Thanksgiving

Don't act surprised. You know we are on a delayed posting schedule. Busy getting ready for Christine's wedding and Christmas, so once again, the photo blog extravaganza! Alexander had fun with Brenna (and Brenna's awesome toys). And we all had a great time catching up with Tom and Emily, Uncle Ronnie and Aunt Linda, and Nana and Papa.

 

 

 

 

Alexander's First Time Trick-or-Treating

The evening began at the Brokaws, where Alexander played with Elmo,



and Lauren.



Then the kids got into their costumes and scared the candy out of the neighbors. No one wanted to make the Hulk angry or get stung by the menacing bee.

Well, I don't have much for you today, just a video of interest only to grandparents, probably. The artist at work.



We've been busy with work, being sick (again), backs going out, etc. I've also discovered Facebook, and guess what, it's not just for 14-year-old girls and the middle-aged men who love them. Who knew? So I'm spending a little too much time on that site lately, neglecting the old blog.

We've managed to take some photos. He's putting on some sunscreen, then fretting over his tattoo, thinking maybe if he'd gone with the "I heart Mom" tat I would have dressed him for once. (In my defense, we have no A/C.)

On Saturday mornings, Darrick and I take Alexander to a Parks and Rec class called Little Movers and Shakers. It's in a gymnastics room with lots of different kinds of mats (including tunnel mats), balance beams, springboards, and so on. We do some group activities, stretching, pretending to be bears, hopping, playing with the parachute, and singing songs, but much of the time, he just bounces around like a pinball, there's so much to see and do, especially during toy-and-ball free-for-all. Last Saturday, this was pretty much his demeanor the whole time.



He sampled the stuffed fish:




Demonstrated his gymnastics skills for the ladies:



Showed random people his tongue:



Commanded bubbles to pop:



And exhausted himself.



It was a good time.

Tunnel Vision

A series of quick movies (our camera doesn't take more than 30 seconds at a time) of Alexander dancing to his little drum set's beats and scratching, then playing in his tunnel. Sorry these are so dark.

In at least one, I'm clearly pressuring the boy to dance, but only because I started taking the photos when Alexander was dancing his fool head off. Once I started filming, of course, he pretty much lost interest in dancing.









And yet another attempt to catch him in the act dancing. Yes, a tornado did hit the room.



And Darrick taught him to blow a kiss:



We also have some photos from the Parks and Rec class we take him to, so I'll have those up tomorrow, maybe.

Random Alexander

Alexander loves playing with CD players, VCRs (yes, we still have one of these relics--a couple, actually), DVD players, radios, microwaves, and clocks. In our bedroom, we have old VHS tapes with movies taped off cable years ago. He likes to put these tapes in the VCR and start them. The TV isn't on, so they don't really "play," but sometimes at night I'll wake up to the sound of the tape rewinding after playing for 8 hours.

In his room, we have no closet door, so we put up a baby gate to keep him from pulling the CD player on top of him. Well, he didn't take long to figure out how to climb it so he can perch on top and mess with the CD player. It's an old-style gate that probably isn't made anymore because it's obviously easy to climb (lots of little holes for little toes). Anyway, the other night while we were getting him ready for bed, we put on a CD with mostly slow songs. He proceeded to climb the gate and actually switch that CD for another one (switching, closing the top, and hitting play), a mixed CD I made for mornings. The first song is "Rock Around the Clock."

I think he was trying to tell us something about bedtime.

He's also been exploring his artistic side. He loves to color. It's crazy how into it he gets.



Here, he seems to be lamenting the temporary loss of his muse. Drama queen.




And last Friday, he charmed the hell out of the firefighters at the park. They were there playing soccer. We run into them occasionally because they go to play games, exercise, and test their equipment using the hydrant. One week, they tested the hose from the top of the ladder, power spraying the whole park. It was so cool. Anyway, last Friday, they suggested we come by on Saturday (the station is right behind our house), because they pull all the trucks out of the garage and test the ladder. So we headed over. Alexander didn't care for sitting in the truck, but he loved splashing in the puddles created from washing the trucks, and he really enjoyed looking at the enormous tires.

New Bedtime Routine

The boy has started a new bedtime routine. He takes every book off his shelf, every toy in his room, every scrap of paper, and bit by bit, puts it all in his crib. He gives us a few books for us to read to him, but the rest goes into the crib. Then we read until he falls asleep, and we quietly take everything out of the crib and put him down. He's very serious about this routine. We've tried blocking him with our bodies to see if he'd give up because it's too difficult, but he scales us with his books. Determined and very weird.

Grandpa Ed

My dad came for a long weekend visit, so of course we had to go to the park.



We also spent a very hot afternoon at Traildust Town, which apparently doesn't open until the evening, although the town itself is open before the restaurants and shops, so Alexander had a blast exploring and making some money telling fortunes, all along the lines of "momma daddy booka cheetah kitty dog" or, more likely, a simple "ga." And eerily, all his predictions came true!






We're not sure if this guy works here or if he just likes to dress up like a cowboy and walk his dog here, but he was a nice fellow anyway, and Alexander loved his dog.




Before leaving, Alexander did the obligatory posing:





As always, more photos on our flickr site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mallons/

Zoo!

A couple of weeks ago, Darrick took some vacation days so that I could get full days of work in. On one of those days, he took Alexander to the zoo.

Here he is admiring his gorilla cup.


And appreciating the giraffe's unique take on snack time.



Having his own snack nonchalantly, while mere feet from the rhino.



Enjoying the zoo's water area (this is a blogger video instead of a google video--does it show up better for you all?):



We have lots more zoo pictures and other photos on http://www.flickr.com/photos/mallons/

Parks and Puddles

Alexander has had some good times at the park, sometimes with his friend Lauren, sometimes with his dad, sometimes with his mom, sometimes when he sneaks out at night on secret park missions.



He's even gone hiking.



And, ahem, swimming(?)