Walking

Alice took some steps yesterday. Yes, real steps! And then she took about 4 more this morning. Perhaps she'll be walking by the end of the summer.

A girl and her music

Alice LOVES music. More specifically, she loves LOUD music. Based on personalities you'd think that Lucius would want the music loud. Nope. He takes the volume control knob off and hides it so Alice can't turn the music up. Here she is rocking out.

Yes, she does this every time we put music on. Nasty, nasty boys...

Things that Alice is doing = not much

Well, that's not entirely true. Alice says hi and can wave hi and bye. But the big news is that she can stand all.by.herself. You know she's very proud of herself because she claps everytime she does it. Oh, she also gives kisses now. So cute.


Today is Mother's Day. Happy Mother's Day to all of the great Moms that I know.

I'm sure lucky to have such great kids. I <3 my babies! **just realized the the <3 doesn't work in html -- it's supposed to be a heart **










We've been dogsitting Gus for a few days. He sure does miss his family! So much that he keeps running away to find them...

Cheating

I finally figured out how to retroactively post.

For Lu's bday party look below or click here

What's dat smell?

Thanks to the bed tent, we're always treated to a dutch oven whenever we put Lucius to bed.

Me: What's that smell?
Lu: I don't smell anything.
Me: Take a big whiff.
Lu: Ewwwww, we need a fan in here.

I know.

Last night was really funny.

Me: Goodnight Lu (I said after reading a book and singing a song).
Lu: Quick Mommy, get out of the tent!
Me: Why? Did you toot?
Lu: No, I farted. It was really quiet so you didn't hear it.
Me: (quickly running out of the room)
Lu: (after taking a big whiff) ewww...yuck

Gotta love gassy boys.

Another bottom tooth!

and that makes 4!

Teeth!

I see a top tooth! And that makes 3!

Lucius' 4th Birthday Party

**Just figured out that I can retroactively post posts by editing the date of my posts! Does that make sense? It's actually 5/9/10 right now but I changed the date to 4/10/10 so I don't look like a horrible Mom that took a whole month to post pictures of my son's birthday party. Of coures, now that I'm writing this the cat's out of the bag, but I digress...**

We had a good ol' fashioned birthday party at our house today. We had lots of friends, food, and fun!




Obstacle Course: Part 1


Obstacle Course: Part 2




Then we had cupcake cones. Note to self: those are a pain to make. Don't do them again.
"Happy birthday to you!"


Best Buds: Drew and Lu

Yay for birthdays! Oh, I almost forgot.

Sportacus was there making sure that everyone had a good and "healthy" time.



We played "Pin Sportacus on the blimp"


Yes, I had to take a day off from work to cut out all of these Sportacuses (sportacusi?)


And the take home "treat". Lazytown water bottles (made by yours truly) and Kid's energy bars. I was super proud of myself for all of this craftiness. I feel like my job as a Mom is complete.

Happy Birthday Lucius!

My big boy is 4 today!!! I'm hurriedly trying to get ready for his party tomorrow (his first bday party EVER)...plus I still need to grade 20 papers. I need more time!

I'll try to post party pics over the weekend...but no guarantee on that!

Happy Birthday Lucius! You're super silly and so much fun to be around. We love you!

Happy Birthday Alice!!!!

I can't believe it. It's been one whole year since Miss Alice was born. She's been such a sweet easy baby. We love having her as part of our family!

Her cousins came to help her celebrate her birthday. She was so excited.



She had LOTS to tell them.


She had a great time with her Uncle Darren too.


He made her giggle.


And she stole his hat.





She also had her first bite of cake! At least I think it was her first bite. Who knows what Jagee gives her when my back is turned.

This is Tom's handy work.

It says "Happy BDAY Alice" just in case you couldn't read it...
I think it's a duck swimming in a pond. Oh wait. Tom just informed me it was a chick hatching from a blue egg. Yes, I totally see it now...


"What in the heck is that????"


