The One with the Leap Frog

Well, it's 7:50 PM, Shana is in bed and I finally have a moment to myself! I love Mondays because things get back to the normal routine, Shana is usually tired from the weekend and being out alot, so she always sleeps really good and is very pleasant all day. The only think I don't like about Mondays is cleaning up after the weekend. Chris is off on weekends and we always tend to go out a lot and we're very rarely home, so that usually means that my house is neglected on the weekends, so Mondays are spent tidying up. I'm one of the "keep it tidy and you won't have to clean it" type of people, so I don't like when I actually have to do "house work". Oh well, I can't complain. Chris got home from work and he decided to take me out for dinner so that I didn't have to cook (or so he didn't have to do the dishes - I'm not sure which one!) Either way, I was happy and we had a good time.

So I have a lot of catching up to do, because my previous blog accidently got deleted. I talked mostly about our New Years and how it was fairly laid back. We had a birthday party for my sister the Saturday night (day before New Year's Eve), her birthday falls on New Year's Eve and it's really hard to have a party on the actual day due to the other celebrating going on. So since this year was her 30th, my mom and I put together a "small" party for her close friends and family - I think it ended up being over 25 people altogether. But it was fun and I think Jenn enjoyed herself. You can check out her blog for a slide show if you'd like, her page is in my links. On New Year's Eve, we didn't end up doing anything. We were supposed to have gone to church for the New Year's service that goes til about 9:00, and then a party afterwards at a friend's house, but I ended up feeling really crappy all day so we ended up visiting with my parents at their house and watching Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve. Chris & I rang in the New Year in the car on our way home. New Year's Day was spent cleaning up our house from Christmas, putting away the decorations and taking down our tree. Shana had spent the night with my parents so we had the day to ourselves, it was really nice. The rest of the week was spent with Shana and I getting over a bit of a cold, I had it worse than she did though, so that was good. She is still getting some molars so she has her good days and her bad days. She tends to be fine during the day, but somedays she wakes up in the middle of her nap crying for no apparent reason, so I've attributed that to teething. She is sleeping well at night so for that I'm thankful.

Also, my brother-in-law, Terry, got engaged over New Year's. He proposed to Tanya in front of about 25 people, that crazy guy. But she said yes and they are getting married and we are very excited for them! So far we haven't heard of when the wedding date is, but it'd be nice if it was before June 20th so that when we fly out for the wedding, we won't have to pay for Shana's flight (Terry I hope you're reading this!!!)

Shana is doing well, by the way, she is learning practically a new word every day! She is growing so fast that I can barely keep clothes on her. She is wearing 2 yr old clothes already, and some 18 month pants (mostly for the waist size - although most of them are too short). We bought a Leap Frog Grow-with-me System for her with some Christmas money that she had left. It is for ages 9 - 36 months. We thought it would be good because it advertises that it teaches letters, numbers, sounds, hand-eye coordination and motor skills. Anyway, she really enjoyed it - it came with the DVD and a controller with big buttons and the two interact, it's really cool - however the DVD only had two very short little games and the rest was advertisements for the games that you could buy seperatly for $20 a piece. The systems itself was $49! So, we decided that it was definitely not worth that amount of money, it's a great idea but way too pricy for what you're actually getting. So we took it back, and bought her the Leap Frog refridgerator magnets that have alphabet and numbers and a little square box that she puts the letter or number into and it tells her what it is and what sounds it makes and sings a little song. She loves it and it was much more reasonable. The songs are very repetative, which is the point I guess, but it can get annoying. Anyway, it'll help her learn and it's a small sacrifice to pay, I can always get ear plugs.
Well, I think that's about all. I'm going to light a fire and curl up with my book, so good night! By the way, I was having trouble uploading the pictures, so if you want to see some check out Jenn's page.