January must be for animals

Boy am I glad to get the new February preschool calendar on Tuesday! And considering it's only Thursday night - that really seems like a long time from now.

I'll be happy to put the January calendar away for good. It really seemed like an extra l-o-n-g month.

For the most part it was animal month at preschool. Sophia made a polar bear, a panda, a penguin, a lion, a snowflake, a mitten, and spelled her name out on a flag (which she asked the panda bear to hold up on the frig for her). Oh yeah, Sophia can actually spell her name out for you if you ask her. She knows it's S O P H I A. Isn't that incredible? She's been bringing crayons and pens to me and asking me to help her write letters like A, B and C. She also has written the following letters and numbers. All on her own:
7 (although it was backwards)
8 (it was perfect)
C (it was long and skinny, but a C nonetheless)
L (perfect)

She also knows and can say all the days of the week, but if you ask her when something happened or what day it is she always replies THURSDAY.

Enjoy...

Aubrey turns 8 months

Click here if you want to see Sophia's 8 month old photo and if you take the time to re-read the post you can apply the same exact personality/behaviors to Aubrey. The only exception is the car seat situation. Aubrey's still in the infant car seat.

Aubrey is 8 months old...as of yesterday. She's such a happy baby. She adores Sophia and Sadie, going for walks, laughing out loud, playing with mom and/or dad and, her all time favorite, eating!

Here's Aubrey's version of talking (view first video). She screams and makes some real deep throaty squeals. In fact, a week has passed since this video was taken and we've thrown away the box that she's sitting in because she doesn't spend much time sitting anymore. She flips herself onto her belly and is trying to crawl. That's what you'll see in the second video.





There are a few other Aubrey and a few new Sophia movies posted here.

She'll be moving any day now!

Take a look at her teeth:

These are the top two that have already broken through. The middle ones are coming any day now. (If you click on the picture it will get enormous and you can really see her gums).

Aubrey & Daddy

I love this photo. SSShhhhhh.....Don't tell Sophia that Aubrey was playing with her doctor kit.

Sophia and Aubrey

55% of pollsters think the girls have the same face structure (I voted this way)
22% think they have the same eyes (this I don't understand at all)
11% think they have the same lips (I think they do too)
11% think they have the same cheeks (yeah, they both have huge cheeks)

I can tell you one thing they do have in common is that they both want to be doing whatever it is that Sophia is doing!

Aubrey cannot get enough of Sophia. She wants to be just like her big sister. Sophia, on the other hand, doesn't quite see it the same way.

Sophia's Preschool Class Photo

So, here's Sophia's preschool class - all of these kids were age 2 when the school year began, but some of them have already turned 3.

She' s the tallest kid in the class and one of the youngest too.

Ms. Dawn is on the left and Ms. Lisa is in the blue sweater on the right.

Top Row (left to right): Liam (she calls him Mam), Sophia, Joey (her good buddy)
Middle Row (l to r): Tori, Olivia (Sophia's favorite girl in class), Sarah (another fav), McKensie
Bottom Row (l to r): Daniel, Ryder, Zachery, Keagan

Aubrey FINALLY likes the exersaucer

It only took 7 months, but Aubrey officially enjoys bouncing and playing in the exersaucer and riding in the swing too. What a relief! She lunges forward from a sitting position onto her belly now all the time like she wants to crawl... And she's trying to use anything she can to pull herself into a standing position. For the most part she still needs assistance to stand up, but at least I can put her in the swing or the exersaucer now, leave the room for a few moments and not worry about her cracking her head open on something.

This video was taken while I still getting used to the new camera. It was taken on Aubrey's very first enjoyable day in the exersaucer. She definitely does not bounce as much as Sophia did, but she still likes it.

Aubrey in the bathtub

What a morning!

How irritated would you be if you were running a tad late in the morning and.............

1) It's 27 degrees outside and
2) You don't have a clean travel coffee mug to fill and
3) You actually manage to get both girls in the car (after emergency diaper changes for both as you're walking out the door) and
4) Then you finally arrive at preschool (9 minutes late) AND get both girls out of the car (in the 27 degree weather) and
5) Then almost pull your arm out of the socket as you attempt to pull open a LOCKED DOOR!?

