PRESCHOOL!!!!!

That's right, we have a preschooler in the house. Alex started preschool last Tuesday. He is going two days a week for 3 hours at a time. While that time is great for me to get a lot done, I'm sure the teachers have their hands full with Alex in class. :) He has always been an active boy (even for boy standards) and has always had a difficult time focusing on one task at a time. That being said, he is super smart and so sweet. He seems to be having fun, although it is hard to get information out of him as to what they did each day. I checked in with his teacher today after class and she said what I was expecting her to say, "Well, he's having some trouble focusing on one task. He likes to go from thing to thing to thing." *Sigh* So now at home we are working on this even more. Setting the timer, no getting up until the timer goes off, etc. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Here are some pictures from his first day of school. :)

Ready to go!!!!


Putting together a little puzzle


In his cubby


His special treat for his first day.

5 Months

Weighing in at 14.2 pounds and 24 1/2 inches long.


Paige is rolling over like crazy, eating her toes all the time, laughs at everything, but especially her big brother and is the most laid back baby I've seen. She is a joy to be around.

What We've been Up To!

(I apologize for the smaller size of the pictures. I uploaded them differently. I'll do it normal next time!)

I have realized that I have been a horrible blogger and have resigned to being okay with updating this blog once a month. Hopefully I'll back into a schedule of updating it more often, but for now, just be prepared for LONG posts with lots of pictures and little explanation. (That's all anyone wants to see anyway, right?)

I have the best friends! I took a trip to Ft. Wayne to hang out with my girls from Taylor for a (much to short) weekend. It was great to see how much all of them loved on Paige! I miss those girls!






I love the look on Paige's face in this picture. She adores her big brother!


We took Claire and Eli to the zoo recently. They wanted ice cream and since Alex doesn't like ice cream (yes, I know that's unheard of) he wanted a pretzel!


Happy Girl!


Such a sweet little boy. A kiss from the birthday boy!


So I'm a little late on this one, but happy 4 months old!!! Weighing about 13.5 pounds and 24 inches long (still my little peanut)


And one last one with big brother


Showing off his new shoes


Paige trying to talk and laughing at nothing.

Picture post from back in time....

I was uploading pictures the other day and realized that I haven't posted some on here that I know you'd enjoy seeing. So, this post is dedicated purely to pictures.

ENJOY!

Waiting for the "potty races" (as Alex called them) to begin. We headed home to the Fireball Festival. It was fun to see Alex's reaction to the toilets racing down the street. He had no clue WHY they would do this!


Off they go!


3 Months Old



He was so focused on watering the plants in the Family Zoo area. Kent and I kept saying, "who is this kid?" It was cute.



Little trip to the zoo. They had this bean bag toss game set-up and Alex LOVED it! He played it about 3 or 4 times. He actually did a great job too. We made him scoot back further.


On Daddy's shoulders. Best way to experience the zoo.


Trying out the foot massager at the zoo.


Paige at the zoo! What a good little girl.


I took Alex to see his first movie in the theater. He loved Toy Story 3! It was fun to watch him experience the big screen for the first time.


Alex is taking two classes at the Park District this summer (cooking and art). After his art class he told me that he made "goo" to put his hands in. It turns out that it wasn't GOO but GLUE! Oops. Oh well, he had fun!




Water balloon fight on the 4th of July! We had fun tossing the ballons at one another. Alex wondered why we weren't in our swim suits. By the time we were done, I wondered the same thing.






Little Illini Fan!


One of his paintings from Art Class

Paige Laughing

3 Month update

Well, I'm a few weeks late for this post, but better late than never. Paige is now 3 months old and growing like crazy! I can't believe I'm saying this, but I wish she'd slow down! She is definitely my happy little girl. She has just started in the last two weeks laughing outloud! She is not one you have to work at to get her to smile! She loves looking at faces and smiles back at you. She is unofficially around 12.5 pounds. On another note, we do have her in physical therapy at Children's Memorial because of her favoring the right hand side. Her neck is getting stronger and she is really starting to even out her preference. Basically by favoring her right side, she caused her head to be slightly misshapen. He has a flat spot in both the back and the front of her head. We do a lot of tummy time and moving her in different positions during physical therapy. Another aspect of it is that we have to really try our best to keep her off of the back of her head when she is awake during the day. Our goal is 50% of her awake time on her tummy (or similar positions). We're getting there and we're happy with the progress she has made.

3 Month pictures for JCPenny






Not to skip over Alex in this post...He's doing great and always full of energy! He loves to keep us on our toes. We were actually thinking back to one year ago and are so blessed to be able to say that he no longer has any speech delays! In fact he is non-stop talking! One year ago when we took him to fireworks, he was still using his sign language! :) Amazing how one year changes things.

God has truly blessed our family!

Picture Post!

Life here is good as we continue to adjust to life with 2 kids. I have about another week and a half of maternity leave then it's back to work. Paige had her 2 month check up and was 10pounds 10ounces, 22 inches long! She's looking good!

Playing in the rain.






Getting big!!



Little pool fun on a hot day



Beach trip with Daddy




Smiley Girl

Videos

Drummer Boy


Making a cake

A New Schedule

So I've discovered while home on maternity leave that Alex is a child who needs some major structure. Without it, he gets bored and starts to do things that he knows we do not allow. After 7 weeks, I finally figured out that I need to do a schedule like I did with many of my music therapy clients I worked with awhile ago. I created a storyboard and found pictures, laminated them and put them with velcro on a piece of cardstock. We now have everything planned out for the day so there is no time for Alex to get bored. Included in this schedule is a time for chores. I took a few pictures the other day of Alex doing his chores. It made me laugh, but he was LOVING it!!! We also have arts and crafts everyday as well as some time to "play" with Paige. He is doing very well with it.

Family Visits

My Grandma came from Arizona to meet Paige at the beginning of May. It was great to have her here, even though it was a short visit for the day. We were able to catch up and most importantly she was able to spend some time with our kids. We love that Alex and Paige have two great Grandmas that love them and are a part of their lives.

The whole gang!


Grandma Bev & Paige


We were excited a few weeks ago to have Kent's parents come and meet Paige. They had a quick visit, but Alex was beyond thrilled to have Grandma and Grandpa here to play with. He quickly took them to his room to show them ALL of his toys, read many books, and many silly games.

Bedtime stories


A bedtime prayer