As I mentioned previously, Alexis has been going to the Kindergarten class. I called the school earlier in the week to ask a question about something she needed to take to school and then asked the director what she thought about how Alexis was doing.
"She's doing great. She's very smart and very verbal." For those of you that know Alexis, saying very verbal, is quite the understatement.
Andrew has been slower to talk and babble; he has definitely been doing more though since he got his ear tubes.
So while his vocabulary and communication are not quite growing at as fast a pace as Alexis' was he does have a few new things to say such as:
Eat! (while pointing a finger at Alexis...I guess he's heard us tell her enough to eat her food)
Mo (any food, just feed me, as in more food)
Mama and mommeeeeeee (the obvious)
Dada and daddeeeeee (the obvious)
Sis or eshiss (Alexis)
Gacko (Graham Cracker)
Uh OH!
He also likes "GO!" and "bubby" (puppy/sadie)
September 30, 2011
September 26, 2011
meanwhile on the home front
While Alexis was adapting to "big school", Andrew was testing his limits of acting like a monkey. Regardless of how close I was or quickly I reached, unfortunately did not catch him every time and he took a few spills.
Thursday, he discovered how much he could reach if he pushed the kitchen chairs around, climbed up on them and then stuck his feet in the decorative wood cutouts on the chair backs to climb higher. I am SO THRILLED about this new discovery and level of perseverence...please do sense the sarcasm and mocking tone in which I have written this. Oh and an update since I started writing this post...he can climb on top of the dining room table now too. Yay.
He also likes to play the piano, but more importantly find new ways to climb up to the piano...he might just hoist himself up on the bench (acceptable), but he might climb up the outside of the stairs and try to stretch himself over to the piano bench (generally not acceptable or doable), etc.
He has taken after the E-trade baby in trying to ride the dog. I'm so glad that Sadie is easy going and puts up with it. Sorry people, I'll take her slobbering on all of our houseguests any day over her nipping at a little kid after having her eyes poked, ears pulled, and being laid across.
Thursday, he discovered how much he could reach if he pushed the kitchen chairs around, climbed up on them and then stuck his feet in the decorative wood cutouts on the chair backs to climb higher. I am SO THRILLED about this new discovery and level of perseverence...please do sense the sarcasm and mocking tone in which I have written this. Oh and an update since I started writing this post...he can climb on top of the dining room table now too. Yay.
He also likes to play the piano, but more importantly find new ways to climb up to the piano...he might just hoist himself up on the bench (acceptable), but he might climb up the outside of the stairs and try to stretch himself over to the piano bench (generally not acceptable or doable), etc.
He has taken after the E-trade baby in trying to ride the dog. I'm so glad that Sadie is easy going and puts up with it. Sorry people, I'll take her slobbering on all of our houseguests any day over her nipping at a little kid after having her eyes poked, ears pulled, and being laid across.
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| Giddy up |
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| rubbing Sadie's back |
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| lounging |
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| nom nom nom |
Big Steps for a little girl
Last week we were given the opportunity to let Alexis do a 2 day trial of kindergarten instead of pre-k at her preschool.
The day before she was home with Andrew and me. We went to Old Navy to purchase a uniform. The smallest size (other than 2T) was too big, so I went to Wal-Mart after she went to bed and found a dress that was still big but had a lot smaller chance of falling off than the skirt from ON.
So on Thursday she put on her light blue shirt and khaki jumper and headed to school She was a little confused to be dropped off at her pre-school room so that they could walk her over when it was time for kindergarten, but I hear that she had a good day and they talked about the ABC's (specifically I) and that she ate all of her food except her peas. She seemed a little tired but not grumpy after her first day without naptime.
Friday she wore the navy jumper that I bought after making sure the khaki one fit and a white shirt. She didn't have much to say other than that she likes her big girl school and that she likes not taking a nap.
