Celebrating MayLynn

Our cute little One-Year-Old (MayLynn) has had quite the week of celebrating.  After dinner on Wednesday  (her birthday) we went to get ice cream and balloons at a local ice cream parlor.  MayLynn got to share her very first chocolate ice cream cone with her daddy.  If you look closely, Bryce is trying to show her the proper way to lick the ice cream off of the cone : ).

Then last night (Friday) we had a couple of Bryce's students come over and we had cake and ice cream.  MayLynn loves teddy bears, so I found a cute teddy bear cake pan and made her a purple and pink teddy bear cake.  MayLynn liked the cake and made enough of a mess of herself to document, although it took her a minute or two to figure out what to do with the pile of cake and frosting on her tray.  Now, with birthday celebrations over, we can return to normal life with maybe just the slightest hint of a sugar buzz from last night.

Happy Birthday MayLynn

Our pretty little girl, MayLynn, is 1 year old today so I want to dedicate this post to her:

One year ago, on March 6, 2012.  MayLynn Elizabeth Allen joined our family.  She was a cutie right from the start and she fit right in with the rest of our little family.

At 3 months old, MayLynn was still a quite little girl that would sit still and just watch what was going on in the world around her. She just wanted to be with people and be loved.

By 6 months her mischievous attitude was starting to show through and she had a lot of fun making faces and playing with her family - especially her daddy.

As a 9 month old, MayLynn had become a favorite with everyone that she'd ever met.  Her face and eyes are so expressive and she can communicate so much without saying a word.  

Now, as she turns 1 year old, MayLynn is a character.  She loves softy cuddly blankets, teddy bears, books, and music.  She loves playing with and watching fairy movies with Daddy, imitating Owen and playing with his toys, and reading books with Mommy.  She's not quite walking, but crawls like a champ, pulls up on everything and is starting to say a few basic words: mommy, daddy, bye-bye, uh-oh, and book.  She also loves being outside and can't wait until it's warm enough to do so regularly.  We love our little girl and want to wish her a Happy Birthday and look forward to seeing how she grows over the next year.

The Past Month . . .

So I know that I haven't posted anything for a month or so, but for at least part of the time I had a legitimate excuse.  In the middle of January about 1/4 of the keys on my keyboard quit working about half the time, so I tried fixing it - and it quit working completely.  I used Bryce's laptop to check my email and stuff while I tried to decide whether it was worth getting a new keyboard for my 8 year old computer, or whether I should just go to Goodwill and see if I could find one there.  Well, I ended up using Plan C.  One of the families from church was cleaning out some of their old stuff and offered to anyone who could use it.  On the list was a keyboard and monitor, as well as a cute little play kitchen that is the perfect size for MayLynn.  So, I was able to replace my broken keyboard and my nearly dead monitor as well as acquire a fun new toy for my kiddos.

Now a little bit about this little toy kitchen. . .  It really is MayLynn sized and quite small for Owen, but that didn't stop him from wanting to play with it too when I brought it home.  MayLynn was content to play with just the kitchen itself, but Owen knew that he had to have tools to use with it.  So, I dug up a couple of plastic utensils, a plastic bowl, and a small cup or too and Owen proceeded to show MayLynn how a kitchen is suppose to be played with.  Ever since the two of them have generally had to take turns (to avoid the inevitable tears) but they've had fun "making dinner" while Mommy cooks in the kitchen. 

Another thing that has kept me busy this past month is my piano lessons.  I now have 10 piano students and I teach lessons Monday - Thursday afternoons.  I have fun teaching my students, and they have fun playing with my kids when it isn't their turn.  Below is a picture of Owen with Nora, Vivian, and Ella Wright - three of Owen's favorite people.  While Nora and Ella have their lessons, Vivian plays with the kids.  On the day that this picture was taken MayLynn was having a nap and they found Owen's dress ups. Before we knew it we had a team of super heroes that were ready rid the world of all evil doing.

MayLynn has also decided that it's not fair that everyone else gets to play the piano during my lessons and she has to play downstairs with Owen and other friends.  So, sometimes during the day I will let her have a moment or two to play the piano too.  Isn't she a cutie?

We had one snow storm this past month that gave us enough snow for Owen to play outside in.  On this day, while MayLynn was having her morning nap, Owen and I went outside and found that the snow was perfect for making a snow man - not too dry and not too wet.  So of course we had to take advantage of it and make our one snow man of the winter.  Owen has been having a hard time staying still for pictures lately, but I was able to get him to sort of stand still and smile for this one.

I hope that everyone out there has had a good month as well and that you'll forgive me for being remiss in my blog posts.  I will try to post more often and keep all of you updated on what's happening with our little family.

Swinging at the Park

As I sit inside this afternoon wishing it was warm enough to take the kids outside to play, I remembered that I didn't post the pictures that I took of them playing outside last week; so here it goes. . . .

We had a couple of nice days last week, but one day it was sunny, warm and dry at the same time, so I took the kids to the park.  MayLynn is mobile enough that she is no longer content to sit in the stroller and watch Owen play, although she is still too young to turn loose in wood chips. So we compromised by letting her swing, for about 20 minutes or more.  She was thrilled.

And since Owen isn't content to let MayLynn do something that he isn't doing too, Owen also chose to swing at the park.  

After pushing both kids on the swing for nearly a half-hour, Owen finally got bored and decided that instead of sitting on the swing, he wanted to push it.  That lasted for about 3 minutes, until the swing started going sideways and MayLynn was no longer happy, but at least he was willing to try.

I know that it's still winter, and I want it to stay winter as long as possible so that summer and the heat stay away as long as possible, but it sure was nice to be able to escape cabin fever for an afternoon and have fun swinging at the park.

Brad & Alyssa Come to Visit

My brother, Brad, and his wife Alyssa came up from Tennessee to visit us for a few days. They arrived Monday afternoon and we spent New Year's Eve eating yummy snacks and playing Mario Kart.  The next day we just hung out around the house and took a quick trip to the mall to get out and stretch our legs and play with trains.

On Thursday we went to another one of our family's favorite stomping grounds - the zoo.  It was cold and a few parts of the zoo were closed because of the ice on the ground, but there are enough indoor exhibits that we were able to have lots of fun and not get too cold. Owen especially liked showing Brad & Alyssa his favorite parts of the zoo.

Yesterday we went to both the Missouri History Museum and the St. Louis Science Center.  We had fun looking at the exhibits and spending time together.  Throughout the whole week Alyssa & Bradley had a lot of fun taking pictures, so I didn't have too, and then they shared them with me so I could share them with all of you.

I'm so glad that we live in a place that has so many places to have fun without breaking the bank.  St. Louis is a great place to live and I'm very grateful that Brad & Alyssa came to visit and share some of our favorite hangouts with us.  We also had a lot of fun visiting, playing Nintendo games, and playing with their dog, Nelly.  Thanks for the visit Brad & Alyssa!