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• Second Birthday
• 24 months
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• 36 Months
• Third Birthday
• March 2005
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• Fourth Birthday
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• Main Alec Page

22 Months

Alec this has been a huge month for you! So much has gone on in your little life - most of it involving talking. You say, or at least try to say, everything. And I mean everything. We really have to be careful what we say now!

I am sorry if this month's journal entry is totally disjointed and crazy. I was a bad mom and kept no notes on you while we were on vacation. So I tried to recreate all your witticisms from memory. I could kick myself and vow never to do that again. So of course I remembered things out of order and just jotted them down so I wouldn't forget. Hopefully I can get it into some kind of order. We'll see!

You are getting pretty good at counting now, you try to count along with us though you pretty much stop at "1,2" but you are trying!

You are starting to recognize letters. On the computer toy that you got for Christmas you can find any of the letters we ask you to. You especially like to find "T for train" and "D for Dog"

All we hear now is "play choo" "more choo" - it's all you want to do! You can literally play choo for hours. It is cool to watch you imagining things with all your train cars, calling them by name,etc. We have got to find a way to get this train table back home! You're so proud of your train and will say "ho-ho choo" - meaning santa brought it for you. I think you think that is pretty special.

The word of the moment is "soon" You love to say "back soon" and now you have started to use it as a delay tactic. If I say nap time you say "soon" and if I say "no, now" you say "soon" again and try to turn it into kind of a game. Sometimes I have to try so hard not to laugh because you get the most serious expression on your face when you say soon - sort of a furrowed brow look. Oh you are a funny kid.

You use soon for the opposite as well. If we tell you that you can't do something now, you'll say soon. Sorry bud, somethings you just don't get to do!

Your new big thing is to pick out your own diaper - you decide based on what picture is on the front. They have animals and Sesame Street characters on them so sometimes you have a hard time deciding which one to wear as you love them all!

You know your age! Or more likely, you know what to answer when we ask you how old you are and how old you will be. You are "1" and will be "2" - you get so excited when you yell two and you really want to hold up two fingers like we do but you just can't master it, you usually end up holding up 4 fingers and looking at them perplexedly - like why don't these fingers work!

We've been talking about your birthday a lot lately. I've decided to do a Thomas the Tank birthday theme and you keep saying you are having a "choo party". Unfortunately you want to have your party NOW and get very upset when it's not happening. You make your "unh unh" noise in earnest!

Pa's car had to go into the shop so they got a loaner car. And for some unknown reason you LOVE this car. And in all honestly it is a very nice car - it's a Jag - but that doesn't mean anything to you. But you are obsessed with it and talk about the "blue car" all the time. "Go Blue Car" Long after it was returned you still were talking about it. Most bizarre.

We all went to the local Turtle Hospital by Grammy and Pa's house. You had a great time looking at all the turtles and got so excited when one would swim up to the top of the pool and stick it's head out - as if he were saying hi to you.

You talk about your new girl friend Hayley a lot and get so excited when we go over to her house. We went over there for New Year's Eve and all afternoon you kept saying "go Hayley party!" - you sure love to party! When we got there Hayley was out visiting other relatives and you were so bummed, but you recovered when you got to play with her toys. Then later that night when she got back home we all danced to your new favorite song "Dominick the Donkey" - I tried so hard to get this on video but they didn't come out to great but at least it's something. Because you were absolutely hysterical. You do this cool kind of neck shoulder roll thing, and then lock your hands together in front of your chest. Like a little break dancer. Who knows where you learned this move!

You really love Geckos now. You love to go out on Grammy and Pa's patio and try to find them. If you see one you get super excited and yell "there it is!" but even if you don;t find one you are OK, just a little sad and will say "baby gecko sleep".

You love TV and all your DVDs. It's not surprising to hear you say "more TV" or "more CDs" - ack!

Dragons are also one of your favorites right now. We went to the Palm Beach Zoo and you had a great time there in general, but really loved when we saw the Komodo Dragon. I think you may have been expecting a bit more exciting dragon, but you were pretty excited nonetheless. We also saw a monkey swing from a rope and you got to ride a zoo merry go round and you chose the cheetah. All in all a pretty fun outing for us!

You call yourself ACCA now. Everything is ACCA. "ACCA go" "Mama take ACCA" "ACCA swim" and of course "ACCA Do!" I've started calling you Acca-boo.

Well Alec, you are now a world traveler. You have left the country. We are in sunny, hot Mexico! Yay! You were so good on the flight and so excited to ride on the airplanes and then in the taxicab. Our hotel is absolutely beautiful and I know we are just going to have a blast here.

