Every time I finish a quilt, Alex has to get on it. I think the cat taught him this. But, here he is on the back of “Burning Love”, a present for someone that will hopefully get to them before they find this webpage.

Alex was involved with a vigorous game of chase, the best part of which was careening into Grandpa.

Looking up at airplanes with Grandpa. Alex mimicked Grandpa's hands – somewhat. Other pictures looking up, he is clutching his hair. Not once is he shading his eyes from the sun.

Is it a 'teat', a 'treat', or both? At Liberty Station, home of a particular quilt gallery, there are benches with all sorts of generally pleasant words. Alex liked sitting on the benches, forming new words with his body. “We Come” is one of my favorites. “E X E X 9 6” he said, looking at the letters.

Liberty Station is just to the west of the airport, so planes were taking off every couple of minutes. The occasion for us to be down there was that JT was arriving, and I talked Grandma & Grandpa into making a day of it, taking care to visit the quilt gallery. Which happened to be between exhibits, but they were very nice and let us get a preview of the exhibit opening that Friday.

The Recruit is a mock-ship encased in concrete. Another thing to see at Liberty Station, formerly NTC. (Naval Training Center.) I suppose for a repurposed military base, it's pretty cool. I took gobs of pictures of the architecture, but that doesn't belong on Alex's pages.

Alex climbing the anchor of the Recruit, with Grandma's careful spotting. He likes climbing things.

After picking up JT from the airport, we went to the Birch Aquarium. Alex's favorite part – the mirrors, an exhibit ostensibly showing what a school of fish would look like. Alex loved all his new friends.

We went with JT to the duck pond. Alex will do anything and everything his adored older cousin does, and usually JT puts up with it. I think here JT was attempting to hide from his beloved younger cousin, and Alex found him. JT gave him a few resigned pats on the head.

We also went back to Moonlight Beach, the best beach in the world if you mean by beach 'playground for toddlers'. Alex played on the playground while JT and the grandparents played on the beach. This is the beach with the runoff stream, and I think Grandpa was a bit disappointed that I wasn't willing to let Alex discover it this trip. Sorry Grandpa.

Another day, another quilt. Even when just the face is done, he wants to lie on it. (I put them on the floor so I can squint at them and see how they really look.) This dragonfly quilt has made its way to our new neighbors who had their first baby a couple days before they were scheduled to move in!

The monkey bars at the park by our house. He likes swinging from them. Mom is just out of the picture, ready to take him when he summons her.

More climbing on the playground contraption. We remember when it was too much for him, now he scampers up and down and around and through without a second thought.

Reading his Matchbox catalog. He was multi-tasking, because he was also watching TV. At this point, he was beginning to warm up to the idea of reading books. September, though, he really renewed his interest, and would almost regularly sit through a book being read to him.