Well, Marc and I are up waiting for Alex to wake up. We must be one of the only families where the parents wake up before the kids on Christmas. Marc said that he has been up since 5am.
Dylan arrived yesterday. Today is also his 21st birthday.
We are in Vermont so I will write more about our trip when we return to Philadelphia.
Last Friday, the 8th, I went to New York for the day to visit Natalie and baby Sarah. I couldn’t believe how tiny and cute Sarah was. John spent most of the day with David so Natalie and I had a chance to talk and hang out with the newborn. It was great to see them. I think all of us are going up for a visit in the middle of May. There are picture on April 2005 .
On the 3rd day of our trip to Vermont (August 12th) we took Alex to Storyland in Jefferson, NH. The drive there was beautiful: we were in the White Mountains driving down these windy mountain roads with breathtaking views. Marc, being a city boy, was expecially impressed. Before we went to Storyland we stopped at a restaurant nearby and had breakfast: Alex loved her blueberry pancakes. I can’t remember the name of the restaurant: I wish I could. It was packed with kids and had a train motif - something Junction maybe. Anyway, on to Storyland …
Storyland is a theme park for young children and is 50 years old (it is even older than me) and I went there when I was a kid. They have attractions and rides based on children’s storys such as The Three Little Pigs, Baa Baa Black Sheep, Cinderella’s castle, and Alice in Wonderland. Alex LOVED it and the rest of us had a really good time too. Alex was so excited and wanted to see everything. She was hesitant to go on any rides but ended up enjoying the carousel and the train ride. Johhny, Dylan, Marc and I also had a lot of funs on rides like the tilt-a-whirl and the roller coaster - I hadn’t been to an amusement park for a really long time. Storyland is such a fun place for small children and I’m so glad that we took Alex there.
On the second day of our Vermont trip we played outside in the morning and then went to the beach again in the afternoon after Alex’s nap. Alex loves playing in the sand and the water so much!! Alex also went out for ice cream and had corn and green beans for dinner - her favorite.
I have added the rest of the photos from our trip to Vermont. They are on August 2004 and on Storyland under Events.
Our train ride up was peaceful and uneventful. Alex was really good, took a great nap and the train wasn’t crowded at all. She even did great on the car ride to Grandma’s house afterward. On the way, we stopped for ice cream and Alex learned to day - “Ice Cream, Ice Cream, Ice Cream” while banging her hands on the table. And now she asks me for ice cream almost every day. The first day we were there we slept in, played outside, Alex worked in the garden, and in the afternoon after Alex’s nap we went to the beach at Lake Willoughby. Here are some great photos of the lake. Alex has so much fun playing in the sand, digging, and making sand castles with Marc and Johnny. She was like - this is great, they never want me to play in the dirt at home. At first, she was very hesitant about the water but once she went in she had such a good time. She was playing and splashing - it was so wonderful to see her out on the fresh air having so much fun.
We went to New York City for David’s first birthday party on Saturday April 24th. It was a lot of traveling in one day but it was worth it to be there for David’s first birthday. We had a really good time and Alex had a lot of fun even though she was overtired because she didn’t nap all day. Well, for some reason the subway in NYC always puts her to sleep so she did have two 20 minute catnaps. Alex had a great time playing with David and all of the kids there. She ate a lot of yummy food, loved playing with David’s toys and got to go on wagon rides with other kids. I thought she might be a little shy and overwhelmed but her shyness phase seems to be passing. When she sees other kids at the park or on the street she says - hi, hi, hi.
I think David had a great time at his party too although he did decide to fall asleep at the end of it. Alex was tired on the train ride home but did pretty good. She got really upset, however, when we changed trains in Trenton - I think she thought she was done traveling and she did not want to get on another train. Fortunately the last leg of the trip is quick.
I should have pictures from the party soon.
We had a great trip to Vermont and Alexandra had a wonderful time visiting her Grandma and Uncles. The train ride up was mostly good - Alex played and behaved really well. We were late getting in, however, and Alex napped for an hour near the end. When she woke up she must have been disgusted that she was still on the train because she cried for about 45 mins. until we got off the train. That was a lot of fun. Fortunately she didn’t cry in the car - just wimpered a little and held on to my hand really tight. By the time we got to the house Alex was exhausted and was stumbling around. But she had to check everything out (the cat, Christmas tree, toys, etc.) before she could settle down and get to bed. She was also given a hokey-pokey Elmo which she was busy dancing with. We were all amazed by the amount of snow - at least a couple of feet. All the snow we had here had been washed away by rain,
The next day (Sunday) we went to St. J to meet up with Dylan, go to church, get groceries, and get some lunch. Alex was SO good in church, had fun running around the grocery store with her uncles and loved the blueberry pancake that we got her for lunch. Plus Uncle Johnny rented her an Elmo and Barney movie. By the time we headed home she was SO pooped that she passed out in the car and kept sleeping when we took off her jacket and shoes and put her into bed.
