Big Kids

Our little kiddos are getting so big! Here's what they're up to...

Alex wore underwear all afternoon yesterday with no accidents! And even though he successfully uses the potty at home at least once a day (and has been for months), he's unable to use the potty at school. The teachers put him on it every day, but he never does anything on it. Last night we were at the school's fall festival and he told us he had to go potty (!), so we thought it would be a good idea to have him use the potty in his classroom, but as usual he didn't do anything on it. And of course by the time we got home a little while later, he'd peed in his pull up. But we have major potty training progress! Now he just needs to learn to pull up his underwear all the way after using the bathroom:

Fall Festival at Primrose:

Alex also moved to his big boy bed! (We converted his crib to the toddler bed.) He slept in it fine last night, aside from two wake-ups, once so I could retrieve his sippy cup from the floor and once for a tissue. But, although we had to get up, at least he followed our rule that he wasn't allowed to get out of bed without permission.

Claire now has about 50 words. She's also become a fashionista, insisting on wearing a particular jacket and hat on most days. And in other big kid news, we finally turned her car seat around in the van (we were waiting since the American Academy of Pediatrics now recommends waiting until they're as close to two as possible), so she's thrilled to be riding as Alex does.

Claire doing as Alex does:

One of Claire's favorites - a toy Alex never liked:

School, Speaking, and Sketches

[I'm so far behind with blogging that I've been avoiding it because it's so overwhelming to think about catching up. And of course the longer I wait, the worse it gets, so I'm taking Dave's advice and just blogging for today and will catch up later with all the other info, pictures, and videos that I want to post.]

Claire started daycare (aka "school") on Tuesday, and Alex started in a new classroom. (And this is his permanent class until he decides to use the potty all the time! Yep, he can't move on to the preschool class when he turns three unless he decides he's done with diapers.) Claire is still adjusting to school according to her teachers (read: crying a lot), but she's coming home in a good mood, going down for a nap with no problem, and waking happy so it's not all bad.

And our little Claire is a linguistic genious not only because she has about 20 words already, but also because she said a two-word phrase the other day: night-night, Mama!

Alex, though extremely frustrating and challenging to be around most days, still manages to crack me up on a daily basis. Today he randomly started calling out, "Dave? Dave? Dave, where aaaaare you?" When I asked him who Dave was, he said he didn't know.

Now for some photos:

Claire insisted on wearing her hat while she and Alex played before school, and she communicated that need by pointing at her hat hanging on the coat rack and saying, "Hat! Uh, uh, uh!"

Posing for the obligatory "First Day of School" photo

Candid photo of Claire today

Photo of Claire when I gave her a chance to respond to the camera shoved in her face

"Mommy & Alex" (according to Alex), drawn by Dave

Claire loves to color at home and always uses lots of colors, usually filling the page with marks, but here is her first drawing made at school

Happy Birthday, Grandma

"Happy Birthday, Grandma" - Take 1



OK, then we thought it would be nice to have Grommie in the video. Um, bad idea since he decides to exhibit some rude behavior toward the end (OK, I guess it's not so rude in the doggie world):



Then I was filming to capture Claire's cute way that she tries to jump while saying "jump." Well, she wouldn't cooperate, but Alex decided to finally sing all the words to "Happy Birthday" (he, of course, didn't like the fact that the camera was pointed at Claire so he attempted to get, and succeeded at getting, my attention). Here's Alex's third and final take of "Happy Birthday to [Your] Grandma":



And a first ever for TROSB blog: Claire's version of "Happy Birthday, Grandma" (she really is attempting to sing for the camera)

Get Out The Vote

Friday was Cow Appreciation Day at Chick-Fil-A, which meant that anyone who dressed up as cow could get a free meal. Being a one-income family now, I embraced the stay-at-home mom in me and made Claire and me costumes (Alex already had a cow costume from Halloween) so we could eat for free.

There's also a photo contest, so please go HERE and vote for Alex and Claire's photo: Two Cow Cuties. I should have submitted just one photo since I'm assuming you can vote only once, but Claire's photo is there too if you'd rather hurt Alex's feelings and vote for just her. (Warning: you'll have to enter some information. Then you'll receive an email and you'll have to click the link in it to confirm your vote.) I don't remember exactly what we could win, something like t-shirts, plush cows, and other junk, but also more free food!

Today's Agenda

Hair cut for Alex:

Laundry:

EDIT: Visit from Ernie prior to tomorrow's Gamma Knife surgery:

Happy Birthday, Claire!

5 Days Old

12 Months Old

Claire is officially one year old today! She had a lot of fun at her party and was completely pooped by bedtime. In lieu of gifts, “Claire” chose to have guests bring a check in the amount they would have spent on a gift to go to the Children’s Hospital of Richmond. There’s another foundation, The Peter Pan Foundation, which will make an additional $100 contribution once we submit the paperwork later this week. In total, thanks to your (and “Claire’s”) generosity, our combined contribution will be over $300 to Children’s Hospital! I’m mailing the checks later this week.

