Happy 4th Birthday Alexander!

Alex with his friends Brian, Kate and Vanessa

Kate, Alex, Abby, Josh, and Vanessa

Abby, rocking out in Vanessa's sunglasses.

Alex stuffing his "biassa" for the party.

Abby in her party dress from Grandpa :)

Who's that big kid wailing on the "biassa"?

Why do I get the sneaking suspicion that every year for the rest of my life, I'll be saying "gosh, the years go by so fast!"??? The saying is true and these kids are growing like little weeds right before our eyes! Alex turned 4 today and is so proud to tell people how old he is. He's been practicing dressing himself and we've been reinforcing to him that this is something four year olds do.

Alex is incredibly inquisitive and likes to play the alphabet game, where he names something that starts with "A", "B", etc. He loves kicking the ball outside and one day may make a great little soccer player. Digging in the dirt is something Alex loves to do too, and he encourages all the neighbor kids to join him in this favorite pasttime. He's a great dancer and all around smart cookie :) Alex loves to entertain Abby and I am convinced they will be best friends forever.

Here are some photos from Alex's birthday party tonight at Settler's Park in Plainfield. This is his favorite park because it has a lake, a bridge, a bike trail, and a cool playground area. He insisted that his "Diego" themed party include a pinata (a.k.a "biassa") so we obliged to this request.

Wedding Day, May 24, 2009

Grandma Dot and I before leaving for the wedding.

"Mom, can I PLEASE ride in the limo with you??"

Here are some photos from Nicole and Andrew's wedding day, Sunday, May 24, 2009. Alex was a ringbearer and did a fantastic job walking down the aisle, posing for photos, and tearing up the dance floor :) We had so much fun all weekend long and were sad to leave Monday morning. On a side note we are hoping Abby gets over her distaste for roadtrips.

Wedding Rehearsal

Saturday afternoon, we had the rehearsal for Nicci and Andrew's wedding. Alex fell asleep on the way to the church, so he napped for a bit while the rest of us "practiced". It was a good thing he slept because their rehearsal dinner was at the Cincinnati Reds game, on the Riverboat deck. Alex loved his first MLB game, especially the fireworks! He especially enjoyed watching the boats go by on the river and would toggle his attention between the game and the boats all night long :)

Dancing Machine

Alex was a dancing machine this weekend at my sister's wedding reception! I guess that nap he took during the ceremony gave him his second wind. As soon as the DJ started playing dance music, Alex was non-stop on the dance floor! At one point he and one of the groomsmen cleared the floor for an impromptu dance-off and I think Alex may have won! He followed the groomsmen around the dance floor all night long, imitating all their moves and trying to get them to mimic his steps. Where did he learn these??

Congratulations Mr. and Mrs. Ivory!!

My sister, Nicole, married Andrew Ivory this weekend in a beautiful ceremony in Cincinnati, OH. Here was the best part of the ceremony. Congratulations Nicci and Andrew!!

Gigglepants

We like to call Alex "gigglepants" but Abby may be a contender for that title as well. No one can make her laugh harder than Alex!!

Spring Concert

Alex's preschool hosted a "Spring Concert" for the 3-year old classes last night at Bicentennial Park in Joliet. He did a fabulous job singing all of the animal related songs he had learned all year long. He really gets into all the movements that go along with each song and sings his little heart out at every show!

Preschool is over until the fall when he'll be in the 4 year old class, although he is taking some classes over the summer to keep busy. Excuse the quality of these photos as the lighting inside the park theater was really dim.

Baby Food

Abby is really starting to like baby food, which is both exciting and messy. So far we've scored big with sweet potatoes, applesauce, and green beans. Today she showed me how she'd prefer to hold the spoon and chew on it more than pay attention to eating!

I had thought Abby was cutting a tooth but no new developments there...

My Dad...

Just to be fair, here are the answers Alex provided to an activity at school titled "My Dad":

My Dad is "really big" tall.

He weighs "60lbs".

He has "red and blue" eyes and "black" hair.

He likes to eat "hamburger". (hmm ,we must eat a lot of hamburger)

My Dad's favorite thing to do is "to play with me".

I love my Dad because "he loves me"!

A Boat at Swim Lessons?

When they first broke out this boat last week at swim lessons, we were all a little confused. But I guess "boat safety" is a part of swim lessons. So, the kids each put on a life jacket (there were only two kids instead of four there last week) and rode around in this big foam canoe. I'm guessing she taught them what to do if they ever fell out of a boat but all Alex remembers is riding around in the cool boat. I can just hear him now if they don't get that boat out again this week...

I included a photo of Alex swimming by himself. Each week he swims farther and farther without holding onto his teacher. It is very exciting!!

Plainfield Spring Fest

He really did enjoy this ride, not sure why he isn't smiling in this one. He kept turning around thinking the kid behind him was going to drive his car into Alex's :)

Alex really enjoyed flying his own rocket ship!

"Sorry Abby, we'll move you out of the sun as soon as we get this shot."

