Dallas Heritage Village

Last week was spring break for all of Dallas – even preschoolers. We avoided our usual hangouts because of anticipated crowds and instead explored a new one: The Dallas Heritage Village. It was actually my friend Angela’s idea to go (a mom of one of Norah’s preschool friends). I had never even heard of it and apparently no one else had either because the place was practically empty – and it was spring break!!   It was so nice to not have to stress about keeping track of them in a crowd. We spread out the picnic blanket and then just let the girls run around and explore. Just by luck we visited on the 2nd Wednesday of the month which is when they host a free playgroup complete with a story time, craft, and old fashioned games. This is Norah’s friend Hope A local women’s group had decorated the village with their knitting and it was so beautiful. They had thought of everything, flowers, birds laundry They had also made hobby horses and left them waiting outside the houses and shops for the children to find. What horse? Where? Got it! We will definitely return to this hidden gem of a hangout. I hope this post gives this place a bit of badly needed publicity because it is underappreciated. Kids under 4 are free people!

Primary Temple Trip

On March 2nd our ward Primary had a special activity at the temple. The children were able to sit inside the lobby for a lesson and met the temple president. All the children took great pains to be reverent and when the temple president requested that they sing “I Love to Sing the Temple” they all tried to sing through whispers. It was pretty funny.

Alice in February

I feel like Alice understands a lot of what I say now but she still doesn’t say much. If I’m being generous, I would give her credit for saying (in order of frequency) Mama, Da, hi, huh? see, yeah and bye. She’s always been a pretty quiet baby and not much of a babbler but this month the babbling has picked up quite a bit. In fact, she sounds like she is trying to sing. When we’re in the car and listening to music I notice her “singing” along. At first I thought it was a fluke but she consistently imitates melodies and isn’t too shabby. I don’t remember Norah doing that at this age so I’ve jumped to the conclusion that Alice is clearly a musical prodigy. We will watch her with interest.

Here she is displaying her musical talent by clapping (a stretch?) and also displaying a huge blue/green welt above her from a bad tumble. This girl falls ALL.THE.TIME. We should probably get her a helmet to wear around the house. Something very sweet that Alice does is watch for her daddy out the window. When he leaves in the morning she rushes to the window to watch him walk down the street and in the evening she senses when it is about time for him to come home and looks out the window for him again. When Bryan comes in the house she gets excited and doesn’t seem to know what to do. She gives him a quick hug but then points to the window and babbles something and then points back to him and back to the window and so on. It’s as if she’s saying “you were out there and now you’re in here, but just a second ago I saw you out there.” When Bryan was out of town she looked for him the first evening he was gone and got sad when I told her he wasn’t coming home. It broke my heart. This is our next door neighbor and adopted grandma Paula. She hosted a ladies’ coffee party party for women in the neighborhood on Valentine’s Day and I went with the girls. I was the youngest lady there by about 30 years and of course Alice got a lot of attention from all the women. Alice spent the whole party following the dog around and trying to pet him. Paula made Alice this sweet little smocked dress and then paraded her around. I’m not sure who was more proud – me or Paula.Alice has another adoptive grandma named Jeanne. She’s the grandma of the little girl next door and comes to baby sit her once a week. Whenever she does we have a play date and Jeanne and Alice just adore each other. I should probably ask both of these ladies permission to post their pictures but I don’t want to risk forgetting them so I’m going to chance it.  Alice still takes her doll for morning walks around the house and STILL gets stuck where the floor is uneven.

Norah in February

I was reflecting on this month and trying to think about what Norahisms stuck out to me and the first thing I that came to mind was Madeline. Towards the end of January I found a copy of the complete Tale’s of Madeline at a used book store and gave it to Norah. She has been captivated with Madeline since. We usually read one Madeline story, if not two, before bedtime. Norah reminds me a lot of Madeline so it doesn’t surprise me that she identifies with the feisty, little character. Another book that Norah loves is Chester’s Way. One evening she asked if we could make the toast in the book but it was bedtime so I said it would have to wait for the morning. Bryan got up with her in the morning and the first thing she said was that she wanted to make Chester’s toast and went and got the book and showed him the picture. She doesn’t forget anything, ever. Norah continues to diligently work on coloring, cutting, stringing beads, and other fine motor skills. This month she learned how to write her name and even sent Valentines to her grandparents with their names on them. It was a lot of work for her but she was so excited to send them and even more excited to get the phone calls from her recipients. Bryan went out of town for four days last week and when he came back we went to the “Texas Town” at the Arboretum. Norah really missed him and asked him a lot of questions when he came back about why he had to work. He gave her several practical reasons like paying the rent and keeping our house warm and she said “but Daddy, our house isn’t that warm.” Ha! We keep our house at 70 degrees but I guess we might need to turn it up or add an extra blanket to her bed.Norah is getting more patient and more willing to play with Alice all the time.

