Glenn's Glasses

We picked up Glenn's glasses today. He's so handsome and looks so much older. He doesn't like wearing them when he's looking distance, but he hasn't worn them long enough to get used to them. When he was wearing them around the house, he would put them on top of his head like he does with sun glasses when they were bothering his vision seeing distance. I had to put a stop to that because I was afraid he was going to need them adjusted constantly if he continued to that all the time.

He was reading a book tonight and he said he could read so much better and was so excited. He had problems focusing on his work at school last year, and I'm hoping a lot of it had to do with his eyes getting tired of trying to focus. But time will tell. Here he is modeling his new glasses:

More Summer Fun

Alexander got some fun gifts for his birthday (thank you everyone)! He got some new track from two of his aunts for his Thomas (and the like) trains. He can now get the track to go most of the length of the house:


He also got soccer goals, so the boys tried it out. Of course Alexander doesn't understand the rules, so when we had just one ball, and Glenn got to it first, Alexander just took Glenn down. So, for the meantime, we used two balls. But we have signed him up for U4 soccer this fall (they play games and a 16 minute game with not too many rules). That should be funny to watch.


We spent the last week in Orlando. Bob's parents got a condo for the week, and we stayed with them and Bob's Uncle Jack. We had a lot of fun! We spent a lot of time at the pool (especially Alexander, who has become quite the little fish). We went to Downtown Disney one day. First stop was the Lego store. I got the boys to stay still long enough for this picture with Buzz from Toy Story:


We must have passed this next sculpture of Buzz and Woody at least four times, and every time we did, it was like the first time Alexander saw it. He would shout out, "Buzz and Woody!"


As we were leaving, Glenn wanted a picture in front of the waterfall and dinosaur behind the T-Rex restaurant:


For Poppy's Father's Day/Birthday present, the boys got him a Melissa & Doug bird house that they were supposed to help put together with Poppy, and then he brought it home. But I didn't realize it used real screws-a hurricane can't take this bird house apart!!! But they handed things to him and Alexander helped him screw it together:


Then Glenn painted the bird house with Poppy's direction:


Alexander had to add his colorful touches, too:


We made use of our one day passes that last the year (for FL residents) to Busch Gardens in Tampa yet again! We went with Bob's parents, Bob's Uncle Jack, and my parents. Bob and I got to go on some big people rides while the grandparents watched the boys. Alexander finally took a picture with Big Bird (AKA Yellow Baby- the stuffed animal version that he sleeps with) all by himself:


We saw some animals:


We also went in the tree tops in a crazy maze like play scape. I think I was too tall, but we still had fun:


Of course we HAD to go on the train around the park. It really is relaxing! Oh, and they all persuaded me to buy the hat:


It was HOT!!!


We got some ice cream:



We had a wonderful dinner overlooking the Busch Gardens Savannah. We could see many of the animals from our table.

We brought the boys back to the Sesame Street on Safari area one last time, and this was their last ditch effort at having fun before we had to leave:


The boys and I got a chance to see our friends again that recently moved to just north of Tampa:



I love this one:



Bob's parents and uncle came home to our house last night for one last night with us and left this morning.

The boys and I had a busy day of appointments today. Alexander had his first full dental cleaning this morning. I was nervous, thinking he wouldn't let them touch him. But he was perfect. He did exactly what he was supposed to do. Here he is after his cleaning, waiting for the dentist to come in, watching Cars:

I was so proud of him, and Glenn said over and over how well Alexander was doing and how proud he was of him. So, the hygienist gave Glenn a token for the toy tower, too, for being such a supportive brother.

Then Glenn was off to the ophthalmologist this afternoon. He has to have his eyes checked every year to make sure he doesn't have any tumors on his optic nerves (which is a slight possibility due to his NF1, but gets lower and lower risk every year). His eyes are very healthy, however he needs glasses. I noticed he had trouble reading the letters at the beginning of the exam, and I didn't know if it was because he couldn't see them or because he wasn't really paying attention. But they have that automatic machine that checks your prescription, and sure enough, it's changed quite a bit. It's nothing like my prescription, but he does need glasses for school and doing his homework, although he can wear them all the time if he chooses. So, we are on the hunt for glasses. At first he said he didn't want to wear glasses. But once I mentioned that his friend Sarah wears them, he was excited.

Alexander was happy to be sleeping in his own bed tonight:


And Glenn couldn't fall asleep because he had been sleeping with someone for the past week. So, he asked to go sleep with Alexander even though he was already asleep:

Alexander's 3rd Birthday

Alexander had a wonderful third birthday. Here's the Toy Story Choo-Choo cake he wanted me to make:


Alexander wanted to wear his birthday crown as soon as he woke up:

I had decorated the walls with Toy Story characters, which added to the party atmosphere. Then I put them in his room after his birthday party.

Here, he's waiting for Daddy to get out of bed so he could open his presents from us:


Opening his Toy Story Woody doll:


About 45 minutes before his party, I noticed something wrong with his cake:


I was so upset! When I went to get him from time out, I asked him why he was in time out. He said, "because I ate the wheels!" Bob had to go to Publix and quickly get a cake.

