California visit

Last weekend we traveled to the Bay Area. Dana participated in a moot court competition, and Alex and I tagged along.

Alex is a very good traveler.

Alex and Mr. Bear peruse the drink selection

Alex picked an orange juice + soda water mix

Mr. Bear chose a screwdriver

On Friday night, Dana and I had a night out with her Aunt Josie and Uncle Armand. It was a rare night out without Alex and we really enjoyed seeing Josie and Armand, and eating at Mario's Italian Restaurant We had a wonderful meal and spent the evening catching up. Naturally, I forgot to take pictures...

After the Moot Court competition, and our short stay in Palo Alto, were over, we drove out to Stockton to visit Ryan, Heather and Rowan. To our surprise and delight, Rowan is a big boy already! He's nearly as big as Alex, and already walking and talking at 15 months. Alex and Rowan had a good time playing with trains, trucks, cars, balls, etc..

Rowan is on the left, Alex on the right

On Sunday, Grandma and Grandpa hosted an outstanding brunch where we saw Jean, Grove, cousin Keith, Sam, Maryo, Kristin, and others. Again, no pictures. In fact I was distracted for about 45 minutes trying to convince Alex to take a nap. He finally did, and slept for a good 2 hours, which made our trip home much more enjoyable for everyone.

Alex's last 2nd Birthday Party

Alex blowing out his 2 candles

Yesterday we celebrated Alex's 2nd birthday for the final time. He has had at least 3 "official" birthday parties before, during, and now after his real birthday.

"The boys" - Lucas, trying to hold Max, Wes and Alex

This was a big party with everyone we could think of who knows Alex. Ryanne and Lucas were there, of course, and Eric and Melissa and baby Julianna, and Priya and her family, and several of our neighbors including Bob and Marion, and Steve and his daughters Autumn and Abby. Max and Wesley and their moms came too. It was a full house, to say the least.

Mandy, Tyr, Autumn, Abby and Steve

Everyone waiting for the cake and ice cream!

Ryanne and Alex

Julianna and her Dad Eric

Earlier in the day, our neighbor 2 doors down was having her 2nd birthday party too. Maebe Rose is just a couple of weeks younger than Alex. Her parents moved in just after she was born, but then had to spend several months away to help a sick relative. Now they're back, and Alex and Maebe are at just the right age to start playing together. I hope we can trade lots of play dates. It's hard to beat having a close neighbor as a friend.

In other news, Dana is doing very well with baby #2. No significant discomfort, or at least none that she is complaining about.

The weather has been unseasonably warm, with highs for several weeks now in the 60s and even some days in the 70s last week. We keep expecting another big storm, but so far, so good. If past years are any indication, we will get at least one more big snow, probably around Dana's birthday.

Next weekend we are going to the Bay Area for Dana's Moot Court competition. Alex will be hanging out with his grandma and grandpa while we're there. We also hope to see Dana's aunt Josie and family, and Ryan, Heather and Rowan. I'll do my best to take lots of pictures.

It's a Girl!

This morning we got up early and stopped for dough-ees on the way through Longmont to the hospital. We wanted the new baby to be all bouncy for the big picture show so that it wouldn't hide any of its bits and pieces.


You wouldn't know it from the pictures (except you, Aunt Sarah), but they tell us it's definitely a girl. Believe it or not, the picture above is one of the few that are even marginally recognizable. I'll look through the DVD again to see if I can pick out some others, but it might have to wait for a later photo shoot. For all I know, the sonogram tech could have been showing us pictures of Jello salad.

But all the signs are normal and healthy. She's bolted on in the right place, she's got a strong heartbeat, she's very flexible, and a little bit shy like her brother was.

Waiting for Baby

By this time tomorrow, we should know whether we're having a girl or boy this summer. I'm anxious to find out. I think Alex is still pretty skeptical when we tell him there's a baby in Mommy's tummy. He's more skeptical still when we tell him we're going to see pictures of the baby in Mommy's tummy on TV tomorrow morning.

He's pretty smart though, he'll probably get the idea once he sees the ultrasound.