So we are sticking with 3 days a week for another week or two before we switch her to 5 days and take Andrew down to 2 days per week. I figure this will give her a few more days to do a little bit more with me before buckling down with school.
The day before she was home with Andrew and me. We went to Old Navy to purchase a uniform. The smallest size (other than 2T) was too big, so I went to Wal-Mart after she went to bed and found a dress that was still big but had a lot smaller chance of falling off than the skirt from ON.
So on Thursday she put on her light blue shirt and khaki jumper and headed to school She was a little confused to be dropped off at her pre-school room so that they could walk her over when it was time for kindergarten, but I hear that she had a good day and they talked about the ABC's (specifically I) and that she ate all of her food except her peas. She seemed a little tired but not grumpy after her first day without naptime.
Friday she wore the navy jumper that I bought after making sure the khaki one fit and a white shirt. She didn't have much to say other than that she likes her big girl school and that she likes not taking a nap.
So we are sticking with 3 days a week for another week or two before we switch her to 5 days and take Andrew down to 2 days per week. I figure this will give her a few more days to do a little bit more with me before buckling down with school.
September 14, 2011
our Brilliant little Black Eyed Pea
So Alexis has had a couple of funnies lately and I thought I'd share.
In the car the other day a contemporary version of This Little Light of Mine was playing and Alexis says, "I like this song" but then I hear her softly singing "Tonight's gonna be a good night, Tonight's gonna be a good good night." Haha, so they were kind of sort of remotely to the same tune, but not really. She told me she learned it in Daddy's car. Since then I have heard her singing that line at least once or twice a day. :-)
Then in Daddy's car, Grant and Alexis were talking and Alexis pointed out something that suprised Grant about how accurate she was and Grant said "That's right Alexis, you're so smart." And she says....."Yeah, I'm brilliant."
So humble, our girl.
Then at a local burger place, Hollaback Girl (I realize it doesn't quite go with the title) came on and both kiddos start bopping their heads and just bouncing to the beat and Alexis says, "I love this song! It's my favorite!" even though she has no clue what any of the words are. She also does not quite understand favorite as being 1 that is better than the rest...to her, anything she likes at all is a favorite.
In the car the other day a contemporary version of This Little Light of Mine was playing and Alexis says, "I like this song" but then I hear her softly singing "Tonight's gonna be a good night, Tonight's gonna be a good good night." Haha, so they were kind of sort of remotely to the same tune, but not really. She told me she learned it in Daddy's car. Since then I have heard her singing that line at least once or twice a day. :-)
Then in Daddy's car, Grant and Alexis were talking and Alexis pointed out something that suprised Grant about how accurate she was and Grant said "That's right Alexis, you're so smart." And she says....."Yeah, I'm brilliant."
So humble, our girl.
Then at a local burger place, Hollaback Girl (I realize it doesn't quite go with the title) came on and both kiddos start bopping their heads and just bouncing to the beat and Alexis says, "I love this song! It's my favorite!" even though she has no clue what any of the words are. She also does not quite understand favorite as being 1 that is better than the rest...to her, anything she likes at all is a favorite.
Parties and playdates picture post
Andrew at the Dallas Zoo with Zoey and Zach:
Emery's party
Maci's Sweet & Sassy party (videos at the bottom)
Videos of the party below:
Dancing to Party in the USA
The Red Carpet show (all girls)
The Ark playplace and home playdate:
I managed to get pics of all the kids except Jake...he was too fast.
And some Sibling fun
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| on the big turtle |
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| riding an elephant |
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| kids' play area (pre-fall) |
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| 1st Carousel ride ever...lead to big tantrum when we had to leave. |
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| watching Mr. David and his puppets sing |
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| yummy guitar cake! |
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| Zoey and Alexis - pre- hair and makeup |
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| make up |
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| hair |
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| the picture that they gave everyone turned out better |
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| excited about sitting on top of a big car |
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| still excited about watching music videos in the limo (Justin Bieber) - as Alexis said "the baby song" |
Dancing to Party in the USA
The Red Carpet show (all girls)
The Ark playplace and home playdate:
I managed to get pics of all the kids except Jake...he was too fast.