School was canceled! There was a only THREAT of snow! A meager THREAT!

Guess what? We didn't get any snow today. The sun shone bright all day and it even got up to 38 degrees, but I digress.

I raced home to get Sophia's portable DVD player so she could accompany me to a doctor's appointment where she ended up spilling her goldfish all over the carpeted floor in the doctor's personal office. Then as we were picking them up she stepped on quite a few and ground them into the carpet.

Then I had to take her with me to BJ's Wholesale Club where she ended up leaving Dash, her new meowing & walking cat, in the plastic race car attached to the front end of the shopping cart. I had returned the cart into the large corral area in the parking lot and, can you believe, that by the time I got into the car and Sophia asked me where Dash was, the cart had actually been taken back to the store entrance by the little gnome that constantly monitors the parking lot.

Oh well. We finally arrived home and the afternoon returned to normal. Sophia cracked me up when I opened her bedroom door after her "quiet" time to find her only sporting her diaper. She had taken off all of her clothes and tried to put them on Baby Bop. She was so proud.

Deja vu

I've been through this before...a mere two years ago, but man, this teething thing is relentless! I was able to get a pretty good look in Aubrey's mouth this morning and saw that, indeed, tooth #4 AND #5 are about to break through her gums. Both are on the top. I cannot believe the rapid fire pace at which these teeth are appearing. If memory serves me correctly (and that's kind of a long shot these days...) Sophia got her teeth at the pace of maybe one per month, but each one was worse than the previous one.

Aubrey got her first tooth on Dec 22nd and less than one month later she's already got three showing and will probably wake up with 2 more tomorrow. With that said, she's been handling it fine up until today. With a face this cute it's hard to get frustrated with her, but COME ON, AUBREY!!!

She's been waking up around 4AM every morning for the past four days and then having a really hard time staying asleep for more than 45 minutes at a time after that. I have to go into her room, find her paci and coax her back to sleep. She's fully awake just before 7 ready to start day. She hasn't taken more than one nap per day for the last week, but putting her to bed at night has been especially brutal. She simply doesn't want to be left alone in the crib to "face the pain" on her own. She cries so hard it breaks my heart to walk out of the room. She thinks she's clever when she turns over onto her belly and wails even louder so that either Will or I will go back into the room to rescue her.

Tonight it took over 4 hours for us to get her to fall asleep! I'll just leave it at that.

Cute pictures

I took some cute pictures of the girls this past week:

Swimming class

We've signed the girls up for swimming classes on Saturday mornings at the YMCA. Sophia's making great progress. She was kicking her legs and had her arms extended all the way out in front of her today. I think she's the oldest in the class. She's definitely the tallest by far. Today she was actually singing along with the parents when we "sing" all the songs and move the "babies" around in the water.

As you can tell Aubrey seems to be quite shell shocked and doesn't know what to think about the pool. She's not enjoying the pool the way Sophia did at her age, but she absolutely loves splashing around her Winnie the Pooh bathtub.

Aquarium with Daisy

Sophia, Aubrey and I went to the Aquarium yesterday with Daisy and her mom and baby sister. Sophia and Daisy sure did have a good time. They are like two peas in a pod and Sophia loves to take Daisy by the hand/wrist and pull her around. For the most part Daisy doesn't seem to mind.

While we were there I ran into a few of my ex-coworkers from BCF and had a chance to say hi and catch up on some office gossip. Boy, I DO NOT miss any of that at all.

We also ran into one of Sophia's classmates, Liam. Ironically, on Thursday I just found out that his family only lives 5 minutes from us....and they also have an Aquarium membership. I already told Liam's mom that we would let them know the next time we go to playground and they're going to try to meet us there.

Sophia and Daisy had such a fun morning. The Aquarium is undergoing a renovation right now, but they have opened up their new kids zone which has tons of toys and play stations for the girls to enjoy. Ali, Daisy's mom, and I had to drag two crying girls out of the building (while pushing strollers and toting enormous diaper bags)! ....But we both love it.

