"Syide"

James loves to slide. Every time we drive by a slide he yells "Syide". We took him to the park on Memorial Day and he decided that he wanted to go down the biggest slide. He was very brave and was even landing on his feet so I got the camera to take a video. Here is what happened.

Don't worry, he cried for a couple of seconds, didn't even let Mom give him a hug and ran back to the ladder to go again. He was much more cautious the rest of the day.

These pictures are from the Splash Park on Saturday. James loved it, although it was an unplaned trip so he wasn't really dressed for it.

He didn't really like getting in the water, just splashing in it with his hands and feet.

Allen Family Name (by Doug)

In my opinion one of the best ways to honor your family is to carry on the family name through the generations to come. We can not let the noble name Allen die with this generation. As far as I count (I hope i didn't miss any one) C.K and Dorris Allen would now have 17 great grandchildren, a good posterity which is sure to keep growing. However of all the grandchildren I am the only one that feels it is necessary to carry forth this most noble name of Allen, not once but twice. Grandma and Grandpa I honor you and I am sorry the other grandchildren do not feel it necessary to do the same.

Introducing...Michael David Allen

He's finally here! After waiting almost 40 weeks for this little guy we decided to be induced on Monday. We went to the hospital at 7:30 in the morning, the doctor broke my water about 8 or 8:30 and at 9 they started the pitocin. At about 1 the contractions became unbearable and I had an epidural, that was so nice! I think they were trying to speed things up though and didn't turn up the dose very high, because I still felt almost every contraction and some pain. We found out that it was a record day at the hospital, they had 12 women in labor and only 7 delivery rooms! I am glad we got there first. The doctor came in at about 7:30 to check and found that I was ready to start pushing. While we were waiting for him to get ready we heard the nurses talking in the hall about some of the other patients that were also ready to push, when we asked our nurse about it she said there were 6 women ready to push at the same time. It seemed like a crazy day at the hospital.
Just before the doctor came back in I asked Doug what time it was because I wanted to know how long it took when he was born, it was 7:41. The doctor came in and we started pushing. I think by this time the epidural was almost completely worn off because I could feel everything. Four pushes later at 7:53 we had our little guy, Michael David Allen.
Here are the stats:
Born May 18, 2009
Weight: 7lbs, 11oz
Height: 20 in
He has lots of dark brown hair, and everyone says he looks like James, which I agree with. Because it was so busy they didn't have time to even let the epidural wear off before they moved us to the recovery room, they just wheeled me down the hall in the delivery bed while I was nursing. It was very different.

James got to meet his little brother today. I was positive he would be indifferent to the whole thing, but he was so excited to see him. When Doug held him up he smiled at him and said "Hey, what you doing there?" It was so cute. Then he got to hold him. He loved it!

Soon after this they had to take Michael to the pediatrician to be checked. When he came back James was so excited. He said "My brother" and climbed up on the bed with us. Then he pushed my face toward Michael and said "Kiss" then after I gave him a kiss James gave him a kiss. It was so cute! I can't wait to get him home and see how they do together there!

Loa

Loa joined our family in May or June of 2006. We had her for 3 years and I couldn't imagine how things would be different without her. Sadly a week ago on Monday I let her go out at about 5:00 pm and she never came home. She was wearing tags so I would have thought that someone would have turned her in by now if they were going to, but I am still hopeful that maybe they still will. Some things that I have noticed since she has been gone:

• James is a much messier eater than I thought he was
• I am a much messier cook than I thought I was
• We have to sweep/vacuum much more now
• I miss my afternoon nap with my 40lb lap dog
• The neighbor dog comes over to see if Loa can come play
• The neighbors miss Loa whining at their door to see if their dog can play
• I don't have to worry about who is eating James's snacks

To Infinity and Beyond!

James's favorite move is Toy Story 2. Lately we have had to watch it every day at least once. When I saw him doing this I thought maybe we have seen this movie too many times. For those of you not familiar with the movie here is the part we were watching. I tried to get it without James's voice, but that seems to be impossible!

Now here is what James does every time we watch this part of the movie.

I think his favorite things to say now are: "To Infinity and Beyond!", "Yee-Haw!", and "You are a toy!"

Adventures in a Big Boy Bed

James loves sleeping in his crib and he has always been a great sleeper. But now that he's two and he is going to have a little brother in three weeks or less we decided to make the switch over to a big boy bed. We knew we were going to have our hands full, since he never sleeps anywhere but his crib, no matter how hard we have tried. So we took everything out of his room that he could play with, shut the closet door, got his mattress ready on the floor (he's a pretty wild sleeper) and decided to see what happens. So here's how the past two nights have gone:
Wednesday:
8:00-change diaper, put on pajamas, say prayers on our new bed
9:30-He's been quiet for a while so we go to check if he needs to be moved to his bed. He is standing in the middle of the floor, there are diapers and wipes everywhere and he looks tired. We put him back in bed and he makes the saddest face, but he is brave and doesn't cry.
10:30-We haven't heard anything for a long time so we know he's asleep. We go in, move him from the floor to his bed and go to sleep.
On Thursday I go and buy a night light and a lock for the changing table door.
Thursday night:
8:00-change diaper, put on pajamas, say prayers on our new bed
9:00-He's been playing for the past hour so I go to check on him. He's playing with the night light and has a poopie diaper. So we change the diaper (again), say our prayers (again) and get in bed (again).
10:00-We are exhausted, James is still playing. We go to check on him. He is sitting in his rocking chair talking to the night light. We take the rocking chair out of the room and unplug the night light. Turn on the closet light and close the closet door. Put him back in bed and get ready for bed ourselves.
10:30- I hear knocking on the wall or a door or something followed by "come in". After a few minutes we hear the sounds of a recorder being played. He has gotten the closet door open and found some toys to play with. We put the toys out of reach, close the door, put a baby gate up and put him back in bed.
10:40-He has been quiet for a while when we hear a loud thud, but no crying. So I go to check to see what happened. James is laying in bed almost asleep. A toy had fallen off the closet shelf. So I quietly leave.
11:00- James is finally asleep, in his bed! Too bad he woke up at 6:30 this morning, he is a grumpy boy! How long does it usually take for a kid to get used to sleeping in a big boy bed? I guess we should have started earlier when I had more energy to do this.

James's Birthday

James had such a fun birthday. He still sings "Happy Birthday to you" then asks for cake. After he woke up in the morning he got to go have breakfast at McDonald's with Dad, because Mom had a doctor's appointment. We also went to the library for story time, but pretty much got kicked out because James wouldn't sit still! When Dad got home from work we had dinner with Uncle Tim, Cousin Mari and Uncle Blake then played outside for a while then we opened presents and had cake. I think cake was his favorite part.

We got him this golf set just so he would have something to open, it ended up being his favorite toy!

Opening a present from Grammy

It was a cowboy hat like Woody's!

Birthday cake

It was really yummy!

On Saturday my Dad was in town and came to visit with Chad and his family. Granddad brought more presents for James to open, and because it was Chad's birthday we got to have more cake!

Opening his Woody doll, he gets a little scared when it talks!
The next morning we had to watch Toy Story 2 with Woody and our hat!