Busy like 1, 2, 3!

1. Swim lessons at 9AM
We're working on swimming with goggles so he won't burn his eyes in the pool at Chelan this year. Standing on the edge of the pool is about as far as he is willing to wear them but he wears them with love.

"You should use your big arms when you swim"

"Like this..."

2. Cars2 movie at 10:45AM

We headed to the theater right after lessons so we could get the best seats...I think it worked!

We took a lot of family pictures to kill time. You can decide which photo you like best.



(yea, me too)

THAT killed all of 5 minutes so out came the ipod puzzles.

AND THEN...MOVIE TIME!

Our review: Not terrible. Especially when you had free tickets.
Wait for it on Netflix.

3. Nap by 2PM

For everyone.

Witty

In the car:
"Mom, no one is coming. You can take your free right now".

In the yard:
"Can't talk now, Mom. Boss man (dad) put me to work and I have to move ALL this dirt."

In the house:
"I can't help clean now. I'm in my pajamas and on vacation."

At the store:
"How about you buy me a puzzle, Mom? Come on. You know you want to make me happy."

At swim lessons:
"Well, my new teacher doesn't know how to swim. I'm gonna have to teach her a lot."

About friends:
"We're going to have five playdates at our castle. Otherwise, she's going to miss me too much."

About summer:
"Summer is the BEST because my mommy stays home with me while Daddy works outside."

With grandparents:
"I'm sorry, Ho-Ho Papa. You were right about that piece. But I've been right about all the other ones."

"I wake up early, but Big Papa wakes up REALLY REALLY REALLY early."

On the phone with Umma:
"Hello, Umma. Goodbye, Umma."

Click.

Prince of Puzzles

If you have read this blog for any length of time, you know that Alexander is mad about trains. His second love (after his mama, of course) is puzzles. The bigger the puzzle, the better. And watch out, if there is a train on the puzzle! The screeches of joy can pierce an eardrum.

Most puzzles are purchased at garage sales, purchased by the Puzzle Prince himself.
Sometimes, the pieces are all there. Sometimes, they aren't.

Since this one was bought in Arizona, dragged all over the trailer park, and then driven home to WA, eight missing pieces was pretty darn good!

Fortunately, Eric and I enjoy doing puzzles as much as Alexander enjoys them. Many nights we have spent, huddled over the island, finding puzzle pieces so Alexander can "couple" them up. It's a very interesting process. The boys look at the picture on the box but the girl doesn't. The adults find the pieces but the toddler has to be the one to put them in the puzzle. And sometimes, one of the parents is banned from the building site because Alexander wants one on one time with the other parent. This can happen to either parent at any time.

As if that isn't enough, he has two additional puzzles going at his grandparents homes. For Father's Day, he wanted to buy them card puzzle tables so his Papa's could work on the puzzles if he wasn't around. He's nice like that.

He makes our guests work on puzzles.

Alexander and I worked on this one in his room. We eventually moved this to the living room as it was 1000 pieces as too big for the mat in his room. I think this one was a Santa puzzle.

He finished this round train puzzle with Dad.

The latest project, completed by the boys, with no help from the girl (remember that, "banned from the building site" rule?)


Umma and Papa, Alexander needs to go garage sale-ing soon.

The Prince needs a new project!

Binky Free!

It was a big weekend for our little man. Mom is finally home for the summer. Preschool picnic was Saturday. Alexander turned 4 1/2. And today is all about Dad.

With all that going on, it was time to BREAK THE BINKY.

We have tried to break our kid of this habit before but have been met with stubborn resistance and our hearts haven't really been in it. Alexander has been a binky baby from day three of his life and that self-comfort isn't something that is easy to break.

A few weeks ago, we broached the idea with him about the same time he started talking about his friend, L. Remember the new friend? Anyhow, L doesn't use a binky so we decided to play upon that idea and push for a change on Alexander's half birthday. Plus, Mom would be home and if it went poorly, she could nap to catch up on the sleep. The little man knew this day was coming and actually went into it, fully admitting he was ready to let go of the bink.

Fully ready...until the moment actually arrived. And then he cried and cried. Finally, Mom offered the choice of a stuffed animal to help him sleep. He chose Bear. Excuse the poor quality of the picture as I used my cell phone.

Today, when he woke up, we had a few presents to ease his pain. Who doesn't love a reward? He was eager to open the box.

A couple of Mo Willems pigeon books! If you haven't read these books, you HAVE to. Immediately. And then you'll know why we have taken to calling Alexander our little pigeon.

Finally, we discussed how a boy who could go without a binky, was responsible and ready to play with the marble game that he received for his birthday.


But let's face it, the storage plastic bin is way more fun.

He didn't fight us at nap today, either. He just kept hugging Bear while saying, "it's gonna be a struggle, Bear. It's gonna be a struggle."

And then he fell right to sleep.

Good job, big boy. We're proud of you!

Celebrations!

First year of swim lessons. Check.

First year of preschool. Check.

First night without binky. Stay tuned...

Alexander has a friend

Alexander has friends. Don't get me wrong. Evan and Addie have been friends since birth and we love what they bring into his life. But ever since Alexander started preschool, I have wondered if he would ever make a new friend. HE DID!! Alexander has a new friend from preschool and he made this connection all on his own. For weeks, it has been "L this" and "L that" around this house. Turns out L was saying the same thing at home about Alexander because last week, Alexander was invited to L's birthday party. And no, it totally wasn't a last minute acceptance because I didn't check my email so I didn't find out two hours before the party and call L's mom to ask if it was too late for us to come. Sheesh. I would never be that mom.

Anyhow, Eric and I decided we would go along for the ride. We weren't certain if parents would be allowed to stay but you know us, if Alexander is having a new adventure, we are going to do whatever we can to be a part of it. When we arrived, as complete strangers walking into a strange home with no familiar faces but our own, all we could do was laugh. This was so out of our comfort zone yet, if it was for Alexander, we were going to go for it. Eric and I did a pretty good job of not clinging to each other while our son ran all over the place with the other four year olds. We soon found ourselves making ridiculously awkward small talk with others. And now we are officially known as "Alexander's mommy and daddy" by a group completely outside our social circle. Weird.

I didn't take any pictures of the birthday party because...well, that's just awkward. But Eric and L's dad hit it off so I imagine there will be future play dates, which means we'll be able to ask before posting pictures of their kid in cyberspace.

Even better than going to L's birthday party and watching a whole new world open up for our kid was finding out they live three blocks away and will be in elementary school together...in two years. I think etiquette would say we need to extend an invite for a playdate since they invited us to the birthday party. Right?

Crazy new world. Crazy.