Movin' on Up.......

I am so excited about what Alex did today that I had to do a blog post about it! A couple months ago, day care emailed me a picture of Alex standing up on an exersaucer and they told me he pulled himself up all by himself! We were so excited on that day but then we never saw it again!

We have been standing up at things, and then realized he probably isn't pulling up since we always cater to his every need! So this past week we made a conscious decision to not stand him up at things and that he would have to try to pull himself up if he wanted. We would notice that he would start to put his foot under but then would just stop and move on.

Tonight about a half an hour before bed, we were playing in the living room and all of a sudden Alex was standing!!! He pulled himself up all by himself!!! Ben and I were both so excited!!! After that he did it 2 or 3 more times before bed!!!

YAY ALEX!!!! We're so proud of you bubby!

Highlight of some Birthday Presents

We absolutely love all the gifts the kids got for their birthday...don't be disappointed if your gift that you gave them is not highlighted here as it isn't possible to get pictures with all of their gifts!

Playing with their new blocks on their new table and chair set! The table and chair set has temporarly been put away as Olivia likes to stand on the chair, and the other day she pushed it over to her high chair, stood up on it and tried to reach the tray!

Enjoying a ride in their new wagon!!! So much more fun then going on walks with the stroller! Now if the weather could just stay nice!

This has been a big favorite....the "dump" that came with the dump truck that they got! Olivia loves to play with the "dump" and they both LOVE chewing on the dump truck driver!

Alex and Olivia modeling their new Purdue t-shirts!!!

Sitting on the new toy box they got for their room! Hopefully this will last us for many years to come!

Olivia reading one of her new books! And I must mention that she did pull a page (by accident) out of one of Alex's new books!
Olivia playing with her new piano.

Olivia modeling her new pink jogging suit! The pants are a little long, but the jacket fits just right!

Happy 1st Birthday Alex and Olivia!!!!

Alex and Olivia turned 1 two weeks ago! It is hard to believe that a year has already passed! I think it just shows how busy our lives have been since they were born! And to think we had a busy life before children!

We had a small party at our house on their birthday, Saturday, March 28th! Both of our parents flew in for the occassion. We thought for a while that we might have to cancel the party because Alex was sick the week leading up to the party and luckily Ben's mom was nice enough to fly out early to watch Alex so that Ben and I didn't have to miss anymore work!

The guests arrived around 1, and of course all the kids decided it was nap time! So the party turned into an adult gathering for the first 30 - 45 minutes, and I am not complaining about that!

I spent weeks trying to figure out how I could decorate the cakes for the kids. All I could come up with was Winnie the Pooh characters and I didn't want to do that again since that is what we did for Halloween. So I decided to just make two round cakes (one yellow and one chocolate) and decorate them as if they were an M&M. I ordered personalized M&M's that said "Alex is ONE", and "Olivia is ONE", and bordered the cakes with the M&M's.

I bought some birthday hats for Alex and Olivia to wear. I figured Alex would hate his, and as for Olivia I wasn't sure. I put one on Olivia in the morning before the party and she LOVED it! She was wearing around the house for a good hour! It was so cute!

Before we started to sing Happy Birthday to the kids, I put their hats on. Olivia didn't mind, but as I figured Alex hated it and started to cry!

We gave them each a piece of cake to eat. Olivia got the chocolate cake as I thought it went better with pink icing. She went to town on her cake and seemed to like it a lot and was pretty neat with it. Alex, who had the yellow cake, was just picking at his and not eating very much of it. I gave him a piece of the chocolate cake thinking maybe he didn't like yellow cake. He took the chocolate cake and immediately threw it on the floor as if he was saying "I don't want that, it's not my cake!".

Although Olivia was very interested in the pile of presents in the morning before the party but when it came to open the gifts, neither Alex nor Olivia were interested. Ben and I opened their gifts for them. They got a lot of really nice gifts of clothes and toys!

The balloons were also a big hit with both kids! It was a nice way to cheer them up as they were coming down from their sugar highs!

Thank you to everyone who helped make Alex and Olivia's 1st birthday a special one!

Weekend with Uncle Dave

The weekend before the kids birthday, my brother Dave, came to visit and spend the weekend with Alex and Olivia. It was nice having him for the weekend as he hadn't seen the kids since we were in Michigan in August.

