week ending june 22, 2008:

Week ending June 22, 2008: At the end of last week I took Chloe to see her Cousin Natalie and her Aunt Danielle’s dance recital. There were 35 song-and-dance numbers and Chloe started out dancing while sitting in Grammy Carole’s lap and about ½ way through gave up the pretense of sitting and stood up to dance. Fortunately we had an extra empty seat in our aisle that gave her room get her grove on. Every day since, she’s asked me to put on our Spanish Guitar CD so she can dance around the living room.

On Monday I wanted to have a take-it-easy day to recover from all the effort we put into throwing the surprise party, so I offered to take the kids to see Kung Fu Panda. Sunday night Alex said he was excited to go. By Monday morning he said he wasn’t going to go. I found previews on-line and played them and Alex changed his mind and decided to come with us. Then I told Alex that there was a bad guy in the movie and there might be some scary parts. I really wanted Alex to go, but he does tend to get overwhelmed with the big screen and the super-loud surround sound at the theater, so I thought it was better that he be able to prepare himself to expect the bad-guy and to remember that it is only a movie that can’t hurt him. In the end, Alex decided he’d really rather stay with a sitter while I took Chloe to the movie, so Grammy Carole offered to watch him. In the theater Chloe was nervous during the previews and then relaxed once the film started. When the bad guy appeared and started doing bad guy stuff, I asked Chloe if she was ok. She looked at me and shouted, “Mommy, this is AWESOME!” She really loved the Kung Fu action and wants to learn to jump from roof top to roof top. Now Alex can’t wait for the movie to get to Blockbuster.

On Thursday we had a play date with my friend Jules from college who now has 4 kids. Alex and the oldest boy, Turner, played with the GeoTrax electric trains for about 3 hours. It is so funny how much differently Alex plays when he can find another boy to play with. When Alex came downstairs I could hear that his cough had become “barky”, so I rushed him off to the doctor. In the past, once the cough gets barky it just gets worse and worse until he can hardly breathe, so now I take him in as soon as I hear the bark. The doctor loaded us up with meds and Alex is on the mend already.

Also this week we got to meet Grammy Barb’s new puppy. Alex was very brave about picking the puppy up right away. Chloe was more tentative about the puppy’s flailing legs, but she warmed up pretty shortly. Now the kids want to go to Grammy Barb’s house every day to see the new puppy! Here are some pics: http://picasaweb.google.com/constance.phelps/PuppyLove