Picture Recap - Mya

Playing along with one of big sister's ideas.

Mya sitting in her typical crouch. She props one leg up and curls the other underneath her. She turbo crawls to a spot, stops, and immediately goes into the crouch.

She has the habit of watching TV from the weirdest angles. She likes to be right beneath the TV and looking straight up, or sometimes, like in the picture, she crawls way off to the side and has to peak back to watch her show.

This was deja vu all over again. Afton loved to play in the fridge, and she went through a stage where she always wanted to grab the mustard bottle to suck on it. .

Picture Recap - Afton

Cutie! Slowly, and maybe not quite surely, Afton's hair is getting longer. I'm not sure how Stefanie really feels about that, given that Afton generally needs a show and a treat in order to sit still and get her hair fixed. Fixed? Is that what is done to hair? Or is it just "done"? Anyway...

Afton and her "pets"...she gets a favorite (or three) stuffed animal for a period of time and absolutely has to have it when she goes to bed. One night she was being particularly difficult about going to sleep, so I took the large basket holding all of the animals and dumped it on her bed. She wasn't quite sure how to react to it, but luckily it worked and she was soon asleep.

She is seriously into movies. She loves to make towers out of the old VHS movie cases we have. And while watching the movie she wants to hold onto the case. After being hooked on Pocahontas over Christmas/New Years, she's moved on to Mulan and now Monsters, Inc.

Afton is very attentive, focused, and determined. But she is often quite quirky and fun, too. She's getting more and more inventive in the games she plays. I've heard some stories about little girls and their make believe games, and I'm fearing the what lies ahead with Afton in that regard.

Afton Kate Orgill - 2 years and still perfect

A little delayed on the post, but Afton turned two years old last week. I'm not generally a person that gets hung up on birthdays, getting older, fleeting youth, etc., etc...you lose your hair at 20, what does it matter when you turn 30? But on Afton's birthday I spent a lot of time contemplating just how much our lives had changed since she turned our marriage into a family. To say I had no idea how wonderful having a little girl in your house could be would be an understatement on the level of saying Stefanie married up. Below are a few of the "highlights" I've experienced in my first two years as Afton's dad.

Ice Skating

Figured I better get a post up about our family ice skating party since we're going back to do it again tomorrow.

Alison and Rob continued their generous ways and rented the ice skating room/level/floor/place at Noah's for a family Valentine's Day party. I didn't break out the triple salchow for everyone, though. Didn't want all the ice rookies to feel overshadowed. Stef, however, was pretty impressive and after a tenuous start, by the time we were done on the ice Afton could finally bear her weight on the skates.

Stef and Mya enjoying some warm time inside. Mya loves to climb all over couches, so she loved that big leather sectional. She crawls from side to side and giggles, like she's being chased and trying to escape.

Mya and the other babies got their turns on the ice as well, getting pushed along in strollers.

Notice that it is much darker now and all the surrounding lights are on. Alison reserved the room for the entire afternoon and evening. Many of the kids spent almost the entire time out on the ice. Besides skating, we had dinner, watching a few movies (including This Is It...Afton and Mya were of course both glued to it), and the kids exchanged valentines. It was great to see the girls so happy...and to make a Sonic run for some Dr. Pepper.

Poor little Mya Pya

I doubt Mya is going to be a big fan of winter any time soon. This has been a rough, rough season for our little girl. She's gone from H1N1 to various ear infections to a UTI to strep throat to now needing tubes put in her ears. And through all of that she's had teeth coming in, including a few molars over in the last month.

She doesn't have an active infection in either ear at the moment, but each still has lingering fluid that won't drain properly. So she is tentatively scheduled for surgery on the 26th of this month. No fun to see one of your little ones go through a procedure that requires general anesthesia, but we're lucky to be able to get her treatment that hopefully prevents any considerable ear damage. She's loved music so much it'll be fun to see her react to it when she isn't listening under water anymore.

Princess Party

Afton was just about ready to burst from the excitement building up to her princess party for her 3rd birthday. She helped Stefanie through all the planning and prep: picking out princess cupcakes, measuring and cutting streamers, blowing up balloons, setting up the table with princess table settings/tiaras/rings, and testing out the games to be played. When Saturday morning hit she didn't sit still for one minute, anxious for her friends and cousins to show up at 1:30.

Thankfully the party itself didn't disappoint. Stefanie did a great job planning it and all the girls that came were fun and helped Afton have a great birthday. Each girl was dressed in a princess dress and then had a tiara and ring waiting at their place at the table. They first colored and decorated containers to keep their prizes in. Next was a princess guessing game where the girls were given clues from a certain movie and had to guess which princess the clues related to. When they got one right, they won a princess Pez dispenser. The girls then played a modified bean bag toss game, using princess fruit snacks in place of the bean bags. They finished up with cupcakes and presents. Thanks to the parents for letting their girls come to the party.

Afton was giddy about so many things that day. Here she is reacting to the cupcake with a candle coming her way.

Afton was spoiled with a lot of great gifts that she hasn't stopped playing with since the party ended. She had a classic response to opening this signing card. She was so surprised at first, had a big grin, and then closed her eyes and slowly swayed to Ariel singing. She walks around the house opening the card and singing along.

Happily ever after...not quite the ending you hear about in the movies, eh? Afton had looked forward to the party for so long and had so much fun with her friends that she was quite broken up when they had to go home. Glad she had lots of new toys to help distract her from the disappointment.

Three Years Old

Happy third birthday to our sweet little Aftie Paftie!

More to come on the princess party a little later.

Celebrity Biggest Loser

Biggest Loser isn't the only reality show we watch, but apparently it is my favorite one to write about.

I actually didn't know until we got a few episodes into this season that it is apparently a celebrity edition of the show. And not just any celebrities, but kind of an obscure "Where are they now", or rather "What have they been eating?" edition.

Beetlejuice shrunken head dude

Willow

3-6 Mafia

C'mon, admit it...you watched the episode after Migdalia got sent home, heard a 9-1-1 call come from the ranch, and you just knew Miggy had offed somebody in their sleep? We all knew darn well that Black team wasn't going to vote Miggy off...get on the bad side of 3-6 Mafia and diabetes, hypertension, and obesity are the least of your worries. I don't even notice Orange guy's hair in that picture because I avert my eyes out of respect/fear of the Green team.

Don't Say Anything To Me

Afton has developed a creative new way to avoid being told what to do. It usually works something like this:

Afton: "I'm going to go give mommy a kiss and tell her it is wake up time."

Me: "Let mom sleep a little longer. She doesn't have to wake up yet."

Afton: "But I want her to wake up."

Me: "You can wake her up in a little while, just not right now."

Afton: "Don't say anything to me"...[immediately runs out of the room and goes to wake Stef up]

She seems to think that if she can throw out that command and get out of the room before any more directions are given that she has free reign to do whatever she'd like. And sometimes it is just cute enough that she does end up getting to do whatever she wants. The best is when she leaves the room first, then has to peak her head around the corner to say, "Don't say anything to me" because she forgot to say it before running off.