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.

Laughing Alex

Alex has been a bit cranky this weekend, we think he is getting a cold or going through a growth spurt. In an effort to make him happy we stumbled upon a way to make him laugh instantaneously (doing push ups). As soon as we stopped he would start crying again but it worked temporarily and is quite funny to watch.

Last night Alex had his friend George visit. George is a year older so there was not much playing going on (though George would try to grab Alex's hand to go play with him). George did have a good time torturing our dog. By the end of the night Sampson was cowering by the couch and when a plastic cube came flying at him Sampson jumped into the air and onto Rob's lap on the couch in an effort to escape the madness. Poor, poor Sampson.

Babbling

This week Alex has started to babble and saying more than "ba, ba, ba". He is actually making r sounds so it sounds like he is saying Rob. He has been a happy, but hungry boy. We have increased the amount of solid foods he eats, which is helping him sleep longer at night but it has led to a few unfortunate blowouts. We had been fortunate up until now to not have experienced this. Hopefully it will be a rare occurrence.

Fun Times

Alex got to meet his aunt and uncle from Denver for the first time. He was a little shy at first but did warm up and had a great time. We all went out to dinner, which was fun, and luckily the restaurant was a little on the loud side since it masked the meltdown that he had at the end. The next day we went to a friend's house for a bbq. There were about 6 babies there and they all had a great time "playing" together. Right now playing consists of a baby taking a toy away from another baby. It is much more exciting than when this group first got together when all the babies did was sleep.

We ended the weekend with a trip to Chloe and Michael's house to visit Stella who is about 4 weeks old. Stella made a surprise entrance into the world six weeks early so she is just a tiny little thing. She is now 6 pounds and when I held her I couldn't believe that at one point Alex was this small. Alex had a great time playing with all of Stella's toys and staring at the cat.

For our Sampson lovers, his new training is going pretty well. He is doing great in his crate and the walks are getting more pleasant. We had our last visit with the trainer last night and she brought one of her female boxers to the house. Sampson and her had a great time running in the backyard and playing. As soon as they left the house Sampson passed out from exhaustion.

Last weekend

On Saturday we went to the park with Brian and Shauna and Alex's cousins to play in the water and in the sand. Alex had a great time getting his feet wet and his hands dirty. Luckily this sand is not as fine as it is on the Oregon Coast so it is easier to grab out of his hands before he sticks it in his mouth. I tried to keep his pacifier in his mouth so it would deter him from putting the sand in, but he was determined to eat sand.

Then on Sunday we went out to eat and decided to use the high chair at the restaurant for the first time. I was a little nervous since there was so much extra space around him. I was convinced he was going to slide out and hit his head on the floor. Thankfully that didn't happen and Alex enjoyed sitting at the table with us. He tried to grab everything in sight and spent most of the time banging his hands on the table and trying to eat it.