Someone Sign Him Up For Yoga

Alex loves doing Yoga with Grandma Kathy. Tonight he was showing her the Wii Fit Yoga games and they were practicing them together. I always ask him if he wants to try Preschool Yoga and he says no, but I think he'd do well at it :)

The Big 3-0!

It was great to see the sun in Nevada. We could have stood out there all day and soaked it up!
Posing outside the the roller coaster at NY-NY. This seemed like a great idea at the time, until we all realized we hadn't been on anything other than a kiddie coaster in years. I screamed like a little baby and was terrified. I think we were all shaking when we got off this ride. What will we do if one day Alex wants to ride the big coasters at Cedar Point??

The Bellagio and the dancing fountains at night. We took this photo from the restaurant across the street on Friday night. Every 15 minutes or so the fountains danced to a different tune. It was beautiful.

Random Willie Nelson sighting at the Bellagio casino.

Friday night at Mon Ami Gabi with Dave and Becca.

Brad and I spent Thursday and Friday nights in Las Vegas with our dear friends Dave and Becca who flew out from Houston. It was great to see them and catch up while celebrating the big birthday with Brad. Brad's mom and grandma were kind enough to agree to tend to the little ones while we were gone and we are forever grateful! Happy 30th Birthday Brad! We all love you and your funny ways :) Here's to the next 30 fun-filled years! You'll have to let me know what 30 is like.

Ahhhh

A little "ice butter" for Alex's bread.
Happy early 30th to you Brad!

The little bookworm.

Wednesday night we went to dinner with Brad's Mom and Grandma to celebrate his birthday a few nights early. We weren't sure how the kids would do as it was a slightly nicer restaurant and a little later than we usually take them to dinner. However, they both were on their best behavior and we were so impressed!

Alex entertained himself by spooning ice chips from his water glass onto slices of fresh bread and then tipping them into his mouth. He'd follow this with an audible, "ahhh" each time. It was quite funny. Later Gigi gave Alex a pen and he drew pictures of animals all over the disposable white paper covering. Abby just sat and read her stack of books, what else would she do?!

We Are So Full Of...Proudness

Here's Abby doing some light reading about babies (what else?) in the junior IKEA chair. Scooter is generally occupying the adult size one so she sticks with this chair. I love that she can climb up there but only get out by basically flipping the whole chair forward. She doesn't hurt herself, but gets angry every time that it flips. She really enjoys her books. After bath we just leave her in her room while we get Alex ready for bed and she sits on the floor surrounded with her books.

Abby's always ready to eat. She walks over to her booster seat and stands there moving her mouth up and down in a chewing motion and fusses until we sit her in the chair. In her mind it is always meal time, or snack time, or bottle time, or just sit in the booster and watch a movie time.


Abby is much happier this week. She did not cry at Baby Boomers this morning, instead she was incredibly social and playful. I still did not sign her up for another session of this class and think we'll wait a few months until she's old enough to appreciate it all a bit more.

Alex has asked to play soccer again in the Spring and while we were surprised that he wanted to sign up, we will continue to encourage any of his interests. He continues with his ice skating and is doing marvelous with all aspects of the sport. He has been moved up to the next level for the next session. I believe this takes him from "intro" to "basic".

The title of this blog post is from Alex's current favorite movie, Surf's Up. He's also enjoying renting the kids movies each week from the movie store. Max and Ruby is a show on Nickelodeon (which we do not get on TV) but there are several DVDs of the show which Alex loves to watch.

He's Back!

Alex is back to his old self and we couldn't be happier! The doctor put him on an antibiotic three days ago for an ear infection and his fever has been dropping ever since. Today it was finally gone and we are all relieved. Tomorrow is ice skating and he is really excited to go! Thanks to all of you for the well-wishes while he was sick.

Valentine's Day

Aunt Jackie escaped "Snowmageddon" in D.C. this weekend to visit us in sunny Chicago! Abby, of course, loved the extra attention :)

Fever, fever go away, come again another day! We are all hoping Alex's fever breaks soon! Needless to say we didn't venture far from home this weekend but appreciated the extra company from Aunt Jackie at the kids recovered from whatever is bugging them. Abby is seemingly on the up and up and Alex continues to fight a fever from last week.

Tech Genius or Poor Supervision?

You be the judge!

Guess He Was Tired!

After Abby woke up from her nap today, Alex came upstairs to see what we were doing. A few minutes later, he was in his room, curtains drawn, under the covers telling me he thought he needed a nap. He asked me to shut the door and leave. Sure enough, he's sound asleep. Let's hope he's just tired and not getting the sickness that Brad and Abby had!

**Updated: He did indeed have a fever when he woke up and much of the night but did not get as sick as I did during the overnight hours. By morning we were both on the up and up!**

Buddies

Cassie (left) and Scooter both fit on a windowsill at one time.