This weekend was the annual Spring Fest in downtown Plainfield. Alex remembered how much fun he had there last year so we took him there again on Sunday. We purchased a few tickets and loved jumping in the inflatables and riding the kiddie rides. The weather was beautiful so it was a great day to just walk around outside.

Abby's Current Fave

Abby's current fave is grabbing her toes and rocking from side to side. I think rolling over is right around the corner...even though Sherri insists she has already rolled from front to back.

Here is a photo of what I thought was going to be a cute outfit and really just resulted in a mess of prints and colors. I'm so desperate to use the super cute summer dresses Abby has that I've resorted to simply putting long-sleeve onesies and pants on underneath them!!

He LOVES Her So Much!

Here's Alex holding Abby, voluntarily.

Here's Alex reading to Abby on his bed, again, unpromted.

Alex has completely come around on Abby. I would bet she will be one of his "best friends" before long. He loves to entertain her, hold her and make her giggle. He knows that when she's sleeping he needs to play quietly. He likes to talk to her while she's in her car seat and he's in his car seat. They are backseat buddies! He does an amazing job calming Abby down and I think it is so sweet :)

End of Year Picnic

Yesterday the weather here was beautiful, just in time for Alex's end of the school year picnic. They had several stations outside where the kids could play tee-ball or soccer. Alex even brought his bicycle and could ride it around the track in the park district stadium (I think this was one of his favorite parts!). We had a picnic lunch then ventured inside where there were inflatables set up in the gym and the gymnastics room was open for the kids to play in as well. Alex had a blast and probably could have stayed in those inflatables all day!

So Strong

Abby's head/neck control is improving each day. She's doing better with tummy time and I have heard a rumor that she even rolled from tummy to her back this weekend! It looks like she has a little tooth poking through on her top gums, but maybe I'm seeing things.

On a side note, Cassie's neck control is of about equal strength. She practices tummy time quite a bit, currently in Abby's headrest that I removed from her car seat for washing.

Mother's Day Tea

Friday was a really fun day for me. I left Abby with my friend Sherri and her daughter Vanessa and got to visit Alex in his classroom at preschool. They had set up a "Mother's Day Tea" for all the Moms and it was so sweet! The kids sang a few songs about Moms and one of his teacher's read a story about the bond between Moms and kids called Love You Forever. By the end of this touching story everyone was in tears and all the kids were staring at us like we were nuts!

Then we planted flowers in a little garden space next to the preschool. Each child marked their flower with a personalized sign and we can check up on the flower throughout the summer. We then had apple juice (kind of like tea???) and looked at all the photos of the moms hanging up around the gym. I'm fairly certain the highlight of the day for Alex was visiting the Book Fair at the end of the morning, where he picked up an I Spy book that is far too challenging for both he and I! Alex made an adorable Mother's Day card with his hand prints and photo on the inside, and I love it.

They also did an exercise days earlier where the teacher's had asked the kiddos questions about their Moms. Then, the teachers read these aloud this morning. They were hilarious! Here are Alex's responses:

My Mom is 35 years old.

My Mom's favorite food is hamburger.

My Mom's favorite thing to do is just play games.

My Mom's favorite color is gray.

My Mom likes to paint.

Alex's responses were actually far less exotic than some of the other kid's descriptions of their Moms. While I did age 7 years in Alex's mind, I appreciate that he thinks my favorite thing to do is "just play games". Some children said their Mom's favorite things to do are laundry, scrub floors, and clean.

We had a wonderful Friday together and it was a lovely start to this Mother's Day weekend!

Tonight At Dinner...

Alex: "Hey Suzanne, can you get me some more apples?"

Me: Laughter

Every once in a while Alex will refer to his Dad as "Bread" but I don't think I have EVER heard him call me Suzanne. It was really quite funny :)

4 Months Old

Remember when she was just this big??

Abby had her 4 month check-up today and is growing up so fast!

Weight: 15.9lbs 88percentile

Height: 25.5" 85percentile

She's a healthy girl and we are looking forward to her becoming more mobile. We'll be watching for her to roll over here in the next few weeks :) She had quite a few shots this morning and has been a bit on the cranky side ever since. I've caught her trying to suck on her thumb lately so we'll see if that becomes a habit. She takes less interest in the pacifiers than she used to and still sleeps a 6hr stretch then a 3 hr stretch at night. Those few "through the night" episodes were just a tease! She goes to bed the best for Brad, who knows just the right way to hold her to get her to nod off. Even tonight when she was fussy at dinner and several adults tried to calm her down, she just needed Daddy's magic touch.

Abby's Version of Swimming

Abby's version of swimming = sitting on Mom's lap on the side, hoping she doesn't get accidentally splashed. Actually today she did get splashed more than the last time we took her with us to the pool, and she tolerated it well. There were a few preschool age little girls who were playing ball with Alex in the water and kept coming over to tickle Abby's toes. It was so cute! Little girls are such "little Moms"! Alex had fun swimming with Dad and practicing his skills from swim lessons.