Spoiled Much?

Grandma and Grandpa Murff came to visit the Friday after Thanksgiving. Of course, we had to eat more Thanksgiving food … so we fried two turkeys and made too much stuffing and mashed potatoes. The food was sooo good, though! I definitely can’t complain about a repeat Thanksgiving feast.

Meanwhile, Alex was spoiled rotten by his Grandparents. I think his favorite part of the visit were the acorn cookies Grandma made him. They were mini Nutter-Butters, a Hershey’s Kiss, and a chocolate chip; so cute, super yummy and like baby crack for Alex. Check out this series of photos of him asking for and eating more.

	I love the final push into his mouth!

Alex also enjoyed his yogurt and a show on the iPad while Daddy was working on the big computer.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Well, we are back after a little hiatus! We’ve been busy, busy between Thanksgiving, guests, and planning Alex’s birthday party. Since Tim was on-call (and still is – 2 weeks straight!), we stayed in town and ate with friends of ours on Thanksgiving day. We had great food and great fun! Here is a picture of the boys (Alex & Lukas) at their first holiday kids’ table. They had great fun banging their utensils on their plates while waiting not-so-patiently for food.

Last Day of Kindermusik

Today was our last day of Kindermusik for this session. Let me just say that Alex has come a long, long way! Remember my post about our first class? Alex was terrified as soon as we walked into the classroom, cried much of the time, and kept climbing me like I was a tree. Thankfully, it really only took one other class for him to get comfortable, and now he’s just a complete cheese! Since it was our last class, we were allowed to use cameras … yay!! I was able to get some great pictures and a video. We are excited to see what else we learn in Ms. Cindy’s next Kindermusik session in January.

Tapping his sticks.	Dancing with his friend, Ellie.
Ms. Cindy is impressed with his floor tapping.	So excited to have a scarf to wave.
Alex and Ellie playing the drums.	Being silly during story time.

 

 

Sleeping

Alex was still sleeping when I went in to get him this morning. So, I took the moment to grab a picture:

Fort Fisher Aquarium

Now that Alex, Tim, and I are finally on the mend after our vicious colds, we had to get out of the house today. Unfortunately, it was too cold and overcast to hang out under the house. So, we ventured out to the Fort Fisher Aquarium. Alex was so excited when we drove over the bridge to Carolina Beach. He always loves everything we do over there. It was hard to get pictures since he loves to run from tank to tank, but I did manage to catch a few cute ones.

Watching the turtles and puffer fish.	Staring into the big tank. Too bad he wouldn’t let me get his picture with the scuba diver!
Daddy facing one of his biggest fears … jellyfish!	And another fear … poison dart frogs!

Food Lion & a Balloon

Alex and I ran out to Food Lion the other night for grilled cheese sammies and tomato soup. It was cold and windy and we were home alone for yet another night (Tim worked out of town 4 days last week). Apparently the bagger was impressed with Alex’s handsome eyes, so she asked if she could give him a balloon. Man, was he proud of that balloon!

On another note, look carefully at the trucks on the entertainment center. Silly boy loves to turn them upside down, tell me, “uh-oh,” shake his head at them, and put them back up right. We also have several car pile-ups a day on the floor.

Wheezy-Cheesy

You’d never know it, but Alex has been fighting some kind of bug for close to a month. He doesn’t seem to realize it, but he’s had a low grade fever almost every day and is on his 2nd ear infection (at least in a different ear this time) in the past month. I took him to the doc yesterday and we got some stronger medicine for the new ear infection, in hopes of finally killing this bug. Then … he decided to take it up a notch and started wheezing last night. I called the on-call nurse, and we decided he could wait until today to see a doc. When I took him in, he ended up getting a breathing treatment with a nebulizer. He did not like that one bit! Luckily the one I’ve given him here at home went much smoother. In case you don’t know what a nebulizer does, it just vaporizes medicine into a fine mist, like a humidifier. You are supposed to put the mouth piece in your mouth so the mist doesn’t escape, but it’s kind of hard to get an almost 2-yr-old to cooperate. Instead, I have to hold the mist in front of his face and hope he gets most of it. At least it makes a huge difference! We’ll be doing these every 4 hrs for the next few days, so cross your fingers it goes well and that he gets better soon!

