Welcome Ellie!

Eleen Sihyun Rigby was born November 30, 2010!!! Sorry, she's already 3 weeks old, and it's taken 3 weeks for me to update everyone on the news. We are so excited that she is here, and she is so cute! She is very adorable, and Alden loves the new baby and is being a great big brother.

November 30 was our last regular check-up with an OB/GYN. I had been feeling that she would be coming really soon, but I wasn't really sure because the due date was still a week away. The due date was December 6th, and we were supposed to go to Salt Lake on December 4th to see the people from Korean consulte so that I could renew my passport. Because they require a finger print scan, you have to actually go to a consulate in person and I would've had to go all the way to San Francisco if I had missed them on December 4th. We were really worried that Ellie was gonna come a couple days early and I would have to either try to escape from the hospital or fly to San Francisco to get it done... :P  Well, when we went in for our check-up that morning, the doctor did a vaginal exam and was very surprised that I was already at 4 cm! He said Ellie would probably be coming pretty soon, either that night or the next day.

All day, Joe and I were very anxious all day and waited for the sign. Joe had a big final presentation for his class next day, scheduled for that day because the due date was next week, but he had to postpone it to the week after because we were very likely to be in the hospital the next day... He even came home early from work that day because he couldn't focus on his work. But he did have a group meeting scheduled that night to prepare for the presentation at 8 pm. After having dinner, we decided to go to BYU campus with Joe because Alden had been sitting at home all day. So we wanted him to get out and be able to run around a little. We also put the basket of library books so we could return those to the library. There was little chance that we would have had to go to the hospital that night, so we packed our hospital bag in the car.

Well, while we were busy packing, I started having cramps. I had been having false labor, and I just figured they were cramps from running around and trying to pack. Well, they didn't go away and they just kept coming in regular intervals. I kept glancing at the clock while I was packing, and noticed that they were about 6-7 minutes apart. I still didn't think I was going into real labor because I thought real labor was supposed to start really slow! I mean, they tell you to relax and wait and count the contractions for an hour or two. I thought I was supposed to start having them like 20 minutes apart and have time to shower and maybe even take a bath..

Anyway, we proceeded to drive to BYU, and on the contractions were now about 5 minutes apart. We kept driving to Campus and went to the Tanner building where Joe was having his group meeting. He started having his meeting, and Alden and I went around the building once, throwing a ball and running down the hall to pick it up again. By the time we had gone around the whole building once, the contractions were 4 minutes apart, and I decided it was really time to go. Joe had to leave his meeting early (he had been there about 10 minutes), and we drove straight to the hospital.

We got there around 8:30 pm, and a nurse came and checked me and told me that I was at 7 cm already. As soon as she told everyone I was at 7 cm, we noticed that everyone started running around and prepping me. The anesthesiologist was in the room in 3 minutes or so and got started on giving me the epidural right away. The nurses called my doctor, and he called the hospital twice on his way over to make sure I hadn't delivered yet.

We were kinda hoping that Ellie would be a December baby, but the nurses and the doctors told us that we had no chance. :P Well, I started pushing around 9:30, and at 9:43 pm, Eleen was born! She was 19.5 inches and 7 lbs 6 oz. All in all, the whole labor only lasted for about 2 hours, and we barely made it to the hospital in time for me to get the epidural.

The next two days at the hospital were full of adventures, talking to financial office and stuff, but I'll save that story for later. (Right now, I'm really distracted because Joe and Al are playing Super Mario Bros on the Wii).

My family made it to the hospital very quickly, and my brother and sister-in-law watched Alden in the waiting room until Ellie was born.

During labor (of course, in between contractions... lol.).

Welcome Ellie!

Holding daddy's hand.

Meeting the big bro for the first time.

Cutie pie Ellie.

Happy Halloween!

