This past Sunday, I turned 33! Hard to believe another year has come and gone! Alexa and I enjoyed dinner at Sarducci's in Montpelier on Saturday evening in the company of Minna and Ptah, as well as some new friends (well, an old friend for Minna!), Sandy and her husband. Sandy and my mom went to high school together in Fair Lawn, NJ and Sandy's family have made their home in Plainfield, VT for nearly 40 years!

Following dinner, the staff brought out cake and sang "Happy Birthday" to me. Alexa began to cry and held tight to Minna until the singing came to an end. Fortunately, the cake made everything better!

Before we left for dinner, Alexa made sure to grab the candles for Mommy's cake...

Sara and Rachel treated Alexa and I to lunch on Sunday. The girls, Anna, Alexa and Charlotte played with Silly Putty and Alexa taught the others about her favorite restaurant activity...shaking the salt and pepper into a napkin/plate to make "pizza." I don't recall exactly when this began, but Alexa seeks out the salt and pepper shakers almost immediately after we are seated and inevitably she sneezes about 3 minutes into her creation!

On Wednesday, Mother Nature decided to remind us it actually is still Winter in Vermont! She did so with upwards of a foot of very wet snow! Alexa, along with her pony, ventured outdoors with me to shovel, eat snow (A LOT of it), and make a snow angel or two with the kids next door.

Take note of the fists full of snow. Alexa seems to enjoy eating lots of it. Too bad there is no nutritional value in it...I'd feed her snow morning, noon and night!

I managed to keep a smile on my face, despite shoveling several inches of heavy, wet snow. Snow that actually had a hint of blue to it because of the water content in it. I really should have taken a minute to put a hat on....

After a long day, sometimes I want to do this too!!

No day would be complete without a bit of silliness...

It's been a while since we've visited the farm. The winter keeps us indoors mostly and we figure the animals are indoors keeping warm too. We took a ride to the farm to see about advertised horse drawn sleigh rides this past Saturday. Unfortunately, Mother Nature hasn't provided us with much of the white stuff and the horses were busy doing errands in the fields. So instead we took a ride to the Children's Farm Yard and enjoyed a brief visit with some of the resident sheep, a rogue goat and some chickens!

During the winter the sheep take over the farm yard and eventually have their lambs (in a few weeks the first will arrive). The area is filled with hay and, this year, a goat was wandering the area snacking on a large mountain of hay! Apparently, the staff were unable to train this particular goat and he has had freedom the others only dream of! Here he is practicing yoga out near the chicken coup!

Ashleigh, her baby brother Blake, and her Mommy and Daddy (Heather & Matt) came along for the visit. Ashleigh, or the The Great Chicken Catcher as we can now call her, demonstrated her chicken catching skills! She makes it look so easy!

We saw some familiar faces...

and as the weather began to grow colder, it seemed only appropriate to work up a sweat...

We are hoping that this week's snow storm will have the horses busy pulling the sled at the Farm this Saturday...that is if we don't get rained on for the next 2 days! Ahhh, winter in Vermont!

Alexa and I decided to go ice skating! We met up with Jailee and her dad, Doug and we were pleasantly surprised to see some old friends, Milissa and her daughter Stella. Minna and Ptah came to take some pictures and cheer us on.

Leddy Park Ice Arena offers a drop in program called "Itty Bitty Ice Skating" for kids of all ages. I never imagined there would be so many little ones on skates! I was actually impressed with how well some of these little guys could move around the ice! Alexa, in typical Alexa fashion, showed no fear and was eager to get going. The program offers these stacked milk crates as a support for first timers and beginners. This was incredibly helpful although I have a stiff back from crouching over to assist Alexa over the course of the hour!

Alexa took a break to use the potty...(have I mentioned she's COMPLETELY POTTY TRAINED! WOO-HOO!!) and when we returned all of the children were coming off of the ice. Needless to say, Alexa was slightly disappointed! She was ready to get going again. Jailee was not thrilled when the hour came to an end either. This picture says it all. Two girls who cannot wait to get back on the ice!.

What a personality this little girl has got! We haven't been up to anything exceptionally exciting in the past few weeks. Keeping busy with our regular routine: daycare, ballet class, swimming class and playdates with good friends from time to time. Alexa is really continuing to demonstrate the indepedent and intelligent little person that she is. She insists on helping in almost all circumstances, from preparing meals, to cleaning up a spill, brushing her own teeth and even driving the car (see previous post, she's not really driving)!

She really has a way with words too! This week as we were finishing up our evening routine, washing hands and face and brushing our teeth, Alexa snuck one last pump of the soap dispenser. I looked at her and firmly said, "No! That's enough soap for tonight." Alexa vehemently stated, "You can't say no to me. I Alexa Paige!" It was hard not to crack a smile. Where did this sassiness come from?

According to Alexa's daycare provider, Tammy, she has been using her words to express herself very effectively "at school." Tammy recently commented on the significant growth in her vocabulary over the few months that she has been attending daycare. Tonight she told me that her friend Rowan had "1,2,3,4,5 blueberries." I said, "Oh yeah. Then what?" She said, "He had a blue poop." I'm not sure that what Tammy meant when she said Alexa's been using her words!

This afternoon, Minna and I were tickling Alexa's belly button and she said, "You gonna poke holes in my belly." We then explored each other's belly buttons and had a really good giggle! We hid from dragons (a.k.a. Riley and Emma) and we got very nexcited over a game of Peek-a-Boo! We spent the evening swimming and had a great time playing horsies in the pool. Alexa likes topretend that we go na-night in the corner of the pool, a.k.a. the barn and then she shouts, "It's sunshine" which means we all wake up!

Alexa continues to develop confidence in the swimming pool. At the start of a recent class, I had just barely gotten the words of warning out of my mouth, "Alexa, you don't have your wings on..." when she dove right in, only to find she was less bouyant than she had anticipated. Needless to say, I was quickly pulling her back to the surface, fully anticipating choking and tears. To my surprise, she emerged just fine. In fact, she didn't appear all that phased by what had just happened. We finished class sans wings and afterward I put them on and we enjoyed about 45 minutes of swimming and playing together.

Alexa is already anticipating her 3rd birthday. It's hard to believe it's only 2 months away! She has been practicing holding three fingers up to indicate her new age. She's also very excited to light candles on her birthday cake! I'm not sure that she understands that I am having a birthday before hers, but I have a good feeling she's going to be really excited about it!

I found some old photos of Brian and I when we were really little. I often have difficulty seeing any resemblence between Alexa and I despite some that have been pointed out by friends and family. Then I found this picture...

and I thought "That little girl looks familiar!"

Don't know exactly how old I am in this one, maybe 5. Again, I can really see similarities between Alexa and I here!