Alice hears the Whos!

Alice and I try to read a book every night before bed. She is really into Dr. Seuss. On Sunday night, we read Dr. Seuss' book Horton Hears a Who! In the book, Horton (the elephant) finds a whole tiny community on a spec of dust and his adventures trying to care for the little whos. The next day we found out that we have two tiny Whos. (Yes, you can insert a joke like "Colleen's belly is whoville") So, we have Alice and the Whos.

Here are some pictures from the last two weekends. Most of the pictures are from the nearby "professional" garden and the playground. Enjoy!

And of course, what happens after we come home.........

TWINS!!

John and I were pleasantly surprised last month when we discovered I was pregnant. We had the shock of our lives this morning at my first OB/GYN appt. We are having TWINS!

The Terrible (and not so Terrible) Twos

Even though Alice is a month shy of her 2nd birthday, she is starting to show some major diva-like behavior. Her two favorite things to say are MINE and NoNo.

No matter what John and/or I do, it is almost never the right thing...which leads to "NoNo Mama/Dada" and lots of tears. Yesterday morning, Alice had a meltdown because Dada cut her apple the wrong way. I came downstairs and asked her about it - of course, she cannot articulate what she is feeling - so all she could say (through her tears) was "NoNo Dada". She started to calm down when I asked her if I could cut her another apple, she agreed and happily ate the 2nd apple. This is an almost daily occurrence in our home lately. If it is not over an apple, it is about where I am sitting or what book I choose to read to her. We just cannot win with her lately.

The other battle we are having is about her possessiveness. EVERYTHING belongs to Alice. She goes back and forth between "mine" and "Alice". I tend to have big problem with her shoes. She will take them off in the car and hold them. When we get to our destination, I will ask her if I can have the shoes to put them on her feet...

Alice: MINE

Me: I know they are yours, can we put them on?

Alice: Alice shoes (clutching shoes and yelling if I try to take them from her)

Me: Yes, I know the shoes are Alice's shoes, we need to put them on Alice's feet

Alice: MINE

I could continue but I am SURE you know how the rest of it goes.

Alice is also very possessive of me, especially at school. When I pick her up in the afternoon, if she does not see me come in, I go over to whatever activity she is doing. Now, a number of the other kids know who I am (just as Alice knows their parents) and are so very sweet - talking to me, showing me things, etc. Alice gets very angry so those days usually end with me explaining to Alice that it is not nice to push her friends and Mommy is allowed to talk to her friends. But it doesn't end there. Another weird thing is her vigilant patrol of other's possessions. You would think the world is about to end if I even PICK UP John's cell phone or if John touches one of my hair clips.

In other growing up news, Alice has officially moved out of her high chair. This was not really a mutual decision, however. When we were at the beach, there was no high chair so Alice sat in a booster seat at the kitchen breakfast bar. When we got home, she pretty much refused to sit in the high chair - even after we removed the tray and pulled it up to the table. So, we got a booster and she is starting to warm up to it. Thank goodness it is green (her current favorite color - because it is one of the two colors she knows and can identify) so we can pump up the idea of her Green Big Girl seat. She still knows how to play Dad and occasionally gets to sit in a chair without the booster but she is generally doing a good job.

Alice's vocabulary is exploding and, although her speech is still on the lazy side, she is very good at communicating her intentions. She can count (with help) to seven and knows most colors. She will only say green and yellow but she can identify the others. She is very stubborn and will not say a lot of words that clearly knows and has said. She does not perform on command!

We have not had any potty successes since the initial one at school. She is still interested in sitting on the potty seat and will tell us that she has to go poop but nothing yet. Her teacher tells me that none of the girls are really having any successes. The bathroom in her class has 6 little toilets in it and I am told that the girls just "sit and talk like it is their social hour" - hysterical, can you imagine seeing that? Six 2 year old little girls sitting on toilets just chatting away. Wish there was a PC way to get a picture of that!

Despite these complaints of Alice's terrible behavior, she really is still such a good, charming, funny kid. Check out this video of Alice's new form of entertainment!

Beach Baby

John, Alice, and I joined my extended family on Long Beach island, NJ for a week in early August. We had such an awesome trip - so relaxing, so fun, so perfect. Alice was very hesitant about the sand and the water for the first few days but she got the hang of it all and was smitten by the end of the week.

Uncle Kevin & Nate digging in the sand. Alice was still not sure if she wanted to be a part of it.
well, ok, maybe a handful...
mmmm, snack time (as the seagulls hovered)


Our Happy Family
Alice and Nate



Alice meets her first lobster

Hi there!