Activities

I just thought I would add a slide show of our recent activities. Last Friday (my birthday), we went to the last Wizards home game. Collin plays soccer and I thought he might enjoy seeing a professional soccer game (it has been about three years since we've been to a Wizards game). It was so cute because he thought the soccer game was my birthday party (since he went to the Royals game for his birthday). He thanked me for inviting him to my party! So cute! Before the soccer game, they had some games for the kids to play. Alana loved kicking the soccer ball.

On Sunday, we went over to my dad's. We went to Missouri town and the kids got to feed the Buffalo and Elk some carrots. We also went to Missouri Town's fall festival. Alana got to walk on stilts (with her grandpa's help) and Collin got to experience some archery. We also took a hayride and watched the many demonstrations they had going on. It was a lot of fun.

The last pictures are of Alana sleeping on the couch. We are struggling with naps right now. Over the summer, I made her take a nap. Partly because she was used to napping in the orphanage and I wanted to maintain that routine, but mainly because I needed some quiet time! After Collin went back to school, I started experimenting with keeping her up all day. Every once in a while I will make her take a nap and she usually won't cooperate. However, I still really feel like she needs naps -- at least occasionally. She gets so wild and out of control in the evening when she doesn't nap. She also seems to be more clumsy and falls down a lot more resulting in much more drama. I feel really stuck right now, because she usually refuses to go to sleep when I do put her down. However, her behavior (and my patience) really suffer when she doesn't nap. On Monday, she fell asleep when watching a movie on the couch. She only napped for about 10-15 minutes and was probably more cranky after taking her power nap than she would have been otherwise. Oh well, I guess we'll get all of this figured out someday!