Things We Can't Believe!

Number 1 thing we can't believe:

Month Nine

Can you believe it? Where did the time go on this one! We have an official baby date now. March 5, 2010 at 7:15 a.m. Please keep our family in your prayers on the 5th as we welcome our new baby boy.

Alden giving his little brother a hug and a kiss. We love to talk about baby Spencer and show him off.

Number 2 thing we can't believe:

Alden has seen snow five times in his 20 month life!

Alden loved the snow and couldn't wait to get out in the snow and play. Although after one big fall and very cold hands, he was ready to come inside again. His favorite word this weekend was "snow." The bad thing is that now he thinks that snow comes all the time! He was very upset when the numerous "men" in our neighborhood were melting.

Number 3 thing we can't believe:

The snow brought PENGUINS to our front yard

Alden and Mommy woke up early on Saturday morning. We opened the window in Alden's room to see penguins had landed in the snow in our front yard! Alden ran to tell Daddy,"Birds! Birds!" We spent the whole day going in and outside visiting the penguins.

Snow and penguins in the same day! What can beat that?? Why Daddy's birthday party, that's what!

Number 4 thing we can't believe:

Daddy is getting old and has white hair!

Alden and Mommy had a birthday party for Daddy on his 32nd birthday! Alden made sure that we had Alden's favorites: cake and balloons. And, no, we are not kidding, Daddy has a ton of white hair all of a sudden! He went and had all of his hair cut off as soon as he found them--who wants to place bets on how many more birthdays we have until Alden and Daddy's hair is a lot closer to the same color!

Pizza and cake for lunch. Alden was definitely a fan of the birthday party. He kept saying, "Happy Burfday, Daddy" for the next couple of days. Sweet, but we really think it was an attempt to get more party!

Balloons!!!

Number 5 things we can't believe:

Our dog invited our child into her "pad"

AND, they seem to like each other! Check it out? Just hanging out and no one is running. If I didn't have the picture, I would not believe it. Perhaps they are both becoming allies before the little baby invasion in two weeks.

The Most unbelievable of all:

We got Daddy to go to a LIBRARY!

Yes, we actually did tell Daddy that there were books there, and he still decided to go. Humm...as you can see, he also still found a way to avoid actually having to read! Daddy enjoyed the birds, spider, mouse, and coloring over the large book selection while Mommy picked out and checked out about 20 new books for Alden. Yep,that sounds about right.

The King of Electronics also somehow convinced his two big readers to play the computer game at the library. Yep, that sounds just about right, too.

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!