8/3/10: Sally: Alexa had a great first day of KinderCare. She made friends with a couple kids. She ate her lunch. The only thing she said she didn't like was nap time. They do a 30 minute quiet time, but she did fall asleep. She seems happy afterwards and was excited to show off her cutouts she created.

8/2/10: Sally: Dropped the girls off at KinderCare today. Alexa did great. For about 2 seconds she looked shy, nervous, but then she kissed my goodbye and seemed happy. She liked that she could look through the hall window and see in to Natalya's class. With Jason going back to for on contract for the next few months, we needed to have someone watch the girls. We thought about going back to Jayne's, but even though we LOVED her and thought she did a fantastic job with the girl, it just wasn't all that convienent anymore with my work being in Saint Paul and not Eagan. Also, having something closer to home allows Jason to help with drop-offs and pick-up since he'll be riding the bus every day. We also were always going to switch the girls to a center when Alexa was a year out from kindergarden. We wanted to give her a more school like atmosphere and get her in to her school boundries so she could maybe meet a kid or two that would be in her grade school.

7/31/10: Sally: 20 minutes. That's all it took Alexa to learn how to ride her bike without training wheels. She's doing great. She won't go up or down driveway curbs, but she's zipping around. Now, she needs a bigger bike. She's getting one from Sherly and Bob when they come in a few weeks as a late birthday present. We can't decide which size to get her. 16-inch is for kids up to 48-inches tall, Alexa is almost 45-inches. So, now we're thinking 20-inch.

6/26/10: Sally: Alexa started her gymnastics class today and she loved it. She had so much fun. She did the parent and me class when she was one and a half and two and a half. She's in the toddler class, ages 3-5, but will probably move up to the beginner class after the next class. She starts soccer again next week and more Zoo camps and then a week long sports sampler camp. We're keeping her busy and us.

6/3/10: Sally: Alexa has been at zoo camp for two days and loves it. Yesterday was about chickens and today is about cows. This morning when I dropped her off, she made to her have to backpack on before getting out of the car because that's how all the other kids had it.

5/28/10: Sally: Alexa is a klutz. There just isn't any other way to say it. The kid from the first day she could walk, has fallen down. It's her want to go, go, go. I look back on photos of her and she always has bruises or cuts on her face, knees, arms. One of these days though, she is going to really hurt herself. That is something that keeps Jason and I up at night. She smacked her nose last night and I was sure it was broken or would be bleeding like crazy, but it wasn't and it didn't. But she has a huge bruise across the bridge of her nose.

5/23/10: Sally: I am late on birthday photos ... they're coming. I have also decided I am no longer going to divide the images out monthly for Alexa (Natalya will be monthly until 4). It's just too much work. I will still do one monthly photo.

5/12/10: Sally: Happy 4th Birthday Alexandra! Had her 4-year check-up and everything looks good. Mall of Amercia today, cupcakes at school on Thursday and Chuck E Cheese on Sunday.

5/11/10: Sally: I'm so mad at Alexa right now, she bit Natalya on the hand. Boy, did Natalya cry. I don't know why she did it and she doesn't even seem to feel bad about it. These last few months have been tough. Alexa is going through some growing pains. She doesn't listen to us very well, which usually leads to either her getting hurt, Natalya getting hurt or us yelling at Alexa ... all things that I don't want to happen. I'm tried of time-outs and taking toys away as punishment. Don't get me wrong, the kid is good 90 percent of the time, but it's that 10 percent that Jason and I spend our nights talking about.

5/10/10: Sally: Hair is looking better. It looks a little hillbillie-ish with the shorter front and longer back. So, add the goofy hair on top of the huge scab on her forehead ... she looks fantastic. We love her so much she can look as strange as she wants (along as she's a nice kid).

5/7/10: Sally: Got an email from Jason that says, "I'm so mad at Alexa right now." She cut her hair. Basically she cut herself some bangs. Off to get a real haircut tonight. Photos to follow.

5/4/10: Sally: Alexa had her Early Childhood Screening today. She passed with flying colors. They asked her a ton of questions and had her do things. She had to rhyme, count forwards and backwards, remember numbers and their order (she missed one when they got to six numbers), she had to find things that were missing from a photo (like the sleeve of a shirt), she had to find similar things and even tried to do some blind addition (meaning, the teacher hid the 4 penny's in her hand and then added two more to her other hand. The point was that she couldn't look at them to add them up. She missed by one - counted 5 and 6 fingers a couple times, but finally said 5 - but used her fingers to try to add them up, which is very good because that's how you start learning math). She also had to do some jumping and following an order when jumping. They also weighed her, checked her height, did a vision and hearing test. She ranked high and fell in to the normal (green) curve. She had no problems interactiving with the teacher. The teacher even joked that I didn't check any of the boxes about her being needy or clingy. She loved getting to go to an actual school to take the test. She was her usual outgoing self and she had a great time. We're so proud of her. One more year of preschool and our first baby will be in kindergarten ... she's getting so big.

