He's still working on his spoon skills. Here was yogurt, in a handy dandy bowl that came with a lid. (It's my favorite of his bowls.) You'd think that bowls and plates with plastic lids for kids would be a no-brainer, but I haven't yet found any other stuff that I like.

This is how Alex snuggles sometimes. Other times, he reaches into my shirt to grab whatever he can. Sometimes he plops into my arms to take a quick refresher.

Also, if he doesn't want me to leave him (and quilt) while he's watching Thomas the Tank Engine, he'll grab hold and twist my shirt in his hands.

Here he and the cat are looking outside at the fires. Notice how the window is open - the breeze was such that all smoke was elsewhere. He had just taken a bath, and was still sans-diaper. I remember Jessica telling me about young Harrison that would run around naked after a bath, and I asked her, 'why let him run around like that without a diaper'? See the things mommy's without children who reached that age think?

(And yes, the wall of the room is actually light green.)

They're contemplating their chances, Alex comforting the cat. Sometimes he's quite gentle with the feline. Sometimes I wake up in the morning and find that not only is the baby curled in the lee of my body, but the cat has managed to claim some real estate too. Other mornings, I'll have one on each side of me. And then Caira wakes the baby, and I have to get up for the day. Sometimes to prevent this, Caira finds herself tossed off the bed. She'd really prefer if he slept in his own room, too.

My mom ("Grandmama") and Mikey ("Grumpa") visited with us while they were evacuated from their house during the fires. Alex recognizes magazines (his favorite things to read after catalogs), and crawled up into Mikey's lap and helped him turn the pages of his Golf magazine. Until they got to the page with the cars. That was the only page Alex was interested. On Thanksgiving, we went to their house and there was... the same magazine. Conspicuously out. And Alex remembered.

Alex playing with dinosaurs. ("di-na-sa") He recognizes most dinosaurs as being such, even ones that he hasn't seen before. I'm not sure how. These are some of his Schleich toys, and there is also a lion and one of the Crusaders and one of the Beduins. He's figured out how to put the riders on the horses, and that each rider only fits one horse best. And the riders don't fit on the dinosaurs very well.

Notice also the lovely frog jammies. Grandma Barbara made these, and I have a matching set as well.

Alex ready for a nap. He was so tired out from our excursions earlier in the day that he plopped himself into his stroller, all ready to sleep. (He takes his naps in the stroller, after being pushed for about 5 minutes and he's zonked out.)

Notice his dirty legs! And the ankle grime from his Robees! And the skinned knee! He really does get out and about much more. I'm very aware that I have a little boy, and that they do appear to be different from little girls. And I never would've imagined it before I had him. (From trains, cars, and an affinity for dinosaurs.... and an aversion to dolls.)

Still working at his spoon skills. But he sees the camera, and quite likes smiling for it. He's even learned about the head tilt.

You can also see how curly his hair looks - we've noticed that it seems especially curly when it hasn't been washed in a couple days - and he hates having his hair washed. If you look at the picture at the top of the page - October 8, that was probably shortly after a hair washing. (The one below, as well.)

We're coming up on the TIME TO CUT THE BABY'S HAIR. I find I have some strange reluctance to get his hair cut. Maybe because I love his curls.

On our Ficus fakus live two finger puppets and some similar sized creatures from Where the Wild Things Are. They hang by their retail tags from branches near the trunk, and really remind me of the tree and the shrike monster from the Hyperion series of Dan Simmons.

Anyways, here he is playing with the Prince puppet. Mommy had the Pirate puppet. He was amused, and decided that for dolls, these were okay.

I think he was more interested in why they lived in the tree, and how they got there in the first place.