I was working on arranging blocks for a quilt I was making, and Alex thought it was some sort of hop-scotch game. Like the cat, he finds new textiles on a flat surface irresistable - although the cat tends to lie on them, and he tends to run on them.

Alex and his fire hat. For his birthday, I bought him a really cute fire fighter's costume from FAO Schwartz, and when it arrived, I decided that I had to try it on him to see if he'd like it.

Presumably, this is the last year that I'll be able to test presents on him and then 'disappear' them until the appropriate time.

This may be the only hat he likes.

It being December and all, it's now allowed to rain here. Here we are coming back from a walk - probably to get mail. Alex likes putting on his jacket ("Pull up" he says as he grabs for the zipper) and is surprisingly fond of his mittens. Not so much the hat that came with the mittens, though. Mommy only owns sandals, so her feet get wet or cold. Not that it rains that often.

Some package arrived for us, and Alex climbed right in... after seeing the cat (below). Here he's holding the box together.... because that's the right way for a box to behave, and he's all about things being correct.

He's walking across the room in Mommy's shoes, drinking a Yobaby. Doesn't everyone have a picture of their baby wearing big shoes?

Here is the cat showing Alex how to sit in the box. More or less. (This sequence happened before the above picture.) Alex apparently doesn't fit in the sideways orientation as well.

The Bin Method of Cleanup

Once, when Alex was a little baby, all his toys were put away exactly where they belonged. Then, he got a little bigger, and toys were sorted into bins according to type. Now, cleanup involves a bin being dragged across the floor until it is full of whatever toys were in its path. Much quicker and more efficient, and the result a couple hours later is the same, anyways.

See his darling jammies? Grandma made them. She made some more for me, too, but they don't have space ships on them. Not that I'm complaining, mind you.

Oh, and yes, he is perched precariously between the bins. Some of the other pictures from this sequence show him leaping from one to the other. Dangerous? Maybe. Probably not recommended by the bin manufacturer. In fact, one of the diagrams that comes with the bins clearly indicates that these are not toys, and children should not play in, around, over, or within 100 yards of them. Yeah.

The Ficus tree. Alex is pointing out that indeed, there are inhabitants of it.

When the holiday spirit finally took me this year, I pulled out our Christmas tree decorations, and strung lights and garlands around this tree. (We bought our Christmas tree on Dec 26, perfect for next year's use.)

I don't recommend decorating your Ficus Fakus with ornaments or even these finger puppets. It's just not meant to be.

Now that our Mira Mesa house was sold, we could invest in Wild Animal Park passes! Autumn had also given us two free tickets, so we took Barbara and Jack with us to see the Festival of Lights! There's real snow for kids to slide down on (sleds provided, of course), and all sorts of crafts and stuff.

Alex liked the big lion that he could climb on. Luckily, the sprinklers were off. (This is where during hot days, kids get sprinkled on while they play.)

Here's the lion that Alex didn't ride on. It was pacing back and forth, just on the other side of the glass. (Sort of like Aunt Arleen and the bear?)

Alex just stared at the lion, and seemed a bit suspicious. But after we left, a few minutes later, he started saying "lion" "lion" "lion". I guess it takes a few minutes for the intensity of the experience to wear off enough for words to start working again.

His favorite part of the entire trip, however, wasn't the lion, the lights, or the crafts. It was spinning the wheels around the boat lagoon. We didn't even have to put tokens in to make the spinning of the wheel do anything!

Grandma came over to get her hair cut by CNLaura. Grandpa took the occassion to visit. Here Alex is showing him how to pull crayons out of the crayon box.

Yes, Alex is coloring now. Sort of.

Breakfast each day consists of a fried egg "Mommy fry egg" with ketchup on it, followed by a fruit course, usually either a banana "nana" or grapes "grunt".

Things of note in this picture:
1) All of the grapes are cut-end down. This was done by the baby. When he started eating them, they were also lined up.

2) The best forks we found for him are from Ikea, and are the play utensils set. These have fairly blunt metal tips, and include spoons, forks, and knives. (Plus plates and cups). These are toys, and I'm sure there was something about them saying not to let children under the age of 12 use them... but they are the BEST thing for giving him to use. He can actually fork things with them! And unlike our silverware, they're not too heavy. And, the whole play set cost less than a pair of (useless) plastic sporks from Gerber or Circo would've cost.

3) The baby is not using the fork, and there is ketchup evidence on his hands and around his mouth. Because it's just so much easier to use fingers anyways.

He lines up ducks, and he lines up tennis balls we bought for Josh.

.... and after lining them all up, he picks them up and throws them.... all at once. Because that surely must be more efficient.

We stopped by Grandma & Grandpa's to borrow one of Grandma's irons, and Alex knew right what he wanted to do... went straight for his bin of toys there, and got the trains out. Umm Hmmm.

Christmas morning, Barbara and Jack came over, and the first present Alex opened was his Thomas the Train couch / noise maker. Although Caira thought it was hers (she and the baby are both in that stage where they don't realize that things might not belong to them).

Here is the scene from our living room. Our tradition is that one present at a time is opened, which makes for a leisurely morning, but one where short attention spans lose interest.

Alex opening his first LEGO set (last year he received a bin of Quatros. This is his first SET, and they are Duplos). He quite enjoyed the set, and has figured out how to put the track together. Such a clever baby!

He also figured out rather quickly how to open presents.

Alex and his big wheel. It plays loud music. It signals right or left. It makes 'failure to proceed' types of noises when you turn the key in the ignition.

While most of the grownups were eating lunch, Joanie was holding cousin Colin, and Alex was entertaining him with a helium balloon.

Alex playing with the balloon and cousin JT's shoes. Flinging them. Because that's what he does.

Alex contemplating whether JT was an actual present for him, or just a fun person to play with. Somehow Grandpa got lucky and was the person helping Alex with the presents. How'd he manage that?

Alex showing JT a set of presents from my mom and Mikey.

More Duplo! Also, note the flinging of wrapping paper away from the baby.

Alex and his cake. The cake is from Extraordinary Desserts, and was superbly rich. A couple nights previous, we were discussing it at Barbara & Jack's house, and Adrienne seemed quite skeptical that an 8" cake would feed hungry hoards. We had about half of it left over (one piece shy of half). Not just because I dished out small pieces, either.

Here's the cake we bought (we didn't pay for the decor).

Yes, the baby is quite fond of his cake. In eating leftovers over the next few days, though, he delighted me by asking for "more beans"... I made (homemade) baked beans as part of his birthday lunch. (This was instead of 'more cake'.)