Happy 3rd Birthday, Alex

Oh, the embarrassment of Terrible Threes

Okay. What is the deal? He doesn't listen. He completely embarrassed me in the shoe store. I had to go out and get his stroller and strap him in. He dismantled the baby gate going to the upstairs in the shoe store, walked in the back where they carry shoe inventory, and just completely ignored me.

Then, for whatever reason, I decided to go to another store after and he did the same thing in there- throwing a fit because his stroller tray was snapped in place and he didn't want it like that. Once I tried shoes on him, he ran into the clothes dept. and I just had it.

This better end soon.

oh, but it doesn't end.

After I wrote the above, he peed on his scooter inside the house. About 20 minutes later, peed in his seat while eating dinner. The pee seeped through his booster seat on the kitchen chair and onto the floor. Then he used the 409 I had out to clean up the pee and he covered the table including our Mac, my laptop, his Leapster and some books with it. I just put him in the tub and waited for Patrick to get home. I need respite from today.

Yay, #2

Alex just pooped on the potty totally by himself. The downside was that he did it totally by himself.

I was eating lunch and he was playing in his room...or so I thought. The next thing I know he comes in stark naked and tells me he poo-pooed. So, I run in his room expecting to see a pile on the floor and it's not there. He's not in there either. I run to the bathroom and he's looking into the toilet. He has poop smeared on his leg and on the outside of the toilet. There's even a turd on the floor that fell through the hole in his step stool.

He didn't tell me he had to potty, but I guess that's just something you want privacy for. I had to bust out the wipes and clean him all up but he was so proud he went on the potty.

Happy New Year

Baby May 15, 2011 Ultrasound

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

We had a great day visiting family. While we were leaving Patrick's uncle's Christmas get together, Alex puked all over Patrick and their kitchen. Then he puked on the way home. I had to use my jacket because I couldn't find the bags they gave me for just-in-case. He slept until 5:30am Christmas morning. Once he saw what Santa left him he was NOT going to bed. Check out the Shutterfly link to see the Christmas madness.

After every present he opened, he wanted to play with it. Patrick opened every present as Alex opened them. He loved all of his toys. Santa left him a Cars bike. In the middle of opening presents he started singing Happy Birthday.

CLICK HERE FOR PICTURES after it uploaded, they seem to be backwards, so the first pictures shown were not the first taken....not that it really matters.

8**Apparently when I uploaded it duplicated the pictures. Don't know why, but there's 2 of each. Sorry.

It's A ???????

Notice the color of the ribbons on their shirts. At the last minute, Aunt Steph changed to Team Pink.

pics

18 weeks pregnant and some pictures from a soon-to-be revealed photo shoot

A potty milestone

Today, Alex pooped on the potty for the first time. It's been a week since we first started potty training and I guess today was a good time to poop on the toilet.

However, about 2 minutes later he peed in his underwear. Baby steps.

Almost a week

**It's almost week of potty training. He's getting better. A few accidents here and there. Most accidents are when he's playing and doesn't want to stop to go.

**He's now allergic to medications with Sulfa in them. He has a touch of sinus infection and was prescribed Septra. About 4-5 hours after taking the medicine he got a red face, was not wanting to eat, he said his belly hurt and his back hurt, he was so lethargic and loopy. He also had a low grade fever.

**Alex helped me make a Gingerbread house. I need to upload those pictures and get the pictures of him helping me from Nana.

**Alex really needs to not nap. It's 10:30pm and he's talking to himself in bed. When he naps, bedtime is horrible.

**In less than a week we find out if I'm having a boy or a girl. Stay tuned for video on that revelation :)

Gingerbread Houses

"Mommy, I have to potty"

Finally, it's sinking in. We've been trying to potty train for MONTHS. Lately he's been saying when he has to pee. Today we're using real underwear. Not pull ups, real cotton, leaky underwear. I'm using my friend's strategy and setting a timer for every 30 minutes so I can ask Alex if he has to go. The thing about him is, if you ask him he'll tell you "no". Going to the bathroom has to be his idea.

wow, almost a month

You'd think with me not working I'd have something at least every week. Oh well.

Here's my belly right now. I'm sad to say that this is the first belly picture I've taken. It's at 17 weeks, or 4 months, 1 week for those who hate math.


