A day at the beach

We've been to a few different beaches this summer, the Grand Haven beach with the Skluzaceks, Millenium Beach with the Rends, and the Holland beach with Nana and PapPap, but last weekend we made our first trip to the beach by ourselves. It was such a nice little outing, very relaxing and fun for all!

After going to mass in the morning, we made the decision to head out to Holland. We got everyone lathered in suntan lotion, made some sandwiches, and packed everything up. We hopped in the car, and off we went.

We got to the beach, parked and lugged everything out to the beach. Alyssa carried her sand toys, I carried Lauren and the bag with towels and swimsuits, and Aaron carried the beach chairs, umbrella, blanket, and a small cooler. Once the umbrella was up and we sat down, it dawned on me - I hadn't put Alyssa's swimsuit in the bag. How could I have forgotten to pack her swimsuit? She had got it out of her drawer for me. And how was I going to tell her when she was so excited to go swimming in the lake? I think I had tears in my eyes, I felt so bad. Aaron ran up to the little store they had there at the pavilion, but no luck. We dug through the bag and all that was in there was another sundress and a pair of shorts and t-shirt of Lauren's. It was a long shot, but we took it...and it worked! Alyssa was able to fit into Lauren's 9-month shorts and her 12-month t-shirt. Who would have guessed that? But she wore them and it never once phased her. After we resolved that problem, there was nothing but fun for the next few hours.

We played in the sand, building and tearing down castles and moats; we waded in the water, and we buried our feet. But really it was all about just being together and having fun as a family.

Out of the mouth of babes

You've all seen these email forwards with the cute little things that kids say, and while I don't quite have some of those gems, Aaron and I have been enjoying watching both girls develop in their communication skills.

Lauren is slowly but surely starting to say a few words. Her first words were "hi" and "bye bye". Whenever the phone rings, she looks for it, and says "hi" over and over. And she knows when to say "bye bye" as well. When she's ready for me to go at day care in the morning (I have a tendency to chat with Miss Gwen), she'll look at me and say "bye bye" and occasionally blow me a kiss. She says "momma," and she's recently added "uh oh" to her vocabulary. She makes a sound kind of like a dog barking to signal dogs and has some sort of sound more like a cat hissing for a lion roaring. In addition to saying more, she's also understanding a lot more. She knows who people are and can follow simple directions, like "let's go upstairs" or "put your milk in the refrigerator".

We've been trying to get her to say "dada" lately, and we laughed today as while we were trying to get her to say it, Alyssa spoke up and said "You say Alyssa, Lauren?". She really wants her to say her name too!

And Alyssa...what to say about Alyssa's language, but wow! She's come a long way in a year. At least once a day she comes out with something that just makes us laugh. Here are a few of our favorite "gems" from Alyssa from the past few weeks:
*"Actually Daddy, it's Momma's turn. You read me books last night."
*"You go outside [the bathroom], this is going to be a stinky one." (She'll kill me someday for this!).
*"You on-line grammy?"
*Me (after Alyssa went to the bathroom, she's wearing a pair of Lauren's shorts): "Pull up your shorts."
Alyssa: "No mommy. You need to say pull up Lauren's shorts."

I know there's many more, but it's been a long weekend, and this is all I can think of for now. If more come to mind, I'll add them to the list. I'm loving this stage for both of them!

Good bye curl

There was a time when we thought Alyssa's hair was never going to grow, and then it did. First we were able to put a little BamBam ponytail on top of her head and then the back really took off. For a while she had a kind of mullet going on, but lately it's all been growing. As it's grown, we've noticed a little bit of a curl in her hair and the back has this one perfectly shaped curl.



We've been doing ponytails over the summer, and we've gone through all sorts of variations on the standard ponytail. There was a phase where we had to have 5 or 6 ponytails at a time.



Her hair has continued to grow over the summer. All of our family would comment on how long it was getting. The back was still a good bit longer than the sides and front, so it was time to get it trimmed up and evened out. We talked with Alyssa and she said she was ready. When asked how long she wanted it to be, she'd say she wanted it cut as short as Lauren's. She was super excited to go get her haircut.

So Aaron brought her to the salon yesterday while I was getting my cut and we had my stylist cut hers too. They had these great little wagon chairs for her to sit in, and they even turned on My Little Ponies. She wore a Toy Story apron and sat like a big girl. Here she is before...



She held my hand as the stylist began to comb her hair and cut, but she sat still and didn't fuss at all. We didn't do much style with it, but it is all much more even. Here's the final look...

The puzzle master

Since Alyssa was just over a year (I think), she has loved doing puzzles. Now as you can imagine, her first puzzles were pretty basic. The very first one had 8 different animals and when you put the right piece in the hole, the corresponding animal noise sounded. She loved (and still does love) that puzzle, but she was ready to move beyond that. She has moved up doing the shape sorter puzzle blocks...and then other ones where the pieces fit together. She enjoys her really cool little bench puzzle Auntie Stacy got her for Christmas and her train puzzle, but even those were getting too easy. So we treated her this weekend to a "big girl puzzle". You know the kind...no wooden pieces with "handles" that fit into pre-cut slots, only pieces with parts of a bigger picture. She was so excited to put it together.

