I think I need a laser light!

Grandpa Miller had a red laser light that seemed to keep both Ansel and Lexi entertained! 

Mommy's "helper"

It's no secret that Ansel likes to be Daddy's helper when it comes to tool time.. but he likes to help in the kitchen too. Anytime I'm cooking he has to pull a chair over to see what's going on. Here he's helping make waffles and "stirring" up the dry ingredients with the teaspoon. Most of it stayed in the bowl!

Buddies

Ansel really likes his puppy... (still a little too much at times, but they're getting a little better around each other!) Ansel really likes to be the one to hold her leash when we take her on walks. They pretty much take turns pulling each other along. She'll start running when we're getting close to home, which nearly takes Ansel out even though she's 6lbs. 6 oz.(went to the vet yesterday for shots) and he's 22lbs! Yeah, that makes it hard to teach her how to "heel", but they have fun. She's very good at sitting when told, but we're still working on the other ones!
Another way I can tell Ansel likes Lexi is that he'll let her sit in his Thomas the Train chair without moving her. Even if we just lay our head on the chair he'll try to push us off.. (and he really gets possessive with it if another kid tries to sit in it) but he hasn't seemed to mind her sitting there. Lexi will sometimes sit there patiently while Ansel's holding her, but sometimes she'll give us the "please rescue me" look (As seen in the picture above). Despite that though, I think she likes him too. When she wakes up in the morning she'll run to his room door to see if he's up yet. Speaking of sleeping.. quite often I'll find her sleeping on her back! ( shown below....looks kind of funny!)

The whole vet experience was a little new for me. The weirdest part was that Lexi was suddenly my "baby" that everyone was going crazy about and the people there hardly seemed to notice Ansel at all (which was completely different from usual!) They'd even tell her "wait for momma" (again.. referring to Lexi, not Ansel.) I know this is quite common in the pet owner world.. but I guess I'm just not used to some aspects of it yet! The funniest part about the trip though was the huge red dog who was terrified of Lexi, and would whimper and scurry under the chair trying to further their distance from each other! (Lexi was just sitting there, not barking at all or anything. The dog's owner said she's just scared of little dogs for some reason!)

In this picture.. I thought it was kind of funny how Ansel and Lexi are pretty much making the same face. They definitely have some similarities going on : she was a runt.. he was a little 2 pounder; they both are potty training (and doing pretty well with it); they both beg for junk food but don't want to eat their real food; they both get overly excited when they're playing together (and learning boundaries and proper behavior!); and I think they both get jealous of each other when it comes to getting attention! I think in the long run though they'll grow up to be good buddies!

*A note about the umbrella picture: it was raining on our walk the other day, so Ansel lost interest in holding the leash and decided he wanted the umbrella. It looked so funny.. All you could see was this blue umbrella walking around (and sometimes at the right angle you could see little blue shoes to go with it!

Our first family pet

Well, it was kind of random (we weren't out looking around or even thinking about getting any dogs), but I came across this one through a good friend. We named her Lexi, and she's half Boston Terrier half Pug (the mix is known as bugg dogs! Kind of funny..) She's about 9 weeks old. Ansel's pretty excited about her.. although they both get a little too excited sometimes and clash a little. I think it'll be good for him once they adjust to each other a little better!

Let's pray little Alexa safely home!

Well, I'd briefly mentioned on a post awhile back that we had some friends who had a little preemie girl. The time has come where they hopefully are not too far away from getting to take her home.. actually they've had plans to go home several times over the past couple of weeks. However, new challenges keep arising, and the date keeps getting pushed back further.

I remember being in their place.. it seemed like Ansel's departure date always seemed to get pushed back a little for one reason or another. Then, just a couple of days after we got home with him, he and I both got the flu.. very scary for a little guy who's already dependent on oxygen. He had a few spells where he'd go limp and blue (even on the oxygen) so we rushed him back to the hospital where he spent another three weeks (back in the NICU) trying to recover so we could try to go home again. At that time when all those things were happening for us, I really believe that the prayers of so many people in our behalf helped give us the strength and patience we needed (and the help Ansel needed to get stronger!) I read comments from people I'd never even met (friends of friends and friends of family members all over the country) and it amazed me how intently people who didn't even know us would pray for us and give us their support.

