Happy New Year!

Admiring the "wawa" fountain


Peek-a-boo!

One of many trips down the slide


Busy sweeping the steps at Joaquin Miller Park

Driving is always a favorite activity

Happy New Year everyone! We're off to enjoy dinner with friends and hopefully you are celebrating the incoming year as well. Alex and I went up to Joaquin Miller park this afternoon to enjoy the nice day. He always loves to climb all of the stairs, play on the playground and just generally enjoy nature up there. It was a good way to spend the afternoon. Goodbye 2009! See you in 2010!

Peacock

This morning Alex informed us that he wanted to be a peacock, using the balloons which he has collected over the past couple of weeks. Quite a good imagination! I used some elastic to attach them to him and he was quite happy, dumping "garbage" as a peacock for a good part of the morning.

Chasing Pigeons

Our Silly Boy

With Alex talking in short sentences now, it is quite funny to hear what he comes up with. I usually try to write funny things which he says, in my calendar, so that I can look back and remember them. Here are a couple of examples for you, which are from the past few days.

The other night, on the way back from seeing the lights displays in Alameda, David stopped rather abruptly at a red light. From the back seat, Alex cautioned "careful". Hee...hee! Mommy doesn't need to add anything!

Yesterday, we stopped to get takeout from Guadalajara Taqueria, our favorite little Mexican place, which has really yummy carnitas. While eating our carnitas, rice and whole pinto beans at lunch, Alex said "football, tiny football". He was referring to the pinto beans, which do look very similar to footballs, oddly enough. The shape and the color are remarkably similar. The power of observation in these little guys is quite amazing. Too cute!

Christmas 2009

Opening gifts


Trying out the new bath toy from Landen and Mackenna


An eagle from Grandma


Sissy and Alex opening their stockings


Lights on Thompson Avenue in Alameda


More lights in Alameda

It was a low-key Christmas for us, since Alex came down with a nasty bug the day before Christmas. We stayed home and had dinner and opened some presents throughout the evening and into the next day, basically as a diversion from being sick. As you can see from the photos, Alex was much less energetic and chipper than normal, but is now back to his normal crazy self. He enjoyed many generous presents and has already had fun playing with and reading all of them! Thanks so much to everyone for the gifts. We did manage to get out and see some Christmas lights displays in Alameda on Christmas night, which Alex enjoyed. He especially liked the house which had a vignette from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, with the elf Hermie who wants to be a dentist, and Rudolph. For some reason, every time we read that book, Hermie is the favorite character. Perhaps someday Alex will be a dentist, like Auntie San E?

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!

Ornaments!

Cutting out the ornaments


Baked and ready to paint


Artiste at work

Alex's favorite rooster


The hummingbird for the tree

Alex finished up his salt dough ornaments today and I think they look cool! I still remember a salt dough angel ornament which I made when I was probably pre-school age and it was still in mom's collection of ornaments until recently, when I believe it met it's demise, most likely just because it was so old and probably falling apart. I decided that it would be a fun project for Alex and I to do together, so we started the project on Monday, by making the dough and rolling it out and cutting the shapes, and then baked them. Today he painted, I put the shellac on and then put the ribbon through to hang them on the tree.

You'll notice that there is quite a variety of shapes in the mix. Alex picked out the cookie cutters at the store the other day, with the rooster and the hummingbird making it into the final cut. He picked out his favorite two ornaments to hang on the tree, one rooster and one hummingbird. Quite a fun project. He takes his painting very seriously!

ABCs

Alex has been practicing his ABCs and here's the latest version which we were singing after his nap today. It is very faint, but at the beginning he is saying "A, B, C, D" before we start to sing.

Our Weekend

"Holiday" Dim Sum


Hawk at Lindsay Wildlife Museum


Beautiful owl at Lindsay Wildlife Museum


Lights at the Mormon Temple near our house


Mormon Temple lights display

We had a nice weekend filled with time with friends, some tasty meals out, a visit to the Lindsay Wildlife Museum in Walnut Creek and a little stroll through the lit up Mormon Temple grounds. Alex really enjoyed the Lindsay Wildlife Museum especially the various birds of prey (including the bald eagle), the coyote, and the fox. The lights at the Mormon Temple are always very pretty as we drive by and tonight we actually stopped on our way home to check them out. As an added bonus, we found out that they have free Christmas concerts at the Visitor's Center every night until the new year, so we will be back to check one of those out.