And here is Alex's new trick. It's quite annoying. I need to find a lock he won't be able to figure out.


Speaking of locks, he's able to open any door and lock. I need a baby lock for the back door...the one in our bedroom that leads to the backyard. This boy's a free spirit who doesn't listen to right/wrong. I often find him outside on the slide. We also have a baby handle on our bedroom door but he knows how to open that too.

Wheels on the Bus

He waits for the song to start before he runs.

Grandpa and Nana visited

Alex was showing Grandpa proper push-up form.

Goodnight Train

Here, Alex, almost 3, is reading his FAVORITE book. It is The Goodnight Train by June Sobel.


He knew I was filming him and he wanted to see himself so that's why he stops and says, "See Alex."

Here's what he's saying in case you can't understand him:
book: The Goodnight Train gets set to roll. It's being shined and filled with coal.
Alex: It's set to roll. Being shined full coal.

book: Wash the cars off with a hose.
Alex: Wash car in the hose.

book: All aboard! The sun is down. The Goodnight Train is leaving town.
Alex: Sun is down, goodnight train leaving town.

book: Climb right up your bed is ready
Alex: Bed is ready

book: Pillows fluffed. Now close your eyes.
Alex: close your eyes

book: Slumber, lumber up the hill
Alex: slumber slumber up the hill

**from here I start to read it after so you can understand

Guess the baby info

click the banner to guess the baby's sex, birthday, length, etc.

Pictures galore

Here's our recent doings. We went to the Madisonville Wooden Boat Festival. After Alex went on the Pirate boat, the pirate gave him some treasure. Alex quickly chunked it in the Tchefuncte.

Granny...thanks for the playset.

If you all look carefully, you can see the progression of Alex getting the lawnmower up to the top. He's a crafty, smart little sucker.
Alex's New Pictures.....click here

Teaser pics:

Some Pumpkin Patch Pictures

Updates....wow

It's been almost an entire month.

Some cute things Alex says:
*when we go over a bridge he announces it.
*He knows the Tchefuncte River, Mississippi River, and Lake Pontchartrain. You can understand pretty much all of them.
*He says, "I hold you" when he wants us to pick him up.
*He loves tickling and torturing Oreo...still.
*Alex is obsessed with trains, buses, and trucks.

Everything is going fine with my pregnancy. I actually haven't been working since Sept. 28 because I told my principal/boss that I didn't feel comfortable restraining children...which is part of my job because I teach children with emotional and behavioral disorders. So, the solution was to demand that I go on sick leave until a doctor's note cleared me for all duties. They will not accept me being able to do partial abilities. Anyway, 2 lawyers and the union president later, I'm still on sick leave and there's nothing they can do. So, here I am.

In 2 weeks I go back to the doctor, hopefully they'll do another ultrasound but I doubt it since they usually schedule those separately from regular appointments.

Baby #2

On May 15th, 2011

Alex will be a brother!

After a long 11 months we have another baby who will join us in 9 months.

I had my ultrasound today and its heartbeat is 139 bpm.

Some Vids

Alex seems to be a very accurate thrower.


Before he jumps off the couch, he says, "TO Infinity and Beyond".


And this is why the videos are becoming few and far between. I have to sneak them and once he sees me recording, he demands to see the footage.

speaking of this boy

Alex has been wreaking havoc on the dog. He "hugs" him, which really is a choke hold. He pets him nicely, which really is a beat down. The dog walks in circles to try to get away from Alex.

At 6:15 this morning the dog is scratching at Alex's door. Why? If someone tortured me that much I'd want as much quiet time as possible. Not our dog.

this boy

He was throwing a ping pong type ball at the dog's head. I asked Alex to give me the ball. He said no. He walks away, I hear it being thrown into the sink then Alex says, "Ball all gone."

When left to his own devices...

I knew he was just too quiet for too long.

a creative breakfast

Lately when Alex wakes up he comes in our bed. This morning he did that at 8am- which is nice and late- but Patrick and I weren't ready to get out of bed. Alex got out and found something nice and quiet to do. A little while after Alex left our room and there was a long uncomfortable silence, I decided to get out of bed to see what he was up to.