We had a fun halloween this year. Alden dressed up as Woody from Toy Story. It was his favorite movie for a while, and he loves playing with his Buzz toys and reading his Toy Story books. I am a really cheap mom, so I didn't buy him the nice Woody costume from the Disney store. (It's like 40 bucks!) Since I buy all of our stuff from the DI, I decided to gather some costume stuff from the DI. So in the last couple months, I've been trying to find anything related to Woody's outfit whenever we went to the DI (and trust me, we go there a lot). I was able to find a pair of cowboy boots for $2 and a hat that looks cowboyish enough for $2 (even though it looks completely different from Woody's hat). I also found a bunch of cow-print fabric to make the vest with for $3 (there was about 50 sheets of 12x15 in fabric in there). I only used 4 of them (2 to make the actual vest with and 2 that I experimented with) so I have no idea what I'm going to do with the rest of them... (any ideas?) I also found a red handkerchief at the DI for 50 cents that I cut into a smaller size to fit Al around his neck. And I bought one of those foam sheets from Michael's (It was 99 cents and I got additional 40% off with a coupon) and made his sheriff badge and his belt. Anyway, the original plan was to have me dress up as Jessie and Joe as Andy, but I ran out of time (I spent too long sewing up his vest by hand - the sewing machine is broken and I don't know how to use it anyway). But I think his costume turned out okay enough (even though no one realized he was Woody and all thought he was just a plain cowboy... lol). The best thing ever was that Alden learned how to say "Woody" and loved going trick-or-treating. Here are some pictures from the day. :D

Getting ready to go to the ward party.

Sheriff Woody with my mom. :D

Only picture I got of Al alone with the hat on.... lol.

And the only family picture we got that day... lol.

Inspecting/enjoying the day's harvest. He actually got a lot more but I hid the ones i didn't want him to eat. lol. Joe and I will eat those....  (Joe says they are tax)

Alden reviewing the alphabet

Yesterday, Alden surprised us by repeating after me saying the letters in the alphabet. He had only been saying A, D, and O, so it was a big surprise for us. Today, Joe got him to do it again, so we had to get it on camera!!!

2 year check up

Today we went to Alden's two year check-up. It was at one o'clock and we didn't have time to have lunch, so we went to McDonald's drive through and got some food. The doctor was running late, and it turned out to be a good thing because we had time to finish our lunch in the waiting room. Al had McNuggets, fries, and apple juice for lunch. I don't know what it was, but on the way there, he was really tired and almost fell asleep, but as soon as we got there, he got really hyper and started running in circles and dancing. Anyway, he was very cooperative with the nurse checking his weight and height and everything, and I was so proud of him (until I was told that his height was only on the 5th percentile.... lol.).

When the doc came in, I was explaining to her how Alden had been pooping three times a day for the last couple days. At least it wasn't diarrhea but he was starting to get a rash. Right in the middle of me telling her this story, he pooped right in front of the doctor... And it was a nasty diarrhea... The rash had gotten so bad, and he leaked through the diaper so I had to strip him and change his diaper in the middle of the appointment.... :(  Alden wasn't so happy about the diaper change, probably because it hurt a lot, and started refusing to be touched by the doctor and was whining... But as soon as the diaper was back on and he had calmed down a little, he was back to his normal self and was being so good with the doctor. The doc even let him play with the ophthalmoscope, and Al turned the knobs and enjoyed himself a lot.

At the end of the appointment, he was so excited and hyper, he waved his hand at the doctor and also bowed to say goodbye to her. She thought he was so adorable. :D  Anyway, he followed her out to the hallway and was dancing and running in circles and was being so happy. It was so nice to not have to hold him or deal with a cranky kid.... :)

His height is in the 5th percentile, weight in the 50th percentile, which puts his BMI at 95th percentile.... He has only gained a couple pounds in the last 6 months, and I was worried about him not gaining weight, but I guess it doesn't really matter if he's not getting much taller either.... Ha ha.

