For Dan, who's probably missing his babies

Hey Sydney, I know I have a million brightly colored toys that make noise and light up and crinkle and jingle and are generally really cool, but I think I'd like to have your dog toy because...well....it's the one toy that's not mine!

Ummm....Sydney. I know you used to be the only child, but now I am the cute little brother and I demand this toy.

Sydney actually let him have it, for a little while. Then she came back and took it and snuck off into a corner to chew her toy in peace. Alex continues to enjoy both this toy and splashing around in Sydney's water bowl whenever he manages to get over to it before I catch him. He does play with his own toys, but his fascination with Sydney's stuff is really cute. As if he's trying to be like his big sister :-)

Fun Days and a Vertical Baby!

Alex and I have been having fun despite Dan's absence. Yesterday was playgroup, then a couple of errands, then we walked to the library (again, we were there on Wednesday, but it was the day the library closes early, of course) and picked up a book.

Today we went to the Y and then came home. Alex napped and then got up and played. He had some new skills to perfect, so it was an afternoon of busy, busy work to be done. Alex has figured out how to pull himself up. Despite the limitation of not crawling on his knees, he can do this goofy-looking superman pose, belly on the ground, hands on some surface, and then inch his knees up until he's vertical and then pull his feet under, and stand. It's a long, arduous looking process, but when he gets up, he bounces and giggles, and it is obvious that he thinks it's worth all the effort.

Then we went to the neighboorhood pool and swam for a little while. Alex always starts out a little hesitant, but he gets comfortable in water pretty quickly, and then begins to splash and giggle. Today I put my mouth down in the water and blew bubbles. This was hysterical. Really, really hysterical.

And finally, to ward off any loneliness I might be feeling, Alex took me out to eat. We wandered the streets of Waikiki, looking for a place that wasn't too crowded and loud, but crowded enough that there was background noise to cover the occasional loud exclamation of enthusiasm/frustration/annoyance/where's-more-food which is what passes for dinner conversation at our table. Alex was really, really good. He happily munched on a hamburger bun, raisins, and pineapple, and let me eat my yummy chicken sandwhich. The family at the next table even commented on how good he was. I think it might have been that he had my full attention the whole time, which is not normally the case when Dan and I go out to eat with him. Of course, he has most of the attention, but not all of it. I'm not saying that from now on we won't talk to each other and will dote (even more!) on him when we're out, but it was interesting to note the difference.

So, tomorrow we are going on a church retreat. Every year the church folk go on this hard core retreat where they actually camp out for the weekend. We haven't been out to the sight yet, as camping was not on my list of things I want to tackle alone with a baby, but I've seen a few pictures and it's right by the water. It sounds like a nice time.

And that is all. Right now I'm enjoying the lovely sound of a sleeping baby. Ahhhh....

I can feed myself Cheerios! I am such a big boy!

And when I run out of Cheerios, I can usually find a spare one..or fifty...in here. (This morning, I noticed Alex chomping on a raisin. I hadn't given him rasins yet today. I have given him raisins many times before, though, so this raisin could have been one day old, or many days old. Good things raisins are already old.)

Hey Mom and Dad! Seriously, when are we going to get these boxes out of the living room? This is just embarrasing. We've been here for 3 months already!

How 'bout I just unpack this one and then take it out for you? I can help, too!

No More excuses--So Many New Tricks!

I now have no, no, no excuse for not blogging. Dan is on a business trip to India for the next 2 weeks, so I have ample time after Alex goes to sleep, and there is no competition for the computer. So...here goes.

Alex is surprising me everyday with some little trick or another. Yesterday it was using two hands on the same task, and very cleverly, too I might add. He has a little bib with a pocket at the bottom for catching all that stuff that doesn't quite make it into his mouth. He's very excited about putting his own food in his mouth, and makes it about 25% of the time. So, the rest ends up in this bib trough thing. Yesterday, he had attempted to eat all the Cheerios on the tray, and was looking for more. He knew that there were more in his bib.He reached down with one hand, but couldn't get them. So, he used his other hand to push up one side so all the Cheerios fell to one corner. I couldn't believe that it was more than coincidence, but he did it again later, so I think he actually knew what he was doing!

On the locomotion front, still no actual crawling but he gets around so well with his little army crawl that he doesn't need that conventional stuff! He is starting to pull up, but it's harder when he is starting from his stomach rather than his knees (as most kids do when they start to pull up). And road blocks no longer stop him. The childcare gals at the YMCA told me yesterday that "he crawls over everything." Pillows, people's legs, etc. are not enough to contain him. Looks like we need to finish cleaning up/putting away everything and get some baby gates.

Last week when I was at the bank, he was playing on the floor because it was going to take a while. He was on his stomach, and the next thing I knew, he was sitting up. That was the first time I'd seen that trick! He usually gets into that almost-sitting-from-a-crawl position, and then pushes and falls over the other way. But this time he figured it out.

They grow up so fast...

Look at me, sitting up like a big boy!

I love my Goodnight Elmo book. I like to brush Elmo's teeth before he goes to bed. This is the one book that I actually look at rather than putting directly into my mouth.

Hey there. Did you catch me reading? My grandmas would be so proud!

What kind of parents...

take their 6 month old baby to a place with belly dancers?


Apparently, we do :-)

We ate at a wonderful restaurant called Pyramids the night before Cate left last week. It was a celebration of Cate's last night, and we were taking her friend Carl out to thank him for helping us move some furniture. Very nice atmosphere, yummy, yummy food. Alex was awed and amazed by the dancer's sparkly dress and jewlery. And she was charmed by him as well, of course. She clapped her little finger cymbals over his head in circles, and he turned every which way to see where all the music was coming from! It was really entertaining.

And, she took tips. I went to the bathroom as we were leaving, but when I came back out, Dan informed me that Alex had tipped the gal. I have to say that I was glad I wasn't present the first time my son tipped a scantily clad dancer.

The food was good, as I mentioned before. I had this okra dish in chunky tomato sauce. Alex ate both okra and tomato chunks. What a good eater! Of course, he has yet to reject anything. I think that the experience of eating is so exciting that he is not really thinking about taste yet.

Big Sister Sydney

I have a confession. I don't really like our dog. I know that sounds harsh, but she is a pain. She's destructive and needy. Before I met Dan, she already had a list of things that she had destroyed, including a remote, a cell phone, carpet, and other stuff I'm sure. The first time Dan and I hung out, I wore light khaki pants and a white shirt. You know where this is going. I spent the entire evening with little dirty paw prints on my pants and shirt, and was so self-concious about it the whole night. (I admit this is silly, considering it was Dan's dog that had put them there--not like I showed up a mess!) We moved and Sydney dug under the fence, we moved again and she tore up a window screen, dug under a different fence, scratched up the back door, tore up more carpet...you get the idea.

We moved to Hawaii and she had messed up every screen she can reach, broke panes of window, and has gone through the back door which leads out onto our patio. (No, this would not be significant if the door had not been closed when she went through it!!!!)

So...the dog. Dan and I have talked about giving her away to someone with tons of land, where there are other dogs to play with and hopefully no screens, or doors, or windows to break. But then Dan reminds me that he had Sydney since she was a puppy, and that if given a choice between Sydney and me...well....it'd be close. So, the dog stays.

I am telling you all of this because Sydney is also the sweetest, best, most loving dog I've ever met. She tears things up whenever she's alone because she is just so anxious and misses us so much. She scratches up doors because she believes we are inside, needing her attention as much she needs ours. I know this. And I put up with her because Dan loves her, but more than that, for moments like this:

Here's a happy boy, playing with a pile of books.

Oh, he's looking up. Does he see his mother, his favorite person in the world, is he happy to see her coming towards him, wanting to play with him or read him a story?

Nope. His favorite person happens to be this crazy mutt I've been ranting about.

Alex loves Sydney. Alex has this little humming noise he makes whenever he smiles. It's the sound of a smile. A low, happy hum. Sydney makes him smile and hum whenever she walks by. Alex will scoot across the floor toward Sydney much faster than he will to get to me!

And the affection is mutual. Of course, we were concerned about bringing Alex into the house with such a big, energetic dog around, but Sydney has been the best dog we could have hoped for. When Alex cries, she licks his head, as she probably would to comfort puppies. She comes to get me when she hears him cry in his room, and looks at me as if to say, "Do you hear that? Can we go help him now?" She is gentle and careful and (almost) never steps on him (only when she's excited about something else does she forget where her feet are, but we can usually gauge that and move him out of the danger zone). She sometimes brings him her toys, and drops them right in front of him. She lays down outside of his room when he goes to sleep. And it goes on.

They are best friends, even though Alex likes to stick his hands in her fur and yank, and even though sometimes Sydney gets carried away and licks Alex's face until he actually has slober streaks on his little cheeks.

And so, the dog has to stay. We will continue to fix screens and replace doors, we will continue to take Sydney out to poop in the rain, and we'll probably lose another few expensive items to the anxiety of the most annoying, sweetest, most destructive, gentlest, craziest and bestest dog in the world.

Rain, rain, go away...

I haven't written much about this, but it has been raining since we got to Hawaii. Not like off and on, a little here or there, but serious rain. Everyone says, "We've never seen it like this" and "Worst I've seen, and I've been here 30 years!" It rained everyday for the last 41 days. And most of those days, it wasn't a lovely tropical mist, it was pretty hard to torrential. Last Sunday Dan and I tried to go out for a hike (it was sunny, we were so excited!) but by the time we got to the trail head, it was raining again. As we drove home, we actually had to drive around a small mudslide that had slid its way onto the road!

But, I'm writing all this to tell you that yesterday and today we feel like we actually moved to Hawaii. It has been sunny, breezy, and lovely. Ahhhh.... We hear there is more rain in the forecast, but for now, it is time to frolick in the sunshine and enjoy the islands!

So, on to the baby that you want to hear about...Alex has finally figured out how to move himself forward. This is still not the fluid motion known as "crawling" but he gets up on all fours, then flops forward and lands on his tummy, gets up again, and flops forward again. This goofy little process leads him forward, to whatever it is that he's after at the moment. Unfortunately, it is hard to gauge exactly where a flop will lead, so he ends up bumping his forehead every now and then, but man, he is really going!

And, he's eating so many things now. I just kind of decided that he can eat whatever is on our menu, so last night he had veggie lasagna and corn, and this morning, cream of wheat with bananas. Yumm! Although, Grandma Bette reports that this morning he was passing gas like a little motorboat. I guess his stomach was having to work a little harder than it's used to. But he is really enjoying all his new culinary delights!

Here is Alex playing with a toy that Denice and Elliot gave him. As he puts each star on, it lights up and makes a little chiming "Brrrrriiiiiing!" sound. When the last star is on the top, it plays music! So. Much. Fun.



All right...almost done...


Mommy, where does this last star go? In my mouth?

Oh, yeah, it goes on top!

(I have to admit, he's not actually doing all this on his own. He's having a little help from Mom, in between pictures, but he's getting the idea. )