Rock n Roll

Last weekend while Mom was at a spa night with some ladies from the neighborhood I took the kids over to Josh and Tammy's house for some fun and dinner. I use dinner lightly because between both kids they managed to eat about 4 bites of food. They were having too much fun to slow down enough to have a bite to eat.

Post dinner Alyce got up on the fireplace to entertain. She grabbed a guitar and sang some songs. She used an electric guitar at first but took a liking to the acoustic. Most of her songs were her babbling words and humming but there was one song about rock n roll where she just said "rock n roll" over and over again.


I had to take a video just in case 30 years from now when she's a big star and on the Jay Leno show they can pull up this video showing her humble beginnings. It's a long shot but you never know.

New Swing Set

Today we finished enough of the kid's swing set for them to finally get to play with it. I think they really enjoyed it. I started work on finishing the set morning. After a bit Alyce came out to help me. She drove in a few screws and served up some pretend cookie dough ice cream. After a while Alyce said she was getting hot and needed some "cold ice water". She left me to go inside and a few minutes later she came back with bottle of ice water for herself and one for me. Never had water tasted so good.

The rock wall still needs to be attached and until I do that we'll have to hold it for them as they climb up. Later, Papa helped me get the swings installed. Immediately after the kids ran out to make use. Alyce didn't have any trouble getting on the swings, however, she was having a lot of trouble keeping her flip flops on. We didn't mind that she wasn't wearing them but she certainly did.

Strabismus Update

Before our trip to Disney World Alyce had her annual eye checkup. As mentioned earlier Alyce was diagnosed with Strabismus at an early age and had surgeries to correct it. Now every year we take her in for a checkup. I'm not worried about her eyes no longer aligning but the checkup also consists of a vision test so we know that Alyce's vision is tested annually by an expert in the field.

This year's visit wasn't without some excitement. Turning onto the road leading to Children's Hospital our car with Mom and Alyce in it was hit broadside by a driver that had run a red light. To see it in text makes it seem worse that it really was. Both Mom and Alyce had no injuries and 2 weeks without our car and $6,000 later (paid by his insurance) we were made whole again.

The worst part about these appointments is that you are always waiting. Waiting for the initial test. Waiting to get eyes dilated. Waiting for the dilation solution to work. Waiting to see the head doctor. It's all very frustrating. The whole thing took the better part of 3 hours and we were probably face to face with a care provider a grand total of 15 minutes.

Pushing all of that to the side Alyce's eyes are doing great. Her vision (focus) is fine and in the doctor's words "Alyce is the text book example of a successful eye muscle surgery". We were really pleased to hear that.

Alyce will always have a few hitches when it comes to her vision though. If she puts her head to one side or the other her eyes can go misaligned and it looks kind of weird. The doctors told us in the past there isn't anything they can do to correct that without affecting her normal heads up vision. You take what you can get I guess.

Alyce Helping With Her Swing Set

For the past few weekends I've been working on building Alyce and Luke a swing set. We purchased the set some time ago but were waiting on some concrete work to be done before it was to be assembled.  Now that Alyce is getting older and wants to be a builder I thought it would be fun to share the experience with her and she'd learn how to use some tools in the process.

The first few steps in construction I completed with my friend Josh's help.  The pieces were large, required some lifting, and we were under some time constraints so we kept Alyce away. Now that I'm nearing the end I wanted to include Alyce.

One night this week after dinner Alyce came out to help me.  The goal for the evening was to assemble and install the two seats for the club house and to assemble the rock climbing wall necessary to get up to the second floor of the clubhouse.  The first thing we did was to go over the instructions for this step and for me to show her what parts we needed. Alyce helped locate the tubes for the seats and helped get them in the right locations. While I was holding the pieces, she would run bolts through the holes, and I would tighten the nut on the other end.  Alyce got her first experience with a crescent wrench and its ability to adjust its size with swipe of a thumb. Getting the seats on the tubes was a little difficult. So much so that Alyce couldn't even turn the screw driver. She was a bit disappointed with that but after some encouragement she moved on.

