Playtime!

Alden loves books so much! He wants to read and read and read...and he gets tired of certain books really fast. Since we are old enough not to eat every book as well as read them, we have started going to the library every week for a new selection. He was so excited that he and doggie had to literally dive right in!

Mommy and Alden are trying to fit every possible activity in before little brother gets here. It is hard to beat the circus, but we try to at least keep up. We began by spending a fun Friday with our friend Ben. First stop was the library. The boys played with every puzzle, book, and toy they could find.

We were so glad that Ben's mom told us about Gymboree. An indoor playground with lots to climb, big place to run, and best of all...containment! We were so excited about going that we extended our play date to go right away. I think this is the best place in the world for a very busy toddler! Can you tell he had fun??

Alden is into balls or anything that can be thrown like a ball. He spent the first half of our playtime throwing and chasing balls around the room before he tried anything else.

Or, hey, why not try every activity while holding a ball. The best of both worlds!

Being "tackled" by Ben. It is about time the tables turned on this one, huh Ben? Alden had it coming (and of course loved it)!

After pulling the boys away from playtime, we all had a quick dinner together to end our day. Alden was so worn out that after eating he leaned his head on my arm and said, "Mommy, night, night!" This is only the second time in his life he has actually asked to go to bed!

After a weekend of rest, we were ready to go bright and early on Monday morning to the McWane Center with Helen. When we got there, I realized that Alden had taken off one shoe and it was not in the car! Anywhere! I was so mad because this happens everywhere we go, and he couldn't run around a public place with one shoe on! I was so glad that Susan was there to be my voice of reason and just suggest he wear only socks. Not my first choice, but it worked. We sure would have missed a fun time going home to find the shoe...which I found HOURS later in the bottom of the laundry basket under the clean clothes. Yes, he had put it there. Really? I will never get toddler logic.

First stop in sock feet, water table. This was way fun! Alden and Helen looked so precious in their water smocks. They are concentrating very hard.

More water fun! This time with shapes! Notice we ditched the water smock and just went with getting wet.

When I say that Alden did not stay still longer than 20 seconds all day, I actually mean it! He quickly found a classroom with all kinds of fun things. Here, he is showing Helen the plastic dinosaur and zebra (loves those animals). Notice that Helen is obediently still wearing her water smock!:)

Alden's own personal career day. Trying on every many different hats.

Finding a box of, you guessed it, animals! And a bonus...a stop sign! Alden loves stop signs. Although, I am not sure he knows the actual meaning of the word "stop" since he never, ever, EVER, does.

We thought the stuffed cockroach was pretty cool but did not understand why there was a doll in there! He took it out and handed it to me to get out of his way.

Who knew Alden knew how to drive a submarine?

Two big pregnant mommies climbed up and down a spiral staircase on their knees in the three story play gym helping two stair-challenged toddlers to get this wonderful shot. Pretty cute smile though.

Hanging out in the fruit stand. I don't think I would trust him counting out your change if I were you.

Inspecting the fruit at the stand. It took a few minutes for me to teach this little merchant that even though there was a plethora of his favorite thing in the whole world, fruit, it was not edible! Pretty icky when that went towards his mouth. Here we are talking about the "apple."

First golf game. Someone needs to tell him that you don't throw the golf balls during the game before he hits the real green.

The one brief break. Nothing, and I mean nothing, gets in the way of Alden wanting to eat a cracker. He is obsessed with them all day long! I asked him if he wanted to stop and have crackers or play, and he said, "Play!"

A giant light-brite. We got some good practice on saying our colors.

More driving. I think that this is the way Helen's dad would like her to sit on all of her future car dates. Although, you have to weigh the options: Distance, or the driver actually facing the road and not the cute girl in the back seat!

So many levers and pulleys and toys! We had such fun. I never thought anyone had as much energy for as long a period of time as this little boy. You would think that he took a great nap when we got home. No such luck! Shortest nap on record. Wow.

The night ended with pizza and story time at family night at the library. Alden sang us "You are My Sunshine" all the way home which is a switch from "ABC." When Alden sang, the only real words that came out were "Sunshine" and "Happy" amidst a bunch of nonsense tune, and with the alphabet song, repeatedly, over and over, the "E-F-G!" part. We have never made it past the letter H in our song. So, did he sleep well tonight after a major play day, short nap, and big night out on the town? Ha!

