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Monday, January 28, 2013

The Mighty BFFs Demolish Candy Canes and Return to Earth Safely

It's been two full months since Alexandra's grandma moved to the area and started watching her, which means two full months since I've watched her. She had been coming to our house at least a couple days a week since she was three months old, and she's now two years and three months old. Man, have we missed that little girl at our house. And from what her parents say, she misses her boys and her Dawnee too.

Her mom and I had been trying to get together for the past few weeks but we were all sick and then she and her family were sick, so finally after a long time apart, we got together again. The kids had such a blast (and Jamie I did okay too) that we decided Alex should come over again soon while her mom got some work done. Today was the day!

Alex's very first day at our house. She was three months old,
the boys were 20 months old. I think it was love at first sight.
Back then they called her "Baby Akiss"
The boys were surprised and excited to see Alex when her dad dropped her off this morning, and we had a busy day. She seems to be getting back at the boys for all the time they spent bossing her around. She can now tell them exactly what she wants them to do and vividly display her displeasure when they do not do what she wants. They totally deserve every bit of that.

Aside for a stubborn standoff or two, they all got along perfectly. I'm sure we'll do it again soon. She cried and cried when she had to leave and she called Cal and Clark "her boys," which made me want to cry a little. I'm so glad that she remembers us...seems like at her age it would be easy to forget.

I wanted to do something special for her visit. I had candy canes sitting around from Christmas, and had noticed online that a friend of mine had made some cookies with crushed candy canes. I know how much my boys like to crush/break/damage/smash/demolish/destroy/obliterate things so thought I'd try that. They all three smashed up the candy canes with rolling pins and we used them like sprinkles on our sugar cookies.

Three little chipmunks helping with cookie dough
Crushing candy canes!
Cutting...
Placing...
Sprinkling with candy cane sprinkles
Maybe they ate a few chunks too...
They were surprisingly picky about getting
all the chunks in place.
Pretty
Of course, once the boys realized that having Alex over meant there were three kids here, they immediately assigned  flight suits and set up their Apollo 13 mission. They are always Jack and Jim from Apollo 13, and spend a fair amount of time talking about how one day Peapod can be Fred, to complete the Apollo 13 team. Well, today Alexandra got to be Fred. I'm happy to report that despite the explosion in the oxygen tank, the Apollo 13 astronauts survived and returned home to my Mission Control Center's wild applause.

Apollo 13 astronauts: Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert, and Fred Haise are ready to take off!
Houston, we have a problem.
Okay, Houston, we figured it out.
It was the blue and purple buttons.
Made it back safely! Thanks, Mommy Houston
Alex explains to the boys The Way to jump.
I'm so happy they have each other as friends. Being together for those few years was such a blessing for everyone involved.

And if you think that day didn't wear me out, you're wrong. I'm not sure how I did it for so long.

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