Kindermusik!

Wednesday was Alex's first day of Kindermusik. Before we even moved here I wanted to enroll him because I thought he would love it. I think he had a pretty good time. He has loved listening to the CD's they gave us and playing the stir xylophone that he got to bring home and keep. His new friends are all in his class too. Caden, Olivia, Jack and their mama's get to dance and sing with us too. Then we get to go out afterwards for lunch somewhere. :)



Dancing with Olivia and Caden


This was him before class started. At the beginning, Mrs. Laura sings the hello song where she goes around and sings hello to all the kids and calls them all by name. He was looking at all the paintings on the wall and then when she said "hello Alex" he turned around like, "you know my name?" Pretty cute!



This is after class on our way to our cars. Caden repeats my commands to Alex. She will tell him to come on and hurry up. He didn't want to hold my hand but he would hold hers. It was too sweet! I think she may be his new girlfriend.

Mommadar and Grandaddy's Visit

Thursday night Mommadar and Grandaddy pulled up in their convertible. Alex was nervous when they first showed up because we were outside playing and they pulled over to the sidewalk to say hi. He grabbed my leg like they were going to kidnap him. :) Then he realized who it was and he was excited! His playmates were here!! He was nasty from playing outside so Mommadar gave him a bath. This is him trying to drink his nasty bath water and Mommadar trying to stop him. I don't know why, but he just started doing this and it grosses me out.


Friday we went to CHOM (Children's Museum). Alex had fun showing his grandparents all the fun stuff he does there. Of course, he had to have Mommadar sit in the truck with him.

And he had to help grandaddy drive the boat.

Mom loves Cypress Inn so we went Friday night. John was on call and couldn't join us but we enjoyed it anyway :). I always get the smoked chicken with the white bbq sauce and this time we ordered it for Alex too. I dipped his chicken for him the first couple of bites but then he wanted to do it himself. Well, of course he stuck his whole hand in there and therefore had a TON of bbq sauce all in his mouth and over his face. He gagged because it was too much. But he kept on doing the same thing. Finally, the bbq sauce had to be taken away from him. :) Here they are sitting on the front porch waiting for our table.


Saturday it rained the entire time. We were going to go to Alabama Adventures because they have a little kiddie area and a water park, but that didn't happen because of the rain. We just stayed at home and had a nice lazy day. Finally, after his nap we went out to the mall to get out of the house and get John a new watch battery. The watch place was right next to a monogramming place, you know the one with all of the purses, nap mats, etc and they monogram them right there. I was at the little kiosk paying for the battery and Dad comes over to me and says, "Alex just pushed the emergency stop button on the monogram machine and knocked the computer off line. But don't worry the guy said it was fine and it was no big deal." I said, "WHAT? JUST NOW?" I was so embarrassed. I looked over at the guy working the machine and caught his eye and just mouthed I'm so sorry. He said it was fine and the machine was already working again. How in the world?? I said, "Dad you were supposed to be watching him." He said, "He was with you." Unbelievable!! :) Thank goodness things really were ok and he didn't mess anything up too bad. After the mall we went to Cold Stone Creamery and got some ice cream. Alex loved mommadar's strawberry and he also liked my chocolate cake batter. It was delicious if you haven't had it! I'm not usually a fan of Cold Stone because I like Baskin Robbins so much. By the way, whatever happened to BR? They are rarely seen in Alabama:(


Below is a video of Alex playing at a small fountain in the mall. The big one wasn't working that day for some reason. He loves water and this is just more proof.


Thanks for coming Mommadar and Grandaddy! Alex loved singing "The wise man" song, eating his frozen treat made by mommadar and playing outside. One day at lunch, I think, we were all at the table and we all sang "the wise man" song to him. He just looked at all of us intently and grinning like "you guys all know this song." It was too funny! Today he has had me sing it about 5 times to him. He is precious!

Nelmo!!

