Laura

Laura is 9 years old, and is in 4th grade. She plays the piano grudgingly, but she does a great job. Her great love is soccer, especially playing defense. She only wishes the season lasted longer. Laura has joined the school choir and has to be at school an hour early 2 days each week. She takes responsibility for making sure she is up and ready on time. Laura's special talent is being a helper.

Amy

Amy turns eight years old in November and is looking forward to being baptized on December 3rd. She started taking karate lessons this year, and she loves it. She has also become a very good reader, and she's been teaching herself to play some Christmas songs on the piano (because she does NOT want to take lessons--that's too much work). If Amy could have a whole day to do whatever she wanted, she would spend it playing video games. Amy's special talent is sharing.

Everyone Loves Alex

Alex is just a fun, and funny kid. He's 4 1/2, and just started preschool in September. He has learned to write his name, and he loves to show that off.
For the 4th of July, our family got matching blue M&M shirts. Now, usually Alex is a Thomas the Train sort of guy, but he fell in love with his M&M shirt--mostly because he liked matching others in the family. Even if he'd dressed in something else for the day, he ran off to get his M&M shirt if anyone else in the family was wearing theirs. He loved pulling everyone's out of their drawers and closets and counting them. And it has been a shirt that he digs out of the laundry basket to put on, whether it's dirty or clean.
He has also become fascinated with pinatas (something he learned from Handy Manny). At Halloween, he decided his plastic pumpkin looked like a pinata, so he filled it with candy and small toys and figured out how to hang it from the swingset. Using a stick, he swung until it tipped over and spilled the toys.
It snowed early in November, and that was his signal that it was time to pull out the Christmas train. So every day, 7-12 times per day (sometimes more) he asks if we can get the train out. We told him we'd do it after Amy and Callie's birthdays, and after Thanksgiving. So now he asks if we can celebrate Amy's birthday today. I think we need to make him a "countdown to train" chart, or the next 3 weeks are going to drive him nuts.
In his attempts to figure out the world around him, he comes up with the funniest things. He keeps us laughing all the time.

Yes, We're Still Here

It's been so long since I posted that perhaps it appears we've fallen off the face of the earth. Today I had a fear that my blog might actually disappear for lack of use--kind of like losing minutes on your prepaid phone card. Well, it's still here. That's good enough for me. Next post in another 9 months...

The Grinch, Thomas, and Growing Older

Starting in November, I was compelled to read How the Grinch Stole Christmas before every nap and at bedtime each day. Alex also enjoyed the movie, and watched it along with all aspects of the commentary for the 50th anniversary. I kept thinking that he would lose interest after a time, and I could put the book away in storage until the holiday season rolled around again. Finally, sometime in March, I just sneaked the book away and the movie also. Alex asked about it, but I told him it was gone until next Christmas. I enjoyed a lot of other books over the past few weeks. And then, we went to the library for storytime on Monday. As he explored the shelves, guess what he found? Lucky me, a whole shelf of Dr. Seuss books at eye level. It looks like the Grinch and I are going to be companions for the next 3 weeks.

Once Alex finds something he likes, he really sticks with it. Take Thomas the Train, for instance. Alex has had a train cake for each of his past 3 birthdays! But as soon as he realized his birthday was coming up, he let us know in no uncertain terms that his cake would bear the likeness of Thomas. Last year Callie did the honors, but her busy schedule meant I had to come up with a solution this year. I'm no artist, but Alex was pleased. That little boy really takes the cake. Since a picture speaks 1000 words, I offer you "Alex waiting for Cake"

Alex really is growing up. He is starting to recognize cause and effect relationships, which means he is becoming more responsible and independent. Take the issue of the holey socks. Alex could go through a new package of 6 pairs of socks in 5 days, because he loved to put them on, then ride his bike or scooter without shoes. His feet get very cold, and he wears socks day and night. Finally, a few weeks ago I warned him that if he ran around outside without shoes, I was going to take his socks away. The next day he was running down the sidewalk, and I calmly caught up with him, lifted his feet, removed his socks, and walked away. He has been wearing his shoes outside since then. His favorites are a pair of rain boots with frog pictures on them. If he can't find his boots, he's willing to improvise, as you may observe from the photo at the top.

How Time Doth Fly

Alex will turn 4 at the end of this month. It makes me sad to realize my baby is growing up so fast. On the other hand, it is exciting to see all the new things he is learning, and he is just at that cute stage where he has a big enough vocabulary to entertain us with all the funny things he says.
Alex is a very energetic and fun-filled kid. He's ready for action, and knows no fear (except of dogs). Our favorite sledding hill was no match for Alex. He was ready to go alone, with a partner, backward or upside down. Going anywhere with him is quite a chore, because I have to chase him down. And I really don't appreciate the grocery stores with child-sized carts, because they are like a weapon of mass destruction in his hands as he races down the aisle bumping into things, including people. I'm getting to be a mean mom who tells him he just can't push his own cart.
But he can also be very meticulous and patient. He's been known to sit for an hour trying to put a 63-piece puzzle together, and he doesn't give up until he's done. He loves to go to Starfall on the computer and practice his ABC's. It's hard for me to ever do anything on the computer, because as soon as I sit down, it's like a magnet that draws him from wherever he's playing, and he stands beside me and begs for it to be his turn!
He is finally potty trained, but he's at the age where he just doesn't want to stop what he's doing to use the bathroom. I have to do a lot of laundry. And though I hate to admit it, this whole process has required a lot of Tootsie Rolls!
Well, there's so much more to say, but right now there's so much more I need to do. May it not be another 8 months before I write again.

This and That

I knew I'd been doing bad at updating, but 3 months?!!! I always say that if there's time to write about what I'm doing, it's because I'm not doing enough to be worth writing about. If there's something worth writing about, then I have no time.
Here's a snapshot of what's happened the last 90-several days.

THE BEAR: Alex loves his stuffed bear that Callie made for him at Build a Bear while Leigh and I were picking him up in Taiwan. He carries that thing everywhere. He buckles it in any empty seat he can find in the van. He holds it while riding his big wheel. He sleeps with it. It sits beside him while we eat. There are only 2 problems with Bear:
1. He is always filthy. If I can convince Alex to let me wash it, Alex cries the whole time until Bear comes out of the washing machine. Then he promptly carries Bear outside and plays with it in the dirt. Alex likes to trick me too. He'll tell me I can wash Bear, but he digs him out of the washing machine before I finish getting it loaded.
2. Because Alex carries bear everywhere, Bear often gets left in odd places. It's a nightly ritual to look all over until we can find him.

MUFFIN MAN: Alex loves to make muffins. And if we aren't really making muffins, he likes to place the paper liners in the muffin trays and then take them out and stack them up. Alternately, he likes to squish them up. Occasionally this activity is accompanied by him humming "Do you know the Muffin Man."

LOST: On Independence Day, Alex gave me a scare that left quite an impression. We had gone to Small Town, USA to watch a parade (more firetrucks than floats and all the politicians and baseball teams throw salt water taffy). The parade goes right past my parents' house, so many family members had gathered on the front lawn. I unloaded our lawn chairs from the back of the van and set them up, and was taking pictures and visiting while waiting for the parade to start. After a few minutes, I looked around and couldn't see Alex. Everyone started searching inside and out. I was almost frantic. What if he had followed some other parade-goer up or down the street? And then I looked over at the van; suddenly I knew he must have climbed into it while I was hauling chairs. Sure enough, he was there, and he was pretty sad. He wasn't in there very long, and it was a cool day for the 4th of July, but it is scary to think what could have happened.

More this and that later. I guess I'd better fix dinner.