Thursday, May 27, 2010

Random Alex Moments

Just a few random things from the past week.

I have been working on some sign language with Alex - and since he is motivated by food - we have been working on the sign for "more".... here he is asking for more.... (the sign is suppose to be tapping your fingertips together - he gets credit for tapping any part of his hands together :) )



Alex loves looking out the front window of his playroom. He likes to watch the birds, watch for daddy, look at his swing, etc. ...



Alex has started to crawl more and more up on his hands and knees....he still usually resorts to the "commando crawl", but is slowly doing more and more up on all fours...

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Family Visit and Water Olympics

We enjoyed a visit this past weekend from Eric's family. His mom (Alex's Grammy), sister- Ang, and her three boys- Chandler, Camren, and Kasjen, braved the drive from MI to AL.

Alex got to spend time with his Grammy - reading, playing, swimming and swinging. Alex was also quite infatuated with his Aunt Ang and would smile and flirt every time he saw her.

Thankfully the weather cleared after a rainy Friday and we were able to spend the rest of the time enjoying the pool. Uncle Eric spent many hours creating games and doing tricks off the diving board - here are a few highlights:

Alex enjoyed splashing away in the pool with his cousins:


Aunt Ang and her boys:


Chandler:




Cam: he had no fear...



Kasjen...Could he be any cuter??




Alex loved watching his cousins play. The highlight for him was watching them kill flies with the fly swatter ;) - he was belly laughing until he got the hiccups...


Friday, May 14, 2010

10 Months Old!


Happy 10 Months Old to Alex!

Here is what he is up to these days:

*Still obsessed with golf clubs and a close second is the vacuum.


*Loves outside - would spend all day outside if he could. His favorite outside activity: rocks! He likes to walk on them, throw them, carry them around, put them in and out of his wheelbarrow (mostly throw them out).

*He must always carry something in his hand when he walks around the house and will pause often to switch the object from hand to hand.

*He just started pulling up on everything this week: the couch, coffee table, window sills, his crib (excellent activity for nap time)....


*He can do a little cruising on the furniture, but sometimes just moves his hands and forgets about his feet ;)



*Does this funny little thing when he plays - he will use his feet to move himself around in circles - and will do this randomly while playing - I am pretty sure he is surveying the room to see if there is anything better he needs to be doing.

*Still just has 2 bottom teeth, but it appears the top 2 are coming soon.

*He is still a good eater and prefers to feed himself finger food. He likes peas, toast, cheerios, sweet potatoes, carrots, and I swear he would eat a whole banana for breakfast.

*Is starting to understand some basic words. If we say "where is the fan?" - he will look up to the fan, etc. He can do this for books, clocks, mommy, daddy, Buddy, airplanes, vacuum, golf clubs, etc.

*Loves to watch for airplanes outside and when he hears them while he is inside, he will stop and listen and sometimes go over to the window.

*Likes to watch for birds, squirrels, cars, etc. out our front window.

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

THE BEACH!!!

We just returned from our first beach vacation with Alex. Our generous friends, Jim and Jaime and their sweet little girl, Hastings, invited us down to the beach with them. It was wonderful! The weather was absolutely perfect.

(Warning long blog ahead as I am documenting this as Alex's baby book as well)

Friday night we got ready for vacation with a practice swim in our pool that has warmed up nicely.




Saturday:
We headed out bright and early for Santa Rosa Beach, FL.

Alex did great in the car. He is still not a very good car seat napper, so he fussed a little before his morning nap.

We stayed at Jaime's parent's rental house. It was beachy, beautiful and roomy. We were greeted by her parents and many thoughtful welcoming touches: fresh flowers in our bedroom, a fridge full of food, beer, wine, etc. and an adorable handmade bib for Alex.

The best part about the house was the location - right next to the pool. We could put the babies down for naps, take their monitors with us and go lounge at the pool.

The pool was nice and warm the first day and Alex and Hastings loved splashing around and floating in their rafts.

Here Alex is taking a little break with Daddy.



Sunday:

Happy First Mother's Day to Jaime and I.

It got a little cool on Saturday night, so the pool was cooler on Sunday and Monday. Alex was not impressed with the temperature change and pretty much wanted nothing to do with the pool on Sunday. He also decided that during the beach vacation was an excellent time to start getting in his top teeth, so he was a little out of sorts on Sunday.


We did head down to the ocean and introduce him to sand and waves. He thought the sand was great fun and loved to walk/run holding our hands while watching his feet kick the sand.




He would put his feet in the ocean, but wasn't very impressed and quickly wanted to go back to the sand.


Here he is hiding himself in Eric's legs to avoid the water:



Alex loves airplanes and there were a lot flying by the beach that afternoon - so we did a little airplane watching....

On Sunday night, Jaime's parents had us all over for dinner. Alex was highly entertained by scooting all around the house and crashing into walls in Hastings walker.

We had an amazing dinner - Eric and I both loved the Red Snapper on the grill.

Monday

The guys golfed on Monday morning and then we spent the day at the pool and the ocean again.

Jaime made the babies matching outfits - too cute. Alex's is called a jon-jon in the South :). THANK YOU Jaime. Our dreams of a cute little photo session were pretty laughable!


At night, Jaime's sweet mom came and babysat after the babies went to bed so we could go out for a child-free night - YEAH!. (Thank you GranT) . We had drinks at a bar overlooking the ocean, then dinner at a restaurant with outside seating. We had big talks all week about going out on the town (but after early morning baby wake ups, lots of sun and fresh air, etc. I think we made it out til about 10:00 :) )

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

I just need a Harley...

some piercings.....and an "I Love Mom" tattoo....

All Boy

This is typical of how Alex plays:
1. Prefers household objects
2. Is Loud and vocal
3. Loves to throw everything

(Excuse the dirty bib - just finished lunch ;))



Saturday, May 1, 2010

Moral Dilemma Update

Well, our mothers can rest easy - they raised us well. We contacted BWW and let them know about the gift certificate oversight of leaving the amount line blank.

Drum roll please.....each certificate is worth $5.00. So we have a total of $20 to BWW - basically one free meal - sorry to all our friends who were hoping to get in on the free action : )