Lately, he has been saying some new things and making up sentences. He likes to say "No" as usual, but now he can say, "No way!" He also likes to form sentences by combining some words he knows with his sign language. As an example, he can say "marble" and "go", so he will say "marble go" as he does the sign language for "all done (turning both hands in the air)" to say that he is done playing with his marble toy.

He also likes to tell stories of what he has done or what he saw happen. For example, I fell asleep the other day on the couch while Alden was playing with his toy, and when I woke up 45 minutes later (oops), I found that he had completely dismantled his marble toy. So like an hour later, he said, "엄마 (mommy) 코 (Koh - snoring sound), marble kah (crash), marble uh-oh." I think he was trying to tell me, "while mommy slept, I knocked the marble toy down and made a mistake." Ha ha.

I don't have any pictures right now because they are all on the other laptop. I will post them when I get to them later... :P

Happy Birthday Al!

Yay! Alden is now two!

As soon as he woke up, I started asking him how old he was and taught him to hold up two fingers instead of one. He was confused at first but started picking it up pretty quickly. By the afternoon, he was holding up one finger first then quickly holding up the other finger as well. lol. Since he is two now and is a big boy, we decided that he doesn't need to use the pacifier anymore, so we had been telling him that once he turns and blows out the candles, he wouldn't be able to use the binky anymore. At first, he didn't understand what I was trying to say but he started to get it and would nod when I explained it and asked him if he understood. And at random times, he'd sign to himself that he would have to give up the binky once he turns two. He did this by holding up two fingers, then pointing at his mouth to indicate binky, and then either shaking his head or waving his index finger to mean "no."

Anyway... his birthday was pretty uneventful during the day. Jamie came early to hang out with us because he had to leave early to go to a meeting. Alden was really friendly to Jamie and wanted to hang out with Jamie while I got ready for the party (yes! He didn't used to really like Jamie. I think he was afraid of him a little.). Jamie got him a pack of otterpops (already frozen!), and Al got to eat it right there and then. He was pretty happy. The highlight of the day for him was probably having Sophie there for a big chunk of the day. He had so much fun playing with Sophie, and they were running around and playing with toys. They had too much fun together, Alden didn't want her to leave at the end of the day and even wanted to leave with Sophie!!!

One of Alden's favorite things to do is to blow things... Blow bubbles, blow up a balloon, or blow out candles! We had been telling him that he'd be able to blow out candles on the cake, and when we bought the cake the day before, he wanted to blow out candles right away! I had to tell him he had to wait until the party and hide the cake in the fridge. Funny thing is, Sophie was so eager to help Alden that she blew both the canldes out before he had a chance to get to them! Ha ha ha. We had to relight the candles so that he could blow them out. Fortunately, he didn't get upset or anything at Sophie for blowing his candles out. He was happy to see daddy light the candles again for him.

He received many gifts from friends and family, and he was very excited and grateful for all the love he received from everyone. Sophie helped Alden open the presents by bring them over to him, and Alden ripped off the wrapping paper and had much fun doing it. He got lots of toys, books, clothes, etc.

 

Following last year's tradition, Sophie and Alden put on their Korean traditional clothes and posed for some cute pictures. They did a lot better than last year, although it was still pretty difficult to get a picture of them where neither of them was blurry or looking other way. I actually don't think I got any pictures of them both looking at me. :P Maybe next year...

After the party, Sophie and Alden were having so much fun running around and tumbling on the couch. They are so cute when they play and they play so well with each other. Alden always get so excited whenever he sees Sophie or pictures of Sophie, and when I ask if he would like to play with Sophie, he always says yes. When they had to leave, he wanted to put his shoes on and follow them out to the road, so we went out to say bye to them. After Sophie got in her carseat and everyone else (Tom, Laura, and Joe's mom) got in the car, Alden pat himself on the belly and looked at me as if saying, "What about me?" He really wanted to get in the car and leave with Sophie... We'll have to schedule another time to have them play again soon!

