Spring Flowers

Alyce picked these beautiful flowers for Mom.


I don't have it in my heart to tell her it's a weed.

New Wall

We are only 9 months into living in our new house and I'm already working on a new retaining wall. Like last time Alyce is helping me with this wall too. Now that she is five she is able to contribute but more importantly isn't getting in the way.

For most of the digging she wasn't present as there wasn't a lot for her to do and because swinging a pick is dangerous work. Once the rocks and stones started being put into place Alyce came out to help. While I was setting stones Alyce would fill up an old Country Crock margarine container aptly named the "Butter Bucket" with rocks and dump them either behind set rocks or further up the trench.  What she did in one bucket I could do in a single shovelful but being efficient wasn't what our time together was all about.

There was some learning going on too. To put the rocks in the bucket she used a little gardening shovel that was pointy on the end. Being an active construction site there was lots of stuff for her and I to trip on. So she and I had a little talk about how to safely walk with her shovel. The gist of the conversation was pointy end down and no running. She being a good listener did exactly as I asked of her and was very cautious anytime she moved with the shovel. The lesson must have stuck as about a week later she had scissors in the house and walked with them point down and didn't run.

There was some fun during the project too. I had music playing on my phone to help pass the time. It was classic rock with a pretty good beat. On a few occasions I looked over to Alyce and she was bobbing her head or dancing in place. Also when we were done with our wheelbarrow of rocks I would take her on a wheelbarrow ride back to the front of the house for another load. On the way she would play tour guide and tell me the name of everything we passed by.

At the end of the day as I was cleaning up rolling the wheelbarrow and tools back into the garage Alyce says to me "Dad, I had lots of fun working with you". That gave me a warm fuzzy inside.

Cold Ice Water

Alyce is now old enough and tall enough to get her own cup of water. A cup of water from the water dispenser on our refrigerator. Our fridge also has its freezer on the bottom so Alyce can get ice cubes for her water. All that is left for us to do is to put the cups on her level and she can get water anytime she wants. Not that we want her to do that as we'd have spilled cups of water everywhere.

There is one thing that I find so cute about her getting a glass of water, how she asks for it. When she wants some water she'll come up to Mom or I and ask for some "cold ice water". I don't know why I find it so cute. Maybe it's just because it's funny because most water that has ice in it is going to be cold. I love kids.

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.

Dance Recital Rehearsal

Saturday Alyce had her dance recital.  Before her class performed we had to sit through performances by other classes. They were all good and provided an example what Alyce would be doing in the coming years. Alyce being a youngster sat in our lap until intermission. She seemed to enjoy all of the dances as well.  She clapped enthusiastically after each performance. During intermission Mom brought Alyce back to the dressing area with the other older girls. Next year Alyce will be old enough to sit back there the whole time. By Mom's description it was pretty cool in back. They had coloring books and a video playing.

When Alyce's class came up it was dark and we could only see silhouettes moving across the stage. First we saw one little girl (not Alyce) and then nothing. Just as Mom and I were going to say "where's the rest" out pop the other three girls with Alyce leading the way or hindering progress depending on how you see it. They get into position, the lights came up, and Alyce was temporarily blinded.  A few seconds later the music started and they were dancing. There was a lot of looking at the other girls for cues on what to do next and at times all of them were a bit lost. Their teacher was in front of the stage and was able to get them back if it was necessary. Mom and I were pleased that she was up there and did the routine without being distracted, shy, standing there, or losing a shoe. A reserved girl like Alyce in front of an auditorium full of people couldn't have been easy.

At the end of the show all of the girls came back on stage for the big finale.  It was supposed to be a big kick line and in the rehearsal they did a great job.  For the actual performance it was a bit disorganized and that was o.k.

Following the performance Grams and Papa gave Alyce a bouquet of flowers and Mom gave her one of her bears (Pinkie) with a new ballet outfit.  Afterwards all of us including Onermark Grams and my Aunt Marilyn all met up for some ice cream at Culver's.

