Slacker

I have to apologize for being such a blogging slacker. I know that friends and family afar would like to see pics. We actually have done a bunch of stuff since the last blog. Since we have been so busy, we have no camera, and I've been sick for like a week, I haven't posted anything. One of these days I will overload this blog and get you all updated. One of these days.....

Alexander-ese

I just thought I would post some of the words Alexander says, and their translations.....

Suey = Horsey

Meow = Cat

Weetzy = Sippy

Ma-ma = Oatmeal

Go-guh = Yogurt

Moo-mee = Movie

Money = Mommy

Buddy = Grampie

Titty = Katie

Ass-ey = Hezzie

Ca-ca = Erica

There are other words and names that he can say that actually sound like the real word, too. I just put the ones that have to be deciphered.

Alexander's tagged

1. I love moo-mies (aka movies)! I ask my mom for them all day long. Sometimes I even wake up in the middle of the night with a hankerin' for a moo-mie, so I cry really loud til my Mommy comes in and gets me, and I tell her "a moo-mie, a moo-mie". My favorites are Veggietales and Cars. I also love books too. My mom and I like to go to the library and get books. My favorite books are: Cars, How Does a Dinosaur Say Goodnight, my music book with songs about Jesus, and the Book of Mormon (I read it with Mommy and Daddy at night and repeat the words they say). I get a book off the shelf, bring it to my Mom or Dad, they read it to me, then I walk back to the bookshelf to get another one, dropping the last book when I get halfway there.

2. I like to pick up trash. If I find any little, tiny piece of garbage on the ground, wherever I am, I will pick it up and give it to my mommy. I also have discovered that sometimes there are little pieces of fuzzy trash between my toes, and I have to get ALL of it out. Here is a video of me working on getting some fuzz between my toes.



3. I love to scratch my bum. Whenever my parents change my diaper, the first thing I do when I hear the tabs of the diaper tear off is to put my fingers to my bum and scratch, scratch, scratch. Sometimes it gets messy, and Mommy or Daddy gets upset, but I don't even care. And I love to scratch it in the tub so it gets nice and red.

4. "I've been everywhere, man. I've been everywhere...." In my 17 months of life, I have been to the following places: northern California, Utah, NH, Maine, Boston, Chicago, Milwaukee, Maui, Philadelphia, and ocean beaches on both coasts.

5. I love music. Ever since I was brand new, my Mommy would sing to me to calm me down and to put me to sleep. She sings: I am a Child of God, Teach Me to Walk in the Light, the lullaby from My Turn on Earth, and I Love You a Bushel and a Peck. I always fall asleep at night to my classical music CD. I still say that my CD player is a moo-mie player, but mommy insists that it is for music, not movies. Now that I'm bigger, I like to sing songs with my mommy. We sing: Wheels on the Bus, Popcorn Popping, and the Sleeping Bunny Song. I love to do the motions along with them.

6. I used to be a momma's boy. I would cry anytime anyone other than my mom would hold me. But now I am a daddy's boy. I get so excited every day when my daddy gets home. If I hear him (or anyone else for that matter) outside the door, I run to the door yelling "Daddy!" and I look out the mail-slot for him. My daddy gives me my baths and brushes my teeth every night and puts me to bed. He reads me books, and chases me around the house, and wrestles with me. I love my daddy!

For Aunt MaryEllen

Thanks, Aunt Maryellen for the horsey. He is finally big enough to play with it, and he loves it! Although the stick is still a bit of a hazard, the way he swings it around and knocks stuff over and hits people with it. We are trying to teach him to gallop.

Harvest Hop

This weekend I decided to be a crazy person and drive to NH to go to a dance by myself. Yup... that's right. Brian was going to the Penn State vs Temple football game all day on Saturday, and I wanted to have some fun too, so I decided to go help/check-out the Harvest Hop that my Mom was the chairperson of. Thanks to my mom and dad, the McEvoy's, the Spencer's, and the Perkes', and everyone else that helped make it so great. It was so much fun. They had a live 50's band. Everyone came dressed in 50's outfits. You could get your picture taken on a Harley. For refreshments, they had malted milkshakes and baskets of homemade fries with Burger King whoppers. And the decorations were great (pink and black). Even though I was sad that my date couldn't come with me, I still had a fun time. I saw friends I hadn't seen in awhile, and even got asked to dance (I was like a deer in headlights before I said, "Sorry, no, I'm taken" and ran off).






And my Dad sure was happy to see his little grandson. We surprised him. When I got there at 2:30am, I brought Xander up and set him on the bed next to my dad. He woke up to Alexander pointing his little finger at his face and saying, "Buddy!". They played the whole time we were there. Alexander and his "Buddy" had a great time together. We came home on Sunday night, and when Xander woke up on Monday morning, he pointed at the door and said, "Buddy. Buddy."

Chuck E Cheese's

So, last Wednesday we went to Chuck E Cheese's for playgroup. There was a small group of us, and one of the mom's had a great coupon for pizza, soda, and tokens. We split it and had a great, inexpensive time. Plus, there was no one else there, so the kids ran wild. And Alexander was only afraid of some of the rides.


Here he is with Mommy on the sea-doo ride...

And here he is crying when the sea-doo moved underneath him...

Playing basketball...

Riding the roller-coaster. This one scared him a little. Funny, cause he has actually been on a real roller-coaster and wasn't as wimpy as on this ride.

Halloween cont.

Here are some more Halloween pictures:

Here are our pumpkins, (from top step to bottom) Alexander's that Daddy carved, Mommy's bat, and Daddy's scary vampire mouth!



And here is the Lil' Stinker toward the end of a long night of Trick-or-treating. He would walk up the walkway to the houses, but needed Daddy to carry him from walkway to walkway. But he never let go of that bag of candy, even when it got so heavy that it dragged on the ground behind him.

Funny Xander Stories

Story #1: We were getting in the car. We were parked on the street, so I was trying to keep Xander close to me and the car, and trying to get us in quickly. Our car key only works on the drivers side door, so I have to open the drivers door then unlock the rest of the doors with the power lock. So I'm standing next to the car and I lean forward to unlock the front door and then pushed the button to unlock the rest of the doors, then I leaned back to open the back door. It was still locked. So I lean forward again and push the unlock button, then lean back to open the back door. I did this quite a few times before I realized.... every time I leaned forward to push the unlock button, Xander would reach up and lift the handle of the back door, so it wouldn't unlock! If I was a bystander to all of this, I would've been laughing my head off, watching this mom try over and over again to unlock the door, and see her looking so confused as to why it wasn't working. Hehehehe!

Story #2: Alexander can't say "Mommy" for some reason, so he calls me "Money". And when we try to enunciate (sp?) it "Mom-my", he just says "Mo-ney". It's pretty funny. Well, the other day he was outside playing with Brian, and he walked over to the neighbors door and stuck his fingers in the mail-slot. The neighbors heard the noise and opened their door. There was Alexander, looking up at them saying, "Money. Money. Money." When Brian realized what he was doing, he ran over to the neighbor's door, and hears them saying to Alexander, "Oh sorry. We don't have any money for you." Well, Brian had to explain that he was actually saying "Mommy", and that we really weren't sending our kid over to their house to beg for money.

They work!!!! (knock on wood)

Thanks Bobbi! I think the videos should work now. Check 'em out.

Trouble

So I put Alexander down for a nap in just a shirt and diaper. When I went in to get him, he was holding the diaper in his hands! Laughing and showing me what he did. So I think to myself, "We need to make sure we put him to bed with pants on." I put him to bed with two-piece jammies on, and I go get him in the morning, and he has put his hands down his diaper, pointed himself upward (if ya know what I'm sayin), and peed all over himself. There he is, sitting in the corner of his crib, crying and looking at me with a miserable face. So I think to myself, "Well, I guess we need to make sure we put him to bed with one-piece jammies on." So I put him to bed in his one-piece, footless zip-up jammies. I go in to get him and, can you guess what I found? Alexander standing in his crib, smiling at me proudly, with his jammies in his hands!!!! What is a mom to do, with such a smart boy?!?!?!

