2 a.m. wake up call

Let me preface this post by saying that I love smoke detectors. I know they save lives and property and they are a fantastic invention.

That being said, why are they so dumb? Crit woke up Tuesday night at 2 am because he had rolled around the crib and got stuck in a corner. I went into his room and wrapped him up and rocked him for a few minutes. That's when it started. The dreaded low battery, high-pitched, chirping noise every homeowner has come to hate. Each time it went off (every 18 seconds), the baby would startle and wake up a little bit.

So I was faced with a dilemma. I could a)keep rocking the baby until he was really asleep, put him down, and then change the battery (I would however be absolutely crazy by then), b)put the baby down and change the battery while hearing him yell at me or c) wake up my sleeping-like-a-rock husband and ask him to change the battery for me. I chose option c.

Mike changed the batttery and went back to bed. I rocked the baby a while longer and then went back to bed. It wasn't three minutes later that the awful sound started again. I was sure it was downstairs and tried to block it out. Contemplating the irony of it, I finally fell asleep a while later.

Yesterday morning we didn't hear anything, so Mike and I assumed the other of us had changed the other smoke detector battery. I put the baby to bed last night and brought the baby monitor downstairs. At 9:15 it started again. The sound was definintely downstairs, but where? We couldn't find the offensive device.

I listened upstairs. Not in Ally's room, our room, or the hall. Not in the kitchen. Surprise! It was the baby's again! (We were hearing it through the baby monitor. That made us feel really smart.) Mike put ANOTHER new battery in and that fixed it. For about 5 minutes. The dumb thing kept on chirping!

I finally disconnected it and brought it downstairs. It didn't have a battery and was no longer wired, but it was still chirping! After a few minutes it quit completely and we haven't heard from it again. I even slept all night last night.

I understand that the more annoying a low-battery signal is, the faster the battery gets changed, but does it have to go off in the middle of the night? Can't they put a little clock in it and have it signal during the day?

It was probably time to replace it anyway, so we'll be off to Home Depot soon to purchase a new one. And it had better only go off if there's a fire!

Critter's On Two Feet

I can't believe my baby is eight months old already! He still gets around the house with his army crawl but has now modified it to only use his left arm. He digs his right elbow into the carpet and pulls with his left. He's actually faster than you'd think. I even lost him last week. I left the kids in the living room while I hung up some clothes in my bedroom. I came back and he was gone. He wasn't in the kitchen. Or the hall. Or the bathroom. I was getting nervous when I finally found him in his closet. I don't know how he got in there so fast!

But as fast as he is, he would much rather stand up. If he could spend his day on two feet, he would. He'll walk if we hold his hands, and he can push himself up with a little help, but we've got a little while before he'll walk on his own. Thank goodness! Ally walked the day after she turned 9 months and never looked back. That's only 3 weeks away for Critter!

So if you come over and hold out your hand, be prepared for Crit to crawl over and use you as leverage for his standing up trick. You can see how proud of himself he is. We get this smile every time he gets himself up.

Build A Bear Fashion Show

Mike's parents gave Ally a Build a Bear gift card for her birthday. She was so excited to go! We all went on Saturday with Grammy. They were so sweet and gave her a name tag that said it was her birthday.

It was no surprise she chose the pink bear with the white hearts. What else would you choose if your birthday is the day before Valentine's?



When we got home she couldn't wait to start dressing "Huggy" (that's what she named the bear) up in all of the fun outfits she picked out. This one is the bear's play clothes outfit.




The pajamas are a pair of pink pants and a princess shirt. She has already told me that Huggy has cold paws and needs some slippers.




Aunt Carrie gave her a party dress for her birthday. Ally brought it to the store with us and had a hard time waiting a whole week for the bear she could finally put in it.





The box was dragged through the mall afterward because she wouldn't let us carry it for her. It was her bear and she wanted to be in charge of it. End of discussion.

Pampered

I had Ally in the bath this morning and soaped up my hands to scrub her down. I washed her legs, arms, back, and belly and and she kept telling me, "Oh, thanks, Mommy. Oh, that's perfect." When I was done she said, "Mommy, thanks for giving me a massage. Now I am all relaxed and refreshed for my date with Prince Charming."

Bubbles!

We played outside yesterday for the first time in what felt like forever. Ally got a bubble gun for her birthday, so we finally opened it and let her and Crit play for a while.Ally loved the gun and used the entire bottle of bubble solution in just a few minutes.
I decided while they were playing that battery-powered bubbles are absolutely the way to go. No dipping. No holding open containers. And no frustration when they don't blow right and there aren't any bubbles.


This is the first time Critter has ever done bubbles and he couldn't get enough. Until Ally blew them right in his face. He calmed down after a minute, though and loved them again.

All Fenced In

Our fence guys (finally) came yesterday afternoon and put our slats in. It took them like 3 hours to get it done, but they finally got it finished. And I couldn't be more excited! They even cut the curbing just enough for the slats to slide in so it wouldn't have to sit on top of the curbing and look funny. Ally figured out the latch in about 4 seconds, though, so we've got to get something that is too high for her to reach.


This is the other side of the house. We didn't get a gate on this side, and there isn't much, but it's still worth seeing.

Busy?

You know those days when you feel like you're really busy, but don't know exactly what you've been doing with your time? We've had a couple of weeks like that. Except for getting ready for Ally's birthday and trying to keep everyone feeling good, we haven't had much going on.

We did get fence posts installed last week. They dug and set them on Monday and said they'd finish on Thursday or Friday, but they didn't. We're hoping they finally come back and finish today. Contractors! I hope to have a different picture up tomorrow.

I did get a blanket done yesterday for a guy Mike works with. Mike just called and said they had their baby girl Friday night (she was born on Ally's birthday), so I got it done just in time. Unfortunately, Mike forgot to take it to him today.

Happy Birthday, Ally!

I can't believe my daughter is four! She has been so excited for weeks and her birthday finally came on Friday. She was so mad when three of her cousins (Hunter, Ashlyne, and Kaitlyn) had their fourth birthdays and she was the only one who was still three. It's a good thing cousin Sam had his third birthday in December so she had a "three buddy" for two months.

We had our families over for cake and ice cream on Friday night. We played pin the horn on the unicorn and opened presents. Ally had a great time and asked if we could celebrate her birthday again the next day. I said no.

She was so excited to open presents! She tried to be patient, but waiting all day isn't easy for a four-year-old. It's a little blurry because she was moving so fast. And apparently I need to fix the date on my camera.
Since we have a backyard now that is big enough to actually play in, Mike and I gave her a "summer box" filled with a soccer ball, a bat, lacross sticks, bubbles and other stuff to play with outside. As much as she likes it, I realized that it was kind of mean to give her a bunch of stuff she can't use in February. Our living room has been assaulted with her arsenal of outside stuff all weekend. Warm weather can't come soon enough!

We were doing better until...

This is where we spent most of the day yesterday. Yes, that is Primary Children's. Critter has had a runny nose and fever since Friday and hardly slept Saturday night, so I took him to an urgent care clinic yesterday morning. They did a chest x-ray and decided that it was most likely RSV but they didn't have the ability to do the test. So they called PCMC and told the emergency room we were on our way.

I picked up Mike and Ally and we dropped Ally off at his parents'. We spent a few hours at Primary's where they sucked his nose out (he kicked the nurse in the stomach-- we were quite proud) and made sure he could breathe. They sent us home with a breathing treatment machine and told us to come back if he got any worse.

He's feeling a lot better today and even slept all night last night. So we're in for a few crummy snot-filled days, but at least he's getting better!