, so I guess you could call them Big Little People?!?! Alana would go up to them and then when they put their hands out to shake her hand she would turn around and run away. It was very cute.

We had a good time at the fair, and all involved went home with full tummies!