Little Hills: January 2007

Alexa's preschool class is named the tadpoles, and they have a cute little stuffed frog (named Tad) as their class mascot. At the end of each school week (Wednesday), Tad travels home with that week's class helper and stays with them until the next school day (typically a Monday). The parent records their adventures in Tad's journal and the journal is shared with the other classmates upon his return. It just so happened that Alexa was class helper the week before Christmas break, meaning Tad spent a month with us! Being the English major/geek that I am, here is our entry from Tad's journal:

‘T was right before Christmas
When Tad came to stay.
For more than a week,
We had fun every day!

We celebrated Christmas
Several times this year.
First with Mommy’s family
Who traveled from Texas to here.

Tad met Grandma and Pawpaw
And great-grandma too,
Helped Alexa open presents
And even played with a few!

Next we traveled to Charlotte
And spent the night,
Waking up at 3:30
To catch an early morning flight!

We flew all the way to Utah
Where we saw lots of snow.
We ate bulgogi with Halmoni-
It was a site to behold!

Downtown Salt Lake City
Is always festive with lights
While riding in a carriage
We took in all the sites.

Then on New Year’s Eve,
Allie and Sarah came to play.
Excited to see Tad,

He was met with a “Hooray!”

Before saying goodbye,

Each gave him a kiss
And though still a frog,
He felt like a prince!

And now our time with Tad
Has come to an end.
We hope he has just as much fun
With his next preschool friend.

So thanks, Tad, for staying
O’er the Christmas holidays
What a fun way to remember
Alexa’s Tadpole days!

Believe it or not, we are still here, alive and well in cyber space. It has been a very LOOOONG time since my last post, so be prepared for a very LOOOONG entry to compensate!!

Since my last post, Brody turned six, and then seven months old. At his six month visit, he weighed 11 lb 14 oz, only six ounces more than his four month visit, so they asked that I start bringing him in for monthly weight checks. I am happy to report that when we went for our December 28th weigh-in, he was up to 13 lb 8 oz, but his length was measuring 24.5" - the same as his six month visit, so we're continuing to go in for monthly checks. He's still not on the charts for height and weight, but at least he's growing! His head, however, continues to follow the growth curve for the 20th percentile. He has also mastered sitting up now, at least for a few seconds, as well as putting his toes in his mouth.

Both of my children have been more than spoiled over the last month - my parents and grandparents were in town December 9th through 16th, and we were in Utah December 18th through 25th! Billy only had to work half days the week after Christmas and then had the 1st and 2nd off, so we feel like we've been on vacation for about a month.

Alexa is as entertaining as ever and has also been quite busy over the past month. In November, she attended her very first live theatre performance - "Cinderella" was presented by the Children's Theatre of Columbia. Appropriately, she wore one of her dressiest dresses, which was her princess dress until this Christmas proved to truly be the "year of the princess."

First she received a beautiful Belle dress from her Aunt Misty, then her Halmoni gave her a trunk with three princess dresses, and Santa left her the Little Mermaid Wedding gown. I think that child now changes her clothes about six times a day! Being dressed as a princess has certainly given her some unique perspectives on life:

When decked out in her Belle dress and playing with Billy, she suddenly announced, "Hey Daddy, you're my beast!"

While playing in one of her princess dresses from Halmoni, she looked at Billy and me and asked, "Where's my prince?" (and at such an early age...)

The first week of December was Alexa's preschool Christmas musical, "To Bethlehem!", a cute nine minute production presented by the three and four year-olds, with help from the two year-olds on the last song. Being the music teacher, I got to teach the children the songs and had a blast working with them! They did wonderful, most of them singing loudly (a few TOO loudly) and doing the motions! However, when Alexa began walking around our house, belting out, "Here we go to Bath My Ham...", I realized some of the words might have been a bit difficult to understand...either that, or she knows something I don't about a pig traveling with Mary and Joseph...

Our trip to Utah was great! We not only spent lots of time with family, but were able to catch up with a few friends as well, although as always, the time was too short and we did not get to see everyone we wanted to. We took Alexa on a carriage ride through downtown SLC to look at the Christmas lights, and even had a white Christmas!

Anyway, as you can tell from the many many photos in this post, we have had a wonderful time over the holidays and we hope yours were wonderful as well! I have numerous New Year's resolutions for 2007, but one of them is to make sure I update the blog at least once a month, preferably every two weeks! We'll see how well I do...

Here's a few more of our favorites since the last post:

The Princess & The Army Men