She needed a little help, so we guided her through separating the pieces into edges and middles, putting together the frame, trying to match colors up, looking at the picture as a comparison, etc., etc. and she did it. She did it two different times yesterday with really only our guidance, not so much our help. She's so proud of herself. Maybe you can see a little of that pride in this picture:



Through the process, we discovered that puzzles like this are best put together on the kitchen table, not the coffee table. It's not that her puzzle doesn't fit on the coffee table, but the coffee table is within Lauren's reach (note Lauren's little devilish grin in the background of the picture too!). As Alyssa now says "I do puzzles up high so Lauren not get it." Maybe it's time that we try to introduce Lauren to the fun of putting together a puzzle, although I'm not sure her attention span is quite long enough - we'll see!

Tilting at Windmills

Ok, so maybe we weren't quite "tilting at windmills" yesterday, but we did visit a fully functional, almost completely authentic Dutch windmill yesterday in Holland. My birthday request was to get out of the house and go visit/do something, so we headed to Windmill Island Gardens. We enjoyed riding the merry-go-round a couple of times, watching the "Dutch girls" dance, watching the cows and horses in the pasture, and going up in the windmill.


(Look close and you can see the girls and I up there.)



We participated in a guided tour of the windmill, and we were excited that the girls stayed quiet, so we could listen and learn. It always amazes me how advanced different cultural groups were in times past. On the fourth floor, we were able to step out onto the platform and look around, the girls liked that. It was fun to see them looking out with their hair blowing in the breeze. Lauren was quite taken with the cows and horses, and she was trying to make some sort of animal noise while watching them (though it wasn't quite moo).



When we reached the bottom, Alyssa wanted to dress up in one of the Dutch costumes, so we did. And once she put on her wooden shoes, she wanted to dance with the other girls (the trained dancers). We tried to teach her a few moves, which was enough to keep her happy. She looked so cute in her little outfit.



Overall, it was a fun little excursion. We enjoyed touring the windmill, and if you ever consider going, we imagine it's even cooler when there are tulips blooming all over! The day was topped off with a dinner of fresh green beans, and chicken breasts stuffed with asparagus, spinach, and/or cheese prepared by Aaron and finally some yummy carrot cake (tarrot take in Alyssa speak) prepared and decorated by Alyssa and Aaron. We all really enjoyed that sweet little treat!

Overcoming fears

For those of you who know Alyssa, you know that at times she can be a bit timid...around new people, she can hang back; she's not a big fan of animals, and the water this summer has terrified her (potentially because of her rough day; click here if you forgot about it). But slowly but surely, she's been getting a little braver.

While we were in Minnesota, she showed off her "singing talents" by singing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" and "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" for some of Colleen's friends. We attributed this new found love of performing in front of others to the fact that she could hide behind a microphone.

On both our trip to Pennsylvania and Minnesota, she worked up enough courage to pet some kitty cats. While visiting the Rends and Craigs one day in PA, she followed Mitchell's lead and pet Bentley, the barn cat; and then on at least one of her visits to Uncle Bob's barn with Grandpa in MN, she was able to pet some of the barn kitties. She even touched a starfish in one of the touch pools at Sea Life Minnesota Aquarium. And then this weekend, while the Rends were visiting, we went to the zoo. While there, she pet and brushed some of the goats, let birds land on her little stick of food, and tried to catch some geese. She drew the line when we asked her to pet the Baby Alligator that one of the zookeepers was holding; Aaron, on the other hand, jumped at the chance.







As for her fear of water...well, she's been working on that slowly. For a long time, she didn't want anything to do with the sprinklers above knee level or the lake at the beach in Grand Haven, and when we went to the Splash Zone at Idewild, it took her a long time to warm up to the different water shoots and kiddy pool. At the hotel on our way to MN and in Aunt Kate and Uncle Al's pool, she clung to Aaron and I in the water, repeatedly asking why it was so deep and if she could get out. Then we went to the Skluzacek's for a picnic, and after warming up in the little kiddy pool, she wanted to get in the big pool by herself. She's been a bigger fan of sprinklers ever since and in the hotel pool on the way home from MN, she worked up to jumping off the side while holding our hands. Yesterday, we went to Millennium Park and she LOVED the water and the splash pad. You can see how much fun she's having in the video that follows.






Don't get me wrong, she's not a brave kid yet by any means, but she's working on doing things that look fun but can be a little overwhelming.

Unlike her sister, Lauren knows no fear. Over the weekend, she has decided that walking is her preferred way to move from one place to the other (she was walking in circles around the house on several different occasions over the weekend). She also loves climbing up onto things that she shouldn't be on, petting animals and splashing in the water. She too enjoyed all the fun stuff over the past few weeks, but she has yet to develop a sense of what is scary. The one exception to this is older people...she has been known to scream at elderly couples sitting at tables next to us in restaurants and even Great Grandma Fleming. What a silly little girl...









They keep us laughing and on our toes to say the least!