I took Lex to a great new hair salon today
and he got a haircut!! It took a bit of cajoling and the lady
was nice enough to be flexible with a toddler. She tried to get
him to sit in the chair and wear a fun cape with trucks on it,
but he’d have no part of it. He actually wanted Eve to go first
:) The woman ended up sitting on the floor and cutting his hair
(sans clippers and water, per his request) while she cut his
hair. Now he’s got a spiffy new do and we’ve got a great new
salon!!

Pre-cut
crazy hair

Eve is
ready for a haircut! I think I even see a hair or two up there!
:)

Lex’s
first professional haircut. They even gave us a cute
certificate with a picture of him and a lock of his hair taped
to it. It’s cute, but it made me laugh because he’s 3 1/2 and
it’s not really his 1st haircut, just his 1st professional cut.
We all had fun though and that was well worth the
$6.

Lex has had a big burst of imagination
lately. I used to worry that he had no imagination and was so
overly literal (after his fathers heart and mind), but lately
he’s been amazing me with the stuff he comes up with. Blocks
are now drum sticks, towers are now fire houses and schools and
front-loader supports (ie: the front load is the base with the
tower built on top of it). We were in the car for about 3hrs
yesterday and he came up with a very elaborate story about
doggie (I had brought doggies and blankets, hoping for naps!).
Doggie took a nap on the arm of his carseat, then woke up and
needed a snack, so he got a snack out of the cabinet hanging on
the door (“mommy, be careful when you open the door so doggie’s
cabinet doesn’t fall out”), doggie sat at the table (the other
arm of the carseat) and ate his snack. It was really cool to
listen to it. Fortunately Lex still narrates a lot, so I got to
hear all about doggie’s activities even though I was in the
front seat driving.

This morning Lex
decided to make some “hot number soup.” He took a few numbers
out of his new clock puzzle and put them in a cardboard egg. He
had spoons for stirring, he put a lid on the pot, he had
seasonings to put in it, and then he pour it into a bowl and
served it to me. It was so fun! He made three batches (numbers
1-5, 6-9, 10-12). He served me the third bowl with no spoon and
when I commented that something was missing the thought for a
moment and said, “oh, right, mommy, would you like milk or
water with your hot number soup?” I cracked up and asked for
milk. He made me a “sippy cup” (wooden box) with milk and then
brought me a spoon. We had a lot of fun. It makes me really
happy to see the imagination starting to emerge.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9N0iv8vW7M]

Here is a video of Lex writing his name.
What I didn’t get on camera was his description of how he’s
going to do it. It went something like, “I’m going to make a
line down and then another little line going straight out! Then
another line down and three LITTLE lines off it. Then a line
across and another line across.” It sounded oddly familiar (how
I’ve described it to him many times before).

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I89n1AT8uIY]

While I was exercising this morning Lex drew a
whale on the Doodle Pro. I was very impressed. He then drew a
squiggly line through it (starting in the bottom, right corner
and up to the top, left, then up and a down a few times) I was
bummed that I didn’t get a picture before he added the squiggly
line, but then he told me the whale’s name is Grn (pronounce
“jurn”). He repeated it several times but I didn’t understand
him, so he said “I’ll spell it for you.” and proceeded to add
the three marks in the top right. “G” is close, and two lines
for “R” and “N”. Not quite letters, but more progress on the
writing front than I’ve seen so far :)

In a funny new development, both kids have
taken an interest in tickling. They are both very ticklish,
though Lex will sometimes say, “stop! stop! tickling is bad!”
Of course, when you stop he comes right back for more :)
Anyway, the funny part is that both of them now attempt
tickling. He announces that he’s going to tickle you and then
comes at your face in a scratchy sort of way. Not usually very
ticklish, but it makes me laugh anyway. Eve just walks around
wiggling her fingers and saying “tickle, tickle.” She tries to
tickle me, Alan, Lex, her toys, her sippy cup, the air…
whatever! She’s not picky :) I never realized what a fine art
tickling is until I saw two novices at work.

