shopping for each other

This year I decided the bugs were old enough to pick out gifts for one another. Grammy was kind enough to "borrow" each bug on their own to make some Christmas treats so that I could take the other bug on a little "date."

Bitty decided to start his morning off with a little OJ from our favorite watering hole.

He also learned that standing in your Starbucks chair and leaning backward will make the chair tip over backwards and the entire store will run to your rescue.

This is the gift he chose for his brother... Umm, sorry kiddo, not quite what mommy had in mind...

In the end Bitty picked out some "Cars" cars for the Bugman, and a toy broom for himself (he shops like his mommy :) We picked up the Bugman, came home to watch a little "Cars" in the basement, and this is what a found a short time later... Shopping sure is tiring!

The next morning it was Bugman's turn. He was lucky that Daddy had a half day off from work (we had our "baby portraits" done that morning too.) We started off at Bob Evans.

Ironically enough, this is what Bugman picked out for his brother... He also settled on some "Cars" cars in the end.

...And we came home to Bitty's sugar cookies with Grammy :) Might I add, GFS makes some mean pre-cutout sugar cookies... just sprinkle and bake!

It's a...

It's a... from Leanne Alldred on Vimeo.

and we couldn't be more excited (except we have NO prospects for names!) OK, so Bugman may have burst into tears and requested a trade-in for his choice of genders, but it was nothing a few Lightning McQueen cars couldn't fix!

Merry Christmas!!

merry christmas!

the flip

Mommy bought herself a Flip camera as an early Christmas gift... or perhaps I should say bought the family a Flip camera. Yeah, that sounds better. I mean, I would never just buy myself Christmas gifts...

I'm posting a not-so-exciting video of Bugman playing with his beloved Pixar Cars toys. I want to make sure I can figure out how to post the big moment tomorrow :) Luckily, figuring this out only took about half of my life...

practice from Leanne Alldred on Vimeo.

ten on tuesday - preggo addition

1. I'm officially 19 weeks 1 day pregnant... almost half-way there! I think this may be the fastest pregnancy ever. At least it feels like the weeks are flying by!

2. We have our 20 week ultrasound next Tuesday. We will find out the sex of the baby, but not until Christmas Day. We're planning to have the ultrasound tech write the gender down and seal it up.

3. For those of you who know how impatient and sneaky I am, (you know, the kind of kid that found all of her Christmas presents) I have a friend taking the envelope from us and giving it back Christmas Eve. Apparently I am untrustworthy (or she is more impatient than me and needs to know that day :)

4. Being preggo for the third time is like being an 80 year old man.

5. The heartburn is ridiculous already.

6. My umbilical hernia is giving me trouble ( apparently a "grin & bare it" situation).

7. All I need is some ear hair and I would officially be an old man ;)

8. Alexander is insistent that we are having two girl babies. Ummm, not so much buddy. Only ONE baby in there. I've tried to explain to him that it could be a boy baby and we would have three boys in our house. His response "Then we need three girls too!" Oh dear, I'm not sure our baby plans include SIX children!

9. This little one has been become more active and could be felt moving from the outside of my stomach last night!

10. Baby #1 - maternity clothes at 22-23 weeks
Baby #2 - maternity clothes at 20 weeks
Baby #3 - maternity clothes at 18 weeks! I may literally be the size of a house by the time this is over :)

so this is what its like

To be a mama of three! I friend from school asked if I would come and take some pics of her kiddos before the holidays. I'm all about getting some practice (the ol' camera has been getting a little rusty the past few months!)

The T family has three kiddos. Their oldest is 5. The baby is 1. Its not far from what our family will look like in a little over a year from now!






This is J. He's 3 and every bit as ornery as he looks. What? He doesn't look ornery? Well his momma insists that he is. He loved the camera and I'm pretty sure it loved him to. Don't you love those baby blues?!





This is baby M. She just turned one and is one of the most content little ones I've ever met. She had no interest in me or my camera, but LOVES her mama and some mama tickles!






This is big sister M. She's 5 and in my kindergarten class this year. She's nice and shy and quiet at school. She likes to organize and clean up after her peers. I've seen video of her at home. She is a wild and crazy dance machine. I love how kids can be so different at home and at school!

merry christmas??

You may have noticed that your mailbox was missing an important piece of mail from us last year. We never sent out Christmas cards. I never got the photos I wanted of the boys and then it was too late.






But never fear, we had this super cute ideas about New Year's cards. You didn't miss out, we, um, well, never got that done either. Oops!






