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.