Jolly Good Time

So we've been having a jolly good time around here lately. A few weeks ago, I took Alyssia to her first Circus. She loved it. Ben couldn't go with us because he had to work, but I was very glad to be able to take Alyssia anyway. It was an old-fashioned circus under a big tent and it was held at the county fairgrounds. I think Alyssia's favorite part of the show was the Elephants. They were quite impressive. Massive creatures. She also enjoyed the trapeze artists and the dogs and ponies. I bought her her very own box of popcorn, which she thoroughly enjoyed.

The next day, Ben and I took her to the library for a Disney Princess night of stories and crafts. All the little girls came dressed as princesses. Alyssia loves Cinderella, so this was right up her alley. A friend of ours came with us (Ashley) and the two girls had a fine time making crowns to add to their already extensive princess wardrobes.

And then the next day, Alyssia went on her first field trip. I volunteered to take some highschool kids to the courthouse to witness what goes on in court. Alyssia was with us and she was great in court! She was quiet for about 15 minutes (oh, allright, because I plied her with sweetarts), and then I had to take her out to run in the hallway. The judge's secretary and law clerk watched her for me for the rest of the morning so I could take the kids around to different court rooms. You would have thought she owned the place the way she was prancing around in chambers when I returned. She said goodbye to the judge when it was time to leave. "Bye, Judge," she said, and everyone was duly impressed. She'll have a chance to spend more time with Judge Silkworth and his staff because I'm joining him again for a brief stint this summer. His clerk is going out on maternity leave and he needs a fill-in until his next clerk starts in the fall. I'm excited about it. It's going to be a bit odd to go back to the very first job I had out of law school (11 years ago!), but I think it's a fine opportunity to help a man who certainly helped me a lot when I first joined the profession. I very well may be the first lawyer to ever go from being an Administrative Law Judge to being a law clerk in the same Circuit Court for the same judge she clerked for the first time around! I wonder if I'll be better at this job the second time?



After the field trip, we went to the mall for lunch. The kids took Alyssia over to the rides for a bit. I think she was so tired, she looks like she almost fell off her horse.



Alyssia just walked in here with one of her baby dolls, wrapped in a wipey, and she bowed her head and said, "Jesus, amen." What a perfect prayer.

She's been talking a lot lately in full sentences. I was putting her in her carseat the other day and she said, "mommy, I wanT some goldfiss." She pronounces her "t's" very clearly. "Mommy, I don'T wanT iT." You'd think she was British or something. She also likes to say "Mommy, I hold uh!" "Daddy, I hold uh!" and "Pickee beeooo" (peek-a-boo). The other day she woke up in the morning and started repeating a word I didn't understand at first, "pussme! pussme! Mommy!" Then she said, "Marcus, pussme Mommy!" And then I knew what she was talking about. A little friend at church, named Marcus, had almost pushed her down a couple of steps the night before, but I intervened before anything bad happened. She'd obviously remembered it the next day and felt the need to tattle first thing when she woke up. Oh Lordy!

We've been hanging out with our little friend Nathanael lately. He's so much fun to play with! Alyssia is beside herself with joy when she finds out he's coming over. "Mafammee?" Or for "fammee" for short.

At the Chesapeake Children's Museum, making important phone calls.

At the bridge, watching the awesome Blue Angels!! Alyssia did very well with the extrememly loud noise. She remembered enough about the event to tell her daddy later that day that she saw blue planes.

Growing up.

Actual date of publication for this post is April 30, 2008

So much has happened since the last time I updated this blog. Alyssia is just growing by leaps and bounds. She's 21 months old now and seeming more like a little girl and less like a baby every day. 4 or 5 months ago, she got a book off of her bookshelf, sat down on her bedroom floor and announced, "I sit. I read. Bow." She was reading Beauty and the Beast and was pointing out the bow in Beauty's hair. She now repeats everything that everyone says. And she remembers words and uses them in context later. It's amazing to watch the development of language happening every day. Some of her favorite sentences include: "I watch movie." "I sit down." "Bo-bo hush!" "I go outside." "Mommy, I singing! (swinging)" "Mommy, I simming! (swimming). "Mommy, I wunning!" She also enjoys singing to God. She sings in a really high, sweet voice and she just says, "God. God. God." So cute.



We enjoyed a long trip to Hawaii in January and February to visit my mom and dad and my grandmother. We had a great time. Alyssia misses Nana, Popo, and Grammy very much. She asks for them a lot. Her mornings in Hawaii usually consisted of waking up and saying, "Nana? Popo? Saudoos!" (Her word for sausages). She LOVES sausage of any kind. Nana made us delicious blueberry pancakes and sausage many days for breakfast. Alyssia also learned about the beach. She just loves the beach and the Hawaiian climate in general. Our first day there, we put her in the stroller and Popo and I took her for a walk down to the beach near Grammy's house. As soon as we started on our walk, the breeze was blowing her hair and she said, "niiiiiice." We went for many walks during our trip, most of which were prompted by Alyssia running around the house and yelling, "awalk! awalk! awalk!!"

Christmas Joy

At church the Sunday before Christmas. Pretty snazzy purse and fur coat!

Beautiful Hope and Kate Wright
Christmas Morning!
Reading with Daddy
Cuttin up in church at Aunt Lola's wedding a couple weeks before Christmas.

