Looking More Like 2 Years, Not 13 Months!

Alex and I met his friends Corbin and Tyra Lilly (and their mommies) at a Wilmington city-run play center called Fit For Fun today. We've been a few times before, and have always had fun, but this was Alex's first time as a walker. As I looked back as the photos I took, I was floored at how big and old he looks! Maybe it was the outfit (thanks for the sweater Great-Aunt Mary), or maybe I just can't always tell how old he is because I see him 24/7 ... but he looks way older than his 13 months. Check it out ...

Alex’s first motorcycle!
Having a blast banging on the drums.	Mom, are you sure this is okay?
Look at that tongue!	Eating some Goldfish.
Why are you sharing my Goldfish?	Drinking from his sippy cup.

Learning By Leaps and Bounds

It is amazing to me how much Alex can learn in one day! He truly is a little sponge, constantly soaking up as much as he can. I've been trying to "let go" a little and let him try feeding himself. He's been great feeding himself little crackers and Cheerios and things like that, but he's been boycotting anything sticky or slimy. This is why I was so surprised when he pointed to the banana I was eating the other day. I gave him half of it and he loved it! More impressively, he actually got most of the banana in his mouth and ate it! Woo hoo! So today, I decided to let him try eating his yogurt with a spoon. We've tried this before, but he just liked to hit the spoon inside the yogurt container. He's been mimicking me a lot, so I modeled eating yogurt with a spoon ... and he immediately scooped some up with his spoon and put it in his mouth! I was so amazed! Of course, the spoon was upside down and most of it got on his face, but hey, we're making progress! I was so excited that after we got cleaned up, we went shopping for some shorter spoons. :-) I hope you enjoy the videos ... they are both pretty long, but he was being too funny for me to shorten them. The video on the left is after he surprised me by feeding himself the yogurt this morning and the video on the right is eating applesauce later in the day with a shorter spoon. Oh, and we finally found a camera battery with a charge and my tripod (given to us by wonderful Aunt Beth and Uncle Eric last year), which is why the quality and length of the video is so much better! Alex seemed to be enamored with the blinking light ... enjoy! (Oh, you will get to see a bit of his temper, too!)

Eating a banana.	Very proud of himself!
Scooping up some yogurt.	Trying his fingers.
Take 2 with a smaller spoon.	Dipping his teething cookie.
Two handed!	My sneaky way to clean up.

Eating Yogurt

 

Eating Applesauce

New Year’s Eve

Alex had a lot of visitors during New Year's! Aunt Beth and Uncle Eric visited us for the weekend and we got to see Miss Katherine and her new fiance Mr. Harper (they were in town at his family's beach house - yay)! We had a lot of fun and ate tons of food with Aunt Beth and Uncle Eric. We started off on the 30th with dinner in downtown Wilmington, eating at a Mexican restaurant. Alex started getting antsy part way through dinner, so I gave him a lime wedge to play with - and he ended up chewing on it and loving it! Silly thing! Here are a few pictures of our walk along the river and Alex eating the lime.

     

We spent some time at the beach on the 31st. It was beautiful weather and a great way to relax on the last day of the year. After that, we had an oyster roast and ate some yummy shrimp pasta with homemade pasta made by Tim (and sauce made by me, of course). We were so full of oysters and shrimp, that we barely stayed awake for our champagne toast at midnight. :-) Alex and I got the black-eyed peas going early the next morning so we could have our greens and peas for financial success this year - Alex even tried a few peas. :-) Good boy!
Enjoy these pictures of the beach:

  

  

  

Happy New Year!

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!