Downtown Alton

A few weeks ago we had nothing to do on a Sunday so we decided to drive down to Downtown Alton and walk around. We parked by the river and walked along the river and marina looking at the different boats and birds. We then came across a playground so we stopped so Alyssa could play for a little bit. We then walked to the amphitheater that also has a large fountain and a lot of small fountains around it. It is encouraged that kids can play in the smaller fountains and the kids that were there were dressed for the occasion. Most in bathing suits and with towels.
       I had hard about these fountains but wasn't sure if Alyssa would like them or not. Well she saw the water and wanted to check it out so we did. At first she was shy and would just sit her finger or toe in it, but soon she loved it and was putting her whole body in the water. We let her play for about 15 minutes and then told her it was time to go back to the car.
   The car was a long walk away and Colin was in the stroller so we told her she had to walk because she was too wet for us to carry. She walked the whole way back to the car without a complaint. At the car I had a spare change of clothes from the diaper bag, so we changed her before we left.

    I'm hoping we have another free weekend soon and we can take her back with proper clothes and park the car a little closer.  

Magic House

On Saturday our plan was to go to Grant's Farm. As we started to drive towards Grant's Farm it started to rain and rain hard. We had one stop to make and by the time we got to our stop it was still raining and though we thought it would stop soon we didn't want to walk around on the wet ground. So we decided to go to the Magic House. The last time I went to the Magic house was about 10 years ago it was small and there wasn't much for young kids to do.

   I knew that they had done some construction and knew that a lot of my friends had taken their kids there so I thought it was worth a try. Alyssa loved it. There were a lot of things that were still over her head and also we didn't visit certain areas. But she had a lot of fun. She really enjoyed the three story slide. It is not recommended for kids under the age of three and the worker at the top told me he wasn't sure if she should go. I told him she would be fine and she took off. By the time I went down the stairs to the bottom she was already on her way back up to do it again with a huge smile on her face. She also enjoyed a smaller slide in the kid section. On one of the levels they had a "hospital nursery" Alyssa enjoyed feeding the baby a bottle and changing his diaper. Also on that level they had a library and she got to pretend to check out books and enjoyed sitting and looking at books while Colin drank a bottle.
   Colin also had a great time in a baby section where he could play in ball pits and look in mirrors and crawl through tunnels.




    It was crowded but both kids did fantastic and enjoyed it very much. After we left we went and got a bite to eat and then both kids were passed out within three minutes of getting back in the car and slept the whole way home.

Pulling Up

Colin has started to pull himself up on everything. He now can do it on the table in the kitchen, on people, and on some toys that we have around the house. Today he took himself from the small child's table over to a chair from the big table. Chris and I both watched it happen. Chris said "He is going to be walking soon" I said "I hope not". He said "Well you couldn't wait for Alyssa to walk" and I agreed with him but told him this time it is different I know what happens once they start walking.
    I'm excited to watch Colin grow and it is so fun to watch him now chase his sister around the house, but I keep thinking that he is growing up way to fast. I'm not sure if I can handle this being the last time I will have a baby that can't walk. I already miss some of the baby things.
   I am also not looking forward to trying to keep two from not running away from me at the store. One walker I can do. Two can run in opposite directions.
   Lets just hope Colin doesn't want to walk for a few more months.

Grandma Shores

While I was in the middle of my last post (the one to Alyssa) my phone rang. It was 9:44 at night and so when I went over to it and saw it was my mom I thought she had just not figured the time. I answered the phone and all I could hear was sobs and my mom call my name. My heart stopped knowing something was terribly wrong.
   She told me my Grandma and died. I tried to finish the post, and did, then closed my computer went upstairs crawled into bed and cried. I was up until way after midnight either on the phone with my brother, mom or just with my own thoughts.
   On Wednesday my brother flew in and we drove down to Centraila. The visitation was that night. I took both kids and I think it was nice for people to meet my two kids. On Thursday was the funeral and on Friday was a big breakfast in honor of my Grandpa's birthday.
     I am so grateful that my Grandma got to meet Alyssa. She loved Alyssa with all her heart. The first time she met Alyssa she was still able to walk and told Alyssa of all the things they would explore. Soon after that she had her spinal cord stroke and was confined to a wheel-chair. Every time we would visit she would let Alyssa play with the wheel chair and tell her of the adventures they would take when she could walk again.
   The last time we were there I was about 7 months pregnant with Colin. Grandma was so excited to meet Colin. I promised her we would come out as soon as we could after he was born.

   Well we planned three trips out to see her and every one of them fell through for one reason or another, Colin was in the hospital, Grandma was in the hospital, My other Grandpa had died.  So we were finally going to go see them in September.