Habitot

Pretty cool fire truck!


Artists in action


Inside the Wiggle Wall


Busy in the water room

We met up with Meridith and Miles, and Ali and Marco at Habitot on Monday for a playdate. We had never been to that space before, so Alex really enjoyed exploring every corner of it! He was especially interested in the firetruck and the water tables and liked the Wiggle Wall, which was basically an enclosed climbing wall. We will definitely go again and maybe take BART to get there, which would add even more fun to the trip.

His Own Flair

Apparently Alex felt that the Christmas tree needed just a little "something" more. This morning while I was wrapping some presents, he decided to add a few decorations.

Chopsticks

On a shopping trip to Sur la Table today, Alex and I finally found a good selection of animal chopsticks for kids (the zoo has them, but has only had one animal to choose from for months now). Alex picked the toucan (Tookie) chopsticks, although it was a difficult decision, with so many cool animals to choose from. He tried them out while eating his Mandarins this afternoon. Pretty good, if you ask me!!

Our Trip to Minnesota

Brant, Janelle, Grandpa Al
Landen, Alex and Mackenna


Grandpa Al and Alex with Classy


My cousin Rhonda with Alex and I



Great Grandma Grace reading to Alex who intently looks on


The yard at the farm in Graceton. It was so pretty with the apple tree covered in snow.


Alex and I admiring the freshly fallen snow


Grandma Elaine pulling Alex on the sled


Grandpa Al pulling Landen and David pulling Alex on the sleds after the snowfall


Making snowmen at Grandma's house


Yes, another post about our trip to Minnesota. Now that we have our camera and I have downloaded every last picture and video, I have been diligently culling through the mountain of over 500 pictures to decide which ones to post. Digital cameras are wonderful in some sense, but they also make decisions very difficult.

We had a wonderful trip to Minnesota filled with plenty of hospitality, visits with lots of family and friends, some fun time in the snow and many "little lunches" as they say in Minnesota. It was nice to be able to see Rhonda and Aunt Rose from Greenbush, as well as Aunt Catherine, Uncle Jim and Aunt Jessie while we were there.

Alex had so much fun in the snow with his grandparents and of course enjoyed all of the animals that were around, whether it be the horses, the dogs or the birds which were everywhere. He frequently talks about his "buddy" Landen and has called him on the phone many times since we left Minnesota. As you can see, he enjoyed spending time with Great Grandma Grace too, who read stories to him and played with playdough with him, which is always a favorite activity. I make the playdough with the same recipe which Grandma used to make playdough for us when we were kids.

We made a quick trip to the farm in Graceton, which was nice, especially with the fresh snow. Alex was quite intrigued by the apples on the tree in the front yard. I have lots of good memories of the farm and just wanted to show the boys where all of those fun times happened.

Thanks to everyone for the hospitality while we were visiting. We had a fun time and hopefully we will be back again soon. It never seems that there is enough time to see everyone on the trips back, but hopefully next time we will be able to see everyone.

A Stop in Duluth

Alex and Daddy enjoying the pool on Thanksgiving evening in Duluth

A brisk walk along Lake Superior

It's cold, but I like this place!

A stop at Pep's Bake Shop in downtown Virginia

To help break up the trip from California to the Canadian border, we stopped off in Duluth for a night. We had a nice stay in Canal Park, right on Lake Superior and enjoyed the pool, as well as a nice brisk walk along the lake in the morning.

Thanksgiving at Grandma's House 2009

Yummilicious! As you can see, the Thanksgiving meal which Grandma prepared was thoroughly enjoyed!


Playing Spill the Beans (the same set which Brant and I played with when we were younger) after dinner. Alex felt that the object was to get the MOST beans.


