A Texas Tradition - Bluebonnets!!

The Little Climber!

Last week, I enrolled Alex at MyGym because he has several other little friends who go there.  It's basically a giant playground with ball pits, things to climb on, tunnels, mirrors, trampolines, and all kinds of other things to explore!  I decided to join as part of my "Operation Wear Alex Out".  We go to an hour long class one day a week and then we can go other times during the week to play.  He seems to really enjoy it!  I'm not sure it's wearing him out as much as I wanted it to, but he seems to have fun and gets some of his energy out!

One thing I didn't realize until we started going was how good Alex is at climbing things!  He loves to climb the stairs and the mats...particularly the stairs leading to the ball pit!  He doesn't do much in the ball pit, but he just loves being in it.  I think maybe it gives him sort of a floating sensation.  He also absolutely LOVES the tunnels!!  He is fearless about crawling on in them.  Today, I kept going from one side to the other side and he would only stay in the middle.  He was happy there though...laughing and smiling!  I just finally had to pull him out so that the other kids could play in it!

I haven't taken any photos there yet, but here's one of him climbing under the coffee table...

And, here is one of him climbing out the doggie door....

My Little Sweet Pea

WARNING:  This video is very boring!  There isn't anything wrong with your volume...Alex gets distracted if I talk while I'm videoing.  I am just posting it so that Daddy can see how he is feeding himself peas now!  I told Jeremiah that Alex liked peas and he said "Well, he did get some genes from you then!" =)

I'm a Little Stinker!

He only stopped because that was the end of the roll!!! 

New Things!

Alex did several new things yesterday, so this is just a quick blog to share those things!

1. I had a strawberry-banana smoothie yesterday. Alex was really interested in the straw and started chewing on it. I didn't really think much of it, but then a few seconds later I realized that he had figured out how to use the straw! He had a mouth full of smoothie and was saying "num, num, num." Needless to say, he was pretty excited about that, so it's going to be hard to drink things with a straw around him now!!

2. He has thought the doggie door was SUPER interesting for about a month now. He always watches very intently when Little goes in and out of it. A while back, he figured out that he could move the flap and stick a hand out or kind of peek outside. Yesterday afternoon, he got more adventurous! At first, he had an arm out...then an arm and his head...then next thing I know he was half out and half in! He got a little stuck with his big ol' cloth diaper and I had to help him out. I wish that I could have snapped a picture, but my camera and my phone were in the other room and I didn't think I should leave him there alone. I'm thinking the doggie door will have to be closed up from now on....I'll have some work to do to help Little understand that...

3. Last night, I made some SteamFresh sweet peas. I decided to let Alex try them and he really liked them! He is so funny....he is still not at all interested in being fed baby food with a spoon, but he's getting very interested in any food that he can feed himself. I was really proud that I got something "green" in him because I want him to eventually be a good eater like his mommy (instead of his daddy who doesn't eat many veggies)! In fact, he ate more peas than I have ever seen Jeremiah eat!!! =)

Happy St Patty's Day!!!

Personalize a digital greeting card

Goodbye Daddy

Yesterday, Jeremiah's R&R came to a close and he had to head back to Iraq. We are very fortunate that we live so close to the Atlanta airport because it meant we got to spend an extra day with him that some other soldiers do not get. He had to report to the airport at 1300 (1 pm for the non-military folks!), but they gave Alex and I a pass to go to the gate with him. The flight did not end up leaving until about 7:30 pm, so it gave us quite a few extra hours to spend together.

This goodbye was by far harder for me than the first time. I think I did not know what to expect the first time, so it made easier to say goodbye. This time, I knew what was coming. Looking on the bright side, the deployment is half way over and in six months we will have him home for good!!

I took a photo of the two of them that looks really similar to the one I took before he deployed in October.  Compare them to see how much the little monkey has changed! =)

Here is one of the two of them playing while we waited!

And, here is our last family photo until next October....  (Not the best, but better than nothing!)

Alex had a ton of fun crawling around the airport.  He thought it was a great place to explore!  He also LOVED looking out the windows at all the big planes and the workers down there moving baggage, etc.  Here are a few pics of the little cutie!  

A Beautiful Spring Day!

It finally feels like this horrible, cold, wet winter is coming to an end. We had a beautiful, sunny, warm Spring-like day today!! The temperature finally got up into the 70's and it felt wonderful.

The three of us went over to Flat Rock Park to enjoy it. We walked around on the rocks and Alex did a little crawling around on them too. He also checked out the water, which was pretty interesting. We took him on the swings and slide. Then, we went on a long walk that put him to sleep!

Here are some photos:



Sunning on the rocks



Baby Rock-Climbing



Saluting Daddy (haha...I think he's really shielding the sun!!)

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Fun with Daddy (while Mommy almost has a heart attack!)



Push Ups in the Water



Daddy & Me

Our Alex

I have a funny story that I have to blog about... Eventually at the end of this first year, I'm going to have the blog printed out and made into a book, so some of these blogs are more for us than anyone else! :)

Last night, J and I spent about 3 hours trying to get Alex to go down to sleep. He was obviously tired by 7pm. We gave him his bath, a bedtime diaper, and put on pajamas. Then, he nursed and it become quite apparent that he was in fact not ready for bed. The crib has become an evil prison where he screams unbelievably loud, so we tried our other methods to get him to go to sleep. One is a palate of blankets and pillows on the floor in his room...it failed. Then, we tried the swing...there he cried enough to rival the crib and when I went into the room he had flopped himself half out of the swing and looked like the little monkey that he is. Finally, we decided to put some blankets down in the living room to watch the movie we were planning to watch (The Time Traveler's Wife...we both liked it!=)and we thought he'd sort of fall asleep. That was WRONG! He spent the entire hour and a half of the movie practicing "cruising" along the sofa, grabbing at Little, reaching for my glass of water on the coffee table (just out of his reach although he tried hard!), and laughing his head off at all of this! Every time the little girl in the movie came on the screen, he got VERY excited, looked at the screen, jumped up and down, and laughed. We think he likes girls!! =)

After the movie was over, I looked and J and said "What are we going to do with him???" J's response was, "That's not the question...the question is, what is HE going to do with US???" He's right about that...our Alex definitely rules the roost around here. I cannot even imagine a spunkier, more stubborn little guy....or one as loveable as him!!

Happy 7 Months to Alex!!!

Fun with Daddy!

Jeremiah arrived home for his R&R over the weekend. Alex and I are SO HAPPY to have him here with us for the next two weeks!! It's wonderful!! Alex is having so much fun getting to know him again and playing with him. He keeps looking around to check to see if he is still here with us...it's so cute! I'm so thankful to have some help with the little guy and get to relax a little more than usual!! :)

Here are some picture of my two guys...





Yesterday, while we were out running some errands, Jeremiah was holding Alex. This old lady came up to him and told him that "He could never disown that child because he looked just like him!" It was really funny!! =)

It's nice that Jeremiah is home right now to help me childproof everything! Alex is really crawling like a pro and going room to room. He's also into everything he possibly can be. Jeremiah is referring to him as the "Little Tyrant" because he is just a tad on the stubborn side...he knows what he wants and doesn't settle for less!!

Here are a few pics of what he's up to....