Maybe Alethea doesn’t know Sesame Street as well as I thought she did.  Today she was looking at the Sponge Bob towel that was laying on the floor with clothes drying on it.  She pointed at Patrick (the starfish) and said “Emo!”  I tried telling her that it was Patrick, but she was very insistent that it was Elmo.  Oh well.

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I went to Sherwin Williams and bought paint for Alethea’s big girl room.  Instead of going with any of the pre-mixed options, I took my multitude of paint samples and whipped up my own color.  It only took me 8 or so tries and several hours to finally get the “perfect” gray.  Not too light, not too dark, not too blue, not too tan.  I think it’s all for the best, but the rule follower in me feels weird using an “unofficial” color.

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The baby has been moving around a lot more lately.  It seems to me that her movements are a bit less forceful than Alethea’s were at about the same age, but maybe that’s just me hoping not to have two very assertive children who are only 20 months apart.

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I know everyone says Alethea looks like Peter, and she does.  But the other day my sister-in-law Julie over at TheAnticsoftheThree22nds posted pictures of her youngest three at around 5-6 months.  I still think that the person Alethea looks most like is her cousin Roman.

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I’m super excited about our Labor Day Block Party this weekend.  We are hosting it at our house.  I told Peter that I was going to do red, white and blue for the paper goods and decorations.  He said that Labor Day isn’t a red, white and blue kind of holiday.  What color is it then?

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I’m trying to score a cheap dresser and nightstand off craigslist for Alethea’s room.  Only problem is I think I need a really narrow dresser.  The wall seemed long enough for bunk beds and a dresser, but when I actually measured it out I ended up with about 27 inches for the dresser.  I really want to keep my room arrangement how I have it planned out though, so I think I’ll keep hunting for a narrow-but-tall dresser.

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We had a relaxing, if not terribly interesting 4th of July.  After going to church in the morning, it was nap time for me and Alethea while Peter watched the Twins game.  Then we played in the yard for a while, had dinner and Alethea went to bed.  We decided not to keep her up for fireworks, since she was likely to be scared of them anyway.  Later, Peter and I tried to have a fire in the backyard, but we gave up after the mosquitoes drove us inside.  Like I said, relaxing, though not that interesting.

I did get a kick out of seeing Alethea dressed up in her 4th of July outfit though:

Alethea had fun taking off the outfit and running around in her Splash and Play mat:

And Peter and I both cracked up over the mat’s warning label:

“No Diving”… Is that really necessary on a toy that has 1 inch of water at its deepest point?  Apparently someone in the Fisher Price legal department thought so.

Sorry for not posting more this week.  Things have been a little crazy.

So, besides piano lessons and normal stuff, this week I was also part of the dramatic reading for the Good Friday service at our church.  It was a cool reading, but I’m glad I’m done having drama practices.  The service went well though and I have to say, I think Good Friday might be my favorite service of the year at our church.  It is always so thought provoking and meaningful.

Saturday we prepared Easter dinner.  Alethea was very helpful, patiently watching me cook from her high chair.  She was even so gracious as to taste test the mashed potatoes:

Saturday evening we had our friends Chris, Amie and Drew over for an impromptu dinner party.  I was a little worried that Alethea would be upset when Drew played with her toys, but she wasn’t at all.  She just seemed interested in watching what he was going to do with each toy.

This morning Alethea got dressed up in one of my childhood dresses to go to church:

We went to church and attended a lovely service.  Then we came home and had our Easter dinner with Peter’s brother Steve and our neighbors Jo and David.  The menu: ham, potatoes, green beans, rolls, salad and ‘Tunnel of Fudge’ chocolate cake for dessert.  Everyone thought the food was exceptionally good, except Alethea who didn’t eat well and wasn’t very appreciative of the quality of the food offered to her.  However, her afternoon wasn’t a total loss as she was delighted with the giant pink bunny Jo and David brought her:

She also eagerly dug into her Easter basket from Mommy and Daddy.  As predicted, the grass in the bottom was as much fun for Alethea as the toys on top.

Between the two services at church, good food, and lots of time spent with friends and family, I’d say we had an enjoyable and uplifting Easter weekend.

Today we put up Peter’s Christmas gift to me:

We also put up my Christmas gift to Peter:

What I thought would be the work of a few hours took most of the day, but it is done now and looks great.  These things always seem to take longer than I think they should.

If a picture is worth a thousand words and I’m waaayyy behind in my blogging, then posting a whole bunch of pictures makes up for lack of posting in recent days, right?

It didn't take Alethea long to decide that it was best to just ignore the tree. Sharp needles made their point.

Alethea helps Daddy decorate the Christmas tree

Alethea likes anything that looks like something she shouldn't have... computers, papers, electrical cords, coffee cups.... whatever!

When the new hat that Great Grandmother Ruth made for Alethea came in the mail, Peter pulled it out and said, "It looks huge!" But guess what? It fits great thanks to her beautiful bobble head.

Getting a good picture for our Christmas card this year was an adventure. Someone wasn't in a festive mood.

We spent a fantastic 4th of July weekend sailing Lake Superior off the coast of Bayfield, WI with Peter’s parents, John and Denny, his sister Leah and her friend Hannah.  Alethea was quite the trooper and did well sleeping in the pack-and-play at night.  She also slept the majority of the car ride there and back as well as a great deal of the time we were out in the sailboat.  The fireworks on the 4th were big enough to set off car-alarms on the street outside the condo, but she slept through those as well.  When she was awake she was smiley and talkative, so all-in-all, she was an easy baby.

However…

Her good mood did not extend to being put in her new pretty pink lifejacket:

No baby yet, so since I don’t have pictures of my own child to post, I thought I’d post this cute picture of two of my nephews who came over yesterday to decorate Easter eggs.

Easter Egg Decorating

We had a great time making funny character eggs with the kit I bought.  Deacon worked hard on the fireman, princess and soccer player eggs, while Roman was quite proud of his cowboy and baseball player eggs.  As for the scary looking egg on the end in the pink hat, that was decorated by Uncle Peter.