Summer Reading

 Genius!

:: be still my nerdy heart ::

Wheeee!

Big, brave boys :: Conquering the tunnel slide

Noah! Noah!

Most days, there is nothing cuter than an almost two year old with an opinion!  Lately, Alekzander has been expressing his love and appreciation for Noah.  We know him best from Raffi's song "Who Built the Ark?"  Even when the volume is down at its lowest, his little ears can hear the song and he starts singing the chorus, "Noah! Noah!" as in "Who built the ark?  Noah! Noah! Who built the ark? Brother Noah built the ark!"  The other night we found his Noah book hidden among Sandra Boynton and Dr. Seuss.  This morning he woke up calling for Noah, and tonight he requested it to be read twice, then hugged it to his chest.  I asked him if Noah needed to come to bed with him and he said, "Yes."  Just to be sure, I asked if he wanted to put Noah back on the shelf.  Very adamantly, he said, "No!"  So tonight, our friend Noah is tucked in bed with Alekzander and, fittingly, two lions.

Splash!

 

... hopefully not the last splash of the summer ...

Twenty-One Months

"Alekzander, {where} are you?"

 Where did my sweet little baby go? 

You've turned into a polite, lovable, talkative toddler. 

{"Help, please!" is your newest phrase!}

You've turned into an energy-charged athlete.

You've turned into a little boy with a sense of humor.

{"Mah-ma!" as in "Mama, you're silly!"}

You've turned into a helper who can follow directions perfectly.

You've turned into a sensitive soul.

{Tears flow in timeout; hugs and apologies are offered, on your own accord,

immediately after your 'release'.}

 "{Who} are you, Alekzander?"  

You are smart {so, so smart!}. sweet. brave. silly. sweet. sensitive. 

athletic. fast. entertaining. independent. a mama's boy. all boy. 

a future wrestler or football player. strong. coordinated. 

a great eater. a helper. predictable. 

opinionated. generous with hugs.

You fill our hearts to the brim each day.

We love you ... always and forever.

Mini-Athlete

 

 Squatting. Winding up. Throwing.  Running.

{Laughing.  Falling.}

Repeat until exhausted.

Puppy Love

 {Alekzander and his furry friends :: January 2010}

Admittedly, our dogs have taken a back seat to their little master.  

There is, however, no shortage of love for them, 

especially from Alekzander in the form of love pats and zabavas.

Many, many times, he wiggles between the two dogs,

leans against the wall under the kitchen table,

and puts one hand on each dog.  

The dogs haven't been allowed up on the beds for a while, 

but we had to bend the rules to recreate the original {above} photo.

Alekzander was beside himself with excitement.

The dogs ... they enjoyed it.  Really.  They did.

{Ooooo ... this could be fun in the form of trouble!}

 {Sweet snuggles with Syra}

{Ra-Ra, love-ewe}

Recycled Fun

This cardboard started out as a box.

It turned into a blank canvas.

And then a masterpiece.

It has also been made into a pretend "houf" {house} which held many treasures.

And took a spin around the real "houf" as a magic carpet as well.

Slippery Kiss

 Alekzander moved in for the kiss!

And Abigail clearly liked it!

Loved watching these two littles!

{Can you tell they come from "beach mamas"?  They're so brown!}

Fun Favorites

I got to spend the weekend with one of my {long-time} favorites and her family this weekend.  It took us way too long to work out a visit, but it was worth the wait.

Ashley {the other Ashley - whom I still call by her maiden name:  Thow} and I have known each other since 7th grade, but were also incidental playmates at age our kids' ages.  I may have spent as many weekends at her house as I did at my own throughout middle school and high school.  We went to colleges one-hour apart.  We shared stories about our college romances that would later be our future husbands.  We celebrated together at our bachelorette parties {mine in the NC mountains, hers in capitol city in VA}. We walked down the aisle for each other:  her first for me, then me for her {9 months later}.  We celebrated together at our baby showers {mine first and hers 6 months later}.  And finally, we played together with our babies.  It was so, so, so much fun.  She will always be my "Thow," but I loved seeing her be a "Mama" to her precious little girl.

Sweet {gibbering, flirtatious} Abigail playing in the pool

Busy {crazy, joyful} Alekzander LOVING the "Rye-yee" sculpture 

at The Green {where we got married}

Precious diaper bums enjoying the fish fountains at The Green

{I'm not sure if it was the cuteness of the naked babies, or their pure silliness that attracted the crowd, 

but we literally had over 10 people watching the impromptu fun!}

Speed Dating

After 15 months of waiting to meet one another, Abigail and Alekzander finally had their first date.  After a day of play, they decided on dinner at Brixx followed by some frozen yogurt at TCBY.  While conversation came easily between these two, they read some books, colored, and shared some snacks while waiting for their food to arrive.

  

Alekzander was very intentional and very transparent when it came to his intentions on his first date.  A thunderstorm rolled in, so the plans were changed a little, but the ability to 'roll with the punches' tends to be an attractive quality in a mate.  We're hoping Abigail appreciated Alekzander's flawless execution of his plans despite the rain.

There may have even been a post-date bubble bath shared by these two.  The dadas were not pleased, but they happily chaperoned the entire ordeal.

We love to love little Abigail!