Now that it is getting dark so early I thought I would take the boys out on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon. Uhhh, well, that didn't happen either.






We were left with the five seconds of daylight that is left when we get home from school.






Perhaps I shouldn't quit my day job. What do you think?

my favorite

I'm not sure if you knew, but Bugman is my favorite... well my favorite four year old anyway!

He's having a great time being a 'very big kid' and going to preschool two days a week.

He had an ear infection in September. We took him to Dr. Cata on September 16th to be exact. It was his first infection in almost a year and a half.

Six weeks later we went back. Bugman was still coughing and didn't seem to be hearing us very well. We heard lots of "What??" and "What did you say??" We found out that he still had fluid in his ears.

... and not just fluid, thick, honey-like fluid. The good news... no infection. We started antibiotic round 2.

Four weeks later we went back for a recheck. The verdict - Honey-like fluid in both ears and a referral to see an ENT.

We saw Dr. Turner, the ENT on Monday and he decided to try one more antibiotic. Its aimed at treating antibiotic resistant infections. We go back in January and cross our fingers that this worked. If it didn't, we look at getting tubes :(

future Gap model?

At the last minute we entered Bitty Bug in the Gap Casting Call. The winner is feature in ads at the Gap... how fun would that be?!?! You can check out our entries here. The 20 finalists will be announced on Dec. 7th... and then voting begins! We're keeping our fingers crossed, but also remembering the last year there were over 1 millions entries.

Bugman hasn't been super camera cooperative as of late, so that is why there aren't any entries of him... not because we think either boy is cuter than the other :)

its a baby!

In case you haven't heard, our family is growing! Alldred baby numero tres is on the way May 10, 2010!



We are super excited (and a little nervous to be outnumbered!) Bugman is predicting a baby sister. Mommy predicts a third boy, and I think Daddy is hoping for another boy.



My original due date was April 15th, but after talking to my doctor at my first appointment, we both agreed that we needed an ultrasound to confirm a due date. We were right, my dates were about 3 1/2 weeks off.



Here's our newest blob (as of 9/22/09) ( the day I went from 10wks 5 days preggo to 7 weeks 1day!)

The second blob you see was never a baby (no twins for this girl!) It was actually my, umm, well, yolk sak (ewww!)

So far everything is going well. I had my second appointment Friday and baby had a heart rate of 160 beats/min. Here's the convo I have with the nurse practitioner:

Her: We have a heart rate of 160!

Me: OOOhhh, that's pretty high, it must be a girl, right?!?!

Her: (rolling eyes) Umm, it means its a baby.

I've been battling the worst cold of my life, and of course the approved medication list I have has "none of the good stuff on it." So I'm hanging in, but sleeping is rough (and first trimester is tiring enough on its own!) I'm also having some morning & evening sickness, but I know its a good sign that we have a healthy baby!

I realize how much I miss going back through the blog to look at all of the changes happening with the Bugs. Soooo, I'm really going to make an effort to get back to blogging at least once a week! Wish me luck!

ten on tuesday

What better way to start September than by getting back onto the blogging bandwagon! To fill you in on our latest happenings I figured a ten on Tuesday was called for.

1. Bugman starts preschool next Tuesday!! How on earth did my first baby get to be SO big?!?! His daddy is taking him tomorrow morning for a "meet and greet." His mama is pretty upset that she is going to miss it :( Bugman is VERY excited to go to school and has his best buddy from Miss Kim's house in his class, along with 3 other kids from our neighborhood. I'm pretty sure it doesn't get much better than that.

2. In preparation for preschool Bugman also had his four year physical. I am proud to announce that he is officially above average in height!! 60th percentile, 40.5" to be exact. Maybe there is hope for these shorties after all. He also had his flu shot, which daddy figured warranted a trip to the Waffle House and Target.

3. Bugman isn't the only one hitting "big boy" milestones around here. Bitty had a big summer, transitioning to a big kid bed, learning to pedal his trike, and potty training!! Woo hoo!! No more diapers in this house (just the "safety" pull-ups at nighttime).

4. We spent the summer doing a mini-remodel of the living room. So far it's included new paint, a stripped and painted fireplace, refinished hardwoods, new baseboards, and new tile in front of the fire place (thanks Grandpa!!). We still have crown molding to install, a few shelves to hang, and are shopping for the perfect (inexpensive and durable ) furniture. I'll post before and after pics when we finish up. I'm crossing my fingers for this weekend.

