Grandparents and fun and pictures. And pictures.

Grandma and Grandpa B stopped by on their U.S. tour last night to visit with us before moving on to my grandparents' place in Arizona. When anyone comes to visit - including my parents - I tend to stress that Alex will have a bad day and won't be his usual, chipper self, and that I'll have to make up a million excuses as to why he's crabby, like "he must be hungry", "I think he's just tired", or "his rear end itches". And every time visitors leave, I realize that I am a neurotic mess, that I worry way too much about stupid, petty things, and that my concerns are completely unfounded because Alex has never disappointed so far - he is always an angel and a ham and everything else wonderful that I hope he will be. And not that anyone but me really cares. Actually, I think it's his fault for setting the bar too high. Maybe if he had a bad day now and then, I wouldn't be so on edge about when it's finally going to happen...Ooohhhh, I take it back!! I take it back!! Please keep being perfect!!

Anyway, you'd think I wouldn't have that many pictures to post since they were only here for a grand total of 12 hours, but my dad brought his fancy camera and Tim and I couldn't keep our grubby mitts off of it. So I'll try to keep narration to a minimum and let the pictures do (most of) the talking...

Grandma and Grandpa received the warmest reception ever, especially considering that Alex hasn't seen them since December. He acted like they've spent every day together and crawled right up to my dad to check out the present that he had brought in.

Grandma had also brought in some presents, so he made sure to thank her right away, too.

And just what are these presents that I write of? The first was a walker/ride-on toy that A can either sit on top of and scoot himself along with his feet or it can convert to a walker that he holds onto and walks along behind. The ironic thing about this gift was that the night before, Tim, Alex, and I stood in front of that exact toy in Walmart, and after considering it for several minutes, we decided to wait and get it another time. I couldn't believe when Mom and Dad showed up at the front door with it.

Anyway, A loves all the bells and whistles, and although he can sit on it and stand behind it, it is usually short-lived since he doesn't have the whole "balance" thing down quite yet and forgets that he needs to hang on to the thing so he doesn't fall over.

Here he is trying to look "bad" on his "hawg"...

...and here he is pretending to be sweet and innocent. You're not fooling anybody, mister!!

The second one was an adorable running suit in Illini blue and orange. I didn't take a picture of it, but you may catch a glimpse of it in the pictures below. The third gift was a book called "Good Night Chicago" which Grandma B got signed by the author. My family is, like, waaaaaaaay into books, so something like that is pretty exciting for us nerds. The concept of these books is really cool - all of the illustrations and stories refer to landmarks and traditions related to different areas of the U.S. so a kid can learn about different parts of the country. Grandma read some of it to A and he seemed to be impressed by the windy city. I guess we'll have to take him to visit Chi-town on our next visit home...

Alex was sure to perform all of his latest tricks for the G.B.'s, which now include: crawling, jabbering, high-fiving, pulling himself up, waving, sitting himself up, drinking from his sippy cup, eating crackers, and clapping (lots of clapping).

Oh yeah, and he demonstrated for Grandpa how he plans to set the Guinness World record for projectile vomiting. Um, ew.

Fun with G-ma...

Fun with G-pa...

And random pics of A posing for G-pa's fancy camera...

After all the fun and posing, it was time to get ready for bed, which just meant more fun, more posing, and more books.

Grandma and Grandpa had to hit the road this afternoon to try to make it to Albuquerque before...well, tomorrow. As usual, a good but short visit. Timothy will be leaving for NYC on Wednesday to (win) participate in a moot court competition, so Auntie L will be keeping us company over the weekend (barring any unforseen illnesses or garage sales).