Alex's First Birthday!

Well, my little 4 pound, 10 ounce baby boy turned 1 this past Friday! I am absolutely amazed at how much he has grown and learned during the past 12 months. It takes my breath away. Here are some great pictures of Alex's first birthday and his first birthday party!His first gift, sent from uncle Tim, aunt Kelly, and cousins Josie and Emily in Michigan!

The box is half the fun, right?!

Alex weighed 19 pounds, 12 ounces (8th percentile) and was 28 inches (4th percentile) long on his first birthday! One year prior, he weighed 4 pounds, 10 ounces and was 17 inches long.

We had a birthday dinner for Alex at Legends with his Grandpa and Grandma S and Nana and Pops, who came all the way from Michigan for Alex's birthday!
The day of the party was beautiful! Perfect weather, good food, and great company. We couldn't have asked for better!

Alex LOVES his Radio Flyer car, which was actually a Christmas gift. He wants to "drive" it all the time. It has a radio button and blinkers that make noise - you can hear us coming from a mile away.

Our family photo with Alex's brithday cake, made by his mom with love!

Don't let this picture fool you - Alex actually had ZERO interest in eating his cake. Sure, playing with the fork was fun, but actually taking a bite?! No way! The frosting on his face is just from one of his grandmas trying to force-feed him. Hey - he's a healthy eater!

Alex's bounce and rock pony - the gift from that big box above. Despite the seriousness of this picture, he's a big fan. His feet just touch the siderails enough to where he can get bouncing pretty well. Cowboy up, A!

Alex and mommy being silly. This is one of my favorite pictures of us.

Alex with his Little People farm set from GG. He LOVES it. I think he spent 45 minutes last night putting the animals in, taking them out, opening the doors (they make animal noises), moving the singing chicken back and forth...it's a pretty awesome set.

Thanks to all our friends and family who made Alex's birthday - and really, the past year - special for him! He's a happy, happy kid - I couldn't ask for more.

First Haircut and Visit from Nana (February)

Dapper kiddo.He sat VERY still for his haircut - what you don't see - Nana distracting him with animal crackers! ;)

Fresh haircut - and a reward ride on the airplane seat!

All tuckered out from playing with Nana.

Exhausted bambino.

Boy's Best Friend

We are so lucky to have such a great dog. Alex LOVES Jet and is not afraid to show it - by grabbing his hair, pulling on his collar, poking him in the eye, sticking his hand in Jet's mouth... Jet in turn, is what finally motivated Alex to crawl and he serves as an endless source of entertainment - any yawn, shake, or happy "growl" from Jet elicits plenty of laughs from Alex.

Christmas, New Year's, and Beyond!

I think I start of the majority of my posts by talking about how busy we've been. The past few weeks were no exception! Christmas was just great. I had to work all week as hospitalist for my practice, so we stayed here in town to celebrate. Alex's Michigan relatives, however, sure spoiled him from afar! You can see just a few of the gifts they sent in the background of the video. Alex definitely enjoyed opening presents, but he also really liked playing with the toys inside the wrapping, which was good! It was quite a surreal feeling to watch this little boy open presents while remembering that at Christmas last year, he was just a tiny peanut inside my womb. Amazing.

Alex opening gifts on Christmas.

Our family on Christmas day.

Jeff modeling my mom's new "Snuggie." Quite debonair, Jeff.

Alex really wanted to help Grandpa.

Alex with his Christmas football from Pops. I included this photo because it demonstrates Alex's new "fake smile". He has taken to squinting his eyes and giving this little half-smile with his head back whenever he sees me pull out the camera. It cracks me up - what a ham!

Here's a bit more genuine smile...that beautiful little mouth now has two teeth on the bottom. They popped up between Christmas and New Year's. The first one was awful - we were up all night with our fussy kiddo. I was so relieved when I saw that tooth in the morning because we had a reason for all the drama. The second tooth was much easier and followed the first by just a few days.

Alex occasionally naps in our bed and Jet occasionally joins him. Alex LOVES the dog - Jet is what finally motivated Alex to crawl instead of rolling around the house! I thought he'd never crawl, but he finally started right around the 9 month mark. Before that, he would roll over to the furniture, then pull himself up to stand. It was funny to watch, but I was starting to worry a little. I figured he'd walk before he crawled!

We went to Alex's first Wichita State basketball game, a great victory over Creighton!

Check out my brand-new waving skills! Bye-bye! See you next time!

Behind Again...

I have been a bit neglectful in my blogging lately. That is because we have been busy, busy, busy... I'll let Alex tell you all about it.

At the beginning of November, we went to mom's cousin Arin's wedding reception in Kansas City. That's her new husband Brent she's sitting on. It was a fun reception - or at least that's what everybody said - I slept through most of it.
The day after the wedding reception, I got to meet two of my mom's cousin's kids. That's Casey in the middle with his mom Amy. He was born in March, exactly one month before me. Kane is on the left with his mom Courtney. He was born in February.While we were in KC, I also got to meet Gavin. Our moms were roommates at

K-State. Gavin was born just two days before me!

When we got home, I hung out with my buddy Jackson, who was in town from Nashville. His mom and my mom have known each other since they were as little as we are now! Our grandmas are best friends, too.

At Thanksgiving, we traveled to Michigan to see my Nana and Pops. Grandma and Grandpa and Uncle Jeff went, too. We even took Jet dog. I had a pretty good time chillin' with my cousins Emily and Josie. I really liked watching all the stuff they could do! Emily was learning to walk and even took a couple of her first steps while we were there.

Last week, mom's work had a Christmas party. She brought home a sugar cookie for me...my very first cookie...and definitely not my last.We went to Botanica's Illuminations this weekend with mom and dad's friends Jason and Courtney......and my pal, Ethan. We both loved looking at all the lights and were very good boys while our parents had dinner afterwards. Needless to say, we got a lot of attention at the restaurant...we lost track of how many people stopped by the table to say how cute we were!

This afternoon, I joined grandma's church group at the nursing home in Goddard to help spread some holiday cheer. This is me with my Great Aunt Barb's mom Mary. Once again, I was quite a hit! I'm glad I got to make some older people smile.And, yes, I got to meet Santa and Mrs. Claus.

Stylin'

Alex's hair had some spike after his bath tonight! How cute is that?!

Ferociously Cute!

After a visit to great grandma K's house, Alex helped us hand out candy to our neighborhood trick-or-treaters. We had a TON of visitors - we went through 3 huge bags of candy and had to turn our lights out before 8 o'clock! Alex LOVED watching all the people come and go - it will be fun next year to watch him toddle up to our neighbor's doorways to get his own treats! Hope everyone had as happy a Halloween as we did!