Jack's early birthday party and Alexander's commune idea

Today we celebrated Jack's first birthday party with friends at Chuck E Cheese. It was meant to be held at Black Hill Regional Park, but was rained out again. There is irony here. Since most of our guests were coming from further South, we met at the Chuck E Cheese near our old house: the very one we went to yesterday where I was recognized by the greeter as a frequent visitor, at which I put up slight protest in the below blog.

Jack actually quite enjoys Chuck E Cheese these days and attempts to play the games with Alexander and climb on the rides and under the tables. Today he begged for and received his first taste of pizza (besides just a crust to gnaw on) and ate more than a whole piece, albeit in two sittings. He also enjoyed about a half a cupcake, and I will not admit how many cupcakes I allowed Alexander to have today nor how many I myself ate. Jack became quite sleepy during his party, and had no idea that there were "festivities," let alone that they were in his honor, but I do believe he enjoyed himself nonetheless. Alexander helped him open his presents when we got home. Thanks to everyone who made it!

Alexander certainly enjoyed himself and spent literally forty minutes during the drive home describing how he wanted all of his friends to come live with us because we have "plenty of room," and that he would share all his toys and "be nice all day long." He described in detail who would sleep where (Kyle would share his bed, Woody and Cooper would sleep with me, Brennan and Clayton would sleep with Jack, etc.). He wanted them all to come live with us because he "loves them so much." He also thought it would be a good idea if Chuck E Cheese came to live with us. He would cook for us and he knows how to make things other than pizza! After a while Alexander described that instead of all his friends (and their mommies and daddies) living with us, they should all put their houses into "very, very, very big bags" and bring them here and attach them to our house so that they could live in our neighborhood but there would be more room for everyone. He did specify that Kyle should not bring his whole house because he still wanted to share a room with Kyle. This was quite a detailed plan. As we turned onto our block and I related that although it sounded fun to me, I wasn't sure that all of his friends' mommies and daddies would go for it, he became sad but said, "Can I have a big, big juice when we get home? Because that would make me happy."

Every day?!

I knew we were big fans of Chuck E Cheese, but I didn't realize that we went there so often that we are actually recognized!

Today Justin took off work to help me with Jack's birthday party (for friends), which ended up having to be rescheduled due to rain. So instead we had a fun family day shopping, eating out for lunch, and going to the Chuck E Cheese near our old house. When we came in, the greeter said, "Oh, hello! How come you don't come in every day anymore?" Every day?!?! I'm sure she meant, "occasionally" or "from time to time" or "every so often" or perhaps she meant to ask, "Have the children stopped doing whatever they used to do that caused your frequent urges to get out of the house and take them to a place where they can be entertained by lights and buttons and music and tunnels and chaos in a climate controlled environment for a few hours for mere dollars?" Yes, I'm sure that's what she meant to ask. I told her that we had moved. I wonder if the employees at our new Chuck E Cheese recognize us yet.

Now to plan Jack's costume...

Here is what Jack thinks of the idea of having to wear Alexander's old Halloween costume this Halloween instead of being a Jack-o-Lantern:


I think Alexander at least accepted the realism of his costume that year and didn't fight it at all. He's pictured here with his devil twin, Jasper .

Jack's still here and cute as ever!

I realize I haven't posted anything about Jack lately, so I thought I'd just throw some pictures of him up here. He's a walking pro these days, "ambitious" as all get-out, and cute as a button. He'll be turning one very shortly and is becoming quite the little person.

These boots were made for stomping

If you know Alexander pretty well, you know that he loves shoes. He loves his flip flops, his sandals, his chameleon rain boots, his snow boots, his hiking boots, and even his sneakers. As demonstrated in the previous post, he even loves to wear those shoes without clothes. He loves when it's time to buy new shoes. So, I figured that since Alexander wants to be a cowboy for Halloween we may as well go ahead and get him "real" cowboy boots to go along with his costume. Lo and behold, we found a pair at Payless Kids on sale for $5 because of a scuff on one of the boots! Xander certainly doesn't care and I love a bargain, so we snapped them up and Xander couldn't be happier with his new boots. Now we just need to complete the outfit with a hat, a sheriff badge, and maybe a vest and he'll be ready for Halloween!

Firefighter calendar "Mr. August?"

Now, the interesting thing about this photo is how Xander is apparently moving his arms WAY too fast for my camera, so it looks as though he has no arms.

Big Boy Bike!

The other day Alexander finally learned how to ride his tricycle! So yesterday we took him out and let him choose a two-wheeler and helmet. He's doing great on it! (I also realized that he probably would have learned to pedal sooner if the tricycle had not been too small for him.) This is another of those moments when I just can't believe that my kid is old enough for ______. He's big enough for a real bike! Yikes! He was having so much fun that Justin and I were sorely tempted to return to the store and buy bikes for ourselves and a baby seat for Jack. Hmmm... too bad we don't have anywhere to store all those bikes!

Manny the Mammoth

Another conversation:
Alexander: Mommy, what is Manny called?
Me: Manny from "Ice Age?"
A: Yes.
Me: A mammoth.
A: Not an elephant?
Me: No, elephants are similar to mammoths, but mammoths were very furry, with hair all over their bodies.
A: Like Daddy?

Awww....

A conversation:

Alexander: Mommy, do you know what "I love you" means?
Me: What?
Alexander: It means I adore you!

The hill has eyes

We rather expected this when we bought the house, but it's still a little disappointing...

Our townhouse is sort of on the edge of the community. We have an end unit, and next to us on the open side is a horse farm. Behind us WAS just a big hill. We were hopeful that we were wrong, but we were pretty sure they would probably be building a house on the top of that hill. A week or so ago, we heard a couple fireworks go off right in that direction and thought, "Uh oh, they're about to break ground on the new house!" We were right. It's really not that big of a deal, but it certainly cuts down on our privacy! They way everything is situated, I think we'll feel a bit like the "little" folks, being looked down upon from the big house on the hill (it's going to be a McMansion.)

They've started work.

For a little perspective, the view including our backyard fence. The horse farm is behind the trees in the bottom photo and you can just make out the framing at the top of the hill in the top picture. These pictures were taken a few days ago, and now they've already built the second story. You can see it sort of looming over our house from the front as you pull up now.

Baa, Baa, SilverWARE sheep

Wee Adventures!

This week Alexander went to his first summer camp! Every morning from 9:30-11:30, he met with about 15 other kids at a recreation center for "Wee Adventures." I was very pleased with the program as they had one head counselor (a "real" adult), and four teenage counselors each day, so there was plenty of attention for each child. Alexander did really well with being left at a new place, so I was really proud of his confidance and independence. There were, unfortunately, a few "incidents" that landed him in time-out, but his counselor assured me that they were no big deal so I am trying not to worry about the social apptitude of my three year old. He really had a lot of fun, despite those few moments of bad judgement. Each day had a theme. They were "Jungle," "Bugs," "Pirates," "Space," and "Dinosaurs." They did an art project each day, had a snack, sang songs, played games, and even had a treasure hunt on pirate day. I'm pretty sure that was Alexander's favorite part! I've been browsing the fall schedule for the county activities and noticed that there is a one day "Pirates and Pizza" party that I may sign him up for, and I'm also considering putting him in tee-ball. Oh, the fun that's available for three year olds! :)

Since it was a drop-off camp, I did not get pictures of Alexander actually participating in any of the activities. So instead I have a picture of some of the art projects he made, and of his name tag from his cubby, that he put a sticker on each day.