VIDEOS!!!

Aaargh!!!!! I can never get my videos to play right no matter what I do on this thing. I have tried uploading them regular, and also onto youtube. If anyone has any suggestions of how to do it so that visitors to my blog can actually see the videos, PLEASE let me know. Thanks!

Fallfest Day

Today we decided to go to Freddy Hill Farms. Weekends in October they have "Fallfest". There are hayrides to the pumpkin patch, pumpkin picking, a farm zoo, a giant slide, a corn maze, ice cream, etc. We drove out there only to find out that it was closed today due to weather (it was a little dreary today). The ice cream shop was open, and they had pumpkins for sale, so we picked out our pumpkins and got some ice cream cones. They had these homemade cones that were so yummy. Brian got a yummy chocolate chip cone, and I got a not-as-yummy pretzel cone. Here's a picture of mine:


Xander picking out his pumpkin. So many choices!!!!!




Even though we couldn't do all of the things that we were hoping to, Alexander made the best of the situation and still had fun at the ice cream shop.


Then, on the way home, we passed Merrymead Farms, and noticed that they were having a Fallfest as well, so we stopped. The hayrides, cornmaze, and cornstalk tunnel weren't open, but we walked around and saw the farm animals. It was great (free) fun!

Ward Halloween Party

Last night was the Ward Halloween Party. As you can see, we dressed as scavengers. Alexander the skunk, Mommy the raccoon, and Daddy is the bag of trash that we like to get into. We had fun seeing all of the other creative costumes. We ate yummy pie, and played the donut-on-a-string game, and fishing for stuff (Xander put his fishing pole in the fish pond and pulled out a race car!), and trick-or-treating at all the doors in the church. It was fun to see Xander try to stick his big skunk paws into the bowls to get the candy. Then he would sign "Thank You" to them, but they all thought he was blowing kisses (it's all the same, right?). His costume is made more for trick-or-treating outdoors, though. I looked at his face at one point, and it was bright red. So I took his hood off, and his head was soaking wet! The poor kid was sweating to death... you never would've known though, 'cause he was just having a great time in that skunk costume. (Ever since we bought it, whenever he sees it in his closet, he points at it and squeals because he wants to put it on and play with it.)

Here is a video of Xander trying to eat a donut from a string with no hands....

Haunted Eastern State Penitentiary

Tonight, for date night, Brian and I went to the Eastern State Penitentiary to their "Haunted House/Prison". Eastern State Penitentiary is the world's first true penitentiary, and was home to Al Capone for 9 months. Their haunted house is ranked in the top 5 for haunted houses. I was so scared. A fake, set-up haunted house is one thing, but a haunted house set in the ruin of an old, stone fortress of a prison.... Yikes! Going to Alcatraz this summer in the daytime was creepy, so I knew that this prison at night with people jumping out at me would be wicked scary. And it was! There was one area that you walk thru that is pitch black, and they hand out mini-flashlights before you enter, and that is all the light you have. Then there was another section where you wore 3D glasses when you walked thru it (I think that may have been my favorite). Brian's favorite section was the long, skinny hallway lined with people dressed in inmate uniforms with hooded capes over them. They didn't move or jump out at you, but it was so creepy having them just hovering right next to you all thru this long hallway. Luckily for me, there were no chainsaws... but one guy did have a machine-gun sounding thing. I personally think that it would have been even more scary/creepy if we just walked thru the prison in the dark while listening to the real stories of inmates. Anyway, check out the website: http://www.easternstate.org/halloween/preview/


PS - Thanks, Bret, for babysitting!!!!!!!!!

Grammy's bag

Grammy's bag is so fun! She has some really great things in there: credit cards, smelly stuff, pencils, and this great comb! I could play with this stuff for hours... oh wait, I do!

