choco-holics

I have another chocolate lover in the house... Alex! As you can see, it's all over his face and mouth. I let him try the new chocolate goldfish grahams and he loves them. Then, Chris was eating some of the Godiva chocolate that my mom got him and Alex wanted to try that too. It ended up all over his face.

Anyhow, I had to delete some of my videos from some of my posts. YouTube removed some of my videos "due to terms of use violation." Whatever. They were videos of a baby in a tub! Oh they also rejected the slideshow that I made because it was a copyright violation. I used Rod Stewart's song. At least I was vimeo let me upload it. That's why I don't think I'm going to use YouTube anymore.

after lunch fun!

I took this video mid-week last week after Chris, Alex and I ate lunch.

hi, my name is capucine

First, we had Yo Gabba Gabba! That was Alex's favorite YouTube video to watch during his first year. He outgrew it. Not really because he still likes his Brobee toy and books. Nicole introduced him to Capucine while she was here. He's taken an interest to other children lately. He likes to play with other toddlers now, and is even intrigued by babies. Anyhow, Capucine is this 4-year old French girl. She reminds me of any other kid, but I guess her accent makes her more interesting. So we watch Capucine everyday - at least she has tons of videos out there so we don't always watch the same one. All I have to say is "capucine," and he knows that we are going to the computer to listen to her tell a story or watch her dance or eat yogurt.

baby talk

This month's issue of baby talk magazine came in the mail yesterday. I finally got a chance to read it and in it, there is an article on the best baby gear buys. It featured not only one, but three of the different things that we have bought for Alex. The convertible carseat in the picture above. He outgrew the height limit on his car seat at 6 months. Too bad Graco didn't come out with the higher limit infant car seats until Alex was born or else we could have gone his entire first year without getting a new car seat. Actually, he could still be in that infant car seat if we had that one. Oh well. Anyhow, it also featured the Fisher Price rocker that I talked about a few posts ago and the Bright Starts exersaucer that he used so much. I bought all this before any of these products were recommended to the general public. Go me!

I'm looking forward to this weekend a little. I have an afternoon planned with some of my girlfriends on Sunday. It should be fun. If Chris decides to take Alex with him to Copperhill tomorrow, I might get an afternoon to myself. Yipee! Otherwise, I can't wait until I go out with the girls for some fondue on Tuesday night! Yumm-o!

mmmmmm.... chocolate!

As members of the Bridge Street kid's club, Alex and I are invited to their monthly events. This month was a tour of the Chocolate Crocodile. I wasn't so sure how it was going to go since the place isn't that big and 50 kids were allowed at each tour. Well, it was crowded - especially with all the strollers in there. I anticipated this and just brought Alex's umbrella stroller so I could put it in the corner and let him sit or stand during the tour. It was kind of neat to see how they make the yummy looking chocolates in there.

At the end, they let the kids make their own chocolate covered pretzels. Well, I helped Alex make his. I just let him dip one section of the pretzel in the white chocolate then the Oreos. I held it up to his mouth to see if he wanted to eat it. All he wanted to do was lick the chocolate off. Lovely. They also had other chocolates for us to sample. The most interesting was the chocolate covered pickle. I can tell you right now that I was not a fan. Alex loved it though. The Easter bunny came out and Alex didn't want anything to do with him. Oh well.

man with a plan

This morning, I wanted to go for a walk on the Greenway and do a little shopping. Mostly to find Alex some new kicks. While I was getting ready, he tired himself out by chasing me all over the house. It was perfect. He slept the entire time that I walked.

slideshow

I'm trying to edit movies and make slidshows. This is my first attempt. Not bad, eh? "Forever Young" is one of my all-time favorite songs, and I thought it would make a good song to go along with this slideshow of pictures that I made of Alex. Watching it makes me realize how much he has changed in a year. The pictures are in no particular order. I'm also trying out Vimeo. My sister uses it and likes it better than YouTube.

a bike!

My dad bought Alex his first bike. It's FP's Rock 'n Roll trike. It converts from a rocker to a push bike (when he is learning how to pedal) to a tricycle. UPS delivered it last night, and Chris put it together this morning.

one of the guys

Chris and a few of his friends went out to dinner last night for a guy's night out. They came over afterwards to play cards and have a few beers. Alex found an empty beer bottle. I guess he didn't want to feel left out.

i scream, you scream

Alex and I took a trip to Bridge Street today so that I could shop a little, then meet our friends for some ice scream at Maggie Moo's. I invited Kim (and Logan) and Mary (and Haley) to join my other friends. I was so happy they came.

