Alex isn't a baby anymore

His birthday was yesterday and I'm sad about the whole thing. I feel like his first year went so much quicker than Max's did.

He had a party at daycare which was so sweet. His teachers decorated the room with streamers and balloons (one on each corner of his crib. They gave him and a few other babies who are old enough, cupcakes. I am hoping to get some pictures from one teacher so if that happens I'll make sure to post them. They also pitched in and got him a cute little fleece outfit. I can't wait to get it on him.

Last night we took him and Max to Chuck E Cheese. I am sure Max had more fun than Alex did, but he still had fun. I took him to the toddler area to play. He climbed the stairs into the play hut and flew down the slide, head first, on his stomach before I knew what was happening. A few other mom's commented that it almost gave them a heart attack because they thought he was much younger, and they were afraid he would hurt himself. He proceeded to do it several more times though. Had a blast thats for sure!

Today Max and I are planning a rainy day activity with paints. I have all these papers that he brings home from school. So far they are just getting put in a cupboard in a pile until I figure out what to do with them. But then it hit me. I'm going to buy a binder and some clear page protectors. I'll put all of his workbook pages and pictures in there so he can look back from time to time and see his progression. It'll also be a nice way for us to look at the workbook pages and continue to learn from them. I'm going to let him paint a cover page for the book so I think he'll really like that. The only problem is that I told him he has to pick up his toys before we do anything and he hasn't done that yet. Seems to think they'll magically fly back up onto the shelves.

Max almost hit a huge milestone this week himself!! Didn't want his baby brother showing him up. Anyway, the rules have been that when he can stay dry at night for 7 days he can have a TV in his room. It will have a sleep timer so he can watch 30 minutes before bed, but then we are also going to make bedtime earlier. Anyway, he's never gone more than 4 nights before. Until this week. Today would have been day #7 and he would have had his TV tonight, only he peed in his pull-up after he woke up this morning. He looked at me and said "oh well, I guess I have to start all over again." GRR! I was so hoping this was it for him. We did decide together that he will start wearing big boy underwear to bed though. I'm thinking that might help to remind him that he needs to get up and go. He has a waterproof mattress cover so it might mean more laundry for me, but it shouldn't be horrible. We'll see if that makes a difference.

Another thing we are thinking of doing today is pumpkin carving. That is usually Tim's area of expertise and he's supposed to be home early today so hopefully it will happen. At this point, there are still toys all over the floor and Max is either reading a book or talking to his toys. I turned off the TV as punishment and it still doesn't seem to affect him. In a way, I guess that's a good thing, but short of putting him in his room (which won't get the toys picked up) I'm not sure what else to do. Any suggestions??

Alex is walking more and more everyday. I'm so impressed with him. I still can't believe he didn't walk sooner, but the way he speed crawls I guess it does kinda make sense that he would wait. Why walk when you can get there faster by crawling. He has an insane passion for climbing so I think that held him back a bit too.

I'm out for now, but hopefully later I'll have some pictures to share!