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.