Two weeks....Part II

OK, here's the continuation of the Two weeks post.

We spent the better part of last week in PA and Northern VA. My grandfather passed away on Sunday night and we headed out of town on Tuesday morning for our 9+ hour drive to Mars, PA. The trip was pretty uneventful. Sophia watched satellite cartoon tv and Barney movies the whole way. Lilly alternated drifting off to sleep and whining for toys/entertainment to be handed to her.

We dressed the girls up and took them to the viewing on Wednesday afternoon and I have to say they both acted pleasant the entire 2 hours. Many of my parents friends got to meet my two little cuties.

Sophia saw my grandfather "sleeping" in the other room and has coined the funeral home "The Sleeping Place". When I went back for the evening viewing she asked me if I was tired since I was going back to the sleeping place without her.

The funeral was on Thursday afternoon and we headed to Northern VA on Friday at noon so we didn't have time for much socializing, but I did get to hold my cousin's three-day old son. He's adorable, but so is his sister.


Ironically enough, Sophia has a "drawer" at home, at Nana's house and at Grancy's house. At home her drawer contains bouncy balls, Playdoh, stamps, and other fun things. At Nana's house there are card games, mom's old plastic Smurf figurines, scissors -- yes you read that correctly -- scissors! Well, this can't be beat. Give the girl a piece of paper and a pair of scissors and you've got yourself about 20 minutes of free time! Dangerous, but true!!! In Grancy's drawers you'll find long plastic fingernails to wear on your fingers and tickle someone and there are a slew of other fun little trinket things too.



The weather was yucky, rainy and cold while we were in PA, but it was hot hot hot by the time we got to Grancy's house. This photo shows how Sophia spent most of her time at Grancy's on Saturday - playing in water. She also loved to get into the turtle sandbox and play in "The Quiet Room" which she was calling the basement. She loves going down there to play on the pool table.


Lilly enjoyed her first day crawling through the grass and playing peek-a-boo with Grancy. Sophia and I got to ride the train together at Burke Lake Park and afterward she road the carousel with Grancy. The train ride was fun. I noticed tons and tons of plastic bags all over the ground. There was even one that the conductor stopped to pick up off the track. Come on people, clean up after yourselves. . . .

Anyway, we spent this week getting back into our routine and Sophia has successfully completed both mornings of school this week without incident. She's also taken two naps since we've been home. This is unheard of with her, but I think all of her grandparents wore her out and I think the vice versa is also true. I know she wears me out every day.

A new Lilly video

She's playing with a new toy and then she finds a few pieces of rice cake that Sophia just dropped. Yum.

Two weeks

I've got two weeks of catching up to do. Last week we found ourselves in Mars, PA for my grandfather's funeral. Not really wanting to do the 9+ hour trip again in one day, we stopped off at Grancy and Big Daddy's house on the way home.

The week before that was spring break for Sophia so she didn't have school and boy did we test each other that week! We have a standing Mommy and Me thing on Monday mornings and Sophia has dance class in the afternoons so our time on Mondays is pretty much accounted for each week. On Tuesday morning we headed over to the Aquarium for their Toddler Tuesday program. The letter of the day was R, but the animal they brought out to meet and touch was a skunk. When the handler asked all the kids to line up in order to pet the skunk Sophia jumped right to the front of the line and stood beside the kids that were already in line (that's her in the blue striped shirt).

We spent a few hours at the Aquarium and then headed home. We strolled the 1/3 mile walk from one building to the other. Well, I stroller, Sophia sprinted. I swear she pushed every single button on every single display and played with everything. Lilly (this is how we are going to shorten Lillian...sorry for any confusion) loved looking at everything too. It was a fantastic day.

Here's a few shots of Lilly playing on Wednesday.


By Thursday Sophia was completely and utterly disgusted with every toy she owns and didn't want to do anything except watch tv! Unacceptable! Plus I couldn't take one more episode of Curious George so went to Target to kill an hour or so. (If this post is too long just skip the next two paragraphs).

We have a Target routine that goes something like this: Sophia gets to touch the big, stone, red balls outside in the front of the store then she gets to walk through the automagic door. We sometimes have a return to take care of and then we hit the dollar bins. She always finds a few things and we put them in the cart, but by the time we get to the checkout lane I've gathered up Sophia's junk purchases and I hand them back to the cashier.

She likes to ride in the cart while I do my shopping, but when she senses the toys are close by she demands to get out and rushes over to investigate everything on the shelves. She plays with all the baby toys and pushes every button. Recently she's been gravitating toward the laptop type toys and toys with globes. She hugs all the stuffed animals, plays with the baby doll station they have (I think this is because it has a fake sink and water hose). Anyway.....you get the point. Each isle has something unique to offer. She usually wants to bring home an animal, but she has enough stuffed things that she doesn't play with anymore.

This particular trip was especially worthwhile because I found a Curious George board game for age 3. She's really getting into age-appropriate board games as she approaches age 3 in just two weeks and two days. It's so cute. She loves Curious George and even remembers that I used him last year for her 2nd birthday at My Gym (which has a monkey theme too).

