Happy Birthday Alexander!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALEXANDER!!

Alex is 12 months today and weighed in at 23lbs and 10oz. And I thought he was heavy last month! He is starting to fit into 18m clothes sizes now. Today has been so exciting. ONE! 365 days!! Can't believe it.

We have a couple of parties coming up for him this weekend but in honor of his REAL birthday today we celebrated with an Alex sized cake and a few presents.

First off Alex decided that it's his birthday and he can pick his nose if he wants too.

"I don't care if we're taking a family photo!"



Alex's still goes to Vanita's for daycare. Her kids are SO sweet. They baked him a special cake today which he came home with.



First Birthday!!


First some obligatory family photos.



Who does he look like more? Mommy or Daddy?


CHEEEEEEESE



And now for some cake! Unsure about it at first.



Inspecting the frosting


Tasting



I think it passed the Alex test


With flying colors...especially green






Photo with the Grandparents




"Grandpa, you should really try this cake. It's delicious!"



The aftermath


After some MAJOR clean up, time for a couple of presents



Since it was getting closer to bedtime, we decided to move the party to our house.
This is why I love living one street away from my parents. After a bath, bottle, book,
we opened one more present from Grandma.

What can it be?




Awesome! Wait, what is it?



Alex clearly hasn't been paying attention to the toys at the doctor's office.
Grandma shows Alex how to count.




All tuckered out after a fun filled evening.


Goodnight! Sweet dreams.

11 Months Old!

Alex turned 11 months old on Valentine's Day. He weighed in at 22 lbs and 8oz. My arms are starting to hurt when I carry him for long periods of time.

This has been the most fun month of them all because he has really started to interact with us. Sadly I broke my 10 month streak and didn't get to take a photo with the blocks. I do however have this lovely V-day shot. Here's our little heartbreaker.




He loves bath time now. His favorite things to do are play with his Arsenal rubber ducky, share his plastic rings with mommy, read his bath books, and fill up a cup with water and then dump it out. He also figured out how to splash on cue.


Here he is at the library checking his email on the Blackberry.



Ohhhhhh, we're here to read!



Practicing with the sippy cup still. At least he figured out how to tilt it and get liquid out.




Look at the shiner he got at daycare.





Mau got one too. Though she got hers fighting with some neighbor cat in our backyard.



We kept Alex away from Mau until she healed.

Here he is reading her a book about doggies.




Here he is giving her lots of TLC.
...Perhaps too much TLC at times.

"Get back here, Mau!! You need more love!!!!"




Alex started developing more preferences this month. For instance, putting clothes on is now a challenge. If he had his way, he'd be naked all the time.





He throws fake tantrums if he doesn't get his way. Unfortunately for him, I don't crack.



See, I knew he was faking it all along. This photo is literally taken 30 seconds later.



We started to explore and discover some more new things.

On one of our 6am wake ups, we watched the garbage man collect the garbage.



Still unsure about bubbles. He makes this same face when raindrops fall on him.




Hitting and banging on different objects to hear new sounds



Eating with a spoon


Ejecting disks from Playstations!! (We started turning it off at the back otherwise he will stand in front of it for hours, pushing the little on button and waiting for the cute beeping noise)




Look Grandma Dot! The shirt you got me from St. Ives finally fits!


His bottom teeth have arrived. We started a bedtime brushing routine.


Despite Wengers poor management, he's still an Arsenal fan. Should I be worried that Matt's beanie almost fits Alex?


A new trend we started seeing was Alex falling asleep in the car wherever we went. Every time we decided to take him to a museum, park, the mall for a walk, he'd fall asleep 5 minutes before arriving at our destination.


A few other things that he learned this month were waving bye bye and clapping his hands.
Alex is also really big on goldfish crackers.

I haven't posted videos in awhile so here are a few of my fave.

Alex and rain


Alex is obsessed with Peekaboo. This was taken a few days before Grandpa had his stroke. Thankfully, Grandpa is slowly but surely making a recovery. Alex lights up his life.



Splashing in the tub!



I can't believe next month we'll have a toddler on our hands. We couldn't imagine life without our amazing little guy.