Bowling Firsts...

Alexander's first outing at bowling

Lights, Camera, Action...

On top of the very busy week, Alexander ended it with a very busy weekend. And to add to the craziness of it all, Alexander went to see a movie in the movie theatre for the first time!
Alexander went to see Cars 2 with some friends from school! Aidan's parents organized a little group of us to head to the movies. For Alexander, Aidan & Kiera this was their first time in a movie theatre! Alexander was so excited to go to the movies with Aidan, Grace, Christina and Christina's sister Erika.
The kids all did a great job and managed to stay focused through the entire movie (Kiera got antsy but she's also not yet 3). Alexander was pretty excited to watch the movie and I'm quite proud at how well he did with not talking during the movie and staying in his seat!

Good As New...

Today, I took Alexander to get his cast off. I was dreading this. I thought for sure the poor kid would be traumatized, fighting, screaming, kicking, and just overall miserable. I didn't tell him we were getting the cast off until last night, right before bed. He was very excited! During story time, he would point to his arm and say "off cast" so he understood and seemed to be game

for it!

This morning, he was 50/50. If I asked if he wanted his cast off, sometimes I would get "off Momma" and other times I would get a "nooooo" with a pout. We headed out for our appointment. Alexander was fine the entire drive to the doctor's office, until I parked the car. Then he looked at me with the most saddest face. He looked terrified. My Mommy-heart ached again. I thought he was going to break down in tears, but he just kept saying 'off' and pouting. He wanted me to hold him as he walked over rather than walking himself and most times he actually put his head on my shoulder. He seemed either really scared or sad...poor little guy.

Once in the waiting room, he just snuggled on my shoulder until an older gentlemen (another patient) made him smile. Then he was okay to sit on my laugh and babble with the man. When it was our time to go in, the assistant, (a nice younger woman) escorted us in and Alexander walked right in. She pointed us to the room and in Alexander went without issue. She told us, she'd be right back and closed the door. That's when Alexander got a bit nervous - he wanted to snuggle again and was leaning on my shoulder repeating "mamma". When she came back in, she had us sit on the table and explained that the machine was noisy just like a vacuum cleaner and he got all excited!

From this point on, my stomach flipped because she explained to me that she was going to use this machine to saw it off and I had no idea how Alexander would react. But, as it turns out, I worried for absolutely nothing. He sat on my lap, content and quiet the whole time. Turns out this was the EASIEST thing I had done in the last 2 1/2 weeks!

She turned on the machine and he just watched. He moved his arm when she asked, he opened his fingers when she asked. He was fantastic! The assistant was so good. She kept telling him how great he was doing and she was also telling him what she was going to do to prepare him. He held Monkey in his other hand and at one point wanted me to face monkey so monkey could see. He was so entralled by the machine and what she was doing that he didn't freak out once! It was incredible. Once she was done, she asked him if he wanted to keep it and he said yes (which I thought was funny). So after she sawed it off, she cleaned out the insides and gave it to him. He was so excited! He let me sit him on the table to take a few pictures of him holding his cast.

She finished up and told us the doctor would be in to check his arm. Outside, I heard the doctor ask her how it went and she said "best possible scenario - he was great, not one peep" and the doctor replied "hmm interesting". Dr O walked in and asked how he adapted to the cast, etc. He did a check of his arm and said everything feels fine. He gave us instructions and more from a full service perspective, he scheduled us to come back in about 2 weeks just to make sure everything is fine.

Dr. O said to let him be a 2 year old. Alexander will still favor the arm for a bit but not get too worried about. He also said his arm might be itchy so do a light luke-warm wash with gentle lotion but not a lot. Overall, things look good.

After the doctor, we went to Target for a hot dog & milk to celebrate. And he was even starting to use both arms, even if it was a little bit...then we went home, read some books, took a nap and then... we HAD A BATH!! It was so nice to give him a proper bath and clean him! He played a bit but then I gave him a good washing of all of the crevices! Then after the bath, he even let him cut his nails as he relaxed with some milk & crackers - all in all a very productive day!

First serious trip to the ER - check. First major accident - check. First cast - check! We can say that's done with now...

