Our weekend was chunky-jam-packed full of fun. And let me tell ya, we needed it!
Daddy took off on Friday.
Lunch at a local ice cream/soda shop.
Playtime at Pump it Up.
Awesome.
A spontaneous adventure in the snow to Lynchburg, VA on Sunday.
Lunch at Waterstone Woodfire Pizza.
Playtime at Amazement Square Children's Museum.
Back home to play in the snow before dinner.
Double awesome.
I have no pics of Friday's adventures, but here are a few from Sunday.
Our lunch destination.
Daddy and Alex are all-smiles about our pizza choices.
Amazement Square - an old mercantile supply store building renovated and converted into the children's museum.
"Death to all insects" was updated to read "Respect to all insects." Hard to see it here, but the lower bug's tongue spells out "respect" over the word "death." A bug theme is done throughout the museum.
Roo-bear is getting his John Deere ride on.
Alex checking out the spider web in Bug University.
Climbing the hill with "sticky fingers" to show him how spiders are able to climb.
Roo-bear checks out the electricity exhibit.
Roo in the bee-hive at Bug University.
Roo with an "old" leather ball.
The steps light up!
Learning about motion and creating momentum.
Roo checks out the view from the museum window.
What Roo is scoping out.
The boys enjoying the see-saw.
On more than one occasion, Alex hopped off and let Roo drop down. He didn't seem to mind too much. Probably because Daddy was there to catch him.
Alex with the goat chariot.
The boys testing out the canoe - and the fish. Roo had a little taste-test of the fish.
Alex building with the blocks. Before we left this area, he put all the blocks away without being asked and sang his "clean up, clean up, everybody clean up, everybody do your share" song.
The water station. One of his favorite stops in the museum.
Future Rock Band star.
He sings and he plays. Such talent.
Yay for family fun time!
Making sure we have the right gear for playtime in the snow.
In the sled.
Alex only thought this was fun for a few minutes. And then he wanted off.
So Roo took a turn going solo.
Braving the elements.
We also collected a big bowl of snow and made snow ice cream after dinner. No pics, but it sure was good.
Such a fun weekend - I hate to see it end but am grateful for every single second of it.
Alex and I started our day by working on a new bible verse.
Mark 12:30 "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength."
I figured Valentine's was the perfect opportunity to talk about the ultimate love - God's love for us and ours for Him.
Then we had pancakes for breakfast. Little hearts for Roo.
And heart cut-outs with whipped cream and sprinkles for Alex. (I should note that Alex had his pancake after he had several M&Ms which were a part of his Valentine's gift. I had to cut him off for the rest of the day.)
Then we loaded up and went to a little music class. This was our first time to visit the class - I was checking it out to see if it's worth enrolling the boys this summer. I'm on the fence. Alex was more interested in chasing a little girl around the room than he was singing and listening to the teacher's instruction. He did, however, like getting to play the instruments. So did Roo.
We also got to have lunch with friends. Please note Alex's burger. This picture pretty much describes how our day went.
That's right. Alex piled a big ol' mound of salt right on top of his mostly uneaten burger.
After the boys' afternoon naps, I made heart-shaped grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner, and then Alex and I watched the Charlie Brown Valentine special after Roo went down for bed. It has been a day to say the least. I'm off to bed now and hoping that both my boys sleep well tonight. I'm wiped out.
Hope your day has been full of love and joyful happenings!
When Alex was a baby, I used to marvel over the physical developments from week to week. Now I find myself marveling in the same way over the language developments, too.
Toward the end of last summer, Alex started putting multiple words together. Each. Word. Sounded. Like. A. Sentence. So deliberate. So intentional. I loved it.
"Princess. Daisy. Kiss. Donald. Duck. Frog."
That was his first sentence that I can recall. He was giving a summary of one of his favorite "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse" episodes.
Toward the end of last year, his sentences started becoming more fluid. Here are a few phrases he's said over the last few months.
Alex: "What kind of chips got there mommy?"
Me: "White Cheetohs."
Alex: "Oooooo! White Cheetohs!"
Me: "Alex, are you hungry?"
Alex: "Yep. Think so."
