18 month check up

He is growing well. Here are the stats.

Weight: 23.5lbs (30th percentile)

Height: 33.25 inches (80th percentile)

Head: 90th percentile

Alex continues to be long and lean and very healthy. Dr. Gutierrez was concerned about him drinking so much milk that he might be low in iron. In fact, he was drinking a half gallon every couple days of whole milk in addition to breast feeding. So, his iron is totally fine as I figured, but no more whole milk. Just water and breast milk on demand. In the last two weeks that we have done this, he has actually not even asked for milk from the fridge like before and has been eating a little more. It is nice for me to not send pumped milk to school anymore. For the first time in over a year I am getting a real break at my lunch. 

Alex is now like a little boy and able to communicate so much more. No real phrases but he is trying to say a lot of words and very chatty in the morning when he gets up seeming to say a lot with purpose that I don't understand..hehe. He loves hide and seek, starting to run a little bit, obsessed with all electronics and still loves for the mood to be set in a room by getting the lights on and music playing when he comes down in the morning. He is now able to identify family members in photographs and tries to sing little songs or parts of songs as in "row, row, row your boat" or this little "bye bye' song from his swimming class which he also turned into  a "ni, night" song. We  having been talking a lot about going potty trying to get Alex geared up for potty training this summer and yesterday we had two very surprising things happen. First in the morning he told me he went "pee, pee." And then later in the morning, he came to me to tell me "poo, poo" and then went to the bathroom where his potty seat was and went in the potty. He was so proud of flushing and saying bye bye and got a little piece of chocolate. Unfortunately, Goddard School, doesn't do potty training until he is in the next room. Which sucks. Because I think he will be ready to train long before they will let him use the potty at school. 

Disneyland Trip

Vanessa, Chelsey and Barb

Vanessa & Chelsey

funny pic of Alex being milk obsessed in Disneyland....thought he would have been distracted but apparently he has a one track mind about milk

Barb

Delany & her Grandma Cyndi

 Delaney

My favorite pic of Alex

We had a awesome family trip to Disneyland at the end of February. The weather was great as you can see all of us in shorts! It was the first time taking Alex to Disney and he loved it a lot especially the rides. He didn't do too bad waiting in lines except for when he would start to see the ride and then the line would wind back before getting to the part to board the ride and he would get so upset and when he was set on wanting milk. There is a funny pic of him reaching down my shirt. I just thought for sure he would be so distracted by all the excitement that he would forget but not my Alex. It was really awesome after the Dumbo ride, thought I had found a nice quiet and private spot to feed him and then all of a sudden a line appeared right in front of me. He would also get upset when we got off the ride because he didn't wanted to stay on it and kept saying "Riiiide!!" over and over with so much excitement. Surprisingly he had no fear about rides and even liked the part of the haunted mansion when the lights turned out completely and everyone was screaming in the elevator at the beginning. I thought for sure people screaming would scare him, but he squealed and clapped in excitement when the lights came back on. It was so fun for us to watch his excitement and will be fun to go back the older he gets. In fact, I think we are all set on returning for Thanksgiving again this year. Grant lives in San Diego so it would be easy for him to come up. Knowing how much Alex loves music and to dance and light shows, I thought he would love the parade, fireworks and world of color....wrong. Both shows at night were around 8pm and he was so set on wanting to go "ni night" and kept asking to be put to bed and crying and asking to be fed and for his blanket. He is so funny about going to bed and once he asks which is usually right around 8pm, you have like a minute or you are in trouble with him for not listening to his request. My mom says I was like that. On the flip side, it is nice that he tells us, because he is ready and there is never a fight about it. Traveling with Alex this time was a bit easier except the flight down where he pretty much screamed on my lap in first class for the first 45 minutes until he passed out while nursing him. I have learned that you absolutely cannot mess with any part of his sleep. He travels so much better if you travel during non sleep times as we did on the way home. 

Thank you again to Don and Barb for the generous family trip. Everyone had such a good time together and it was also great to see Tom and Cyndi Bez and their grand daughter Delany. She is too cute and grown up for 5 years old. 

Holidays 2011...Thanksgiving and Christmas

Again, I have gotten really busy with our lives and on day 7 of vacation before I finally got to blogging on Thanksgiving and Christmas. And then it only took me another month to actually put pictures it and push the post button.

We celebrated thanksgiving this year with my family and Chris's family combined at his parents house. What a great idea that was and not sure why we hadn't done that before but it was all around easier for everyone since we all brought parts of the meal and then both of us and Alex got to see all of our family at once. The food was amazing and like usual at the Evans there was so much that we were able to enjoy yummy leftovers for days. Alex liked the stuffing the best.

One of his new favorite things...pretending to drive our cars. Smart keys make it super fun because he can push all sorts of buttons and things light up for him.

Chris & Gigi

We decorated the house for xmas that night after Alex went to bed. I was so excited for his reaction to the tree. When he came down, he danced in front of the tree and pointed and then didn't really touch it for at least a week and then started pulling off these plastic glittery snowflakes and breaking them. I bought a whole new set of shatterproof ornaments just for him so I didn't care too much. My nice stuff is stored away until we are past the little kid stage. He ended up really loving the tree and every morning when he would come down he would sign "please" for the tree to be turned on, then the fireplace and then the music of course so that he could dance.

