Alex and I went to the park and flea market in Clark Park yesterday. The photos are on May 2008.

Last weekend was beautiful so Alex and I spent most of it outside. There are photos on April 2008

Wednesday March 30th was a gorgeous day. Alex and I went to the park and there were so many kids there. One her friends brought a little baseball set with a t-ball to hit the ball and three bases. As soon as Alex saw it she said, “I want to play. I want to play”! So, we did. It was so comical - all of the kids were almost three and really didn’t understand the rules. They would hit the ball and then run to get the ball rather than to first base. Or if they started to run to first base they would run past it and just keep going. And, of course, no one dropped the bat - they all ran with it. I was, however, so proud of Alex because after her first turn she was the only kid who was falling the rules - she would hit the ball and then run to first base! She loved it. The only problem she had was that she wanted to keep hitting and wasn’t good about giving the other kids a turn. So far, it seems like she really likes sports.

I’ve added a couple of photos to March 2005. The basketball ones are pretty funny.

Last week we saw Rachel and Amy at the park - it was the first time we has seen them since the baby was born. Rachel is moving at the end of the month so she took pictures of all the kids and we said goodbye because we won’t really have the chance to see her again. I’m really going to miss them and I know Alex is going to miss Amy

Here is one of the photos that Rachel took of Alex, Amy and Max.

The last couple of times that I have taken Alex to the park she has been having so much fun playing that she doesn’t want to go home. She has a new friend named Max and they have such a good time together. It’s interesting how long they play together - usually Alex plays with someone for a little while and then wanders off to do something else. Max’s Mom said the same thing. Anyway, I’ve been having a hard time getting Alex to leave the park and I have to give her a lot of prep time - ok, 10 minutes, one more slide, etc. On Friday Alex was playing a tree stump that is closer to the sidewalk than the playground and I finally got her to agree to go. She started walking toward the sidewalk and I told Alex that we had to go get the stroller. She said, “no, I’ll walk”. It was really funny and I told her well we still need to go get the stroller.

Since Alex was feeling a lot better and begging me to go, I took her to the park for an hour on Friday morning. She was SO happy to be out and to see all of her friends (especially Amy). I, however, forgot her juice, which I never do, and it turned into a huge crisis. The whole ride home (4 blocks) she cried while saying, “Apple Juice, Apple Juice, Apple Juice.” She must have said it 300 times (well, not that many but it sure seemed like it). I’m glad she can put two or more words together but man, it was so frustrating. I’m sure she overreacted because she still wasn’t feeling good but she was acting like she was going to die of dehydration.

Last week I took Alex to the park in the morning after I huge thunderstorm. I knew it would be really wet so I brought a towel to dry off the swings and slides so she didn’t get too wet. I didn’t, however, anticipate her fascination with the mud puddles. She had a stick and was poking the mud and playing with the water. She then started sticking her hands in the mud. She was having so much fun that I didn’t feel like making her stop. Before I knew it she was sticking her arms in the mud almost to her elbows and wiping her hands on her clothes. At the point she was so dirty there was no sense in making her stop. She then started walking and stomping through the puddles. She ended up with her clothes covered in mud and mud all over her face. The other parents were laughing so hard (well, most of them - some looked appalled that I had let her get so dirty. I wiped Alex up with the towel as best I could and had to take all of her clothes off to get her home. As we were walking home I felt like people were looking at us and thinking - look at the poor child. She is so dirty and is only wearing a diaper. Unfortunately, I didn’t have my camera with me that day and I wasn’t about to bring her into the house wearing mud encrusted clothes.

Yesterday we bought Alex a baby doll stroller - everytime we go to the park and another kid brings one all she wants to do is push it around. She LOVES it - I have never seen her pay attention to a toy for so long. As soon as I showed it to her at the store she started pushing it around and we put baby doll in it. We had to take the tag off and bring it to the register in order to pay for it. She pushed it all over the stores until she was so tired she could barely see straight. I had to convince her to get in her own stroller and rest. I folded the baby stroller up and Alex insisted on holding it. She played with it all evening after her nap and it was the first thing she did when she got up this morning. She put her big teddy bear in it and has been giving him juice and dressing him up in a hat and sunglasses. It’s raining today but when the weather is better I’m going to let her bring it to the park. I think it’s going to be the best $10 we’ve ever spent on Alex

Here is a picture of what it looks like - Alex’s is pink not purple.

Alex really enjoys going to the cafe down the street with me. They have a food case with tags on the the outside that state the item and the price. Alex loves to pull these tags off and I haven’t been able to get her to stop doing it. One of the employees, who really likes Alex, has started calling her the Tag Bandit. “Oh no - look out - here comes the Tag Bandit.” Alex think it is really funny.