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Ether

Well this Easter sure was different from last year. Alex had lots of fun! The Easter Bunny brought books and sippy cups and lots of eggs to find. I was suprised at how well he "got" it. He was able to find the eggs and put them in the basket with a little direction and motivation of course. Anyway, the attached videos are from the day. One is Alex finding his basket this morning at home (the longest 0ne) and the other two are Alex with his cousins helping us deflate the air mattress and finding egss out in Granny's backyard.

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

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