What's in a Name?

So tonight, while trying to get Michael to sleep, I was looking at some random friends of friends blogs and came across this post. I decided to do it and it turned out pretty funny. Here are my answers:

1. My rock star name (first pet, current car)--K.C. Avalon
2. My gangsta name (favorite ice cream flavor, favorite type of shoe)--Peppermint Crocs
3. My Native American name (favorite color, favorite animal)--Pink Porpoise
4. My soap opera name (middle name, city where you were born)--Michelle Greenville
5. My Star Wars name (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 of your first name)--Gilam
6. My Superhero name (2nd favorite color, favorite drink)--Turquoise Lemonade
7. My NASCAR name (the first names of your grandfathers)--Walter John Patrick
8. My Stripper name (the name of your favorite perfume/cologne/scent, favorite candy)--Tommy Bahama Gummy Bear
9. My TV weather anchor name (your 5th grade teacher’s last name, a major city that starts with the same letter)--Lamont Laramie
10. My Spy name (your favorite season/holiday, flower)--Summer Tulip
11. My Cartoon name: (favorite fruit, article of clothing you’re wearing right now)--Apple Capri
12. My Hippie name (what you ate for breakfast, your favorite tree)--Muffin Magnolia

And YES, I am going to tag some people: Elizabeth, Heather, Annie, Emily, Shauna, and Libby
(that's what you get for being related to me--or being my great friend :)--ok, really, I think you're the only ones who check my blog...)

Four Months Old!

Michael turned four months old today! Here's what we know about our little guy:

-his head sweats--A LOT! (I think he gets this from his namesake!)

-he's got excema and allergies (and possibly asthma)

-he's got really cute dimples in his really chubby cheeks

-his thighs have 3 rolls each

-he will smile at anyone who smiles and talks sweetly to him

-he especially loves it when the girls smile and play with him

-his two bottom teeth just popped through his gums this week

-he's a tough guy--he gnawed his fingers raw teething this week and rarely cries in pain (a certain 3 year old we know loves to "take care" of him)

-when he does cry, it's because he's lonely and wants to be held

-if he had his way, someone would hold him all day and night (and he gets his way most of the time!)

-he is NOT on a schedule or sleeping through the night (how do you do that again??)

-he still loves to sleep tightly swaddled up (I just ordered an extra large swaddle blanket and hope it works like his little swaddleme blanket.)

-we love this little boy a ton and are so glad he's in our family!

Now that he's four months, I'm supposed to be able to start him on solids, but because he's already prone to allergies (hay, blooming things, etc), I'm worried about starting too soon. I've read that waiting until 6 months or later can help with this. Does anyone have any advice?

Art Festival 2008

We went to the art festival today (the same one we went to last year) and had a great time! We met my friend, Laura, and her daughters there. Her oldest (Katrina) is the girls favorite babysitter and her youngest (Elisha) is great friends with Ashley and Paige. We watched Katrina's dance company perform part of the ballet of Cinderella and then spent the day doing all the fun activities at the festival. After Cinderella, the advanced pointe class performed to a really rock-y song wearing black and red dresses, fishnets, and black pointe shoes. It made me remember convincing Miss Susie to let us do our pointe warm up to "cool" songs (I like to move it-move it-I like to move it-move it!) and how I always wanted bright red pointe shoes. Maybe I'll get in really good shape and start dancing again...hmmm. Anyways, this year, we visited all the country displays and they were amazing! The German one had a huge man playing a huge tuba inside the tent. Paige and I were smiling and dancing, so he walked over, still playing, and knelt down next to Paige. Can anyone guess her reaction...yeah--not so great--she liked him MUCH better from a distance. They had a lot of fun making tiger kites in the Malaysian tent, and the lady in the South Korean tent actually let them try on these handmade dresses:

Rockin' out in the music tent:

A yellow balloon and pink ice cream=a perfect treat for Paige!

First Swim of the Year

The temperature has been in the 80s for a while here, so we decided to get the pool out of storage and have a swimming party today! I forgot to get the hose out of storage, so I after about 20 jugs of water from the sink, I only managed to fill it a few inches. We let Michael splash his feet in the water and the girls had a great time playing (and then went and took a long, hot bath!).

Fun Fun Friday!

My sister-in-law's sister has a tradition of doing "fun Friday" activities with her kids, and I love the idea, so I've started trying to do it in our family. Today, I went to Costco while the girls were in school and I bought them these cute jammies and the movie "Enchanted." I hung the jammies on their carseats so when they got in the car, they were super excited and wanted to change into them right away. We got home, popped popcorn, all changed into our jammies, and had fun watching "Enchanted" together!

Paige in the Dogwoods

Everything is blooming here and looks so beautiful! These mini dogwood trees line the street right outside the girl's preschool. I had some extra time with Paige at preschool on Friday because her teacher called me and asked if I was aware of the blood and pus oozing out of her ear. Uh..no! Luckily, I had just finished up pilates at the gym 5 minutes from their school and rushed over to get her. I couldn't get an appointment until later in the afternoon, so Paige and I took a walk and waited for Ashley to get out.

Fair

We went to a really fun fair this weekend--there were bounce houses, a huge bouncy slide, a puppet show, crafts, games, live country music, and lots more! We had a great time--I didn't take too many pictures because I had Mike in the Bjorn and James had to work. It's pretty tough carrying around a 15 1/2 pound baby and chase two preschoolers around a crowded area, but here's one I did get--the man let them ride this carousel over and over again because they were giggling so much and having a ton of fun.

He Rolls!

Michael can now roll back to front and front to back! He doesn't get the opportunity to lie on his back or belly while he's awake very often because he always wants to be held and the girls and I love holding him, but I try to do the required tummy time when I think about it. Here he is in action. Oh, and he's about to get his lower right tooth--he's drooling like a champ and I can feel the hard spot under his gums. I could live without that for a few more months, but here we go!

Camping Trip

For some reason, we decided to go camping this weekend. OK--what really happened was that the girls were having a hard time getting to sleep Friday night, so James said, "if you get into bed right now and I don't hear another peep from you, we'll go camping tomorrow," and to our surprise, they actually did it. Here are the pics:

check out the creepy fog!

A hot dog in each hand--it couldn't get much better!

He won't fall asleep by himself in a crib...

but he will like this!

No More Training Wheels!

Ashley decided she wanted the training wheels off her bike, so one day after work last week, James took them off and taught her how to ride! They worked at it from 5 until 8 and she got it! She's really good down the big grass hill by the house and we're still working on starting and riding on the sidewalk--she's getting so big!