So many new things are happening here! A week or so ago I started asking Alex if he had "poo pooed." He would touch the back of his diaper and say "poo poo." and then say "no" even though sometimes he had. But Sunday while we were sitting eating dinner Alex looked at me and said "poo poo." I kind of ignored him because we had guests for dinner but he said it again a few minutes later. So I thought maybe he's serious so I took him into his room to change his diaper. It was clean so I got him dressed again and let him down to play. Not 2 minutes later was he standing in the kitchen all red faced and grunting. He has ALWAYS (as long as I can remember) done these things when he had to poop. It is soo funny, and you don't want to watch but it is just hilarious and you can't help but look. So John and I talked and thought maybe (keep in mind he's only 19 months old) he might be getting ready for potty training. Yesterday, I went to Target in search of a potty chair to go over the toilet at home. I DO NOT want to clean up a separate toilet. GROSS! We were in the toy aisle and Alex picked up an Elmo chatter doll. He carried it around the whole time we were in Target. He has been calling Elmo "nelmo," has a video of him, says his name when he sees him on his diapers or diaper box and loves to watch Elmo on Sesame Street, but he was really loving this doll. When I finally got to the potty section there was an Elmo potty chair. I knew we had to have it! I put it in the cart and he didn't pay a whole lot of attention to it (it was in a box) but he noticed it had Elmo on it. But boy when I got it home and set it up he was so excited! We read one book 3 times in the bathroom while he sat on it (with his clothes on). We have to go see Nelmo at least once an hour. I told him Nelmo had to stay on the potty and when he poo poos he can see him. This was Alex in the kitchen right after we got home and I was fixing his lunch. I don't think too much will be happening on this front for a while but we thought we could go ahead and get him acustomed to it. Believe me I'm not pushing him at all and I know he'll do it when he's ready-but I just had to share his love for Nelmo!


I love this picture with him smiling!

New back pack, old friends, and a cake

I have gotten so tired of carrying Alex's diaper bag around. I felt like he was too big for a "diaper bag" and so I decided to get him a back pack. I finally found one at a store here in town. Alex loves to carry it around and hold it when we are riding in the car. Sometimes it's too big for him but he still thinks he has to hold it.



Sunday some friends of ours from Birmingham came to visit and have dinner. April, Tim, and Holli and Michael. Holli and Michael have twins, Riggs and Miller, that are about 16 months old. It was a lot of fun getting to catch up and for them to see our house-even though it is empty. The babies slept some and we played outside and just hung out and talked. Since I'm experimenting with my cooking and baking I fixed John's grandmother's (Mimi) pound cake for dessert. It's not as good as Mimi's but I think it turned out pretty well. John had to try it as soon as it came out of the oven, even he was impressed I think. He has eaten most of the cake:)

Riggs, Miller, and Alex

playing in the backyard

Miller pretending she's a cheerleader

My pound cake

Swimming at Caden's

The Good Lord knew I needed some friends in my new town and He provided. :)Last Thursday we went swimming at our new friend, Caden's house. Caden and her mom Ally invited us and another friend, Jennifer and her daughter, Olivia over for swimming and lunch. We had so much FUN! Alex, of course, had a great time because there was water involved and I had fun because we got out of the house and made new friends. (Side note: About a week ago, I met Ally and Jennifer at a playdate at a park that was scheduled on a tuscaloosa mom's website.) They have a really cool pool where there is a section that is only 8 inches deep so I didn't have to carry Alex around the whole time and all of the kids could just play. It drops off on the edge at 3 ft and of course Alex was the first one to step off the edge. Thank goodness Ally was close and scooped him up. Those swimming lessons have really paid off:) We ate pizza and fruit for lunch out by the pool. Alex couldn't even sit at the table to eat. He saw the "wa wa" and then the nerf football and could only stop playing every few minutes to eat.

Playing with Olivia (in the background) and Caden


All three of them in Caden's room


In the playroom


This was Alex 10 minutes down the road. He was sooo tired!


When we first got there Olivia and Jennifer were already there. When we walked in Caden threw up her arms in excitement and yelled, "I love this!" It was hilarious! She is so talkative-I hope a little of it rubs off on Alex. She calls me Mrs. Rashel and just says the funniest things. The girls would run through the house screaming and Alex would come behind them screaming too. It was interesting to see him playing and interacting with two little girls.

Most of you know that we are a little furniture poor in our new house. We have ordered 3 chairs for our living room. The first two came in last week. They arrived while Alex was down for his nap and when he woke up he hopped right in one and started reading his books. Hopefully, soon, we will be able to purchase a rug for the floor and finish up the living room to make it a little more "homey."

Monday night we went to John's Uncle David and Aunt Kristy's house for Louise's birthday dinner. David was grilling the chicken in the back yard and Alex wanted to stay with him and learn a little tennis.


Alex also liked watching him play the guitar. He would watch and touch the guitar and then he would run into the other room. Then a few minutes later he would come running back in to watch and touch the guitar some more.


He also helped Grammy set the table. He carried the spoons for her and handed them to her when she needed them. He's such a sweet boy!


Lately, all the boy says is "no." This probably started a few days ago. It is driving me CRAZY! He doesn't use it always in the correct context either. He'll bring us a book or a toy and we'll say "Do you wanna play with this?" and he'll say "no" and he means it. It's almost like a fast "neh" though. You try to give him some food after he makes the sign for finished and he shakes his head and says "no" but then he takes the food anyway. Everyonce in a while he really means it but it sure is hard to know when that is:)

Some Funny things....

