Merry Christmas!

We celebrated our first Christmas as a family on Christmas Eve. Alex is a pro now at opening presents and enjoyed doing it once again. We feel truly blessed this Christmas season to have Alex in our lives. We plan to celebrate again with Eric's family on New Year's Day. It will be a two for one celebration as Alex will also celebrate his second birthday!

Mamy sent some homemade Christmas cookies from France... Yum!

Alex loves to sit at the computer and type away.

Alex opening presents!

Walker and Cynthia came over on Christmas to help us celebrate. They had fun watching Alex in motion. Walker learned how to play hide and seek .... Alex style.

Friday morning we went to the College Basketball Experience at the Sprint Center. It is a neat place with lots of things for kids to do. Alex had a great time practicing his dunks.

Waiting for Christmas

We had a nice snow fall early in the week. Alex enjoyed being out in the snow, but he definitely did not want to get any of that cold stuff on him!




Eric likes to make peppernuts, a small Christmas cookie, and we thought it is never too early to teach Alex how to roll out and cut the dough. Who knows, maybe next year he'll do a whole batch?


Sunday, we had lunch with Alex's friend Theo. The two had a great time together and later we went to Union Station to see the model trains. It was pretty neat. Alex and Theo even got to ride in a train!






Today, Alex tried out a little play-doh and some markers. He had fun tearing the play-doh into tiny pieces. Daddy showed him how to make a ball and then mash it flat. He thought that was hilarious!

Barnyard Dance

Alex loves the story Barnyard Dance by Sandra Boynton. Check out his moves!

Switching Roles

Here are a few pictures of mom's last week at home with Alex.

We had a great time playing at home and at the indoor playgrounds. Alex absolutely loved riding the car and monopolized it for about an hour. The other children had no luck trying to convince him to trade the car for the fire engine, police truck or tricycle. Alex may be smaller in size than the other kids, but he sure knows how to get what he wants.

Since Alex' appetite continues to amaze us, we bought a rice cooker. He loves to check out new kitchen gadgets and wants to know how everything works. Who would have known that a rice cooker is much more fun than actual toys???




With the cold weather sticking around for a while, we went to another indoor playground at the mall where Alex met with his friend Marc. Alex had a great time there too going up and down the slides and chasing after girls!

Playing with his Bugs floor puzzle

Alex with his house shoes "on"

Alex' favorite thing to do is to take his socks off 15 times a day and throw them somewhere. We got that fixed by putting house shoes on him. Now he takes his house shoes 15 times but leaves his socks on. Go figure!

Today Mom and Dad switched roles. Mom went back to work after being off for 12 weeks and Dad stayed home with Alex. It was bitter-sweet for Mom to say goodbye to Alex in the morning, as this was the first time Mom had been separated from him since September 22. Alex did very well with Dad but sure was happy to see Mom come back in the evening!

December arrives in KC

Alex has had a busy week. First he took Mom to Crown Center to see the Crayola store and to play a little. While there he got to meet Santa. He wasn't too sure about sitting is his lap, but we are pretty sure he wished for a well stocked fridge for Christmas! Alex still has a good appetite and is eating everything in sight and lots of it too. We really are quite thankful for that.
Another favorite place for Alex is the play area at Oak Park Mall. This time he got to ride the merry-go-round. While he doesn't look too excited in the picture, Mom says he really wanted to get on the horses and cried when it was over.
Mr. Cool loves to run around the house and on Saturday we had lots of company. Alex's friend Lucas and brother Tristan come over for a short visit in the morning. Dad got to spend a little time with both of them. Later in the day Eric's brother Mark and his family came for a visit. Alex had fun playing with his three cousins and the house was full of activity. It was a short visit and by Sunday afternoon Alex was pooped and the house felt quiet. This morning Alex was back to his normal self and managed to keep Mom occupied. This is Joëlle's last week at home with Alex, so we are gearing up for a transition. Eric will be staying with Alex starting next week.

Fun in Nebraska

We had a great time during Thanksgiving at Oma's house in Nebraska. As you can see from the first photo, Alex is an adventurer. He lives to climb on things! So far we have avoided the hospital! We visited the farm on Wednesday and got to see lots of cows, chickens, and cats. There was almost too much stimulation for Alex. He was pointing and saying OOH, OOH to everything! He wasn't to sure about petting the calves though. Alex has yet to warm up to animals, but I'm sure that will change as he gets older. Alex had a wonderful time with his cousins, Henry, Kristin, and John. They hit it off real well and played hard for 3 days. He slept for two hours on the way back to KC. Yeah for Mom and Dad! It was neat to see him interact with them. He also got to spend more time with Oma and he was trusting her more as the weekend went on.

The best story of the week happened before we went to Nebraska. Alex likes to play with phones. Not the toy ones, real ones. Well, he managed to dial 911 and guess who came to the house??? Two policemen showed up because the line was busy when the 911 operator tried to call back. Oops! Mom had fun telling that story all weekend.

We also got the first snow of the winter this past weekend. Alex ventured out Sunday morning to see what the white stuff was like. He found out it was cold and wet and that didn't much appeal to him, so it was short adventure!