There was a laser light show to music which Alex was in aww of

Wasn't really feeling santa this year...poor baby

Santa was ok when he gave him a little gift though..Alex even signed "thank you"

We went to the Streets of Tanasbourne Tree Lighting on the Friday night of Thanksgiving weekend. The laser light show with music and fake snow was awesome. I think it is the best event like this in the area. We definitely plan to go again next year. Alex was very into it. Santa on the other hand he wasn't so into this year. We put him on Santa's lap and typical for this age, arched his back and screamed in terror of Santa. He got a chance to see Santa again at a co-worker's home and was happy to take a little gift from santa and even signed "thank you" but again wasn't having sitting on Santa's lap...maybe in 1-2 years. 

On a side note, we also ended up having Alex's 15 month check up and still long and lean. 31.5 inches and 22.1 lbs. I thought for sure he would weigh a few more pounds. He felt like he was getting really heavy carrying around lately but I guess it is just me. He was perfectly healthy. We are lucky to have kept him so healthy since last winter/spring. Funny thing is, a few kids at daycare got Hand Foot Mouth disease and Alex was spared it, but Chris came down with it and was horribly ill. He got a fever, sore throat and then sores in his mouth, hands and feet.

Christmas popped up so quick as usual where you barely feel like you have the time to do everything you want to. We did xmas eve with Chris's family and Christmas day with my family as usual. Alex really enjoyed himself. Too little to really know what it is going on but he enjoyed the gifts he got and I think we did a fairly good job making sure he didn't get too overwhelmed.

We had some sad news in our family over the holidays with Patty being diagnosed with Lymphoma cancer. She will be undergoing a series of chemo treatments between now and April. Any of your reading this post, please pray for her. We hope she continues to feel well and that her treatments go well. 

Alex's daycare shuts down for the whole week after Christmas and Chris had just switched jobs and didn't have the PTO so I ended up taking the week off. Being home to bond with Alex was so much fun.

He is starting to try and talk which is just so cute. He has been saying "bye" a lot and maybe says it a little too early. Poor grandma was babysitting him and as soon we got home from our date she told her bye. We will have to work on that a little..hehe. It seems he is learning several words a week. He now says..."bye", "hi", "ni night", "Ball", "bear", "eat", "door", "all done", "hide", "mil" (milk), "moooo" (more), "_at" (cat), "up", "down"...it's crazy how fast they learn words. I swear last week he only said a few. He still just loves music so much and asks for music to be turned on immediately upon arrival to school. We have a family trip planned to Disneyland at the end of February and think Alex will love all the music there a lot. 

Pumpkin Patch, Halloween and Dancing with cousin Jordyn

Alex and uncle Jackson

 Our little dinosaur

Alex Dancing

Alex and Jordyn

Alex giving auntie Katie a love

Alex and Jordyn

Alex and Jordyn Dancing

I finally made it onto the computer to blog a little..yay! We have just been having too much fun with our little family to stop and record these things and I must admit I have been a little behind on the baby book too..oops. Alex is getting to be such a fun little guy. Almost always happy, clapping and dancing..shaking his little hips. It's too cute. The video of him and Jordyn is so funny. Well, the truth is, he dances like that all the time and sometimes there isn't even any music or it is just static on his radio in his room and he thinks it is something to dance to. 

He is starting to communicate more through baby sign language. Which Chris and I think is the most awesome thing ever. I really think it has cut down on him fussing because he is able to let us know what he needs. He signs "more," "please," "eat," and he has done "thank you" two times now..hopefully that one keeps a coming. "More" has multiple meanings.."more" and "milk" but it is usually really easy to tell which one it is.  Sometimes like if he is really tired he will start combining them meaning he is really very hungry and tired and wants to go to bed asap. It is so precious how he tries to say "More" except it sounds more like "Mooooooo." Hel is also saying "uh oh" whenever he drops something.

Alex enjoyed himself at the pumpkin patch. We picked up 3 pumpkins from Plumper Farm. Cute little private farm. We got way too busy and never ended up carving our pumpkins. At school he got to do pumpkins and get his hands in all the stringy gooey stuff so I don't think he missed much. On Halloween day, they had a fall parade at Alex's school so we sent him in his dinosaur costume which he loved and apparently he was growling. I had to work Halloween night, but Chris took Alex over to my mom's and he got to go to a few houses with his cousin Jordyn. When I finally got home from work that night, Alex was still in costume, the hood and all and running around patting his fat belly. It really surprised me how much he liked being in that costume.

We started swimming lessons with Alex back in September. I think he doesn't mind the water too much as long as he is not on his back. It's funny, he doesn't seem to mind if his face gets wet, but the back of his head and he freaks out. 

Weekend in Reno to visit the Carman's

Baby Grant

Stacy & Grant, Me & Alex

Alex eating steak for the first time..he loved it

I had a great time visiting Stacy, Greg and meeting baby Grant for the very first time. Stacy is my good friend from PT school. We both had baby boys this past year and since we now have our hands full it had been a little while since we had seen each other...just over a year. We got to see their beautiful new house and the weather was great. I really enjoyed just relaxing at their house and sitting on their patio. Alex loved the little water fountain on the patio too...got himself soaked every time he went out there. Sure beats a tupperware with water in it at home..that is what he usually gets to play with. Baby Grant is just such an angel baby. Greg and Stacy are so lucky. He is so sweet and mild tempered. I just couldn't get over how he could sit on the floor by himself while Stacy did things around the house. Made me realize how high need Alex is. We had a great time, but also very exhausted by the time we got home. Traveling with a little one is tough. I don't know how these parents with two kids at the airport do it. I think the next time we fly with Alex, we will get him his own seat though. On the way home, we put him in a empty seat while the seat belt sign was off and he was so much better behaved than sitting on our laps.