Backyard Fun

Will enjoying his popsicle!

We spent the day in the backyard playing on the pool with our friend Henry. What will we do without Henry?? It makes me too sad to think about.

Will's Happy Place

This picture captures Will's happy place: soft blanket #1 on the left, soft blanket #2 on the right, a bottle in his mouth, and his quilts all around him. I swear we have our own little Linus at our house. Alex was never really into bottles, and his attachment toy of choice is still "dog-dog" the stuffed animal (although in recent months curious George is also sleeping beside him on a daily basis.) Will on the other hand LOVES his bottle, and hardly goes anywhere in the house without one of his 2 favorite blankets. When we get him out of bed in the morning, he always has one in his hand. As soon as he discards it somewhere between the boy’s room and the kitchen, I make sure to stash in back in his bed. Not 10 minutes will go by before he has gone back into his room to find one, if not both, of the blankets. He pulls whichever one he can reach out of his crib, or screeches until his brother will help him, and then does a strange little ritual of throwing the blanket on the floor and rubbing his little face into it, all while cooing and giggling (at the blanket)! This little boy has changed our lives; we could not adore him more.

Preschool Graduation

Christie, Kelly, Mary, Lynette
Alex, Aislyn, Henry, Ella

We have been so busy thinking about Alan’s upcoming graduation, we have hardly thought another important graduation in the Curtis Family: Alex’s preschool graduation! Last night the festivities were held at our good friends the Scoresby’s home. All of the preschool families joined together for a great celebration in honor of the 3-year-olds. Each preschooler was given a memory book made by the moms with pictures and memories of the great year they all shared. All kids will be continuing on next year, except Alex, who is going to have to adjust to brand new preschool in Arizona. We will miss our preschool buddies more than they know!

And so it begins...

I have been in the stuck in the stage of "about to start packing" for a week, which means I have been pulling things out of my cupboards slowly, but had yet actually put anything in a box. Alan's at school, Will's in bed, and Alex and I decided to tackle the already disastourous kitchen.What a mess!! One box down, many to go. (By the way, no part of the picture is staged. I turned around to take a look at our project and couldn't resist snapping this!!)

Girls Night Out!

Me, Cathy, Carrie and Jen

Tim and Faith!

My friend Jen's husband was given 4 box tickets to the Faith Hill/Tim McGraw concert, so Jen invited me and our friends Cathy and Carrie to join her! The seats were great and we had a blast. When Jen picked me up I realized I hadn't been away from the boys AT ALL in over a month and a half. It was so great to spend a night with girlfriends and the concert was awesome! This morning I woke up with a very hoarse voice from all of the screaming!!

22 Days and Counting

Whenever I get on the computer, the first thing I see on our Google homepage is a large countdown screen that has been informing us for the past few months of the days, hours, minutes and seconds remaining until Alan's final graduation from the academic world. For as long as I have known Alan, he has been a student. And he is not one of those students that attends classes for the sake of getting the credit and moving on- this man enjoys learning. Early on in our marriage when he was taking his first anatomy class, I remember thinking it was strange how he would come home and want to tell me all about it- as if he thought I would sincerely be interested (which of course I was not). As the years have gone by (and were going on 8 this fall) Alan has taken innumerable classes having to do with everything from organic chemistry to accounting to lectures on orthodontic practice management. Truth be told I know the names of very few of those classes, because after the first few years I just stopped asking, and he stopped telling. When people ask me what Alan's thesis is on, I have had to respond with the truth: "I have no idea." What I do know is that when I turned on the computer a few months ago and saw the clock counting down, I realized that after living his whole life as a student, I think he is really ready to move on. It’s a huge leap for us- a mind-boggling, life-changing, can’t wrap our head around it change. I hope we’re ready!
(the picture is of Alan at his UCLA graduation 6/04)

We're Back!

So after our month long vacation, the boys and I got back last Friday and things are just now starting to settle down! We had a great time visiting Park City, and then spending 3 weeks all over southern California in Oceanside, Newport and LA. It was great to reconnect with both of our extended families and so many of our amazing friends from growing up and our time at UCLA.
Now it's back to real life in Dallas. Alan has been working like crazy to finish his thesis in time for his August 11 graduation. Meanwhile at home Alex and I are working like crazy to get him potty-trained! I can't believe how intense it has been- I was not prepared. This is something they just don't talk about much when you discuss the challenges of having children with people. It's been an emotional roller coaster (boy, don't I sound dramatic!) for both of us, but the light is starting to shine at the end of the tunnel. We made great progress this afternoon, which I hope will continue through tomorrow. Alex has to be fully potty-trained before he can start the preschool I have him registered for, and his first day is in mid-August.
Which brings me to our next big project- packing! We are Arizona bound in less than 4 weeks and I'm in denial. That's all I'm going to say about that for now!
ps- I love that Alan posted to the blog while I was away! That picture of Alex is scary- what kind of parent let's their little boy ride on that big scary ride?! I will try to sort through more pics from the trip soon.

Christie and the boys at the Beach

Christie and the boys pose for a picture at the beach!

Beach Trip 6/2006

Alex, Cousin Jackson and Uncle Todd go for a ride on the Log Flume at the San Diego County Fair duiring our beach trip to Newport Beach and Oceanside.





























Alex and His Daddy pose for a picture at the Padres Giants Game!

Last week the boys and I went blueberry picking, one of our favorite things to do here in Texas! We had great success this time since Alex could actually help. He loved wearing his "picking gloves" and was a real fan of the "pink blueberries" (the ones that weren't ripe yet.) Will on the other hand didn't have as much fun, since some creature in the blueberry bush bit him five times on his right hand and he had an allergic reaction. After some Tylenol and Benedryl he felt much better. He did enjoy wearing my hat, though! Doesn't he look cute?! We put all of our blueberries in the freezer right away, so that when we get home from our travels we will be able to make our favorite blueberry muffins.

Alex and his good friend Henry had a great day Friday playing in the backyard! They had a picnic lunch, went swimming in our little pool and played with our bucket of balls for hours! Meanwhile Henry's mom Mary was buying a house, and I was selling our house! It was a crazy fun day!

 

Alex has a new best friend! Just when I thought that Thomas the Tank Engine obsession was the stage-that-would-never-end, Alex is on the rebound with George. Thanks to Nana for sending the monkey and the companion book- which we have been reading from every night since it arrived last week! Don't you love how Alex is staring at George so adoringly??

Will is walking all over the place and is so very proud! This kid keeps me busier then I ever thought possible. I'm always telling people he is out of my league, because I'm just so overwhelmed by his sheer determination to do everything dangerous. We were eating chinese food the other night and I handed him his first fortune cookie of his life, and I'm not kidding-- it said "When there's a will, there's a way." That is this child's motto.

 

Alex and Mom at the Party!

Okay, so we started messing around with this blog thing a while ago, but didn't get very into it. Now, Alan has challenged me to start posting! And since we do live so far from our family and lots of our friends, and I STILL don't know how to resize our digital pictures so they can be small enough to email, I figure I will accept the challenge.
Our latest major event was Alex's 3rd birthday! I'm still in shock that he is 3! We had a backyard party with sprinklers, swimming and Alex's special request- a Spiderman pinata! It was a great time.

 

Alex's 3rd Birthday party- taking a swing at the Spiderman pinata! 

Happy easter at the park. Sir william and Alexander the great!

Alex enjoys his tub time. Especially when he can have the tub (and his duckies) to himself after brother william leaves the tub.

 

William Jackson Curtis