Crazy Winter

Seems like everyone got hit pretty hard with the snow in the Northwest. This is the most snow that I've had since the Winter of 1996 just after I moved to Seattle for college. Since Alex has been cooped up for the last week with the Chicken Pox, we decided to let him play in the snow for a few minutes. If you've ever seen our house, you've noticed the really steep driveway. While it's a problem for getting the car out if it's snowy, we found out that it's great for sledding. Below are some pictures of us playing and a video of Dad and Alex sledding down our driveway.

Let it Snow

Alex in his super thick snow suit

As you are probably aware, it has been snowing quite heavily the last few days. With the snow and the chicken pox we have been stuck in the house all week. Yesterday I was going a little stir crazy so I put Alex in this snow suit we got from Rob's brother and we went for a walk. I don't think Alex had a clue that it was 25 degrees outside.

Thankfully Alex is feeling better. He has been a little on the cranky side but that could be due to the fact he is getting a few more teeth. I was so focused on his chicken pox that I didn't even notice the new tooth on the bottom along with the 2 that are coming in on top, poor kid.

Chicken Pox: For Posterity

Just so that we are prepared to show Alex what he went through when he is older. I took him to the pediatrician yesterday since nobody believed me that he could have a full case of the Chicken Pox just from the vaccine. The doctor walked into the room and said, "Wow! I've read that this was possible, but have never seen a full blown case from the vaccine." Good for you Alex! Way to prove them wrong.

Vaccines

Alex had his one year doctor's appointment last week. During that appointment he got a number of vaccines including one for Chicken Pox. I thought that was pretty cool that Alex wouldn't have to go through the Chicken Pox like Jess and I did. Turns out that some babies have reactions to the vaccines. Alex was one of those babies. His reaction was to actually get the Chicken Pox.

The obligatory picture of Alex's pox. He wasn't all that happy with picture time. Don't worry. I'm still a happy baby most of the time though.

Alex is hanging in pretty well. He has a bit of a fever, but is pretty happy for the most part. Luckily, he'll never remember that he had Chicken Pox and I'm thankful that he doesn't really know how to scratch himself yet.

Alex had his one year checkup on Friday. He's doing great and grew enough to get back on the charts. He's now 10% in height and head size and 3% weight. He's got the green light to eat everything now including peanut butter since they apparently just changed that rule.

Alex in his Tigger robe and footies after a bath. This is one of those things that you register for because it is so cute, but later realize that it's cuter than it is practical.

We decided to see what he'd do if we put a bowl over his head. His reaction was to keep doing it to himself.

Birthday pictures

Alex is concentrating hard at pulling the wrapping paper off while his cousins wait patiently. A few minutes after this we had them help Alex with the rest of the unwrapping.

Here is Alex with his great-grandparents who came in from Denver to celebrate Thanksgiving and his birthday with us. We were so happy they were able to come.

Alex enjoyed making a mess out of the cupcake. This was after he licked all of the frosting off. Eventually he ate his whole cupcake.

Birthday pictures

Alex in his new rocking chair.
Just about to open presents. I wonder what that rocking chair shaped present is?

Birthday cupcake! Don't worry, Mom and Dad are right next to me so I don't grab the fire.

Happy Birthday, Alex!

Alex turned one year old at 6:55pm yesterday evening. At that time, he had just finished his Thanksgiving dinner by throwing most of the Turkey on the floor and then starting to dig into his Birthday cupcake. We celebrated his birthday and Thanksgiving with our family. Thank you Nana, Saba, Grandma, Papa, Great Grandpa Sid and Great Grandma Kathy for making the trip to Seattle to be with us. Thanks to Brian, Shauna, Hannah and Nathan for making the significantly shorter trip. :)

While hosting Thanksgiving and a birthday is fun, it requires a lot of planning and cleaning of dishes. I think we'll have recovered by the next time this happens in 2014. We'll post pictures soon from both Thanksgiving and his official Birthday Party on Sunday.

Haircut

As you can see Alex is sporting a new shorter hairstyle. We finally broke down and took him to get his haircut. He did very well. He sat in a red sports car and for the most part was very calm. He didn't like it when we had to hold his head down but there were no tears. I think I was more upset than he was.