Next we assembled the rock wall. This required lots of pieces of wood, some measuring, and driving of lots of screws. Alyce was a lot of help for me on this one. Together, working off the instructions we were able to get all of our wood lined up. I drove in a few screws to get everything lined up and after that Alyce and I shared the work. Alyce would hand me a screw for when it was time to drive in screws on my side and when it was her turn I'd start the screw and she'd use my cordless drill to drive it in the rest of the way. She didn't hold the drill correctly but I didn't mind. I also taught her the basics of reading a tape measure. I showed her how to count inches to see how far apart something was. I left fractional inches as a lesson for another day. When the wall was assembled Alyce found the rocks in the big pile of materials all by her self. By this point she was getting antsy to try out her new ladder so I rushed ahead and installed the rocks myself.

When finished I took the pieces and her out back to the assembled structure. I need to do some modifications before I can permanently affix the wall to the club house but it was still usable enough for Alyce to climb up top. She seemed very pleased with herself, however, without the slide being attached she didn't know what to do up there and wanted to get down after a minute or two. I need to hurry up and get that slide installed.

I'm really enjoying spending time with her. Sure it slows down progress but sometimes the journey is as important as the destination. I doubt she'll remember this instant but the next time Alyce sees a tape measure and knows how to use it it'll be because I've left a piece of myself with her.

A Gift From Alyce

While Mom and I were at the movies Grams brought Alyce with her to go see GiGi. While visiting Alyce made a gift for Mom and I. It was a cutout of a heart and folded into the card. On the front of the card it read "I love you!" and inside it was a family picture. From left to right it is Luke, Alyce, myself, and Mom. Alyce seemed very proud of herself and we were very happy to receive such a nice gift.

As always it pleases me to see that when she portrays us we are smiling.

Oh

Last night Alyce gave everyone a good laugh. Alyce and Luke were over at Gram's and Papa's house for quiet time so Mom and I could go see a movie. Following the movie and dinner it was time for us to go. As we were putting the kids in the car I lowered all the windows to vent out the hot air in the car. Alyce must have not noticed the windows being rolled down because she started yelling to Mom and I "I can't roll down my window"! As the last word was rolling off her lips she reached up to touch or hit the glass.  Much to her surprise her hand went right through where the window would have been and outside the car. Immediately after we hear Alyce say in a sheepish voice "oh".

Artwork

I just wanted to post a picture of some of Alyce's latest artwork. It is proudly displayed on the refrigerator. The fireworks picture is done with crayons and stickers. The other two are with paint. Enjoy!

Swimming Pool Breakthrough

This weekend we had a significant swimming pool breakthrough! Alyce went down the slide all by herself! Up to this point Alyce would have nothing to do with the slide and if she did manage to get to the top of the slide she would wait for us to hold her hand before she would go down. Luke her younger brother of 2 years already goes down the slide by himself but Alyce would have none of it.  All of that changed this weekend. I'm not sure if it was peer pressure or just the decision to do it but Alyce started going down the slide by herself.  When she did go down the first time both Mom and I cheered and clapped for her. I think Alyce was proud of herself too.

On top of the slide Alyce also started jumping into the pool without holding onto our hands too! Before then she would jump in but always had to maintain contact with Mom or I. She'd still only jump when we were nearby and she wanted us to catch her but separating ourselves just a few inches away is a major step.

One item that has been the most help in getting Alyce to do these things is a hat. How can something as simple as a hat do that? Well our slide area has lots of sprays and fountains which make the whole area act like it's raining. Alyce hates getting her face wet so avoids the whole thing. This weekend I gave her my baseball hat and even though it was too big for her head it kept the rain out of her face and she entered the rain without hesitation. Her floatie also deserves some credit. Her floatie is a combination water wings and life jacket. It goes on easy, doesn't inhibit movement, and provides a lot of stability so she doesn't bob in the water. Both Alyce and Luke have them and they love them.

Good job big girl both Mom and I are really proud of you.