Friday is just a blur! I have no idea how I made it through the week with two kids at home full time and Will working late every night, but I did it.

On Saturday morning we had a play date with Haley and Carlie at the play ground and Lilly got her first dose of sun. Turns out that even though I had sunscreen on her face and her body, her face still got lots of color. Her body, however, did not. Wonder if that means she's going to be part of the fair family?

OK, I hate to cut this short, but I've already spent one hour on this post and I need a break.

To be continued...

It'll be better for her...or at least

that is what I, her humbled mother, am telling myself. Maybe I should say it'll be prettier and more feminine or more common or maybe I should just say that I got sick of hearing about male versions of her name. The bottom line is that we are legally changing Aubrey's name to Lillian Constance Alexander. We'll call her Lily.

Please make a special effort to call her Lillian or Lily in the future. We've confused poor Sophia so much by just testing out other random names on Lily for days at a time and then changing it again. Sophia now calls her made up names like Peekish, Toedee, Goombaga, etc....

I announced her new name at the library earlier this week and again last night at dinner with friends. At the library someone commented that Lily is a very fitting name for her and our friends love the name Lillian and if they would have had two girls instead of a boy/girl set of twins they were planning to name them Lola and Lillian. (smile)

Indoor fun

Dad was a genius last weekend when he decided to offer some indoor fun for Sophia and Lamby...

Check out the rest of the pictures.

Haley & Carlie's birthday party

Last Saturday morning, during Uncle Dan and Ali's visit, the girls and I attended Haley and Carlie's joint birthday party at Hop Skip & Jump. Haley turned 3 and Carlie turned 1 the next day. Sophia and Aubrey were both very clingy during the party, but we still had a good time. Two minutes after I attempt to put Aubrey down to play she would wail like this...


Sophia finally warmed up to the place after cake and ice cream, but by then there were only 10 minutes left to play before the party was over. She really enjoyed dressing up in costumes and playing with the mail box. I didn't get very good photos, but you can see them all if you click here.

She loves dance class

Sophia loves dance class almost as much as she loves tormenting her sister! This photo was in the parking lot at dance class this past week. Sophia was banging her ballet slippers off of Aubrey's head as I was locking the car.

Easter egg hunts

Sophia enjoyed a few Easter egg hunts last weekend. It took her a while at each one to really get the hang of it and figure out that she was supposed to run around and pick up as many eggs as she was able. I had fun coaxing her toward the hard to spot ones.

The Easter Bunny made a special guest appearance at the Rec Center Egg Hunt last Friday and Sophia loved him so much. She ran up to him and gave him at least 20 hugs - like she is in this photo. She was shrieking and running around like she didn't know what to do with herself. I'm so glad she actually liked the Easter Bunny this year!

Every Friday from 10 - 11:30 we go to the Rec Center for Munchkin Play Time. They have an open play area filled with toys for the first 45 minutes and they they provide a snack, dance time, craft (and last week an Easter egg hunt too). Sophia loves going because her friend, Barbara, is there. Barbara is John's wife and you will see John kneeling down beside Aubrey in this set of photos. She's Sophia's grandma stand in on Fridays. Sophia seems to hitch herself to the "grandma" aged person no matter where we go. A bit of an old soul, I suppose. So, to sum up our friendship with Barbara and John: Sophia adores Barbara and John is nuts about Aubrey. As soon as we walk in he steals her from me. I love the break...she's a heavy little girl!

Sophia took this picture of us.

What do you think?

Where does the time go?

I know it's been forever since I've updated the blog because there were 156 photos on my card reader this morning. That's a lot of posting to catch up on in order to get current. Be patient with me.... here's a cute photo from Friday when we saw the Easter Bunny.

March art work

There are officially less than 2 months of school left for Sophia this year. School is over on May 22nd...that's before Memorial Day. Yikes! I think Sophia is going to go to summer camp at her current school for a few weeks into June and then we'll call it quits for the summer.

March was a fun month for school crafts. I think my favorite is the clothespin butterfly. Take a look at all of them.

A busy week

This week flew by and I didn't have a chance to post any blog entries, but I certainly have a lot to report.

On Monday we spent a quiet day at home, but had to get out the Dora tent because every other toy that offered to Sophia was deemed boring. Aubrey was in awe of the big tent in the middle of the room, but Sophia didn't want her to play inside or even near her tent. Only Lamby was allowed. In the evening we had our first kick ball practice. Game on Friday night.

On Tuesday we met Addie at The Jumping Monkey after school. Both girls had a great time, but Sophia does not like to go in the bouncers at all and over half of the place different bouncers. Some even have slides in them. Sophia really enjoyed being a fire fighter and Aubrey spent a lot of time practicing her standing skills.

On Wednesday we went to the mall for a play date with Rajchel (pronounced Rachel) and her mom, Belinda. We rode the carousel, ate lunch and then visited the Easter Bunny. Sophia wasn't scared this time. We brought a carrot from home and he put it in his pocket with she offered it to him. Aubrey didn't feel like cooperating because she was really tired and the only was she quit crying was to hold my keys so they are dangling from her hand in the photo. (Side note: my keys are her favorite new toy and she literally fights me for them!) I'll try to scan the photo later this weekend....it's cute.

