Chris rides a bike

Chris rides a bike a video by mandy&john on Flickr.

At Christmas, Chris got a no-pedals bike from my mom. He got so good at balancing and cruising on it that he's moved on to riding a regular bike!

(Alex still attracts the older girls like flies on honey)

Where is Alex?

I had Alex today for lunch and his nap time. He played by himself nicely while I made a mess of preparing grilled cheese and reheated soup. Since he was being so good, I let him know that if he could keep playing by himself after lunch, he wouldn't have to nap right away. He usually goes down right after lunch.

When we had finished eating, I sent him off to play while I cleaned up the kitchen. I had inexplicably made a mess out of that simple meal and it took a good 10 to 15 minutes to get everything in order. Once the dishwasher was going, I went to check on Alex (who I hadn't heard a peep from) and then get to work. There was no sign of him in the living room or anywhere on the first floor. Upstairs was just as silent and the playroom was empty.

I found him in his bed, under the covers, with his pacifier and giraffe. He smiled at me; I closed the shades, kissed his forehead, and shut the door.

First night in their new beds

newBeds
Originally uploaded by mandy&john

The new bunk bed was delivered today. Chris is still too young, so we've set them up as twins for now. The boys spent most of the afternoon wrestling and playing on the beds. One was Santa's sleigh, the other was the science museum. This is a picture of them asleep in their beds. You can't actually see them, but they are in there somewhere.

Big bed

Alex is napping in Christopher's bed. On Saturday, we were in Lexington and the pack-n-play was in the car and it was cold out there, so we just put him down in Oliver's, our host, bed. We found him playing on the floor a few minutes later. WE put him back to bed and he stayed there and got a good, 2-hour nap.

Yesterday, he slept in the car and today, Chris offered up his bed and Alex accepted.

Time to go mattress shopping.

Little walker

alex on the table
Originally uploaded by mandy&john

Where Chris was walking by 9 months, Alex was still on all fours at 13. Granted, he's more of a climber than Chris ever was. He'l climb up anything, but despite taking many single steps over the last couple months and being able to stand pretty comfortably, he still wouldn't walk.

Last night, though, he stood up in the doorway of the play room and walked (very slowly and carefully) to the shelves on the other side of the room. He's still not running around the house, but he will be soon.

Potty break!

WhenYouGottaGo
Originally uploaded by mandy&john

Here is another good video of Chris. With the rare string of sunny days, we spent as much time outside as possible this weekend. Since Chris is learning to go without diapers, we brought a potty seat outside to help his chances.

We started about a week and a half ago. He was most of the way there by the middle of last week, but we keep pushing our luck and he'd have an accident every couple of days. But he's on a pretty good run lately.

He's still in an overnight diaper, but they've been dry most nights. We're just chicken.

Alex is 1!

alex in the barn
Originally uploaded by mandy&john

Alex turned one last Thursday. Kristen (who shares his birthday) made a cake for Thursday playgroup. The official party was Satruday, although there were more kids on Thursday. We reserved the picnic tables at Sweetwilliam farm in Upton.

It was a pretty low key affair. The farm offered homemade ice cream and a tour of the stables and chicken yard. This is a picture of Alex with (or at least, near) Sweet William himself.

All the grandparents came and Mandy made great carrot cake cupcakes that everyone could eat. It was a nice day. The few pictures I took are up on Flickr.

Independence, or We Should Have Seen This Coming

Christopher went through a little phase a while back where he wanted to do everything for himself. I think it was tied to learning the language for it, but just about anytime we tried to do anything for him, he'd protest with either "No, I do!" or "No, Chris do!" This is typical of toddlers from what I hear and has faded now that the novelty of the words have worn off.

His little brother, on the other hand, has taken this theme to it's logical extreme. Where Chris couldn't (or just wouldn't, by the end) hold his own bottle until he was a year old or so, Alex has been feeding himself for months now. He obviously can't mix up a bottle of formula, but hand him a bottle and put him down on a blanket and he'll happily drink it by himself. Now that he can crawl he'll even come back to a bottle later and pick it up himself.

Now, as he is learning to eat solid food (He now has at least 5 teeth) we're seeing hi independent steak assert itself again. For a few weeks, he was happy to let us feed him while he played with a spoon. A few days back, though, he started screaming at every meal. This was not long after he had forsworn the jarred stuff, and he was still having some trouble chewing (even soft pasta). After a few meals of trying different kind of foods and lots of screaming from Alex, we just piled a couple things in front of him and let him choose. He loved it.

We soon figured out that he'd eat anything if you stuck it to a spoon or fork and left the utensil on the table in his reach.

Yeah, I can do that

over
Originally uploaded by mandy&john

At the doctor's office Tuesday, the doctor expressed curiosity that Alex could sit up (mostly) yet not roll over. Wednesday morning during tummy time, he rolled onto his back. That afternoon at the allergist's, he rolled from his back to his stomach. Apparently, he just needed to be told.

Stories from the big bed

bedtime
Originally uploaded by mandy&john

We put Chris into a twin bed about a month ago. It's been a little rough as he is waking up more frequently now than he used to. I'm not convinced that it's not a coincidence, though. His sleep troubles could have something to do with the new molars that are appearing in his mouth.

Last night, when I put him to bed, we found Joey curled up on his pillow. Chris happily snuggled up next to her. When she came down to join us in the kitchen a few minutes later, he cried for a bit. I gave him the giant stuffed dog uncle Mike gave him last year, and he used it as a pillow all night. We didn't hear another peep from him.

Ready to roll

ready to roll
Originally uploaded by mandy&john

Alex keeps getting bigger day by day. He's always been a strong little bugger, but he doesn't seem to be the explorer that Chris was at this age. This means that he is strong enough to roll over, but just hasn't bothered to do it yet. He came really close this weekend.

The big bed

We've been on the cape all week and Chris has been sleeping in a pack-
n-play all week. He often asks to sleep on the bed instead, but
changes his mind quickly. Today he stuck to his guns and Mandy left
him on the bed. It took about 15 minutes, but he finally nodded off.

Poop and ABCs

Chris has been busy this week. It seems while we were ignoring him, paying attention to Alex, he's been playing with the letter magnet thing that says the letter when he puts it in. He seems to know somewhere around half of the letters, and has started singing the abc song with us (by filling in a few missing letters). He seems to be enjoying himself and is definitely entertaining us.

He also managed to poop in the potty this morning. While I was at the gym, Chris started saying "poop" to John. When John asked if he pooped, Chris said no, so John put him on the potty. Sure enough, he pooped in the potty. He was rewarded with chocolate and naked time. Now we'll see if he does it again...

Practice, practice, practice

Christopher spent last night waking in circles around the living room. We went out to dinner in Shrewsbury and then went to the Trader Joe's next door for entertainment. They gave him a helium balloon while we were there.

When we got home, he just walked around the house carrying the balloon . . . for about half an hour. He started out pretty unstable, but after a bit, he was making complete laps without falling.

Crawling movie up on youtube

technorati tags:movie, chris

Standing

I just uploaded a ton of pictures from the last couple of days. There are a few from a sushi restaurant. We do take him out into the world, we just tend to forget the camera. These are the first pictures of Chris in the wild in a little while.

More exciting is the picture of Christopher standing (on the right). It is completely staged. You can see that my hands are blurred because I'm quickly pulling them back so Mandy can take the picture. But he really doesn't need much help to stand these days.

Teeth

I've been bad about photos lately. There was a lull in late March. I tried to have the camera with me more this week, but almost all the shots are in our living room. We do get out, really.

Last week, Christopher got teeth. Here he is with his toothbrush.