• Weeks 1-4
• Weeks 5-8
• Weeks 9-12
• Weeks 13-16
• Weeks 17-20
• 5 Months
• 6 Months
• 7 months
• 8 months
• 9 months
• 10 months
• 11 months
• First Birthday
• 12 months
• 13 months
• 14 months
• 15 months
• 16 months
• 17 months
• 18 months
• 19 months
• 20 months
• 21 months
• 22 months
• 23 months
• Second Birthday
• 24 months
• 25 months
• 26 months
• 27 months
• 28 months
• 29 months
• 30 Months
• 31 Months
• 32 Months
• 33-34 Months
• 35 Months
• 36 Months
• Third Birthday
• March 2005
• April 2005
• May 2005
• June 2005
• July 2005
• August 2005
• September 2005
• October 2005
• November 2005
• December 2005
• January 2006
• February 2006
• Fourth Birthday
• March 2006
• April 2006
• May 2006
• June 2006

• Main Alec Page

11 Months

Alec, Alec, Alec. You are such a riot these days! I don't even know where to begin. Well, you celebrated your 11 month birthday by walking in a huge circle around your grandparent Rothenberg's living room. Which was promptly followed by a trip to the mall and Stride Rite where Grammy bought you your first pair of shoes. Size 5 1/2 triple wide! Oh my! No wonder i could never get any cute little baby shoes to fit you! There was only one style that came in that size so no choice for us. But they are so cute - classic baby first shoe lace up white shoes. I get all misty looking at yo in them. They just make you look more and more like a little boy!

You are waving more now, and seem to understand that you wave "bye-bye" - before you just seemed to wave at random. And your wave has changed too - it used to be more of a salute, now it is more of a open/close fist action. So funny.

You make the strangest new face. I call it your "drama queen" face. If you are unhappy about something - like your current situation - you will look around, pinch your eyes together and make this wail of a face, so sad! Then you sort of pause and look around again to make sure I see that you are suffering. And then you squeeze your eyes and pout again. Sometimes this is accompanied by actual wailing or whimpering on your part. It works because you make me laugh and want to scoop you up and snuggle and love you because you are cracking me up. Spoiled child!

You completely floored me at Barnes and Noble today. They have these child sized Adirondack chairs there by the train set where we play, and you had never showed and interest in them before. But this time you sort of toddled over to one and climbed up into it and sat down! I was floored. And so proud. Your first climbing attempt was successful. I took your picture but you just look angry, I think all that accomplishment tired you out!

You babble so much more now, your current favorite line of syllables is "adja dja dja." And you are still fascinated by phones. You'll pick up a real phone, a toy phone, or just any old toy and put it by your ear and yell "aaaaah" into it. I think you are trying to say hello.

You are obsessed with my laptop. You see it and go crazy. You will cruise all the way around the dining room table to try to get at it, sometimes you crawl from all the way across the room to get to it. We go to the Sesame Street Website and you love to play the games they have there. It's really quite neat. Your current favorites are Chicken Dance Elmo and A breakfast Foods game. You just love the characters, especially Elmo and Cookie Monster.

You also like when I set up a slide show of pictures for you on the computer, of course all the pictures are of you! But then a picture of one of your friends will go by and you will get so excited and sometimes wave or shout "ooooh."

You love peek-a-boo. You love to grab clothes or a sheet and put it over your face, yell "ooooh", pull ot down and laugh. You are currently fascinated by mouths. You will stick your fingers in mine and explore. Kind of gross. And you love to move your tongue around while saying "aaaaah, ahhh, ahhhh".

You understand things, you are learning. I am so amazed. If I say "Alec, where are your shoes?" You immediately grab your foot. You also know sock and piggys too. We talk about your feet a lot I guess! You know mom and dad and your friends names too and various other words like nurse and eat. We're working on face parts now too.

You are becoming more adventurous. At Tot Spot you tried to climb up the slide - not the steps leading to the slide, but the actual slide. You didn't get very far and this seemed to frustrate you terribly. You must have seen the bigger kids doing it and wondered why you couldn't do it. Don't worry I picked you up and put you at the top of the slide and you had a great time coming back down! I know you will figure out how to get up there yourself soon enough. You also crawled through one of the plastic tunnels this time for the first time. I couldn't believe it - off you went!

You have rediscovered food. You love macaroni and cheese and these Gerber chicken and carrot ravioli. Cantaloupe and bagels are also reliable favorites. You are really trying to feed yourself now too - it's so cute to watch you try to get something on your fork or spoon, only to drop it by the time it gets to your mouth. But you persevere!

Unfortunately your rediscovery of food coincided with the evil stomach virus. You poor baby! You were so sick. One minute I was dressing you for bed, next minute there was throw up everywhere. You seemed so confused by it, but then it passed and you went back to normal. We went threw about 5 pairs of pajamas each that night, as well as a few sheets. You had dry heaves in the night and it was so hard to see you so sick, throwing up in your sleep. And then I got it and your dad had to come home from school to take care of you because I was too sick to function. And then later that night your dad got it too. We were a sorry bunch! Luckily it didn't;t last long but it was completely miserable while it did. Oh well, we had lots of quality family time that weekend that's for sure!