Helping with the laundry

Alden loves to help with laundry. We throw down all the dirty clothes over the rail from the second floor to the family room, then come down to collect them and take them to the washer. He likes to put the clothes in the washer/dryer and push the button. As he puts each item in, he says "daddy" or "엄마" depending on whose clothes it is. Yeah, he still needs to learn how to say his own name. Ha ha. But he pats his belly to mean himself.

Alden's speaking in sentences!

Finally! It's about time, too. Everyday, he adds more and more words to his sentences and makes very long and complicated sentences. Here are some examples of his sentences. (I've added the translation so it's easier for you to understand.)

"Daddy daddy daddy marble daddy marble daddy marble marble!" - while pointing back and forth between Joe and his marble toy.
(Daddy and I played with my marble toy, and he made the marbles go down with me!)

"엄마 (mom in Korean) 엄마 bubble 엄마 bubble bubble bubble daddy." - while pointing at me and outside and himself.
(Mommy and I went outside earlier today and blew bubbles in the backyard and I popped some of them.)

"mm mmm hmm mm umm mm mmm mm mmm hmm mm." - while pointing at himself and making circles in the air with his hand.
(I got to play with my fishing pole today, and I reeled it in so that the bait came in!)

Well, these are some examples of what he can say and does all the time. Pretty amazing, huh? Ha ha ha. He communicates mostly with us through made up sign language and pointing at things. His own made up sign language consists of water (pointing at his mouth and jerking his head up), get down (pointing at the ground), hold me (patting on our legs with both hands), eat food (putting end of his index finger in his mouth), binky (repeatedly pointing at his mouth with his index finger), change (making circles in the air with his hold hand), slide (slowly lowering his hand in the air), jump (tiptoes up and down - he can't really jump yet), draw (holds his hands up and pretends to draw with a crayon in the air), brush teeth (holds his hands up by his mouth and moves it across back and forth), where (holds one hand up next to his head and cocks his head to the side a little), outside (points at random direction, just far), please (puts both of his hands out in front of him).

There are words that he made up as well. "Kho... (sleep, it also means pillow and bed sometimes)" "Huh Hoo (balloon - sucks air in and out)" "dady (baby - he exchanges b with d)" "Dah dah dah (stairs - that's the sounds he makes when he goes down the stairs)" "Dee Dee (TV - He can't say T or V yet, plus when we watch DVDs, he can only read D and the other D)" "Ya yee ya yee ya yee (Fluoride pills - that's the sounds he makes when he chew something, and his pills are chewable)"

Anyway.. I will keep adding to the list later. He does actually say real words, and his learning more and more. He recently learned how to say "marble" and he just learned to say "go" this morning. He's also been saying "해," which literally means "do" in Korean. He likes to say "엄마 해" meaning, "Mommy, you do it." All day, he has me do stuff for him, and it just has to be me, and me only... (sigh) For example, we hide his binky behind his pillow in bed so he can grab it before going to bed (he's only allowed to use it when he goes to sleep and has to give it up in the morning), and if Joe acts surprised and makes sounds, Alden says, "No!" and puts the binky back behind the pillow. Then he says, "엄마 해" and has me act surprised instead. Same with turning off the lights before bed and turning on background music, along with getting out of the car, getting him off the high chair, etc., etc....

Speaking of being insistent... Alden's been really adamant on doing everything on his own. If we do something for him that he wants to do himself, he will say "NO!!" and will want to redo everything. So we've been working on trying to teach him to tell us nicely that he wants to do it himself, and he has to pat himself on his chest then put his hands out to mean, "I want to do it myself." And he's been doing pretty well at it (when he's in good mood).

Watch him say "marble" in the video below!

