Dan is a great father to our little girl. He loves to show her pictures to teach her new words, and will sing all sorts of silly songs with her. I believe he has been known to break into a rendition of "Baa Baa Black Sheep" while at work. Thanks, Dan. We love you!!!
The Alamo was a highlight for our trip. It is amazing to me how landmarks can become such powerful symbols. The men who died at the Alamo, vowing to never surrender, are a symbol of sacrifice and endurance. In this day in our country, with people demanding that the government take responsibility for their happiness instead of building their own lives and dreams, it is nice to be reminded that there are people like those men at the Alamo.
Having learned from our trip to Greece that we need to incorporate Alyssa friendly activities, Alyssa and I went to the San Antonio Children's Museum while Dan was at his conference. This was really a fun museum. The top picture is of the "grocery store". There are child sized carts, and items that they can pick off the shelves, including fruits and vegetables (of the plastic variety). They even have a scanner at the checkout so kids can scan their items just like at the real grocery store. Our girl's favorite part was putting things in the cart. She didn't care too much for putting them back on the shelves. The second picture she is coloring a heart that we gave to Dan for Valentine's Day. The third picture is of Alyssa looking at an alligator, which she called "dinosaur". I couldn't convince her that it wasn't. We had to go back three or four times for her to look at her dinosaur. The last picture is of the fish tanks in the front of the museum. Other fun things we did included playing a virtual drum set, finger painting, and building a small house. After we left the museum Alyssa wanted to go to the water.
Dan had a conference this past week in San Antonio. Alyssa and I went with him. I wish we could join him in all his travels, but am very grateful when we are able to. Part of the joy of San Antonio was that it was warm! Connecticut winters can be 
very long and sometimes bleak. It was wonderful to be able to take Alyssa out every day. The River Walk was incredibly beautiful. Alyssa loved it! Every day she would say Mama, stroller, water. Now that we are home, she is still asking to see the water.
When Dan and I were dating long distance, I was in Seattle and he New York, he came out to visit me and we went to the Pacific Science Center. At the gift shop he bought an adorable silver dinosaur with silver claws and a wide gaping grin. He said he was buying it for his nieces, but I secretly hoped he would give it to me. (He ended up getting them a snake stuffed animal.) Who wouldn't want such a beautiful dinosaur stuffed animal? He did actually give it to me, which made me a very happy girlfriend. We named him Trogdor. Alyssa found Trogdor in our closet last week, where we were protecting him from Sophia. I think Trogdor might have replaced Ribbit as second in the stuffed animal heirarchy. She asks for him a lot, and it is so precious.
Going to sleep is not our girl's favorite thing to do. We are now using her love of dogs to help make this event a more pleasant one for everyone. Here she is sleeping with her arm around her favorite stuffed animal, a husky dog she fondly calls "Dog". This wonderful stuffed animal helps her soothe her way into slumber. Her second favorite stuffed animal is a frog she calls "Ribbit". Sometimes Ribbit sleeps with her too.
Dan usually does the bulk of writing on our blog. He has been very busy lately studying for his yearly inservice exam, so it has fallen to me to keep everyone updated on our family. Here are some pictures from Alyssa's birthday party. On the right is the one picture we have of the three of us together. Sophia, for once, wasn't able to pop herself into the picture. She loves to have her picture taken. Whenever I take pictures of our baby girl, I inevitably have to include Sophia in the photo session.
Some of the decorations we had were like little springs. We showed Alyssa that if she pulled them down, they would "boing" back up. This was a great game that lasted over a week until I finally took down all the decorations. I happen to love having decorations up, and rarely take them down in a timely fashion. Our Christmas tree finally made it out of our apartment around the end of January.
This last picture is of Alyssa wearing her birthday crown. The average time she would leave it on her head was something like 15 seconds. I wanted at least one picture of her wearing it because she is just too cute. This picture took me about five tries of having the camera in hand, ready to shoot before she could take it off her head. Even now you can see her hands reaching up to pull it off. This also became a favorite game in the following weeks, until Sophia brought a tragic end to the crown's pristine condition. Well, we had fun while it lasted!
