Alex Update

As we are approaching Alex's 18 month birthday I thought I'd give an update on what Alex is doing now. (since this blog is also acting as his baby book)

Motor Skills:

Alex can now run...and run fast...although it's pretty hilarious to watch him. His arms go back and forth, he lifts his legs up really high, and his little bottom squirms back and forth. He's usually running away from me with something he's not supposed to have, and I'm usually laughing so hard that I can't get after him.

He's also able to jump now and can sort of get off of the ground. He's a very gifted stomper (and loves to do it and say "stomp!"). He is also trying to do forward rolls. He will put his head and hands on the floor with his bum up in the air and then he needs help flipping over. If he doesn't get help, he just sort of flops over on his side. He's getting really good at going up and down stairs, but he still won't go down stairs backwards so we really have to watch him.

He loves to dance and climb. (In fact, right now we are watching football on tv and I have Sirius on the computer playing Kid's Stuff and he's dancing around the room) His dancing is HILARIOUS!!!!! I love it. (although he stops when I get the camera out - he's not a dumb kid) He likes to climb on the couch, the bed and the glider. He can sit in the glider and get it to move back and forth. He also likes to do "One Little Monkey" on the couch. He learned this at gymnastics and we have to do it about 100 times a day.

He's starting to be interested in puzzles and drawing. He has a mini-Magna Doodle, and he loves playing with it. He can draw on it and erase it.

Signs: Here's a list of the signs he has added to his vocabulary. To see his base vocab, you can go to this post.

cheese
fish
zebra
elephant
giraffe
tiger
mouse
sheep
chicken
lion
octopus
whale
crab
socks
sleep
brush teeth
alligator
penguin
thank you
pig
rainbow (this is a two part sign -- you sign colors - which is tapping your fingers on your chin - and then use your two hands to draw the rainbow in the sky)
phone (this is his own made up sign)
pacifier (this is also his own made up sign)
ice cream
carrots (even though he won't eat them unless we hide them - I think he just likes the sign)


Speaking: Yes - he has actually started saying more words. He's really into mimicking right now, but it's starting to come. Here the words that he says on a regular basis

Dada
Dog-dog
Dora (this is his favorite word)
Diego
Boots (sort of - he's working on this one)
dank u (thank you)
Zack
Mama
Sit
shoes
sock
eye
Pooh
No (yes - he has learned this one - I have no idea where he's heard it!!)

Animal Sounds: He is starting to say some of his animal sounds.

Kitty (whenever he signs cat he has to make this meowing type sound)
Lion/Tiger (he does this growling thing)

Random Stuff:

Whenever he sees the Ohio State Buckeye Football team on tv he starts clapping and jumping up and down. (and yes, they beat Penn State yesterday!!)

Whenever I say "whoo hoo! Touchdown" he puts his arms straight up like he's indicating a touchdown. (can we say brainwashing?)

His Dora obsession is becoming alarming. :) When he watches a Dora episode, he has to dance to the beginning music and he holds his arm out to keep Swiper from swiping. (oh my gosh is it cute!!!) At the end of the episode, when Dora sings the "We Did It" song, Alex will bend his knees and move his arms back and forth across his body like Dora does. This also just melts me as it is SOOOO cute.

He can identify the following body parts on himself and others:

eye
nose
mouth
teeth
ears
hair
head
fingers
hand
toes
foot
belly

This is just such a fun age. He seems to learn something new every day, and this mommy is having a lot of fun!!

FF Day and Halloween at the Zoo

I know - it's been a week - I'm sorry. :)

We had a good weekend last week - Jay was still sick, so we didn't do much but hang out at home and watch football. (In case you were wondering - my Indians tanked, Ohio State won, and I'm losing quickly in my fantasy football league)

Alex is starting to talk. His favorite word is Dora (who, by the way, I hear is going to be taking out a restraining order on Alex very soon. His obsession with her is almost frightening).


We got an ice cream cake from DQ for our Forever Family Day. (it then doubled as Jay's birthday cake)



We didn't go to the zoo last Saturday, but did go Thursday night. It was a perfect time to go. It was kind of cold, and it was sort of drizzling when we left. But, when we got there, the skies cleared and there weren't many people there.

Here's our little Puss 'N Boots.

Here's his picture from last year - my little cow!!

Family picture. Doesn't Jay and Alex look great - me - not so much!

Had to include this one - look at that look at Alex's face. He wasn't very happy to be standing still.

Here's our family picture from last year at the same place. :)

Of course we had to wait in line to get Alex's picture taken with the Shrek characters.

My beautiful boy!!!

It has finally hit me that we are now in the part of his life where we are doing things again. We went to the zoo for Halloween again - we are going to the annual pancake breakfast at church again....I think I'm more emotional about this than when he went to these things for the first time.

Everyone have a great weekend and......

GO BUCKS!!!

BEAT PSU!!!

Happy Birthday Jay!!

Today is Jay's birthday. I won't say how old he is - but he's older than me!!