Downtown Philadelphia

On Monday, we took a trip to downtown Philadelphia. We ate lunch at Reading Terminal. Then we took a duck tour. It took us around Philadelphia and told us about all of the historic sights. Then it went into the Delaware river, and we floated around while they showed us some sights from the river.



Then we went to see the Liberty Bell. Thanks, Grammy, for coming to visit and for playing with us in Philly. We had soooo much fun!

Lancaster County

Grammy Kane came to visit last week. We had so much fun! On Friday, we drove out to Lancaster County. First we went to a little town called "Intercourse". It's a little Amish town. We went to a country store with lots of quilts and crafts made by the amish. Then we went to an Amish-Menonite restaurant and ate at the buffet. Yum-yum! Then we went to Lancaster to the outlets. Then we sat in stopped traffic for 45 minutes. It was a great day! Here are some pictures:

My New Haircut

Before...


And after...


Daddy gave me a buzz-cut last week. Didn't he do a good job?

Tagged

I was "tagged" by a few people now, so I guess I better make my list. I haven't done it yet, cause I couldn't think of anything to write. Here are the rules:

A. Each player lists 6 facts/habits about themselves.
B. At the end of the post, the player then tags 6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog, for these rules.

1. I hate mouths, and anything that has to do with them. It's not so much the germs that are in someone's mouth... it's the spit and teeth goobers. I can NOT share drinks or food with anyone, and I mean anyone (ask Megan Bork, I kinda freaked on her the first time I met her cause she dipped into my dessert at Ruby Tuesdays with a used utensil... Sorry about that again, Megan.) Sometimes, I can't share with Brian, especially milk products (I think that's how he knew I loved him when I shared a tub of Ben & Jerry's with him.) I am more than happy to share my food, as long as it is separated onto two plates or a CLEAN utensil is used. Spitting is gross, sharing drinks is gross, sharing toothbrushes is definitely out of the question, people brushing their teeth next to me gives me the heebies (I actually get kinda grossed out brushing my own teeth... all that stuff being brushed all around in my mouth. Yuck!). It's kind of ironic since I married a future dentist with a dentist for a father.

2. I am addicted to Diet Coke fountain drinks. The guys that work at 7-eleven know me by name. I have tried to stop and have only been successful twice in my life (on a bet, I quit for a year, and when I was pregnant). I am picky about my Diet Coke though. This is the order, best to worst: Diet Coke from a fountain (Diet Pepsi from the fountain always tastes like kitchen cleaner), Diet Pepsi from a 2-liter bottle, Diet Pepsi or Diet Coke from a can, Diet Coke from a 2-liter, and very dead last, Diet Coke from a small bottle (I don't know why, but there seem to be more bubbles in the little bottles).

3. I have a pretty extensive pet-peeve list. Brian makes fun of me, cause my list of favorites tends to be quite short (a cold Diet Coke at a restaurant probably tops the list). #1 Smoking. #2 Anyone smacking my butt (This one came about from my little sister Hez... she is very strong, and I have a tender behind. Also, I don't like the element of surprise). #3 When someone watches an R-rated movie and says "I don't know why that was rated R?" (If you watch 'em, fine, but the rating system has reason behind it). #4 Spitting. And the list goes on and on. I've actually forgotten most of them, so I guess I am improving. Ever the optimist....

4. I lived in a Bed 'n Breakfast in Scotland for two months when I was five. I actually remember quite a bit of it, but most of my memories are like they came from a dream. I remember walking to the indoor swimming pool in the fog and rain, eating orange marmalade on toast for breakfast everyday, my parents reading my sister and I Charlotte's Web, going into the tv room and my parents were watching "Jaws", our big life-like dolls that we got in London, waking up on the top bunk and not being able to move or talk (I still have no idea what that was all about), riding on the train to London and sleeping on the tables, driving on wicked winding roads on the edges of cliffs on the wrong side of the road and my mom freaking out, and really hairy cows of some sort. There's a little trip down memory lane for Katie and the folks.