Alex did fine as I shopped. I bought some books at Barnes and Noble, then continued to look for some cute summer dresses. He was an excellent baby, I mean, toddler. The problem began around lunchtime, as it was nearing his nap time. We were eating lunch in front of the carousel and when Alex was done, he wanted to crawl around and explore a little. So as I'm holding Jeremy, Alex decides to take advantage of this time to climb DOWN the steps to get closer to the carousel. Laura held Jeremy for me as I get Alex. At this point, I think Alex could tell he was getting closer to his nap so he had a little tantrum because I didn't want him running all over Bridge Street. So deciding it wasn't worth the fight and since I was done with lunch, I chased him all around the food court area. Fun, right? After awhile, I decided it was time to head over to Maggie Moo's to keep Alex a little more contained. He was more than happy to go (Kim pushed the stroller for me while I held Alex) until he saw Logan running. That was it. He wanted down and he wanted to go as fast as Logan, which he can't do yet. We got our ice cream, and Alex was happy to sit in my lap and eat. When he was full, he decided he wanted to run around Bridge Street again. By this time, Mary and Haley joined us and Haley was more than happy to run around the area in front of Maggie Moo's with him. Exhausting for me.

Anyhow, at least Alex is napping now and I have time to blog and read my new book. I had fun today with my friends. It was nice to get out and enjoy the weather (before the rain). Chris and his buddies are getting together tonight to have a guy's night out. Kim said she might come over with Logan too.

remember this...

I bought this vibrating rocker for Alex before he was born. I didn't want a traditional bouncer since I knew he would outgrow it quickly and this particular model converted to a rocking chair for toddlers. Once he learned to sit up, he didn't want to be reclined anymore so I finally put the rocker away in August. When we went to have his pictures taken, they brought out the rocking chair and Alex just loved rocking himself back and forth in it. That weekend, I brought his rocker out of "retirement" and converted it to the rocking chair and he loves it! He drags this thing all over the house. This is probably the best $40 I have ever spent. Well, that's a lie, but it ended up being a pretty damn good investment.

the aftermath

After all was said and done, this was all that was left of Alex's birthday party yesterday afternoon. My mom and sister had left to go back home in the morning, and Chris and I started cleaning up what was left - it wasn't much. We had to organize his toys - putting the old ones away to make room for the new ones. I'll rotate again in a month or so.

I guess I haven't mentioned that Alex is now walking. He decided to start walking about 5 days before his first birthday. I had almost given up hope that he would walk before his first birthday, but he didn't let me down this time. So as of last Wednesday, Alex has 11 teeth, is standing up without any assistance and walking! It's been an amazing year, and I can't wait to see what this next year brings.

birthday goodness

Even though his birthday was on Wednesday, we had Alex's birthday party yesterday afternoon. Everything went suprisingly well. I sent out e-vites, and everyone came. I was surprised and happy at the same time. With every single one of our immediate family members more than 100 miles away, I thought Alex wouldn't have many people celebrate his birthday with us except my mom and sister who have been planning to drive up here for his birthday since last fall. But everyone else who we invited were people we consider our family here in Alabama. I can't say it enough, but true friends really are family, especially with no family near by. And everyone came to celebrate Alex's frist year with us, in turn, showing us how much love and support we have in my home away from home. From the bottom of my heart, I thank everyone who attended.

and on this day...

At 5:50am, we welcomed our son into the world. It's hard to believe a year has gone by so fast.

on this day

Twelve months ago, Chris and I arrived at the hospital. This picture was pre-epidural. Stay tuned for what happened twelve months ago from tomorrow.

future model

A little preview of Alex's 1-year pictures... I'm uploading the rest to Facebook and MySpace sometime next week.

my little boy

I no longer have a baby boy. I took Alex to get his hair cut this morning. It wasn't as traumatic an experience as I thought it would be. He behaved really well, and the lady was super nice. She let Alex play with stuff, like the spray bottle to keep him happy (that's what you see in the above picture). I felt tears coming as she snipped the first few hairs and all this hair came falling tot he ground. He finally started screaming when she started to cut his bangs. He cannot stand for anything to be in front of this eyes. I had to pick him up and hold him while she tried to cut his hair. She let me stand by the window to try it, but that didn't work. Finally, I had to sit down in the chair and face him out while I held his hands down. She finally got the bangs cut. There are still a few stray hairs, but I'll get to them while he naps (which is right now, but I wanted to post a few pics).

Here's the finished product....

He looks like a little boy now. How sad... my baby is all grown up.

new YouTube video

This video was taken about a month ago. I'm slacking, I know.

I love how Alex tries to push Chris' face back towards his.

SNOW!

I woke up this morning to snow falling on the ground. Now, this Florida girl could not stand to be out in the snow for more than a few minutes, but I love the look for freshly fallen snow on the ground. I took this picture on my way to church this morning. As always, the rest of my snow pictures are on Facebook. Find me over there!