We are busy planning for Thanksgiving and his b-day. I have been trying to clean the house all week but when you have a little boy who won't sit still and no longer thinks its cool to take long naps, it has been a challenge. I know it will all come together in the end.

Crawling baby

Alex has finally graduated from army crawling and is crawling the good old fashioned way. This means he gets around a lot more quickly and is very happy about that. He has also learned to stick out his tongue. He does it often and really likes to imitate you.

We are gearing up for his birthday party. I cannot believe he is turning one in less than two weeks. Time has flown by this past year. I promise to take lots of pictures over the next few weeks to post.

Batman gets out the vote

Here's a picture of Alex before we went out trick or treating. He wasn't a big fan of the Batman mask. We'll share more pictures soon.

Alex joined Dad today on election day. He sat with me in the polling booth on the way home from work and happily slept through it. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get his advice. He said he was for Obama though. Although he might have been saying ba ba.

Palm Desert

We spent the last week vacationing in Palm Desert with my parents and my brother's family. We had such a great time. The kids got to play in the pool everyday and the adults got to relax at the spa. The weather was great, Alex really enjoyed the sunshine (as did his parents). We didn't do much other than lay out by the pool, eat and take naps, which to me is the perfect vacation. I have lots of pictures so I will start with just a few.

Portland Trip

This past weekend we took a trip to Portland. We decided to leave around 5 PM on Friday which is usually the time Alex is very active. I assumed he would stay awake in the car but instead he slept the entire time. This meant his schedule was completely off and rather than going to sleep at 8 he went to sleep at 11:30.

We had a great time. Sunday the whole family came over for brunch. Alex got to meet and play with all of his cousins. I think he was fascinated by all the older kids (he wanted nothing to do with the adults).

As you can see from above, Alex found a cool cubby to crawl into and hang out. He is really moving around and exploring and has no desire to sit still.

Tomorrow we leave for Palm Desert. I am so excited to get in the warm sun and hang out by the pool. Alex has only been swimming a few times in his life but he is going to get his share this next week. I hope he likes it.

Last weekend

This is an older picture but don't they both look so cute!

This past weekend Rob and I spent our first night away from Alex. While he was home having a great time with Grandma and Papa, Rob and I were living it up in Leavenworth. Sadly living it up for us means a few drinks, possibly making it to 11 PM and then crashing. Regardless, we had a great time and enjoyed our freedom for the night.

Other than that things are status quo. Alex pulls himself up on everything and is starting to creep around the furniture (he really only takes a few steps before he chickens out). Sampson is being very tolerant of Alex's adventurous side as he climbs over Sampson and then proceeds to steel the bone that he was in the middle of chewing.

We are heading down to Portland this weekend to celebrate Heather's 30th birthday and see the family. We should have some new pictures for you then.

More pictures

Here are some more Alex pictures for you all. I'll try to get some Sammy ones for all of his fans out there. Not too much new in our world.

Alex in one of his many warmup outfits. I think he's warming up to play football. The Huskies could use him.
Pre-game workout. Alex likes to do pullups on his pack and play to stay fit. He's hardcore.
Now he's ready to go, but he can't find his football in the toy bin.
Whatever. Maybe I'll just go pretend to be the dog and play with his toys in his crate. He did this to himself...really.

No more sleeping

Alex has decided that he no longer wants to sleep at night. He has been waking up around midnight and showing no desire to return to sleep. This has made for some unhappy parents. Hopefully this is a phase and it will pass. Like everything, we blame it on teething. What happens when he gets all of his teeth in, we will need to find a new culprit for all of his ails.

Alex with great grandma Kathy

Weekend in LA

This past weekend Alex and I went down to L.A. to celebrate Ezra's first birthday. It was Alex's first time on an airplane and he did great. He really liked looking out the windows. Luckily we had an empty seat beside us both ways because Alex is hard to keep still and he had no desire to sleep on the plane. Alex had a great time playing with his cousin and got to meet his great grandparents for the first time.

Alex has been very busy crawling around (still on his stomach) and he is pulling up onto his knees. He really wants to stand but hasn't worked up enough nerve yet. I can also report that he has his first tooth. It started coming in last Thursday.
Sorry for the lack of posts recently. Stay tuned, I have lots of pictures to share.

