Alex is on the road again...

Alex enjoyed riding her tricycle last year... in fact so much that she had two of them. When the weather finally broke this spring she rushed to sit on them and begged to go around the block. Upon relenting, we couldn't help but notice that her tiny little knees were quite close to giving her a tiny little black eye every time the pedeals went round. Time for a new bike. A big girl bike!

She was in love from first sight and couldn't wait to go. She is still trying to figure out how the brakes work (when she was going too fast on the tricycle she just bailed out) and has to focus on not watching her feet while she pedals, but overall got the hang of it pretty quick.

And, the bonus is, we get around the block, to the park, or wherever about twice as fast as before.

I second that emotion...

Alex and I were home alone all day Tuesday because she was rockin' a wicked fever. We got bored in the afternoon and started talking about emotions and non-verbal communication. I busted out the camera and just started shouting out emotions, (happy, puzzled, sad, shocked, angry, indifferent). I have no idea which of these pics is which, but I do know it's adorable.

Spring in...

We weren'y sure it was going to happen this year, but the weather finally turned. Check out how good Michele's garden is looking already...

Alex types...

Hey there. I know that I've been missing in action, so I brought on a guest blogger... Alexandra...

alexandra
wesley
michele

There. The first words Alex has ever typed for publication. All on her own. I'll try to follow her example more often.

Alex can "read"...

Alexandra is a creature of habit. Well, maybe a creature of repetition. When she decides that she likes something, she likes it and likes it and likes it until it's worn. She wants to hear the same song over and over in the car for weeks. She wants the same snack for days on end. She wants to read the same book every night for a month. It's always endearing and often enraging.

Maybe it's just comforting to do the same thing, but I don't think that's it. I think she is really trying to figure things out. Trying to slurp up every drop of what that thing is. Every word to a song. Every color of a shirt. Every nuance of a game.

Yesterday she sat on the top of the sofa and started "reading" her current obsession... "Big Bird Brings Spring to Sesame Street". It's an old, tattered book and she loves it. Over and over she loves it. And then a few minutes in to the "reading" Michele and I realized that she wasn't summarizing. She was, for the most part, reciting the words on each page. Here is a demonstration:



There's more from the same reading on YouTube if you must have more.

She is amazing to me. Even the "er, um" when Big Bird is stumbling over a decision. She has memorized it to a large degree. And then, when bedtime came and she could pick one book for Mama to read her...

Take a hike...

Today was so nice that we decided to go for a nature walk...
Before we even got on the trail, Michele and Alex saw a snake bathing in the sun...
Alex was a little miffed that she couldn't ride in the backpack anymore...
But this is the year she will start to hike on her own. We did a short half mile, and she really enjoyed looking at the trees and birds...

A great walk, and a great start to spring!

Comparisons aren't always odious...

Alex is a fickle beast. She knows what she likes... and then she likes for a long time.

A few weeks ago she came home from a trip to the mall and was very excited. Her friend Amy had bought her some new shoes. Michele and Robin snickered off to the side, and I knew something was amiss. The box was opened, and the zebras presented...

Now, don't get me wrong, I consider myself a fan of fancy. I can get behind a three year old having a fun wardrobe. But, at the same time, I am practical and err on the side of "too dressy" at every turn. I was not a fan of the zebras. I hated the zebras. I plotted a life of solitude in the closet for the zebras. I schemed.

Then, a week later, something happened. The shoes that Tia Robin had purchased her on the same day arrived.

And that's when I realized that the zebras weren't so bad. In fact, they were pretty cute. And she has worn them almost every day since.

And that's okay, because the fish shoes are high up in the closet...

Click... click...

Michele got me a new camera. A fancy camera. I have had it for a day or two, but was too scared to take it out of the box. This will take some getting used to... but here is the first pic I took with it...
Pretty nice, eh? Maybe this will encourage me to take more pics and write more blog entries.

My Left Thumb...

A little story about my left thumb. You may remember my left thumb from such stories as "Oh Snap, I Shot a Nail Through My Thumb". Well, the fun doesn't stop there!

Last night I was prepping for dinner. Alex was "helping" me, standing on her tower just to my right. I chopped carrots and onions, and started on the celery (mirepoix!). The whole time Alex and I were having a discussion that centered around Mr. Dinosaurhead and went something like this...

A: My dinosaur.

W: Yes, my dinosaur.

A: No, my dinosaur!

W: That's what I said... my dinosaur.

A: No Papa, my dinosaurs!
W: We're saying the same words, why don't we agree? My dinosaur.

I was trying to teach a lesson (and maybe push her buttons a little), she was getting frustrated. As my expertly honed Japanese chef's knife came down toward the celery she yelled "MY DINOSAUR!!" and hit my arm. More of a tap really. But, as it turned out, enough to make me nearly cut off the top of my thumb instead of the celery.

I cut myself cooking often... frighteningly often. Wrap it up, and move on. This time was different. It wouldn't stop bleeding. It wouldn't even slow down. Apparently the baby aspirin I take daily really, really works well. So, off to the Urgent Care and four stitches.

Other than the throbbing, it's all thumbs up now...

