Saying Our Good-Byes

Alex, Tim, and I have been very busy getting ready for our big move, but we have still made time for friends and fun! Alex and I have played with friends every morning for the past 2 weeks, which has been great for extra long naps! Plus, I’ve had plenty of time to chat with my friends. I even made it to a Moms Night Out for fondue with my mommy friends. We are so thankful for the friends we made while living in Wilmington, and can’t wait to show them around the Queen City when they come to visit. Today’s play date was especially hard since we had to say our good-byes, but this hormonal mama made it without falling apart too much. Alex just hugged on demand, said his cute “bye-bye”, and kept looking at me like I was crazy.

Tim has been busy too! His coworkers took him out for happy hour last night and planned a hot wing eating contest at Wild Wings for lunch today. His entire group showed up to cheer him on! The crazy guys even had the chef send out his special, only available on request, super hot wings to try. Thankfully, Tim had already had enough and didn’t try the ghostly hot wings!

So we pack the truck tomorrow and drive to Charlotte Sunday. Wish us luck! I’ll post again next week once life slows down and we have internet at the house.

Since I can’t make a post without at least one picture of Alex … here he is playing with Lydia the other day. It figures I couldn’t get them to both look at me at the same time!

Back in the Groove

After almost 2 weeks away from our friends, we finally got back out to play this morning at Fit For Fun. Alex’s friends Lydia and Lukas were there – and I got to talk to their mommies! It’ll be nice to be back in our play date groove!

Alex was totally obsessed with the motorcycles this time around, which is funny because the last time he even bothered with the motorcycles was last January. He mostly pushed them around, but I did manage to get a picture when he finally got on the motorcycle. I wanted to be able to compare it to last year’s motorcycle snapshot. It’s amazing how much he has changed in a year!

January 12, 2012

January 3, 2013

Now that we are unpacked from our trip and the 5 loads of laundry are put away, I should be able to go back in time over the next few days to post about our Christmas – so stay tuned!

The Polar Express & Alex’s 1st Date

Several parents from the MOMS Club brought their munchkins to a reading of The Polar Express at the Wilmington Railroad Museum Saturday night. In one more year, I think Alex would LOVE it … this year I think he was just happy to be surrounded by choo-choos. I tried to convince him to sit on the floor with his friends in front of the reader, but he didn’t seem too impressed with that idea. So, he stood in one of the chairs by me and alternated between counting choo-choos and paying attention to the book. Tim and I have been reading The Polar Express all week, so I know he recognized and enjoyed the book – I just think he wasn’t thrilled with a strange man (some local new personality) reading it! After the reading, Santa and a helper came out. The helper passed out bells, and after most of the kids had moved to the next room for hot chocolate, Alex did eventually go up for a bell. He wanted nothing to do with Santa, though! He did know who he was and seemed excited to see him at least. Here are the 2 pictures we were able to get:

Alex held onto his Polar Express ticket the entire time!

It’s hard to tell, but he’s still holding his ticket and his bell while climbing the caboose.

After the story and seeing Santa, we went out for pizza with 2 other moms and their families. We had a lot of fun, but the best part of the night was Alex and Ellie holding hands and hugging after we left the restaurant! Ellie’s mom and I were so happy to watch our sweeties on their first date … hehe.

They wouldn’t let go … even though Ellie’s car was in the other direction!

What a sweet hug!

Thanksgiving Craft

Alex and I went to a MOMS Club play-date to make his first Thanksgiving craft:

Gobble, gobble! Hard to believe it’s already November … and that in 1 more month, Alex will be 2 years old!

Fun at the Fair

I took Alex to pre-school day at the fair last week with some of our friends from MOMS Club. The fair opened for 3 hours for kids under 5. Admission included music, snacks, little kid rides, and access to the animals. Alex enjoyed seeing the sights, especially the roosters in the animal tent. I think he liked the few rides we went on, though he was definitely a little nervous about them. Here is a picture of his very first ride on the spinning tea cups. Check out that concerned face! I think we’ll definitely to it again next year!

 

Riding in style in Reid’s stroller.

An attempt at a group shot.

Power of Play

Alex and I played with a few other moms from our MOMS Club at Power of Play last week. Power of Play has a  bunch of indoor playgrounds, fast slides, and fun centers for kids of all ages to play in. It’s great during school hours, because we know the oldest child we might see would be a 4 or 5 year old – meaning our little ones can go crazy. This was actually the first time Alex and I played there, but I definitely see return trips in our future! Alex doesn’t usually cry when it’s time to leave, but he did this day! He had such a blast!

Climbing up …	… and up!
Yelling down the slide to be sure I’m at the bottom.	Here is comes! What a brave boy!

There is a HUGE playground towards the back of the building. By big, I mean almost the width and height of my house. Alex kept trying to conquer the first few steps so he could follow some new friends up and around. Long story short, I helped him up the steps, then stood back to watch. He played for quite a while, but then decided he didn’t actually want to come down the HUGE slides. I ended up having to crawl all the way up to show him the way down. After that, he mostly stuck with the centers … trucks, trains, and blocks of course!

We LOVE Play Dates!

Yesterday, our friends Miss Amy, Lydia, and Emma came over to play. Lydia is a year older than Alex, but they get along very well. Emma is almost a month old – so we were very happy to introduce her to our house. I think Alex was wondering what she was. He watched her curiously for a few minutes while she was stretching out on the floor, then quickly forgot about her.

It’s been raining this week, so we didn’t get to spend too much time outdoors, but we did manage to catch half an hour in the sandbox before the awful humidity set in. Here are two adorable pictures of Lydia and Alex cheesin’ it up!

(To read more about Lydia and Emma adventures, you can read Amy’s blog here.)