Santa Stories

We take a pretty low-key approach to Santa around here. Alex has started to be more aware/interested, but he's also quite skeptical when it comes down to it.

A few weeks ago the subject of Santa came up at dinner, and, after trying to explain the idea of "he knows if you've been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake," this was how the conversation went.

Alex: How does he know everything?
Me (grasping at how to answer this question for a five-year-old): Santa is special.
Alex: It sounds like he's fake. Doesn't it?

Then, last week our Y had a Santa for the kids and the time coincided with Alex's swim lessons, so he had his first visit to Santa experience. When Santa asked Alex what he wanted for Christmas, he said that he didn't know but it was on his list.

Belated Thanksgiving

We just got some Thanksgiving pictures from the family photographer (Grandpa D.) and wanted to share them, as well as a few of our own that we hadn't gotten around to yet.

We had a great time at Dave's sister's. Alex's collection of Legos, Angry Birds, and super heroes continues to expand, and Dave some how managed to find the secret to gaining Reggie's affection.

Diamond Family Thanksgiving

Reggie the wonder dog!

Three cousins

Happy Halloween!

Alex has become full-on crazy about Halloween. This year we decorated the front of the house with spider webs and a ghost garland. He made two goofy pumpkins. And trick-or-treating was a major highlight.

Dave reminded me that Alex started talking about being a bat for Halloween shortly after last Halloween. That idea stuck, although it evolved a bit. When he started talking about what he wanted to be for Halloween a couple of months ago, it started as a bat, then became a vampire bat, then became a vampire dressed as a bat, and finally he landed on Dracula disguised as a bat. I'm not quite sure where the concept came from, but we ran with it.

Continuing the tradition started last year, Alex and Dave are the costume makers. The bat involved less building than last year's robot, but it definitely had more conceptual kinks to work out. Dave made a great mask that was a bat itself, complete with pointy ears, eyes, and wings. However, Alex thought the mask needed to just be the face of the bat and declared that the wings "didn't make any sense." We waited until the last minute, but, much to Dave's chagrin, the wings had to be cut off.

Alex also became particularly obsessed with the fangs. He really wanted fangs. I really didn't want to have him use plastic fangs. He came up with a creative, if bizarre-looking solution on his own. One day, out of the blue, he sat at his art table and made fangs out of paper. They pointed in different directions and had a purple circle (the mouth?) in between. Ok, but I still wasn't sure how they would get used. But, this was not my project. A few days later I discovered that the fangs had been glued to the front of the bat mask. Problem solved.

His original plan for trick-or-treating was to go door-to-door for ten minutes, then hand out candy for ten minutes, but when the night finally came he was a little more focused on going door-to-door. When we came back to hand out candy, he was excited, but the slow traffic disappointed him. He kept going out to the sidewalk like a carnival barker trying to drum up business. "Candy here!" "You can come here for some candy!" "We have candy!"

I've never been a huge Halloween fan, but this year showed me just how much fun it can be to a kid.

Alex and his silly pumpkins 

Alex being a silly pumpkin

Dracula disguised as a bat

Spooky bat!

The Chicago Marathon

Today is the Chicago Marathon. Many of my running friends are out there, and one of Alex's teachers ran today. So, we made an outing of it and went to watch. (Alex and I also watched the start of the race on tv. He wanted to know who was the fastest so he could pretend to be that person.)

We prepared by making a sign for Alex's teacher. He picked bright pink poster board for high visibility. We got there with plenty of time and watched for a little over an hour. There were lots of people running with Iowa gear on, so Alex made a game of seeing how many shirts he could find, and he yelled "Go, Hawks!" to all of them. He also really liked the costumes, especially the runners dressed as super heroes and Buzz Lightyear. He gave lots of high fives from our spot on the side of the course, which earned him lots of smiles from the runners. Then, best of all, we saw his teacher. There was lots of cheering and hugs!

We were too involved in spectating to take many pictures.

Decorating the sign

Watching the runners

Alex Reads

I knew Alex could read more than he was letting on, and recently he decided to show us. He read Big Dog, Little Dog to Dave the other night. Dave said he thinks Alex even surprised himself with how many of the words he could read. He finally read it to me last night, and it was definitely one of my favorite moments as a parent. Tonight, we got him to read a bit for the camera. I was worried he'd ham it up and be goofy, but he just read for us. Click the link above and enjoy!

Happy 5th Birthday!

Alex turned 5 today. It's kind of hard to fathom. We had a great day, full of lots of love from family and friends. There will be more to come once I get a chance to comb through the 100+ pictures I took today, but I couldn't let the day pass without noting it on the blog.

Happy birthday Alex! Daddy and I love you very much!

