Playing Catch Up

It's been a while since I've written, but I'm finally done with all my travel and am settling back in at home, so it's time to share some Alex stories.

Today was Grandma C.'s birthday, and Alex did a great job of celebrating. He wished her a "Happy Birthday" over the phone and talked for a bit. He even read her a few pages of one of his favorite books, "Hooray for Truckmice!"

In Alex's room at school they have the kids sit on toddler-sized toilets when they change their diapers, and yesterday, Alex went to the bathroom for the first time while sitting on the potty!

One of my favorite Alex-coined expressions is "blow it down." This is what he says when food is too warm and he needs to blow on it to cool it down, hence the expression.

We picked up some fun, wooden dominos at a garage sale this summer and recently pulled them out to play with. I'm not sure who has more fun with them, Alex or Dave!

Toddler-dom

About a week ago, Alex started asking "Why?" This week, we have reached the point where "Why?" has become a constant refrain. I think he is officially a toddler now!

He also has perfected the art of stalling when he doesn't want to do something (most notably, going to bed). He will ask for books, play in the closet, insist that Marvin the monkey needs to join us for books and songs, etc. Last night he achieved a high point of creativity. We were just getting ready to turn off the light and put him in his crib when he asked us to take his temperature. How did he figure out that we couldn't say no to that?!

Florida in February is Fabulous!

We had a fun trip to Florida to visit Grandma and Grandpa D. While cool to Floridians, the temperatures were glorious to us, and getting to see the sun shine every day was quite a treat. Here is a brief selection of photos with more to come later.

Alex brought Valentines that he made for Grandma and Grandpa.

Fun in the jungle gym. Alex had a blast running all around the playground.

The ATVs at the outdoors store were a surprisingly huge hit with Alex. Here he gives his best Billy Idol, tough guy sneer. Vroom, vroom!

Finally, the Naples Zoo was lots of fun. We saw a program on predators, featuring a hawk that flew right over our heads, a dingo, a porcupine, an owl, and many more animals. We enjoyed walking around the zoo, and the new bear exhibit was a huge hit. Alex kept running back and forth at the glass as the bear ran back and forth. This video doesn't even come close to capturing how much fun it was, but this was the best we could do. Enjoy!

Hearts Party

To celebrate Valentine's Day, Alex's school held a Hearts Party at the end of the day today. The kids wore red and pink to get into the spirit.

Alex models his party outfit with his buddy Ox.



Arts and crafts at the party. They were supposed to be painting wooden hearts and flowers, but Alex decided to follow his friend Dava's lead and paint his hand.



His favorite teacher from his infant room, Ms. Rahel, came by for a visit.



Playing with farm puppets.



Showing off his haul. There is a wagon full of crackers by the door at school and he gets to take one pack of each kind of cracker as we leave. He also has his goodie bag full of valentines from his classmates and teachers.

Happy Valentine's Day from us!

More Sleepover Fun

We always have fun when Cecily comes over!

Playing guitar together.





Working hard at the tool bench.



Playing Night-Night.



Reading a favorite from my childhood, "The Amazing Mumford and His Amazing Subtraction Trick, featuring lovable, furry, old Grover."



It took a little bit of encouragement, but we finally got them to share the chair.

Birthday Party Fun

Alex had tons of fun at his friend Garret's birthday party yesterday. There was so much to do and so many friends to play with.

We did lots of sliding, as there were about half a dozen different climbing toys with slides!



The "sand" box was full of rice and was a favorite spot all day long.



And, of course, there was delicious cake from Sweet Mandy B's!



Plus, lucky Alex gets to have more birthday fun today at a party for his friend Nicholas!

How Did You Sleep?

In the mornings, Dave and I usually talk about what kind of night's sleep we had. At some point we must have either had this conversation in front of Alex or asked him if he had a good night's sleep because he now says the following first thing every morning when we go into his room: "I had a good night's sleep!"

I hope he always does.