Alna and the Girl in the Window

We have really tried to stay busy this week, trying to keep my mind of having/not having Hudson and keeping Alden entertained. She has been waking up between 6:15 and 6:45 lately which is NUTS. I am about to go crazy. We even got a room-darkening shade...I think the next strategy is a noise machine. Maybe it is all the birds starting to chirp at 3:45, maybe it is because she knows how to open the door now, but it is KILLING mom, even with Grammy letting me go back to sleep a few mornings a week.

Auntie Ashley was here Monday-Thursday, and Alden had a great time playing with her. She was really sad when Ashley had to head back to Boone. Ashley just finished her last summer school session and is officially a graduate! She is looking for jobs, and may end up back this way when her lease runs out at the end of the month. I don't think my parents would have ever expected to have such a full house!

We hit the Eva H. Perry library in Apex for story time on Monday, and the Holly Springs library on Wednesday. HS was packed, and nutso. We may not venture back for that one, although I may get desparate for things to do. We walked down to the park by the pool a few mornings, too, and met some new friends, a girl named Meredith and her daughter Syndey. Alden came home and was doing this little dance/signing "friend" telling Grammy about her new buddy. I wonder if she misses her little buddies in Charlotte. Probably. I sure do. Alden walked the WHOLE way back from the park one of the days. It is probably close to half a mile, at least. I kept thinking that she would get tired, but nothing doing. She did take a good nap that afternoon.

I had a doctor's appointment on Tuesday, and really like Dr. Henderson, who I met for the first time. I hope that he will be on when I deliver Alden. Things are holding steady, and I had dilated a little more...2-3 cm, and 50% effaced. It is SOME progress, but obviously doesn't mean anything is happening soon. Hudson still hasn't really dropped very much. I am trying to just think of him coming late, and if God in his mercy allows him to come early, I will be VERY thankful and surprised. I go back this week or Thursday, a day before my due date. Hopefully, I will have had him by then...They said they will probably start talking about induction 7-10 days after the due date. Hopefully, we won't be going down that road again.

Wednesday, Grammy, Amber, Ashley, Alden and I went out to lunch together. Alden really enjoyed throwing coins in the fountain.
Thursday, Mom and I endured the process of getting Alden's two-year old pictures done. We ended up with a couple good ones, which is a miracle, and no huge fits. However, there was a little bit of drama over a feather that was on one of the backdrops. Apparently, we are terrified of feathers.

Friday, we picked up Matt for lunch and went to Chick-Fil-A for Cow Appreciation Day. We all dressed up like cows, and got our free meals, which was AWESOME. We were surprised that there weren't more people taking advantage of it. Alden got a lot of attention in her costume, and I think Matt and I got some strange glances.

Alden has come up with some funny things this week. She refers to herself as "Alna" and sometimes "Alna Wyatt". When she does something great, she'll go "Yay, Alna!"

She has identified her reflection in the windows in the kitchen, which you can really only see when it gets dark. She talks about the "girl" and likes to see that she is having goldfish and peanut butter before bed, and thinks she is "noight-noight" if she can't see her in the morning. Alden even noticed her reflection in the oven, and said "Hi, Girl!" If you ask her the girl's name, she does know that it is "Alna". Is it kind of freaky that she is that interested in her reflection in the window? It seems like something from a scary movie.

Yesterday, she was playing with the old Fisher-Price Little People and loaded up a bunch of people in the boat and says"Bye, I'm going to the lake"! I don't know where she came up with that, but when I asked what they were doing there, she replied "Gol, gol"...which is how Alden refers to fish or fishing. I don't know if she will ever say "fish". A few minutes later she says "Bye, I'm going gol-gol" and then she tells me the people are having a "nic-nic". She set up the little Fisher-Price picnic set, and I asked her what they were eating. She had one of the baby people on the grill, and answered "bee-bees". Hmmm. That sounded like something my dad would have suggested, but it turns out she came up with the cannibalistic, baby-eating people all on her own. Hmmm.

We tried a Calvary Church this weekend, after trying the Baptist church last weekend. Still don't feel like we have found "the one" and are still perservering in the church search. Alden saw that this nursery had a Brio train set and practically jumped out of my arms to get in. She has been really good about trying "new churches" and meeting "new friends". We ran some errands this afternoon and took Alden to the park. On our walk tonight, she was singing a very creative song about her boo-boos and bug bites. She can sing "baa,baa black sheep" kind of...at least you can identify what it is supposed to be. And she loves for us to sing the "Giddy-up and Ride Your Pony" song from the tiny tot praise video when she rides her bouncy horse here.