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| breakfast of champions |
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| Noah and Lisa |
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| Adelaide |
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| Monkey in a cage |
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| fast friends |
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| composing |
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| following the leader |
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| cleaning up |
Labor Day Hullabaloo and other shenanigans
The Winegeart's came to visit the Friday of Labor Day weekend. For those of you that don't know, Philip has known Grant for more than half of his life and was the best man in his wedding.
They asked us a while back if we wanted to go to the Aggie game, so it's been a while since we've been to a game and decided to try taking Alexis this year.
They came on Friday night.
We introduced them to Paulio's pizza...since they live up in the town where Grant went to high school...they don't exactly have the variety of choices that we have here so I think it was nice they got to have something other than Pizza Hut. Isaac slept on the extra bed in Alexis' room (that is - after some fun, some disagreement over trying to force him to watch My Little Pony, and then the effort it took to calm her down - he's pretty calm to begin with). They slept great! And in the morning, she actually obeyed and played quietly until other people were much closer to being ready to get up. We made pancakes and slowly moseyed our way to getting ready to go to the museum of nature and science in Fair Park.
Once there we explored the animals...Alexis asked at the first several windows "are those real" and Isaac answered "no, they're dead" and yes I said several because this same short conversation took place more than once. They looked at some fancy rocks...certainly the largest Amethyst I've ever seen...I believe Sherri told Isaac "yes, if you ever find any rocks like these, you can bring them home". We learned that you have to walk almost 3 hours to burn off a hamburger and fries, played in the fossil dig and then played in the children's area,...then the real fun began.
We were starving because we hadn't eaten lunch before the museum because breakfast was a little late and Alexis asked for Chick-fil-A, so me trusting my phone, pulled up where the closest Chick-fil-A was...it turned out to be the Chick-fil-A inside the Baylor hospital...we did not stop here, so we drove through deep ellum to go to the next closest Chick-fil-A which we learned was either in Renaissance Tower or the tunnels below it...too late to find parking especially after seeing all the crazies at the street fest, so we turn around and discover that the little person that made the request in the first place was asleep. So hungry bellies and all our friends split off to head to College Station and we drove back home and stopped at the Chick-fil-A about 2 miles from our house where Alexis ordered a hamburger.
I should mention that Friday while chasing Isaac (Alexis was watching the Lion King instead of My Little Pony to calm down) Andrew turned and whacked his head either on the corner of the chair rail and fell or fell and in the process smacked his head on the corner of the base board. It was blue and puffed out instantly. Then on Saturday after unsuccessfully trying to get him to nap, he decided he was going to play with the door mat by the back door and lifted it up and scratched himself on the same side of his forehead. And to think I thought he was going to injure himself diving from the furniture to the floor and instead he does it both times when his feet are already on the floor. Sheesh!
Sunday, we packed up, went to church as normal, dropped Andrew off at the Doolittle's (Thanks, Steve and Cassidy! and thanks to Becky Rasdall for checking on Sadie for us too!) and we headed down to College Station. Along the way we saw a few of the wildfires. We arrived in time to visit with Grant's Great Aunt Ann and Uncle Dewey and their daughter Ruth. When Grant was in school, I stayed with Dewey and Ann when I visited (much better than staying in a house of 4 boys!), so it was nice since they hadn't seen Alexis since she was a baby. Then we hurried to the mall to catch the shuttle to the game.