4/24/10: Sally: It's Alexa's birthday in 3 weeks and I have no idea what we're doing. I have been stressing about it for weeks. She wants a kid party so bad, but not sure if that is going to work out.

4/17/10: Sally: Alexa is going to send us to the poor house because she's always giving icee-pops aways to every kid in the neighborhood ... haha.

4/16/10: Sally: As of right now, I am on Alexa's "Good List", so I can go to her birthday.

4/11/10: Sally: One thing that Alexa has really missed out not being in daycare are birthday parties. She's been to only one (Isabela's). She loves birthday parties. She loves playing with kids. She can't wait for people to have a birthday because she can get them a present. She just doesn't get much of a chance to be around other kids. We had to lie about her bff's birthday because he's having an all boy party and she keeps asking about it (don't get me started ... Brian LaComb came to my bday parties and we both turned out pretty awesome ... haha). I can't wait for her (and Natalya) to go back to daycare ... Alexa is such a social child and she's really missed out on it.

3/29/10: Jason: I took Alexa to her ice skating lesson on Saturday. This was her second lesson of skating without a parent. She kicked butt! Of course, she is still typically the first one through each drill or lesson, even though most of the kids are bigger and older than her. I was giving her high-five's and cheers through the glass. It was fun for me too!

I again added some more videos to the girls' Video page. I have added mostly January now, including Natalya's first birthday and Alexa's ice skating progression (both of those clips are about 5 minutes long). I have some more to add yet for February and March. I hope to have that up soon!

3/22/10: Jason: I added some more videos to the girls' Video page. I have added through December and into January. In the coming days I'll be getting the stuff up I have from January and February. Some of the clips are a bit on the long side (X-mas and X-mas snow). You have been forewarned. =) You're also forewarned that the girls are just too cute, so be prepared for the onslaught of cuteness.

3/21/10: Sally: "You're not by best friend." has now been replaced with "You can't come to my birthday."

3/7/10: Sally: We took Alexa skiing for the first time. She loved it. We went to Afton Alps on a very warm day (45 and sunny). At first she concentrated on everything but looking forward or at her skis. By the end she was holding our poles and going over very small bumps. She liked the chair lift more than the magic carpet ride. She still didn't get the hang of the snowplow to stop, but she did great. We were very proud of her. On the way home she said he wanted to do it "again and again and again and again and again" and then promptly fell asleep.

2/22/10: Jason: Yesterday (Sunday) was a pretty nice day for mid-February. Sally and I played in the front yard with Alexa (Natalya was napping). We did sled runs down the sled hill I made. It was nice and sunny and when we were realxing on our front porch in the rockers, it felt like we were basking in the Apres ski life outside of a lodge somewhere. Even if only for 30 minutes, it sure was nice!
On Saturday, I got to go skating with Alexa. It was my first time on ice skates in probably 25 years. Luckily, it was a lot like roller-blading. I didn't fall once! On the other hand, my day as the parent skating with the trainee could have gone better. During the warm-up part of class, Alexa fell and cut a little cut in her lip. I picked her up and skated her off the ice (I almost fell twice doing this!). We went and got some ice and she was quite the trooper. We went back out on the ice for the lessons part of class and she did not complain once. She just wanted me to give her a new ice cube every so often so she could suck the ice in her mouth. I'm happy I was able to skate with her. At least a couple of times she told me "Daddy, I love you."

1/31/10: Sally: Overheard while Alexa was playing with Peyton: "Hey Peyton, some day I have all of Gammy's flowers, kitchen and all her beautiful stuff." Alexa always tells my mother that she wants all her stuff and always asks for it.

1/30/10: Sally: When Alexa plays pretend, she's always the mommy and we're always the son. We always are at or are going to Jimmy's house and there is sometimes a Karen in the mix. She pretends to call us and wants us to tell her we won't come home. She then bribes up with food and candy until we say she can come pick us up from Jimmy's house. Somewhere along the line she then tells us it's Jimmy's birthday, because in her world, saying there is a birthday party to go to makes us do anything she wants.

1/23/10: Sally: There is a cat scratcher/declaw commerical on all the time on cartoon network. Also knows how much it costs, what the free toy is. She loves it, she wants it "when she has a cat, so he can scratch, scratch, scratch.". It's pretty funny. (BTW, we will never own a cat)

1/11/10: Sally: Lulu had her first ice skating lesson this past weekend and she LOVED it. Her and I are taking a class together. She was so excited. She got to use the little ice walker/tripod thing for practice. Then during class, she had to learn to stand-up, pick things up, walk on the ice and try hoping on the ice. We only had one fall with tears. She's pretty good at standing up after falling, but still tries to get me to help her. She just had a great time. She did not want to leave. We were basically the last ones off the ice.

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