Just A Story

No photo, but just a sweet story. Alden has finally come to grasp the concept of "Baby Spencer." We were reading books before nap time today when Alden asked about Spencer. This means, that he has see my belly. He poked at my belly button saying, "Baby Spencer." Then, he gave my belly a kiss and a big hug with and "Ohh..." with his eyes closed, laying on my belly, with a big smile on his face. After the hug and kiss, he covered up my belly and said, "Bye, bye Baby Spencer. Night, night brother." We got in one more hug and "Ohh.." before our nap. Love it!

Under the Big Top

Today was a landmark day. Alden turned 20 months old! AND, we had our first trip to the circus. Helen and Alden were so excited to be there. They sat completely still and glued to the action for over an hour! This was so unbelievable. Alden kept pointing and talking. We knew they would love the animals, but we were so surprised at how much they loved the dancers and people making themselves into pretzels. All the way there, Alden kept saying, "Circus. Giraffes. Elephants." I think he loved the circus so much that he forgot there were no giraffes there. On the way home, he just said, "Circus! Circus!" I love this picture because, seriously, Alden and Helen could be twins!

Daddy took off for a couple of hours to go with us to the circus. Mommy was very thankful that she did not have to carry Alden for the long walk from the car to the arena. Susan and Joey got the heavy loads, and I was lucky enough to have the easy end of the deal and carry baby backpacks.Two pregnant mommies plus two toddlers equals a big need for an extra set of hands and muscles. Joey was pulling double duty for a pregnant mommy bathroom break!

Alden and Mommy had a special lunch together afterwards. He wouldn't eat anything but baked lays, but he was happy. Okay, just for today, Mommy will let him have a 20 month birthday present of only eating barbecued baked lays for lunch.

Month 8

We are at 33 weeks and counting. For those of you who have followed Alden's medical history, this will be a funny story. At my 30 week appointment, Spencer was measuring about two weeks behind on the belly measurement. He has been doing that for about six weeks now, and so my doctor decided to go ahead and do an ultrasound to check on him. When they did the ultrasound, she said that he was actually on the bigger side and all was well. When I went back for my 32 week appointment, my doctor was still puzzled over why this baby was measuring big on the ultrasound because he still was measuring about 2 weeks behind on the belly measurement. I laughed and told him that we at least knew, since the ultrasound tech told me, he was going to have a big head like his brother. He told me to explain. I told him how Alden was always 25-50% in weight and height but like 99% in head! He went back and looked at the ultrasound results. Guess what? They average the results of all the body parts. Spencer is NOT a big baby. He, like big bro, is an average size baby with a big head. The head measurement skewed the entire weight measurement! Are we surprised??

Alden loves "the baby" and has finally learned to say Spencer, although I am not sure he realizes that this is one in the same. He likes to lift up my shirt to see the baby and poke at him, especially through the belly button. After a few minutes of poking and pulling, he tells the baby bye-bye, covers up my belly, and sometimes gives him a kiss. I just hope that he doesn't give Spencer a kiss and tell him bye-bye when he gets home from the hospital. He will be very surprised when he doesn't disappear!

Merry Christmas

The official 7 month photo. We cannot believe that Spencer will be arriving in 9 weeks! If all goes well, please start your prayers that it does, we will have a baby boy on March 5. We began our New Year today by seeing our sweet baby boy in 4D! Here are the first glances of....

Spencer James DuMontier

The ultrasound technician got very carried away. We not only have the live DVD (which believe it or not they did not have 21 months ago for Alden), but 76 photos of our baby in the womb! Yes, 76! All is well with our very active little man. He does not stop moving in there and we watched it all unfold on screen today. If you know Alden, though, you are not surprised that we would have an active child!

The other big event of the week was, of course, Christmas. Spencer got a ridiculous amount of gifts for not even being in the world yet. However, thanks to his grandparents, he can have his own homemade organic baby food made in the new Beaba Babycook, rest in his lamb cradle swing and bounce in his giraffe bouncer, spit up all he wants on his new burp clothes and bibs, and of course cuddle with a teddy or two. Did we have a little boy before this? You wouldn't think so with the amount of stuff we are getting!

The big guy in our lives was, of course, the star of Christmas this year. Although it was not his first Christmas, it might as well have been. There is nothing like watching your little boy discovering Christmas. Alden had a few clues because we had underestimated his cognitive ability to grasp the whole Santa concept. On Christmas Eve morning, he woke up and came to our bed and kept saying, "Claus Choo-Choo." Yes, Alden was getting a choo-choo from Santa, but he was not supposed to know that. Big people watch what you say!

