May has been a busy month

We've been having a fun month. Alexander's school had a Mother's Day Tea. It was really adorable. We had to line up outside and our child met us at the door. Alexander said, "Mommy, I'd like to invite you to tea." Then he took my hand and brought me to our seats. We had muffins, fruit, and hot tea. They had a variety of tea bags to choose from and Alexander even wanted hot tea. He loved his pomagranate tea.
 

Then the kids went up on stage and sang songs for us. I especially liked the song, "Yes, Mommy Loves Me" to the tune of "Yes, Jesus Loves Me." Then they sang it in Spanish, too. It was adorable!

One of the staff members at the school is a professional photographer. She took pictures of us with our child and then put them in the kids' cubbies the next week. I thought ours came out great!


You know I love to take pictures of Alexander sleeping. Here are two pictures from this month. This first one, I had too keep myself from laughing too loud so I wouldn't wake him up.

His animals are all over him in this picture because he asked me to cover him with them before he fell asleep.

Alexander has been doing gymnastics. Last week, they had a program for the parents. It was funny and adorable. The kids were really cute. Bob enjoyed it, too and thought we should get Glenn into gymnastics, too. For most of the shots, he was moving too fast. But I did catch a few.

 

They did some stretches before getting started.

This is Alexander doing a bridge.

He did a back flip.

 

Holding on to the bar, he inched his way across.

Then he held his arm straight above the bar (needed a little help to stay up there).

Alexander likes to pose with the dogs. 

My brother and his family came in town for a night. The boys had so much fun, as you can tell.

 

We had some friends over to hang out at the pool on Saturday. Glenn got dress up for the occassion.

Did you notice the blue clip on tie?

They had watermelon after swimming for a while.

 

Alexander posing with the puppies, again.

 

I have finished my grading for my last term before summer. Bob is already lining up projects for me at the office. I had my first health blog post on our business website. Click the link to view it: What is COPD?

Alexander's 2011 Album

I finally completed Alexander's 2011 photo album. I did Glenn's months ago. If you'd like to view it, just click on the link (hopefully this works): Alexander 2011 If the link above doesn't work, you can copy and paste this nice long link into your browser: http://app.picaboo.com/WebView/Project.aspx?clientID=fa0fdccd9646549c25326e562d4f630e&version=226669&siteID=FB-WallShare&ref=nf

Gardening and other events

Last time I posted, Alexander was sick. Well, it appears he has the same virus again. It was just a cold virus, but causes high fevers in him. Last time, it took 6 days for it to go away. Hopefully it won't take that long this time. Here he is cuddling with Daddy (Bob asked me to crop him out).

 

My garden is doing really well. I built the squares and I had put pavers around them, too. However, Bob decided to redo it. It really does look better. The first square has several herbs, Swiss chard, celery and strawberries; it has a chive border. The middle square has tomatoes (three species), kohlrabi, banana peppers, and spinach; it has a small flower border. The final square has seedless cucumbers that will grow up a trelis to save space, green bush beans, eggplant, zuchinni, and pattypan squash; it has a marigold border.  

Everything is growing well, except the spinach. After I planted it, I learned I should have waited until fall; all salad greens grow better in the fall here. I'm excited to have a year round garden. I'll be growing salad greens, potatoes, broccoli, cauliflour and anything else I find grows well in the fall. Here's another view of the garden.

 

 

I have two flowers on the eggplants. I thought that the flower was so pretty, and I like the purple veins in the leaves, too
 

Here's proof that I have tomatoes growing. So far, the Big Boy and Roma tomatoes are producing. I can't remember what the other type of tomatoe plant is.
 

I have a lot of potted plants on our pool patio. Here are some more herbs, which are very convenient to have right by the back door (clockwise from left, Italian flat leaf parsley, rosemary and a small dill plant, Greek oregano, and chocolate mint that smell so yummy!).
 

 

I had to put in this cute picture of Cubby. He takes over his brother's bed whenever he can. We have a nickname for him, Cubby the Destroyer. He is a chewer. We have a ton of toys for him to chew, but he has found that puzzle pieces, ottomons and paper are much tastier. Alexander loves to get into London's bed and pet Cubby on his lap.

I also have some work related news. I've been feeling a bit overwhelmed teaching two sections of a course, working three mornings a week at Bob's office, and the regular mom running around. It will definitely be a little easier once Alexander's in kindergarden and at the same school as Glenn, but that won't happen until fall of 2013 (and I don't want my baby to grow up that fast). So, I had told my boss that I would like to just do one section of the course at a time (one section has 30 students). I had also told her about my summer plans and had asked for her advice. She promised to give me a section when I'm ready to come back if I wanted to take a couple months off. So, after much though, I decided to do it. So, I will have all of June and July off. Although, Bob pointed out as I was telling my mother this news that I wasn't getting any time off from my other job (in his office). Thanks, Honey! But I'll actually get to enjoy the boys being home instead of trying to do work while they are playing. I will also be able to enjoy our trip to the Virginia mountains (which includes a day trip to Washington DC) and our cruise with Bob's family.

Easter

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter! My dad was here for the weekend. The boys love making him do all kinds of things. But Glenn was not able to make him play Wii. :)

Alexander was sick all weekend. He started with a high temperature Saturday, but not quite a fever. So, our friends who had us over for dinner said to bring him anyway. Well, it turned into a fever while we were there. He had fun, anyway. I just hope he didn't get them sick. Bob stayed home with Alexander Sunday morning while Glenn, my dad and I went to church. So, no family picture of us wearing our Easter best this year. Here's Alexander just before I left for church:

 

I made us Easter dinner: smoked turkey, twice baked sweet potatoes complete with marshmallows on top, and candied carrots followed by chocolate caramel pecan pie. Alexander wanted to just sit in the pool, so he did that while watching Glenn and my dad swim. Then we did an Easter egg hunt. Yes, the boys are wearing boots (Alexander's don't even fit him, they're huge):

 

 

 

 

 

Bob brought Cubby into Alexander's room last night when I was putting him to bed. Cubby cuddle right up with him. Alexander was afraid to move because he was afraid Cubby would leave. But then he left Alexander's room when we got up to leave.

 

Today, Glenn went back to school, Bob back to work, and I stayed home with Alexander. His fever is at it's highest right now (103), poor little guy. He's resisting a nap, but hopefully I can get him to take one.

Our New Addition

So, we went to a nearby flea market to get some local fruits and veggies. They had some puppies there being sold by breeders. We looked at all of them and exclaimed how cute they were when Bob said that there were two little long-haired chihuahuas. He got all puppy-eyed and asked if we should take one out. There was a cute little teacup chihuahua, that the breeder said would get no more than 4 pounds. He was 1 lb, 10 oz as of last week and is 12 weeks old. Well, as you can tell, we got him. He is so adorable. The breeder said he's a big cuddler. His coloring is called grizzly because of the black down his back. So, I was thinking of calling him Bear. Then we were talking about a show the boys like, Jake and the Neverland Pirates on Disney. One of the boys is called Cubby. So, everyone liked that. He's our little bear cub!

London and Cubby got along right away. When we introduced them, both their tails were wagging like crazy. London followed him around a lot, but then got tired and is now sleeping at my feet. Cubby is having fun exploring the house. I hope he lets me sleep tonight. Here are a couple pictures: