La Fin du Tour

We had a great weekend together as a family, enjoying the lack of projects around the house, and the cooler weather. We all went to the James Boyce park on Saturday and then to Freedom Park on Sunday. It is always fun to look at the map and find roundabout routes to explore Charlotte. The downside of the weekend was the end of the Tour de France, which has occupied our evenings for the past three weeks. Now what do we do??

As of yesterday, Alden is really into trucks. She saw one in my Practical Horseman magazine, and then was very interested in every "big truck" that we saw on the road. All cars, motorcycles, and trucks go "mmmm, mmm" which applies to ones she sees, as well as her toys. Horse noises are gradually being trumped by "grrr" sounds, and she knows that lions, tigers, and sometimes zebras (?) say that. She is adept in carrying on a long conversation in Aldenese, and yesterday night talked almost all of our walk back and forth with us. About what? We don't know...

This morning she really surprised me. She had been pushing the empty laundry basket around upstairs, and into the bathroom. I was ready to use it, and asked her to go get the basket and bring it to me. She did! She pushed it back out of our bathroom, down the hall to the laundry room. Interesting proof that she understands instructions, even if she doesn't obey them.

On a more frustrating note, Alden was up for 3 hours last night. Not hurting, not wet, not hungry - just awake and crying for 3 hours. And we thought those nights were over...

Evil Quail

Alden came down from her nap yesterday, I put her in the family room, and went into the kitchen. Then, I hear hysterical screaming, and turn to see Alden crying, shaking, and pointing at Lily's dog toy, and tring to explain something to me in "Aldenese." I have never seen her get scared of anything and respond that way before.

Granted, the toy had been in hiding for a while, so she hadn't seen it in a long time, but what is so scary about a stuffed animal? OK, maybe it doesn't have eyeballs anymore...Lily chewed them off...

I showed her that it wasn't threatening and how it makes a squawking sound, which she imitated right away. Still, she and the quail have had a few more scary run ins, and Alden will not go near it. Maybe I should set it on the stairs.

Fun in the Sun

This was our second day in a row going to the park with Darcy, Anna, Katie and Connor. Is it obvious that we are all going stir crazy at home? Alden discovered how to go down the slide by herself today on the little kids playground, but only went down the "correct" way once...the rest of the time was backwards, head first, etc. She is climbing on everything, and has fallen of the bed twice, her chair numerous times, and the stairs a couple times, too. Maybe she needs a helmet...

We had just spent a lovely week in Raleigh with the purpose of going to the consignment sale. We made out like bandits in the Little People and Book Departments, and got to spend a lot of time with Auntie Amber. We went to her friend's pool that had a beach entry, which Alden loved. The first couple times, she just ran down and fell over on accident, but then realized that she was having fun, and did it on purpose, face first into the water. It was great to have Matt come up for the weekend and for Mom and Dad to have a date night out to see Harry Potter.

Warning: Copious amounts of blueberries and Alden are a bad combination. She was up for many hours one night in Raleigh after gorging herself on blueberries at dinner. Thanks to Grammy for staying up with her!!

One Giant Leap for Mankind

That is exactly how I would describe my undertaking of a blog. However, I covet my friend Jessica's and really enjoy reading her posts...Hope you will enjoy ours!