Trick or Treat!

Photos taken by Rebekah Jamieson of Rebekah Jamieson Photography. (www.rebekahjamieson.com)

Boo to You!

Here is Halloween picture number one in a three-day Halloween extravaganza. Note that Alec is wearing very scary attire but is demonstrating no fear - a good sign that he might enjoy the trick-or-treaters tomorrow night.

Be sure to check back tomorrow for some great costume shots.

So Many Girls, So Little Time

Here's Alec snuggling up to Kalia at our Mom's group meeting yesterday.


Here he is just moments later, holding hands with Emily. What a devil!

Big Laughs

There were lots of things yesterday which made Alec laugh big genuine laughs. Here are five of them, selected at random:

1. Diaper shirts going over his head (believe it or not, this gets the biggest laugh)
2. His mom hanging up a diaper shirt in the closet
3. Face massage , circles around the jaw specifically
4. His mom's crazy 'Pop goes the Weasel' game
5. His dad's outrageous hide and seek game

All Played Out

Playing with his teething keys certainly tired Alec out! If you look closely, you will see that he is still clutching them.

Play it Again Alec

This picture shows a couple of things (besides the mess in the background, that is): 1. Alec sitting in his booster seat during dinner (his fathers and mine, that is), which he has been doing for the last week or so and 2. Alec playing with his Stroll Along Duckies (so named for their appropriateness for use with strollers and the like). Last night, in another demonstration of continued development, he very quickly figured out how to make this toy play music, then proceeded to make it do so over and over. Play it again Alec ...

Wild Life

Alec spent a good part of this weekend seeing and (mostly) hearing the many birds that have gathered around our house on their way south. I think the birds are so plentiful this year because Alec's father has maintained a bird bath in the backyard for the last two years, not to mention that there is a cherry tree. The tree at the front of the house (as featured in this picture, can you spot the bird?) has always been a draw because of the berries.

We have been scouting around for the Chipmunk that appeared in our yard the day we brought Alec home from the hospital (with no luck recently), but there is a red squirrel that we often spot which is also fun to see.

Alec also spent some time this weekend keeping up on his correspondence, so some of you can expect some mail of the Halloween variety ...

Yet He Persists

Foot-play and outrageous flirting seem to be emerging as common themes in Alec's interests. This picture shows him, once again, opting to play with his feet rather than his hands. Yesterday we had lunch at a local bakery where he brought the lunch of two young girls to a grinding halt by flirting from across the room. Actually, if the term flirting implies some degree of subtelty, then flirting it was not.

In other developments, also of yesterday, he has decided that he wants to roll over. I have tried to convince him that no good will come of this because: 1. His Mommy is really not ready for him to take such a big step (his Daddy's like "roll, boy, roll") and 2. He will not like the result. The act of rolling one's body being one thing, the act of landing on one's stomach quite another. Yet he persists... I will keep you posted.

Let The Good Times Roll

I asked Alec to look studious for this picture. He is therefore either doing so, or pondering the meaning of the word studious.
The reason I was encouraging such a pose is that he has joined a community book club for kids aged 0 to 6. The club involves reading, singing songs and, Alec's favorite, free play.
Let the good times roll.

Monkey Feet

You may recall from a post of earlier this week how impressed I was when Alec started using his hands to pick things up and play. Imagine my elation when he took a toy from my hands and played with it using his feet.

Communication Breakdown

I received a comforting piece of information yesterday. Another mother told me that it is not uncommon for a baby to stop doing one thing when they start another. I thought this good news because Alec now uses the two-lip rasberry (or sometimes a full-on rasberry) as his primary means of communication with us. He still babbles, but the yell-holler move he was perfecting before he started with the rasberries is virtually gone and the frequent fun-laughter noise of 6 to (approximately) 11 weeks has been replaced with a much more genuine (and less frequent) belly laugh.

I enjoy all of his noises but, on at least a couple of occasions so far, others have been a bit surprised to receive a rasberry as a greeting from a 3.5 month old.

Milestones

Two important things happened this weekend: 1. Alec enjoyed a real bath for the first time (he has had baths, he just hasn't enjoyed them) and 2. Alec now grabs things, then does things with them (see his left hand for a shot of him playing with a toy - this picture was taken the first time he did this). Before this, he had lifted a blanket from my shoulder, then put it in his mouth.

It seems like he does at least a little something new every day!

Let it Snow

This is what Alec looked like yesterday. Good thing, because our neighborhood looked like this:

Right Back At You

Since Alec was about 3 weeks old, maybe even a bit younger, he has loved to see people roll both of their lips in a kind of lip-rasberry deal-io. At times, it seemed like he was trying to return the favour, but with no success - until now.

Two nights ago, while I was massaging him, he started doing it to me out of the blue. Since then, he has perfected his technique and is working on doing it on cue.

The glory of this move is hard to capture on film, but this photo may help you get the gist.

Object(s) of Affection

When Alec feels love, he laughs. This might be in response to some action, but occasionally (and only ever in the case of girls aged 0 to 19) he takes a look at people and giggles quite hysterically (and often repeatedly). It thrills me to see him so outrageously happy, and, in most cases, it also pleases the object(s) of his affection.

Yesterday at baby massage class, the little girl beside us wanted to touch him so she reached out and brushed his face with her hand, at which time her Mom teared up because it was such a sweet moment. Alec's response was to open his mouth really wide and sway his head forward, as if he planned to taste her. Either that, or he was contemplating a head butt. I think the former.

Fear Me For I Am Teething

We think Alec may be teething. He is drooling a lot and sticking stuff in his mouth (such as fingers, clothes and blankets). When he sticks his fingers in his mouth, he moves them right to the back of his gums.

Thankfully, like his father before him, he doesn't let a little drool stand in his way of having a good time.

Good Times and Turkey

Alec is bound for his Gran and Grandpa's for good times and turkey. Happy Thanksgiving!

Tired? Who's Tired?

We left the house this morning, on foot, at 8:25 a.m. We returned 7 hours later - tired, hungry and wearing mittens on our feet. Actually, the mitten thing only happened to one of us ...