April 2008 - Aquarium and Playing Around

Well Spring has finally arrived here in Denver and we've taken advantage of it whenever we can. It started with a trip to the dog park with Tucker and our good friend Chris. Alex just loves to go "off roading" in his stroller and tries to get me to go faster by rocking back and forth and then throwing his hands in the air whenever it gets bumpy. I think we're going to have an adrenaline junkie on our hands.

Bug has always been great about keeping a hat on and he really likes his sunglasses, too. Here he is surveying all of the dogs and making sure everyone is getting along. He really gets a kick out of all the dogs and the kids at the park. He especially loves all the doggie kisses he gets!!


One Saturday in early April we had planned on going to the zoo with our friends Windi and Oz, but the weather forecast called for cooooold and windy, so we changed our plans and met at the aquarium instead. Bug had a fantastic time and really thought that the divers in the big tanks were so cool! He loved the bubbles coming out of their masks and waved back at them when they came close to the glass. I think we'll have to go back when it isn't so crowded though. He really liked walking around and checking things out, but there were so many people that we were afraid he get squashed like a... well... a Bug!


Alex still loves the Signing Times videos and we got him a few new ones recently. He's gotten very good about imitating the signs as they do them on the video and is starting to use them more consistently to communicate with us. We love it and get so excited when you can see on his face that he's told you something and you understand him! He's very good about eat, all done, bath, more and is getting better at milk and water. He'll imitate just about all of them and the sweetest are baby and bear. Here he is sitting in his duck chair watching a video. We try to pull the pacifier out as often as we can, but usually the pacifier and the blanket aren't far from where little Bug is. He just ADORES his blankets and gets so excited whenever he sees one of them. Luckily there isn't a specific one so we're safe for now. We have 6 all together, some made by both grandmas and some that were gifts.


Isn't this just the sweetest little face?


















I came out of the kitchen the other evening to see this! Alex had climbed up onto the toy box we got him for his birthday and was kicking his toys off of the top of it while balancing on the other leg. Amazing! He just thought this was so cool. I snapped a bunch of pictures and just as I was going to show him a "safe" way to get down, he found the "quicker" way down and just fell off of it. At least it's only about 18 inches up! Luckily he was just fine and didn't cry so much as look at me in shock. He hasn't gone back up since so I guess that was a good lesson learned the hard way. Mama learned one too!!

March 2008 - Bugaboo Turns ONE! and Easter!

March was a very busy and exciting month for us! With a walker in the house we really had to make sure that things were baby safe. Luckily the installation of a cool gate on one set of stairs and a removable gate on the other made the whole 1st floor Alex-proof. We put a lock on one cabinet but all the others are up for grabs, and boy does he know it! His favorite ones to get into are the pantry, the pots and pans, the measuring cups and spoons, but especially the appliances where the coffee pot and the food processor (sans blades of course) are still the highlight of his explorations.


The dishwasher also holds a high level of appeal
and when it's clean and almost empty is fair game for our little adventurer.























Another big adventure was getting his first haircut! Judging by this picture, he was really needing one. Bug doesn't have a lot of hair, but there were a few rouge pieces that were just insanely long, so he mostly needed a little trim to clean him up. Luckily our good friend and sometimes babysitter Julie is a professional hair wrangler and offered to come by to tame the tresses! Bug was awesome and sat very (ok sorta) still as she snip snip snipped away. Of course we saved every last little wisp and curl.

Here is the after, doesn't he look handsome?!? :)


The day after the haircut was St. Patrick's Day and was welcomed with a new t-shirt from GG.

By far the highlight of March was Bugaboo's 1st birthday. We had lots of friends and family come over to help celebrate, and we had a rubber ducky theme to complete the fun! There were lots of balloons and of course, cake - and one special little one for the Bug! I think that the actual cake and frosting were too sweet for Alex, but he really enjoyed mashing and smearing it everywhere as the pictures show.

Alex got TONS of cool things for his big day, but the runaway winner and still favorite to this day is the set of golf clubs from Uncle Steve. We showed him one time how to hold the club and hit the ball, and that's all it took. He's a natural! The clubs did not leave his hand for hours, and we literally had to distract him, take it away and hide it when it was time for bath and bed. The next morning that was the first thing he looked for when we went downstairs. After weeks now of practicing he's developed a multi-sport game of his own. It's a combination baseball, golf, hockey and soccer. He'll pick up the golf ball and throw it as far as he can (and he's got quite a little arm on him). Then he'll run over to it, gently tap it (a natural putter), then go up to it and smack it with both hands on the club as far as he can (Daddy calls this his slap shot). Once he catches up to the ball at last he'll kick it around with his feet then pick it up and start all over.

Here is Alex after getting the frosting all cleaned off of him snuggling with Grandma and Grandpa Wheeler. Notice the golf ball in his hand?