The pantry door was open. Remnants of leftover cake wrapped in foil and some rotten strawberries were on the floor. Alex took them out of the trash can. I do not know if he ate any strawberries but I know he ate some icing because it was all over the floor. He just helped himself to a nice, trashy breakfast.

I guess from now on we have to close the pantry door (it already has a childproof handle cover).

workout pt. 2

We're starting to workout and Alex decided to join us

2.5 year old pictures

All pictures from the session are here (CLICK ME)




http://www.doubletakesphotography.com/

Timeout

The cutest thing just happened.

For almost 2 hours, Alex's dinner has been at the table. He's been playing with his trains. Patrick and I have tried to get him to eat. He's said "NO". We've asked him about every 20 minutes for two hours and it's been "NO!"

Just as Alex was rearing back to throw a pillow at Oreo, Patrick told him not to. Alex did it so he was told he needed to go to timeout. Do you know where Alex ran??? He ran into his dinner seat and tried to start eating.

He tried to drink and eat and Patrick took him out of his chair and made him serve his timeout. When timeout was over he had to apologize to Oreo, so he crept over there, bent down and said in the sweetest voice, "I sawy Oh-we-o." Now he's eating. So all it took was a timeout. What are we missing? Oh yeah, we're not 2 1/2.

Mommy had surgery

I got sinus surgery done on the 7th. It's now the 10th and I'm pretty much pain-free. My pain really was from the packing because as soon as that was removed I was relieved.

I cannot lift things that are heavy....mainly Alex. Today he was in his room and I could tell he just climbed on top of his dresser, which also has his changing pad. I went in there to wonder how I would get him down and lo and behold, he had poop. I suppose he knew he needed to be up there anyway. So I changed his diaper then he asked for a bath.


He also pushed his bed from the wall while Patrick was out so I had to leave that too.

I'm so glad he is able to understand and follow through with directions. I laid down on the couch recliner and the tv remote fell between through to the floor. I already had the legs kicked up and told Alex to get the remote for me. "OKAY", he said, then headed down to get the remote. He did a good job!

Some videos for your viewing pleasure

we have some reading, crying, bubbles, and dog food!

Rash Update

see...told you I'd forget

It's a contact allergy to fertilizer used in our yard. His arms are still bumpy but he is not itching them. The dr bumped up Alex's allergy meds to 1 tsp xyzal a day rather than 1/2 tsp. Also rx'd him some cortisone cream mixed with lubriderm.

A rash?

Sunday, Patrick took Alex outside to play in the sprinkler. Shortly after I noticed a rash all over him. It was like a gazillion bumps...flesh colored...on his arms, legs, and face. He wasn't itching or acting abnormally so I didn't give him anything or call the pedi. We also have an appointment Tuesday for a "well" visit due to our visit 2 weeks ago where he had a really bad yeast thing going on "down there". The doctor also rx'd some antibiotics for his congestion, so that's why we need to go back. I figure while we're there just let her see this new rash thing going on.

I hope he's not allergic to grass. He's played outside tons before...they go outside daily at daycare.

Oh, and he's wearing his 2nd bandaid ever. His first bandaid was put on the other day. He scraped his arm really good and the scab keeps falling off (or he's picking it). So, he's wearing a Toy Story bandaid.

I'll post tomorrow about what the dr says about his rash.

random videos

Fearless!

So some of you may have heard/remembered me talking about this goose sound that was happening when I tried to go to sleep. One night Patrick had to make a cell phone call outside because Verizon service sucks in our house and he called me outside to see what was causing it. I tried to keep the video on him because Patrick said he heard the noise then turned around and the frog had a gigantic bubble in his throat. I wanted to catch it but didn't. Anyway, here's the frog. And to all you city people....listen to all the crickets and crap in the background.



For this video, he was talking and kicking the wall a lot so I decided to try to capture some of the magic. He was in his bed for a good 30 minutes before I took the video.

Told you Granny

Over the weekend, Alex ate his spaghetti that Granny made at Granny's house. I told her that I know he won't eat it at my house. I took video to prove this phenomenon.

ENJOY! We did.

The first video is a close-up and I wish I had remembered to make the other one close-up. Oh well!

And I love how he holds his hand over his eyes.

Alex's Movie-going Experience

So, we braved the theater. We saw Toy Story 3 this morning. Alex has watched Toy Story and Toy Story 2 for several months now so we figured he'd be primed and pumped for a new Toy Story.