Bryan turns 29

We celebrated Bryan’s 29th birthday in Shreveport Louisiana at my sister Emily’s house while my parents were visiting her. The drive was less than 3 hours and it went so well that I’m sure we’ll be back again soon. Bryan’s birthday was over Mardi Gras so the houses in Emily’s neighborhood had Mardi Gras wreaths and flags decorating their homes. Emily let the Norah and Evelyn decorate a little Mardi Gras Christmas tree which I guess is a thing in LA. We opted out of the city’s festivities because it seemed like it was going to be more hassle and stress with the kids than fun and instead took them to a park. Evelyn and Norah had a great time together and at various points declared themselves best friends and cousins.Mike made us a delicious Thai curry dinner completely from scratchMy mom made Bryan a carrot cake and Emily and Evelyn decorated it with candyMy mom and dad had some good times with their granddaughters

Jenny Transtrum Visits

One of my good friends from Ithaca drove up from Houston to visit while her husband was out of town interviewing for jobs. It was great to see her and her kids and catch up. I love seeing old friends and I’m amazed at how many times my paths have crossed with close friends we’ve moved away from. While we were in New York I was able to visit two college roommates and a fellow teacher and since moving to Dallas we’ve caught up with the Hunts, Prices, Langenbergs, Jenny Transtrum (all from Ithaca) and the Chavez family from our Provo days. I fantasize about living in the same city with all my favorite people someday . . . in the mean time I’m happy to reunite with old friends for a quick visit.

Jenny only had one full day with us but we made the most of it with a trip to the children’s aquariumCamilla, Alice and Norah played great together inside and outside and then finished the day off with a nice warm bath

Alice in January

Alice suddenly seems to understand everything we say – well not everything but a lot of things. For a very long time now (months) she’s understood the word bath. Whenever we say “bath time” she takes off running for the tub. Now she seems to understand so much more. When we’re getting ready to head out Alice sits down by the shoe tray and tries to put on her own boots which is hilarious to watch. I think she hears me hassling Norah about it being time to go. If I ask her if she’s hungry she’ll go to her high chair and reach up – because of course she’s hungry! She’s ALWAYS hungry. She has had a voracious appetite lately. That day we went to Costco with my mom? Alice ate half a Costco hot dog and a 1/3 of a churro and every single sample she was offered – which was a lot. I think she might have eaten the other half of the hot dog if we hadn’t given it to Norah. Today, after feeding Alice a Greek yogurt, a clementine, and half a banana, Norah requested a piece of toast. Norah wandered off after eating just half of it and when she came back it was gone. She complained to me that someone had stolen her toast and I thought she was just being her clever self trying to tease me before saying “just kidding mom, I ate it” but she insisted her toast had been stolen. Low and behold Alice was hiding in a corner eating her toast. I didn’t realize she could reach the table! Here she is quickly trying to destroy all the evidence of her theft.Notice the doll in the picture. Alice LOVES this doll. I put the doll to bed in the doll crib in the playroom every night and every morning Alice gets her out of the crib and pushes her around the house in the doll stroller. It is very consistent. If it doesn’t happen before breakfast it certainly happens after. That doll couldn’t ask for a better mom – although lately Alice has been taking her clothes off constantly. Another cute thing she has been doing is bringing us books to read her. Confession: We barely read to her during her first year of life. We didn’t think it was important when she was a little baby and we were just trying to get Alice to bed so we could read to Norah. Before we knew it, she was one and we felt shame. We moved the board books to the living room to promote literacy and it hasn’t taken long for Alice to develop a love of books. When she brings me a book she usually holds it with her arms straight up so she’s holding it over her head and and then she walks toward me, turns around and slowly backs up to sit in my lap. It's so cute I can’t stand it. Other random things – Alice wakes up before anyone else – usually a little before 6. Bryan gets up with her because I pretend to be asleep and they have their own special routines together. This morning I witnessed Alice bring Bryan his shoes (unprompted) when he sat down to put on his socks and I was amazed but Bryan told me she does it all the time. Then he told her he wanted the brown ones (while pointing) not the black ones and she went and got him the other pair! She also always gets a “baby tax” which is some of his cereal.

Alice is joy to be around. We just need to get her to stop waking up at night and we need her to start saying a few more words so she’ll stop her ear piercing squawk every time she wants more food.