Spring Break in Denver

We had a great time visiting Grandpa Dean and Grandma Lorraine in Denver. Ashley and her boys stayed with my parents while Matt was out of town and it was a lot of fun for the kids to wake up and play away the day and then take baths and read books together at bedtime. We went to the Children’s museum (3 times!), the rec center pool (twice) and to lots of fun parks and restaurants. My parents watched the kids a lot for us so Bryan and I could go out alone and we even spent a day in Boulder away from the kids which was wonderful.

Painting at the Children’s Museum Alice in the woodland area of the Children’s Museum Grandpa Dean made really good bubbles (Norah is in the purple lab coat bottom left) At Proto’s Pizza after playing at the museum Proto’s Pizza was fantastic. It was so good Bryan and I ended up going to the Boulder location of Proto’s too Cousins climbing a tree house together Bryan enjoying the playground as much as Norah (center crouching), Louis (near Norah) and Alice (foreground) It was such a treat to have so much time with Ashley! At point in the weekend we all got distracted talking and didn’t notice Louis and Alice sneak off until it was just a little too quiet. I went upstairs looking for them and found them in my parent’s bathtub playing with all the bath toys. They both know they aren’t supposed to go upstairs alone (because both of them struggle making it down the stairs without tumbling) and they obviously knew they had pulled a fast one on us because as soon as I walked in on them they started cracking up. They were laughing so hard I had time to get my camera before they were over it.  Oh Andrew! He is the happiest, happiest baby there ever was. This doesn’t do him justice.

Alice Lately

Alice has become a daddy’s girl! She went through a period (the entire month of February) where her preference for Bryan was so intense that she would actually hit and push me away if Bryan was home saying “NO! Daddy do it” for everything from changing her diaper to buckling her in her car seat. It made my weekends a lot easier but it did start to hurt my feelings.

Alice loves putting away the silverware. She takes each piece and holds it up and announces whether it is a fork, spoon or knife before she puts it away. This is a wonderful help because it eliminates a task for me AND it occupies Alice for a long time – which is to say it is to say it eliminates many tasks for me. Alice has learned to hold up two fingers to show that she is 2. She LOVES to do this while saying “Two” and does it in response to not just questions of her age but also “How are you?” Alice and I still faithfully attend story time at the White Rock Library on Wednesdays and I’ve seen a lot of growth in her over the year. Our amazing children’s librarian, Miss Jenna really understands the value of repetition and now after 7 months of attendance Alice knows all the actions for the songs and is even learning the words to some of them. Here she is listening to a story: In February Alice and I started attending Story Time Yoga at the North Park Mall and that has been really fun as well. I love watching Alice do her yoga poses. She gets off center when she catches me taking pictures Alice LOVES babies. She still plays with her baby doll every single day and she adored her cousin Andrew

Norah Lately

I haven’t managed to keep up with monthly posts on the girls but I do want to record some of my observations of their development so far into 2014. Norah has been such a good girl. Most mornings she gets herself dressed all by herself and she’s very cooperative about getting ready and out the door on preschool days. I can ask her to brush her teeth, put on shoes and get in the car and she’ll do it all on her own.

She chatters away constantly. Once she literally narrated everything she saw out her window, with some added commentary, the entire 18 minute drive to preschool! She is still super friendly and makes friends with kids on the spot wherever we go.

Norah is super imaginative right now (she has been for a long time but she seems to have kicked it up a notch) and tells us elaborate pretend stories. She loves to pretend play that she is an animal, princess, mom, or veterinarian. Most recently she’s been pretending to be a “howl dog” which is a creature of her own invention with a complex, yet consistent set of behaviors unique to its species. Howl dogs specialize in taking care of and protecting children. They are big and strong with sharp claws and teeth that retract so that they can hold kids without hurting them.

Norah is very animated and enthusiastic when she talks about her day or things she’s looking forward to doing. She makes us laugh constantly because of this but you really have to hear her to appreciate it – writing it out just isn’t the same. However she did have a few funny exchanges with my dad during our visit. One was after he complained about a seatbelt design being stupid. She said: “uh, Grandpa, you shouldn't use that word. Stupid isn't good word to say." My dad said "But what if it is stupid? What if that is the right word to describe it?" "Well Grandpa I think you're a little bit right, but I'm a little more right." On another day when he asked her if she wanted Honey Bunches of Oats for breakfast she said “I want honey bunches but no oats."

Norah wants to be an artist or a veterinarian when she grows up. The children’s museum in Denver actually had a Veterinarian exhibit which was a lot of fun for Norah (or so I heard, my parents took her).While in Denver, Norah played “pets” with my sister Natalie’s beanie baby collection and took good care of them. She made daily arrangements of her menagerie and hated to leave them behind when we went on outings. I snapped a picture of one of one of her Beanie Baby pet shops – this was after Alice removed a few. She still spends a lot of time coloring. Here is a sampling of some of her recent drawings: