Alive and Well

We're still here, never fear. We have had at least one cold each, plus one flu. Tom is at the new house everyday doing an amazing job orchestrating all the contractors. It really is impressive how much he has gotten accomplished on the new house in so short a time frame.

I had planned on bringing Alice by the new house every weekend to play, but wasn't thinking about the fact that it is currently a construction zone! Electrician, plumber, painters . . . they even work on Saturday! The most exciting news is that Tom found a secret room off his study. It is against the sloped ceiling of the roof, but is big enough to stand in. It really is impressive! He's pretty darn excited about it!

What else has been going on . . . I am still taking pictures. I have Tuesday off work and may try and get the new computer that day. But between packing and work, I don't expect to get any pictures off the camera till after Thanksgiving!!! We'll see . . .

In the meantime, we have done some fun things between new house activities and illness. We went apple picking with Clare and Caroline which was so much fun. They also brought us down to the Cape for a night and that was soooo fun! I love seeing the two girls together. Alice dressed up for Halloween in the cat costume my mom made me when I was two! The neighbors had a party with pizza set up in their driveway and it was bittersweet to hang out with everyone, knowing we are moving away from the neighborhood. She also came with us to vote, and it was like a huge block party all over again--we saw tons of neighbors and generally had a good time even though we had to wait in line for an hour.

Today we went to Ikea, and Alice did so good considering! We actually left Ikea without having bought ANYTHING! Amazing, I know. (Well, we did it lunch there). This was mostly a research trip. Champagne tastes, beer budget.

The cutest thing lately has been Alice hearing Obama on the radio. She said something to me the other day that was probably "Up, Mama." But it came out sounding like Obama, so I said, "Obama?" Now, she has totally clued in to hearing the name, and she'll say to me, "Mama, Obama, radio!" when she hears poeple on NPR talking about him. Too funny. I need to show her a picture. I have been working on President Obama (President elect is just too many syllables!)but no luck.

What other cute things has she been doing? She is still obsessed with stickers, and now bandaids and tape. I had successfully phased out stickers, but now I am reintroducting them because she is constantly trying to get the tape off the boxes! Once we move, there is going to be a moratorium on anything sticky.

She recognizes the neighborhood where I work, and whenever we drive past it she asks me, "Mama, wort? (Her K's have a T at the end). On the weekends, we tell her, "Today is a Mama-Dadaday!" "Mamaday?" she asks? "Ohhhhhhhhh. Mamaday!"

She talks about Tom working at the new house. She knows all the boxes are for the new house. We had a great game one day sorting all her toys into ziplock bags before packing them. (Not all her toys are packed yet, no worries!).

Today I started talking about The Rules. Some of the Rules include:

No standing on chairs
No hitting, biting, throwing (excpet balls)

I cannot remember if we had other rules. I am hoping by categorizing them and talking about them as rules in our family, I can get away from saying No. all. the. time. I already say things like, "We don't bite Dada's hair in our family." The thing is, much of the physical inappropriate behavior is coming from exuberance. Like lately, she has taken to pinching THE HECK out of our cheeks. She is just so excited! So she's trying to give you love, but it is lion cub love rather than kitten love. Ouch! I found a couple of books that are about the different ways people and animals give kisses and cuddles, and we have been having Alice and Tom act them out. Those are a hit, and a good way to focus the energy for good. If she wasn't so incredibly gentle and loving with her babies, both dolls and the babies at daycare, I'd be a little more concerned. But even with us, once she understands she has hurt us, she wants to cradle our head in her lap and pat our face (which is awkward, but really adorable!). She just gets carried away, and I don't want to squash that--just direct the energy for good!

Hmmmm, what else? Knock wood she is back to going to bed relatively easily after the bath, book kissing babies, blankets routne. Tom discivered that the white blanket MUST be satin side down as the first layer. That was helpful information, let me tell you. She is talking up a storm, and I suspect the parts I am missing are in Spanish. Speaking of which, that's the other thing that has sucked up all our time . . . tis the season for researching daycares. I'll do another post on that on a different day.

So, no pictures still, but hopefully some cute Alice stories to tide you over!