Our friend Emily took a great video of our kids having a wicked snowball fight. Although Alex knows good and well that hitting girls is completely against house rules, as long as he's just hitting them with snowballs, we will make an exception. Click here to see him in action.
So we have decided that it is about time for Alex to start talking. I mean, he is constantly making noise anyway, so it might as well be words rather than incomprehensible babbling (although we think that he thinks he's actually having a conversation with us, which is totally adorable). To achieve that end, we have been barraging him with a constant flow of "mama's, dada's, and baba's" with the hope that he will eventually start to reciprocate. Of course, I have focused mostly on the "mama's", operating under the theory that whoever puts in the time will reap the benefits and hear their name uttered first. However, instead of focusing on "dada's", Alex's daddy decided that he would encourage him to blow raspberries. So now, in typical boy fashion, he is become more interested in imitating fart sounds than actual words. (btw, the noises coming from behind the camera during this clip are being made by my mouth.)
It is the cutest thing ever because he tries sooooo hard to execute each pbbbbttttttttttt!!!!!!! perfectly, and when he doesn't do it to his self-imposed standards, he gets really frustrated. At times he turns purple in the face or gags himself in an effort to perform, which is pitiful and hilarious at the same time. (btw, I think the noises in this clip are coming from Timothy's mouth, but one can never be sure...)
Although words have yet to be uttered, we are pleased that he has started to imitate anything that we do, cuz really, that is the first step in getting him to start repeating what we say. The next challenge will be to get Timothy to stop doing things that we don't want Alex to imitate...
I totally forgot to put this in yesterday's blog, but it is too good to let it go without mention. In the last few days, Alex has literally jumped himself to sleep in his jumperoo. I wish I could've caught it on tape, but Lord knows the second I pulled out my camera he would've been wide-eyed and awake. He would jump and jump and jump, then the jumping would slow down, his eyelids would start drooping, his head would slowly lower...As soon as he realized he was falling asleep, he would yank his head upright, his eyes would pop open, and he would commence to jumping like a madman as if nothing unusual had happened. Ya know, like when you fall asleep in class and your head rolls from side to side as you drift off to sleep, then you suddenly realize what's happening so you shake yourself awake and play it off. Yeah, it was like that. Hilarious.
I guess I should've gotten him a jumperoo much earlier, like at two months, when getting him to sleep was a nightmare. Then maybe he could've jumped himself to sleep instead of relegating me to the top of that stinkin' exercise ball...
When Alex's mobile first arrived, I noticed that the suggested age range on the box was birth to 5 months. I found it odd that something like a mobile would have an age limit, like your kid is a little slow if he still likes to watch a mobile after five months. However, this morning we discovered the likely motivation behind setting such a limit. Alex started stirring around 7 this morning, and when I went in to get him, this is what I found:
Apparently, around the age of five months, your kid will we get sick of just looking at his mobile and will want to grab it instead. Not that the thing was especially secure to begin with, but I was impressed nonetheless. In fact, this isn't the only impressive mobile-related feat he's been accomplishing lately. For the last week or so, his mobile has magically turned itself on at various times during the day and night. All of a sudden I'll hear birds chirping and think, "What the...?" Usually it occurs when he is going to bed or waking up, so I assume he is accidentally hitting the buttons on the front of the machine whilst flailing his arms and legs about. Or maybe he's just a genius child who enjoys a little Mozart as he drifts off to sleep...
Genius or not, Alex is one happy little booger. And the mouth on this kid. I'd like to say that his perpetual yakking is a genetic gift from his father, but I guess I have to take some credit for it. He spends most of the day telling us stories, and from what I can tell, they are funny stories because he's always cracking himself up. Really and truly, it is a rare occasion when he does anything but laugh or smile or talk to us. The funny thing is, he tends to clam up a bit when other people are around. I think he is just trying to be cool, like his image will be tarnished if anyone sees what a goofball he is. As a result, our friends seldom get to see him in all his goofy glory. Well guess what, Alex! Mommy's got video evidence of the real you, and she's about to share it with the whole world!
You may have noticed how, the second after he spied my "hidden camera", he threw it to the ground in a failed attempt to thwart my efforts to out him and his silly side.
The similarities between A and his dad do not end at their big yappers. My favorite part of this next video involves some multi-tasking that proves he's his daddy's child.
In case it wasn't obvious, I was referring to the part where he had the spinning lizard thing in in his right hand and the bug on a string thing in the other. He didn't want to give either up, so he ended up executing several spins of the lizard thing with knife-like precision while scarcely taking his eyes from the buggy string thing...Okay, so maybe it won't impress all of you like it did me. It just struck me as "Tim-like" and I had to point it out.
With Christmas right around the corner, many recent conversations have begun with the question, "So what does Alex want for Christmas?" And as much as Alex loves to rattle off (no pun intended) each and every item on his list, he decided that, as a child of the so-called "internet generation", it would be more fitting for him to post his list on the blog for all of those inquiring folks to see.
Since that time, my regular readers may have noticed a minor change to one of the page elements in the left hand margin of the blog. The heading that once read "Registries" now reads "Christmas Lists", and conveniently listed below it is a link to Alex's Amazon.com wishlist, as well as a link to his updated Toys 'R' Us/Babies 'R' Us registry.
If you haven't noticed this change, or if you noticed and are pretending that you didn't, allow me to point it out now so that you will have no excuse not to spoil Alex rotten this holiday season.
Although Timothy and I would be perfectly content if every cent that would be spent on gifts for us were, instead, spent on our adorable and deserving child, we have also included our own Amazon lists in case you have any money left over and are inclined to spend it on Alex's adorable and deserving parents.
Pre-Catfish Hole II (dinner in Alma, AR, with Grammy and Papa):
At Catfish Hole II with Grammy and Papa:
Post-Catfish Hole II fatness (from this pic, you'd think he'd indulged in the A.Y.C.E. catfish fillets):
I-L-L-I-N-I Basketball!!
Serenading me in exchange for some rice cereal:
Apparently, around the age of five months, your kid will we get sick of just looking at his mobile and will want to grab it instead. Not that the thing was especially secure to begin with, but I was impressed nonetheless. In fact, this isn't the only impressive mobile-related feat he's been accomplishing lately. For the last week or so, his mobile has magically turned itself on at various times during the day and night. All of a sudden I'll hear birds chirping and think, "What the...?" Usually it occurs when he is going to bed or waking up, so I assume he is accidentally hitting the buttons on the front of the machine whilst flailing his arms and legs about. Or maybe he's just a genius child who enjoys a little Mozart as he drifts off to sleep...
