Uncle Robert reading to Alyssa and Ryan



Visit to Grandma & Grandpa's house:
Ryan & Alyssa are watching the movie Cars on the portable DVD player.


Grandpa reading to Alyssa



Bath time:
Ryan & Alyssa "swimming" in the tub.


Faux-hawk hair styles

Alyssa's first ponytail...kinda...Daddy thought we should do something. Maybe in a year or so, Alyssa's hair will be long enough for a real ponytail. The hair on top and in the back is really growing, but it is still growing slowly on the sides.

Uncle Jeff

First, Uncle Jeff and Alyssa played the drums....



Then, the concert moved to the piano in the living room....





Finally, not to be left out, Ryan joined them on guitar with Aunt Darlene




On Tuesday we met Ryan's new preschool teachers and classmates at the park. Ryan had a great time playing with the kids. I think we are all excited for preschool to start in September!

Ryan and Alyssa were given balloons as we left the park. Ryan wanted a picture with their balloons very badly.

Getting Dressed

Last week Ryan was in a time-out in his bedroom. When I let him out he had changed his clothes. He has a tall dresser and the things he could most easily reach were pants and long sleeve shirts. This particular time he had a pair of socks...which are in the top drawer and should be unreachable. He told me that he climbed the drawers to get the socks. Thankfully his dresser is attached to the wall.

Since then I have made some changes. I rearranged the clothing so that his pj's, underwear, socks, t-shirts, and shorts are in the bottom two drawers. Also I put a stool in his bedroom just in case he decides he needs to get in other drawers (I don't want to test that wall anchor).

The best thing about this all is the last 3 days he has picked out his clothes and dressed himself. The last 2 days I sent him to his room to get dressed himself and he has come down dressed appropriately both times! (Not necessarily the combinations I would pick but not bad enough to make him change!) We even got new tennis shoes for him last night and he can put those on himself. Yeah!!!!

Frogs & Crashes

We have lots of toads and even a few of these frogs, which I assume are some kind of tree frog. They are kind of neat; they stick to the wall. The kids like them. I worry Ryan is going to squish one of them tying to pick it up (they are small). Also mowing the lawn trying to give the toads a chance to hop away is interesting.

Battle Wounds: A dangerous trip to the park (8/1)
It was a typical trip to the park (we thought)...John got home from work, the kids begged to go outside, we sent Ryan to the potty, got shoes on...and left. We were just about to the path to the park when Alyssa tripped over her own feet. She fell forward and apparently bit her lip (no scrapes on the face). So I carried the bleeding, screaming baby home to get cleaned up.

So...Alyssa was cleaned up and had her ice (for her instantly huge puffy lip). I put her in the stroller this time and we headed for the park again. No joke, in the same exact spot Ryan trips over his own feet and scrapes his elbow. He was running (of course) and talking to a neighbor across the street...bad idea. We still went on to the park where we were questioned by the other kids about what happened to Alyssa's lip and Ryan's elbow. Just one of those days I guess.

5 word sentence

"I want George, daddy...please." - Alyssa loves a Curious George book and asked John to read it this morning in a long complete sentence. She has been saying "I want..." for a while but her sentences are rapidly becoming more complex. She is also a very polite toddler. She uses please and thank you frequently.

18 Months

Alyssa turned 18 months yesterday! She had her check-up this morning and continues to grow well. She is now 33" tall (86 percentile) and 26 lbs (75 percentile). She is doing everything an 18 month old should do.