And, check out the headline of a news story Will and I heard on the 11:00 news last night. Virginia Aquarium worker bitten by young Komodo dragon! HA!!!

Aubrey's 7 month picture

Here's Happy Aubrey at 7.5 months old. View all of the pictures of Aubrey in the chair.

Preschools

A few years ago I remember my one and only "friend with kids" talking about interviewing preschools for her son. I thought she was a getting a bit psycho-mom on me, but now I totally understand!

For the past week I've been intently researching, frantically placing phone calls, taking tours and..... have finally deciding on a preschool for Sophia for next year. Bellamy Manor School. Actually now that I give it a second thought it might be Broad Bay Manor School. As I'm sitting here writing this post I'm now debating which location I should send her to since there are four of them. We live centrally to three of them so I basically need to decide where Aubrey and I want to spend our time and run our errands next year. Will and I really like the philosophy and the individualized curriculum of the Manor Schools.

Aubrey will be home with me again, but Sophia will turn three in May and will start 3 days a week in the fall. She will not eat lunch at this school so her day will be 1/2 hour shorter than it is this year. (Boo hoo! Poor me!)

They offer extra curricular activities like ballet, Tumblebus (literally a hollowed out bus turned tumble gym), Spanish and karate.

Can't wait until tomorrow morning so I can drop off the application and check. I think I will breathe a bit easier when I know she has a spot at this school. Fingers crossed.

Thanks everyone!

Thanks to my parents and my in-laws I was able to purchase an awesome new camera today and two 4GB memory cards with my Christmas money. It takes high-def video. Take a look at some of the of practice shots I took this afternoon.

Took this of Aubrey after dinner tonight so she's quite messy, but I was trying to get a good one of her bottom teeth while she played with her bottle. I just love this grin.

Below is a shot of Sophia's "beautiful (or cool) new hair cut" as Sophia calls it. To give the new do some credit, I took this picture after she spent 20 minutes jumping on the trampoline this afternoon. She was hot and sweaty and her hair is sticking to her forehead, but this is it. She LOVES it. Will loves it. I wish the girl would have left two more inches on the bottom, but it's hair and it will grow. No bangs this time. She looks so much older to me and to be perfectly honest, I think she's acting a bit older too. She's very grown up these days. Especially when it comes to reprimanding/scolding Aubrey!

I took this one of the two of us and cropped myself out of the photo. She's looking up at the camera.

Must get a camera!

Today was the first chance Will and I had to look for a new camera. I hope to either purchase one tomorrow or make a decision and order one online. I'm dying here without my camera. Here's what you would have seen pictures/videos of this weekend:

1) Aubrey's first trip to the pool...for her very first swimming lesson. We're taking both girls for swimming lessons on Saturday mornings through the end of February. Sophia had a blast taking the class with Will. Aubrey didn't seem to mind clining to me or getting her face wet.

2) Aubrey got her THIRD tooth! I noticed it this morning. This time it's on the top, but it doesn't look like it's one of the top middle ones. It's off to the side.

3) Sophia keeps telling us: IF THERE'S EVER A FIRE IN THE HOUSE. DON'T GO BACK INTO THE HOUSE. I'm not sure where she heard this safety tip, but it's a good one!

4) Sophia is a nose picker. This news shouldn't come as a big surprise to anyone that saw her over Christmas break, but it's definitely official because she told me this weekend that the marks on her walls are ALL HER BOOGIES. She told Will the same thing. At this point, I'm pinning this yucky new habit on Uncle Dan.

Aubrey - 41st most popular GIRLS name

Here's an update on Aubrey's name and how it's growing in popularity. 2008 stats just revealed her name at #41.

2008 - Rank 41
2007 - Rank 69
2006 - Rank 92
2005 - Rank 153
2004 - Rank 190
Etc.....

Sophia is still at the top of the list at #2. Emma took over again as the #1 name for 2008.

The Amazing Aubrey

I've got so much to report about Aubrey, I hope I can remember it all.

