Play Ball!!

Alex had won Cardinals tickets through the St. Louis County Library summer reading program. So, between Dad's MRI, Eric going to FL, and me packing for FL, Alex had his baseball game. Grandma Teresa was able to join us at the last minute. This was Alex's first ride on the commuter train and he was exstatic!

The game was on a rain delay, so we had a lot of sitting around.


This was both his and Grandma Teresa's first profesional game.

Access Hollywood's Billy Bush threw out the first pitch...no really he did.

Despite the delay and freezing temps, we had a great time, even though the Cards blew it in the 9th inning.

Happy Birthday!

Happy Third Birthday to my special Small Person. We celebrated with my folks at Incredible Pizza Company and then had cake at home. Note: This was the best pic I could get on his birthday.

This was his cake. He requested a dinosaur and I delivered. I only had 30 minutes to tint the icing and decorate the cake, so it looks a little sloppy. It tasted delicious, even so!



Alex and my Dad waiting for some cake.



Eric and Alex at the Train Park in Ferguson. Playing with the train set at the Whistle Stop Depot in Ferguson.

Alex Update

I've been thinking lately and I figured out that I haven't updated on Alex for a while, other then pictures. He is 34 3/4 inches, almost three feet, tall and roughly 30lbs. Still small for his age, but he has no motor/developmental delays. He loves all things trains and dinosaurs. He is actually identifying several dinosaurs by name. He got a kitchen last fall and he enjoys 'cooking' with his 'recipes'. His imagination and pretending have really taken flight. I tend to crack up when he walks through the house with a book over his head or carrying the Swiffer and singing Alleluia, (what Irish mother wouldn't want a priest for a son?). He can count to 20 and knows the Alphabet and can recognize all the letters. We are working on identifying the sounds of the letters. He is also quite polite and uses, 'please and thank you,' consistently.

Occasionally we get to grocery shop at Trader Joes in Brentwood. They have child sized shopping carts that Alex LOVES to push. He actually picks out his own items to put in the cart. Not just grabbing things from the shelves mind you, he studies the shelf and then makes a choice of what to pick up. Thing such as mixed nuts, macaroni and cheese, and balsamic vinegar have made it into his cart. He claims we, "NEED," these things, though I tend to differ.

I have also come to the conclusion that the "Terrible Twos," are complete BS. Alex is almost three and hasn't been better. All and all we are just biding our time here until we can start playing outside without wearing 5 layers of clothes and boots.

Two, too, and to

We had the privilege of going out to lunch as a family, during the week. We went to Chilis, since they had free kids meals today, and tomorrow. Alex was enjoying a rather large forkful of oranges when I told him he had too many. His response,"Three many!", as he proudly grinned with a mouth full of oranges.

Halloween

Halloween consisted of one party, Church Trunk-or-Treat, and actaul Halloween all spread out over five days. We were Halloweened out, so much so that Alex really didn't want to wear his costume for trick or treating. Can you guess what he was?



Is he a Donkey...? NO!

A Bear...? NO!! (The costume judge at Church thought that)


He was one of Grandpa Hopf's cows!! I don't think anyone got it right :)

Visit

Mulching the blackberries

Playing Hockey with my vacuum cleaner attachment.

Magic House

Eric's Mom came to town last week for a visit. She and I took Alex to the Magic House in Kirkwood. If I could/would have left Alex in the Water Room all day, I think he would have been the happiest kid on earth.

These are giant foam Tinker Toys pieces in the Garden, how cool is that?!?

Meet the New Bed, Same as the Old One

Only missing rails! We took the rail off of Alex's crib this week, since he is potty training. He loves his new "bed", and doesn't hesitate to get in and out when necessary. Now to get some new sheets to make it more like a real bed, not just a crib without a rail.

2 year pics

I took Alex to get his 2 year pictures done at Forrest Park about 4 weeks ago. A friend of mine from high school, Chera Meyer, just started a photography business here in STL. Here is the link to her facebook business page. These were taken along the Great Basin; the large fountain area in front of the Art Museum.

Here are a few of the images.

Pictures!!

Yet another pic for his wedding slide show

The X-Men Cometh

box slide

2nd Birthday

Birthday Pics

All three enamored with the Cards game

Mom and I made the cake.


Big present!! New sand box. Too bad it's been too hot to use it

2 year molars and my closet

Honestly, I could not think of a clever title for this. Alex is getting over a cold, due to his 2 year molars. He has been chomping on just about everything, especially his fingers. Poor guy has been stuck inside most of the week because it has been raining just about everyday. We are doing the countdown to his 2nd birthday. Since we haven't been home to see my folks as a family since Christmas, we are celebrating Alex's birthday in IL. The small town where my folks live,(pop.200), just got a new playground last fall and Alex is anxious to play on it!

