Wow I can hardly believe it is already December! This year has gone by unbelievably fast! Ally and Joe grow so much every day and reach new milestones by the dozens.
Ally's milestones are not near as obvious as Joe's but they are just as remarkable. She has reached what we call 4 going on 14. Her speech and affections are totally that of a teenager. She gets this little Hollywood twist to her voice, you know the one, "um ya whatever!". And looks at us like we are the most uncool people to ever grace the planet. She also does this supermodel pose and asks "how do I look?" or "do you like this outfit?". I am stuck between hysterical laughter and tears of knowing that she is growing up SO FAST! All she talks about is going to school when she is 5. Apparently 4 is the new 30 and no one wants to be 4. 3 is much better, probably cause you are still a little kid, and 5 is the best cause you are a big kid and can go to school. But 4, well is really a nothing year. Too big to act like a baby and to small to go to school and have lots of friends.
That is another stumbling block for us. Our baby is going to kindergarten next September... When did this happen, and yes I realize that its not going to actually happen for another 9 months but we have to start to process very soon. Maybe most parents, with an option, pick the school that is closest and just go with that. Not Pat and I. In January we are interviewing 3 or 4 schools. There are 2 public schools, 1 catholic and 1 christian. We are not too keen on the 2 public because they are in the not so great part of town. And the catholic one is just on the border of it. We are defiantly leaning towards the Christian one. But we will interview them all, inspect them with fine tooth combs in hand. And ask all the pertinent questions because guess what, Alexandria is bright, exuberant, friendly, stubborn, and easily distractable. We need to find the perfect setting for her to grow and learn. Hmmm look at that, I'm trying to control everything again :( I know there will be things I can't control and I'm not sure how I will handle those things... So school will be a learning experience for all of us.
I'm not sure how Joe is going to deal with Ally going to school. He adores her. They play together so well and when Ally is downstairs playing by herself you can tell he is lonely and wants to be entertained lol. He really does look to Ally or Bruce even to be entertained. He will spend 30 minutes sitting beside the gate, with Bruce on the other side, yelling at, stepping on, kissing, hitting, and talking to the poor dog who just sits there and occasionally gets in a lick when I'm not looking. I can always tell when it happens though cause Joe screams at the top of his lungs, not in distress though, in pure happiness and glee. Along with the screaming there has been lots of yelling and "talking" coming from Joe's larger than life mouth. Baba is still the word of choice. He uses it for everything but Daddy and Up. He has been saying up for a couple of weeks now but Dada is new as of last week. And on Saturday morning while sitting in bed with Mom and Dad Joe pointed at Pat with both hands and said "Dada! DADA!" He has never really pointed at anything before so of course Pat and I were beyond excited lol.
Joe is also walking, or attempting to at least. He will take about 3 steps by himself then slowly lower himself to the floor and crawl the rest of the way. He was doing really good and getting very brave until about 2 weeks ago when he developed a really bad fever and spent 3 days laying around and sleeping. I think the fever took allot out of him and he is just starting to recover. We never did figure out what the fever was caused by but I think it was his teeth. He had no other symptoms and the only thing going on was his two top teeth were coming in and taking their sweet time I might add. But thank the lord they are finally in and things are getting back to normal around here.
Did you know that there are only 18 more days until Christmas????? I sure do! We have 4 advent calendars in our house and they are all counted every day. Ally is so very excited about Christmas this year. She got the concept last year but actually can understand the passage of time and the value of anticipation. She tells us all the time that she CAN'T wait until Santa's comes but knows she has too. It is said with such a mixture of happiness and disappointment.
I know I have to update the monthly picture and I need to post some more. I'll try to do that by the end of the week!
Lots of Love!
