Alex, when you read this one day, you will have to also have to read your sister’s log because there was a whole log that I wrote for both of you but forgot to copy in yours, it was a July one about our 2007 summer vacation and so forth. I’ve been very remiss in writting, and hope to be better.

Alex is now 3 1/2, and weighs about 45lbs ( 3 pounds more than Chloe) and is about 42 inchs tall. He fits into 5T clothing, 3T is way to small and some 4’s fit him. His feet are are a size 11 and chloe’s are a size 9.5!! they are the complete opposite physically (and personality wise). he has dark hair and eyes and tans nicely like me but everyone says he looks like Charles! go figure!

Alex entered the 3’s program this year 3 mornings a week at the Y, His Teachers are Miss Patty, Miss Allison and miss Meagan. In March a spot opened up for 5 mornings and we decided he was more than ready. He loves school and is with his two best buds, William and Rebecca. We exchange kids and help each other out quite bit. I will watch William one day, Jackie will take Alex, I then take Rebecca and so forth. It’s been very helpful to get things done, especially now that Chloe is in school and I often have meetings for her school as parent delegate and since I’ve also started going back to the gym and doing more photography. I actually did my first cover photo shoot this past month, very exciting.

His other friends at school that I hear lots about are Jesse Formica ( Dena Henle is his mom and she is from Montreal too and we get along great), and Bianca. He does gymnastics and did a session of 3 year old karate ( before he was doing the 4 year program but it was too much for him). He is very coordinated and is VERY strong.

HE is a great eater, messy, but eats well! He loves food, almost any kind. He doesn’t nap anymore, since about February/March. He probably could stand to still nap but he is extremly miserable when he wakes up, so I decided it wasn’t worth it anymore. He goes down a little earlier closer to 7:15. he could go down earlier probably, but we’d like him to get up later. So far it’s not working. Even when he goes down later like 8-8:30, he still gets up at 6-6:30 am. It makes us VERY tired as Charles and I go to bed late and 6am is just a tad early for us and he ends up waking up Chloe too. Not sure there is much we can do about it though.

He has been potty trained since Spring last year and has maybe all but once had an accident. He is so good with that. He just wakes up and goes to pee in the middle of the night, it’s really amazing. Chloe just holds it all night.

We got Alex bunk beds in the fall 2007, he sleeps on the bottom bunk and loves it. I got new bedspreads for both kids and redecorated somewhat ( no repainting yet). They are happy with their rooms.

Alex is able to write his name now and is very proud of this. We do not color a whole lot together since he does this in school. I guess this summer we will have to more of that together. He can draw a very pretty flower though!

His favorite things are Cars and Trucks…vehicles of any kind really. He will play imagination games with chloe, but when alone, he reverts to his cars. He likes Lego’s too somewhat, but doesn’t take them out himself. He likes to play games, like the carrot game, Uno, the dog game etc. and likes to play on the computer. He still LOVES music and dancing , he has rythym alright!! he is so funny. Mainly, he is a clown, he loves to make people laugh. When I see him with his friends, that is the thing he does best, even with older kids. He still dresses up with Chloe 🙂 so funny. I let him, I know he will grow out of it soon enough!

OH I completely forget, They both started to Ski this year!!! We started in Quebec, Mount Orford at Christmas. There was a ton of snow this year so it was perfect. within three days they were both skiing, Chloe was going all by herself on the green slopes, Alex had a little more trouble, but by then end of the year he was almost as good. We skied at thunder Ridge a few times and once at Windam Catskills where we stayed over night in an in called Christmans Inn. that was a whole ordeal in itself. Alex got sick that night and CHloe had a terrible ear infection, so we didn’t sleep very well and skiing wasn’t so great, but they did enjoy the tubing!! We rented them ski’s and boots at Pedigree. We’d like to rent a place next year near a mountain.

Alex also got to skate twice and was able to hold his own the first time out. Chloe went only once at Rye Playland and was able to hold on her own too, but Alex being his second time, was able to move better alone. They loved it and we will have to do it again next year.

Oh and we also went swimming a few times this winter and Alex started to swim all by himself!! we haven’t been in 2 months because right after that is when he got his nasty ear infection and got bronchitis again…summer is just around the corner though, so I think he will do great this year at the pool!

this summer we decided to save our money and not go to Cape Cod. Instead we will be going back to Well’s maine with Charles’ father for a full week at the N’er beach motel. Charles’ sister will meet us there for 4 days as well. Should be lots of fun, and there is a Pirates Cove there which is what Chloe and Alex can’t stop talking about. We’ll eventaully go back to the Cape, maybe next year. Instead we’d like to save our vacation for possbly Disney in October and maybe some camping in August.

Alex is the sweetest little boy, he looks like a bruiser, but he is so gentle with everyone and careful and caring. he is a very sensitive little guy, loves to cuddle with us ( I LOVE THAT) yet he is very outgoing and sociable. He is in a whiny phase lately, but I think this will pass. When he is fed and well rested, he is outstanding! 🙂

We love you Alex so much!!

Love Mom

On Sunday we had the worst possible noreaster hit us with about 8 inches rain, more in some places. It started out lite in the morning. Charles was just trying to clean the water as it came in from the walls and windows. Meanwhile I was alone upstairs with the kids. At some point, I noticed alex was not very happy with me, I am not even sure why, perhaps because I was going downstairs to read a story with Chloe. IT was a very a long store, about 15 mins. I could not hear Alex and thought maybe he had gone up to the Attic, I had heard his door slam so I knew he was there or in his room playing. After the book I went upstairs looking for him but could not see him anywhere and the attic door was closed, I looked in his bed, but nothing…but I could hear breathing! I looked around but no Alex, but I could hear his breathing very clearly like it was coming from next to me, I finaly looked under the bed and sure enough, Alex was under the bed curled up on the hard floor with a pacifier and sleeping!!! He probably went there to hide thinking I might come looking for him and he fell asleep!! poor little man! I ran down to get Charles and Chloe and video taped it. Charles was laughing so hard. Chloe was so funny because she was looking everywhere for him before we got up there and she was yelling ALEX where are you!! and he still did not wake up! He was way too cute. This was at noon too! so an early nap for him!

After this we had lunch with Chloe and then after Alex’s nap, while the watched a movie, the rain started to come down and would not stop! We started to get worried, especially when our drain was starting to back up! I started to panick and started take our files upstairs. Luckily the kids were in front of the TV but still Alex kept asking what we were doing. I finally called Jackie to see if they had a sump pump or something and I asked if she could take the kids for us so we could handle the mess. We were not exactly sure how bad it was going to get, but we needed both of us to take care of the water and alone Charles never would have been able to everything. Jackie came over with buckets and an extension to our shop vac which we placed outside to try and suck up water from the drain. We were also taking buckets of water out of the basement by hand and running hoses from the main problem areas like the back window and behind the furnace. DAvid came over and helped too, it was great to have the support. We were doing very well and then even with all the effort water start to back up again, but luckily, before it got too bad, the rain slowed down and we were able to suck it up with the shop vac! Anyway, we were VERY lucky. I picked the kids up at 7:30 and all was much better. There was another dose of rain around 11:00pm where we had to go back down and bucket water out, but not nearly as bad as before. Maybe people were WAY worse then us because they relied on their sump pump which just stopped working in many cases. The kids had blast at Jacies as usual. They got to watch the Volcano girl Backyardigan DVD which we do not own. Jackie had given her flowers to pretend with and she has been wanted to play that ever since!

OH and I weighed Alex yesterday. he weighs 35.5 -36 lbs! I weighed CHloe too and surprisingly, she is keeping up with the little man and is also the same weight! so amazing that they are 2 years apart and weigh the same and are going up at the same exact rate!

I love you Alex! moaugh!

It’s been a long while since I wrote, so much has happened, but first I have to talk about what Alex has done in the last week.

Last week we began talking about potty training. we are going to be joining a swim club this summer and there are not diapers allowed in the pool, so I decided we shoudl start trying soon since it could take a while.

Well last monday, I brought his potty out and got him to try doing it. I took off his diaper and put on underwear. He ended up peeing once in the potty and right away I gave him a toy car, he was thrilled. He then however pee’d in his pants three times in the following 1 hour! I was a little bit beside myself, but did not give up hope. I put a diaper on him to bring Chloe to school and he then napped in the car so he peed in the diaper, but after that I put underwear back on him and he peed again in the potty and we gave him another car. I told him that the next day we’d run out and get him new underwear and pullup underwear. we also told him that if he pooped in the potty he would get the BIG truck.