Today was another ridiculously warm "winter" day in Colorado. I guess we should not have been surprised when the ice cream truck drove by around noon:

Ice cream truck? In early March? Uh huh

Alex has finally gotten comfortable with Priya. At first he was somewhat shy and uncertain of the arrangement. Now as soon as we get to her house, he runs off to play, barely stopping to say "Bye Daddy". Priya is watching him on Sundays from about 9am til he wakes up from his nap around 3. It is an incredibly good arrangement for us. Priya is learning how to babysit, and doing a fine job I must add. Her brother Nick joins in, too, and Alex and Nick seem to have become fast friends. This gives us 4 or 5 hours of completely unfettered time to get done whatever suits our fancy.

Today I finished fishing romex through the wall in the back office to wire up a new outlet. I also went to get banker's boxes and hanging files to start sorting through our 5-10 year backlog of old papers.

Sometimes when Ryanne drops Alex off with me at work at the end of the day, Alex insists that we go into "Daddy's work" for a few minutes. Since it's usually after 5:30pm, I don't feel too bad about disrupting any real business.

Alex is a good drawer. He can even work the eraser

My biggest fear is only that Alex may want to follow his Daddy into the cube farming profession some day.

Tonight Alex used the potty for its intended purpose again! (#1 only). This makes the third time so far he's done it.

We're having a birthday party for Alex next Saturday afternoon, trying to invite people he knows. If you want to come, drop us a line.

Multiple Birthdays

Alex loves to read in his new Cars chair!

I neglected to mention several weeks ago an early birthday celebration we had for Alex. My Mom, Alison and Eric all came out to visit over the long President's Day weekend. Carla flew to Salt Lake City to attend Alison's physics boat races, and then the three of them drove out from SLC for the weekend.

Alex devours birthday cake a few weeks early

Alex's first time opening his own presents!

It was a lot of fun, and as always, tremendously relaxing for Dana and I to have another set of Alex-chasers around. On one evening we even had a "date" when we drove up to one of our favorite restaurants/pubs, Henry's in Loveland, for dessert.

Among the highlights of the visit, we went to the Butterfly Pavilion with Ali & Eric. Alex has been several times, but each time he seems to discover something new.

Grandma (and Grandpa by proxy) and Ali and Eric literally showered Alex with early birthday presents. He learned how to say "Birthday Cake". He got a huge new play kitchen, complete with a stove that "boils" or "frys" depending on which pan you put on the burner. It even has a working kitchen light and clock. We all agreed it is WAY nicer than our real kitchen. We put it in the breakfast room so Alex can cook while we are doing the same.

"Auntoh" (Aunt) Ali and Uncle Eric turned the huge cardboard box that the kitchen came in, into a garage for Alex's ride-along train and Plasma Car. Have I mentioned the Plasma Car? It rocks - Richard and Sarah got it for him because it was cousin Alex's favorite toy. Alex insists that either Dana or I ride it while he rides his train, and we race around the house together. I suspect that I'm a tad over the design weight limit for the car, but it is well made and is holding up so far.

Alex tries out his new "chennoh" (tunnel)

We tried non-alcoholic champagne, and it's horrible - don't bother.

The only sad parts were that Ali was laid pretty low all weekend with a nasty cold.

Alex loves the two new "puddles" (puzzles) he got. One has construction trucks, the other is a fire engine whose siren blasts once you complete the puzzle

Despite Ali being sick, she lavished her energy and attention on Alex all weekend long

Alex is delighted by his chair and one of his books:

Happy 2nd Birthday Alex!

Yesterday Ryanne had a birthday party for Alex, with his two best friends. Ryanne took a bunch of pictures, which I'm including here. Click on any picture to see a bigger version of it.

Ryanne writes,

Alex's birthday party was so much fun! Wes and his mommy Kendra, and Max and his mommy Alix came over, and we decorated big cookies and opened presents. Alex had a really great time getting messy. Fear not: he only took one single bite out of one single cookie. I've also fed him lots of healthy stuff today, despite what the pictures might show! Alex got an awesome Thomas the Tank Engine jack-in-the-box from Wes and Max, and a few more books from Lucas and me. After we decorated cookies and played at my house for awhile, we all went over to this awesome park off of Horsetooth. Alex had fun playing on the swings and the slide and in the sand! Here are some more pictures for you guys!

When it was all done, Alex was exhausted...


(Thor makes a good pillow!)