We missed the tents and the tailgating and various pre-football activities, but that's ok, Alexis was ready to see the Aggies play...she wore herself out in the first quarter and by the end of the 2nd quarter was asking to go home because she was tired. She perked up when the band played because she liked watching them make shapes and we were high enough that she could definitely see the full shapes. During the 3rd quarter, she was even less enthusiastic and she had a mini breakdown in the ladies room and then I had her take a few deep breaths and count and calm down and told her that if she didn't ask to go home again or whine or cry anymore she could have a sno cone. She was perfect from then until a few minutes before the end when the wind picked up and blew a piece of pop-corn kernal in her eye. We didn't realize she had something wrong until she screamed and starting kicking. We'd seen cups and trash flying around and none of that had gotten her, but when I looked I could see the little brownish speck right next to her iris. I tried flushing the speck out with water in the stands, but even though it got better, we didn't actually get it totally out of her eye until morning, but she was a very good sport about putting eye drops in and keeping her eyes closed...she was asleep on Grant while we walked and me while we rode the shuttle back to the car and the whole way back. When I asked her what her favorite thing was, she said "when the Aggies played music and sitting next to Isaac."
We missed our Sunday School Department cookout on Labor Day because we took turns napping and kid-wrangling and since we missed out on Double Daves in College Station, we got Double Daves in Denton for Labor day dinner. Whoop!
They asked us a while back if we wanted to go to the Aggie game, so it's been a while since we've been to a game and decided to try taking Alexis this year.
They came on Friday night.
We introduced them to Paulio's pizza...since they live up in the town where Grant went to high school...they don't exactly have the variety of choices that we have here so I think it was nice they got to have something other than Pizza Hut. Isaac slept on the extra bed in Alexis' room (that is - after some fun, some disagreement over trying to force him to watch My Little Pony, and then the effort it took to calm her down - he's pretty calm to begin with). They slept great! And in the morning, she actually obeyed and played quietly until other people were much closer to being ready to get up. We made pancakes and slowly moseyed our way to getting ready to go to the museum of nature and science in Fair Park.
Once there we explored the animals...Alexis asked at the first several windows "are those real" and Isaac answered "no, they're dead" and yes I said several because this same short conversation took place more than once. They looked at some fancy rocks...certainly the largest Amethyst I've ever seen...I believe Sherri told Isaac "yes, if you ever find any rocks like these, you can bring them home". We learned that you have to walk almost 3 hours to burn off a hamburger and fries, played in the fossil dig and then played in the children's area,...then the real fun began.
We were starving because we hadn't eaten lunch before the museum because breakfast was a little late and Alexis asked for Chick-fil-A, so me trusting my phone, pulled up where the closest Chick-fil-A was...it turned out to be the Chick-fil-A inside the Baylor hospital...we did not stop here, so we drove through deep ellum to go to the next closest Chick-fil-A which we learned was either in Renaissance Tower or the tunnels below it...too late to find parking especially after seeing all the crazies at the street fest, so we turn around and discover that the little person that made the request in the first place was asleep. So hungry bellies and all our friends split off to head to College Station and we drove back home and stopped at the Chick-fil-A about 2 miles from our house where Alexis ordered a hamburger.
I should mention that Friday while chasing Isaac (Alexis was watching the Lion King instead of My Little Pony to calm down) Andrew turned and whacked his head either on the corner of the chair rail and fell or fell and in the process smacked his head on the corner of the base board. It was blue and puffed out instantly. Then on Saturday after unsuccessfully trying to get him to nap, he decided he was going to play with the door mat by the back door and lifted it up and scratched himself on the same side of his forehead. And to think I thought he was going to injure himself diving from the furniture to the floor and instead he does it both times when his feet are already on the floor. Sheesh!
Sunday, we packed up, went to church as normal, dropped Andrew off at the Doolittle's (Thanks, Steve and Cassidy! and thanks to Becky Rasdall for checking on Sadie for us too!) and we headed down to College Station. Along the way we saw a few of the wildfires. We arrived in time to visit with Grant's Great Aunt Ann and Uncle Dewey and their daughter Ruth. When Grant was in school, I stayed with Dewey and Ann when I visited (much better than staying in a house of 4 boys!), so it was nice since they hadn't seen Alexis since she was a baby. Then we hurried to the mall to catch the shuttle to the game.
