I've been so behind on posting, and I will revise this with actual narrative soon, but I wanted to quickly share pix of Alex in his Halloween costume:
Sugar high (a single lolipop is all it takes....)
Daddy and Alex took advantage of the rainy day to build a fort in our family room. Daddy reached back into his own childhood memories, grabbed a sheet, and went to work. Alex LOVED having a hideaway to play in for a few hours.
We went to visit Grandma and Grandpa in Tampa, and got dressed up to go to a reception and then football game at Mike's alma mater, Jesuit High School. Grandma snapped a rare family portrait in her back yard before we left for the game.
And oh what a game! Alex loved the lights, the crowd, the music, the cheerleaders. He was quite a hit, even if we didn't make it past half time.
Mommy had to work late tonight, and so Daddy treated Alex to dinner out. We try not to do fast food too often, but Alex has already gotten the hang of dipping in ketchup just like his Daddy. He also got to play in the neat playground at the local MickeyDs. The boys had a lovely, ketchup filled evening and didn't miss Mommy one bit. Well, maybe a little....
Alex is really starting to get the whole talking thing, all of a sudden. This past week or so, he has started to:
Baaa like a sheep.
Moo like a cow.
ROAR like a lion and/or tiger.
Say "hat" when reading "Old Hat, New Hat."
Say "Daddy" very clearly.
Say "bye bye" when appropriate to say good bye to a person, an animal, or (most interestingly) whenever Daddy turned off the vacuum cleaner.
Mimic counting. I was stacking some blocks for him and saying "One-Two-Three" as I did it, and he tried very hard to say the same as he made his own stack.
Say "doggie" pretty clearly when he sees any dog, not just Tucker.
Say "up" then sign please when we wants to be picked up.
Say "down" when apprpriate, including during "Ring Around the Rosy"
Say "stand up" when I ask him to stand up after a diaper change so I can pull up his pants.
There are probably others I am forgetting. I just see him taking off on the whole talking thing in the next few weeks!
Alex played some football for the first time today. We all three went out front and tossed the pigskin. He did catch a very close-in toss, and did a lot of throwing. There were fumbles, there was passing, there was even a tackle or two. We pretty much all came out as winners. There were leaves crunching under foot, and Alex was wearing khaki shorts and a nice warm sweater. Ah, fall!
We kicked October off right with a wonderful family fun day, in two parts. First stop was the Touch the Truck Event at the Takoma Part Department of Public Works. They had a bunch of different trucks that the kids could climb in and on, including a garbage truck, a backhoe, and a street sweeper. Oh, and a police car.
Then we headed out to North Run Farm to check out the corn maze and the petting zoo and pick our own pumpkins. The maze was pretty cool, and Alex loved seeing the animals. He has started to baaa like a sheep on command sometimes, so he really enjoyed seeing real live sheep. He also liked feeding the pony some grass. Alex trekked through the pumpkin patch to help pick out our pumpkin, after a genuine tractor hay ride. All in all, a fun but exhausting day!