My boy turns 6!!!!

Wow, I can't even believe it as I write the title of this post. My little Denis Stephen turned 6 yesterday. What?? Where has the time gone?? He has grown so much. He is such a smart little boy! He is so excited about everything around him. Especially STAR WARS! And, this year, it's Star Wars LEGO video game that is his favorite. So, for his birthday theme, we chose the star wars lego theme. The party was  a lot of fun as you can see from the pictures. One thing that the kids really enjoyed was the relay of who could save Han Solo from the carbonite first! (a mini Han Solo figure frozen in a block of ice).  Also, the boys loved the light saber pool noodles--but almost a little too much! They were clobbering eachother with them for the second half of the party. OOPS! Here are some pictures from the fun day:

Arianna is 4 months old!!

Wow, our little baby turned 4 months old on August 11! Here she is sitting in the rocking chair in her bedroom next to Sammy, my little stuffed monkey that I've had since I was an infant and would take with me everywhere! I put him there so we can compare how much she has grown each month. I really wish I captured the first 3 months in the same position, but better late than never! This picture was actually taken at about 3 1/2 months. At her 4 month check-up, Arianna is in the 80th%tile for her height, so she is quite tall for her age, as I have noticed when I'm dressing her. She is wearing the same summer clothes that Amelie wore when Amélie was 6 months old!

 This month, Arianna has really started to communicate with us more. She loves to laugh, and we love to make her laugh--especially Denis and Amelie. One day, I was holding Arianna and Denis was pacing around the kitchen while telling me a very detailed account of his Star Wars video game and Arianna suddenly started laughing histarically. This started Denis, Amelie and I to start laughing too, and pretty soon we all couldn't catch our breath! She gets a kick out of when Denis talks because he is always so animated. Amelie likes to make goofy faces at her sister which always makes her laugh.

Summer of Firsts: Part 3 (We have some fishies in the family!)

After returning from a long trip to Canada, we finally started to get back in the groove and rhythm of being home again. Don would take Denis, Amelie, (and sometimes Arianna) to the pool each night after dinner. Both Denis and Amelie LOVE the pool, but when Papa would ask: "Qui veux aller a la piscine? " (who would like to go to the pool?) Amelie would always reply with a resounding, "MOI!!!!" Amélie shows NO FEAR in the water--she always acted as if she already knew how to swim--flopping around and jumping in the water with as much confidence as anyone could have--even as she was sinking under the water as she was trying to swim, she would have a huge smile on her face, showing how much she loves the water. Well, finally, one day in August (not sure the exact date) Amelie started swimming on her own!!! She is so proud of herself. She even jumps in the water and doesn't mind going right underneath. Only 3 1/2 and swimming on her own!!! We are so proud of her. Denis also improved on his swimming this summer. He started swimming by himself last summer, but he really got the hang of it this year. He is finally confident enough to swim in the deep end and jump in the water in all different directions!
Hooray for my little swimmers!

A Summer of Firsts: Part 2 (The Toothfairy Visits The Whalen Home!!!)

On the way home from Canada, we stopped at McDonald's to eat and Denis and Amelie were wrestling in the grass. Amelie's head hit Denis' chin, causing one of his lower teeth to come loose. Denis' first loose tooth!! He was very excited and wanted to know each day how much longer before his tooth would fall out. . . well on August 12, 2011, Denis lost his first tooth while eating a rice krispie treat that he, Amelie, and I made together earlier that day! He was so excited!!! That night we prepared for the tooth fairy by putting his tooth in the pocket of the "Lait de dent" mouse (French version of the tooth fairy). As we were determining where we were going to lay the mouse to make sure the toothfairy could see it, we noticed that Amelie was laying in bed very still, almost as if she was paralyzed, and her beautiful big blue eyes were wide open. When Papa asked her what was wrong, she looked at him and said, "Je ne veux pas qu'elle vienne!" ("I don't want her to come!") She didn't like the idea that a little fairy was going to come flying into her room and over her bed just to get Denis' tooth. The idea of it totally freaked her out. I went to hug her and I could feel her little heart beating so fast! We told Amelie that we'd put the mouse upstairs so the tooth-fairy wouldn't come in their bedroom (they were sharing the bedroom in the basement for the summer since it was too hot upstairs in their regular bedroom.) NO, that wasn't good enough for her. The mouse had to be put outside so the tooth-fairy wouldn't come in the house at all!! So, after we told her that we would do this, she finally was calm enough to fall asleep. (I told Denis that I'd be sure to move the mouse back in the room so the tooth-fairy would be sure to see him.)

 The next morning, Denis found lots of surprises!! The tooth-fairy left him a little box with his tooth in it (to keep) a note written just for him, a book, a toothbrush, and $2 in the mouse's pocket!!) Denis was very excited!! He said he can't wait until he loses his next tooth!