Boots ... Not for Walking

Hands-On Art

Surprisingly, Alekzander wasn't a big fan of getting paint on his fingers, but it didn't seem to bother him that he had it on his legs and chest!  He was, however, quite particular about how the paint cups were placed on his work surface.  We may have a budding artist on our hands!

Helping Mama Make Mud

Mama's Helper :: With a cute crack

We are constantly amazed by Alekzander.  While his verbal vocabulary is growing every day, his receptive language is off-the-charts incredible.  Today I asked him if he could grab his green bucket and help me water the flowers.  Sure enough, he picked up his green bucket from the driveway, scooped up some water out of the pool, and dumped it in a flowerbed. Of course, my little helper discovered fun in the process of watering flowers :: making mud and stomping in it became the new purpose of our task.

Dirty Piggies

Salad Toys

I'm not going to lie.  When we bought our salad spinner at the beginning of the summer, Andrew and I were pretty excited.  We were growing our own iceberg and Romaine lettuce in ceramic planters on the back porch, and while Alekzander enjoyed picking the lettuce leaves and eating them right then and there, we decided it was necessary to invest in a salad spinner to wash our lettuce before consumption.  

Our lettuce has since died, but the allure of the salad spinner is alive and well.  All day it was Alekzander's "toy" of choice {along with a few other treasures that he enjoyed spinning in the salad spinner}.  A good hour of entertainment was gleaned from a simple kitchen tool.

Step one :: Gather treasures to spin.

 Step two :: Push down with all your might.

Step three :: Release and watch it spin.

Monster Animal Noises

Two minutes after obtaining a huge, ugly goose egg-bump 

on his head, courtesy of the "poowal" stair, 

Alekzander is clearly lucid and happily playing ATB's game 

while shoving watermelon in his mouth!

8 Stories

Uptown "poowal" fun normally happens on the 7th floor of the TM building.  

On this lucky day, Alekzander got to embrace some summer fun 

8 stories high, thanks to Daddy.  

Oh, these boys :: I can't help smiling as I watch them together.

500

In celebration of my 500th blog post, 

I am going to ask a favor worth 500 pennies ... 

a penny for every single one of my 

silly, serious, wordless, heartfelt thoughts.  

But first ...

 Sully, Age 6                                         Riley, Age 5

On Saturday, Sully Hill and Riley O'Donnell opened up for business.  Sully and Riley ran a fresh produce and lemonade stand to exclusively benefit the Rohr Family Foundation and the kids they serve.  After several hours in the hot sun, everyone remained helpful and happy.  The kids helped pour lemonade, picked out veggies, and talked excitedly to their customers.  They were happy to share information about the foundation by passing out Rockstar stickers and other RFF materials.  

{As of late, my heart has begun to beat wildly for Rohr Family Foundation.  The founder, a co-worker, has started an amazing foundation to honor her husband and serve the kids in our area who are fighting cancer.  Trish was also able to help and honor some sweet friends of ours whose 2 year old daughter, Claire, is also fighting cancer.  Two weeks ago, I took on the blogging responsibilities for RFF, and I must say that I am IN LOVE!}

The kids raised over $500 from their produce and lemonade stands.  {Such a big, big number from two little entrepreneurs!}  A generous matching donation was also made by Marty Snider to bring the total money raised to just over $1,000!  {For the rest of this original blog post, check it out here!}

Now ... your turn!

First of all, $500 is a lot of money.

It is 50,000 pennies.

What I am asking of you, is to donate 500 pennies {or $5} ... or more to Rohr Family Foundation.  Click on all of the links, read the RFF blog, educate yourself about the mission, but know that I believe in this cause BIG time.  

Maybe it is the mommy in me ::  the wife in me :: the teacher in me :: the Christian in me, 

but seriously, this foundation is going to make a HUGE impact and I promise you 

that your 500 pennies {in exchange for my 500 thoughts!!!} will be appreciated

and used directly to impact a little life that is fighting cancer.

Please donate here:

... or head on over to the RFF blog 

and click on the "Donate" button on the left side bar.

Please leave a comment below to let me know you donated 

... or if you'd like more ways to help.

Alekzander's "treat" from the produce stand {courtesy of Sully}.  

Unwashed, unpeeled ... but he loved it!

The kids were concerned that he was eating it fresh out of the ground, 

but I promised them that he has had worse things in his mouth.

First taste of lemonade {courtesy of Riley}.  And still hanging on to his carrot.

If you look closely, there is a carrot 'crumb' on his collar!

Safety Webs

Safety First.

Daddy made a rule that would make Mia proud ::  

You must always wear a helmet and shoes when riding your bike!
{Shirt and shorts are optional!}

Even in the driveway!!!  After all, we have to protect those crazy connection webs that are forming in Alekzander's smart little brain.  The other day, I told him we were going to take the train {light rail} to go see ATB and swim in Ryan's "poowal".  Immediately, Alekzander finagled his way out to the garage {SNUCK!} all the while saying, "Chooo, chooo.  Chooo, chooo."  Little man knew his "Chooo, chooo" helmet was in the garage, heard the word train, and I think he thought he was going to have to take his new friend Thomas the Train with him for protection.

I wish I knew what was going on in his head all the time, but I swear, the kid is a little genius!