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

On Saturday December 29th we took Alex to see a play of Beauty and the Beast at the Mandell Theater on Drexel’s campus. It was wonderful - it was done with actors and life-sized puppets. They also used a lot of magic tricks to tell the story. They also used the butterflies transformation from a caterpillar as a metaphor for the transformation of the beast to a human. There was very little dialog - the story was narrated and was told through music, gestures and magic. Alex really enjoyed it - Marc and I had a great time too.

Yesterday Marc and Alex were playing ball in the hallway - two times in a row Alex went to kick the ball and missed. She then said, “Oh, I’m not going to make the team.” I don’t know where she got that one from.

Alex got a doll for Christmas named Annabelle that she loves to play with. It comes with a bottle, blanket, and a diaper bag full of everything you need to take care of the baby. What is really funny is now I know what I sound like because that is the way that Alex talks to the baby doll. In an annoyed voice Alex will say, “Ok, ok, hold on, hold on.” It makes me feel so guilty. But then I will hear Alex say, “ok sweetie” in a really nice voice and then I feel a lot better

I have added a couple of pictures of Alex playing with Play Doh - currently one of her favorite activities!!!

Play Doh Photos

Today I was playing with Alex and she seemed for a moment to take interest in my Star Wars vehicle, Slave One. Of course, we all know who the infamous pilot of that starship is - none other than Boba Fett himself. Anyhow, I thought it was sort of funny, so as a little experiment I let her have it and even threw in a toy Boba figure to boot. To my surprise and delight, she started fidgeting with all its features and I was for a moment transported to that far away galaxy known as childhood wonder. I even showed her how Mr. Fett could sit in the driver seat, and when I did, she turned to me and asked inquisitively, “…does Boba have car seat?”

I figure it is never too early to bring another youngster into the fold.

Alex now wants to play “Hide and Seek” with Marc - she likes it so much that she cries when it is time to end the game. She doesn’t, however, quite understand the rules. She doesn’t want to hide - she only wants to count while Marc hides. She also has a hard time finding Marc so he has to make noise so she can find him. After she finds him she runs back to her counting corner and says, “Your turn Daddy. Your turn Daddy!” It’s really cute and they both have so much fun - it’s also a really good way to wear her out before bedtime.

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.

Alex had a lot of fun this week and half of it the weather was beautiful (the other half it rained). Monday was a beautiful day and we went to the park for a couple of hours. I think the other parents are trying to recover from winter cabin fever because there were SO many people at the park. Most of the kids were around Alex’s age so she had a really good time. She is also a lot more coordinated and is better at climbing so I don’t have to stand next to her every second while she plays on the jungle gym and other equipment. (Anyway Alex always seems to fall and have little accidents when I am standing right next to her.)

On Wednesday my friend Rachel and her daughter Amy came over. Amy is three months younger than Alex - the age difference sure doesn’t seem like very much anymore - when we met Rachel and Amy a year ago the age difference seemed enormous. Anyway, when they first got here Alex seemed really shy - I think it’s because we hadn’t seen them in a couple of months. But after Alex got over that she had a lot of fun playing with and next to Amy. It’s really funny how they like to play peek-a-boo around the couch and chase each other around. Amy really liked Alex’s musical stacker toy and spent a lot of time pulling the stars off, putting them back on, and playing the music. They visited for a couple of hours and by the time they left Alex was really tired so I made her a quick lunch and got her ready for her nap.

On Friday I took Alex to playgroup. I need to take her more often because she acted really shy, even with people she knew from the park, and just hung on to me for about 30 minutes. There were, however, a lot of kids there that day and it was a little overwhelming. Unfortunately, shortly after Alex started to play and have some fun she got knocked over by another kid in a play car. She didn’t really get hurt but she was upset for a little while. Fortunately it was close to snack time and since that seems to be her favorite part of play group she cheered up quite a bit while eating. After snack she was fine and had fun even though she was kind of playing by herself. I’m really going to try to start taking her every week because this new shyness concerns me a little bit. She really seems to prefer adults to other kids. After playgroup we did a couple of errands. After we came home I asked her what she wanted for lunch and she said cheese - I asked her if she wanted grilled cheese and she nodded her head for yes. I couldn’t believe she answered me - I’ve been having one-sided conversations with her for so long that I was really surprised when she answered the question. Maybe now she will help me decide what we should have to eat.

Alex’s friend, Velo, came over for another playdate on Monday the 9th. He hadn’t been able to come over for a couple of weeks because first Alex was sick and then he was sick. And there was such a difference in their play from the first time that he came over. They actually played together, which Alex has never really done before (other than being obsessed with baby David when he came to visit a couple of weeks ago). Velo would stand behind the couch and then Alex would climb onto it and look over to find him and they would both laugh and scream. They also chased each other around the couch and up and down the hall laughing the entire time. Velo took one of Alex’s favorite blankets and would run and Alex would chase him and they would both laugh and scream. It was SO fun to watch them and it was amazing to see Alex play with another kid rather than just play next to him. Before they would play with toys, coloring books and stickers next to each other and now they are playing together. Another new stage of development. And I’m so glad that Alex and Velo get along so well because I really get along good with Skyi, Velo’s Mom.