We don't have any video of the performance.  The official video is coming out in 6-8 weeks.  Below is a recording Mom made of the rehearsal.  Mom and Alyce stuck around for the entire rehearsal even though they could have left early.  Once all of the dances were finished the teachers went through the songs again to test the volume.  When it time for Alyce's song (twinkle little star) Alyce was asked if she would like to dance again ALL BY HERSELF!  Mom shot a video of Alyce up there doing her dance all alone.  Quite possibly the cutest thing ever.


We want to thank Grams and Papa for allowing the kids to come over each and every Tuesday for quiet time before dance class.  If it wasn't for that Mom would have to wake up Luke early from his nap.  We especially want to thank Onermark grams for paying for all of Alyce's dance classes.  It was a wonderful gesture and we appreciate the generosity.

We asked Alyce if she wanted to do dance again next year and she said that she did.  Dance class must have been fun enough for her to want to do it all over again.

Singing Goodnight

Last weekend while Mom was out of town Alyce asked me if she could do something.  She asked if she could sing a bedtime song for Luke.  Of course I agreed to that request and in the dark she sang a lullaby to Luke.  The song Alyce sang is the same one that Mom sings to her.  Alyce did an excellent job too.  She knew all of the words and had the melody perfect.  In case you were wondering Alyce was singing the Honey Bunch Sugar Plum or Cubby Cake song.  This song has been a standby in our house since Alyce was born.

Since then Alyce has done it a few more times and it is just as sweet as the first time.

Don't Step on a Crack

Lately when I have been taking Alyce to school she's been playing a new game when we get out of the car. Alyce has been jumping over each and every seam or crack in the concrete. To any bystanders it would look like Alyce is hoping and skipping to school.

This past week Alyce has been wanting me to join her in jumping over the cracks. Even though I feel kind of goofy it is fun because I can get her to giggle uncontrollably if I join in.

Alyce's Daddy Book

Tonight when I got home from work Alyce greeted me with her most recent artwork.  What she gave me was probably the sweetest thing I've ever gotten from her or from anyone.  At school the teachers stapled together a few pages of colored construction paper and then let the kids create their own book.  The subject matter of Alyce's book was me!

Every page of the book was a hand drawn picture of me.  In a few of the pictures I was holding hands with Alyce.  I asked her what we were doing when we were holding hands and she said that in the orange picture she and I were going for a walk and in the yellow picture we just got done playing.

Later Mom told me that after Alyce finished her book her teacher put it on the overhead projector and Alyce read / explained the book to the class.  Mom and I were both so very proud of her.



I don't have the words to describe what I felt when she showed me her book; flattered, proud, loved?  I do know that it was great.

Who Needs Expensive Toys?

A while ago I took this picture of Alyce playing with her laundry hamper.  She was crawling inside of it, closing the top, and jumping out of it like a birthday cake.  Some of the time instead of jumping out she'd just fall over into pile of giggling little girl.  Who needs to buy expensive toys when a laundry basket is tons of fun.

Easter Baskets

Easter morning Mom provided Easter baskets for Alyce, Luke, and myself with lots of candy and in my case some Legos.  As Alyce and I were digging into our baskets Alyce noticed something amiss; Mommy didn't have a basket.  She said to Mommy that "the Easter Bunny forgot your Easter basket...  He'll bring it later".  Mommy responded with silence as she wasn't prepared for such a statement.  Before Mom came up with an answer Alyce said "you can have some of my candy".

Isn't this just the sweetest thing ever?  I'm sure a child psychologist could outline all types of developmental milestones.  I just know that I have best little girl in the world.

Happy Birthday Song

Either through repetition or through school Alyce has learned the happy birthday song.  Her rendition isn't perfect as she misses lots of words but she has the melody down pat.  Other than a high number of birthday parties as of late Alyce likes to sing the birthday song when I read her a Winnie the Pooh book called Pooh's Birthday Book and it is part of the Read With Pooh All Year Through set.

The plot of this book deals with Pooh and Piglet deciding to have a birthday party for no one as a way to get a piece of honey cake that Rabbit was cooking; pretty sly.  At the end of the story when they are all sitting down to birthday cake the ask they ask the question of who to sing to?  Conveniently a set of baby birds hatch in a tree above them and are noticed by Christopher Robin.  As the book finishes I ask Alyce if she would sing the birthday song to the baby birds.  Her rendition:  "happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday birdies" and as she finishes the last phrase she takes in a big breath and blows it out pretending to blow out the candles on the birthday cake.

Where am I?

Last night I was sitting on our big blue chair with Alyce sitting on my lap.  Mom and I were watching something on tv and Alyce was looking at our digital picture frame.  Coming up in the rotation was a picture of Mom and I that was snapped on a kids free trip to Six Flags.  Alyce looked at the screen, furrowed her brow, and said "where am I in that picture?".  We replied with "Mom and I were at Six Flags and you and Luke were with Grams and Papa".  She mulled that over for a few seconds and said matter of factly "I want to be in that picture".

Swiper No Swipin'

For Alyce's birthday she was given a Dora the Explorer tent and she has gotten a lot of use out of it.  She likes to crawl into and out of it and closes and opens its doors.  Sometimes she will stay inside of it and have her own make believe adventures.  A few days ago while Alyce was playing in the tent with some of her princess stuff Mom hears from inside "Swiper no swiping, no Swiping".  Then followed by "Swiper you can't have my wand".  Hilarious!

For those who don't know about the Dora the Explorer tv show then this might not be so cute.  To explain, on the Dora television show there is a fox dressed up as a bandit and his name is Swiper.  In certain episodes he tries and mostly fails to swipe whatever Dora has in hand.  To protect yourself from Swiper's antics you have to say "Swiper no swiping" three times.  After the third time Swiper says "oh man" and takes off empty handed.

We're Having Pancakes

Sunday was my morning to wake up with the kids. Mom and I trade off each day of the weekend so we can sleep in at least one day. Before Mom woke up I decided to make some waffles for the family. Alyce is a HUGE fan of pancakes and goes crazy whenever she gets them. While I was mixing up the batter for the waffles Alyce continued to ask me if we were having pancakes. I tried to explain to her that we were having waffles but she would have none of it.

As breakfast was approaching I asked Alyce if she could go upstairs and tell Mom that we were having waffles. She ran out of the kitchen, through the living room, and up the stairs. The story continues as Mom told me is that she heard Alyce running up the stairs. Alyce then flies open the door, says "We're having pancakes!", and starts to close the door to go back downstairs. Mom asks for Alyce to come in and give her a good morning kiss which she does then hot foots it back down stairs. As Alyce is going down the stairs she says back up the steps "come downstairs Mommy" and then Mom replies, "I'm coming!"

Alyce comes running back into the kitchen in to my waiting arms for a big hug, said "Mommy's coming", and I thanked Alyce for giving Mom the message. Once the waffles were served Alyce finally did start referring to them correctly as waffles but she would say "wassles" instead. Alyce ended up eating 1 1/2 of waffles and a glass of orange juice before leaving the table to go play with some toys.

Helping Daddy Out: Part 2

As my retaining wall project continues Alyce is finding new ways to help me.  Earlier she helped me drive some pegs into the ground and today she helped me shovel dirt.  I spent almost the entire afternoon preparing the trench that the wall will rest within.  Towards the end just before dinner Mom was outside with Luke for a feeding.  While feeding Luke Mom commented that he was watching me go about my excavation.  I said back to her that "he should come help me shovel".  Alyce must have heard me and thought that I needed some help shoveling and immediately ran up to me telling that she could do it!  I handed Alyce my shovel and said "go for it".  She picked up my shovel got a bit of dirt in the pan and did her best to try and deposit the cargo into the bucket I've been using to put the dirt into a pile.  What she lacked in shoveling capacity she more than made up for it with cuteness!

After a bit Alyce got bored or tired of using the big shovel and asked to use her blue shovel.  Alyce has an entire set of play yard tools and a blue shovel is one of the implements.  Mom grabbed it from the garage, handed it to Alyce, and she started helping me again.  Alyce also grabbed her own orange bucket to hold the dirt rather than my own 5 gallon bucket.  Alyce would take two shovel fulls of dirt and put them into her orange bucket, walk to the dirt pile, and dump the contents onto the pile.  She probably moved about 3 cubic inches with every bucket but as long as she kept out from underneath my shovel I didn't mind and enjoyed her company.

After a while she even got bored of helping me shovel and moved onto something new, the dirt pile.  If there is one constant in the universe it is that kids like to climb dirt piles.  I am really surprised that it took Alyce almost a week to attempt to climb up the pile of dirt on the patio but today her streak ended.  She made a few probing climbs to get used to how the dirt shifts but eventually she made an attempt at the summit and got about 3/4s the way up.  I thought this was really cute, but I couldn't let it continue more than a few times since I needed to get back to work and I couldn't leave her unattended on such an unsettled surface.  Of course this led to some tears but Alyce got over it and I finished up my digging for the day.

Hannah Montana

A few days ago Alyce found her Hannah Montana microphone. It was a gift from our neighbors and best friends Jeff and Liz. From all of the American Idol we watch and Rock Band we play Alyce knew exactly what to do and she gave mom and I an impromptu concert.


What is really funny is that Alyce wasn't even singing she was just pretending to.

Castle

Today when I got home from work I got a request from Alyce. She wanted to make a castle. We weren't really sure what she meant since we haven't ever made a castle for her. We have in the past made a tent for her in our bedroom but we never called it a castle. Mom and I decided to make a castle. We took a few boxes put them on end and laid a baby gate across the top. We then strung her blanket across the front for a door and held it in place with a box of diapers. Lastly we took a few of her yellow blocks and used them for decorations.


Upon completion Alyce was ecstatic. She went on and on talking about her castle then rearranging some of her blocks. She would climb into and out of the castle over and over again. When Grandma came over later Alyce could barely contain herself because she wanted to show off her castle. She was dancing, jumping, and running all over the place. It was quite the site to see. When Grandma asked Alyce who made the castle she did give us credit by saying "Mommy and Daddy did it".

New PJs

Last week Mom got Alyce some new pjs. These pjs are girlish nightgowns where her old pjs were girlish shirts and shorts. Upon seeing the new ones Alyce was in love. She kept saying over and over again "I get new jemmies". After her bath I got to put them on the first time and Alyce looked really cute in them. She was a big fan too. While reading her bedtime book she kept interrupting by saying things "blue jemmies under the cozy" or "I got blue jemmies on". It was all super cute.


The next day we switched her from the blue jammies with the ice cream cones to the white ones covered in tiny multicolored hearts. While brushing her teeth and looking in the mirror Alyce said "I look like a princess". She then started posing like a model on a photo shoot while standing on her bench. How cute is that!

I Missed You

Yesterday I was treated to something so cute it almost made me cry.  I got home from work yesterday and go in the house like I always do.  As I close the door and put my keys on the kitchen table running into the room comes Alyce.  She yells out as she is running towards me "I missed you!".  She then jumped into my outstretched arms and gave me a big hug.  Nothing brightens up your day like some unconditional love.

After that Alyce and I played in the kitchen by pushing a car across the floor then racing to "gets it" as Alyce would say.  We also took turns galloping and jumping across the floor treating each square in the tile floor like a hopscotch square. 

I love my kids.

Where'd You Get That Shirt?

On Wednesday Mom went to visit her doctor with kids in tow. On the way something new and yucky happened; Alyce threw up in the car. We will skip over the whole getting sick part and focus on the cuteness that happened after. Mom and the rest of the family was going to meet me for lunch and Alyce was wearing a jacket instead of her now messy shirt because who packs a backup outfit for a 2 year old? Mom made a quick run to Target before meeting me. Mom bought a non descript white shirt that Alyce was very fond of.

Jumping ahead to later in the day to when I got home from work. Most days Alyce comes with me upstairs while I change out of my work clothes. We typically use the next twenty minutes to rough house on the bed and run around the house. Today Alyce and I started a conversation about her new shirt. I asked her if she liked her new shirt and she said "yes". I asked her what color it was and she responded with "white". I asked who bought that shirt "Mommy" was the response. Lastly I asked her where Mom bought the shirt. I was expecting either silence or something like shopping. Instead I was greeted with the response of "Target". Neither Mom nor I have any clue where she learned the word target or how she made the connection to Target the store.