You whine so much now Alec. I think you realize you really can;t communicate with us and you try but it just comes out as this hmmmmnnh whine noise. Awful! It is the saddest noise. I feel bad but I really can not wait until you talk! You say Mama (mom), Dada, "ba" and "duh" for ball and duck. And I swear today you said Elmo. I know you recognize words and signs but you refuse to ( or can't) sign them to me. You can wave and do so big so I would think you could sign if you wanted to. I hope we figure something out soon - I know it must be so frustrating to you!

Pretty much as of 2/14 you don't crawl anywhere any more. You walk, walk, walk - arms held high for balance. It is the sweetest thing I have ever thing. You are so determined and so proud, taking these faltering steps. You are a full fledged toddler. What an amazing year, watching you go from helpless baby who can;t even roll over to this large walking toddler!

You love books, especially lift the flap books. You are content to sit and read to yourself for quite awhile. And your favorite place to do this is in your book basket. I love to watch you play when you think I'm not watching. You crawl into your book basket and sit there among all your books, happily reading away. Another thing you love to do is play with your race car, run it along the floor going "brmmm brrrmmm" Gee, I wonder who taught you that?

You can do your stacker toy now too - putting the rings on. You can sort some shapes too, or at least you understand the shapes go in the sorter. We're working on it though!

You love bath bubbles. I pick them up in my hand and blow them at you and you think it is the funniest thing you ever saw. Alec, you have the most amazing musical laugh. Your dad and I both love to hear it, it is so contagious, you can always make us smile and laugh. And sometimes you find the oddest things funny. Like when I bite on your fingers. Cracks you up every time. Or if I put a stacker ring on my head and it falls off. You are hysterical.

We went home to PA for my friend Tammi's wedding and we took you to the rehearsal dinner. You were such a good boy! Of course I stuck you in the highchair and plied you with food most of the time but still, you were very good! And you learned a new trick, Becky taught you that your rice chex smash into a bizillion pieces if you press on them. This has since provided you with hours of entertainment.

Then you and I stayed at Mimi and Grandpa's while dad had to come back home to study and go to school. We were snowed in for awhile but then we were able to get out and go to your great-grandparents as well. You were such a stinker on this trip! You did not want to go to sleep, ever. You must have been afraid you'd miss something. Other than that you were good as always, though I was exhausted form fighting you to sleep.

You are eating more and more - when we went out to eat with Mimi she insisted we order you something off the kids menu! I think I was in denial you are that big and old. So we got you grilled cheese - and you ate most of it! You also loved my potato skins and french fries. You love your carbs and starches that's for sure!

You brought me a book to read to you. Walked right over to me carrying your book and gave it to me. It's simple things like this that make my heart melt. Seeing you growing and changing, becoming this amazing little person. My heart just goes out to you. I want to snuggle you and kiss you and tell you how much I love you, how proud I am of you. How very special you are. I miss you while I am sitting here late at night writing this. You are sleeping in the other room and right now I am fighting the urge to go and check on you. See your sweet sleeping self, breathing deeply, exhaling sweet baby breath. I need to smell your sweet sour smell.

You slept from 12 to 8 last night (2/21) - I woke up at 4 nd 6 to check you. I couldn't believe it. We put you in your crib and swore to stick to it this time and it seems to be working. I miss having you there in the bed with us, but I know this is for the best. As your first birthday nears, I feel I need to let go of some of the indulgences I gave into when you were a baby. Let's hope there are many more nights of good sleep ahead for us Alec!

Soon, so soon you will be one now Alec. Your face is changing, becoming more expressive. I think your eyes are getting bigger too. You open them so wide when you wake up from your naps, they are just so dark and blue. You wake up with this look like "ooh, where am I, oh yes, cool, let's go!"

You walk with your hands in the air or placed on either side of your head. I desperately try to get a picture but I just can't quite capture it. But you do make me laugh! At the mall this week you walked holding may hand, such a big boy! It took us forever, but you did it, laughing all the way. You seemed to be saying "look at me world, just look at me, see what I can do!" Then I carried you facing out and you held on to the stroller and pushed it. It was so funny!

Oh Alec, you were laid low by the stomach bug yet again. It took me awhile to catch on this time, you threw up randomly and I thought it was spit up and that it was caused by all your teething drool. I felt like such a bad mom that I didn't know! You seemed so fine. SO Wednesday night I went out with the ladies, our first non-baby night out. We went to a 9:00 movie so all the babies would already be in bed asleep. Seemed like a perfect plan,until I came home and found all the lights on and your dad trying to tend to you and your crib which you had just thrown up in. Poor guy! And then you were violently ill for he next few hours. I felt so bad for you - it's so hard when you don;t even understand what is happening. Luckily it passed and by 2 you were asleep and didn't get sick again. You have to be healthy for your big birthday weekend!

Grammy and Pa arrived Thursday (your birthday eve). They brought the puzzle they had gotten you in Florida and you really could do it this time! You would put the big circles in the right holes and we would all clap. FOr some reason you don't clap when you are excited though, you raise both of your hands and shake them - like in music when we do "shaka shaka." And then you make this excited pant/laugh noise. You just make all of us laugh - we are all so proud of you and just think you are the sweetest boy!