AUBREY
7 months old
17 lbs 13 oz (almost 18 pounds) - 67% now

1) Yesterday Aubrey got her second tooth - another one on the bottom.

2) She's trying to pull herself up on everything! She often uses random things or toys that don't offer enough support and end up tumbling over on top of her. She doesn't seem to care, if she can reach it she's going to try to use it to stand up on her own.

3) She loves to eat. She eats two or three different things at each meal. I couldn't get the food into her mouth fast enough today. After each bite she sat with her mouth open demanding/waiting the next bite.

4) She was really cranky today and wouldn't take a nap no matter how many times I put her in the crib. Normally she will go into the crib while she's still awake and she'll put herself to sleep within 5-10 minutes. Each time I put her down for a nap today she would try a different technique to make me come back in and rescue her from her. During one of my particularly memorable attempts she was "pretending" she would take a nap, and then as soon as she heard the door click closed she would flip herself onto her belly and scream. This went on for only 6 times before I gave up.

5) Aubrey is a huge Sadie fan. After Will gets home each night and she gets her daily dose of Dad she then likes to have her Sadie fix. She cracks up when Sadie runs around. Will Aubrey's first word also be Sadie?

6) She can wave, well, almost.

7) She still doesn't like peas.

8) And the cutest thing ever....!.....she sleeps and cuddles up with Little Lamby every night. Seriously, it's the exact same thing that Sophia has except it's the 12 inch version instead of Sophia's 24 inch Lamby. Can you believe that?

Inquiring minds want to know...

We're entering new territory with Sophia. It's the infamous WHY? stage. I thought this was an age 3 thing, but she seems to be in full swing right now. She wants to know everything.

It's kind of gross, but at the moment she also wants to know if she can eat everything, including her pee pee and Sadie's food. She always asks with a coy grin. She knows the answer, of course, but she likes it when I play along.

I actually think I've figured out why toddlers ask the never ending WHY question

Here's my "Stay at home mom" perspective:
They are asked WHY questions so many times throughout each day that they must think it's the most important thing to know! Here's a handful of why questions that Sophia may hear in any typical day...
Sophia, why did you spill your crackers/cereal/carrots/etc?
Sophia, why are you crying?
Why are you sad?
Why did you break that?
Why did you push Aubrey/Sadie/her/him/that?
Why don't you want to eat your lunch/dinner?
Why did you write on that?
Why are you frustrated?
Why are you disappointed? (This is one of her favorite new words)

And the answers to those questions are probably really, really hard for a 2 1/2 year old to answer.

Her inquisitiveness is so cool. She's discovering so many things right now and the very best part about it is that she wants to share each and every single discovery with me! LUCKY ME!!!

My very favorite Christmas photos

Sophia and Aubrey with our friends, Tricia and Jon, in their new house. Sophia loved dressing up in Tricia's hats (and boots) and liked playing with Jon's prized Redskins paraphernalia.

Aubrey got her very on Bitty Baby from Aunt Misty and Uncle Mike.

She loves her new playmate. Especially her hands.

Doesn't Aubrey look like she's surprised that Bitty has plastic eyes? I really wonder what she's so shocked about.

First Cousins on the Alexander side: (Aubrey, Madeline, Terra, Jack, Minnie, and Sophia). As you can tell, Jack is a bit outnumbered right now.

Here's a great photo of our two red girls. They have a bond that none of the other cousins can share. I think that's sweet.





Grancy took the girls to see a movie - Sophia's first! Grancy said that Sophia lasted 1/2 way through the movie before the two of them snuck out into the hallway to play while waiting for Sophia's "BROTHERS". I know she was thrilled to be included in the big girl day. She took Minnie and Lamby with her.

Sophia had her very own room in Pa and in Northern Va. Lucky girl! Of course we still put a monitor in her room, but it's mostly to become alerted that she's awake in the morning. She doesn't get out of bed in the mornings, instead she sits up and calls out MOMMY or GRANCY or NANA.

Either way, I'm really proud of her for sleeping while we were out of town. It was easy to jump right back into our schedule when we got home.

