Our Little Lady

Alaina continues to grow and is now much more like a little girl than a baby.   A few recent developments:

Curls:   It appears that Alaina has slightly curly hair.  This is especially apparent right after a bath, when the hair at the back of her neck curls up.  Now, as someone with stick straight hair, who has always dreamed of having some natural curls, I am so happy that my daughter has gotten some waves.   I remember back in 8th grade as part of our confirmation classes, we all had to "give"  our classmates wishes for the future.  We wrote them all down, and the teacher collected and distributed them to each of us at the end of the year.  Melissa Perry, a girl with beautiful curly hair that I always admired, gave me "a daughter with curly hair".  I  will always remember that gift because I thought it was so sweet.   And, I feel so lucky now, to have her wish for me come true!

Teeth: Finally, after a many-month hiatus, it seems like Alaina is contributing to her 2 lower teeth.   She has two uppers coming in now, and it looks like others are not far behind.

Books: Every night before bed, Jason or I will read her a short book.  We set it on the table bedside her crib and then tuck her in.   Recently, she has decided that she likes to read HERSELF to sleep, as she somehow manages to grab the book, pull it lengthwise though the slats of her crib and flip though it before nodding off.

Sick...

Well, we have been a bit MIA recently because we have all been sick.   Yuck.   Jason picked it up a few weeks ago, when he went to Austin, TX for the weekend to visit his brother Brandon.   He called me from the plane, saying "oh, no the guy next to me is snotting all over the place"!  Awesome.

Sure enough, within the week, Jason was sick.   It didn't take long for the germs to spread to everyone else, and here we are, 2 weeks later, still recovering.   It hit the kids particularly hard--Alaina had 104 fevers for a few days, and Ethan missed school on Thursday and Friday (which he was so sad about, since it was Valentine's day...)  This is a nasty virus that sticks around a LONG time.

We thought we were in the clear yesterday, when both kids woke up without fevers (although still quite snotty), but this afternoon, Alaina was fussy again, and indeed, she had a temperature.  

Sigh.  I hope healthier days are ahead.....

Ethan--now half a decade!

My little boy is 5 years old today--cannot believe it!

We had a nice birthday celebration.  Since his birthday fell on a Saturday, we were able to have his party on his actual birthday which was nice.   This year, we had it at a jumpy-house place.   Now, there is exactly one jumpy-place in all of Marin county.....and reserving it for his party was no small coup.  The place opens for reservations two months ahead of time, and even though we called within a half an hour of opening, we snagged the last party on Feb 1.   Crazy.  

Ethan was able to celebrate with his best buds from school and really had a blast.   Then we came home for his favorite dinner--French toast, and of course presents.   This year, we bought him a bunch of art supplies, as he is really getting into "making art".

Alaina seemed to enjoy the party too, and had her second taste of cake.....still a hit!

Happy birthday, Ethan, we love you!!