Me: "Where's your big pen-pen?" (a "big pen-pen" is a quarter. he initially called pennies, pen-pens.)
Alex: "Hmmm. (while stroking his chin with his thumb and pointer finger) Know. (as in, I don't know.) Upstairs sleeping. Zzzzzzz (makes snoring sound)."
Me: "Eat your cheeseburger."
Alex: "I can't! I broke it!!"
Alex: (about the breast pump) "Mom! Little machine goes 'beck-em, beck-em, beck-em.' Make milk for Roo."
Alex: "Ms. Lauren has nice blue shirt."
Alex: "Oooooo. Nice green shirt, Mom."
Alex: "Daddy is my best friend."
Me: "Alex, do you want peanut butter with your apples?"
Alex: "Peanut butter? No! Peanut butter Jif."
Alex: "Dad, you took my apple juice away. That's not nice. That's not fair." (He says 'that's not fair' a lot but doesn't have a clue what it really means.)
Alex: "What's wrong with Roo? Huh?" (while I have Roo on the changing table early one morning using the aspirator to get snot out of his stuffy nose.)
Me: "I'm trying to get his boogers. He's not happy about it."
Alex. "Oh. Mom! Get my poo-poo up here. (pats the changing table) I'm a stinky boy."
And here's one of my favorites...his first bible verse - Joshua 1:9. "Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid. For God is with you, wherever you go."
This was the first time that he said the verse by himself without repeating it in broken phrases after me. He did leave out 'wherever you go,' but he's got that part down these days. So sweet.
He's also started singing. Be still my heart. I love it. His first song was "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star." At Christmas he enjoyed singing "Jingle Bells," and now he goes crazy with the alphabet song, too.
Alex and Noni spent some time reading together while were in Texas for Christmas. He loved Baa Baa Black Sheep and wanted to "read" the first line himself.
They also made up songs to go with one of his Marsupial Sue books. "No, no, no, no, no, no. I'm too fast and you're too slow!" They were a hoot to watch singing together!
Alex was also a big helper at the grocery store. This was his first time to push one of those little mini buggies. If you weren't loading his buggy up with stuff, he was going to load his own stuff in there! I haven't been brave enough to let him push the cart when I go to the store with both boys by myself. I think I'm going to need a great deal of agility and free hands to keep him reigned in. Ha!
Do you know my other favorite thing Alex has started doing? Pretend play. So much fun to see that little imagination coming alive and the creativity flow. Most of our pretend time is around his market and the play food. He likes to serve ice cream. A lot. And I "eat" it as if it were the best ice cream on the planet.
This little guy is so precious. I adore his sweet spirit and his kind heart. I feel like the luckiest girl in the world to be his momma. (Or, mom, as he calls me now. That's right. We've already gone from 'momma,' to 'mommy,' to 'mom.' I thought I had at least another couple of years with 'mommy' before we settled into 'mom.')
Roo-Muppet (as Alex has now nicknamed him) is now eight months old. EIGHT MONTHS, PEOPLE!
This month, he had his first Chick-fil-A chicken nugget. He seems to be losing interest in baby food as he ventures into more table food. He absolutely loves being able to feed himself.
We're in full-on crawling mode over here. He's still finessing the movement and coordination of it all, but he's working hard to keep up with big brother.
Speaking of, Roo-Muppet loves him some Alex. And Alex loves him some Roo-Muppet. Alex is always wanting Roo to come play with him. And Roo always, always smiles when Alex is around. Their love is so sweet.
Roo had his first time in the swing.
On the first push, his little arms and hands just shook as he was trying to figure out what was going on.
And then he sat back and enjoyed himself, smiling all the while.
I see lots of park days in our future this spring. Both boys love, love, love being outside.
A couple of other updates...Roo has gotten his top right incisor. And teething has been a BEAR!! I will be glad when that last chomper comes in. Goodness! Poor little guy - he really is such a trooper.
And on the crawling front, it was amazing to watch him go from army crawling, to transitioning from lying on his stomach to sitting up, to a full-on crawl in a matter of three days. Oh, and in the midst of all that, pulling up in his bed! The days go so quickly, I tell ya.
