The secret life of Alex Near

I look back at how much I used to blog when it was just Brendan and I feel like Alex has been jipped a little bit. I blogged just about every little thing that was related to Brendan and poor Alex has only had a handful of posts devoted to him and I've missed so many of his milestones on the blog, so I'm trying to rectify that from here on out. This one's all for you, Goober!

• He's a climber now. He's figured out how to climb up onto our kitchen chairs and uses them to look out our front windows. Here he was enthralled by the garbage men. I've got to watch him all the time now because he will climb on ANYTHING and he gets into a lot of trouble.

• He loves to throw things away and I have to check the garbage cans before emptying them. One day he took every single magnet off the fridge and threw them away. Picking 26 alphabet magnets out of the trash was not fun. But on a good note, he does throw away his dirty diapers for me now!

• When he wants something, he says"nah-NAH" in a very high-pitch scream while pointing at whatever it is that he wants.

• He says a handful of words like "nite-nite", "look", "that", along with the usual "mama", "dada" and "bye-bye" and it's so awesome because at this age, Brendan was not willing to say anything.

• He LOVES apples. He chomps on them until everything but the area where his hand is holding it is gone. It's amazing. He even almost ate a stem a couple of times.

• He has learned how to nod his head now.

• He thinks it's funny to whack people with a drumstick or other hard stick-like objects. I don't know what to do about this one because so far all my disciplining hasn't work and I'm frustrated. I'm not sure how to break his love of hitting people. 

• He hides things in my cupboards all the time. I'm constantly finding toys, old sippy cups and random objects in with my pots and pans and tupperware.

• He loves playing in the fridge, which does not make me happy because he has broken countless eggs and made countless messes. But it's still adorable to see him so happy in there.

• He's definitely got my sweet tooth. If he sees candy, he will scream until you cave and give him some.

• He has a strange obsession with dark rooms or closets. One of his favorite things to do is to close himself in a dark bathroom.

• He loves to eat chapstick. I can't even count how many of mine he has devoured.

• Whenever he sees Brendan's preschool bucket out, he must grab it and play with it which makes Brendan quite angry.

• He also loves to stick his fingers in my lipstick tubes. I don't wear lipstick much but my options are now limited since he's ruined several already.

• He sleeps with his thumb in his mouth. Brendan was never a thumb-sucker so I was delighted to see that Alex is, and I still think it's the most adorable thing ever.

• He's the most adorable 17 month old ever. Even though he drives me crazy most days, I still love him more than words can express. My favorite time with him is just before I put him to bed at night and we spend a few minutes in the rocking chair together. His little head on my shoulder, his hand sometimes patting my back too, and the kisses he lets me smother him with make those quiet moments my favorite.

It's time to party!

Back in January, we had Brendan's birthday party (a few weeks after his actual birthday to give people a rest from the holidays).  We decided (mostly me) that it would be an Angry Birds party since that is Brendan's favorite game. Here's the invitation I made for him-

Brendan loved it and was thrilled to get to give them to his friends.

A friend told me that Sam's Club had an Angry Birds cake so I enlisted the help of another friend who had a membership so I could pick one up for Brendan. It was WAY cooler than I expected. Thanks again, April! The party wouldn't have been nearly as awesome without your help!!!

 And even more unexpected was how delicious it was. I think I ate half the cake myself.

 I am not kidding.

Brendan, of course, loved it and when it saw it he cried because we couldn't eat it right at that moment.

When the kids arrived, it was time to get the party started. We played several games to get things going-

 We first played Pin the Nose on the Pig, which was fun despite some kids trying to cheat- including my son. He was quite angry that he didn't win.

They all did a little too well and it was hard to choose a winner (the winners got Angry Birds fruit snacks that I found at a random store at the mall) because they all wanted a prize.



The second game was a the biggest hit of the party though. I made bean bags with the red, yellow, and black birds on them using iron-on transfer paper so they could toss them at the piggies, which were just giant cans with pictures of the different pigs. They were worth different point so whoever got the most points won a small Red Bird key chain. There were also some tears over that prize. Maybe I shouldn't have done prizes?

The last game (which I don't have pictures of) was Pass the Pig, which was basically just Hot Potato played with a plush pig toy. That one didn't hold their attention very well but hey, it was all I could think of. It was really hard to think of three Angry Birds themed games!

 After the games, we had cake (finally!) and the icing stained our fingers and the kids faces. Alex's poop was green for 2 days after because of it and it was a pain to clean up all that frosting that inevitably got all over the place but it was so good, it was totally worth it.

