Alex's new cousin...

Brycen Lee Pifer

5lbs 15oz... and Tammi's doing great. Welcome to the crazy family little guy.

You say it's your...

Yesterday was my birthday... and while I am not a fan of my birthday (hate to be the center of attention), I did get this, this, carrot cake, and this... and as always I have these.

Life is good!

Holy crap, she's a toddler...

We got the word yesterday that Alex is being called up to the big leagues... she moves to the Toddler room at daycare on 4/20. I still find myself trying to take her to the Infant room, and she hasn't been in there for months.

The Toddler room is cool for at least the following reasons:
1. Max is in there so they can hang out all day long!
2. We already drop her off there in the morning, so she is used to it.
3. All the kids in there think I'm a hoot when I pick up Max occasionally.
4. We don't have to take off our shoes to go in there!!! Yay!!
5. Activities are even more advanced... and they eat at tiny little tables instead of highchairs.

We were informed of this pending move through a memo... but if they had called instead, and we allowed Alex to answer the phone... it may have gone something like this:

She's a hugger...

Suddenly this weekend Alex became a hugger. It started with Mr. Dinosaur Head... he is her sleepy-time pal and she started hugging/snuggling him before and after naps. Then she moved on to bears, frogs, books... all the things she loves the most she started randomly hugging.

Soon the targets changed to Michele and I. She has always been a pretty good snuggler. Every morning we snuggle when she wakes up. When we wake up Michele on the weekends she loves to snuggle with her. But, this weekend, she started running up to us with no prompting and hugging our legs. She wraps her arms around both legs and tucks her head between our knees and squeezes with al her might.

It might be the sweetest thing ever in the history of history... but my research is not complete yet.

How much is that gog in the window...

Alex is fascinated with dogs. Last week when we would see or hear a dog she would point and say "gog". Now whenever we go outside, prompted by an actual pup or not, she points next door (home of gog #1) and repeatedly says "gog, gog, gog" Alas, given our schedules and overwhelmedness with Alex alone, this is as close as she'll be getting to having her own gog for a while...

Drain, drain go away...

There have been dudes in the house working for the last two days, and they may or may not be here tomorrow. We had to have our footing drain (whatever that means) replaced per the City of Ann Arbor. Luckily the city is paying for it. Unluckily they are tearing up the yard. Here is a view of the destruction so far...





But , how cool is it that they put down this sticky-plastic-floor-cover stuff to keep out some of the grime?


We may have to make this a permanent feature...

Splash-y-splash...

Alex would take a bath multiple times a day, everyday if we let her. I know we have mentioned her love of baths before but she shows no signs of waivering from this enjoyment. What is really funny is that now she knows the process for her bath- like she knows the steps. First we start the water and dump her frog. Her frog contains all her bath toys and is stuck on the shower tiles. As the tub is filling up with water, we take socks, pants, and shirt off. We then wait for the tub to be filled and temperature checked prior to taking off her diaper- it seems that the sound of water does have an effect on Alex.
Once in the tub, she plays with her toys. Then we wash her body and then her hair. She is down with all of this-she never has issues when we dump a bucket-full of water on her head...these days her new phrase is wwhhhhoooaaa after the water is dumped. She is a crack-up!! We then spend more time playing with her toys. Then we ask her if she is "all done"- signs and all. She answers by pointing to the frog on the wall. She knows that her toys need to get scooped up into the frog and even helps. Then when the tub is completely empty- she likes to splash. It is always the last thing she does. Last night Wes asked her to splash while her toys were still in the tub- once they were removed, she had to do it again!
I just think she is so smart and it amazes me how quickly she gets things- where her toys are in the tub- can pick out the pink pig, the yellow boat, her duck, etc. The whole having a process thing is a bit concerning though- too much of a daddy's girl already. He loves things in order and by a schedule and she is following in his footsteps....

Erin go bragh...

This morning I had corn beef hash, eggs, and Guinness for breakfast... Michele took the monkey to school and went to work. I tried to make up for this slight with a beer at the door and my take on green eggs for dinner...


The presentation may be a bit off, but I think it hit the spot. Olde world rye bread, thin slices of tomato, lightly dressed baby greens, and a poached egg topped with fresh made pesto and shaved parmesan reggiano. I ain't Emeril, but I can feed my girls.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!

Reading is fundamental...

Alex has always loved books... mostly loved eating then, but the words and pics are nice too. Her favorite part of reading for the last year or so has been turning the pages. For the last few months she has been happy to sit by herself and flip through the books. Only recently has she combined all of these pleasures with "reading" the books out loud. Yesterday she was in her room for at least an hour, carrying a book to her chair, "reading" it, and then going to get another book and starting over. I'm pretty sure that if cute was a WMD we would be on the terrorist watch list.

Reckless abandon...

You may have noticed in the fashion show pics from this weekend that sometime between the baby shower and dinner Alex got a pretty nice shiner on her left eye. She fell and hit a toy while playing... kids will be kids, no big deal.

Yesterday her black eye was just nicely fading by the time I picked her up from daycare. As soon as we were in the door and coats, etc were off she headed over to play with her toys. As she picked a heavy one up her little feet came right out from under her... no-grippy socks+hardwood=whoops! No big deal, except that she managed to whack her head on the corner of the leg of a nice hard table on the way down. Ouch.

Once the crying subsided we busted out the boo-boo bunny and iced it down, but it was ugly. It didn't slow her down for long, and she was back at it in about five minutes.

It looks much better today... but it's still early so I'm sure she'll find
something else to run into/jump on/roll off/fall on before the day is over!

Positive vibes...

Michele is home sick today, so everybody please send positive vibes her way...



Feel better!!

Costume change...

Alexandra had a three outfit (not including PJs) day yesterday. First it was breakfast with Robin, Bob, and Sarah:

Then Carla's baby shower:

And finally, dinner at Amy and Bruce's.

What a good sport!

Day light savings haiku...

scotch tasting last night
breakfast in Adrian soon
lost an hour some how

A front row seat for spring...

I don't think Alex gets that the seasons are changing, but she seems excited all the same. Yesterday she sat at the front window and read while the sun came up.


And then later we went for a walk. Usually this means me walking and her riding... but yesterday she walk halfway down the block before signaling that the princess should be carried when traversing such distances.

This morning she has already brought me her shoes, hat and coat twice. Spring is almost sprung.

Wacky Wednesday...

If this isn't wacky, I don't know what is...

I would not wear it with a fox...

This week is apparently Dr. Seuss' birthday, and so Alex's daycare has a different, wacky theme each day. Yesterday was "wear your favorite hat day". Unfortunately we didn't realize this until we dropped her off.. otherwise I would have finally had an excuse to buy her this hat:

Today was stripes day. I'm not sure how "Dr. Seuss" this is, but luckily we had just procured this adorable striped shirt this weekend:


Tomorrow is "wacky Wednesday"... and I have no clue what to put her in. Any ideas?

Breakfast for dinner...

Last night, in spite of the huge breakfast we had for breakfast, we decided to have breakfast for dinner. I made blueberry pancakes for the girls... OK, I made whole wheat blueberry pancakes with flax seed, agave nectar, and wheat germ. They were still tasty and Alex & Michele had no idea that they might also be good for them.

Alex loves my pancakes and I always make extra so she can have them all week. The blueberries have never been a prblem before, but these must have been some super juicy variety. The meal started like this:

But before long it looked more like this:

Schmooshed blueberries all over her clothes and bath time came a bit early. But, she enjoyed the heck out of it... blue lips and all.