Rocking Chair

Alex recently discovered how to get on his rocking chair on his own. He is very proud of himself and likes to sit in the chair and rock back and forth. He has not quite mastered getting out of the chair but he is working on it. He is going to be 15 months at the end of this month (I cannot believe it) and he is still working on walking. He seems very close but you never know. He is very busy playing with all of his toys and taking things out of drawers (though I am happy to report that he now takes pleasure in putting things back into the drawers). He is still pleasantly sleeping through the night and sometimes even sleeps in until 7 AM, which is a real treat for mom and dad. Other than that, we have nothing new to report. All is well in the Stern household.

Daycare pictures

Alex's teacher e-mailed these photos of Alex playing with glitter today. He worked so hard on his masterpiece that when he was done he decided to take a nap. Life is so hard at daycare.

Where has the time gone

To our fellow readers, we have not forgotten about you. I have pictures that I need to post and when I find the time I will flood the blog with them. Alex is doing well. He has settled into a very nice routine. He goes down for his naps and bedtime with no fuss and we have weaned him off of bottles which was not nearly as hard as I thought it would be. We are anxiously waiting for him to take his first step but he doesn't seem to be in a hurry.

Stay tuned for more updates.

Happy Chanukah and Happy New Year!

I know it is a little late for Chanukah wishes but we have been busy digging ourselves out of the snow. We did make it down to Portland for Chanukah. We were all happy to get out of the house. We ate latkes to our hearts content and relaxed with the family. Alex loved the latkes (who wouldn't love fried potatoes) and somewhat enjoyed opening all the presents (he doesn't quite get it but he will soon). All the snow nicely melted in Portland over last weekend so we were very saddened when we pulled up to our neigborhood to see that none of our snow melted. A week after it stopped snowing and it is still on the ground. Just two days ago we called the city to ask if they would plow our street and to our surprise they did it the same day. This meant Rob no longer had to take the chains on and off.

Alex has been busy walking around the house with the help of his push toy. He never showed any interest in walking until this week. We were both excited to see him interested and he thinks it is so much fun. He has also found his voice. He now shouts at the top of his lungs, usually when we are in public and is a little chatterbox. I try and talk to him at a normal level to see if he will mimic me but it hasn't worked yet. Now we know why we don't go to fine dining establishments.

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.