Climbing Alex

Alex has figured out how to climb up things. Mainly he uses Rob and me to climb on but occasionally he uses the table and the dog. He isn't very steady on his feet and tends to stand on his tip toes but he gets better every day. He has also figured out how to go from a sitting position to his stomach. Now if he could only figure out how to get back into a sitting position he would be set. His new mobility is making him very happy. He likes to explore underneath the kitchen table and loves to weave through all the chairs.

He has been battling a cold for the last week so getting him to take naps has not been easy. Rob resorted to an oldy but a goody with Alex sleeping on his chest.

Halloween sneak preview

Since all of the stores immediately went into Halloween mode the day after Labor Day, we figured we'd give you a sneak preview of Alex's Halloween costume. We'll say for arguments sake that he's a kosher dog.

Creeping Alex

Alex got to visit with his grandparents very briefly this past week. During his visit grandpa took this video of him moving. He is getting around more quickly now but he is still dragging his stomach on the ground and does not use his legs very well. Hopefully he will figure out a more efficient way to move soon.


We went in on Friday for Alex's 9 month check up. No shots this time, which was nice, just a general check up. Alex is doing fine but as you can probably tell, still on the small side. He weighed in at 16 pounds, 1 ounce. That puts him in the 3rd percentile. The doctor said we should try and fatten him up a bit and add some high fat foods to his diet. We are now pretty much adding butter and oil to everything we make for him. If only I had that problem and my doctor told me to fatten up a bit (I would be in cookie heaven).

Labor Day Weekend

We spent this past weekend at the beach. We had amazingly nice weather and were able to spend plenty of time outside and in the sand. The first day we took Alex to the beach he spent the entire time trying to eat the sand. The second time I think he learned his lesson and decided to dig in the sand rather than eat it.


Sampson also had a great time running free. At one point when the tide was low he ran into the water thinking it was shallow and he went completely under and came up frantically dog paddling. He made it out just fine and gave Rob and me a good laugh.

Mr. Pumpkin

The other day at daycare Alex had a few unfortunate accidents which meant the removal of his cute outfit and the use of his back up daycare clothes. He doesn't often need to use these clothes so we generally throw a random assortment of things in. This day he ruined his shirt and his bottom which led to this result (to top things off he also had on green socks during the day).
We have been trying very hard to get a video of his new creeping but he doesn't seem to do it when the camera is around. We will have more free time when we go to the beach this weekend so hopefully we can capture it then.

Creeping, not necessarily crawling

So Alex has started moving around now. I think we would technically call it creeping. I think the next stage is Army crawling. If this is what he's doing right now, I'd say the Army needs to work on their techniques. Alex generally needs to find motivation to get moving and most often it's Sampson's leash or Sampson's bone. Not sure Sammy is a big fan of this stage. Below is a picture of Alex celebrating the Men's Olympic Basketball team's gold medal.

Alex and Ezra

Ezra has been visiting and we have been having lots of fun watching the babies play. Above are just a few of the cute things they do.

We took Alex to his first professional sporting event on Sunday. Unfortunately for him, the only professional team was the Rays as the Mariners seemed to have played with their Triple A affiliate. Alex is very nice, he didn't seem to mind when they had their 4th wild pitch of the day.

My brother set the over/under for an Alex meltdown at 3 innings. Somehow, he made it the whole game. I think there were plenty of adult fans who didn't make it that long.

Alex being super cute in his Mariners outfit.

Are they EVER going to score? Wake me when they do.

Alex also has a new noise. I'm not sure how he does it, but he kindof sounds like Chewbacca. He's not quite as tall though. Below is a video of the little wookie. He starts turning it on in the second half.

A round of applause please

Alex learned how to clap his hands today. I think this is really cute.

Alex's best friend

I can't wait until Hannah is old enough to babysit for me.

Look at me, I'm 2 feet, 2 inches tall. Probably destined to be a point guard.

We know we owe you all new pictures. We've been keeping busy lately. Alex doesn't have any new tricks yet, but he's trying hard to figure out how to crawl and he definately wants to be able to pull himself up. It will all come with time. Below is a movie from our baby dance class. I'm no expert, but it seems that Jess is leading in this one.