Still not sure what to think...but assumes she should be excited since we are.


"Hmmm....Do I like this strange sugary thing?"



"Yep, I think I do".


Picking up the entire piece after it dropped into her lap.

"hmmmm...should I eat anymore? It's almost swimsuit time and we all know this is going straight to my hips"


and...I'm done.

Good news!

Tom may have found the original baseboard for Lucius' room in our garage!!! Isn't that the most exciting news ever?

One thing that the previous owners did right!

Clapping

Alice started clapping this week!

Old room, new room

My friends, Susan and Blake, cam to visit this weekend to help paint Lu's room. It was so great to see them and so great of them to help with this monster of a project!

Lu's room had awful 70s wood panelling. For the past two years I would just shake my head in disgust every time I entered his room.

This is what it looked like when we moved in.



Here's what Lu's been living with for 2 years.



Here we are working on it.

Taking off the last horrible piece of paneling!


Filling the millions of nail holes and priming the marker lines. Yes, they outlined the panels with black marker so the white wall wouldn't show through.


Tada!

It now looks a million times better.


I still need to pain the trim, ceiling, and put up new baseboard. I didn't realize that the baseboard on there was plastic until I started ripping it off.
I'll eventually put in white electrical sockets and plates.

Babysitting Duty

Well, Tom and I made it to our first research conference together (woohoo!) in Brooklyn, NY. When we got there we realized that it was the first time we've been away from the kids TOGETHER IN FOUR YEARS! How does that happen?



Of course, Cindy, Jagee, and Sitty all ended up getting the bad stomach bug from Typhoid Alice but they all survived.

(this picture was actually taken this weekend while visiting VA. Jagee always makes the best sundaes.)


Chillin with Jage

Healthy Again.

The kids appear to be healthy again. Alice is turning into a little ham. I love her cheesy smile and goofy laugh.



Here's a picture that Aunt Cindy took while she was babysitting.

I hate stomach viruses.

The last two weeks have been rough, especially for Miss Alice. It started last Wednesday (2/24)with a double ear infection, followed by a 12 hour vomitting/diarrhea stomach virus for Lucius (2/28) which quickly went through Tom, then Alice, then me. Tom and I had to go to a conference on Thursday night (3/4) so my parents and sister graciously agreed to come and babysit the kids while we were gone. You guessed it. My sister got the virus first, followed by my Mom, and now we're just waiting for my Dad. After five days poor Alice is still pooping water (sorry for the visual!). What a mess! I don't think it's helping that she's on heavy duty antibiotics for her ear infection...which I'm not sure will even be cured due to the stomach virus. Ack.

Summer can't come soon enough!

I should point out that Alice turned 11 months at some point during this whole mess. I can't believe she'll be 1 in one short month. I feel like I just had her a couple of months ago.

Blog? What blog?

After just spending 1.5 hours reading other peoples' blogs I realized that I, in fact, have a blog that I haven't updated in forever. I've been horrible the past few months. Probably due to work, and two kids, and a house that I can't keep up with.

Alice said "uh-oh" for the first time on Thursday night. She now says it whenever she (or anyone else, usually me) drops something on the floor. "uh hooooo"

She's also signing all done pretty well. Here's a short clip...not the best but you get the idea.




And, Miss Alice stood up in her crib for the first time today. Tom was shocked when he went in to get her from her nap. Not used to seeing Alice standing up! Daycare says she'll pull herself to standing on their couch. Then cry when she gets "stuck" or falls back down.

Lucius continues to play nicely with Alice. It's so cute to see them interacting more and more. Alice absolutely LOVES her big brother. Her eyes are always on him. Here they are playing during bathtime. Alice loves it even if Lu ends up being a big brother and doing the typical 'poke in the eye' and 'try to stick a toy on her butt' tricks.

Minnesota Children's Museum

We also visited the MN children's museum with some friends.
There's always a ton to do at these places.


Face painting a la Lucius.