word count

Literally overnight Alex's vocabulary has just exploded! It's amazing the words he has come out with in the past few days. Not to mention trying to repeat others. Ben and I were marveling over this last night when he asked whether I had been keeping track. Well to be honest, um no. So I thought it might be fun to try to make a list. Here goes...

mama (and as of yesterday even a "mommy" now and then!)
dada
no
ball (baah)
shoes (shoosh)
cheese (cheeess)
car (caaah!)
truck (kuck!)
nose (noh)
eye
diaper (dy dy)
baby
boat
dog (dah)
bubbles (buh-buls)
duck
fish (shish)
tractor (ta-kor)
helicopter (ca-kor)
ice (aaass)
bye-bye
night-night (nye-nye)
hi
thank you (tay too)
uh oh
hippopotamus (buh-boh -- Sandra Boynton fans will understand)

He also identifies several animals by their sounds: dog = woof, kitty = mooow, monkey = oh oh oh, duck = cak cak cak. He's working on roaring (lions, monsters, etc.), mooing, and snorting (pig). And no, surprisingly enough there is no word for airplane as of yet. Just the "shhhhhh" sound as he moves his hand through the air.

The one that really makes me smile though is his way of saying "I don't know". It took us a while to figure this one out but every time you ask him a question that he can't "answer" he says "noo?" in the same tone. "Where's your blanky?" "Noo?" "Where's the tractor?" "Noo?" It's so stinkin' cute!

Oh! And I can't forget the signs! He does eat, more, milk, drink, all done, bubbles, and please.

OK so that's all I can think of at the moment but I reserve the right to come back and add more later...

he's obsessed

Alex is definitely all boy all the time. He goes nonstop and climbs everything. He can climb up on top of the coffee table, dining room table, kitchen island, not to mention get in and out of the tub. And of course he is OBSESSED with cars, trucks, airplanes, lawn mowers...anything with a motor. The other day my mom was watching him and a show on corporate jets happened to come on the tv. He dropped what he was doing and was glued to the tv. Here are a couple videos my mom got on her cell phone of him immitating the planes...

wish us luck

Well tomorrow is the big day. I go back to work. Real get-in-the-car-and-drive-40-minutes-to-an-office-for-8-hours-a-day work. And yes, that means Alex is going to daycare. We found a great lady named Kim who will be watching him in her home which is about 1/2 mile from our house. He already spent half the day there Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday in an attempt to get him acclimated and did pretty well. She has an awesome play room and 19-month old daughter that keep him busy and well occupied. So be thinking of us this week as we all get adjusted to the new routine!

hey baby

My son's first sentence -- "hey baby". Actually it was probably "hi baby" but the "hi" sure took on a "heeey" sound. The lucky lady it was directed to? My friend Benah's (rhymes with Dana) cutey-patootey 10-month old daughter Greta, last night at dinner. Alex is infatuated with her, as is evidenced by the following pics. These were actually taken several weeks ago when Benah and family came over for dinner.



A word of warning to his harem: watch out girls, he appears to be trading you all in for a newer model!

And I can't resist adding a pic of Alex and Fin (Greta's almost 3-year old brother). Who can resist the two blondies!?

CHEESE!

Alex (or rather Alex's mouth) has been very busy lately. In a span of merely 4 weeks he sprouted EIGHT new teeth! That means in less than a month he doubled the number of chompers in his mouth -- 4 molars and 4 canines (the pointy ones). Get this kid a steak! He loves to show them off but don't get too close, he may bite!