On Monday Mom watched Alex all day while the rest of us went to Burlington to see Return of the King. It was nice to have some time out without Alex and the movie was amazing. I need to see it again to really absorb it. And I never realized how it ends up being Sam’s tale rather than Frodo’s. Anyway - after the movie we did a little shopping and then headed home. When we got back Alex wouldn’t really give us the time of day - she had gotten really attached to Mom and just wanted to be with her. I think they had a really fun day. She got really tired and when Mom asked Alex if she wanted to take a nap she kept shaking her head no. She then crawled into my Mom’s lap and passed out in about 5 minutes.
The next day we went out again for a little while and Mom stayed with Alex. We dropped Dylan off to go snowboarding and then went to Littleton to do some shopping and we went to Pizza Hut - I hadn’t been there in years. I was starting to feel like I was getting sick but somehow I avoided it and the next day I felt fine. Mom had a good day with Alex too - she realized that Alex is good at playing on her own and that you can still get things done while you are watching her. Alex wouldn’t, however, take a nap while we were gone and since she was so tired Marc laid down with her and they both took a nap. This was the same day that we discovered that she could climb out of the portable crib - after that she slept in bed with us. She squirms a lot and more than once I woke up with her feet in my face.
On Christmas Eve we had a quieter day - it was raining really hard so we couldn’t do anything outside. We hung out at the house and then went to church at 4pm for Christmas mass. It wasn’t the preferred mass but was the best one to take Alex too. She only wanted Grandma to hold her and we really squirmy - it wasn’t her best church behaviour but wasn’t too bad either. After Alex went to bed we watched Scrooge with Albert Finney, which I had never seen and was a fun musical. We started to watch the original Scrooge after that but we were really tired so we went to bed so Santa could come.
And then it was Christmas Day!!! I jumped out of bed thinking it was later than it was and then found out it was 5:45 am!!! I decided to stay up so I made coffee and used to the computer until Dylan and Mom got up. Since Dylan and I were up first we decided to open our Christmas stockings. We had a wonderful time even though Alex got overwhelmed really fast and was clinging to me. She loved the teddy bear she got from Santa and really liked a musical phone and these beautiful blocks that she got from Grandma. Everyone got great gifts and it was so much fun watching Alex open presents. Alex got really tired so she took an early nap. She was sleeping in the big bed and we were watching episodes of ‘The Family Guy’ (what a funny DVD) when she came walking out of the bedroom with her hair sticking straight up. It was like - hello, I’m awake and if no one is going to come get me than I am going to get up by myself. It was so funny to see her come stumbling out of the bedroom all bleary eyed. It was snowing and it was so beautiful outside - the trees were covered with snow and it really looked like Christmas. We had a wonderful Christmas dinner and then played out in the snow for about 30 minutes. Alex was running around and having so much fun playing with snowballs and watching Dylan build a funky snowman. By the end of the day Alex was pooped from all the excitement and had an early bath and went right to bed.
And then it was Friday and time to take the train back home. It was snowing really hard so we had to leave at 6:30 am to get to the train on time. Part of the drive was a little frightening and we had to drive really slow. I hated having to get Alex up so early but she went back to sleep in the car and then slept a lot on the train. She was really good and other than the train being crowded we had an uneventful trip home and were even on time.
We had a great trip and I should have pictures soon. Next I need to write about having Chrismas with the Brittons on Sunday the 28th.
We spent the last week in Vermont for Christmas. Alex has a lot of fun and was SO good. The only problem was the first couple of days she had trouble going to bed at night and taking naps. On the third night she was giving us a really hard time about going to bed so I put her in the portable crib and decided to let her cry for a couple of minutes to see if she would just go to sleep. We were sitting in the kitchen and suddenly the crying was getting louder and sounded closer to us. We turned and there was Alex standing there! She learned how to climb out of the portable crib!!! I have no idea how she did it but I knew she was a little climbing monkey. Needless to say she slept in the big bed with Marc and I the rest of the visit.
