Loving on Kovu

Kovu has become a very patient dog lately. To thank him, I let him nap in the sun in our room during the day and on the couch at night. Good dog! Here are a few good shots of Alex playing around with Kovu.

  

Alex Loves to Lounge!

Alex's new trick is sitting with his back to you and unexpectedly falling back on you. It's the cutest thing ever, but it has already caused a few bumped heads, because whether he realizes it or not, I'm not always right behind him! Silly boy. I hope you enjoy this video. It's exactly why I love being home with him!

 

Alex loves to lounge!

Growing Up Too Fast!

Alex sure has taken his own sweet time to decide to walk on his own. I don't know what did it, but from the time we walked in the door from our Christmas trip, he has been walking like crazy! Where he used to walk 5 or 6 steps, fall down, and crawl, he now picks himself back up and keeps going. It's amazing! Not only does he want to walk everywhere, he wants to feed himself, too. I've been trying all kinds of food to see what he will pick up and eat - he's not the biggest fan of anything slimy or slippery, so there goes my fool-proof pears! Luckily, he does enjoy a cheese sandwich and just found that he loves PBJ! Thank goodness there is a food other than baby Goldfish to feed him!

I hope you enjoy these pictures of Mr. Alex, all grown up.

     

Over the River and Through the Woods

We spent a very busy few days on the road for Christmas this year, but Santa still managed to find us! Our living room looks like Toys R' Us exploded in it.

We started off with a road trip to Spartanburg and a few side visits to see lots of family and some old friends. Luckily, we never encountered much traffic and Alex is a pretty good car rider. On our last trip, we figured out the best way to travel is to fold the front seat of the XTerra down (so I can still see where we're going) and I sit in the back with Alex. Tim is our chauffeur and Kovu hangs out in the very back. It works out pretty well!

Next, we passed through Columbia and did Christmas all over again with the Strunck family. Once again, Alex was spoiled, but who wouldn't want to spoil the Cheese?

We hope you all had a very merry Christmas and that you enjoy a prosperous New Year! If you're in Wilmington on New Year's Day, come eat some collards and black-eyed peas with us!

Alex Has a New Crawl

In trying to learn how to stand up in the middle of the room without holding on to anything, Alex has developed a new way of moving around the house. :-) He has now mastered going from the foot/hand crawl to a stand and walk, but I haven't gotten that on video yet!

1 Year Check-Up

We are so proud of Alex and how well he did at his 1 year check-up on the 13th.

Here are his latest stats:

Weight: 23 pounds, 14 ounces ... 65 %ile
Height: 30.75 inches ... 78 %ile
Head circumference: 48.75 cm ... 96 %ile         (he needs room for that big brain)

He had to get a finger prick for a hemoglobin and lead test and 5 immunizations, but he was so good! Not too much fussing during the finger prick, lots of yelling during the shots, but I would too! At least he loves our doctor and really showed off for her.

Here's a pic of him the next day during the bath (I had some fun with my picture editing app).

Parties, Parties, Parties!

Alex has been a very busy social butterfly over the past week! It started last weekend with the Mom's Club Christmas party. Alex loved hanging out with his friend, Lukas, and eating some yummy food! Then, mid-week, Alex and I attended our Mom's Club cookie swap - yum! We all brought 3 dozen cookies, then came home with samples of all the other kinds.

Alex and Lukas posing for the camera.	Alex’s famous head tilt.
It’s a bit blurry since I caught him mid-rock.	Yummy cookies from the swap!

Alex has a friend who shares his December 7th birthday, and another born later in December.  All three turned one, so the mommies and I threw a joint party for them. Here are a few pictures from the fun.

Exploring his first corn hole game.	Oops! That’s not how you’re supposed to do it!
Stand there and let me throw you this ball!	Alex liked the bows better than the gifts.
Corbin, Tyra Lilly, and Alex waiting for their cakes.	Tyra Lilly and Alex digging in.

Trimmin’ The Tree

Our original Christmas tree plan involved a small live tree on top of the coffee table in the corner of the living room. By the time we picked a lot to look around for a tree, I was so excited (since we didn't mess with a tree last December) for a tree that we ended up with a 7 foot tree. It has actually worked out surprisingly well! We thought we would need to keep our gate in front of it, but both Alex and Kovu have pretty much left the tree alone. Well, Kovu did spend the first 24 hours with his head buried between the branches to breathe in the fresh pine scent, but now that it's decorated he pretty much leaves it alone. Alex enjoyed checking the lights for burn outs and periodically pulls some ornaments off the bottom branches, but he's been great with it too. We just put non-breakable and hook-less ornaments within his reach and ran some fishing line from the top of the trees to the tops of the windows. :-) Here are some pictures from decorating the tree and admiring the tree the next day (thanks, Great-Grandparents Workman for the cute sleeper). I'm also going to share a picture of the outside of the house (we really wanted to light up the Palmetto trees, but we figured it was way too much work without an extension ladder).

  

  

  

Dump Truck

Here are two videos of Alex and Daddy playing with Alex's new ride-on & push dump truck ... enjoy!

 

Beautiful Weather and Alex’s Birthday

Over the weekend, Tim, Alex, my parents, and I went to Arlie Gardens. It was a nice day and Alex appreciated the chance to crawl around in more grass. Arlie Gardens puts up a bunch of Christmas lights and lets you walk through in the evenings. Since we didn't make it for an evening show, we walked through and imagined the park was lit up. Here are a few pictures of the 3 of us (this almost never happens ... thanks, Mom)!

  

To continue enjoying the great weather, Alex and I went to the beach Tuesday with our friends Sara and Lukas. Lukas is about 6 weeks younger than Alex and Sara is around my age, so we enjoy playing with them. The boys had a lot of fun exploring the beach and throwing sand at their mommies. Then on Wednesday ... Alex's birthday .... I took Alex to a park I hadn't had the chance to visit yet. Alex enjoyed sitting in the stroller while I walked on the walking path, then I let him play under the playground equipment. Apparently, wood chips are almost as much fun as sand!

     

We also attempted a chair picture. This was difficult, as Alex has figured out how to rock on the chair! We had a lot of fun taking pictures and playing while waiting for Daddy to get home. Then ... it was present time again! Alex definitely enjoyed playing with his new tractor. Happy birthday, Alex!!

     

Meeting Santa

Last night, we decided to check out the Carolina Beach Flotilla, which is a lighted boat parade at night. Unfortunately, it's still in its first few years and there were only 5 boats. So, we headed over to Santa's Village on the Carolina Beach Boardwalk for a few pictures. Poor Alex started wailing about 2 seconds after being placed in Santa's lap. Santa told Daddy that he should walk away with Alex for a few minutes, then he would walk up behind them for a picture. Alex kept his eye on Santa, making it hard for him to sneak up on us, but eventually, we did get a shot. Poor guy! We're going to try again next week after a longer nap. :-)

      

Alex’s First Birthday Party!

We decided to celebrate Alex's first birthday a bit early at Grandma and Grandpa Murff's house while we were up for Thanksgiving. What a successful party! Alex came home with a bag on top of the XTerra filled to the brim with toys. Alex (and Mommy) will not be bored for quite a while ... we have too much playing to do! Thank you to everyone who was able to come and celebrate with our little man. I can hardly believe it's already been a year! I hope you enjoy the photos!

First Halloween

Alex enjoyed a whole week of Halloween this year! The week started with a trip to Battleship North Carolina for Trick-or-Treating. This was a neat experience, especially since it was our first time on the ship. We didn't go down the ladder to the candy area, but that's probably a good thing since Mom and Dad would be the ones having to eat all the candy this year!

    

Our next adventure was picking out pumpkins at a pumpkin patch hosted by a church on Carolina Beach. Alex loves wearing his costume and had tons of fun playing in the hay and smacking the pumpkins. He even knew exactly which little pumpkin he wanted and reached straight for it!

Alex and I also attended the MOMS Club Halloween party. That was a lot of fun as well! Alex loved crawling around in his dinosaur costume and met a cute little boy dressed as a puppy that we hope to play with again soon. Maybe next year he'll enjoy putting his hand in the pudding "mud" to search for gummy worms and in the spaghetti noodles "brain" to look for candy, but we skipped that this year.

Our last Halloween adventure was Trick-or-Treating around the neighborhood. Grandma and Grandpa Murff came to visit for Halloween, so we left them under the house to give out candy and we took Alex out in his wagon. Alex thought the wagon ride was a lot of fun, but he wasn't so sure about knocking on strangers' door and having Mom ask for candy. It was a great week! It's so hard to believe that last year he was in my belly with a painting of a pumpkin on top of it! He's growing so fast!!

To see more photos, click here.