Climbing On EVERYTHING!

Since Alex has started walking we have noticed he is quite the climber. He likes to try and climb anything. Lately it has gotten worse. One day while we were in the kitchen I heard something get thrown on the floor. I thought Alex was in the pantry which didn't make sense because I had recently cleaned out the pantry and made sure everything was out of reach. So I turned and found him standing on top of the paper towels, throwing things off the shelf. I can only just shake my head and set him back on the ground.

This weekend a new car seat came in the mail that we had ordered. We got it out of the box and Alex used it all weekend as a jungle gym, climbing up it and using it to climb onto things like the cedar chest.

Then comes the pictures and videos from Matt while I was in Harlan with the girls on Friday night. I have mentioned his stool in previous posts. Well. now the stool has been put away for the time being for safety reasons. 

Example 1:

Thinking he needs to always be standing on the stool to do anything:

It is dark but if you look closely you can see he is standing on the stool just to play with his music table which he is able to reach with no trouble without the stool.

Example 2:

Climbing off the stool is boring. Again, this starts out dark but watch closely and you will see him jump off the stool.

He continued to climb onto the stool and jump off all weekend so we moved it closer to the cedar chest in hopes he would have something to hold onto to get off the stool. Instead he used it to climb onto the cedar chest.

Next we moved it to his room. We thought maybe if he could use it to get to the toys in his toy box it would distract him and keep him from jumping off it.

Stool and toy box:

Look at all those toys!

So far so good! He was having a blast pulling out toys that he could reach.

And then apparently one was out of reach...

Are we really surprised at this point???

So as I mentioned, for the safety of Alex and the sanity of mommy and daddy, the stool has been put away for a little bit until he quits climbing on it, which might be a while based on last night.

While at bunco last night I got the following texts from Matt:

Text 1:

"Oh the places you will go"

This is the cabinet in his dresser. That shelf normally has towels and wash clothes on it. My response to Matt was, "where are the towels?" and he responded with what I had guessed, "all over the floor." Matt also told me Alex got stuck in there and daddy had to rescue him.

Text 2:

"What's behind this chair? Uh Oh!!"

This is his little blue chair that is in his room. After this, it got pushed against the wall so there is no longer space behind it.

Text 3:

"I'm okay!"

With some help from daddy he got back upright and was ready to go!

Matt also said he tried to climb into a diaper box we had just emptied but got his head and knees in and got stuck with his butt and feet sticking up out of it.

So since most of these events took place in less than a week, can you imagine what the future has in store for us?? More than likely some good stories, laughs, some bumps and bruises and possibly a trip to the ER. Mommy and daddy are prepared for craziness.

Sandy's Playhouse...

We had a change in care for Alex but it has all worked out great. Kathy needed a little free time and there was an opening at a good friend's in-home care so Alex is spending the day at Sandy's Playhouse now. 


As far as Matt and I are concerned it is great. Sandy makes the kids all behave, eat well, nap, put themselves to sleep for nap, follow rules, share, etc. Kathy had done a great job with Alex and we are so thankful that we made it through his first year with just a couple of stuffy noses. Now that he is getting older he needs the social interaction with other kids. No matter how hard Kathy tried, this is something she could not do for him. He will learn so much from all the other kids. Kathy still keeps him every once in a while and whenever Sandy is off so they still get time together. It is really the perfect situation for everyone.


The kids at Sandy's love Alex and treat him great. She has kids ranging from a few months younger than Alex to 6 years old. It is a great mix and they all are so well behaved, thanks to Sandy I am sure.


Just about every day when I pick him up Sandy has a funny story that happened that day. Here are a few of the best ones:


The first day Alex was throwing all the blocks out of the box. Addie, the oldest at 6, told Jayden, about 4, to show Alex how to build with the blocks. So Jayden stood by Alex and every time he would throw a block Jayden would say, "build Alex, build!". Sandy started laughing and Jayden looked at her and said, "Addie told me to teach him!"


