The Marlow Memoirs: Pedal Practice

No matter whether she was in our bedroom or now in her new bedroom, Odette always wakes up in a super happy mood! :)

Playing in her walker while I get breakfast ready:

We were on a quest today. Usually, I try to make only one outing a day when I can help it and since Story Time is usually on Monday, I make Tuesday my grocery day. Well, being that today was President's Day, there was no story time, and Cameron had requested a couple of items for me to send to him, so I made today our grocery day. It worked out, too, because that way I didn't have to stress out about getting the produce items for the coffee tomorrow night on the day of.

Anyway. We went to Walmart, where I bought groceries, along with extra items for Cameron and extra fruits for dipping in the chocolate fountain for the coffee tomorrow night.

Silly me, I was also going to try to squeeze in a visit to the post office...but even though there had been no Story Time, I didn't realize until I was almost at the post office and I saw the empty parking lot...that the post office would be closed for President's Day today, too!

That was fine by me! I had spent way too long at Walmart today and if we'd gone to the post office, too, I would have missed my 1pm chat time with Cameron and made him wait longer for me to finally come online!

So we got home and I first put Odette to bed. Then I put Alegria to bed, telling her that if she didn't want to sleep, she didn't have to, but she did have to stay in her room. I could tell she was still very excited about her new room and when I left her to go and chat with Cameron, I could hear her playing in there...up until 2:30!!!

After Cameron and I finished chatting, at about 3, I went to get Alegria...and found her asleep! She had been playing hard...almost all of her stuffed animals were on her bed with her!!!

I decided to go get Odette up first so that Alegria could sleep a little longer. Then I came back and got Alegria dressed and then we left to go visit teach Melissa.

On our way to Melissa's, Andrea texted me that Melissa had forgotten about our appointment and that she wasn't home. So the girls and I turned back around and came home.

It was beautiful out, so we played outside. Since the other day I had noticed that Alegria could pedal her bike, we spent a bit of time practicing that. She can pedal once, but then she has trouble in the follow-through. I must not be a very good teacher, either, because I couldn't seem to get her to understand how to just continue pedaling!

After a spill from leaning over to the side too much as she was trying to pedal, we came to the driveway and we tried getting her to use the momentum of starting to pedal at the top of the driveway and letting the incline help her on the way down. That didn't help either, because then she just coasted the rest of the way and didn't learn to keep pedaling! Oh well! We'll just have to keep trying!

During this whole thing, Odette was a happy camper, just chillin' in the umbrella stroller and playing with her hands!

When Alegria had had enough practice on her bike, she decided she wanted to push Odette...so I let her do that for a good while. :)

Finally, when it was getting close to dinner time, we came back inside.

I had bought a simple frame at Walmart to put a picture that Cameron had colored for Alegria in and hang in her room. I LOVE the new sticky/velcro picture hanging strips! I also bought some of those...they're awesome for hanging things up without having to put holes in the walls!!!

While I got dinner ready, I handed Alegria her crayons and had her finish coloring a picture that Grandma and Grandpa Marlow had sent her to color and then send back to them. Alegria is ambidextrous and was coloring with both hands at the same time!!! What talent!!! Haha!

A few pictures after dinner:

Tonight was bath night again. Odette is sitting better and better each day and now sits well enough that she has found the joy of splashing in the tub!

She didn't realize that when she splashes, the water comes up and hits her in the face, though...until it was too late!!!

So...once Odette was out of the tub and I was getting her lotioned up and dressed in her room, Alegria came into Odette's room and was playing with Odette's walker...but she was more quiet than usual. Usually, she would be giggling, talking, just being loud...so I knew something was up.

I looked at her and saw that her mouth was closed...so I asked what she had in her mouth...and when she opened it, it was full of chewed up crayons!!!

ARG!!!

I already had a diaper on Odette and she was on the floor on a changing pad (we never bought a changing table for Alegria and the floor has worked well for changing diapers, so we'll just continue with it like that!), so I grabbed Alegria and brought her to the bathroom, smacked her mouth and told her we do NOT chew on crayons, and then I had her rinse her mouth out. It took about ten or eleven times having her rinse her mouth out with water before all of the crayon bits and pieces were out!

I then finished getting Odette ready and in her pajamas and then took Alegria to the dining room table and told her that if she was still hungry, she could finish her dinner, but that we do NOT eat crayons!!!

*sigh*

I nursed Odette and put her to bed and then I was calmed down from the crayon incident.

So I brought out the clear plastic wreath hanger that I had gotten at Walmart today and put it on Alegria's door and hung her name plate that my friend, Kharin, had made for her when she was born...it's so pretty!!! Now Alegria's room is officially hers!!!

After Alegria was bathed and in her pajamas and after we'd read "with" Daddy, I told Alegria that now it was time to go to bed...and she asked, "Gia room?" (Gia is how she says "Alegria!") I told her "Yes! In Alegria's room!" I'm so happy that she knows it's her room and that she LOVES her room and is excited to go to her room!!!

Once Alegria was in bed, I began cleaning the guest bathroom and preparing for tomorrow's event. I even finally put up the silhouette pictures of our family that Tasha gave me at our Christmas gift exchange party!!! I LOVE them!!!