This was Alex one morning finishing his oatmeal. No, it was not liquidy enough for it to run out of the bowl, but I guess he had seen me finish off my cereal like this and thought he would try it to too.

With me at the fountain

I took him to this fountain one day. It was awesome and there are always a lot of kids running around and playing. He was probably the youngest and he spent a good deal of time just watching everybody. He finally got in to it and would step on the sprinkler and run into the middle where the big one was. He loves watching older kids and laughs and claps with them when they laugh.

Just some things he's been doing lately that I need to get caught up on. First off, Alex is now a climbing machine. I thought I would get lucky and he would never really enter this phase but now he is climbing on everything. A couple of nights ago John and I took him to the park in our neighborhood and he was climbing all over it and getting to the top himself. We just looked at each other like, "OK guess he can do it by himself now!" He climbs on to our kitchen chairs and on to the rocker in his room. These things he can get down from safely-Thank goodness!

I know it has been widely documented on here that the boy LOVES the water and he doesn't say a whole lot. Well...that has changed a little. He still loves the water but he is trying to say more. For water he now says wa wa. In the car, if he sees sprinklers or fountains (there is a big one near our house we see almost everyday)he points and says "wa wa." It is so cute! I'll get it on video soon. :) I try to make him say what he wants and he is saying the first syllable usually at least. He is saying "mou" for mouth and "ch" for chin as he points to these things. He just started this the last week or so really. So he is making improvements in the communication area!!

Also, as shown from the Atlanta trip and anyone who is around him for any length of time knows he points at EVERYTHING. He would just walk up to other kids and point to them, within an inch from their face. We would tell him, "no, don't point. You need to say hi." Well he has listened to us (hopefully, this will continue throughout his life-right?). He now says "hi" to everything-a storybook as he would normally point to an animal he now waves at it and then looks at us like "I'm doing what you told me to-See?" It is so funny! Now, we are trying to explain that he waves to people but he can point to other things like the lights. He waves to the lights in rooms (and other inanimate objects that it is totally appropriate to point at) when he used to point at them. He is crazy!

First Trip to Atlanta

Last week we (Alex and I-John had to work:() met my parents and Russell in Atlanta for a few days. As I've said before, my dad loves going to whitewater there but we also went to the aquarium and to a Braves game. We all had a lot of fun. The Murrays, a couple from my parents church, and their two boys, Davis and Dale, also were there. We got to the hotel first and my parents were just a few minutes behind. When they walked in to the hotel lobby Alex looked at them like "hey, I know you guys! Mom did you know they would be here?" It was cute. Wednesday night we went to Stone Mountain for the laser show. Alex seemed a little scared at first but then he started clapping and I think he enjoyed himself. Davis (I think he is 12) became his new best friend. Everywhere we went Alex was looking for him and wanting to hold his hand when we walked somewhere. Davis didn't mind..I don't think. Some pictures from Stone Mtn.

Alex and his new best friend, Davis

The whole group at Stone Mountain (minus me)
At the aquarium trying to see the stingrays.

I think Alex's favorite part of the aquarium were the sea lions. He laughed at them everytime they came by. My video isn't downloadng but it's one of the sweetest things you'll ever see.:)

Below are some pictures from the Braves game. The game didn't start till 7 (he usually goes to bed by 8) but he did great! He learned the tomahawk chop, ate dippin dots out of a Braves plastic hat with his Uncle Russell, got a foam tomahawk, and had a hot dog. We had to get him a Braves tshirt before we went so we stopped at a Walmart and found him one. Little did I know that Dad would want one to match Alex's. Notice their shirts in the pictures:) He was doing the tomahawk chomp, kind of got stuck but then started again:)


We also went to White Water. My dad loves this place. John jokes that he is the oldest man there but we know we saw at least 3 older than my dad. We had a blast and it was fun to see Alex enjoy it too. He loved the water fountain. He kept putting his head in it and then he would raise up and clap for himself. They have an awesome kiddie area. Mom and Dad went down a big slide with him and Russell got to take him down some slides too. He loved them. He had to go on one by himself and he kept flipping around and would wind up backwards. I would let him go at the top and he would just have this big grin on his face while he was going down. Mom stayed with him the whole time in this area (while we got to ride the other rides) and took him home for a nap and lunch at Sonny's BBQ:) and then brought him back for some more fun that afternoon. After the park we went to eat at the Marietta Diner. The Murray's had laughed all weekend about Alex pointing at everything so we had to get a picture of all of the boys pointing like Alex.