That same day at lunch Addie was upset because she said they hadn't "teached Alex anything". Sandy told her that of course they had, they had taught him where the toys are, how to play outside, and all kinds of other things. Addie responded with "but we haven't taught him his ABCs!!"


Last Friday as I was dropping Alex off Addie came in at the same time. She had a soft baseball she had gotten the night before at the Legends game. Her mom told her to show it to Alex and she told her mom, "ok but all he is going to do is throw it" and handed to him. Of course Alex immediately threw it and Addie said "see, I told you." very matter of factly.

Fun at Chuck E Cheese!

Matt had a great suggestion last night that we meet at Chuck E Cheese for dinner. It was Alex's first time and both kids, and Matt and I, had a blast. Gatti's is a bit too big for Alex since it is mostly games but Chuck E Cheese has little rides that Alex was big enough for and he loved them.

Daddy and the kids!

Such a silly boy!

Alex bailed on Barney so Reagan finished the ride. 

Riding the swing!

Driving a Jeep like Daddy!

  

They had so much fun!

Taking Chuck E for a ride.

1st Birthday Party!

After months and months of planning and lots of money spent, we finally celebrated Alex's 1st birthday. I put way too much time, money and effort into it but it was worth it all. Despite the heat we had lots of great family and friends come to the house to help celebrate and it seemed like everyone had a great time. 


We go lucky that his actual birthday landed on a Saturday so we could have the party on that day. I also planned the party for noon, the time he was born but it was actually a complete accident.


Some of the decorations I made:

All of the food was named with Mickey characters. My favorite was the Hot Diggity Dogs and Burgers.

Mickey heads with pictures from every month, including 12 months that we took first thing that morning.

The banner. It took way too long to cut all those hands out!

His smash cake from Cassie. The Mickey is a stuffed animal that I had embroidered with "Alex's 1st Birthday" so we can keep it forever.

The butt on the onesie I ordered. The front was really cute too and is in the  pictures below.

Here are the things Alex loved about his party:

All the new toys, like Rocky, the motorized rocking horse from Nana and Poppy.

And the new truck that looks like Poppy's.

He would have stayed in the truck all day if we would have let him.

Loved playing with all my friends!

The whole play group made it!

LOVED Mickey showing up. When he walked out of the house, Alex started waving and clapping. It was too cute.

Great group of kids at the party and there are 5 missing from this picture, 2 younger babies that had gone down for nap and 3 older kids that weren't big fans of Mickey.

Actually enjoyed opening the presents, unless it was clothes, he threw those and went looking for toys.

Liked all the new presents, especially the ones that make lots of noise.

Things Alex really didn't like about his party:

The only thing he didn't like was the cake. He acted like it tasted horrible. I tasted it and it was delicious so he is just a weird child. We tried again at his 1 year pics and he still hated it.

Didn't like having the icing all over him but enjoyed playing in the sink while mommy was cleaning him off.

Someone Turned 1!

I know it has been a really long time since the last blog but I will make up for it with a few today. As I mentioned in another post, we now have a very mobile toddler and therefore little free time on our hands. On June 23rd that little monster turned one. I am still in shock that a year has already gone by. Wow, it was fast!


I have posted pictures of his photo sessions throughout the year and we had the last session on the 30th. We had purchased a package called "Baby's First Year" from our photographer and the 1 year pictures were the last session. Daddy took Reagan fishing the morning of the session so it was just baby and mommy. For the most part the session went really good despite the fact that it was already 90 degrees when we met Hilly at 9:30 that morning. Here are a few from the session:

These are separate pictures that I am going to frame like this. These were not easy to take since he is not a fan of sitting still for very long (hence the N being a standing picture.)

Mommy and baby in matching championship shirts!

This was at the end of the session and he was running away. Totally done with pictures.

Trying to play with Hilly's camera.

These blocks were taking the place of his "Alex" stool since we were missing a letter at the time of pictures. We later found the letter in the trash. Someone likes to throw everything in the trash right now.

Loved the balloons but only when mommy was holding him.

Still hates cake.

Right before the meltdown that ended the session. He was hot and tired and was done taking pictures.