And here's Alexander's cast but without Alexander actually in it.

A Night of Firsts...

Friday night, we had an interesting evening of firsts. Dan was getting dinner ready and asked him if he wanted to have nuggets. Rather than getting out the nuggets, Alexander pointed to the bag broccoli and got very excited about broccoli.

So Dan made him broccoli. And Alexander was quite excited.

Alexander ate the entire plate of broccoli that Dan made for him and then ate the entire second plate. He also was so excited as he kept saying "okoli". Not bad about having vegetables for dinner, and he rounded out his meal with a banana.

Then after dinner, we were getting ready for bed and he was adamant that he have a tubby. What can I say, he likes to be clean! While we were getting ready for tubby, he kept sayin pee and pointing to his diaper and the toilet. We asked him if he wanted to go on the potty and he said yes.

So we put him on the potty and both held him there and he seemed okay to be there but definitely held onto both Mommy & Daddy firmly. After a few minutes and no action, we asked if he had to go potty and he said no. So he wanted to get down off the potty. As we finished getting the tubby ready, Alexander decided to go potty on the floor! Oh well.

But at least he got the concept of needing to go potty and where you go...now we work on timing. However, I am not going to push the potty issue until he really is 100% ready. It was a bit exciting...

Swimming with the Fishes...

Today, Alexander went to the New England Aquarium for the first time. He loves to make fish faces and he loves turtles so we thought it would be fun. It was Mommy, Alexander, Grammie & Grampie. Daddy couldn't join us as he has tickets to tonight's Red Sox game (yah, how that's fair, I'll never know...I jest!).

When we got there they were cleaning the outside tanks for the Sea Lions. He was a bit timid but did think it was exciting. We got inside and saw the penquins first. He loved the penquins and loved to follow them as they swam around.

After the penquins, we decided to walk around the Giant Fish Tank in the middle. We saw divers in the tank feeding & cleaning. Alexander was more excited to see the bubbles from their diving tanks!! We saw sharks, big fishes, little fishes, stingrays, and the big turtle! We went all the way to the top so Alexander could look in the tank! He just liked to look through the glass but not necessarily at anything and then run around the tank.

We headed back down to the freshwater exhibit so he could hold a starfish. That didn't work out so well because all he wanted to do was put his hands in the water and splash. And I'm sure the folks next to us didn't want to get *that* wet. We walked around and saw more fish & turtles. Then it was time to grab some food which Alexander did very well with. He loved his hot dog, french fries and even a few bites of Mommy's pizza.

Mother venting moment: Before leaving, I went to change his diaper. We were washing our hands getting ready to leave and a couple teenage girls were standing in front of the mirror checking out their hair. I was blocking Alexander so they wouldn't run him over. One girl walked around and the 2nd girl almost bumped into him but said excuse me. The 3rd one bumped into him and almost knocked him over. I said "excuse me be careful where you walk" and she shot me a dirty look. I said "no, don't give me attitude when you clearly are completely rude" The Mommy-genes were out in full force. If I still didn't have to pick up the stuff and keep an eye on Alexander, I would have totally ripped that girl a new one!

After the aquarium, we walked around outside a bit checking out the scenery. Alexander was checking out the horse, the birds, the boats, and loved running up & down the dock. I think he enjoyed it more when people would chase him and then let him run down! Overall a fun day!

Another First...

For the first time ever, Alexander brought me a diaper, the box of wipes, and his changing mat from his diaper bag. He set it all down and then just stood in front of me. I asked him if he needed his diaper changed, he said Yes and then sat down.

And sure enough he was right!

This was a pretty big thing as about 80% of the time it's a struggle to change his diaper and the fact that he knew it needed to be changed and he was okay with it was a miracle!!

Another First...

Alexander had another moment this morning...this one was a good one!



Sorry about the quality of the pictures. I didn't have my camera with me, just my cell phone.

We were lying in bed as he was having his first bottle of the day.

He reached out for the bottle and rather than holding it with him, I let go and let him hold it. He managed to hold it up and drink from it all on his own!

And he was able to finish the bottle too!