Happy June!

I
learned today that Lex can pedal his 2-wheeler (with training
wheels, of course). He’s had the bike since last summer (a
hand-me-down from Joshua), but was never quite big enough to
get the pedals around full circle. He was riding it with me a
few weeks ago and still having trouble. Alan took him out
yesterday and apparently he got the hang of it. I took him out
today and off he went, much to my surprise! He hasn’t yet got
the hang of steering while pedaling, but I’m sure that will
come soon enough. Guess who will be heading to the bike store
for a helmet ASAP? :)

Sorry for all the posts in one day (in
case anyone’s complaining ;) ) but I wanted to give this one
it’s own attention. Eve said “apple” today! I was very
impressed. We had apples for lunch and she was trying to say
it, and then later, for snack, I asked her if she wanted apple
yogurt or blueberry yogurt. She pointed right to the apple one
and said “apple!” She has a pretty good vocabulary, I think. I
was trying to think of all the words she can say today and came
up with: apple, up, down, cup, bowl, water, more, no, mom, dad,
eye, ball, hat, cat, book, hi, hmm… I guess that’s all I can
think of now. She has several more, like sock and shoe, that
she’s working on, but can’t say it quite yet. It’s so much fun
to hear her talk. Lex likes to get in on the game too and says
“Eve, can you say water?” or whatever. It makes us all happy
when she talks. Probably good motivation for her :)

We had a fantastic party for Lex this weekend
(if I do say so myself). Lots of family and friends. The
weather was perfect, as it has been for his birthday every year
so far! I was trying to come up with some organized games, but
it was tough because of the age range of the kids and because I
wasn’t really sure who would even be there. Instead we did a
bunch of activity stations, including bubbles, balloon animals
(thanks Julie!), ball pool (the hit of Lex’s 2nd bday party),
face painting, ice cream sandwich making (thanks Ellen!), etc.
The kids basically ran around and played with everything. We
also have the swing set my parents got Lex last year, a big
slide that our neighbor gave us as a hand-me-down, and the new
picnic table from my parents this bday. There was lots for the
kids to do. We also had lots of food, especially considering it
was a 2-4ish party, between lunch and dinner. I have this
not-so-odd need to have lots and lots of food available for any
event :) Alan’s mom made fried chicken and deviled eggs, my mom
made tofu salad, and I made a watermelon bowl fruit salad,
brownies, and other stuff. It was great. Now we will be eating
leftovers for a very long time :) Lex asked for a square cake,
so I made him an alphabet block type cake – 4 square cakes
layered on top of each other, bordered with Twizzlers and
decorated with a frosting “3” on top, “Happy Birthday” on one
side, and “L”, “E”, “X” on the other three sides. It held
together, looked good and tasted excellent! :) Overall I think
everyone had fun. Lex, surprisingly, took a nap and I woke him
up when everyone started arriving and asking for the birthday
boy. Not surprisingly it took him a few minutes to warm up to
the crowd, but then he had a great time.

I also wanted to add a note about Lex’s recent burst of
independence. He’s been dressing himself and wanting to do some
things on his own for awhile, but lately he suddenly wants to
do EVERYTHING for himself. He makes his own snack mix
(Goldfish, Annie’s Bunnies, and dried fruit), pour his own
cereal, pour his own milk!, get his own Zone bars, cup of
water, etc. It’s a little scary, but for the most part he does
pretty well. The first day he asked to make his own snack I
immediately thought “no way!” but was able to control that
impulse and I let him make it (with my oversight and small
assistance) and he did really well. So now I’m trying to let
him do as much as he wants to on his own, within reason and
safety, of course. He even helps with Eve more and more,
feeding her, getting things for her, putting her shoes on for
her, etc. As I’ve said many times before, it’s so amazing to
watch a kid grow and learn and develop into an independent
person. We are very lucky to have this opportunity,
twice!

