Keeping up with Alette and Abria: April 2012

Monday, April 30, 2012

Sunday Afternoon

Nothing says spring like an afternoon in the park!

Saturday, April 21, 2012

It's t-ball season again! Alette is on the same team as last year and having a great time. Next year, she will have to join the softball team, something she has already decided against! Abria and I hang out at the adjacent playground with the other little kids. When the weather is nice, it is a great way to spend the afternoon!

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Cedar Run Wildlife Refuge

We took last Friday off from school and headed out to Cedar Run Wildlife Refuge in Medford. Combine beautiful sunny weather with two girls who love animals and you have the perfect day out. The girls loved looking at and learning about the various rescued animals. Alette was given a disposable camera as part of a 'picture wildlife' initiative at the center....we'll return in May to pick up her photo album. Abria was slightly jealous until I let her use our camera, and then we ended up with a lot of pictures of the ground. Thank goodness for digital.

Monday, April 9, 2012

Alette practises her 'princess pose'...she knows she is a beauty!

It was perfect weather for hunting eggs-thanks to Pop-pop, each year has gotten a little more challenging.

We had a great Easter day together with Pop-pop, Grandma Terry, and Grandma. The girls wore their favorite dresses (actually the flower girl dresses for their aunt's wedding), hunted eggs, got yummy chocolate treats and just enjoyed hanging out with family. After two egg hunts, there is now a crazy amount of chocolate in our house...something Andy and I are going to have to remedy :).

Spring Gardening

It has begun...our annual attempt to grow things. We start out with good intentions but by mid-summer I am defeated by the heat, humidity and bugs and simply let everything die. Maybe this year will be different?
And yes, the girls are wearing ballet clothes!

Recent Words of Wisdom

18months

At 18months, Abria weighs a whopping 28 1/2 lbs and is 34" tall. She is a bundle of energy-she loves dancing and clapping to music, scribbling (unfortunatley not always on paper), chasing her sister, and playing with her toys. She's using more and more words but still communicates primarily by pointing and making the sign for 'more'. She's had a continual cold for the past few weeks, I've never used so much tissue in my life. Morning naps are a thing of the past :( but thankfully she is still taking a long afternoon nap.

Okay, it's not a REAL gingerbread house...

Our attempts at a gingerbread house was a fiasco this year. We mixed the dough, rolled it out, cut the patterns, put it together...only to have it fall apart. So we put it together again....only to have it fall apart again. I even tried to use duct tape and the glue gun. Finally we ditched it. I was determined to have a house for Alette to decorate so we built a cardboard house, then 'glued' on graham crackers with icing. So far it is till standing although the candy decorations are slowly disappearing.

Abria

Our last dr. appointment was not fun. Abria had a major fever and was feeling rather rotten. So the immunizations were put off a week...nothing like procrastinating the awful stuff. She's dropped to the 90th percentile for weight (although with her puffy winter fleece on-below-she looks huge!) and is off the chart for height. Not a huge suprise with a 6ft. tall mom! She loves her books, turning on and off the lights, climbing onto tables, and petting the cat. She's walking....abit. She's still pretty convinced that walking should only be done when holding onto someone's hand.

Abria

Politics According to a 3year Old

I was listening to B.Obama on NPR last week and decided to further Alette's awareness of politics by engaging her in discussion. This is how it went:
me: Alette, Barak Obama was on the radio, he's going to be our new president. Isn't that good?
alette: Obama's good?
me: yes, he is. Mommy and Daddy like him a lot. We think he's good.
alette: he listens to God?
me: I think so. We're excited that he's going to be the president.
alette: I want duck for president.
I think we have a ways to go before she's up to speed on her political saviness. Who can blame her for wanting a fun loving, mischevious duck for president though?

Introducing Abria Hope

During pregnancy I prayed for a quick delivery and a nonfussy eater. Abria came into this world on Friday, July 18 at 9:00pm, half an hour after we arrived at the hospital. With a full head of dark hair, and a voracious appetite, she behaved nothing like her older sister. Abria's now nearly 18lbs, and is a happy, content baby. She loves chewing on her hands, squealing, shrieking, and taking baths. We are still waiting for her to sleep through the night! She doesn't always need to get fed, but seems to delight in babbling and squealing at all hours. Somehow her big drooly smile makes it all worthwhile.