Aubrey cut her first tooth while we were at Nana and Poppy's house. Looking back I think maybe that's why her cheeks were so flushed.

Uncle Dan fed Aubrey a bottle. His very first one. Way to go.

Sophia is dying to play the new game, Please Don't Break the Ice, that Uncle Dan got her. I keep telling her that only Daddy knows how to play because I simply don't want to have to put it together 1,000 times so she can smash out the pieces. That sounds like a really fun activity for Will and Sophia.

Here's our annual Second Cousin picture: Rylee, Morgan, Sophia, Aubrey and Cole. I think it's so adorable that Sophia is holding Aubrey's hand. I didn't notice it until I saw the picture. Sophia is usually really uncomfortable in situations like these. I wonder if holding Aubrey's hand made her a bit more comfortable?



Aunt Carole knocked it out of the park for Sophia with her Lamby blanket gift. Sophia immediately ran to Lamby to tell him that he got a Lamby blanket. She keeps it on the couch and every morning when she wakes us she snuggles into the Lamby blanket with Lamby and watches her favorite cartoons.

Without a doubt we had a wonderful time away from home and we already miss everyone! Come visit us at the beach......

Good bye December, Good Riddance 2008

I wasn't a very big fan of 2008 for no particular reason at all. In fact, lots of wonderful things happened in 2008.

-Aubrey was born
-We went on a beach vacation
-We got a new car
-Obama was elected

Here's the final kicker of 2008: On Tuesday (over night) my car was burglarized and my wallet and camera were stolen - from the front passenger seat. I literally spent all day Wednesday combing the house, the car and the garage only to come up empty-handed. I can fully admit it's my fault. The car was unlocked so it was an easy target! I often leave my wallet, keys and other important things in the car overnight - simply because I can't carry everything into the house in a single trip and I usually forget to go back out to the car by the time I get the girls settled and entertained enough for me to leave them unattended. Fortunately, the last thing I did with my wallet was deposit our Christmas money! Thank goodness. There were too many things in my wallet to list out here without breaking down in tears...including my engagement ring! (I took it off while we were out of town because my finger was getting a dry rash and put it in the change purse of my wallet!), my favorite lipstick and several pictures of the girls.

I'm furious about the camera. The camera is replaceable, but earlier in the day I took Sophia and Aubrey to the Aquarium for Toddler Tuesday. I took some really good pictures including Sophia petting a baby alligator. She had an absolute blast and we'll probably go back quite a bit over the next few months. So look for more pictures soon.

Will gave me $200 to tide me over until my replacement ATM cards arrive. He made the comment last night that he enjoyed having me ask him for money! He was joking, of course, but there's a little bit of truth in every joke.

SIDE NOTE: Sophia had her very first hair cut today. She looks so adorable in her bob (it actually looks alot like mine). She looks so mature now. It's as if she's 5. The girl cut it about 2 inches shorter than I would have liked, but it will grow. I can tell Sophia feels beautiful. She been looking in the mirror and admiring herself. You might be sad that you won't see any pictures of this momentous occasion, but never fear. Of course I took pictures! We stopped on the way to buy one of those throw away cameras...you know the ancient kind where you actually have to have the film developed. Give me a few days...

Family Photos

December artwork

Sophia did some especially cute art projects at school during the month of December.

Each class made a different type of ornament for the school Christmas tree. The Twos made various colored glittery bulbs. Sophia pointed her red one out to me. It was hanging off to the left side of the tree and she knew exactly where it was.

Sophia told me she drew the smile on the Gingerbread man's face. Cute smile! She has a special fondness for Gingerbread people this season. The ornament I bought her for her Christmas tree was a cute Gingerbread girl holding a spoon since Sophia is constantly raiding my kitchen utensil drawer and stealing my spoons, basters, measuring cups, etc....

S O P H I A is written on the stocking in silver glitter. I'm sure that was a mess for the teachers to clean up! And the cute little elf has an actual jingle bell on his hat. Sophia has told me at least 20 times that she put the bell on the elf with Ms. Dawn.

The last photo shows the beautiful snowflake tile that Sophia made at school for us. What a nice idea.