The weekend began with receiving the package that Dave sent to our house which was the kids birthday present. He bought the kids a table from IKEA with two little chairs. He stained the table for them and had it sent to our house to arrive while he was in town.

On Saturday he put the table together for them, and it is the cutest table ever!!! They can't get on the chairs on their own just yet, but Olivia will definitely try, and Olivia can get down all by herself.

The first couple of days of having the table made us feel that we were constantly putting the kids in the chairs to only take them down 5 minutes later when they wanted to get down. But the table is great and it is something that they will get tons of use out of for years to come!!!

On Saturday night we went out to dinner with Dave, and the kids. After dinner we went to a kids shoe store to buy Olivia a pair of shoes that she can wear outside since now that she walks she will be going outside at day care to play on the playground. We had her wear them around the house on Sunday to let her get use to them and she was so funny! Her balance was a little off in the new shoes as we think the way she typically has good balance is through curling her toes into the ground which she can't do in her new shoes. But she was able to pick up the speed in the new shoes so it seemed like she was practically running around the house!!!

He is making strides.....

Literally...Alex is making strides. He sees Olivia walking all around the house and I think he is dying to walk. You can see it in his eyes. A couple of weeks ago we tried him out on one of the walkers we have, but he didn't get the concept. He would just push it but would not move his feet.

Then we found him pushing his little Fisher Price activity table around the living room. It is the cutest thing. The table has no wheels so it goes the perfect speed for Alex....as fast as he wants it to go!

He has been cruising around on furniture a lot more lately and so we decided to give the grocery cart (one of the walkers we have) another try this weekend...and this is what we got....



And here are a few pictures of him standing from this weekend - - he cruises on everything around the house now from the kitchen cabinets to Dudley's crate!

The tooth fairy is early and cheap!

We never imagined that there would be a reason for the tooth fairy to come to our house before the kids were 6 or so. In fact, we figured that the kids wouldn't have any need to see a dentist before they turned one so we contemplated not even putting them on our dental insurance. Boy, were we wrong!!

Let me set the stage.....February had been a crazy month with Alex missing a week of day care from being sick, then a couple weeks later I got a call from day care that Olivia had a fever of 101 but seemed to be acting fine so they would allow her to stay for the rest of the day and would just monitor her temperature. It seemed like every time I turned there was a reason why I either had to leave work early or a reason why I couldn't come into work which made me feel horrible since I just started my job on February 2nd.

So a few days after I got the call about Olivia's fever, my phone rang at work and caller ID showed it was day care...my first thoughts were "what now?" I picked up the phone to find the director on the other end, so I figured she was going to let me know what I missed at the prior night's parent support committee meeting....once again, boy, was I wrong!

She started off with "Alex had an accident". I am sure you can only imagine the thoughts that went through my head.

As it turns out, Alex and Olivia (why couldn't it be another child at day care rather than his own sister?) were fighting over a toy, Alex lost his balance, fell forward and hit his chin on a table. He ended up hitting his chin so hard that he knocked out his top tooth (a tooth that had just come in and we had just gone through what seemed like 2 weeks of sleepless nights as the tooth came in!). His tooth was hanging by a string (or should I say root), and he ended up sucking the tooth out of the socket.

Their pediatrician gave me the name of a dentist, who saw him right away. The dentist informed me that they don't put baby teeth back since it could potentially damage the permanent tooth developing underneath.

Alex had to go strictly on baby food for a few days to make sure no food got into his gum that was cut, but other than that he was fine. We have his tooth in a little treasure chest that the dentist gave me, and we figure we get off easy with not having to give him anything from the tooth fairy since he doesn't know what the tooth fairy is (at least until he is old enough to read this!).

I am still in shock and I don't think I will realize how real all of this has been until he has more teeth and it is evident that he is missing a tooth.

Alex becomes a man...

I bet that title got your attention. Seriously though two Sundays ago we decided that Alex's hair had finally just gotten too darn long so it was time to get it cut. We put this off for quite a while so when we decided to get it cut his hair was really long.

We were worried that on a Sunday the place might be really crowded. We ventured out anyway and to our surprise there was no one at the haircut place. Alex was a trooper. He was a bit bewildered at first. However after 10 minutes or so he lightened up. In the end we think he had a good time. The girl did a very good job cutting his hair and I must say he looks quite handsome after the haircut. We'll probably head back in about a month for the next one.