Chasing a light

New Haircut

Alden has gotten really good at using the laptop. He can use the mouse almost at will, moving the cursor to what he wants and clicking on it. He nevigates through Facebook, Youtube, and Naver Kid page really well, and play what he wants. He can also recognize the "play" button and knows what a video clip is. He can also click on the back button in the internet explorer and close a window too if he doesn't like what he sees. Anyway, I gave him a haircut yesterday. I was originally gonna grow it out a little longer, but everyone thinks Alden is a girl.... He looks too pretty, I guess, so I decided we'd cut it again. You can see how it turned out. :D

Blowing a balloon with daddy

Alden almost passed out laughing when they first started doing this, but by the time I got there and pulled my camera out, he wasn't as excited anymore... lol. Plus, the camera always distracts him. A LOT.

Photo Restoration

We scanned a lot of Grandma's pictures to digitize and to store them. Grandma wanted to reprint some of the pictures, so I used photoshop to enhance and restore some of the pictures (and resize to 4x6 size, of course!). Here are some examples! :D

- Before and After pictures are listed -

Our growing baby boy!

Everyday, I realize more and more that Alden is not a "baby" anymore. He is now a small kid, and he acts more and more like a kid everyday. He just can't talk yet. lol. He has such a cute personality, and Joe and I can't stop saying, "He is SO CUTE!"

He recently learned how to indicate how old he is, and when asked in Korean, he can stick his index finger out. We figured he was just responding to the question itself and thought he probably didn't know what that one finger meant. But a couple days ago, the exchange student that is staying with us (her name is Chloe, she'll be with us for the next few years) was telling him that he could only have one treat and not two, and Alden stuck his index finger out!! I was so surprised that he knew what one finger meant. And yesterday, he figured out how to stick two fingers out! :D So he can now count up to two. Ha ha ha, and go straight to five, because he can't do 3 or 4 fingers. lol. He loves to sing the 10 little indian boys song (no matter how politically incorrect it may be) and count with his fingers.

Alden is such a nice kid. Yes, I know what they say about the terrible twos, and Alden does seem to have gotten worse (saying NO to everything), but compared to other kids his age, he seems to have a nice temper. When he goes to nursery, he never pushes or hits other kids, and he easily gives up toys to other kids and doesn't complain. He just looks for a different toy to play with. As long as he understands the reasoning and our explanation, he listens to our instructions. He is only allowed to use his binky when he sleeps, so when he wakes up, I ask for it back. Sometimes when he's really tired and cranky, he's reluctant to give it up, but he usually spits it out on my hand when I tell him he doesn't need it because he's not sleeping anymore. When we went to Moab, he found many, many rocks to throw, and he wanted to throw them everywhere. So we explained to him that throwing rocks on the road was dangerous and could hurt people. We told him to only throw the rocks at the bushes, and that's exactly what he did!! He walked up to the bushes and threw the rocks in. :D

I've been having Alden help when I bake stuff, like pouring milk in the bowl and mixing stuff. He especially loves to make his own easy mac. Today we cooked a packet of Easy Mac, and he ate the whole thing! He's never been able to finish it before, so I was so impressed and happy that he did! :D Especially because he's been sick and hasn't had much appetite. Hopefully it means that he's getting better and getting ready for another growth spurt.

Okay, an update on our little Ellie. She's been really good. She's been really active and been growing a lot. Actually, she's grown so much in just the last month that my belly looks enormous compared to just a month ago. The doctor even told me that I'd gained too much weight in the second trimester and told me to watch what I eat.... Ha ha. She moves around constantly when she is not asleep, which is different from Alden. Alden had very strong kicks and jabs, but Ellie gives small kicks constantly and never stops moving! She's going to be a one active girl. We're so excited to have her come in December. :D

Moab Trip

Last weekend, we went on a family trip down to Moab with my family, Joe's mom, and my brother Dohyup's in-laws. We rented out a nice cabin down there (3 bedrooms and 2 full bathrooms with full kitchen and a 2-car garage) and stayed over night to enjoy our time together as a family. Joe, Alden, and I were sick from a cold, and Joe's mom and my sister Yeagi got sick over the weekend, but it was overall a fun trip. We left the house around 10:30 am on Friday. It was a crazy day the day before, getting ready and stuff (I had to take care of a whole bunch of stuff including car insurance and car alignment, etc.), and the morning was even crazier because Joe had to get the car aligned again and clean the car, and I had to pack for the whole family. Anyway, we finally got started on our trip, and Joe's mom got sick so we had to make several stops on the way (not to mention me having to go to pee 500 times). By the time we got to Moab, everyone was so tired from the drive that instead of going up to the Arches as planned, we decided to chill at the cabin for an hour and go fishing instead.