There are some thank-you's that are in order:

• To my mom for staying with Claire on Friday so I could run errands for the party
• To everyone who attended the party and celebrated with us
• To those who couldn’t make it to the celebration but still sent cards and checks (and flowers)
• To Angela for cleaning up afterward
• To everyone else who offered to help
• To The Taylors, and especially Sheridan for staying late, for last night - they babysat so Dave and I could have dinner out for my birthday

See below for lots of pictures. The first few are from Alex’s friend Brady’s party, which was the same day as Claire’s party. (Alex has attended four birthday parties in June.) The party was at Hanover Plant & Vegetable Farm - sounds like a boring venue, but it was actually quite fun. Alex got to go on a hayride, ride a pony, see bunnies and chickens and geese, feed goats, and eat cake. But if you ask him about everything he got to do he'll likely tell you, "The goat bit my fingers."

Also, if anybody wants a copy of "Claire's First Year in Photos" (the DVD that we played during the party), let me know and I'll make you one. At 40 minutes it's way too large for any place to host it so I can't put it up here.

Alex looking a bit scared to get on the pony:
He had a look of sheer amazement when I said, "Alex, you're riding a horse!" But this picture doesn't quite capture his expression because I think he was mid-blink:
Feeding the goats, right before he accidentally put his fingers in the goat's mouth (apparently a 2-year-old has a memory span of about 2 seconds when there's something as exciting as goats who need to be fed because I repeatedly shouted that he needed to keep his hand flat - poor kid):
Claire's party - hanging out in the backyard:



Claire smiling at Pop:

The cake - nobody knows, until now, that I attempted to write "Happy Birthday, Claire!" and it looked so bad that I mixed in the writing with the chocolate icing. Dave went out and got some letters and then took a turn at writing her name. I think it turned out well:

Eating cake as if it were a sandwich:

Claire walking - the camera setting accidentally was moved to space-saver, thus the poor quality, but it shows how she's getting around now:

Claire demonstrates her strength:

Claire received her gift from Mommy and Daddy this morning (yes, she received a present from us - we didn't deprive her of ALL presents):

Claire's day started to go downhill around 4:30 today when she burst into tears because I wouldn't let her eat Play-Doh:

Alex enjoying Claire's cake tonight:

She didn't enjoy her cupcake tonight nearly as much as she enjoyed the cake at her party. We're not sure whether she was just tired or in pain from teething. She had a slight fever (99.6) so I'm betting her gums are hurting. Poor thing goes to the doctor tomorrow morning and will receive vaccinations. Anybody want to babysit tomorrow afternoon? :)

The Best Birthday Present EVER!

Tonight Alex came downstairs with Dave and Claire, ran over to me screaming "Happy Birthday," and gave me my gift. When I opened [the very light] box, it was full of crumpled paper so I was naturally expecting some kind of lame "IOU a gift" or gift certificate on the bottom (that is, the IOU would have been lame; a gift certificate would have been nice). Instead there was a little card with a web address: www.alex-and-claire.blogspot.com. Yes, it's a blog and I must say that my sweetie Dave has given me the best birthday present I think I've ever received. He started working on it back in April and has, every day except one, archived conversations with or simple statements from the kids, mostly Alex of course. It's so much fun to go back and read the entertaining things and it'll be even more fun years from now when those conversations would otherwise have been forgotten.

And it's the gift that keeps on giving since he's promised to do his best to keep doing it periodically. I've added a permanent link to the right.

Now I know that all those nights in Alex's room or at dinner when he was feverishly typing away on his blackberry, he wasn't checking sports scores and responding to work email instead of participating in family time; he was updating the blog!

Soon to come: Pictures and videos from Claire's birthday, as well as pictures and an announcement about our collective donation to the Children's Hospital of Richmond. (Our grand total will be more than $200!!)

First Steps & Toddler Communication

Claire took two steps on Sunday! She didn't realize what she was doing since she was just trying to get to the toy I was holding as quickly as possible. (Nothing has yet motivated her to walk again.)

And I'll leave you with this video, which I hope will make you smile...

Ernie,

Just wanted to say that we love you very much and we wish there were something we could do to make things better for you.

What We've Been Up To

Alex hiding and gardening with Grandma:


Alex and I went to the Ashland train station to see the real trains up close. This is the only picture I have from our day together since the trains are a bit scary when they're only five feet away (which means I didn't have a free hand to take any photos when the trains went by since he was in my arms). But Alex got to see a freight train, a passenger train, and a CSX service truck. The service truck was neat since it can drive on the road AND on the train tracks and its horn is about 10x louder than the train's.

Memorial Day Sunday was deck washing day. It REALLY needed it (click on the photo below for the full effect!):

AFTER:

Claire brushing her hair with a cabinet lock:

I'm not sure why Dave took this photo of me cutting Alex's nails, but since it was worth taking, it's worth posting:

Our visit to Lewis Ginter Botannical Gardens and the butterfly exhibit:

Claire was intrigued by this monkey statue, which was actually a memorial. She wouldn't stop pointing at it:

More visits to Crump Park and the animals:

Claire stands alone for long periods of time now. It's just a matter of time before she figures out she can walk.