Unfortunately he's been battling a really bad cold for about a week now. So, it hasn't really been an exciting night! :) (it's 9:15 here and he's already in bed)

Thanks to all of you for your advice about Alex's sleeping. You all said things that I knew - I think I just needed to hear it again. We've been doing better (Jay and I - not sure about Alex). He is still screaming and waking up at least once a night - sometimes after 2 hours - sometimes after 6. We've been leaving him in his bed. He did wake up at 4:30 this morning and was ready to go!! (Mommy - not so much. I staid up as we were having storms and I wanted to watch the USF vs Rutgers game and the Indians lose)

We are headed to the zoo tomorrow. I can't believe that we took him there last year and we're going to do it again this year.

Well - Alex has decided to wake up!! He's only been in bed for about 40 minutes and had been quite for about 30.....it may be another long night!!!

Change in Sleeping Habits

Has anyone else experienced this? Alex has always been a GREAT sleeper. I could lay him down and he would go right to sleep. The last few nights have been horrible. He wakes up at least once or twice a night and seems to want to play and not go to sleep. If we take him back up to his room, he screams as if someone is beating him.

He has been working on some more teeth coming in, but they have poked through now, so I don't think that's the problem.

We don't know what to do as we think he has learned that if he cries enough we will get him up.

I let him cry last night (almost 7 minutes, by the way). Tonight he started in about 15 minutes after putting him down. After 9 minutes, Jay couldn't take it anymore and went up and got him.

If anyone has any suggestions, I'm listening!!!

Happy Forever Family Day!

I'm going to post this a day early, as I don't know if I'll have time tomorrow.

October 15th is the day that we came home with Alex. What a year we have had!! I still can't decide if it's gone quickly or not. In one way I can't believe that it's been a year already, on the other hand, it feels like a lifetime ago.


So pull up a chair and grab your coffee. These are pictures of Alex from the past year. How much he has changed!! And how blessed we are to have him in our family.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Guatoberfest Pictures

Here are my pictures (finally) from Guatoberfest. What a weekend we had!!!!! It's been fun to go look at everyone's pictures. I'll put links on here so you can go see pictures from people who actually took good (and many) pictures.

(today is our one year anniversary of our embassy appointment - the time has gone so fast, but yet that seems like a lifetime ago!!)

Alex kept checking out all of the kids in the room.

Kerry - talking to the group.

Yeah Kerry and JuJu!!! You guys did a great job!!

Gabriella - will you be mine?

Mommy, I think she said yes!!!!!

Oh, crap - I forgot what daddy told me. Do you guys see that smile on her face? She now thinks I'm going to buy her purses!!!! (daddy told me that mommy likes purses a lot also, and he has to buy her new ones all the time.)

Yeah!! Steps!!! (mommy really wished that daddy was on the trip once I found the steps)

YEAH!!! Mommy - do you see all of these really cool kids??!??!

How do I look in this? (yes, this is a preview of his Halloween outfit)

The Saturday evening dinner crew. (Mindy, Alex, JB, Sophie, Cameron and Gabriella)

What did you say, Mindy? The kids are back there playing in the grass? What are doing still in these strollers???

Ummm, excuse me, can I stand on that, please?

Ok - I guess I'll just stand on this one.

Ok - this was hilarious!! Sophie wasn't sure about the grass at first. She crawled around on her hands and feet like this. It was almost like she didn't want to get her knees in the grass. It was pretty funny!!

But....it didn't last forever.

This is the only picture I got from the aquarium. Alex was tired and cranky - and it was very crowded. (but it was pretty amazing!!)

Dora, do you want me to brush your hair?

Psych!! I need to brush my own hair.

(ok - so those last two weren't from Guatoberfest but were from today)

Update from Guatoberfest

Just a quick post.

Alex and I had a GREAT time at Guatoberfest. For those of you who couldn't come - I'm so sorry - it was amazing to be with some wonderful adoptive families.

Alex was pretty much a dream the entire weekend - including the drive down here. We only have the drive back to get through and then we will be set.

I have some pictures, but it was hard to wrangle our stuff, him and get good pictures on the camera. I'll post what I have, but may have to point you to other blogs to get the good ones.

I'll write more when I get home. Alex has been asleep since 7:45 (tired boy!) so I'm going to try to get caught up on my blogs!

Last Post and Randomness

And no, I don't mean last post ever!!

I've been really busy getting some last minute items ready for Guatoberfest, we had a church picnic Saturday night, I won my Fantasy football game (and so did Ohio State!), we have our last post placement meeting tomorrow, and I haven't packed yet!

I'm so excited about this weekend, I can hardly stand it.

I also realized that I know what just about everyone looks like because they usually put pictures of themselves on their blog. I NEVER put pictures of myself up here, so here you go. My hair looks horrible, but we had to have these pictures taken for our post-placement.

Oh, and pray LOTS for the babies in Guatemala. A law was passed today that is not good for the folks that are in process. There is still time to get amendments passed that would hopefully grandfather in process cases (whatever that means). Many of my blogger friends are still waiting for their babies. If this was a year ago - I'd be a wreck - and I can't imagine.

For those of you going to Atlanta this weekend - I'll see you there. For everyone else - I'll "see" you when we get back!!!