So, my closet...I am ironing Thursday afternoon and out of the blue the whole back part of my closet shelving falls down. I had not been in the closet, nor had anything been added/subtracted to that part of the closet. Upon further inspection, anchors that were holding the shelving were snapped off. Upon further FURTHER inspection, the whole shelving unit was not anchored into studs, it was just anchored into the drywall. Well, no wonder it fell. Not sure why it hasn't fallen sooner. Eric has spent today trying to fix the problem and is making *slight* progress. Turns out the whole unit is not even put together properly, (it came with the house). I can't get to my clothes, or anything else, but it is getting Eric to clean the closet ;)

Craziness

The last four weeks have been crazy busy. I have been taking my Dad to a pain clinic two days a week. Between that, Gymboree and library, I am only home Tuesday afternoon and Friday. Dad stays with us while he goes to his appointments, so he is here from Tuesday night through Thursday evening or Friday morning. He gets his re-evaluation a week from this Wednesday and that will determine if he continues for another 5 weeks.

Meanwhile, I am playing catch-up from being gone last weekend to the Vera Bradley Outlet sale in Fort Wayne, Indiana. If anyone wants to know what the sale is about, type in Vera Bradley in YouTube and see the sale video. People come from all over the world to this event. It was nice to be gone for a bit and see the Chapman and Anderson families in Indianapolis.

Alex is rapidly approaching his second birthday; 2 weeks away as of this posting. Just when I thought all of his teeth were in, he got a small cold and has started getting in his 2 year molars. The only real downside to this is that he doesn't eat much when he is teething. He is starting to recognize some letters and is starting to count. He really enjoys playing in the 'water' and cannot wait for it to be warm enough to get the pool out.

New all Around

New computer for me! We bought a new laptop for the living room/traveling AND it is pretty purple. This week we are getting an estimate for a new fence in the back yard. There was one that came with the house, but we took it down because it was falling down and rickety. We are currently looking at polyvinal, but are not 100% sure. Right now we went to do part of the yard, but we may end up doing the whole backyard if the price is right.

Alex turned 21 months just before the end of the month. He has two new teeth that are causing him to chew constantly. He bumps up Gymboree class in a couple of weeks, which is good. He needs a challenge :) His vocab seems to be growing daily and he loves to be helpful. He is currently curious about the potty and what it does. He enjoys flushing and watching the water go down.





Eric is switching projects at work again. Somebody really wanted to work on the Korean Trainer project and Eric was in a place where he was finished. He is transfering to a radar project for the F-15. His class is going well. Hopefully this class will allow him to take some time for Easter, but we won't know that until later in March.

20 Months and a "Sweet" treat

Alex is out of his teens...for now :) He is eating out a bowl with a spoon and walking up the stairs much better. He is using more words and with a few reminders uses, "please". He is loving puzzles and Legos right now.

Tuesday night Alex decided to get into the pantry while I was making dinner. He got into the cocoa powder and dumped it all over the floor and himself. Yeah...I was not that happy. He got cocoa all over his Valentine's Shirt. I did get the cocoa out of his clothes.

18 Month Check-up

Alex had his 18 month check up and all is well. He is still a bit on the small side, but remaining consistently small, so that is good :) I was worried about his clothing. He has been in size 12 months since May and I didn't think he would grow out of it. Low and behold, he literally grew over night. Monday his clothes fit...by Friday, they were too small! I promptly packed them away and got out his 18 month stuff...yeah, too big and too long. Thus, the cycle begins again. Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and look for our Christmas letter in the mail in the next few weeks!!

Lap Time

I took Alex to "Lap Time" last week at one of the local library branches. They just started this program this year and it is designed for 9month-2 years. It is a pre-literacy program with stories, songs, and games. It has been such a hit they are expanding the program to twice a month, from once a month. It was a small group that was there, but I think Alex liked it. There were two books, a flannel board story, songs, and a small craft. The kids also got to take home a special Thanksgiving book that was donated to the library.

We haven't been able to go before now because of Alex's feeding schedule. Now that he is older, he is much more flexible. We look forward to going in December for Christmas!

Trunk or Treat and Boo at the Zoo

We broke out Alex's Halloween costume, (again), for Trunk or Treat at church and Boo at the Zoo. Alex had a great time and even sat for his face being painted.

This was the first year our parish did a Trunk or Treat event and hopefully they will continue it in the future. Boo at the Zoo was quite crowded and we figured out this is an event to come early to, rather then later.

Most of the animals were away, but Alex did get to play in the Imaginarium.




He rather enjoyed raking the 'leaves' and was quite upset when we took the rakes away.

Magical 30th Birthday

The Magic House, the children's museum, turned 30 this weekend and to celebrate they were open all weekend for free. We took advantage of this and went after church Sunday. None of us had ever been before, so it was nice to see what it had to offer. Alex enjoyed the section for under 2.

He liked to open the wall of doors and feel the textures behind the doors. He climbed in the climbing area and slide down the slide.

They had empty tubes to drop balls down and I think that was his favorite. Leave it to my son to walk into the kitchen area and start carrying around the rubber knives.

I liked the water room. A whole room devoted to water playing.



There is even small seats for infants/toddlers to play in the water. The girl who sat next to Alex kept splashing the area and got us all wet :)


We ended the outing with some free ice cream. I look forward to going again and seeing what else the Magic House has to offer.