Our pretty Christmas Tree and decorations.
The big present--the Kitchen from Nana and Popo. She LOVES it.
More Christmas tree.

Ring Around the Mommy and Other Things

Pictures of the girls at open gym in Chicago and a nice picture of Alyssia and Ben at Thanksgiving.

This is one of Alyssia's favorite games. This video was taken a while ago. She made this game up one day when playing with her friend, Kelsey. When we were in Chicago for Thanksgiving, she learned to play Ring Around the Rosie with her cousins. She loves to play that game. She runs around saying "ashes ashes" when she wants to play.

The next video is Alyssia practicing walking around with a monkey on her back. It's a little gizmo that I put on her when we're at the airport--although, she hasn't quite figured out how to walk in it and not pull too much, resulting in a fall and a lot of screaming! Usually, if I'm by myself in the airport with her, she's strapped into the stroller. The last two videos are Alyssia enjoying her new squeaky shoes from Roma. They're too big for her, but she LOVES to walk around in them and hear the squeak. So cute.

Alyssia has really been enjoying the Christmas Season. She has a bright green Christmas tree in her room, covered in mostly pink ornaments and we have a big tree in the living room, this year decorated with mostly red and green. I decided to go all non-breakable ornaments this year in view of the fact that those little greedy hands can be awfully quick to grab and pull. So far, she has managed to pull off a few ornaments ("ball, Mommy!") but the tree is stable and has not budged! Good Job, Daddy! Last night, Ben took us around to see some Christmas lights. She loved that. "Pretty! Pretty!" That's also what she says most mornings when she sees the tree all lit up. We also spend a fair amount of time dancing to Christmas tunes. Her favorite is Jingle Bells by Manhattan Transfer. I think it's a good version too. Daddy has to put together the big present before Tuesday (the Kitchen from Nana and Popo) and the other big present (the Table and Chairs from Mommy and Daddy) and Mommy has a few more Christmas cards to mail out (ran out of photo cards so sorry to those of you getting the old-fashioned kind!) but other than that, we're almost ready. Oh! What am I thinking. I still have to make the entire Christmas feast and I'm attempting to make a Chocolate Coconut Cake from scratch this year, so that should be interesting. (Especially interesting because I think I am one of the world's WORST bakers). I hope none of my dinner guests read this before they try the cake. HAHA. We're having 7 guests for dinner Tuesday. It's sure to be a busy, joyful day. I hope everyone reading this has a great Christmas with family and friends around you and the everlasting love of the Savior in your heart. God Bless Us Every One!

Holidays

I don't know what happened to November. I'm sorry I haven't posted anything for a while. I have lots of new pictures to share that I hope you'll enjoy. Alyssia is growing and learning and changing before our very eyes. She is such a gift. We enjoy her so much. Here are some pictures of her first experience with paints and an artpad. The art lesson ended when she put the blue tadoodle in her mouth. YUCK. She thought it was great.







Here she is hamming it up at home. She loves to wear hats while she plays. She also loves to smile at herself in the mirror and give herself kisses.

Here is my little ballerina at the Little Gym on Halloween. She was supposed to be a monkey, but she refused to put on the costume. What a cutie.








Hmmmmmm . . . . do I want to go try walking on the balance beam or should I do another forward roll?
















Here is Alyssia hanging out on the couch watching Elmo when she was sick. Aw. She's a good baby even when she's sick.
















Here is Alyssia at her FAVORITE place in the mall--Pottery Barn for Kids. She loves the play kitchen they have. It's ridiculously expensive, or I would try to buy her one. As it is, we just go there every couple of weeks so she can play with it. She also loves to sit at their table and color. They have story time and also bring in singers to entertain the kids. It's a fun place to meet other moms and babies.










We flew to Chicago to have Thanksgiving with my sisters and their families. The three little cousins had so much fun with each other. They learned how to play "ring around the rosey" on Thanksgiving day and now Alyssia regularly asks me to play by saying "ashes! ashes!" Our neices, Roma and Veronica, are such little cuties. Alyssia really enjoyed being with them and playing with all of their toys. My sister Deirdre made a beautiful dinner and had made the house look so nice. We missed our mom and dad who were in Hawaii with Grammy. Hopefully, all three grandbabies will make it out to Hawaii to visit them in the new year. Roma loves to dance and she really enjoyed dancing with both her mom and dad together. So sweet. Aren't they a beautiful family?







Here is Dr. Veronica examining Uncle Sebastian. And Dr. Roma examining Alyssia. Looks like they are taking an interest in medicine. The next photo is Veronica and Auntie Meg.




Here are the three little cousins and the son of a very dear friend of mine that I haven't seen since the night I graduated from high school. It was very nice of her and her family to come all the way to Chicago (from Michigan) just to see us.




Alyssia thought it was great to play with her cousin's toys. Here she is in Roma's cheerful playroom. And having a tea party with Roma. Roma loves to play "hot tea," as she calls it.






















Alyssia loves her aunties and uncles. Here she is with Uncle Jason who made her laugh so hard on our last night in Chicago.













Christmas is bearing down on us with frightening speed. We don't even have a Christmas tree up yet and it's December 5th! I should be fired. You would think I would have this stay-at-home mom thing down by now (it's been almost a year), but I don't. Slow learner or something.