More Exersaucer

We took some more cute pictures of Alex enjoying himself in his Exersaucer, just because:

Goodbye Grandparents

My parents just came out for basically a long weekend, so Monday night they had to leave to catch their red-eye back to the east coast. They left after Alex's bed time, but Evan got to give goodbye hugs and kisses:

I Heart New York

Since my parents were visiting from New York Evan thought it was appropriate (he may have been coached a bit) to bust out his "I♥NY" shirt that Aunt Kimmie gave him recently:

Grandma's Birthday

My parents came to town for the weekend to attend an 80th birthday party for my dad's boss from CSU East Bay. This meant they were also in town for my mom's birthday, and to save her from having to cook for us on her own birthday (part of their reason for coming was to see the baby and give us some extra help, of course) we took everyone out to dinner at Buca di Beppo.

The evening started out pretty well. Our reservation was a little later than Evan's normal dinner time and we were worried that even a reasonable delay getting us seated and getting the first of the food to our table would lead to a cranky boy (like many kids, Evan's mood definitely sours with hunger). As it turns out we got to sit down right away and some bread arrived at our table almost immediately, but Evan wasn't that interested. He had became somewhat lethargic once we got to the restaurant, owing to the fact that he wasn't feeling too well and had started running a fever (both boys have been carrying head colds since our trip to Santa Fe for Christmas).

In the meantime Alex has in high spirits, and he and my mom were having a good time making faces and talking to each other:

As it turned out (not surprisingly) Evan's cold flaring up, which was actually a bit of a boon to the rest of us at first as the resulting lethargy made him much easier to entertain, eventually had its consequences. He may not have been interested in eating anything but he had no problem guzzling lemonade (Evan is usually a good eater but he is always a good drinker). Unfortunately if you take lemonade and Tylenol, add them to a stomach full of milk (drunk in the car on the way there) and not much else, factor in a healthy dash (pun intended) of cold and fever, and mix it all up in a kid who is willing to throw up with almost no provocation, what you get is an overly damp and smelly father/son combo and a short birthday dinner.

Exersaucer

Up until now if we wanted to put Alex down for a bit we had to put him in his bouncy chair or lay him on the ground under his Kickee Bear or some other activity mat. Nowadays he's got enough upper body control to play in our Exersaucer, though:

Alex thinks the Exersaucer is just as much fun as Evan used to:

It's so much fun he's got to talk about it:

Assisted Standing Up

Alex loves pulling on fingers to sit up, or even stand up:

It's maybe his favorite form of entertainment right now.

Tummy Time

We haven't been quite as rigorous about giving Alex tummy time as we were with Evan, partly because he really hasn't liked it, partly because it makes him spit up even more than usual (and he spits up a lot!), and partly because we just get busy or distracted and forget. Steph has been remembering to set time aside recently, though, and Alex is now strong enough that he can push himself up a bit so he's enjoying being on his tummy a lot more:

He's even making attempts at rolling over, some pretty successful:

Sleep Training

Just as with his brother before him, we eventually had enough of Alex's suboptimal sleep behavior, namely waking up 2 to 3 times in the middle of the night to eat when he's old enough to need at most 1 snack. So we broke out the Baby Whisperer book again, gave ourselves a quick refresher course, and set to getting Alex on a more predictable feeding and napping routine.  I'll try and report back in a couple of weeks on how it went.

Rolling Around

I'm sure this picture had an interesting back story, but I can't remember it. That's what you get when you don't get around to writing blog posts until a month after the pictures were taken....

Car Lineup

Evan is always very interested in Alex when he's eating, sometimes too much so. To keep things in check we don't let Evan play with his cars on the nursing pillows during a feeding, but he then goes a little nuts afterwards:

Big Grin

Alex was in the mood for some big grinning today:

He really likes this "garage door" game Steph plays with him sometimes.  In fact, I got there a little too late to capture it on video but she claims he may have even made his first real laugh playing it.  I may have missed the laughing, but I did get plenty of big smiling:

Thomas Hat

At his second day at preschool the kids' craft project was decorating Thomas the Train conductor's visors, which Evan thought was a pretty great project:

I don't know how well you can see it, but Evan's big addition to the visor was adding a few puffy foam letters, namely E for Evan.

And of course, the synergy of Evan playing with his trains wearing his Thomas the Train conductor's visor required more pictures be taken:

Fort

Evan likes playing in forts:

and Alex likes watching Evan play:

It works out pretty well, don't you think?

Watching Sports

Steph always likes these "Father and Son Watching Sports" shots:

Preschool

The moms in Steph's book club have banded together to start a once-a-week co-op preschool. They hold it at one of their houses, and 3 or 4 parents (pretty much all Moms, although there is one Dad who's pretty involved too) are scheduled each week to teach different lessons. The subjects at first are things like "Who are the members of your family" and "Shapes and colors", although I think they get into particle physics and such pretty soon.


So every Friday now Evan goes to one of the mom's houses for the morning, plays with other kids and learns stuff. Here he is with his backpack and lunch on his first day of school:

Bumbo Seat

Alex is getting closer and closer to being able to sit up on his own. If you don't hold him in place he can stay upright for 5 or 10 seconds pretty consistently, but with the help of the Bumbo seat he can sit on his own all day:

 Seeing Alex in his old Bumbo seat makes Evan a bit jealous, so we let him take a turn in the seat too:

Amazingly, Evan still kinda fits in the Bumbo, despite the fact that he's a little more than twice as big as Alex.

A Home-Cooked Meal

Steph and Evan made pizzas from scratch today, and then Evan got to eat a mini-pizza that he made pretty much all by himself:

You can't really tell from this mid-chew picture, but he was pretty excited about this:

Just Because

I'm not sure if there was anything more going on here than "Evan wrapped himself in a blanket on our bed and he looked cute so we took a picture", but Evan wrapped himself in a blanket on our bed and he looked cute, so we took a picture:

Dog Training

One of Evan's favorite pastimes is giving Peekay treats, which we mostly indulge figuring it can only help improve  their relationship. Presumably just by imitating our interactions with her in similar circumstances he's become a passable dog trainer along the way: