St. Louis Vacation

Ignoring the heat and Alex and I feeling under the weather, our trip to St. Louis was lots of fun. We had a great time with aunts, uncles, and cousins. Alex thought the Magic House was the neatest thing ever (lots of pics below), and so did we. Our timing was perfect to celebrate Maria's birthday (and enjoy her pool!), and Alex liked seeing two dogs every day, although mostly from afar. The picture below was the closest encounter he had with them, but Aunt Sue managed to help him feed them treats, so that was a big success. Aunt Carol's house was boy heaven, as Alex got to play with lots of fun toys from Quinn's childhood. Thanks family, we had fun!

Waterworks -- We thought we'd never get Alex to leave this room and explore anything else.



Making music with PVC pipes and flip flops.



Aunties waiting at the bottom of the slide.



Working in the Construction Zone.



The wall of pegs was a huge hit! We had to visit it several times while we were at the Magic House.

Of course we had to check out the exhibit on the Judicial Branch and sit behind the bench.

Checking out letters with Auntie Carol.

Feeding cereal treats to the doggies under Aunt Sue's protection.

Enjoying some relief from the heat in Maria's pool with Maria, Anna, and Daddy.

More Brussel Sprouts

Alex had a big meltdown at dinner tonight. Why? Because we ran out of brussel sprouts. At that moment, there was nothing in the world he wanted more than to have more brussel sprouts. We can only hope he remains such a good veggie eater all his life.

Puzzle-palooza

Alex really likes puzzles and has gotten the hang of the ones where you put in a piece at a time over a matching or corresponding picture. We already had some fun puzzles, but we hit the puzzle mother lode at a rummage sale this weekend. Alex has spent a lot of time this weekend playing with the new and old puzzles; they really keep his attention. We normally keep a couple puzzles on the coffee table because it's an easy height for him to work from. So, naturally, he wanted to put the new ones on the table too. You can see the overload below.

Hello Duck!

We had a busy day today, but one of Alex's favorite parts was the petting zoo at the Raven Festival. There were goats, sheep, donkeys, chickens, a llama, and a duck. He was very intrigued by the animals and kept saying "Hi" to them. He even got to see a chicken lay an egg!

The First Real Sentence!

Alex has been stringing together two word phrases off and on for a while now. Usually "more" and something -- "more milk," "more cracker," "more doggies" -- or "two" and something -- "two doggies," "two shoes," etc. But this morning we had a three word sentence. I was changing his diaper, and he had a book in his hands. Then, clear as day, he said "Alex read book." I could not be more proud!!

Face Paint Friday

Guess what happened at school today? Face painting. Alex had already wiped most of it off by the time we picked him up, but you can still see some of the paint. Also, happy 20 month birthday little boy!

On the Road Again

I've been a bit slow in getting this posted, but we (Aunt Laura, Alex, and me) had a great road trip last weekend to visit Grandma and Grandpa C. (All good aside from the fact that Alex won't really sleep in the car.) Alex had fun playing with Mom's old toys (and some new ones, including a great stuffed turtle that Grandma made). He even has started to exhibit the same geeky interest in maps that I have. It was a fun visit.