WinklerWorld: Our little corner of the web

january projects

Alexander and his "pretty smile" with a letter for Grammy & Grandpapa

We like to do little projects from time to time and did a few fun ones this month- especially around snow and snowmen. Alexander loves to paint and he loves to use a gluestick. He's okay at coloring at least for a little while, especially if it's coloring in a picture, or when he creates his own, he gets to stick some stickers on it afterwards. This month we also wrote a couple of letters- and because he always has so much to say, he'll even dictate some of what he wants on it and then he'll point to the paper and say it again if he doesn't see me write it down right away. He repeats every word I say as we write. I've noticed that in these past 22 months I am

accumulating quite a craft folder for Alexander, and at this rate storage may come to be a problem by say, age 5. So I made an effort to scan (and merge) some projects to post to our little family journal. Of course you can tell where mommy gets to help (okay, I did most of the snowflake but isn't it pretty??), but he has his part in everything from smearing the glue, placing pieces and pressing things down, folding, and putting the letter in the envelope, to stamps and rinsing his brush when he's done. What fun we have :).

By Winkler World Online
On Saturday, January 31, 2009
At 9:15 PM
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Chef Zahzah

For Christmas, Nana got Alexander his very own little kitchen. He absolutely loves cooking, baking you name it with Mama and for the past several months he's been quite content to have a couple bowls, mixing spoons, empty spice jars and dry pasta to stir around. But after Nana made him a little 'pantry' out of a cardboard box and posterboard stove at her house, she was convinced (and rightly so) that a little kitchen would make this toddler's heart dance. With all the presents and excitement we held the 'reveal' off a bit until the winter quieted down but on a snowy evening this week, Nana came over for supper and afterwards we had a big surprise in store for Alexander.

We made him sit down with his eyes closed for a 'surprise.' He held out his hands for a present of some sort, and Papa brought it out from the other room. When he opened his eyes he was surprised to see something so big in front of him and didn't quite know what to make of it until we told him what it was and showed him all the bells and whistles. Then he was sucked in. He played with nothing else for a week.

It's still one of his favorite toys and spends a lot of time stirring, cracking the egg, cutting the little plastic fruits, and baking cakes, pancakes, smoothies etc... He's got a little basket we covered with a blanket for a table, and though David will insist that our son does not have teaparties, he does have a lot of breakfasts and birthday parties for Mama, Papa, and Tatou (and Curious George). And his imagination has just exploded. He can play 'tend' (pretend) with pretty much anything from foods of all kinds, cleaning up pretend messes, to bringing 'tend cream for bum' on the occasion that Mama didn't have any in the diaper bag. It's been a delight to watch his little development flourish over the past couple months along with his vocabulary. And Nana tells Papa not to worry often, most of the best chefs in the world are guys. Maybe he's just getting an early start. (But just for the record, he also loves to play 'diggers.')

By Winkler World Online
On Saturday, January 24, 2009
At 9:50 PM
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You know you've had a good nap when...

By Winkler World Online
On Saturday, January 17, 2009
At 10:52 AM
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Alexander in the Snow

(If you watch the video in YouTube itself you can click on "watch in High Quality" and actually see our faces!)

By Winkler World Online
On Tuesday, January 13, 2009
At 7:38 AM
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A New Bed in the House

With the new little one on the way, we've been a bit indecisive as to how things are going to work out sleeping-wise for these two brothers. Will they each have their own room, and we'd lose the guest room? Will they share a room? Would it be the bigger room with more space or the nursery? Should we buy a toddler bed for Alexander and brother would sleep in the crib? After much scouting about, pricing everything out, and talking over all the options, we finally decided last weekend that it might be best to let Alexander keep his bed, and check out something new for the baby. Though Alexander liked the idea of a 'big boy bed' we think he thought he would have to sleep at the store because he was so averse to trying anything out and he kept saying "no bed- home!" But when he got to see little buddy David's new toddler bed, he was very excited to be able to climb out and in, so we finally figured we should take the chance and see what happened when we took the rail down from his crib.

Well-- he was ecstatic. "Own," he's been saying. "Zahzah's Bed!" ever since. He loves to climb in and out and crawl under his quilt and cover up with all his "backies" (blankies). He insists on having this little pink pillow in the bed though he doesn't use it, and likes to make his bed every day by arranging his quilt and putting all the stuffies at the foot. He stays in bed just fine throughout the night and still calls us to come get him in the morning. Sometimes when he wakes up after nap he'll come out to his door and open it and call for Mama. The biggest challenge was at first getting him to still have quiet story and 'settling' time for nap in the afternoons because he's been too excited wanting to hop right into bed.- to play of course. But now that he's getting more used to things, it's working itself out.

With the success of Alexander's bed we found a good price on a beautiful used crib with mattress on Craig's List and last Friday, Alexander was very pleased to help put together "Brother's Bed." We still don't have any decisions on where brother will be sleeping (hopefully in the basinnet in our room for the first little while) but sometimes Alexander seems happy to "share" his room, and sometimes he wants brother to sleep in the guest room. (Alex calls it the "wrap room" 'cause we wrapped all the presents in there at Christmastime). So we'll see. But here are a couple pics of the newest little bed assembly for baby brother.

By Winkler World Online
On Friday, January 09, 2009
At 10:22 PM
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Announcing.....

Though this will come as no surprise to most everyone by now, we are pleased to officially blog the announcement of the newest little member of our family. With God's blessing, we're expecting a new little baby boy to join our family at the end of April! Here's a first little clip of his profile at 20 weeks.

Alexander is very excited about the new baby, and has enjoyed talking about him and looking on the calendar to see when the "baby come." He likes to feel him kicking in Muma's tummy and has taken new interests in the doll at Nana's house and taking care of Curious George (brushing his "hair," changing his "poopy diaper etc...) There will be a lot of adjustments for Alexander. Already while rocking at naptime the other day he said the baby/mama's tummy was in the way. We're sure there will be some rough moments at first, but we've gotten some good tips from people, and I think that in time he's going to love being the "big" brother. He loves being helpful, and will have fun teaching baby brother so many new things.