Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Alexander Walks!

So, we took a little family outing on Saturday to visit my aunts and my grandmother and then to my good friend Peter's house. Leonard rarely goes with Alexander and me on such excursions, but decided he would join us this day. Was he ever glad he tagged along! At my grandmother's, Alexander was walking around like he's been doing it for weeks. He would just stand up on his own (from the ground) and take many steps until he got to where he was going. If he stopped, or sat down, most of the time it was intentional...to pick something up or if he saw something that interested him. We were over there for about an hour and a half and he was walking around nearly the entire time.

Here is Alexander on one of his longest promenades:



Since then, he has made conscious decisions about whether to walk or to crawl. It's really about 50/50 at the moment...whatever suits his mood.

We're such proud parents. Alexander gets his teeth and starts walking all at 13 months. :)

Monday, October 20, 2008

Alexander Taking a Few Steps

So, Alexander has been walking around the house lately with his toys, cruising on just about everything that he can hold on to and standing by himself for prolonged periods of time... As of late, he has been taking little steps by himself. The first time was about 2 weeks ago, he was playing with his Daddy and took 3 steps...I was at the grocery store. The next, I got to witness at a bridal shower for Leonard's cousin last weekend. (He took 3 steps in between two of the cousins.) Last night, while at dinner at our friends' house, he took TONS of steps.

Alexander was on fire! He actually took about 8-10 at the max once while I was crawling on the floor beside him. (I think he somehow thought I was supporting him...) lol Of course, that didn't get filmed because I was crawling and Leonard never got the camera out himself.

Here is a video of 1 of the times I was actually able to catch him taking a few steps:



This was at the end of the night... Tired as can be from all the walking around:

Saturday, October 18, 2008

Playing "Catch-up"

It's been a busy 2 weeks.


Leonard surprised me one day and sent me flowers at work! It was the sweetest thing ever. Really made my eyes water... I was truly shocked. He literally sent them "just because..." The card said he had been thinking about us a lot lately and realized how happy he was and that he was truly blessed to have such a wonderful life.

Leonard's Birthday was October 10th. We had an evening away, a lovely stay in the Nearby Hilton and dinner at Ruth's Chris Steak House. (It was amazing!) I also presented him with the birthday present of his dreams...AC/DC tickets! I, however, will not be going... Not really a big AC/DC fan. Fortunately for Leonard, he has a friend who is almost as excited as he is... And we later discovered that Alexander has a innate affection for the band, as well.

Here are a few pictures from the night... And a video of Alexander dancing to "Rock n' Roll Train", AC/DC's latest release.







And so that brings me to the events of the past 2 weeks. I had the pleasure of choreographing 2 period pieces for a play from my dear director friend, Todd Decker. The dances were set in the 1800's, basic couple and contra dancing. We only rehearsed for a week before opening night...and the cast impressed me with their eagerness to learn and their ability to discipline themselves to "get it right." The play was "Thurston & The Legend of Cherry Hill". It was an original production, written by Todd himself, to tell a few ghost stories and the history of the residents in Green Lawn Cemetery here in Columbus, Ohio. The show was a hit! The cast of Marion-Franklin high school, although most inexperienced, pulled it off successfully. I was very proud. And I actually learned a few things about some famous Columbus natives!




Oh, and my mother-in-law, recently started a blog... She created a slide-show of Alexander's first visit to the library. To view it, click on this link: Alexander's 1st Trip To the Library (Once there, hit the F11 key to view the show.) It's too cute.

And lastly, a quick update on Alexander and my pregnancy:

The biggest Alexander news is thathe cut 2 teeth last week. (FINALLY!) You can only see them when he's eating, though. Alexander will be walking any day now! He cruises on everything and when he runs out of things to hold on to, you can tell he could keep going, but he chooses to crawl to his next destination. At this point, his babbling has become more "sentence-like" but with not many clear words. He points at everything and changes his facically expressions as he speaks. He's growing up so quickly.

I will be 16 weeks pregnant on Monday. Everything is going really well, so much so that at times I often forget I am pregnant until a mood swing occurs or I forget to eat in a timely fashion and end up feeling ill. We have our next prenatal appointment on Tuesday the 21st. We went to Babies R Us today to get Alexander some more season-appropriate clothing and ended up checking out the dual strollers. It will defintiely be an adventure having 2 children so close together! But, we are up for the challenge.

Ta-ta for now!