This is one of the stops we made on the way. We stopped at Price to have lunch at aFresh Market with chicken we bought at aFresh Market down in Provo. Ha ha. We should've done better research to find out they had one in Price, too. lol.

This is at Ken's Lake. My family went there camping three years ago and had enjoyed it so much. We went back and found that the water was really really low and all the trees and stuff had died! lol. It wasn't as beautiful as we hyped it up to be, but at least the fishing was still pretty good. We caught a lot of crappies and one bass.

Alden had fun fishing with Grandpa. He actually loves to talk about how we went fishing with Grandpa, and everytime we talk about my dad, he makes the reeling in motion with his hand and tells (or attempts to) the story of how he went fishing with Grandpa.

And they actually caught a fish together!!! It was the biggest Crappie of the day, too! Alden was so excited to reel in the line until the fish actually came out of the water, and he got scared and started to back off... lol.

Joe got to catch some fish too, as well as me. :D We probably ended up catching 15+ that day.

 

After fishing, we came back to the cabin and had dinner and relaxed. We played games and watched movies until we went to sleep. :D In the morning, we had French toast and bacon for breakfast and made Korean fried rice munchy thingies for lunch. lol. Then we packed and left the cabin and headed up to the Arches. The weather was just perfect! It was raining in the morning, but had stopped by the time we went out, but it was still cloudy to keep the sun away. It was nice and cool enough to walk around a little bit outside the car. We didn't actually do much hiking at all because of a certain pregnant person and a baby. lol. I got tired walking up to the South Window, which involved a 10 minute walk. Ha ha.

From the left, Jisil's brother, my dad, my mom, Yearim, Dohyup, Jisil, Jisil's mom, Joe's mom, Joe, Alden, and me.

Even though we didn't do much sight seeing of Moab, it was fun to spend the weekend with the family and relax. Joe was nice enough to do all the driving for us, and it was a very relaxing vacation for me. :D Hopefully we can do more familiy trips before it gets too cold!

Sarah's Wedding

A couple weeks ago, we got to go to cousin Sarah's wedding up at Snowbasin. We drove up with mom, and Alden had fun playing with grandma in the car on the way up and back. (Joe and I are usually really boring in the car, and we do "adult talk" and just put on children's song CD when Al requests it. So It was fun having Grandma sing and dance and play with Alden during the drive.

Oh, we did see a car that was completely engulfed in fire. It seemed like it had happened just minutes ago, and there was only one emergency vehicle keeping people away (no firetrucks or anything). We also didn't see any other cars that would've been in an accident or the driver that would've escaped from the car, so... we think the driver may have still been in the car, which would've been horrible!!! Hopefully the driver was okay.

We got to ride in a gondola up to a cabin, and Alden got a little nervous and wouldn't want to sit or stand by himself. But he was being such a champ and posed really well for pictures. :)

The wedding was beautiful and Sarah was absolutely gorgeous! (Oh, I just realized I didn't get any pictures of her.... Oooops..) It was too bad Tom couldn't be in this next picture. Don't the boys look nice together?

We didn't want to stay too long after the ceremony and wanted to get back before it got too dark, so we left before dinner/reception. But we did get this nice family picture. (I didn't realize dad and Faye were in this picture, too! lol)

After we got back, we went to Joe's mom's house and watched a Korean movie with Jamie. :) It was a loooong weekend (we had another wedding reception we went the night before in SLC), but it was fun to spend with the family!

Happy Birthday Joe!