So, I wanted to ask all my friends and family who might read this (I know some of you know Trevor and Melissa and have them in your prayers already!) but for those who don't... if you could remember this little family in your prayers tonight, that'd be great. We've also been praying that the doctors can figure out what is the cause of Alexa's breathing and heart rate episodes so she can be treated correctly and that when she does go home, she'll be strong and ready for it! I'm sure they'll greatly appreciate any extra support! If you want to check out cute little Alexa, her blog is: http://alexapetersen.blogspot.com. Thanks everyone!

Memorizing puzzles

Ansel has this new car puzzle that he really likes. He's getting pretty quick at it.. (I think he pretty much just remembers where all the cars go). The first video is kind of funny because it show a little of his somewhat obsessive/compulsive side.. all the cars must be facing down before he can start it (add a little challenge I guess.. who knows?) He's very particular about certain things. He likes playing with some toys in pairs.. ones that have a connection to each other (two similar bikes, or two vehicles from the cars movie, etc.. Some other things are: he's obsessed with making sure the toilet lids are down (anywhere we go.. not just at home) He's also very particular about things having their "place" and will make sure some things are put away where he thinks that place should be.(It's usually a fairly logical place too) Don't get me wrong.. this can come in very handy too. He's pretty good about picking up toys, putting trash in the trash, and stuff like that. It's just a little funny sometimes.
Anyway, in the second video he does it how he usually does.. fairly quick (less than 50 seconds)..

My big boy

We're doing lots of big boy things right now. We finally got the crib taken down a couple of weeks ago and set him up in a twin bed. (We don't have a lot of storage space.. so we thought we'd just pass on the toddler bed.. one less thing to store later!) He loves it! He's done really well with it too. . . He'll wait until I come in the room in the morning and after nap time to get off (I'll hear him calling "Momma!") It's funny that he does that since he is always climbing off and on it throughout the day!

We're also potty training right now.. fun fun. He's doing all right. He's actually a lot better with going number 2 on the potty than number one. He'll do it all by himself (pretty much all the time) whether I'm in the room or not, and then bring me the little bowl insert from the potty chair and proudly yell "big one!" Then he'll run off and dump it in the real toilet and flush. With peeing though.. he gets it about half of the time, the other half is either holding out for a diaper or an accident. (and the times he is actually sitting on the potty it doesn't always go in!! Apparently there are aiming issues even when you teach sitting down to start with!) His main problem.. which can be a good thing too though, is that he'll hold it way too long. (Even though he'll sit on the potty pretty much at any time.. he just won't go until he REALLY has to.. so then he won't always make it.) The first couple of days he didn't have but maybe one accident.. but he didn't go at all in the potty either. (He'd hold it from when he got up until nap time.. (still use a diaper there) and then from nap time until bed time.. crazy! One time I caught him starting to spray (hardly anything) so I rushed and set him on the potty.. I guess it scared him because then he wouldn't go and held it a whole hour more! So he definitely has the "physically able to hold it" part down! He did actually ask me though to go potty (on the big toilet) when we were getting him ready for bed (and he even had a diaper on already!) That was exciting progress, and, I guess made up for the fact that he peed on me earlier when we were snuggling!

Here's a bunch of pics to go along with it... (new bed.. big boy pants, etc..) There's also one of him "nuggling" his monkey doll. (We're babysitting a cute little four month old baby right now.. so he's getting some big kid practice there too!) Oh, and the picture of him holding the baby is actually of him and his cousin Braden (not of the baby we're watching). Isn't Braden so cute!? Bright blue eyes just like Ansel.
We also, finally, found a bike helmet that fit him! (Thanks to Target for carrying a 12 month size!) He doesn't like it much though, and would much rather play with Daddy's helmet. The other "hat" he's wearing in one picture was brand new out of the package.. I promise. We showed him pretty quick that it really wasn't a Bob hat! Also, the smallest underwear we could find were 2T... so I read up and found out which one's ran the smallest. They actually stay up too! (which is very exciting seeing as how I have to put 9 month shorts on him if I don't want them to fall down!) They're a little baggy.. but hey, thankgoodness for the great elastic!
Ansel "fixed" the changing table while we took down the crib.