Friday unwind...

There are several great things about living in the wireless world that we find ourselves in. Facebook, Twitter, texting,,, that's all great. But when Michele and I can each work on a Friday afternoon sitting in the pub, that is money... even if she looks a bit sheepish doing it...

It happens...

Yesterday, as is the norm lately, Michele was leaving for work while Alex was just starting to sleepily eat her breakfast. As usual she rushed to the front window to watch Mama pull out of the drive and wave. Then suddenly she stood up quickly and said, "I have to go potty".

I am not very smart or observant. If I were, I would have noticed the urgency and the look on her face. "Well just hold it for a second and watch or you'll miss Mama leaving." So she did.

The next thing I heard was a splashing noise followed immediately by a tiny, worried voice screaming, "MY PEE IS COMING OUT, MY PEE IS COMING OUT!!!". And it was.

I scooped her up and headed to the bathroom, but before we could even get there she was patting my back and saying, "it was an accident Papa, it happens".

OMG, OMG...

Alex got her hair cut! Like, for real cut!! Not just trimmed... CUT!!!

I'm not sure that I'm okay with this... but Michele assures me that I am.

Happy, happy...

Happy eighth anniversary to my amazing wife. Even after all this time there is nobody I would rather chat with, spend a Saturday night with, fight with, or grow with. You're the best.Te amo.

Artsy...

Alex does a ton of painting at daycare. Almost daily we have little treasures to bring home and put on the fridge. She rarely paints at home. Not because she doesn't love it, but because I have issues with mess. I'm a bit neurotic.

Luckily Michele is there to help out the little monkey. So they busted out the easel and the apron...
And they opened up the pre-load paint brushes...And Alex painted. She was very serious and very focused. Just look at her...And, in the end, a modern masterpiece...
I think it really speaks to the plight of the modern toddler. Every brushstroke is like a comment on parental neuroticism.

Perhaps I should get over my issues and paint with her more often.

Terrible too...

People always talk about the "terrible twos". The time in a young life filled with spitting, back-talking, throwing themselves on the dirty floor at Target and have a kicking, screaming fit. But Alex never really subscribed. We assumed she was perfect (equal parts luck and kick ass parenting). Then she turned three.

Light switch. At 8:19am on 12/29/11 she turned three, and at 8:20 she started screaming. She started talking back. She started lying... and then laughing about the lying. She now refuses to nap unless immersed in total darkness and quiet... and not napping just makes everything worse. It's terrible too.

Don't get me wrong, she is still pretty perfect. Just a little more opinionated. Timeouts still work... sometimes. And I think Michele and I have gotten a bit more Zen. We have decided that her screaming does not have to lead to us screaming. We try to giggle at the noise. It works... sometimes.

So, fair warning to all you potential owners of a three year old. Making it past two doesn't mean you won... it just means they're biding their time.

My little helper...

Alex "helped" me shovel snow last year... but this year she HELPED me shovel snow!! She actually moved some and put it where directed!!

Next up? Mowing the lawn.

3 year well visit...

Alex had her three year check up with the doctor this week and, as you might expect, she rocked it! At 36 months she is 37.25" tall (60th percentile) and 33.6lbs (75th percentile). Progressing nicely.

The doc was impressed with her physical and mental state. She was asked many questions to determine her aptitude... how old are you? what color is your shirt? can you stand on one foot? Stuff like that. She passed with flying colors, only having trouble with two questions...

1. When asked who her best friend was, she said she didn't know. She later told us it was Maxwell.
2. When asked to draw a smiley face, she instead drew a fish... and then pointed out all of it's fish features. The doc said that this had never happened and was impressed.

After all that pleasantness, she did have to get two shots. She took it very well. There was a moment of terror followed by a look at us that said "how could you do this to me?"... but the nurse offered animal crackers and all was well.

All in all a very good trip. And now, apropos of nothing including this story, a picture of Alex reading to a sick Michele a couple weeks ago.

Pepe, and Aimee, and Jorge oh my...

Alex loves Legos (Duplos, really), and she has been cultivating an increasing bucket-full for years now. The very first package she got a person in it and she named it (I'm pretty sure the first one was Pepe the bus driver), or rather we named him together. She was barely one and had a limited vocabulary, but she could say Pepe. It was adorable.

Then came more blocks, and more vehicles, and more people. Aimee and Jorge and George. Some of them she names and some we name together. It started to get difficult to remember them all.

Then, recently, she got a slew of new peeps between Xmas and birthday... many new names!! So we had to make a cheat sheet...


So, if you ever come over to play Legos with Alex... study up.



PS - they are all related by birth, marriage, or occupation too... but I'll save that post for a rainy day.

Alex is 3!!!

Alex turned three. She is a big girl now... she says. Her birthday was filled with the things she loves. We went to breakfast, and then picked up Max to go to the Xtreme Bounce Zone. Alex jumped right in...Max was reluctant, but Michele helped him get the hang of it...They climbed some pretty tall slides...


Then home for the best things in the world... cupcakes...and cheese!!!She was quite pleased, and quite pleased with herself... Happy Birthday Monkey!!