So what about Alison?!?

I feel like I've been writing so much about Ian and Alison is getting forgotten. It's just that she is so independent these days.

So today it's hot. 80 degrees already at 1pm. Kind of humid too. Alison found her swim suit and is outside playing with the hose. She started by watering the whole backyard. (For the video, turn up your volume and you can hear her talking about what she is doing. With the wind it's kind of hard to hear, but I was trying to stay out of the splash zone!)



Now she's filling empty bubble bottles and washing her little slide.

Before Dan left for work, we were taking bets on how long she would be out there for. It's been almost an hour. The library closes in 3.5 hours. I wonder if we'll make it, haha. Oh here she comes. Looks like an hour was her limit, plus she's worried about not making it to the library on time too.

Well, I'm off to clean up outside and pack our library bag. Have a great day everybody!

So how'd you get to be so big?

By eating lots of healthy food! Ian tried yogurt for the first time today. He would open up for a bite then stick his tongue out and wipe the yogurt off with his lips. Then he'd open up for more.

By the way, he was 20lb 6oz yesterday!

Thinking outside the box

Ian has been getting into everything lately. Yesterday he figured out that the exersaucer can be fun other than for bouncing. He's always so proud of himself.

We still can't figure out how to keep him out of the kitchen.




Alison was excited to see that some of our iris flower stalks are as big as she was.
She was also surprised that some were very short. They are all parts of the same plant that we divided and replanted last year. So we can't figure that out.

Persistent Little Guy

Now that Ian is crawling all over, he desperately wants into the kitchen. I think he's just too little to be out there and I don't want him to sneak up on me while I'm cooking. I'm just paranoid I know. So anyway, I set up a simple barricade using our library basket, the bouncy seat, some boxes. Nothing pretty, just a visual deterrant while I was thinking of something better. Well Ian thinks this is a great challenge. Especially since everybody else can go into the kitchen.

So earlier today, Dan was making some lunch before work. I was in the dining room and I looked down and saw Ian trying to climb over the basket of books. I quickly snapped this before he noticed.

After he realized he'd been caught, he thought he was pretty sly. Later on he tried to crawl over one of the boxes.

Dan says he's like the velociraptors checking the fences in Jurassic Park.

Fun with Foam!

Dan's been bringing home these big foam sheets from work. They get them with all the machines shipped back from the service center and throw them away. Alison has been having lots of fun building with them.

Last night she built a mountain to climb and Ian just had to try it out.

He did a great job. He really had to think but he was proud of himself when he made it to the top of his pile.

What a busy week!!!!!

So remember that bit about not staying home much? This week was a great example of that.

Monday we went kite flying (been there, did that, wrote the blog, right? haha)

Tuesday we went to a ballet! A church downtown has Feeding the Soul of the City concerts. This month was a short ballet performance by the Grand Rapids Ballet. It is a small room and we were right on the front corner. They did a fantasy about Shakespearian characters meeting in the wood. So when Romeo and Juliet did their death scene they were at our feet. Ian and Alison were both mesmerized. It was amazing to be so close to the dancers. We could feel the air rush past us as they danced in front of us. It was lots of fun. We got a compliment from an older lady as we were getting buckled in the car. She talked to Alison about what a good girl she had been and then she thanked me for bringing my kids to something like the ballet.

Weds we took Ian to get weighed at the nursing moms group. He was 20lb 2oz! No wonder he feels so big. And I thought he was huge at Christmas when he was 12lbs!

Thursday we had a wonderful time. We were gone all day with Grandma! Alison has been going to Hackley Library for story time since she's been 15mo. She just recently has become very interested in Mr. Hackley. So we've been learning more about him. As we drove by a few weeks ago, I pointed out Mr. Hackley's house. Since then she's been full of questions about him and his house. So Thursday we set out to explore many of the places that Mr Hackley was responsible for starting in our town.


First we went to The Hackley House which also includes the Hume House. We were our own tour group. So we got to ask lots of questions and take our time in each room of both houses. The woodwork is all handcarved and the stained glass windows are amazing. The worst part of the tour was that I had made sure the camera card was empty, but forgot to charge the battery. So we had to be selective about our pictures. We're going to go back to take pics of the outsides of the houses.





After the tour (we took almost 2hrs!) we had to go to our library, Hackley Public Library. Alison got to show Grandma all around "her" library. Since it was Thursday and free day at the Muskegon Art Museum and it's right next door to the library we went there too. The interesting thing is that Mr Hackley started the art museum too. We saw amazing glass pieces. Unfortunately they don't let you take pictures and my camera was dead anyway.

To finish off the day we had dinner at Grandma and Grandpa's. Alison begged grandpa for a scooter ride so they went outside together for awhile. She sure slept good last night!

Finally today we were going to stay home and get caught up. But an early morning call changed that. Instead we met my friend and her son at the mall to play and have lunch while her car was getting fixed across the street. We hadn't seen them for almost a month so it was nice to sit and talk while the kids played.

So tomorrow we are going to stay home! Yeah, that's it, except there is Mayfest and the Kite festival and the newspaper tours for the 150th anniversary and 101 other things to do...so maybe we won't stay home...hmmmm.....decisions, decisions...

Let's Go Fly a Kite...

...Alison's favorite song from Mary Poppins. Well today it was her turn. We started off just going for a walk around the neighborhood. We noticed that the milk weeds at the dead end are starting to grow. We plan to watch them all summer for monarch caterpillars. But anyway, we were surprised at how windy it was. Alison was asking what we were going to do when we got home and I decided to just pack up and head to the park for some kite flying fun.