Thursday was Sophia's Spring Music Program at school. Will and I both went. She sang her little heart out and had a blast doing it. She was beaming from ear to ear as she sang each word - very loudly.

This morning we went to Rec Center for their Munchkins and More program. This was our second time going and we had a blast again. Next Friday the Easter Bunny will be there and if the weather is nice they're going to do an egg hunt too. We're doing our first egg hunt tomorrow afternoon at 2:00.

We lost our kick ball game tonight, but I scored the first point for our team. Will scored too. I think the final score was 12-8 or at least we'll say that's what it was.

Feeding the ducks with Dad

Sophia and Will took advantage of the warm weather on Sunday and went outside to feed the ducks in our little pond. Sophia always has a blast spending time with Dad. After they fed the ducks they played outside with the grill and Sophia told me that "she would be the cooker and Daddy would be her pleasure". This simply means that Will must comply with everything she requests him to do.

Happy Birthday, Will!

Will turned thirty___? yesterday. It's the same number that's on the back of the Rolling Rock beer bottle for no apparent reason at all. If you don't know or don't have access to a Rolling Rock bottle then.... I guess I could tell you or maybe I'll just make you guess. He's younger than me if that helps with your guess....

We made him one heck of a homemade construction paper book yesterday. It literally took all day. We ran out of time and didn't get to make a cake so while he was on his way home from work we went to Farm Fresh and bought a cake. We ran out of time because I simply gave Sophia too many pages to paint and once they were all painted we had to use each and every single page in our book! I gave Sophia six different colors of construction paper! Well, by the time you fold them in half and staple it down the middle like a book it becomes TWENTY FOUR pages. It's a good thing it didn't turn out to be 33!

I'm not complaining, believe me. We had a blast making the book. While Sophia painting all "24" pages using her watercolors I was printing some of our recent favorite photos and cutting them out to use in our book. We also used stickers and wrote some text for each page.

Sophia made Will some cupcakes by carefully dumping Splenda into 12 muffin cups that she had counted out and inserted into the pan already. We wrapped the book from all of us. Then we wrapped a pair of scissors from Lamby and a measuring spoon from Sophia. When all of that was done and the table was set to have cake Will finally got home and we celebrated. Sophia loved it the most!

Sophia's first dance class

Sophia took her very first dance class yesterday and moms were not allowed in the room! We're invited to sit through the entire last class in two months. So all the moms took turns peeking through a tiny crack in the door to see our little ballerinas. The class is actually called Creative Movement, but the required attire is pink ballet tights, slippers and black leotards. Hair is required to be pulled back. Sounds pretty serious, huh?

Not so much. I saw them jumping like frogs and taking bows and doing the crab walk so I think it's a pretty carefree class. They girls all look so adorable in their outfits! Addie and Cameron are in the class too. When class was over Sophia was on top of the world and last night she wanted to play dance class where she was the teacher. This morning I heard her role playing with two of her dolls. One was telling the other one that she MUST BE FANCY and together they were sitting in their castle.

Play date with friends

Three or so weekends ago when the weather was in the 80s we had an afternoon play date with Sophia's friends. We met them at a play ground and let the girls all run around for over an hour and then went back to Haley's house for a cook out. It was fun and we just got the pictures from Addie yesterday. Take a look.

Aubrey facts

1) She loves foraging around the house for dog food. She loves to put Sadie's hard food into her mouth and then she always seems that just then she'll choose to craw with the hopes of getting noticed, I think. Example: she just crawled into the kitchen plopped down with her back to me ad started bouncing up and down. When I tried to face her she turned her head away from me hoping to not get discovered with a dog pellet in her mouth. Oh, I got it out and she made a mad dash out of the room toward my diaper bag.

2) Aubrey loves to root through my diaper bag and pull everything out to have a closer look. This can become quite annoying.

3) She also likes to go after my plants. She pulls off the leaves and tries to eat them. We don't have any dangerous plants in the house, but little Miss Aubrey is certainly determined to eat her fair share of house plants. I guess I need to move this big one now. I've already moved all the others!

4) She had just learned to clap and now whenever she has an audience she'll show off her new talent a bit.

My little artist

A silent Sophia never leads to anything good. In this case my little artist was in the closet in the "frog" into my craft paints. She knows better and she knows she's in a bit of trouble here. GUILTY

We saw Elmo again

On Saturday we went to My Gym for an open play afternoon with Elmo (and Dad). Sophia was beside herself with excitement when Elmo finally appeared. She was literally running circles around him and was acting so giddy. We didn't have the camera, but there were plenty of "Panasonic" moments like when Elmo decided to get into the ball pit! I thought Sophia was going to burst. She cried when we left and kept telling me that she didn't get to say goodbye to Elmo. Don't believe her! We were the only duo to give Elmo a hug before he disappeared again.