I just can’t seem to keep up with the site anymore - I guess it’s been hard since I started working. I have a bunch of great photos from last Month to post - hopefully I will finish that soon.

Overall, Alex is doing great. She likes preschool and is learning a lot. And she is mostly well behaved. She’s also smart and funny. A little while ago she was sitting on my lap and I started thinking about how small she used to be. It’s amazing how fast time goes by.

Alex is obsessed with the story of Little Red Riding Hood. I hadn’t read it to her so she must have heard it at school. The only copy I have is in a fairy tale collection and Alex doesn’t like it very much because it doesn’t have many illustrations. The other day I went to the bookstore during lunch because I needed to get out of the office. I wasn’t even looking for the story and I accidently came across a beautiful picture book of it. Alex was SO happy and now she wants us to read it every night. What’s really funny is that she calls the story Little Miss Riding Hood rather than Little Red Riding Hood.

Alex has suddenly developed a sense of fashion and now cares what she wears. I’m surprised that it happened at 3.5 years. We got an L.L. Bean Kids catalog in the mail yesterday and when she was looking at it she asked Marc to circle the items that she wants. She is really into pockets! She wants cargo pants with pockets on the side, shorts and sandels for summer and a pink backpack to bring to school. I couldn’t believe that she was starting to care about her clothes - I can understand wanting pockets - she needs to carry her lucky penny, rocks and cookies around

Alex is 3.5 today … I don’t have much to say because I think this picture says it all. I took it this evening - I guess being 3.5 means as soon as you get home from school you want to put on your jammies and wear them with your snow boots and a tiara. You also need a purse, some jewelry, and a backpack. Too funny!!

Recently, Alex loved Pooh Bear, baby doll and her blanket. Suddenly she loves Ariel from The Little Mermaid - she saw part of the movie at her Grandmother’s house and since I own the movie I let her watch it when she’s been really god or when she is too tired to do anything else. And she loves the movie! Since she likes it so much her grandmother got her an Ariel barbie doll. All she wants to do is play with Ariel, change her clothes and bring her everywhere she goes. We argue every school morning because she wants to bring Ariel to school and the rule is that Ariel stays at home. Ariel has a mermaid outfit and a princess outfit - Alex isn’t very good at changing the clothes so she is always asking me to turn Ariel into a human and then turn her back to a mermaid. I can’t believe how quickly Alex is becoming a little girl and the she already likes Barbie dolls!

I am already so tired of The Little Mermaid movie - the soundtrack is constantly running through my head. I’ve been trying to convince Alex to watch Pocahantas, which neither one of has seen, but all she wants is Ariel. She likes Cinderella a lot too but Ariel is her favorite right now.

Happy Anniversary Mommy and Daddy! I love you!!!

I am sorry about the lack of updates - for the last week I have been completely absorbed with Hurricane Katrina and horrified by our government’s response to this natural disaster. Hopefully I will start my updates again soon.

Alex met Curious George at the bookstore today (of course, I forgot to bring my camera). At first Alex was a little scared because George is much bigger in real life than in the stories The staff read two Curious George books and everyone had cookies. By the time Curious George had to leave to take his morning nap Alex had warmed up to him and waved bye. (He probably needed to get going because he was SO hot

Currently, Alex’s favorite show is Angelina Ballerina. It is on Sunday mornings and we borrowed a video of it from the library. Alex pretends she is dancing and said she wants to take ballet lessons and be a ballerina. On the show today Angelina’s family had a new baby - Alex said that the baby was crying and I replied that babies cry a lot. Alex then said that babies cry because their mamas don’t hug them and they get sad I don’t know where she got that from.

Last Saturday(21st) and Sunday(22nd) the three of us took a trip to visit Natalie, John, David and Sarah in New York City. Alex was so excited and couldn’t wait to go as she remembered having a lot of fun when Natalie and David came to visit a couple of months ago. When Alex gets excited she is actually a bit of a pest because she says the same thing over and over and over - “we go now”, “we go now”, “we go see Natalie and David now”. Alex was great on the train ride and enjoyed looking out of the window. We got to their house about 12:45, hung out for a little while and then Alex and David took naps. Alex didn’t want to take a nap - she wanted to play with David’s toys - but she was so tired that she fell right asleep. After the nap John and Marc took David and Alex to the huge Toys R Us in Times Square and then to the playground. Apparently Alex was scared of the life-size dinosaur and of a man in a girafe costume. Natalie and I had a great time just hanging out and talking. The baby is so good that you barely notice she is there - she just eats and sleeps. She does get bad tummy aches from gas so that is the only time that she cries. Nat and I also went out for a walk and to a cafe. After we headed home to make dinner.

We had a wonderful dinner, the kids played, took baths and then went to bed. Alex and David slept in the same room together! It was a bit of a struggle to get them to sleep but then they were fine. I knew, however, that if Alex woke up she would be upset because she wouldn’t know where she was. And she did - she woke up crying in the middle of the night so she slept with us for the rest of the night. I didn’t sleep very good because my new allergy medicine is causing me to wake up all night long (I’m only taking it in the morning now) and the kids woke up really early and were ready to go and start playing. Alex was so just so excited - the kids played, Nat made yummy blueberry muffins and the Dads took Alex and David out again for the morning. They went to the playground and then were going to the Natural History museum but again Alex got scared of something and didn’t want to go so they went to a huge playground at Central Park instead. Nat and I went out for coffee, talked and went for a walk with the baby. It was so nice to spend so much time with Natalie and for both of us to have a break from the 2 and 3 year olds And now Alex knows John really well and likes him - she didn’t know him that well before.

Alex only had a short nap because we wanted to catch the 2:15 train so we woke her up to go. She was great on the train ride home - she rested on the first train and played I Spy with Marc on the second. I only took pictures of the baby so hopefully Natalie and John will send me some of the ones that they took. Overall we had a great weekend and I got to spend a lot of time with Natalie.

Soon we will be on our next big trip to Vermont!