When Life Hands You Lemons...

You make a funny face but ask for more!

Alex was very curious about the lemon on my tea glass this weekend so I gave him a taste. After about 4 tastes I thought about getting a video of the facial expressions he made with them. As you can see he comes back for more each time!

Pig!!

I think I have posted something about Alex's eating habits already but I had to share once again. Our 1 year old eats more than his 9 year old sister some days. He has already moved up to the Mighty Kids Meal at McDonalds. The regular kids meal with only 4 nuggets wasn't enough, so we moved up to 6 nuggets and he can eat them all. Plus the fries! I guess by the time he is 2 he will be ordering a 10 piece extra value meal! Good thing he is active or he would weight 30 pounds by now!!

Fries are yummy!!

Back to School!

Last Wednesday we walked our FOURTH GRADER to school for the first day of school. How in the world is she in 4th grade??? I remember the first school thing I attended with Matt was her preschool graduation. I have walked her to school on the first day every grade since and I am still in shock that she is in 4th grade. Only one more time will we be able to walk her to school to Huntertown. I am just in shock.

With her 4th grade teacher, Mrs. Lanter.

First day with little brother by her side. He seemed really concerned when we left the school and she wasn't with us.

Already On The Couch???

As Matt said it perfectly today, "we have a 1 year old, that can climb onto the couch already." I guess I should have been prepared by all the climbing he has been doing but I figured it would be a while before he could get onto the couch by himself without the aid of someone or something. He had in the past managed to get up there by using toys or other objects as stepping stools but now he can do it all on his own. 

He has an obsession with getting the remote for the tv. He even knows to aim it at the tv when pressing buttons. He got a hold of it one day at Kathy's and pushed so many buttons it took her forever to get her tv working correctly again. So when I heard the tv changing channels the other day I knew who was responsible. The problem was that I thought I had put the remote out of reach, on the arm of the couch and low and behold I find that munchkin sitting on the couch like a big boy, holding the remote at the tv and pushing buttons as fast as his little fingers could. When he saw me coming toward him, he screamed and scrambled off the couch to run away.

Thankfully Matt was smart enough to start teaching him at a very young age how to get off the couch "feet first" without hurting himself. He still has his moments when he wants to dive over the back of the couch, over the arm or jump straight off, but thankfully most of the time he goes off smoothly, feet first. He did fall off for the first time yesterday. His response, laughter. This child may be the death of me.

Here is a video I caught of him climbing up and sitting down on the couch:

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.