Ughh, I swore I was gonna keep up with the blog so I wouldn't have to cover our whole Christmas vacation once the festivities were over, having to recall the details of each day's events, sure to leave out some of the finer points of Alex's first Christmas experience...But alas, I got lazy and here I am trying upload a zillion pictures and narrate the less obvious ones before another day passes and my load becomes even heavier. As per my usual m.o., I'll have to break it down into chapters so I don't go crazy trying to finish it all at once.
So, Saturday...
We drove up to Bauxite...er...Benton...er...someplace near Little Rock for the 50th anniversary of Vicki's cousin and her husband. "We" included Tim, Alex, and I, Bill, Vicki, Leah, Mamaw Meador, Tim's cousins Ashley and Amber, Amber's husband Brad, and we met up with Timothy's Uncle Danny and Aunt Nancy when we got there. Alex met a few more of his kinfolk there, although I won't even try to describe how they're related to him, because I have yet to sort out the intricacies of the Meador/Evans family tree.
We made a pit stop at Hardee's before we got there and A got to hang with Amber, Brad and Ashley Kaye. It was pouring rain by the time we left, and seeing as how I forgot to bring any of Alex's ten thousand hats, we had to improvise when we took him out to the car.
The anniversary party was more of a reunion of sorts, so we all had to be on our best behavior to represent Eldo. Alex's mission was to keep Mamaw out of trouble. He wasn't totally successful (rumor was that she spiked the punch), but he tried his hardest to keep her occupied with his charm and wit.
Good times.
Although we knew the party just wouldn't be the same once we left, we had to get back to the house in Eldo for the Bunko party that Vicki had planned. It was scheduled for 7 o'clock, so A only got to socialize for a little while before he had to go to bed. We were skeptical about whether he would be able to sleep through the clamor of an enthused Bunko crowd, which, in past years, has been known to produce sounds that top 100 decibels. We were tempted to test the range of our monitor and put him to bed at Auntie Leah's house down the street, but we decided to give it a try at Grammy's first and then resort to plan b if necessary.
Turns out, A is a much deeper sleeper than we had given him credit for. He snoozed through hand clapping, table slapping, dog barking, hooping, hollering, and cow bell ringing. Everyone was rather impressed that we had failed to wake him, and I was happy that he didn't have to spend the night alone at Auntie L's. (That's a joke, btw. Don't go callin' DHS on me...)
The night ended after much fun and debauchery, most of which was inspired by these five hooligans:
Alex got to visit Mamaw Meador and her posse at the hospital this afternoon. She is a member of this gang called the Pink Ladies - they look innocent but they've got some pretty impressive street cred. Luckily he was wearing neutral colors so they welcomed him with open arms and fussed over him (despite his silly looking ensemble. His overalls tend to bunch up when you hold him, hence the silly looking "short pants"/knee socks combo. It's much cuter in person, I promise). Mamaw was very excited to show him off, the rest of the Ladies were happy to meet the boy that they've heard so much about, and Alex was more than willing to oblige them by being his usual adorable self.
After lunching at the hospital, we made a stop at the court house where Grammy introduced him to all the people she works with, then it was back to the house where he entertained us with his usual shenanigans.
After many, many days of trying to get Captain Roundbottom to sit on his own for more than ten seconds, it took about Alex about ten minutes of "therapy" with Auntie L to become a sitting pro. Okay, maybe not a pro, but at least an amateur well on his way to achieving expert status. I took some still shots, but those hardly demonstrate his sitting prowess. So I've got video, too!!
Within the last half day, he's already had a great time playing with Grammy, Papa, and Auntie L. He even got to see Mamaw Evans and Aunt Sylvia and got to show off his new sitting chops.
Turns out he also loves Grammy's Nutcracker collection, which we've decided means that he will love the Christmas musical or that he himself has a future in the ballet (which daddy says is okay if it will help his football career).
Oh yeah, and we tried some of Timothy's baby clothes on him, which led to Grammy pulling out all of Timothy's baby pictures, which led to lots of laughter and mockery (at Timothy's expense more than Alex's). Don't I have the sweetest boys?
In addition to his sippy cup escapades, A has debuted a few other new "things" this past week that have been keeping us in stitches.
Although I recently moved Alex up a notch in his jumperoo, I'm afraid that third notch will be getting some use in the near future. When Grammy and Papa were here, we put the parrot and froggy that hover above his head in their lowest position, which means he could easily reach them with his hands. And what happens when Alex gets something in his hands? Into the mouth it goes. So we let him chew on the birdie's feathers a little before pushing it back into a higher position. Apparently parrot booty is a flavor Alex responds to (tastes like chicken), because he started jumping as high as his little legs could take him, his mouth wide open, attempting to snag a few butt feathers like a Venus fly trap. I tried to capture the moment with a few still shots, but you really had to be there...
In addition to the plethora of goofy faces he already had in his repertoire, A has added a few more. He has adopted this crazy silent laughing thing where his mouth hangs wide open and his face gets...well..."squinchy" is the best way to describe it. It seems as though wild, squealing laughter should be coming from his mouth, but instead, nothing. Which somehow makes it funnier than if he were actually laughing.
This video also has a couple examples, though a little less silent than usual.
Another new one is a kissy duck face that cracks me up every time. I think it derived from his attempts to blow raspberries and repeat the "ba-ba-ba's" that his daddy and I are constantly throwing his direction. He doesn't do it all the time, but when he does, we can't help but snicker.
In the last few days, Alex has started to recognize that rolling can get him places that he wants to be. He has yet to regain his original mastery of belly-to-back rolling, and instead, has opted for an entirely new (and much less graceful) method. This method requires him to overcome the obstacle of his weak-side arm, which is no easy task. (Notice the little hand peeking out from behind his back.)
Here's what happens if he fails to complete the roll as planned...
And here's what happens when he succeeds. Ahh, sweet victory. He successfully rolled to Banana Boy and to the end table, where he just laid on his belly and stared at the books for the longest time.
On another occasion, I laid him in the middle of the floor, stepped into the kitchen for a minute, and came back in to find...
Luckily I snatched it out of his mouth before any real damage was done. I don't think that twenty yards of curling ribbon would be much fun coming out the other end, if ya know what I mean...
I also bought him a RazBaby teether that he loves to chomp on. It's great because he's more into gumming things than just sucking on a paci, and this one is designed for all parts to be chewed on. Minutes of fun!
Yeah, he likes it...
Besides that, there are more faces...
Fun times with his mama...
Wrestling the camera from his mama...
Mini-pushups...
Tummy time...
Oh, and more faces...
*Sorry Grammy, "Bobbing for Booty Feathers" just didn't have the same ring to it...
The anniversary party was more of a reunion of sorts, so we all had to be on our best behavior to represent Eldo. Alex's mission was to keep Mamaw out of trouble. He wasn't totally successful (rumor was that she spiked the punch), but he tried his hardest to keep her occupied with his charm and wit.
Good times.
Although we knew the party just wouldn't be the same once we left, we had to get back to the house in Eldo for the Bunko party that Vicki had planned. It was scheduled for 7 o'clock, so A only got to socialize for a little while before he had to go to bed. We were skeptical about whether he would be able to sleep through the clamor of an enthused Bunko crowd, which, in past years, has been known to produce sounds that top 100 decibels. We were tempted to test the range of our monitor and put him to bed at Auntie Leah's house down the street, but we decided to give it a try at Grammy's first and then resort to plan b if necessary.
The night ended after much fun and debauchery, most of which was inspired by these five hooligans:
