Alice can push up and roll over

Alice has been able to hold her head up for a few weeks now, but has recently started to push up while on her play mat.





She can also roll over onto her back, but only after much fussing and gnashing of gums. Here Jeni caught her mid-roll.

Alice has a brief statement

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Jeni had a St. Patrick's Day photoshoot with the kids.

At first Alice was not enjoying herself.

As soon as Mason joined her on the chair, she had a great time.

Mason likes to give Alice little kisses throughout the day.

She is learning to fight back a bit; here she's tickling his ear.

Mason also insists on giving Alice lots of hugs. She is very patient with him.

Mason, being two, can't sit still for long of course. he was soon out of the chair and running around.

We hope everyone had a nice St. Patrick's Day!

Nana and Papa come to visit

Mason and Alice's Nana and Papa came for a short visit last weekend. It is tough for them to come in the Spring because as an accountant Nana is busy until April 15th.

Here are a few pictures from their visit. We forgot to take the camera to the park, but we did go (and Mason and Alice have been outside often during the last week).

Morning time?

(Mason often asks, "Morning time?" when I go into his room in the morning.) We've got a pretty good morning routine down. Alice usually wakes up once between 2 and 4am, and then again between 6 and 7. I'm up by then and have a chance to shower and start breakfast before it is time to wake up Mason. And depending on when Alice wakes up, she might watch Mason and I eat breakfast while Jeni showers.

Mason still loves doing puzzles and playing with his trains. His imagination has really grown, though, and he does a lot of role playing and building. Here he is doing an Africa puzzle one morning.

Alice is almost always in a cheery mood in the morning, at least until 8 or 8:30am when it's time to eat and take a nap.

Alice is quite different than Mason already. One example is her ability to fall asleep without being soothed. Mason never just passed out; we always had to rock him or have him on our chest. The other morning Alice fell asleep in her bouncy seat. She didn't sleep long, but Jeni was able to take a picture.

Two kids have kept us busy

So it turns out that having two kids will keep you busy. I've also been doing a lot of grading and lecture planning in the evenings when I would usually post pictures. Spring break is next week (huzzah!!!) so I've got some time to update this here blog.

Jeni had a birthday. We didn't do anything too exciting. Jeni did get a haircut about a week later. That meant that she was away from Mason and Alice for 2 hours. I was able to stay home and Alice cooperated by sleeping until Jeni got home. We have since started to give Alice a bottle with some success.