First Haircut

Alex was beginning to look like a little rag-a-muffin, so we took him for a haircut today. There is a place in Sanford that caters to kids. They have cars to sit in while getting a trim and T.V's and DVD's at each station to entertain the kids. Despite all of these "amenities", the experience was exactly as we anticipated it would be. Lots and lots of drama! Alex wanted none of it!! He cried and screamed and flailed about so much I was sure she was going to cut his ear off. Fortunantly, we left with both ears in tact and a much better "do." However, we were slightly put off when we walked in as discovered that a cut was $16, but by the end of our visit, we realized exactly why! Trying to cut the hair of a wiggly, hysterical, one year old, without drawing blood, is no easy feat!

Kitties, Monkeys and Ducks.

Alex had a busy weekend! On Friday, Daddy and I took Alex to the zoo. He had a great time pointing at all of the animals and walking around. He didn't quite understand why we couldn't pet the "kitties" though. He kept grabbing our hands and pointing at them, which is what he does when he wants to pet our cats at home. He also liked looking at all of the monkey's and does quite a cute little imitation of one.

Today (Saturday) Matt, Amy, and the kids came over and we went to the Duck Derby in Winter Park. Becky and Zack had a great time decorating their rubber ducks for the race, while I practiced my artistic ability on Alex's duck. Sadly none of our ducks won the race, but I'm calling shenanigans since the 1st place winner was the daughter of the guy officiating the race........what's up with that??
Anyway, I neglected to take my camera to any of the a fore mentioned outings so I will post birthday pics instead.

Walkie Talkie

Well, my little baby is not such a little baby anymore :( He has decided that walking is the preferred mode of transportation and doesn't crawl at all anymore. He has formed an attachment to the dog blanket that he sleeps with (we call it woof, mostly because it says woof on it) and carries it everywhere. I have mixed feelings about it. While it is sooo cute to see him with his little dog, I don't want to be frantic someday because woof is nowhere to be found and Alex is screaming and non-functional without it. But, I figure for now it's OK.

He also has lots of words now. Unfortunantly they all sound the same, (some variation of duh). There is "dah" which is dog, "duh" which is duck, "dat" which is that. "dlah" which is cat, and many more.

For those of you who don't know, Alex will be "1" on Tuesday the 24th! Can you believe how fast this year has gone?

A touching story of strength and courage

I'm passing this story along because it has touched me so profoundly. I never met the little boy, but I did know his mother in high school. Their 2 year battle against brain cancer is hearbreaking and inspirational. After reading this last night, I hugged Alex a little harder today, kissed him a little more, and just took the time to enjoy him. I hope that I will continue to appreciate just how lucky I am to have him in my life, and never take for granted that life can change in an instant. To truly grasp the enormatity of the situation and how brave Brendon's mother was when faced with treatment options that were sometimes worse than the disease, you have to go to the very first page of the journal and start at the beginning when Brendon was first diagnosed. I hope you all take the time to read this story and remember how precious life can be.

http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/brendoncoates

Giggle Box

Young Frakensteing likes toilet water...no not perfume.

Well, I have a few minutes between classes so I thought I would fill you all in on Alex's newest activities and shenanigans.

He is starting to walk in that Oh so cute frakenstein, drunk midget sort of way. It's more of an organized fall right now, but it's progress! He'll be walking all over the place before his 1st birthday! His favorite past time is to point at things and make us walk over to them so we can tell him what it is. He also has discovered it's sometimes (most times) easier to grab mommy or daddy's hand and make that hand do the things his hand cannot. Like turn a knob, or flip a switch. He will be quite a little manipulator!

On to shenanigans....

So, I was sitting on the couch doing homework this morning. Evan and I were both home, so we were kind of both keeping an eye on him. Well, I thought Alex had followed Evan into the bedroom, but I began to hear this "splash, splash, splash" sound coming from the end of the hallway. I spent a few seconds running through my mental list of what he could be doing... Is he taking the nightlight out of the socket AGAIN? no that's not it. Is he trying to climb into the litter box behind one of the cats, AGAIN? no, that's not it. OH NO! HE'S PLAYING IN THE TOILET WATER!! So I jump up and right as I look down the hall, he puts his hand in his mouth! *GASP* I wanted to dip him in bleach! But, I settled for washing his hands, applying hand sanitizer and giving him some juice to wash his mouth. So, kiss him at your own risk, you now know where his mouth has been!

FYI, His first birthday party will be 2/22 and our official wedding date is 6/13/09. So save the dates!