We have this little stool we use for Alyssa’s time out’s.  The way it goes is that when she needs a time out we have her sit on the stool facing the wall and then we count to 30 aloud.  She usually sits there calmly and waits until we get to 29 and then turns her head around to confirm we’re almost to 30.  In general she seems very good with knowing the order of numbers.  She can count all by herself in order from 1 to 10 (not in association with time out).

Well, anyway, today I was doing the dishes and she was playing with her dolls.  She had them all around her and was feeding them a baby bottle, too cute.  But, then the next thing I knew she picked up one of them and set it on her time out stool.  I was about to tell her not to play with her time out stool, but then it was just so cute because she began counting from 1 to 10.  When she got to 10 (probably because it’s the highest she can count – she’s only 21 months so give her a break! lol) she picked up the doll and hugged her.  So at least she got all the steps down to the time out process.  Sit down, count, get up & get a hug.  I got a little bit of it on video…it’s not as cute as the first time she did it because the first time she stood there watching her doll and counted from 1 to 10, but you can hear her counting in bits and pieces.

I knew there was a more practical reason for why I wanted a girl first than just to play dress up.

You can see the play kitchen she got for Christmas in some of these pictures. 

Our church was cancelled on Christmas Sunday because of the snowy weather.  It was unfortunate, but for the best because the roads were very unsafe.  In fact most or maybe all of the churches in the area were cancelled.  On a side note, we did actually make it to the Christmas Eve service with the help of a 4-wheel drive friend which was good because Luke and I both had major parts in the service.  He led the music and I was in the reader’s theatre group that was presenting the Christmas Story.

This past Sunday our church held a make-up day where we had the Christmas Potluck and the kids sang their Christmas songs.  It was my first time leading a kids choir or any choir for that matter.  It was fun, but I felt like a dork because I actually forgot some of the words to one of the songs, ah well.

We had the nursery kids ringing bells up on stage for Come On Ring Those Bells.  Alyssa stood in front of one of her favorite friends Joeli. 

She looks pretty freaked out at first, but then warms up when Joeli helps her ring her bells!

The group shot…of course her eyes are closed!  lol

Alyssa is learning to generalize and Luke’s not liking her most recent generalization.

Tights!  as in “Pitty Tights”

Tights!  As in “Daddy’s Tights”

Luke is attempting to make her call his “tights” aka: thermal underwear – Man Pants!

Alyssa is at that age where she is learning faster than we can keep track. For example, one day she couldn’t do puzzles on her own and the next she could do all three of her puzzles with no problem.

Today I was upstairs folding clothes (what a great homemaker I am!) and Alyssa was working on a little fishy puzzle that Grandma Coco had bought for her. Each fish is a different color and I noticed all of the sudden that she was saying some of the colors as she was putting them in the puzzle! Where did she learn that? I certainly didn’t teach her the colors. I had tried to teach her a couple of months ago but she didn’t quite get it then. Maybe she just spent the last couple of months absorbing what I taught her :)

Anyway, here is a video we shot this morning to document her progress in recognizing her colors:

Don’t pay too much attention to her outfit. I was just having her try on some new clothes she just got.

We truly live in a winter wonderland here in Washington.  The snow has been amazingly beautiful, although we have mixed feelings as to if we really enjoy being snowed in for two entire weeks!  Luckily one of my friends came to pick me up with her huge 4 wheel drive truck to take me to the grocery store and to get a Christmas tree.  We also walked into town one day which was a fun adventure.  We’ll have to get chains for our car, but last we heard everyone was sold out.

We made the best of it and built a snowlady (while the kids were sleeping). We made faces on both sides so that we could enjoy it from our picture window and our neighbors could enjoy it from the street side. :)  On our side we had rocks for a face and on the street side we used Alyssa’s left over hotdogs…well until the neighbor dog came and ate the face off the next day. Oh and a waffle for a hat too.

There was actually so much snow that Alyssa didn’t seem to like it much, probably because it was almost bigger than her!  We plopped her in the snow and it was almost up to her waist (and that was before it snowed several more inches later in the week!).

The snow covered our cars (yes those are our cars!) and our front porch had snow all the way up to the bottom of the window!  The 2nd picture below was after it started melting…you can see ice forming below the window.

Oh and the new snow almost completely covered the snowman we built!

