Well, Alex has reached his first birthday. We had a wonderful birthday party at the pumpkin patch and even though he was tired, he seemed to really enjoy the day. On his actual birthday we went to Chuck E Cheese for lunch and had fun riding rides and playing games. Just before his birthday he go his first haircut. He did a pretty good job with it, but he would not let me let go of him so I wasn't able to take any "during" pictures, just before and after. The picture of Alex and Mommy was taken the day before his haircut.
Alex is truly running all over the place. It is amazing how fast those little legs can go. It is really cute to watch. He is a mischeivious one though. We find ourselves nicknaming him Dennis the Menace. He turns off the tv and computer. He climbs up on the coffee table, over the arm of the couch, onto the back of the couch and plays with the blinds. And when you tell him no, he looks at you with the cutest little smile, as if he's saying, "I'm just too cute for you to be talking to me" and then keeps right on doing whatever he was doing. He has a one track mind, and "distract and redirect" has never been less effective on a child.
An Alex story... A few weeks ago we had fettucini for dinner. I noticed during dinner that Alex was having a bit of problem breathing, like he had a stuffy nose. After dinner as I was cleaning him up, I noticed that he had some fettucini in his nose and I pulled it out. We got a bit of a laugh about it and went on with the evening. As we were getting him ready for bed his nose still seemed stuffy, so we got the nose sucker out. After much work and a pair of tweezers, out came a piece of fettucini an inch and a half long. Yes, Alex is the one we're going to have to keep a close eye on.
He is starting to learn how to better communicate. He finally knows how to nod yes, but still finds it easier to shake no. He is also saying "up" and "poop." I guess you have to start somewhere. He is an incredibly slow eater, probably because he still insists on taking everything out of his mouth and putting it back in. Many times I worry that he is not getting enough to eat because we lose interest in feeding him before he is full. It is also hard to tell when he is full because he does so much playing with his food. Thanks to his daddy, he is doing better with sleeping throught the night. We get many restful nights now. He is also transitioning to whole milk well.
Alex celebrated his first real halloween this year as Bob the Builder. We went to a halloween party at the park where he had a great time playing in the leaves and running around. On halloween we went trick or treating at Grandma's office and had lots of fun showing off his costume to everyone there. Then on halloween night we went trick or treating with Kortnae, who lives across the street from us. We only went to houses of people we know well, but still we came home with loads of candy.