5. Bitty had a fever the weekend before school started. The first day of school I got a call that Bugman had a fever. Yes, this is our life. Bitty is still coughing, mommy is now coughing. Bitty has snot down to his lip ALL OF THE TIME. I'm concerned I will be trotting around school with snot down to my lip next week. At least in a K/1 building I will fit in ;)

6. We're having family pics taken in November over Thanksgiving Break. An old HS friend is going to be in town and is having holiday mini-sessions. We've been wanting a family pic for awhile. Woo Hoo!! Check out Beth's work here and here.

7. September 12th the Bugs and I are walking the Komen Race for the Cure 5k with a team from my school. The Bugs are signed up for the "fun run" around the baseball park afterwards. They're raising money to fight breast cancer. Wouldn't it be cool if they raised more money than anyone else on our team?? Here's how you can help. Go to our team page. Click on either of the bugs' names. Make a donation. You support the littlest walkers and help fight breast cancer. Easy peasy.

8. On top of my cough I have gotten up with hives on my legs three mornings in a row. I have two nasty blisters on my heals... they bleed on my socks and shoes when I run. I'm exhausted from "training" 42 new kindergartners. My thumb nails look like something from a horror movie. I think its an iron deficiency. I'm a mess. I'm done complaining now. Thank you.

9. Over the summer the bugs experienced their first Websters concert. The Websters are a Cincinnati cover band that Daniel and I, along with several of our friends go and see about once a month. The shows are not typically family friendly. This one was. They boys had a blast and Bugman still talks about it. I have video of my dancing fools. I might get around to posting it. I make no promises.

10. I have lots of pictures from the summer. Trying to catch up on all of that blogging stresses me out. I'm thinking we'll just move forward from here. I'll post pics soon. We have a lazy three day weekend coming up. I can't wait. Please don't invite us anywhere. I'm not taking off my PJs for three days. And although I may complain a bit... Life if Good :)

Throwback Thursday

Soooo, we've established that I've been quite the bad blogger lately (or at least worse than usual!) My dear sister has been nice enough to remind me of this on a daily basis. For example, after cleaning the living room, and reading a couple of chapters in a new book during the boys naptime today, I gave her a call pleading "I'm bored." Her reply "Well, why don't you blog something." What a ingenious idea. So here I am.


Lest you think that we haven't done anything in the past few months, I thought it would be fun to have a "throwback thursday" and share a little something from WAY back in April.


Bugman LOVES to help in the kitchen, namely when baking is involved. He may, or may not have love for sugar that slightly mirrors his mama. This particular day we decided to make brownies... for our house only. One thing that we must make clear is that when Bugman helps bake, people from outside our household are not permitted (nor would they want) to eat any of it.


My dear son comes from the school of "double dipping," as in, if I stir a little and take a lick, why not go ahead and stir some more, and lick some more, and stir some more, and... well you get the idea. Hence the germ infested baked goods that we produce are only appropriate for us... although we have no complaints about finishing them off ourselves :)


Perhaps our favorite part of baking brownies is licking the spoons AND the bowl at the end. My preferred method would be to wipe the bowl with my finger and then lick the batter from there. Bugman's preferred method... stick your whole head in the bowl.

Brownie scented hair gel... perhaps we're on to something!

summer break day one or three... or something

OK, so maybe summer break actually started last Thursday, but today was the first weekday it wasn't cloudy or rainy. SOOOOO, we had big plans to head to the local pool and have some fun in the sun.


We started the AM with a coffee, because, well, as I've mentioned my children have a sick addication to the stuff. I on the other hand could take it or leave it...


I chased each Bug around with lotion, wrestled them into their swim trunks and then went to get myself ready. Problem one, I couldn't find my bathing suit bottoms. One would think that the bottoms would be with the top, however if you have seen my closet (mind you I use the term closet very loosely, as mine spills out onto the floor) you would know that this is not the case. After sorting through 45 piles of clothes was left with only a top. Unfortunately, our pool is not the bottomless type, so I called for backup. Aunt Ashy was on the way over and as I was getting ready to search the basement I heard a series of thuds. Bitty, was attempting to push the toy wheelbarrow up the stairs and it appeared that he made it half way before he tumbled backwards.