The present opening was a bit crazy (nine 4 and 5 year olds are really hard to control after cake!) but check out that awesome present Brendan just opened. A Fart Machine! I swear he has never laughed so hard and he had way too much fun "hiding" it by Chris to make it sound like he farted.

What a fun day- though we were all exhausted by the end! Brendan has such an awesome group of friends and I'm so grateful that we've gotten to know them and their families. I feel very blessed for where we're at right now. And I'm even more grateful that I have another year until I have to plan a party again! Phew!

Ask and ye shall receive

 

Alex seems to want everything of Brendan's these days and the "snake" boots are at the top of the list (don't call them frogs or else Brendan will get very angry). After lots of begging and crying, we finally gave in and put them on him.

He was so excited once he got his grubby feet in them. I love that something so simple was so important to him and made him so very happy.

He managed to waddle around for several minutes before falling over and it was probably the best few minutes of his week.

I love this guy.

Short but sweet

After Christmas, my parents came out for a short visit. I wish I had taken more pictures of their time here but I was too busy enjoying being with them. I do wish I had a picture of Brendan's face though when he opened the door and saw Grammy and Grandpa- we didn't tell him they were coming so it would be a surprise and he was overjoyed to see them. So cute.

When they had to go home, there were lots of tears on Brendan's and Grammy's parts. Those two get along so well.

Goober didn't know what was going on but he enjoyed the extra hugs and kisses.

Poor Brendan was so sad. He really didn't want them to leave. He had such a fun few days with them that he never wanted it to end.

Brendan had to say goodbye several times and there was a little bit of crying after they drove away but he cheered up when he got to play with his Lego's that they got him as an early birthday gift. New toys- they make everything right in the world.

Thanks for coming to visit, Mom and Dad, and come back SOON!

Let's play catch up

I am so behind on blogging and honestly, these days I don't feel like putting my life out there on the internet. It seems like the majority of my time is spent just trying to keep thing on track and in order around here, and that really isn't so much fun to blog about.

But Christmas is always fun to blog so here's what our's was like in a tiny nutshell since I didn't take many pictures at all.

We got a live tree again this year and the boys had so much fun helping decorate it while watching a holiday movie. Alex was a little too interested in the ornaments and broke four within the first hour taht the tree was up but he's just too cute to stay mad at. By the end though, the vast majority of ornaments were moved to the top half of the tree, so the bottom look a little funny being bare and empty.

Christmas day came and since it was on a Sunday this year, we let the boys open a present each before we had to head to church. That was tough for Brendan but I'm glad we did it that way so we could still focus on what the day is truly about- our Savior.

When we got home, Brendan wasted no time and went straight back to the presents.

This game was a big hit. When I saw it at the store, I knew it had to make it under the tree and thanks to Grammy and Grandpa, it did!

I think the presents from the grandparents were the biggest hits and still are the most played with. My boys are lucky to have such loving and generous grandparents! And they loved knowing that their grandparents sent things just for them- they felt extra special that they went to the effort.

Lego's and Star Wars were a big part of Christmas this year too. Brendan and Chris had a good time putting together a Lego Mini X-Wing Fighter Jet that Brendan dismantled in about 10 seconds after it was complete. Typical. :)

Star Wars figures are EVERYWHERE in our house now- I find them in some strange places. This morning, I opened up a drawer in the kitchen and there was Luke Skywalker hanging out with my spoons. But I love that Brendan is so into Star Wars.

So that was Christmas. We had a fun time baking, eating way too much, driving around to look at Christmas lights and enjoying time with Chris while he was off from work. That was probably the best Christmas gift for me. :)

Cake and presents

Brendan had a pretty spectacular birthday yesterday. It included a trip to the Lego store, a movie with just Dad (Brendan loved that Mommy and Alex didn't get to go), a special birthday Happy Meal, and cake and presents of course.

Brendan was all over the birthday wish this year. His wish was that Mommy and Daddy would blow up babies. I have no idea what he's talking about but it made us laugh pretty hard.

Getting Brendan to wait all day to open his presents was especially hard and there were a few small tears involved but when the time finally came, he was all smiles.

The Lego Ninjagos were the first thing to be played with. His little world revolves around Legos.

I loved watching his determination to put together the little set and get everything just right. And the stories that he comes up with for his ninjas are pretty awesome too.

I'm so glad that number five was a good year for him. He's grown so much and made leaps and bounds with his speech that I just know that number six is going to be awesome too.

Five Years of Brendan

This handsome little guy is now five years old. It pains me to admit that but since I cannot stop time, there's nothing I can do about it.

 Man, are we lucky to have him with us though.  No one could possibly love you more than we do. Happy birthday, Brendan!