With his pals who were able to come to the party

His Jake and the Neverland Pirates cake

Getting ready for the cake moment

Carrot Harvest

After an unsuccessful attempt last year (thanks to neighborhood bunnies), we managed to produce a pot full of carrots this year. The greens looked great, but I was still slightly nervous that there might not be any real carrots. Some were tiny, but we ended up with a decent crop. They were part of Alex's lunch this week.

We loosened the soil and
a little bit of orange came peeking through

Pulling out the first one

Showing off his crop

Seven little carrots

Washing off the dirt

Back to School

Today was the first day back to school for Alex, and it was Visiting Day, so Dave and I both went too. The first three days of this week are short -- just an hour and a half each. Thursday and Friday will be back to a normal schedule (although After School doesn't start until next week), and on those days all the returning kids (14) and the new kids (8) will get to be together. We are very excited to be back with the same teachers and in the same classroom. We'll have both of those things changing next year, but for now, the familiarity is quite helpful.

Ready to go! 

Wanting to talk

 

Climbing as high as he can

 

Sunday with Aunt Laura

Alex and I had a great day with Laura and Brian today. Their church was having a festival, which was lots of fun. Alex loved the bounce house, games, and music. I had to drag him away from the band when it was time to go. He didn't know anyone there, but jumped right in and, after a while, was navigating the activities on his own. It was fun to see him exploring so independently. After a while, his bossy side came out, and he decided to help run some of the games, telling people where to stand and helping with mini-golf. 

Making sure everyone does it right.

Then we spent a couple of hours at Aunt Laura's, chasing rabbits in the back yard, looking for cicadas and acorns, and being a huge helper with back yard tasks. It's days like these that make me really wish we had a yard!

Moving the patio furniture. He insisted on doing it all by himself.

Chasing a rabbit around the woodpile.

Helping with the first bird feeder.

Filling the second bird feeder.

Clearing the weeds.

Family Holiday Weekend

The Diamond Family got together for the holiday weekend, and fun was had by all. Alex is always ecstatic when he gets to spend time with his cousins, and this visit was no exception. He woke up at 3:00 a.m. the night before we were going down there because he was so excited. (Needless to say, Dave and I were less excited about that wake up time.)

The weekend was full of good company, yummy food, and fun experiences, including a trip to the Zoo and Alex's first bowling outing (video here).

Happy pose with Grandma

Cousins at the Zoo

Early morning family portrait

Ready to bowl!

Wanted to do it all by himself

Animal Show

There was an animal show at Alex's day care today. He was so excited for it. He talked about it all night and this morning. Luckily, they sent us some pictures. He definitely had more fun than his expressions would indicate. He also got to walk an anteater.

All night he claimed that his hands smelled like chicken

Holding very still because I have a chinchilla on my head

Vacation Part 1

We took a short family vacation at the end of June. The first part of the trip was all about fun and games. We went to Key Lime Cove, which is an indoor water park, and to the Jelly Belly factory. We were hoping to take the factory tour, but Alex was a bit too distracted by the carnival outside. (It's not always there. We had just happened to time our visit with their SummerFest event.) He's been talking about wanting to ride a Ferris Wheel, so this was his chance. Surprisingly, he was able to recognize that he could savor the event by doing the Ferris Wheel last: "I know it will be my favorite, so I want to save it for the end."

We didn't get any pictures inside the water area because we were all having too much fun to worry about keeping track of cameras or phones, but here are a few pictures of the fun outside of the water park, as well as pictures from Jelly Belly and the carnival.

His favorite kind of ice cream -- not cold!

He loved playing Skee Ball at the arcade

Air hockey with Daddy

Giant Jelly Belly!

Jelly Belly car

Ticket to ride

First Ferris Wheel ride

He was having far more fun than this looks like

Belated Last Day of School Post

I was having some photo issues on the computer and finally worked them out, so here are a couple end of the school year photos to commemorate Alex's first year.

June 7 was Alex's last day at school. He had a great first year and can't wait to go back in the fall we are very lucky that he will be continuing with the same teachers then.

The year went by really fast. It's hard to believe it is over.

Dismissal on the last day, showing off his treasure box

In front of Rockefeller Chapel

Alex at Bat

A little Father's Day baseball for Dave and Alex. Here's a clip of the slugger in action.

Happy Father's Day, Dave!

Check out that follow through

Two Chefs

Who could resist breakfast made by these two adorable chefs? (It was yummy.)

The Thinkers

Love this picture of Alex and his cousin Anna! So contemplative.

Handy Boy

The patio swing I bought when I lived in Savoy has swung its last. The rust got the best of it. Alex was less disappointed than I thought he would be, in part because taking apart the swing and building a castle out of the parts was way too much fun. He was so concerned about the castle getting blown down in the wind that when I put him to bed he asked me to check on it and then asked me if I would check on it again in the morning before it was time for him to get up.

He also was very helpful in the assembly department when we brought home a new patio set. It was the first time he used a real wrench, and he was super psyched about that.