Here are our party guests (notice Glenn's tough guy pose):


We played some games. I showed them pictures of the Toy Story characters, and they had to find them on the walls of the house. They played Shrek bowling (because that's what we had), and got Toy Story tattoos:


We borrowed a couple of pools from our friends and set up the bounce house, and they had a lot of fun, until it started pouring rain. But they got a good amount of time outside:








After everyone got changed, we had lunch:



We played a bit and then it was time for cake:




And then it was time for presents:



After the party, we went to a little boutique toy store. Alexander was so tired, he fell asleep on the way there. He woke up quickly once he saw where we were. Glenn and Alexander played with toys and each got a toy. The owner even gave him a train set for his birthday. Then we went to a cupcakery (a bakery that only makes cupcakes). They were delicious. They played with Alexander's new toys all over the house (so much for the clean house from the party). Then we went to Alexander's favorite restaurant, Chick-fil-A. For you northerners who don't know what Chick-fil-A is, they only serve chicken and they have an indoor play area that is sound proofed, but with glass, so the parents can see their children, but not hear them. Nice! :) On Saturday (the day after his birthday), we went to see Cars 2. That's the first movie in a theater that Alexander has sat through. He wasn't sure at first, sitting with his hands over his ears. But then he grew to love it. We brought his sleep friends to cuddle, which I think helped.

So, it was a wonderful birthday. He and Glenn are loving all these new toys and games to play with.

Alexander's Potty Train

I have been potty training Alexander because he was ready and because he needs to be to go to preschool in the fall. He was doing pretty well for a long time, but still having one accident a day. So, I told him if he was dry for 7 days in a row, he would get his Geotrax train he's been wanting. It has a train station, tunnel and hill. He called it his "potty train" every time I congratulated him on staying dry. Well, he did it and the set came in the mail today. He has been playing it for a very long time!

What have we been up to this summer?

We've been pretty busy since Glenn got out of school. We went to the FL Museum of Natural History at the Univ. of FL in Gainesville. Besides a bunch of regular natural history museum stuff (bones, birds and so on), which scared Alexander because of the noises they have playing (nature sounds), they also have a butterfly enclosure, that is beautiful. We had gone last year, but I think there were a lot more butterflies this year. They kept landing on me and I had to remind myself not to swat them. Here are some pictures from there:

The boys were a little nervous of all the butterflies flying around, afraid they were going to bite:




Look at the baby turtles:


Our favorite butterfly, the Blue Marpho:


The boys had four days of swim lessons. Alexander cried through most of them, and Glenn cried through two of them. However, they are both more confident in the water and are on their way to being swimmers. I'd like to put them in another week, but I'm not sure we can all handle it emotionally.

This past week, we were in Orlando. We wanted to be there so that we could see Bob's sister, Cindy, Ray, Andrew and Danny. They didn't come until Tuesday, and we actually went to Orlando on Saturday. It was a very busy, exhausting week. But we had so much fun.

On Sunday, Father's Day, we went to Busch Gardens. We met up with Bob's friend, Tony and his family. Bob spent most of the time riding big kid rides with them and the boys and I spent the day in the Sesame Street area (again!). Here are some pictures from that day:

Okay, so Bob found some time to pick bugs off the boys like a monkey before riding the big kid rides:




Glenn actually met Big Bird. He does not like to meet characters, but he's getting used to it because his brother likes to pose with some characters:


Thankfully Big Bird's chaperon took this picture because the boys wouldn't stand there without me. But you've got to admit, he is a really tall bird!


Alexander actually wanted to have his picture taken with the lion when we left, but he was asleep at this point (hardly ever happens) so Glenn thought he'd get his picture taken with the lion:


I gave Bob an indoor RC helicopter for Father's Day. Here are the boys playing with it in our condo:


Our good friends, and Glenn's first "girlfriend" just moved to Tarpon Springs in FL (north of Tampa). So we took the opportunity of being a little closer to visit them. We went to the sponge docks, which boasts being the biggest place to get live sponges, and have a sponge factory. It was fun seeing the ships and of course Glenn had to get a sponge! Both boys love using it in the bath. We saw this little ride and of course the kids had to ride:




Tarpon Springs has one of the largest Greek populations in the US. I think all the restaurants on the sponge docks were Greek. So, after eating some delicious gyros (okay, the kids had hot dogs), we went to a playground that is near our friends' house where you can see a bay and some beautiful houses. I had to have the kids pose behind a palm tree:


Back at our friends' house, they have a swing in the front yard, and Alexander was posing for me:






We went to Downtown Disney one night for ice cream at Ghirardelli. Glenn wanted this huge sundae, which he only ate half of. Then we went to the toy store (I got Alexander some b-day presents without him knowing) and we took some pics.

We love Buzz:


...and Mr. "Tomato" Head (that's what Alexander calls him):


...okay, Minnie and Mickey, too:


We spent a day with Bob's sister and family at their much nicer resort pool (ours was NOT so great). And then we spent the next day with them at Disney's Blizzard Beach. That was a lot of fun! Glenn and Alexander loved the lazy river where you ride on the tubes (Alexander was laying on me most of the time, but his Daddy some, too). Alexander made an easy friend at the toddler area. There was one slide that was his favorite, and for most of an hour, he and this little girl would hold hands walking up to the top of the slide and wait for each other at the bottom. The most interesting part is that they didn't speak the same language: she had just moved from Turkey. They would smile at each other, and probably never realized they didn't speak the same language. It was so adorable!

Then on Friday, we were back at Busch Gardens. Daddy stayed with us this time. :) We got there about lunch time, and it started raining. We had to wait a while for them to open up the rides.

Looking at the RC boats:




The Red Baron:




They were excited to be in the front of the train:


Alexander loves motorcycles (this fascination scares me):


A hippo ate my child!


Glenn, get out while you still can!


The turtle:


Alexander could have looked at these baby alligators all day. He said he wanted them in his room:


We had to ride the train!


Getting sleepy:


We got to spend Saturday morning with Bob's sister and family. Oh, and Glenn slept the night with them. And now we're home! It's so good to be home! The only thing I have planned in the next three weeks it Alexander's B-day (can you believe he'll be three on July 8th). Then we'll be going back to Orlando for a week to spend with Bob's parents and uncle. It's one of the hazards of moving to FL! :)