5. When I was in college, I worked for the University testing fire alarms and safety showers. I had to walk around campus with a rolling garbage can and a butterfly net thing on a long pole. (It was very embarassing trying to get on the bus with all that stuff... and the bus driver always made sure to embarass me more by making a comment or trying to not let me get on the bus... Hey, it was a big campus... I wasn't about to haul my cookies, and a trash can from one end of campus to the other, up a hill, both ways). I would put the net up to the safety shower, and put the trash can underneath, and pull the handle while all the dirty water came out until it ran clear. (And I mean dirty, sometimes it was more like sludge.... Imagine getting a chemical on you that's burning you, then you go stand under one of those safety showers, pull the chain, and black sludge dumps on you. Talk about a bad day!) To test the fire alarms we had a hair-dryer on a long stick with an extension cord to test the heat detectors, and a smoke-puffer-thingy on a long stick to test the smoke detectors. One of us would set off the detector, then the other would say over the walkie-talkie, "Alarm!" when the alarm went off. It got a little frustrating trying to understand Qwan over the walkies, but it was a fun job all-in-all. Oh, and my boss' favorite phrase was, "It all pays the same, Kel. It all pays the same."

6. When it comes to cleaning: In my family (the one I grew up in, not my husband and kid family), we only clean or do home-improvement projects when we have company coming. (Oops! I just gave away the family secret!) I am an all-or-nothing neat freak. Either I am constantly harping on Brian about every little mess, and constantly cleaning up the house and stressing that it never stays clean... or I don't do ANY cleaning. Sad to say, but during one of the "nothing" times in my life, I have let dishes sit in the sink so long that I just threw them away and bought new ones because they were so nasty. I just realized that this is making me sound like I don't keep my house clean. Just ask Brian, I am usually in the "all" category. I am not a deep-clean kinda gal though (that is saved for special occasions, like when we have company coming)... I am a keep-it-tidy kinda gal (so don't look at my baseboards).

Sorry that was so long, but it's late and I'm getting silly, and the more I wrote, the more I thought of other stuff to write.

I tag Kelsi, Andria, Erica, Traci, Jan, and Alexander. (And Katie and Hez, cause I think theirs would be hilarious... as soon as they get blogs set up.)

Northern California

Here are some pictures from this past summer. Grammy Kane and Brian's friends, Troy and Kristie came to visit, so we went to Muir Woods (redwood forest) and the beach and downtown San Fran. Here is Alexander-man sitting on a giant redwood tree...


The Bostons standing in an opening at the bottom of a redwood tree...


The Boston fam at the beach. This was actually Xander's second time to this beach. We brought him when he was a couple months old, but it was so windy that he couldn't breath that time so we had to leave. It wasn't quite as windy this time, and he was a little older and tougher this time, too.


Xander waving "Hello" to the camera. He was such a good sport with all the driving we were doing. Even in traffic, he just sat in his seat eating raisins (I don't have to tell you how that turned out. Hehehe).

Xander-man vs the Flying Pumpkin-head

An oldie, but a goodie...

Wardrobe Malfunction

Today, Alexander kept squatting down and putting his knees up into his onesie. Then, he got his foot stuck. Every time he would try to stand up, he would fall over, and it would pull the top of his onesie down. So he thought it would help if he pulled his arm out of the top of his onesie. Here are some quick videos to help you understand his frustration. Sorry.... I'm working on getting the videos to upload properly. If anyone has any suggestions, I'm all ears. It keeps coming up as a box with an "X" in the corner.

Things I hear when I'm sleeping (Part 2)

I think I should clarify, just so that our family members aren't too worried about us. We live just outside of a very dangerous city (300+ homicides so far this year)... and by that I mean we live in a safe suburb. I feel very safe here, which is why the gunshot sound surprised me so much. Luckily we don't live IN the city. :) Did this blog make anyone feel better? or worse?

The things I hear when I'm sleeping...

Aside from the sound of Brian snoring next to me, and my paranoid fear of hearing an intruder on the other end of the baby monitor, here are some things I've been woken up to lately....