The ice was really cool!  We went around the entire house jumping up and knocking them off for fun and of course tasting them along the way.

Alyssa began talking in plurals this week!  Her language development amazes me, although oddly enough it seems to be Luke who points out all of her new developments and then says something like “who’s the speech therapist?! ”  She wears this shirt sometimes to remind me. :)   I had a hard time getting a good picture of this shirt but it says “Watch what you say, my mom’s an SLP”  Two of my speechie coworkers/friends gave it to me for Alyssa’s baby shower.

The other day Luke and Alyssa were in our room (which, by the way, is almost back to normal after our flood) and while she was on our bed playing she looked up at the wall behind her and said “moooovies!”  Yep, you could say that Alyssa!

She’s come a long way with that word by the way.  She started out saying “meat” – meaning movie.   Then when we emphasized  “moo – vie” she looked at us and smiled, but wouldn’t say it at all for a couple of weeks.  And then all of a sudden she started saying it like a cow sound - “mooovie”  oh, and then of course recently added the “s.” 

She can also say the “k” sound too which I think is pretty cool.  So now she can say “book” instead of “boop.”

It’s the little things in life that are special sometimes.   

Many people might not know this, but I am pretty much blind.

I don’t remember how old I was when I was fitted for glasses, but I was little.  But old enough to still remember how much I hated them.  The lenses were so thick in the frame that one side almost touched my face.  They were so heavy that they left indents in my nose.  I hated them. 

I couldn’t wait until I was in the 7th grade so that my parents would allow me to get contacts.  7th grade arrived and I remember being so excited as I waited in the Lyon Contact Lens Center.  I was told I should get a pair of glasses as a back up plan, but I just couldn’t force myself to do it until more recently.  Actually as I sit here typing this blog I’m wearing my glasses, but I seldom wear them.  Mostly for late night blogs or early morning Alyssa issues. Otherwise I’m 99% of the time wearing my contact lens’s.

I love my contacts.  I need my contacts.  I’m not sure what I would do without my contacts!

Anyway, the reason I mention all of this is because of a voice mail I received today.  It actually began yesterday.

I received a phone call from the Lyon Contact Lens Center about a special deal they are offering right now on new lens’s.  I sadly let them know that I wouldn’t be able to come anymore because I moved to Washington. 

Side Note: The Lyon Contact Lens place is in Anaheim.  My parents live about an hour away and they are faithful customers.  When I moved to San Diego I was still a faithful customer.  While I would love to continue to commute there, I don’t think I’ll be able to anymore.

Today I received a voice mail from Bill Lyon, owner of Lyon Contact Lens.  I recognized his voice right away – you would too.  His voice is warm, chipper and friendly.  I saved the message because I want to be able to listen to it again.  It was such a nice message.  I was going to paraphrase, but I really thought I wasn’t doing it justice so I transcribed my voicemail.  Here is what he said:

“Well Sabrina Hi, it’s Bill Lyon at Lyon Contact Lens and I just realized here that not only are you in Redmond Washington, but that you have found a doctor out of state and what I wanted to do was just thank you for the past 10 plus years you have been a patient here. You and your mom are delightful and God Bless you and thank you for the years you have been so loyal to us and if you need us in the future you let us know. I’ll be your plan B and if I don’t hear from you I’ll assume that somebody up in Washington is taking real good care of you so thank you so much and Merry Christmas and Happy New Year and thanks again for all the years you have been with us okay? We’re going to close your file and if anything changes in the future I’m a good soldier.  Alright sweety? God Bless.”

I’m not really looking forward to making a contact lens appointment here in Washington because the bar is set pretty high and I’m positive they won’t be able to match it.  But it will have to do for now. 

I just had to blog about my experience to give him kudos for being such a nice and friendly person and eye specialist.  And most importantly sharing the love of Jesus with every patient.  I have not enough words to say how much I have enjoyed my experience at his office.

I could not write this blog and not mention this…

If you are at all interested in contact lenses you should definitely check out the Lyon Contact Lens Center - you will not be disappointed.

Here is the phone number and a link to their website:

http://www.lyonlens.com/home.htm

(714) 979-9747

"To reach out to the community in Jesus' name, to love, minister, encourage and help people by showing that we care for more than just their eyes."