Bitty is the get up and dust yourself off kind of kid, so when he started screaming I knew he was hurt. Luckily there was no blood, but I quickly saw two goose-egged abrasions on the left side of his head. We called daddy who suggested a trip to the new Children's Urgent Care in Springboro, but I called the peds. office first to talk to a nurse. After a chat with a nurse we decided to keep an eye on him and to call back if we noticed any changes. She also suggested that we take it easy for the day, which meant no pool (not that we had found any bathing suit bottoms anyhow).

Our favorite "icepack"

we're baaaaaaaack!

Did you think we were never coming back? I wasn't sure if we were either. I thought I'd be a blogging fool once my grad work was finished, but then the end of school was near and chaos continued. As of today, we're officially on summer break... and enjoying the rain?!?!? I love how that works :)


As tradition would have it, we went to a Dayton Dragons game with my fam last Thursday. Both boys were excited, but Bitty is definitely our biggest baseball fan.


I'm not sure if they what they enjoyed most, hanging with Grammy and Pappaw, the game, or the plethora of treats that they suckered out of everyone.

Bitty is a big hat fan (which makes his momma very happy when we're out in the sunshine). You can find him sporting some sort of hat (usually baseball) nearly 100% of the time... including when he sleeps.

Bugman has his own hat wearing style, to say the least.

For good measure that momma bought those spoiled boys a big orange foam finger and a foam dragon claw. They loved the finger, and the claw... well their momma had fun with it.

And to make up for our lack of blogging... a few more photos from the evening.

I'm done!!

My Tuesday evenings for the past 20 months have included posting to my discussion board for my grad program. Tonight, no post. This weekend, no papers. What is all this? I'M DONE!!! And while I won't say I'll never take another grad class, it will definitely be a V.E.R.Y long time before I do.

Here are a few interesting tidbits about my 20 month journey.

10 regular classes

3 Capstone Projects (on top of the 10 classes)

143 papers (I kid you not)

1 video

1 research project

at least 30 grad class related trips to the local Starbucks

I am now one of the 9.4% of US citizens above the age of 25 with a grad. degree (as of 2004 census)

Basically, all this adds up to me being one pretty cool chick :)

random faves

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ten on tuesday

1. We are still alive and well. I've just been in a blogging/email/photo editing rut. I think I'm back... but with the end of my master's degree looming in a week and a half, we may disappear again until it's over. I'm going to attempt to catch up here.

2. My itty bitty baby turned two. Sigh. He is pretty sure he's a big kid now and his momma is pretty sure he's still a baby...

He had a super time at his b-day party, and a day that looked like thunder storms turned into a decent day to play outside. Unfortunately the pinata is still sitting in the basement... oops, we kinda, sorta forgot about it.

3. Bitty also had his two year appointment with Dr. Cata. He was super unhappy about getting naked, but relieved that there were no vaccines this time... Yea!!

Official stats are:
height - 32.75" 15th percentile (and also predicts him to be a whopping 5'5.5" as an adult... let's hope the old wives tale is wrong!!)
weight - 25lbs 6oz 15-20th percentile
head circumference - 49.5cm 70th percentile

If nothing else, this kid is consistent!

4. This Ohio weather is crap. Winter seems to hanging on as long as it can. Fortunately we've had a few days here and there of decent weather. The bugs are so excited to be able to play outside again. The new favorite pastime?? Riding down the side yard on the tractor or inside the little dump truck. You've gotta love little boys!

5. We've been hosting Friday "driveway dates" (aka Happy Hours) at our house. We've even had a few "out of towners" show up for the event. I think I even have the first picture of Daniel and I together since we got married. I think its frame worthy ;)

6. Bitty has a girlfriend and an arranged marriage. We'll call her little 'L.' Daughter of my friend 'L,' and sister to big 'L.'

7. Bugman thinks big 'L' is the bomb... and they are quite the pair when they're together. Seeing Bugman, Bitty, and big 'L' together, wrestling, is a taste of what life would be like with THREE boys in the house. Hmmm, maybe we'll wait a few more years on that one.

8. This

and this

came to visit our house over spring break. I don't know how their momma does it.

Two little bugs at our house were enamored.

... and their mamma may have gotten a little baby itch in the process. I do love to snuggle me some baby!

9. Bitty got a new pair of Chuck Taylor style shoes on Easter eve and insisted that he sleep in them... over his footed jammies. I love that silly bug.

10. Bugman graduated from a tricycle to a "big kid" training wheel bike. This was spurred on by a neighbor boy, younger than Bugman, who flies down the street with NO TRAINING WHEELS!! We've got some work to do!