We've established our vacation routine - wake up, go down and have a fabulous breakfast at the restaurant oceanside, walk on the beach for an hour and then go to the pool for the day. Not a bad life - especially combined with all you can eat and drink and full service pool side. Now this is the life.

You love to walk on the beach, though you are still a bit ocean shy. It's OK, the water is a bit too cool anyway (and how cool that on this whole vacation of ours you get to play in the Atlantic Ocean in Florida and the Pacific Ocean in Mexico? You are one lucky boy!). You love to go crab hunting with dada. They are tiny little sand crabs and very hard to see, but when you do find one you get so excited and start yelling "there it is! there it is! there is crab!". And you make a very funny crawling crab noise with crawling hand effects too.

Your new big expressions are "This way!" or "This one" In our hotel in Mexico you would lead us and say this way, and when we'd wait for the elevator you would try to guess which one would arrive first and stand in front of it yelling "this one!" You are using this way more and more though, even in the house - toys this way, ACCA's room this way.

One night at dinner in Mexico you were playing happily with your bread sticks when all of a sudden your Dad and I realized that you had turned your bread sticks into Jay Jay and Herky and were having a great time imagining them being airplane and helicopter. You are so into pretend play now. It is just so cool to see your mind working!

You are totally spoiled here in Mexico. Everyday you get a hot dog and french fries for lunch poolside. You love your hot dog and especially the "baby ketchup" that comes with it (individually packaged mini ketchup". I need to get you saying baby ketchup on video, I can't even try to write phonetically how you say ketchup. But I will say it is priceless!

You are totally spoiled by the service in Mexico as well. You definitely like the good life that is for sure. You love the waiters - probably because they dote on you - and you are always saying things like "man bring ACCA hot dog." And you like to have the waiter put the napkin on your lap for you. You are such a strange bird Alec Martin! Oh, and when you are done you know that the waiter will clear your plate so you look around for him and say "man, man, take away!" I hope you don't expect this service to continue at home!

You are on a juice kick here. Everyday you decide if you want orange juice or apple juice - most days it's apple juice and you even try to order it yourself.

We took a taxi cab into town one day and you thought that was pretty cool in and of itself. It got even cooler when you found out you were going to sit in the backseat with a seatbelt on and not in your car seat. I was pretty freaked out about the whole thing but it was the only way in except for the bus which I felt would be even more unsafe. So we risked it and were lucky nothing happened. You had a great time though.

So everyday I ask you what you want for lunch and you get all smiley and say "hot dog!" and I'll say "no, noodles" and you'll get all excited and say "hot dog" and we'll go back and forth and you think it is such a fun game. It sounds so simple, but those things are usually the best, and this silly game just makes you laugh and laugh. I'd do anything to hear you laughing, especially your great big belly shrieky laugh!

You are such a water baby. You never want to get out of the pools here at the hotel and I can't say I blame you. Especially the heated one - so nice! Whenever I say it's time to get out I hear "more swim, more pool". You love your water wings and are really getting to be a bold swimmer! You love to be floating on your own without one of us holding on to you. The only problem is you don't know when you have your wings on or off. You pretty much walked right down the steps of the big pool into deep water thinking you could swim. Of course I was right there next to you so you were fine, just a bit surprised that you didn't float!

One of our favorite water games is to play shark and make "nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh" noises (like from Jaws". You love it and will say "more nuh nuh"

There are 4 pools here at the hotel and you love to run form one to the other. If we are in the big pool you will climb out and yell "kiddie pool" and off you go, and of course if we are in he kiddie pool you will ge tout and yell "big pool" and are off again. Very exhausting for your parents who would just like to stay in one place!

See pictures from our Mexico Vacation!

You have completely perfected what the colors of the stoplights mean. But you are so impatient!! Whenever the car stops you start making your "unh unh" noise and saying "go car go green go" even when it is red. So I'll explain it's red to you so you will say "change green"

I can't believe it but we did it. We actually left you for the first time for an overnight. Ack. I knew you'd be fine with your grandparents and that I'd miss you more than you missed me but it was still hard. The second night I really needed some snuggly bugglies from you. But I survived and so did you. Grammy said you only asked for us twice and were fine with the answer that we went to Club Med and would be home soon. "you love to use the expression "back soon" so were very content with that. You were a little out of sorts when we got back, don;t know if you were mad or just a bit confused, but you returned to your own self pretty quickly. You bounce :)

We found out about an animal sanctuary not too far from Grammy and Pa's house so we headed over the on one of our last afternoons in Florida. Great-grandma and great-grandad came with us as well. It was like a mini-zoo and you loved it - just your size! Not too crowded so you could walk by yourself and the exhibits were low enough I really didn't have to pick you up. You liked the alligators and crocodiles and definitely the panther. As soon as you saw the panther you made some great roaring noises!

We've been doing showers instead of baths while in Florida and you were having the best time making waterfalls and writing on the steamed up doors. Unfortunately today you took a pretty bad tumble. Just slipped on the tile. Yikes. You went down pretty hard on your whole right side. You have a bad bruise on your right cheek but the rest of you looks OK. I was worried you might have broken your arm because of the way you fell. Poor baby.

Everybody had to go to work so you and I were on our own today. We headed down to the mall for one last shopping outing before our return to the shopping wasteland where we live. Got some good deals at Baby Gap for you and for the new baby - love those sales. After shopping I thought we'd have a treat and we went out to lunch at one of the nicer restaurants at the mall called Brio. We sat outside and soaked up the sun before returning home to the cold north. I had so much fun with you my little man! We colored and chatted, you really are so much fun now that you are talking and growing up. We're good buds.

Oh we are back in the cold! And the snow! But at least you seem to enjoy it. We headed right to the grocery store when we got home and when we got out it was snowing. You just thought it was so cool - just laughing and giggling as it fell from the sky and hit your cheeks. Sometimes it's good to be reminded of the simple pleasures :)

It sounds so simple but you are really good at using the singular and plural, even the possessive. You will say Acca's hat or Mama's shoes. If there is one mouse you say mouse, if there are several you say mice. One horse is a neigh, several horses are neighs. You get the verb tenses right too and use went for the past of go. It's just amazing to see such finer points of language emerging. Of course I think you must be a genius.

You are really making longer sentences. As we were getting ready to return home after a month away we were talking about what we would do at home, what toys we would play with. And you said "Sonya Lee wait home ACCA" - Sonya Lee is one of your most favorite Little People and she is waiting for you!

You are really good at naming all your shapes and colors now. Still working on letters and numbers.....

You call coffee "caca"

You are a singing sensation! You now sing along to Wheels on the Bus (complete with hand motions) and Frosty the Snowman. It is hysterical to hear you sing. We have Frosty on video now and need to get Wheels on the Bus. Too cute.

You love to hear me tell you "The Three Little Pigs" - you'll ask for "more pigs mama"

You are so so affectionate lately. You are big into running at me full force with arms wide open and giving me a full body hug. Giving me pat-pat and saying mama at the same time. Melts my heart. You'll also run and throw your arms around my legs if I am standing up. Love that. Though now you are bouncing off my belly!

Every day when we leave the house you say "moon sleep, sun wake up!" You are very into sleeping and waking up now, though sometimes you get confused if the sun is sleeping or not.

Whenever you eat something you have to make a pronouncement as to whether it is hot or cold. I gave you some blueberries from the fridge and you were so upset - you turned to me and said "cold mama!" with a very unhappy look on your face. And if something is hot, you'll say "hot, hot".

Today you woke up and ran into the living room and said "Wake Up toys!"

You were using a towel on the floor and I asked you what you were doing and you said "clean home" - I guess you are trying to tell me something!

You're my little garbage man - your favorite new thing is to "throw away"

You are starting to say cow and pig instead of "moo and oink" No more BOO for cows either - all moos now. You have actually taken to calling them moo-cows :)

You floored me tonight. I was telling you you were going to Linnie's while I went to the doctor (for the amnio) and you said "mama doctor - wop wop wop wop" and started pounding on your chest. You remembered that when I go tot he doctor we heard the baby's heartbeat! So cool!

After the amnio your dad and you took very good care of me. I got to lounge in bed like a lady of leisure. And you my sweet boy would come and give me kisses on my "boo-boo belly"

You make the greatest sounds when you eat something good or if we are talking about you eating something you like - like a hot dog. You really get into it and go "mmmmmmm" with extreme gusto and facial expressions included. Funny guy.

Your first haircut. January 21st. You look like such a big boy now! And you were so good Alec! Your dad had been practicing with his beard trimmer so you'd be used to the noise and we had taken you to see dad get his haircut a few times. So you were pretty excited by the time we finally went. You did very well, just got a bit antsy towards the end. You wanted your lollipop!

Today I was sitting on my huge birth ball and was in your way so you came over and said "excuse me" - I almost dies laughing. It's not something I ever worked on or taught you, just something you picked up from us saying it .

You are such a neat freak sometimes. You randomly decided to just pick up your bedroom slippers and put them in your sock drawer. Most bizarre. Must be why I love you so.