I came across this old photo tonight of Cassie and Scooter, taken a few months after we adopted baby Scooter. See, there was indeed a time when Cassie was the big cat on campus!

Clap, Clap, Clap

Dining on toast and Ritz crackers

Today Abby clapped. For the first time. I don't know why clapping took so long, but it just wasn't high on her list of things to do. Today she also woke up sick, like stomach bug sick, with her Daddy not far behind her. Hopefully they are both on the up and up tomorrow!

Accessorizing

Under no circumstance is this an acceptable outfit for Chicago winters. At least her ears will be warm!

Sometimes she adds gloves just for extra fun.

This is how she started out this morning. As you can see, we had to lose the footie pajamas in order to add shoes to her outfit. Alex started to get into this game as well, pulling out all of Brad's winter gear to try on.

Abby takes accessorizing to a whole new level! I don't know what she is going to do when we pack up the basket of hats and gloves. She knows where we keep the shoes and loves carrying them around and having us put them on her. Currently, she is obsessed with wearing Alex's hats. She will wear them for 10-15 minutes before moving on to the next. It is hilarious. Today she started shaking her head yes and no, totally caught us off guard and was really cute.

First Meal At The New Table

Our old kitchen table was a hand me down from friends in TX who had outgrown it in 2004. The chairs had finally started cracking and we had just about outgrown it as well. Alex was thrilled that we picked out a table with a bench on one side and chairs on the other sides. One chair is missing as we await a replacement but we don't need that one on a daily basis anyway!

Mom and Alex Take On Chuck E Cheese

All that practicing on Wii Carnival Games really paid off for him today!

This ride lets you simulate being a horse jockey. It was huge!

This Barney ride was in the baby section. I'm not sure why he wanted to ride it so bad.

This monster truck ride was actually kind of rough and both Alex and Brian were holding on for dear life not to fall out of the thing as it lurched up and down.

The much tamer carousel.

After school today, I took Alex to Chuck E Cheese to celebrate his friend Kate's 5th birthday. He had been one other time when he was about 2 and was terrified of everything there. Today was a whole other story as he couldn't wait to try all the games and moving rides. Breaking for lunch was a total inconvenience for him :) It was really nice to spend some quality time with Alex, even just for a couple of hours. I think he appreciated having my undivided attention while we were there and Abby probably had more fun at home with the sitter.

Creative Movement Class

Hanging in her new stroller, reading books.
Peeking in Alex's classroom.

Roaming the halls at the Y.

Marching on the balance beam. He was mortified that I came in to take photos of him. He said "Mom, I told you no pictures today!"

Through the tunnel with ease!

Once a week Alex has Creative Movement class at the Y. He used to go when he was younger then we took a little time off from it. Now that it is winter again, it is a great energy release for him. While he runs off some steam in the gym, Abby runs the halls of the Y to practice her walking skills. We have snack and then she wanders the halls some more, making lots of friends along the way.

13 Months Young

Abby turned 13 months young today. She's getting so tall and is starting to try and run instead of just walk. Her hair is growing little by little and is generally pretty crazy. She'll entertain the thought of bows once in a while but for the most part she just has wild hair. She loves to sit and read books, carry her babies around, and do whatever Alex is doing. Her best friends are Alex and the cats and her hobbies include sleeping, snacking, and riding the roller coaster :) She currently has 3.5 teeth but tries to eat like she has 20.

One On One Time

We read lots of books these days. Mainly books featuring animals and babies. Abby will bring them right up to us and sit down to read them.

This little move did not end well for either Scooter or Abby. She put her entire body weight on him and was literally laying on top of him to pet and cuddle him. He tolerated it for a surprisingly long time before letting her know that this was not nice.

Abby and I had a little one on one time tonight while Brad took Alex to the Science Fair at his preschool. As you can see from the above photos, we were very busy reading and giving the cats lots of attention. One of these days I'll have to get a photo of her crawling completely under our bed to try and catch Cassie.

The Science Fair was a series of hands-on experiments featuring "real life scientists" (according to the flyer) and was sponsored by ExxonMobil. Alex brought home a bag of slime and his right hand is completely green. I think they had a good time :)

What We've Been Up To...

Over the weekend Alex had another ice skating class. He is getting to be very confident and this was the first week that he did not need to hold the instructor's hand on the ice. Grandma "I-Ween" (Eileen) was here visiting and Alex was eager to show her what a good skater he has become. He had quite the cheering section this week in the bleachers! Later in the day we went furniture shopping for a new kitchen table and out to dinner. Sunday was the big stair race and we thank Grandma Eileen for babysitting!

This morning Abby had her Baby Boomers gym class and she made a few little friends :) She was much more willing to run around and play with the other babies this week and did not cry once! We are already looking forward to next Monday!