Cousin Michael's Birthday...

Today was Cousin Michael's 2nd Birthday Party!

We went to Uncle Matt & Aunt Laura's new place to celebrate. It was nice to see everyone as Grandpa & Grandma, Tony & Fran were up from NJ. And Aunt Catherine & Uncle DJ came from Pittsburgh. Alexander hasn't seen DJ since Christmas but he was immediately comfortable with him and was okay playing with him. And of course, Uncle Steve & Aunt Carolyn with the boys were there as well.

The only ones missing were Paul, Doug & cousin Charlotte - and missed they were.

Michael didn't take a nap but he was very excited about his presents and playing outside with the kids. He also loved his cake which was a car! Alexander did a good job of singing Happy Birthday and 'helped' blow out the candle from across the room.

Blockhead...

My child is an official 'Blockhead'. (Blockhead is a person who is a fan of the New Kids On The Block)

We all know he loves to dance and seems overly excited when the song "Summertime" from New Kids On The Block is on the radio. He immediately dances and kicks his leg. But now he'll actually do a part of the dance and sing along!

We were driving to cousin Michael's birthday party and "Summertime" came on the radio. (Okay, I admit the CD is on repeat in my car) Alexander started to dance and when Daddy & I sang the "ooooooh" part and put our hand up - Alexander did the same thing! And he even did it on his own without prodding a couple more times.

And one time he even did it exactly when he was supposed to...I'm such a proud Blockhead Mommy!

No Pictures...

Okay - don't really know what happened today! But there are no pictures from today.

It wasn't intentional and it wasn't as if something out of the ordinary prevented lack of pictures. The only thing I can think of is that the day got away from us. So sad...

Daddy dropped off Alexander off at school which meant they left before I did in the morning and then I got home later than usual due to Friday night traffic and Alexander was already upstairs in PJs.

I completely forgot to run down and get the camera...silly Mommy.

Which also makes me a sad Mommy...

Topsfield Fair...

Monday was Columbus Day and Mommy & Daddy had to work. However, Grammie & Grampie had off and took Alexander to the Topsfield Fair.

They saw trains, horses, piggies, & even played the elusive Dan the Candy Man. They didn't win but at least Alexander has finally gotten a chance to play.

Picture Recap...

Picture Recap (Monday, October 6th - Sunday, October 12th, 2008)...

Picture Recap...

Picture Recap (Monday, October 6th - Sunday, October 12th, 2008)...

Weekly Glance...

Weekly Glance (Monday, October 6th - Sunday, October 12th, 2008)

• Had an okay week at school - was tired a few days and that's probably from waking up at 1a/2am!
• Had a combination of diaper rash & a runny nose
• Sleeping was not that great this week - he woke up at 1am a couple times and would not go back to sleep in his crib for Mommy. This is now Daddy's job if he wakes up at night because he'll go back down for Daddy.
• No longer wants to sit in his booster seat - he must sit in a normal seat
• Learned to get off the kitchen chair by himself and most times did not fall on the floor
• Loves to jump - however he doesn't get his feet off the ground and he does the funniest grunts with each jump
• New words this week: "Wow", "oww" and more uses of "happy"
• Another new word I found out about but he says this to Daddy is "home"
• All of a sudden loves sunglasses and wants to wear them
• Loves to brush his teeth with someone else, so one of us will sit with him and we all brush our teeth
• On Thursday, he scratched Aidan across the face and Mommy had to sign his first incident report
• Friday was Grampie's birthday so we celebrated with ice cream cake, singing & presents
• Alexander helped sing his version of Happy Birthday (it's just 'happy happy') and then he helped Grampie blow out his candles
• We got chinese food for dinner on Friday and Alexander had a chicken finger (against Mommy's judgement) and seemed quite content even when he was spitting it out on Mommy's office floor (ICKKK!)
• Woke up @ 6am both Saturday and Sunday - WOOO!!!
• He had a great weekend and besides the Saturday afternoon mini-meltdown he was in a good mood
• Saturday: Went to cousin Nick's football game with Daddy; helped Daddy mow the lawn/blow leaves in the afternoon; Dan watched our neighbor's kids so before bed, they came over and played with Alexander.
• Alexander was enthralled with following them around. He didn't try to steal any of the toys they played with which I found interesting as he didn't have the sense of 'my toys' with them.
• Sunday: Went hunting for pumpkins with Mommy; then went shopping with Mommy; then went to hang out with cousin Michael in the afternoon with Daddy

Hunting for Pumpkins...

Since the weather was supposed to be gorgeous this weekend, I figured it would be a perfect day to go pick out a pumpkin! Daddy had a softball game so it was just going to be Alexander & I. We went to a local farm where I was hoping they'd have pumpkins all over the place and Alexander could run/walk through the pumpkin patches.

The farm was cute and they did have a lot of pumpkins, even some funky ones. But they were all on tables or bins & off the ground. So it made getting a cute fall type pictures with pumpkins a bit on the challenging side.

We went over to where all the little baby pumpkins were. I asked Alexander to pick one out and he really had no interest. He was looking everywhere but at the pumpkins. Finally he did pick up one so we kept that one. Then we went to go look at bigger ones until we noticed the ducks in the pond. Alexander got pretty excited with seeing the ducks & goats. We walked over to see the goats up close but since we didn't have any food for them we just looked.

Then we went to go pay for our pumpkins and do our last errand before naptime. On the way out, Alexander stood in front of the entry sign.

TOUCHDOWN...

In true Football Fashion...

TOUCHDOWN!

Sharp Dressed Man...

'Cuz every girl is crazy about a sharp dressed man...

Happy Birthday, Grampie...

Today was Grampie's birthday so to help celebrate, they came over for dinner, cake & presents!

I think now that Alexander sings "Happy Birthday" he seems to actually get into birthday celebrations now. He started to sing his version of Happy when he saw the candles. We didn't even have them on the cake yet. He was also a big helper for Grampie helping blow out the candles.

He even wore & kept the birthday hat on! He usually takes hats off immediately once they're on his head. But because he was singing he wanted his hat on.

Troubbbbllle...

Alexander got in trouble at school for the first time. (Okay not really because he's only 18 months and they don't get in trouble...) But it's comical to start off the story with Alexander got a written warning.

However, I went to pick him up today and they were outside playing. There were 2 new teachers who was with his class so I had to introduce myself because Alexander was trying to rush pass them to get to me. As I went to pick him, Ms. Kim explained to me that there was an incident report I would have to sign. Oh??

Earlier in the day, Alexander was playing with a toy when another child came over and took it from him. Alexander, not one to understand sharing just yet, swipped the kid across the face. And of course because his nails grow like weeds, he scratched and left a mark. So they had to fill out a report for both parents. I was looking at the book and noticed the same report with Aidan's name on it. They don't put the other kid involved on your report and they won't tell you unless it's significant.

So hopefully Alexander learns to share quickly or kids don't steal his toys...
...joys of a toddler!

Picture Recap...

Picture Recap (Monday, September 29th - October 5th, 2008)