I spent a lot of the last few days rereading the blogs I've wrote in the past hoping to get ideas of how to get started doing this again. I really enjoyed taking a trip down memory lane... not remembering some of the moments until I read about them. I love that I have this to look back on and so does Alyssa. So... in order to get this blog up to date even more than my last post, I decided I would do something similar to You're Gonna Miss This and just describe the last year and a half by breaking it down into different time periods and by posting pictures to go along with those time periods (some pictures will be repeated). So here it goes...
Winter/Spring 2009
Nothing too memorable during this time except that Alyssa and I both spent about 13 hours per day away from the house. The typical schedule Wednesday-Friday (since she was at her dad's on Mondays and Tuesdays) looked like this:
- 5:45- leave the house; drop Alyssa off at my dad and Tracy's while I go to work
- 7:30- leave work and head to my student teaching placement
- 3:00- return to work from student teaching
- 6:00- leave work; go pick up Alyssa
- 6:30- go home and eat dinner
- 7:00- bedtime routine... bath, relax, stories
- 9:00- Alyssa's bedtime; the start of my schoolwork
- 11:00- my bedtime
Bowling
Roller Skating (playing "dead bug")
Mother's Day 2009
As we did on my first Mother's Day, I decided I wanted to continue the tradition of going to the beach even though we missed it my 2nd Mother's Day. We stayed overnight in Rehoboth Beach at a hotel I remember fondly from my childhood. Fortunately we had great weather on Mother's Day this year-- a little too great as I came home looking like a lobster, despite the application of sunscreen. Alyssa had a blast though! It was a little too chilly to go in the water so she and Matt spent the time playing in the sand... while I took pictures.
Graduation- May 16, 2009
I mentioned in my last post about what graduation meant to me, especially to have my little girl cheering me on in the stands. It was a dream come true! And my graduation party was just as great.
Summer 2009
Summer was really exciting! Alyssa attended daycare and was in a preschool classroom-- one in which she went on field trips. It was weird to think of my little girl on a big school bus but she loved it! She learned how to write her name and would rarely nap (no surprise there). Outside of school, Alyssa was able to have her real beach experience one weekend in July. To say my child loved the sand and water is an understatement! I couldn't get her out of the water. In fact, I had to pick her up, kicking and screaming, as I carried her off the beach-- no easy task might I add. But her excitement for the beach was captivating. You couldn't help but to be happy and laugh at how much fun she was having. Besides the beach, we also went to carnivals, the Kutztown Folk Festival, and lots of picnics. Though we didn't go on any big vacations again this summer, Alyssa and I took plenty of day trips. It was a summer to remember!
Kutztown Folk Festival
Laying out!
Fall 2009
Again, I mentioned a little bit about our fall in my previous post so I don't want to get into that again. However, I can say this, fall was never boring! Be it days at the park or a very high fever in September, everything that happened in October, or the wait to find out about my job, there was never a dull moment.
Halloween
Lacking a creative idea for costumes this past year and refusing to spend a fortune on one for Alyssa and myself, I decided to go through our closets and see what I could come up with. After finding several bright clothing items, I knew exactly what our costumes were going to be! Though I've joked in the past about having the perfect 80s hairdo, it never occurred to me that I would actually use that to my advantage one day. So, a few days before Halloween, I set out to find the tackiest bracelet, earrings, and necklaces I could find, as well as leg-warmers and anything bright that I could finagle into our costumes... completely set on the idea of an 80s-themed costume. Though we were not anyone in particular, I think I did okay on the low budget I was working with. It turns out 80s "trash" was a popular costume for Halloween since two of my friends ended up dressing in similar costumes.
Alyssa's 4th Birthday
If you've followed my blog, you will know that when coming up with a theme for Alyssa's birthday I like to go with something that symbolizes the past year...
- 1st birthday- duck theme (because of her love rubber ducks)
- 2nd birthday- Mickey and Minnie (obviously because of the cruise)
- 3rd birthday- Tinkerbell (she loved "Tink ball")
Portraits
Why is it that I always seem to have an interesting experience when getting Alyssa's pictures taken... be it family portraits, her 1st birthday portraits, or her 2nd birthday portraits. This time, we got a photographer who didn't seem to know what she was doing. Add to that, Alyssa is difficult to take pictures of because she fake smiles now. These 2 factors made for a very long and excruciating photo session, but as always Sears does not disappoint! Surprisingly the pictures turned out pretty good.
Christmas
One thing I can honestly say is that Christmas really is a favorite time of year for me because of how much fun it is for Alyssa. This year I wanted to get a head start on my shopping and decided to join the hundreds of other people at midnight on Thanksgiving/Black Friday to wait outside in the freezing cold and rain just to get the deals that awaited us inside Toys R Us. And boy did I! 3 hours and 2 shopping carts later, Alyssa's Christmas shopping was done. Better yet, Christmas morning did not disappoint. So glad we had the playroom to put all of the toys in seeing as how I would have had nowhere to go with them if not. I'm hoping next Christmas she doesn't remember how much she got because I'm not sure I will find deals like that again and we'd have to move to a bigger house! Haha
Christmas Eve at church
(a little afraid Santa was still there)
Winter 2010
This was definitely a winter to remember! My first job where I actually get paid for snow days and was able to use them. I was happy for that because they were certainly needed! Back to back snowstorms put several feet of snow on the ground. I was positive we were going to be snowed in until June. At the first falling snowflake, Alyssa was ready to get dressed in her snowsuit and boots and go outside to play in it. Little did she know that I could've dropped her in the snow and she would've been buried by it! She loved it though. She took her little beach shovel and tried helping me and Poppy dig our way out of the snow. It was priceless. Unfortunately, that was the extent of our time in the snow since by the time you got to the sidewalk, your whole body was frozen. Those leg warmers I bought for Halloween came in VERY handy!
Dance and Soccer Mom
This past winter, I got a taste of what it was like to be a dance mom and a soccer mom. Alyssa started dance classes in February and by April I pulled her out because I was not happy with the place she was going to. They lack a certain professionalism that I believe dance studios should have. But she loved dance, so in the fall she will be going to a different studio after I've had time to do some research.
In March, I signed Alyssa up for a 1-month soccer class at BodyZone. I thought it would be a good way for her to get out some of her pent up energy. She liked the running and kicking the ball part of the class, BUT she didn't like the listening part! Needless to say, I didn't continue her in soccer for the month of April. With the warmer weather, I figured I could work with her on the same things (and her listening skills) and then we'd try it again in the future.
Easter 2010
What a great age Alyssa is at for Easter and all things Easter related. Aunt Angie and I took the girls on an Easter train ride with the Easter bunny. It was so much fun. Alyssa really enjoyed everything Easter this year... dying eggs, going to egg hunts, dressing in her Easter outfit. She especially loved the egg hunt Easter day in our backyard.
***That pretty much brings us to the current time with a couple of blogs I plan on writing about Mother's Day, Bring Your Child to Work, and our trip to North Carolina. I also have a lot of more recent spring photos I want to share that don't really fall under a category so I may just post a blog with photos and no writing (take you back to the days of pictures books). Once I post about those, I will be caught up and hopefully I won't let any time lapse before I blog again.***
No comments:
Post a Comment