Great Grandma Grace with Alex, Mackenna and Landen


Great Grandma Grace and Alex


Four generations


Four generations

Last Thanksgiving, we were on a plane to Japan, so this Thanksgiving was really Alex's first taste of turkey and the trimmings. He thoroughly enjoyed the meal, eating everything we put on his plate and then going back for seconds! He sat with the big boys at their own table and loved it. Afterwards, we played some games, including Spill the Beans, which was very entertaining. Surprisingly, the game is still in tact, after all of these years, beans and all. Alex loved it and had his own rule, where more beans is better!

The pictures of the four generations were taken with Grandma sitting in the rocking chair which she was rocked in as a baby. Everyone had a great time eating lots of yummy food and just getting to spend time together, which does not happen often. It was fun to meet Mackenna and to see Landen, who is such a big boy now. It is funny, because when asked by his Grandma Jean that evening, whether he had fun with his Cousin Alex, Landen replied that his Cousin Alex was a baby and he was not at the Thanksgiving celebration. It seems that he was expecting to see the six month old, non-moving, barely sitting up on his own Alex, not the crazy, run around like a whirlwind Alex. Perhaps we need to use Skype more often!

Dancing w Grandma E

Northwoods Snow Fun

Happy December!

Cutie pie on the plane!

We're on our way to Minneapolis

What a few hours in the car will do to two boys

Pretending to go ice fishing with Uncle Brant

Wow! It is hard to believe that it is already December. We went to Minnesota for Thanksgiving, hence the absence of blog updates. We forgot our primary camera at Brant and Bonnie's house, so I have not updated since we have arrived back due to a lack of all of the necessary photos. When we get those, I will be sure to post pictures from our fun trip. In the meantime, I thought perhaps I should give an update on Mr. Alex, since I have not done so in awhile.

Well, Alex is certainly not "Baby Alex" anymore, as Landen realized on our visit back to Minnesota. He is talking non-stop now in sentences, no less, so that just seems crazy to me. He loves the adjectives "tiny" and "huge", notes the color (purple, red, green, blue, black, white, pink, orange, brown, yellow) of almost anything he sees and is learning his numbers and some of the alphabet. I would say his favorite color still seems to be orange, as he seems to choose that color alot when drawing, and when picking out socks. :-)

He still truly adores animals, of any kind and discovered "egg-gles (eagles)" on our trip to Minnesota. We saw quite a few eagles up close (less than 20 yards away) on our trip, so that was quite exciting for him. The birds which come to the feeder at his Grandma's house were also quite fascinating to Alex. He enjoyed watching them eat, and helping to refill the feeders while we were there. He does not watch television, but we do have a few nature programs which he enjoys watching. His favorites at present are one which is about Southeast Asian rainforest animals, including gibbons, elephants, tigers, hornbills and rhinos, and another, which is an episode of "Nature", which tells the story of two cheetah cubs. "Winged Migration" still keeps his attention as well, with its stunning footage of migratory birds up close.

He remains interested in drawing and playing with playdough and has a new found interest in Duplos by Legos, thanks to his cousin's collection of them. Surprisingly, they keep his attention for quite a stretch of time. Playing with big trucks (firetrucks, dump trucks, 4X4 trucks, delivery trucks, trucks with horse trailers) at Grandma and Grandpa's houses was another fun activity, so some new trucks might be on the horizon. The zoo remains a favorite destination, though we have not been there since we arrived back, because Momma thinks it is far too cold at 50 degrees.

Books, books, books....Alex still really enjoys books. We make at least a weekly trip to the library to get a new supply of them. Whether about animals, trains, trucks, or any other number of subjects, Alex enjoys having books read to him almost endlessly.

Eating is another favorite activity, with proteins being particularly popular with Alex. Any protein, whether it be chicken, beef, pork, tofu, fish, prawns, he likes them all. He is willing to try almost anything and is overall, a good eater. He loves rice and as far as veggies go, peas, carrots and corn are his favorites.

He was a great traveler on our trip, whether it was on the plane or in the car ride up North. He had lots of fun everyone up North and seemed to really enjoying being outside in the snow. There were plenty of animals to see too, which was cool for him.

So, there you have it, an update on Alex. I'm sure that I will think of things which I wanted to say, but didn't, so I'll do another one soon. Once those photos are in my hands, you'll get to see lots of Minnesota.