Walk a Mile in My Shoes

So I look down the hallway and see my silly Alex walking in my boat shoes. I’m pretty sure he walked all the way from my closet to the front door! Every now and then, a shoe would slip off, but that didn’t phase him one bit! He just slid his foot back in and kept walking!

I love his expression in the 2nd photo – proud, yet oops-she-caught-me!

Anchors Away!

Alex and I went to Fort Fisher last week to enjoy some sunshine and a distraction from the house. Believe it or not, the Terrible Twos are quickly approaching, and Alex has been sure to let me know! Luckily, he was well-behaved as soon as we got into the car. I think he just didn’t want to be stuck inside the house!

I didn’t take many pictures since we were busy wandering, but I did get this:

Remember my post in June about our visit to Fort Fisher? I love using old posts to see how much my big boy has grown:

Gorgeous Hair

I just have to say that Tim and I are going to be in trouble when Alex is in school. Look at this gorgeous hair!

Alex got a spa treatment today. He took a nice long bubble bath and I conditioned his hair. Then while he watched Mighty Machines, I massaged and rubbed him down with lotion – this cold air and the heater running non-stop has dried the poor thing out! I even gave him a manicure. Good thing he adores me!

Thanksgiving Craft

Alex and I went to a MOMS Club play-date to make his first Thanksgiving craft:

Gobble, gobble! Hard to believe it’s already November … and that in 1 more month, Alex will be 2 years old!

Bowling

I took Alex bowling on Monday. By bowling, I mean I set up his bowling set under the house after music class and showed him how to roll the ball to knock down the pins. He decided bending over to roll the ball was over-rated, so he just sat down and pushed the ball. He actually did a great job!

Poor Kovu!

We found a great vet the other week and decided to leave Kovu at their kennel while we were away last weekend. Part of the reason this vet is so awesome is that they do a free nail clipping while a dog is in the kennel. This is fantastic, especially since 2 different vets have tried to clip Kovu’s nails and were unsuccessful – he’s just too strong! This vet was actually able to do his back paws with no problem … but had to sedate him to do the front. While he was out, she decided to take a sample of a bump he’s had on his side for a couple of years. Good thing she did! Turns out it’s a mast cell tumor, which could eventually become cancerous. It also contains histamines and probably is part of the reason we had to give him those allergy shots for so long!! I wish we had met Dr. Crow a long time ago! She kept Kovu on Monday and cut the bump out. Thank goodness he can’t reach the incision with his mouth, so no huge cones bumping into walls and Alex! She did recommend putting a shirt on him to keep him from scratching the incision. Since it’s so cold, we put him in a fleece!

J & J’s Wedding

Last weekend was a very busy weekend! Tim took Friday off so we could drive to Columbia for Jaime and Josh’s wedding. Jaime and I have been friends since freshman year at USC, so I was very excited to spend a weekend celebrating her special day. We also had the chance to visit with Tim’s family, which was nice since we are now much further away from them than we used to be. We celebrated Great-Grandpa Strunck’s birthday and Aunt Brie’s birthday … needless to say, we were very tired when we got home Sunday night!!

He was so excited to be finally facing the front!	Finally stopped yelling at trucks and took a nap.
We sure do make a cute couple!	What’s a wedding without some karaoke?

Fun at the Fair

I took Alex to pre-school day at the fair last week with some of our friends from MOMS Club. The fair opened for 3 hours for kids under 5. Admission included music, snacks, little kid rides, and access to the animals. Alex enjoyed seeing the sights, especially the roosters in the animal tent. I think he liked the few rides we went on, though he was definitely a little nervous about them. Here is a picture of his very first ride on the spinning tea cups. Check out that concerned face! I think we’ll definitely to it again next year!

 

Riding in style in Reid’s stroller.

An attempt at a group shot.