We missed the tents and the tailgating and various pre-football activities, but that's ok, Alexis was ready to see the Aggies play...she wore herself out in the first quarter and by the end of the 2nd quarter was asking to go home because she was tired. She perked up when the band played because she liked watching them make shapes and we were high enough that she could definitely see the full shapes. During the 3rd quarter, she was even less enthusiastic and she had a mini breakdown in the ladies room and then I had her take a few deep breaths and count and calm down and told her that if she didn't ask to go home again or whine or cry anymore she could have a sno cone. She was perfect from then until a few minutes before the end when the wind picked up and blew a piece of pop-corn kernal in her eye. We didn't realize she had something wrong until she screamed and starting kicking. We'd seen cups and trash flying around and none of that had gotten her, but when I looked I could see the little brownish speck right next to her iris. I tried flushing the speck out with water in the stands, but even though it got better, we didn't actually get it totally out of her eye until morning, but she was a very good sport about putting eye drops in and keeping her eyes closed...she was asleep on Grant while we walked and me while we rode the shuttle back to the car and the whole way back. When I asked her what her favorite thing was, she said "when the Aggies played music and sitting next to Isaac."
We missed our Sunday School Department cookout on Labor Day because we took turns napping and kid-wrangling and since we missed out on Double Daves in College Station, we got Double Daves in Denton for Labor day dinner. Whoop!
September 13, 2011
Coupon for fruit
Try it out, got this offer for a coupon from VocalPoint for new fruit cups:
http://www.vocalpoint.com/FruitNaturalsCoupon
http://www.vocalpoint.com/FruitNaturalsCoupon
September 9, 2011
Why on Earth?!...
OK, one of the phrases Alexis has picked up from preschool is "why on Earth" followed by whatever is in her head.
Well last Saturday we just could not contain our laughter. She had been told numerous times that certain things she should only play with in her room because she doesn't want Andrew to touch them. SO she got them out while we tried to lay him down (unsuccessfully) for a nap. Before we got him out of his room we told her she needed to put them away. She got zoned on something else. So when he came downstairs he beelined for her backpack and we had to ask her if there was anything in it she didn't want him to have. Of course her answer was yes so we told her to look down (literally, he was right in front of her on the floor and she didn't realize he had taken her back pack). So she took it away and put it on the other side of the baby gate. He goes to grab her "treasure chest/jewelry box" and she swoops it up along with everything else her arms can hold and she yells "Why on Earth is he down here getting all my stuff?!" She puts it on the table and he starts pulling the table cloth trying to get to it as Alexis stares in horror just making noises trying to say he's doing something bad. Mommy rescued the rest of the items and put them behind the baby gate and in a matter of minutes life was ok again.
Seriously, why on Earth was he acting the way any little brother should?
Well last Saturday we just could not contain our laughter. She had been told numerous times that certain things she should only play with in her room because she doesn't want Andrew to touch them. SO she got them out while we tried to lay him down (unsuccessfully) for a nap. Before we got him out of his room we told her she needed to put them away. She got zoned on something else. So when he came downstairs he beelined for her backpack and we had to ask her if there was anything in it she didn't want him to have. Of course her answer was yes so we told her to look down (literally, he was right in front of her on the floor and she didn't realize he had taken her back pack). So she took it away and put it on the other side of the baby gate. He goes to grab her "treasure chest/jewelry box" and she swoops it up along with everything else her arms can hold and she yells "Why on Earth is he down here getting all my stuff?!" She puts it on the table and he starts pulling the table cloth trying to get to it as Alexis stares in horror just making noises trying to say he's doing something bad. Mommy rescued the rest of the items and put them behind the baby gate and in a matter of minutes life was ok again.
Seriously, why on Earth was he acting the way any little brother should?
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