On the way I warned her that I've never been good at kite flying so not to be too disappointed if we couldn't get it to work. But we had success.


This is Alison's favorite picture from today because "My kite actually touched the sky."

I also figured out an alternative use for Ian's shopping cart cover. It was sooo windy today that it was a bit much for Ian. I figured out though the shopping cart cover provided much needed wind protection while still letting him see everything. He really seemed to like his little cave. I used the seat belt to attach it to the frame of the stroller just in case it blew off, but the elastic held tight. It looks crazy, but it worked really well. Plus it kept the sun off him and out of his eyes.

When we got home, Ian was sleeping in his car seat so Alison and I worked in our flower beds for awhile. Our columbines are blooming. Alison is very excited!

Whew! That's it for today. But we have more fun planned for later this week...stay tuned...

Mother's Day Weekend

Why limit the celebration to one day?

On Saturday we went to see Nana for Mother's Day. We would have normally stopped after church on Sunday. But on Sunday, my brother John was in town so we went to my parents' house for the whole day.

Alison thought it was perfect. A weekend of parties! She was so excited to give me my present. Dan had taken her shopping earlier in the week and while she does a very good job at keeping secrets, it is soooo hard when you are 5. They got me an assortment of my favorite chocolate covered dried fruit. YUM! Plus they got a tiny box of white chocolate almond bark for Ian to give me. They are too sweet!

Alison had tons of fun with Uncle John. They took a scooter ride, took lots of walks and she asked him a million and one questions (there were probably more, but that's all I heard).

Here they are, Alison trying out Ian's Jeep and John trying out Alison's bike. There were a few close calls, but Alison is a good driver for being 5.

Don't think Ian got left out either. He got to sit in his new Jeep. He's still a little small for it, thankfully, it would be scary having a 9 month old drive. But, I know when he gets older he will love it!

We had a really nice time. John and I made dinner for mom, Aunt Rosalie came over too. It was a great day!

What's for Dinner?

At our house tonight it's spaghetti. Alison being the purist likes it with just a little butter and lots of parmesan. She says it's easier to eat this way because it isn't messy. That's my girl!

Ian on the other hand likes to live life on the edge. He started off with a nibble. Hmmm...it was good...so he decided to really get into it...

By the time he was done, we weren't sure if there was more on his belly or in his belly!

But that doesn't matter because he had FUN! He also went straight into the kitchen sink for a bath. Now I have my clean baby back again.

Oh, and yes, you're right, he has a necklace on. It's called an amber teething necklace. It's not to chew on but it's supposed to have a calming, analgesic effect on teething babies. I was very skeptical. But a couple of my online friends said they could tell a big difference in their babies teething with the necklace vs not. So, since Dan had gotten me some amber beads long ago that were just begging to be used, I strung some up for him. He has no teeth yet, so we'll see what happens when he gets some. I figure it isn't going to hurt him and while we're waiting for teeth, he sure looks really cute!

The Egg

Alison went out to play. It's only 10am and so warm out. She found a robin's egg on the ground by the fire pit. We aren't sure why a momma bird would have laid it there. Alison wants so bad for it to hatch so we can have a pet bird and is really upset that there isn't a baby in there. I tried to explain that it's just a yolk and a white like the eggs we bake with but smaller. I think that's the first time she really thought about chicken eggs, being well, eggs.

I'm feeding Ian now but I'll update with a picture later today.

Ian's on the move!

Ian's been army crawling around a little here and there the past week or so. Well today he took off. He started in the middle of the living room playing with his toys. Then he started toward the dining room where he got side tracked by Alison's ball.

His fishy playmat that he got for Christmas, turns into a crawling tunnel. So I switched it for him and now he's having fun exploring how to crawl through it. The first few times Alison was waiting for him on the other side cheering him on.

Alison's Sunflower

I figured out video!!!!

So here is the first one I think you'll enjoy.






We keep saying that she is going to be some sort of performer or artist when she grows up. She didn't practice this or plan it, it's all ad-lib.

What a slow week...

We haven't done much at all this week. Poor Ian's been sick. Not enough to say he's really sick but a fever one day, throwing up another, a little rash that just isn't going away, cranky and clingy. I took him for his 9 month checkup yesterday and just like I suspected, it's a virus and we just have to wait it out.

His checkup went really well. He's grown so much in the past couple months that none of the nurses could believe it. We had all of them in there marvelling at how big he is. They all still remember the days when we were praying he'd gain 4oz in a week. He was 19lb 10oz and 27.5 inches long.

He is growing up in so many ways. This week he's gotten better army crawling all over the place. He's been going for the buttons on the dvd player and anything that Alison leaves on the floor. We've been warning her for months that this day would come and now that it's here she's scrambling around to get stuff away from him. This of course does not set well with Ian who works so very hard to get something only to have sis come and take it away.

Alison has been keeping herself busy this week while Ian is attached to me. She's been outside to play almost every day. She brings me handfuls of dandelions each day so we always have fresh flowers in the house, lol. She has found a little seedling growing in the yard and waters it and checks on it every time she goes outside. She made sure to show daddy where it is so he doesn't mow it. I sure hope he remembers.

We got a book about edible plants from the library. Alison was amazed that the violets that are all over our yard can be eaten. She hasn't been brave enough to try one yet. We'll have to try at least one.

Alison had great fun with grandma and grandpa Thursday. Dan was working and I was meeting some of my longtime friends for dinner so Alison had a playdate. Grandpa took her for a scooter ride and she helped grandma mark her plants with decorative stakes.