Joe turned 25 this last week. Wow... A quarter of a century, huh? We did a lot of fun things to celebrate his birthday over the course of a week, and we got to enjoy lots of food!

First, last Wednesday (or Thursday, i don't remember), we went to Coldstone to get the free ice cream "like it" size creation for his birthday. They only asked 30 cents extra to upgrade to the next size, and that's what we did! We got French Vanilla ice cream with oreos, and it was perfect for our little family of three. (Yum, yum...) We didn't share a cup because Joe was feeling sick. Alden loved that he had his own little sample spoon and got to scoop up his own share. :D

On Friday, my brother Dohyup's in-laws came to America to visit his wife. We had a big family dinner at home with mom's best friend Jane Birch. We celebrated both Joe and Jane's birthday (August 15th) with good food and a cheese cake. Jane blew out the candles first - we only had 10 candles, so each of them had 5 candles - then we sang for Joe. Since he was feeling sick and didn't want to blow on the whole cake, Alden got to blew out the candles for Daddy instead. He blew them out one by one, except the last two, he was able to get both of them at the same time (he's increasing his lung capacity much this summer from hours of blowing out candles, blowing bubbles outside, and blowing bubbles in his drink).

On Saturday, my mom bought us Brick Oven pizza (One of Joe's favorites) for dinner. We brought them home and enjoyed them very much (even till next day for lunch). We got Alfredo Chicken and Garlic Chicken pizza, and Alden loved them a  lot too!

On Sunday, we were invited to dinner at our friends house, Cody and Kyra's. They made wonderful taco soup with corn bread, and Joe got to play Eagle Eye on nintendo with Cody and me. Alden had his own controller and had fun watching (although he's really confused about the whole controllers-having-wires-attached-to-them concept). Joe was especially excited because he had been telling me about him playing the game in junior/high school just the day before.

On joe's actual birthday, Yearim, my little sister, made Joe a cake, and I made shrimp/italian sausage pasta for lunch. Joe came home for lunch, and we got to enjoy lunch together. :D

This is the cake Yearim made. It's plain yellow cake (Joe's favorite!) and Mario!!

Alden realized that those white powdery stuff on the cake tastes really good. He started digging in the cake even before we blew the candles and stuff. lol.

Then on Wednesday, we went to Tucanos for lunch with Cody and Kyra. Tucanos gives you a buy-one-get-one-free-meal coupon for your birthday, so we get to go to Tucanos twice a year (it's a little over priced otherwise). Joe loves all the food there, and my favorite is garlic sirloin and barbeque chicken. Alden, for the first time in a while, loved the food and ate a lot of fruits and meat. His favorite was BBQ chicken, and he kept asking for more. Since he's been obsessed about using tools (wrench, chopsticks, tongs, etc.), he loved that they had tongs there to grab the meat. He used them to feed me and himself fruit I cut up for him. :D

Sorry I didn't have more pictures, but it was a great birthday. We had a lot of fun, not just on his birthday, but got to enjoy Joe turning 25 for the whole week! :D We can't wait till Alden's birthday comes, when he will get to enjoy his own cake and blow out candles on his cake (and open presents... :o).

Indoor Summer Fun. :D

We've been having a lot of fun just around the house lately, and here are some pictures of Alden doing fun things.

Cereal for breakfast is great! Alden's favorite cereal is Life.

Indoor bowling. :D

Alden loves talking on the phone. He talks to his grandpa, grandma, and whoever he can on the phone. He doesn't really say much when he's on the phone but he loves to listen to the person on the other end.

Alden's showing more interest in reading books now. He likes to listen (sometimes) to us read to him, but mostly likes to turn pages and point at the pictures. He also likes to follow the actions that the characters are doing.

His all time favorite treat for the summer! Otter Pops! :D He's gotten pretty good at eating these now, and needs almost no help finishing it.

Playing with toys in his room. :D

Using tongs and wrenches to grab stuff off the floor! :D