On Tuesday afternoon I was taking a nap and was woken up to a loud "CRACK!!!". It sure sounded like a gunshot to me, and it sounded like it came from a neighboring apt or from the parking lot outside our window. I jumped up to see what was going on... looked out the window, and out the mail slot (because I was too afraid to open the door). When I couldn't find the source of the sound, I thought "Oh well, I guess I'll just go back to bed". Later that night, I looked up on the news and there was no mention of anything. And I asked all of the other girls that live in our apt complex, and they all heard it too! I guess I'll never know what it was.

Then, Weds night Brian and I both awoke at 2:30am to the wierdest sound coming from upstais (we think). It sounded like a blender or a paper shredder. Who does that at 2 in the morning, what would that sound be coming from a bedroom (the room above our bedroom is also a bedroom)??? Then my mind started to wander to dead bodies from the previous days "gunshot", and shredders, and blenders.... I guess I've watched too much CSI.

Ok, one more. Yesterday morning, I woke up to a wierd half-cough-half-cry sound coming from the other end of the baby monitor. I rushed into Alexander's room and Brian was already in there trying to wake him up. Xander must have been having a bad dream 'cause he was still sleeping, making that whimpering-crying-breathing sound. He's been crying in his sleep before, but I've never heard that sound before... I wonder what he was nightmare-ing about. Poor kid!

Go Phillies!

So, we finally did something "Philadelphia". We went to a Phillies game on Friday night. It was fun. Alexander was so good. I think he was just taking it all in. He sat on my lap and on Brian's lap and just watched what was going on, clapping whenever the crowd did. I sat there yearning for a really expensive hot dog and Diet Coke (in the end, I caved and spent $7 for them). We went with some of Brian's friends from school. It was a great time... except for the traffic after. Oh, and WE WON!!!!!!!!!

TV Freak

So, I've created a monster. Alexander loves the tv. Mostly he loves his Veggietales movies. He will get up in the morning and come out into the living room and go straight to the tv. Out of all the videos, he finds his two favorite (Veggietales: Josh and the Big Wall, and Sing-a-Long) and pulls them out and brings them to us, and says, "Hello, Hello, Hello...." over and over again while he shoves the dvds in my face. So I put all of the dvds into a plastic case that is hard to open. So now he pulls out the plastic case and throws it on the ground trying to open it.

He also loves the remotes! Usually he just throws them on the ground until they break open, then he brings the remote to me saying, "Uh-oh". Well, today Alexander thought he was changing the channels with the remote. He would point the dvd remote at the tv like he sees us do, and Brian would change the channel every time he did it. It was soooo funny. He would "change the channel" til he got to a cartoon, then Brian changed the channel, and Alexander kept pointing the remote at the tv til Brian changed it back. I wish we had a working camera... I would've posted a picture of him doing it. Soon enough.

Happy 15-month birthday Alexander!

Alexander is now 15 months old! (Sorry we don't have a more recent picture.) He really is getting to be a funny kid. He does stuff now that is just to get a laugh. Yesterday, he was eating dinner, and when he was done eating his hot dogs, he started to throw his peas and cheerios. We told him he had to eat them, so he pretended to eat them by putting them to his mouth and then letting them fall down into his shirt. When Brian took him out of his highchair, you could see all of these little bumps in his onesie!

And brushing his teeth is a treat! He curls his lips around his teeth and puts his chin to his chest, and bites down when you try to brush the back teeth. Brian and I fight over who HAS to brush his teeth every night. We try, but I don't how much of his teeth we actually brush. :)

Our First Blog

Well, we did it! We made a blog. Do you know how hard it is to find a blogspot address for our family name that isn't already taken? We tried "thebostons", "thebostonfamily", "thebostonblog", "ourlittlefamily"..... all taken. We have been a little slow to set this blog up, due to the fact that our camera is currently broken, so we don't really have anything photo-wise to post (and I think those are the most fun to look at on blogs.... I guess I'm just one of those people that would rather look at the pictures of a magazine than actually read the articles... he,he,he). Well, I guess that is all for now. Will post more very soooooooon! -Kelley