The next day was Easter Sunday! GG, Papa John and Uncle Steve were all here for a yummy lunch and of course the Easter Egg Hunt! We'd had the eggs out for weeks before hand so they had kind of lost their novelty by the time Easter rolled around. However, being outside and of course having the golf clubs was exciting enough for Alex!

February 2008 - Flying to Utah!

We flew to Salt Lake City on Valentine's Day to visit Grandma and Grandpa Wheeler at their new home in Springville, Utah and help them celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary a little early. This was Alex's first plane trip and he did great! Unfortunately we forgot to take any pictures in the airport or on the plane. Alex was already fighting a little cold when we left so I think that the sleeping on the plane was partly due to Tylenol and Benadryl, but also because we were able to time most of the travel around his naps. He loved seeing all the people and pushing his stroller around and around and around. That little tyke is STRONG!!

We got to meet Cousin Tyler for the first time and he's such a cute little guy! The boys took to each other (and each others pacifiers) right away. Tyler was looking on in awe as Bug crawled around. Don't worry little guy, you'll be mobile soon, too!!!


Alex also got to meet his other cousins Hannah, Isaac, Allison, Stephanie, Jennifer, Jon, Andrew, Nastacia, Aaron and Tim (I think that's all we saw...). We had pizza night at Grandma and Grandpas and all the kids played together. Alex really got a kick out of Hannah while we were there and she was so helpful playing with Alex, helping to feed him and give him his bath.







Alex was trying SO HARD to walk while we were there and actually took his first series of steps with Grandma's help! First just two or three and then up to five or seven. That's all he wanted to do for the most part, but he did pause now and then to read and look out the window with Grandpa.














Unfortunately little Bug's cold grew into croup which landed us in the emergency care center while we were there. Fortunately there is one right across the street from Grandma and Grandpas as we were there for quite a while. Luckily the doctor was able to give Bug a shot of decadron steroid and it helped his cough right away and we didn't miss the big surprise Anniversary dinner that Aunt Karen and Aunt Deanna worked so hard on.

On our last day in Utah little Bug really didn't feel well. You can see in the picture with Grandma how red his cheeks are. We thought it was just the cold/croup still, but by the time we got back to Denver and home, little guy's fever peaked at 103.5 and he was just so limp and weak that he couldn't even cry. So at 4:30 am we bundled him up and whisked him away to the Children's ER in Parker. One very quick test revealed that he had Influenza A. So unfortunately there was nothing we could do for him other than to keep the fever down and give him lots of fluid. He also got another dose of the croup steroid as he was still wheezing a bit. It was a rough couple of days, but he pulled through it just in time for Mama to catch it. Oh my, my heart broke for him seeing him sick, but then after experiencing it myself I really felt bad for him - that was AWFUL. Luckily Daddy never caught it and was able to really take care of us both.

Out of bad comes some great thought! Time at home with Mommy and Tucker helped Bug feel better quickly and gave him lots of time to practice walking! Yup, sometime around the 20th he officially became a walker.


As you can see, Alex and Tucker are still the best of buds. Alex will go up to Tucker, "hug" him and say "awwwwww" because that's what we say whenever we hug him!

January 2008 - Visit to Trinidad

After New Year's 2008 we finally put our new sleds to good use and went sledding with the Whites! We had a fantastically snowy December and thanks to the veeeerrrry cold weather we had that snow around for a long time. We waited for a day that wasn't too chilly, bundled Bug up in his new blue snowsuit and away we went!

Alex started eating table food at the beginning of January and took to it like a fish to water. We haven't found anything yet that he doesn't like, although he does have some stand out favorites - strawberries, blueberries, bananas, green beans, peas, chicken, ANYTHING pasta but especially spaghetti and mac-n-cheese, peaches, pears.... ok, so like I said... he loves it all!! He also decided that he was done nursing. I guess he decided that he was too busy to hold still long enough to drink. I was ok with it as my milk had started to decrease as he started eating more solid food. The funniest part was how he decided to let me know he wasn't interested anymore. One evening we were sitting on the couch, he'd just started to nurse when he pulled back, looked at me, looked at "it", grinned and PINCHED it! Then laughed and pushed away to go and play. Yep, that was the end of that!

Already a super-star crawler, Bug really started to try this walking thing in January. After watching him push the laundry basket, diaper boxes and activity table down the hall, we got him a little push toy to help him out and he just tears around with it! It took him a while to learn how to steer it, at first he would just go full steam in one direction until he rammed into something and then just keep ramming and ramming and ramming until either he shuffled it enough to go another direction or we moved it for him. He got to be an old pro with it in no time and even began to creep along the walls and furniture. We got him some big boy shoes too and that really seemed to help him take off.

We also went to Trinidad in January. Bug got lots of snuggles and stories from GG, Papa John, Nannie and Poppa. We had a great visit there, and Bug got his first taste of tea!