   Well I introduced Grandma to Colin on Wednesday night and I know she was smiling. I know she loved her great grandson. I know that she will enjoy watching my son grow. I just wish I could have seen her hold him.
*Grandma I know we visited you at least 4 times but I only have pictures of two, I'm so sorry I won't have more of you and Alyssa.*

30 months!

Dear Alyssa,
   Yesterday you turned 30 months (that's 2 and a half if you don't want to do the math). I didn't even realize it was your half birthday until someone asked how old you were and I told them you would be two and a half next month and your Daddy corrected me and said no, she is two and a half today.
   I cannot believe how fast time has gone by it seems like it was only a few months ago that we were celebrating you turning 1!
    You still wear size 18 month clothes, though I have started to buy you some 24 month stuff. For pants they are the correct length but are so big in the waist that they just fall down. 18 month isn't too short on you so I just let you wear that, unless it is a dress and then it is 24 month. You weight about 26 lbs (you stand on the scale almost nightly before your bath and range from 25-27 lbs).
    You talk non-stop unless you are around someone your not sure about, then you pretend you don't know how to talk until you feel comfortable and then you talk a mile a minute again.  You love to sing songs, you know ABC's, Happy Birthday, Old McDonald, Jump up and down, and many many more.
    You love to play pretend with your friends and though you don't always understand what the older kids are doing you still go along with them.  You also love to torment the other kids and will do things that you know will make them mad just to get a reaction out of them.

    You still hate sleeping through the night. We have moved you out of a toddler bed and into a full size mattress( this just happened last week). Since we did that you have slept more of the night in your room, but still twice this week you have come to our room and slept with us for part of the night. Maybe when you are 18 you will sleep through the night on your own.
    You absolutely love your brother. When you hear him wake up in the morning you go running to his room and get on the step stool beside his bed and talk to him.  In the car you also talk and make him laugh almost non-stop. You love to give him kisses if he is crying and make sure that no one hurts him.
   I love watching the two of you play together and he just adores you as well. He will crawl after you if you leave the room.
   Alyssa, Daddy and I had no idea what was in store for us when you were born and as I sit here just two and a half years later I can't believe the joy you have brought to our lives. You are a very smart, funny, loving and out going you are. I can't wait to see what the future holds.
Love,
Mommy

Candy and Water Slides

Today Alyssa had a day of firsts. This morning she woke up at 5:45 I heard her walking around the loft closing doors. I waited for her to come in our room, but before she did I was back asleep. I woke up at 6:30 to her next to the bed with a bag of cheetos. I told her she was not eating those for breakfast( I had left a sandwich in a bag and the chips out from last night). She woke Vinnie up so I took him outside, put a movie on for Alyssa and went back to bed.
  At 6:50 Colin woke up and so I went and got him and brought him back into bed with us to feed him a bottle. Alyssa must of heard this and came upstairs. She was eating something so I asked her what she was eating. She told me "CANDY!" I said how many pieces have you eaten? She told me "just one".
  We came downstairs, she had eaten at least 6 Hersey kisses. She had taken the rest of them and put one in each spot on the deviled egg plate I had also left out from last night.
  I will let her be up by herself again, but lesson learned close and lock the pantry.

Then later today we went to her cousin Alex's birthday party. He had gotten a huge water slide (think blow up  bounce house size). Alyssa looked at it and her eyes got wide. She tried it once and wasn't sure. She hung out at the bottom for awhile watching the other kids go. She finally decided she was brave enough to try again. After that it was 2 hours before we had to pull her off of it kicking and screaming. She went down on her belly feet first( her favorite way to go), on her belly head first( she only did that once), on her bottom, and on her side. She loved it, she would go under the water at the bottom pop up and get the biggest smile it was so fun to watch her play.

Lost

On Sunday we went to Home Depot. It was past Alyssa'a nap time and she hadn't had lunch yet but we were hoping it would be quick and then we could go home and eat. Well we were quick but not quick enough and Alyssa was having one melt down after another. Finally we were walking towards the check out and she threw her self of the floor. We just kept walking.
  I kept watching for her but she couldn't see us. She walked out of the aisle and turned the wrong way. I followed behind her. She just kept walking, she was looking for us but was not crying and even 3 associate's asked her where her mommy was she just kept walking. Finally after walking almost the whole length of the store she finally stopped and was thinking. At this point she turned and happened to see me. She smiled and walked up to me. She then said "Go find Daddy and Colin".
   So I don't think she learned any lesson from it, and now I know that leaving her will not bother her at all. I guess I'm in for a lot of searching as the years go on.