Alden's Christmas began the weekend before with a visit from the Morrison clan. He had a blast opening every single person's presents for them. Even if they didn't have his name on them! The bows on top were quite interesting. Grumps brought the presents over the day before, and by the time we opened them the next afternoon, all of the bows were mysteriously missing.

The first Christmas present opening with a little help from Dad.

Very excited about the Beaba Babycook. He loves kitchen supplies! I really would get the child a kitchen of his own if it did not seem very girly. I hear there is a toddler grill set. We might have to get that for our birthday.

Christmas celebration number 2 with the Lann Clan. Alden had so much fun being the center of attention and getting to eat all the baked spaghetti he could eat.

Christmas morning was a bit crazy. Daddy has got to get it together for next year. Here is why: We got up and got somewhat dressed and together before Alden was up which was great. When he awoke, we brought him in our room to stall. Now, Daddy was supposed to just set up the camera and take out the dog. I am not kidding, TWO Nick, Jr. shows later and an entire sippy of milk, and I am calling down the stairs saying that we are needing to come down. Daddy added making coffee and chatting to Granna and Pops and dilly-dallying for about 45 minutes to his morning. Not thinking this will happen again! Alden knew just where to look when we got to the bottom of the stairs. First words..."choo-choo!!!

Glad Santa got the small track. For now, it is way more fun to take apart and carry around the parts than actually putting Thomas the train on the track. Mommy will become an expert track constructor.

Santa brought Alden anything and everything giraffe, or in Alden's world, "girattes." From pajamas to a new plate to a puzzle. Grandpa sent Alden this new giraffe sound machine. Alden didn't miss one of them! One of his favorite things this week has been watching his wild animal Baby Einstein video. Even though our attention span is only about 15 minutes at a time, he grabs my hand and says, "Mommy, Bears. Peese, Bears" and walks me to the DVD player. Although this has wild animals from all over the world, Alden apparently knows that it has bears. Oh, and yes, giraffes!

Another favorite! Doggy slippers. Thank you Granna. Before we go downstairs, Alden says, "Mommy, doggies" and shows me his feet. We have to have these on every morning. This might become a Christmas tradition. Who knew what a hit slippers could be! Do you think Alden is into animals just a little?

"A quacky" from Grandmother.

A firetruck from Uncle John. We love it. Uh, no, it is not a riding toy! It is actually very cool with a remote control. Judging from the fact that he thinks he rides it, he is way too young to know how to operate the remote control firetruck by himself, right?

Wrong. It took about 5 minutes for him to figure that one out. The ladder went up and down for a long time after that.

A digger from Grandmother. Alden loves things with wheels. All boy!

Alden's friend, Helen, knows him well. Dr. Seuss board books. And, surprisingly, we had never read a single one of them. Boy, oh boy, we have now! We have read them for every nap and every bedtime...along with the animal books that The Fishers gave him. I moved the animal book from The Mitchells downstairs for entertainment. You guessed it; we look at it everyday! Sometimes twice.

Our new picture word cards. Thanks to Grandmother and Granddaddy, he now has every set. His fave so far is farm words because it has Baa's and Moo's. However, he did throw me today when he correctly identified "barn." How does he know this stuff?! There is one card that has the words "combine harvester" with a photo. If he says that, I will let everyone know!

Could it be another giraffe! Granna and Pops giving Alden his first exercise learning bike. He has no clue how to peddle yet, and I admit I have not put the effort into teaching him yet, but he talks to it every single morning from his crib. (We have had to put some toys up and some toys downstairs to make room. Not to mention the SIX shelves he now occupies of my den built-in bookcases!) S-P-O-I-L-E-D!

Very cool Timberline big boy boots from Grumps. Alden showed them off to everyone. He was very proud. Best of all, they lace up! Let's see him try to take those things off before we even get out of the driveway!

Oh, who knows! The presents runneth over. He is great a ripping off paper now! No worries, Alden did learn a lot about the holidays other than getting presents.

It is not all about receiving. 'Tis also the season for giving.

Sometimes the fun is found in playing with the box the present came in.

Brothers share. (Especially when the one the teddy is actually for is currently being held captive in the womb).

Spending time with family is lots of fun.

Ahh...it is great to be the only child...for a little while longer!