(This post was interrupted by some thumping and
bumping upstairs. I went up to find Lex with wet PJs and a wet
bed, saying “My bed is all wet. I wanted to see what was in my
cup” (water cup). The big dresser drawer was wide open (he was
trying to get new sheets) and the diaper pail tipped over (he
climbed on it to open the drawer). As I was changing the sheets
he said he needed a new diaper and promptly dropped his diaper
on the floor and headed to the dresser for a new one. I turned
around and saw a poopy diaper laying on the floor and Lex
dashing across the room. Too much independence!! And poor Eve
laying sleepily in her crib wishing we would all just go away.
Note that I started a new bar down the side with Lex quotes. He
says some great stuff sometimes and I often wish I wrote things
down so I could remember them later. So now I will! He’s going
to be very embarrassed by this blog
someday.)

And now the
moment you’ve all been waiting for… Blogger does a terrible
job of putting pics inline, which is why I’ve been throwing
them at the end lately. Makes it easier to add captions too. I
won’t post all 444 pictures here, just a few ;) Here we
go…

Eve
chillin’ in the ball pool before the party got started. Once
Lex fell asleep for his nap we all went outside and set up all
the activity stations, got the balloons in place, food out,
etc.

Drooly
girl!

Eve in
her party dress. I’ve decided 1yr is the most photogenic time.
Kids are so personable and silly and not at all camera shy.
Makes for great pictures.

I
thought it would be fun to get a picture of all of the kids
sitting on the new picnic table. Challenging, but worth it.
What I didn’t expect is that all the kids would settle in
nicely, except the birthday boy!! Rose and Joyce were snapping
awhile (I’ll post the whole series on the photo site soon) and
still we were unable to get a picture without me holding Lex in
place. Oh well, it’s a very nice group shot anyway. Maybe
someday I’ll edit myself out :)

For
weeks Lex has been asking to “play running games at my birthday
party.” And by “running games” he means my modified version of
Red Rover. We weren’t able to get all the kids playing, but I
got these four running pretty fast for awhile. I think it
satisfied Lex’s desire for running games.

Cake
time! It took a group effort to blow out the candles… but
notice who isn’t helping? :)

Mema and
Eve.

Time for
presents! This is the first time that I wasn’t involved in the
unwrapping process with my kids. Rose and Joyce helped Lex,
Barney took notes, and I socialized and kept the rest of the
party going. It was interesting later that night to go through
the gifts and see what he got.

Quick
reading break.

What’s a
party without wrapping paper fights?

One
benefit of outdoor parties. They really get some air, don’t
they?!?

The
party tired Molly right out!

The
party tired Lex right out too! Jim made him a party mix CD, so
Lex spent some time mellowing out, eating a snack and listening
to music.

That’s
one very happy 3yr old!

The next
day in the front yard.

I will try and put all (or at
least lots more) of the photos up on the photos site soon. I
also have to give photo credits to Rosy, Joyce and Barney. My
camera wasn’t working well and most of the pics came from their
cameras (or B using my camera). I love having other people in
charge of photography :) Thanks!!

Three years ago today I woke up at 5:30 with
labor pains, today it was 5:30 with a crying 3yr old (he fell
out of bed). We cuddled for awhile and got up a 6:00 to start
our day. He is very excited about his cake and party. Here’s a
quick picture of my 3yr old playing with his new game from Aunt
Mandy. Looks very grown up, doesn’t he. Maybe we’ll get a smile
a little later in the day :) Happy Birthday little
man!!

This is for my reference more than
anyone’s interest, but we turned Eve’s car seat around
yesterday for our trip to MA. The past few days the scale has
said 22lbs, so I thought she was probably ok. I always think
the babies are going to love facing forward, but with each of
them they’ve been fairly indifferent :) Alan loved being able
to put the seat back to a comfortable position though, and I
love reaching into the backseat and saying “hi five” and
feeling a little Eve hand reach back. So all is good
:)