We get into the theater minutes before previews start to come on and we sit on the right hand side right behind the wall for the walkway. Once we get seated, Alex seemed content. The previews started and he kept saying, "Buzz, Me Stories", which is his phrase for Toy Story. He loved the preview for the owl movie coming out and he thought some things were funny in the Despicable Me preview.

The movie got started and he got excited. I guess he was pretty content for the first 30 minutes- which is EXCELLENT! (his behavior, and the movie)- and then he got fidgety. Thankfully we did have that half wall in front of us so he could stand and walk a little bit. So glad people weren't in front of us. I also packed massive amounts of food just in case. Turns out, we needed massive amounts of food. Alex kept trying to get out of our aisle and onto the fun, lighted stairs. I kept him barricaded in with my leg. A Capri Sun caught his attention and he drank that. Then he had some fruit snacks. For a little while he was content then he wanted more fruit snacks. A little later I gave him some graham cracker cookies.

For a very rambunctious 2 year old, Alex did a very good job. He didn't want to sit in our laps (there were no 3 seats in a row available when we arrived) toward the end so he just danced and walked in our little area.

Also, glad that there were other loud, crying babies because it made Alex not stand out as much. :)

As for the movie....it was so cute! I love some of the one-liners they use.

and more

Playdate with Kylee and Friends

Time for some pictures

seems I've been slacking in that department






At the aquarium with Woody

SHHHHHHHH

So, Patrick and I were in the kitchen and the tv was on in the living room. I had already put Alex to bed and I told him that if he came out of the room I would close the door. All of a sudden we hear "SHHHHH". We think Alex was shushing us because the TV was to loud.

He counted on his own!

We were playing with play-doh and letter cut-outs and he stacked all of his letters on the play-doh. As he was taking the letters off he counted up to 8. He did it in order and correct! It was a pleasant surprise. He's always counted with us but he's never counted something out by himself! I wish I had taped it.

He got us!

For about a week now our new DVR remote control has been missing. I know I saw Alex with it last and Patrick and I searched his room and the entire house. We labeled the two remotes we had (Alex BR and Our BR) and just decided it was gone forever. Today Patrick brought home Alex's bed rails so we could make his bed a real bed with head board and foot board. As we lifted the mattress off of the box spring, we see the DVR remote. How did he get that in there? Never underestimate the brainpower of a 2 year old.

It is official, Alex is a Ninja

Within the past 2 weeks he's started to go to sleep on his own. I just heard a rustling noise and looked over toward his room didn't see anything so started playing back on the computer. Then I hear his train whistle...which is in the playroom. I go in there and he's on the train. I turn the light on and he laughs and floors the gas and takes off on his train (it's on a track so he just went in a circle).

I did not hear him go in there...the sneaky little thing.

New Video

In this video, he played at a playplace with Granny for most of the afternoon. She brought him home tired but he never took a nap.

He is watching Toy Story in this video. I think he is saying "Reach for the Sky".

Nighty Night, Sleep Tight

On May 25th Patrick and I had it with Alex needing us to be in bed with him for him to go to sleep.

From the 26th on, we tried to get him to go to sleep without us. The 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, were quite miserable nights. Alex would run in and out of his room until we finally shut his door (with a baby proof knob cover) and he would cry himself for a good 30 minutes. Sometimes the crying would get softer and we'd think he fell asleep, then "WAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH" he'd start up again. The last two nights were quite better.

Now, tonight he was in the dog house right before bedtime (see the lamp post) so I can't tell if he was upset and stayed in his room or if he is finally getting it after a week of going to sleep on his own.

Once he understood that he needed to stay in his room to fall asleep, we leave the door open. Every night he would be put down with the door open (after a book reading, of course) but every night he would play cat & mouse with us until we had no choice but to shut his door. But tonight, we started with the door open and he hasn't come out yet...it's been about 20 minutes.

we had a corner lamp

Here I am, trying to study for interviews, when CRASH. I turn around and there's glass everywhere. Alex runs behind the couch and I just wish I could've captured his face on camera. He was shocked at the noise from the lamp and me scooping him up so he wouldn't get glass all over him.

I guess our next corner lamp will be suspended from the ceiling.