Well the bribing worked because the next day I tried it again, I put undewear on him and he peed in the potty. I told him we’d have to go out and buy him a new car since I Had no more left and new underwear. So we went to Target. We put a diaper on him because we had no pull ups, he was okay with this. Then when we got home we put him in pull ups and he did very well. That day was beautifal out and we went to Corell Park with everyone. I tried to get him to pee outside on a tree, but it did not work, he ended up peeing in his pull up a few minutes after trying, so I changed him and put a new one on and he did well the rest of the night. at night we put pull ups on him.

The third day, same thing, he was in underwear all morning and went potty every time and had no accidents, I gave him a car each time until I realised he was going every 30 mins just to get a new one, so we started a new rule that it was one car a day and that after that he’d get a treat like chocolate, which worked very well. He would sit on the potty while watching TV and didn’t care, for 30 full minutes! But never pooped. I tried that again in the afternoon but still no poop. He did VERY well all day and that night, I told him we’d put the potty in “la piece” and I’d close the door so he could do it alone in private ( this is where he typically went to poop in his diaper so I thought it would be agood place to start) and it worked! I peeked through the curtain and he sat there, played with a broom and woudl get up for a car every minute or so, but would sit back down and try. I was actually talking to Chloe in the dining room and accidently told Chloe to put her plat in the potty rather than the sink, and he heard me. I could hear him laughing to himself and say “maman a dit le pot, a fait erruer ha ha ha” he thought it was hilarious. I went to the kitchen for a minute and when I came back Chloe was with him and he had pooped! He was sooooo excited, he said “Maman, on direat un escargot!” and it did, it looked like a snail. it was sooo funny. This was right after dinner time, so went downstairs to go get him his BIG truck and he picked out the camion transporteur. I had bought 4 big trucks 50% off at Bed Bath and Beyond and was planning on giving him two for Easter and saving the others for his b-day, but giving it to him as a reward was the best idea ever, it worked like a charm. OH and that day at school, he sat there with Chloe on the benchs and Daniel said, Alex went on the potty and they all talked about it and praised him about being a big boy, he just lit up and had his mouth wide open and was sooooo happy that everyone was cheering him on, he just soaked it up!

The 4th day, I was worried because we had french with Lyvia in the morning. I put a pull up cullotte I called it, he thought that was funny. He took like it was a real underwear and never pee’d in it. He even went to the potty at the LLL!He was so excited. that day, no accidents again, except at night after path he had a tiny pee afterwards while in a towel, but it was nothing really.

On the 5th day, he was amazing. We were out all day because there was french in teh morning then we went to eat lunch at the Y and dropped Chloe off. He pee’d at the LLL and then twice at the school. I put a pull up on him for his nap, once again he was dry after his nap ( the 4th day too) and he would pee when he got up. That night be pooped and chose the Jeep as his reward. He was so thrilled.

So basically it took him 5 days to be fully trained! He still got a little car every day and a MM’s or something else as a reward for pee. He never asked for rewards when we were out, which was nice. He continued this success all weekend. Every two days he pooped, the 6th day he actualy pooed in the toilet and then again in teh potty later!! he got his Tow Truck as a reward. Then today, he wanted to poo, I suggested the big toilet and I said I’d close the door and leave him alone, and he did it, right there no problem and got his LAST truck, a recycling one. Hopefully he will not be devasted when he doesn’t get another truck. I am sure he will ask for a reward of some kind though, but that is worth it to me. Already he is not asking for anything when he pee’s maybe once today he did. so he is getting so good and doesn’t need the reward as much as before. I figure by next week we will be done with the rewards all together.

We are sooooooooo proud of him, we just never expected it to go so quickly because of how long and strenuous it was with Chloe. For sure, having Chloe there helped and we really really gave him a huge amount of praise and gifts, which totaly worked for his personality.

Alex, you are one amazing little guy! We love you so much, even though you are growing way to fast for my liking. My little man is wearing underwear, it’s unbelievable. At least we will be able to enjoy the summer at the pool!!

I will write a little more about the last 9 months in the next email.

Love Maman

I just noticed that I skipped the 23rd month web log!!! I am so sorry Alexandre!! The summer has been busy however, so it’s been tough having the time to do it.

First off, Happy birthday my little man! You are so big now and we love you so much!

Charles and I were both sick and are now on Penicillin. We had Strep throat and did not even know because we did not have a fever. I ended up with Strep, a yeast infection and a urinary tract infection. Luckily everything is much better now. We got it right before our trip to New POrt Beach July 15th weekend and only got the treatment for strep on the 21st!

before I talk about Newport, it seems I never talked about the Grand Prix weekend since I missed the 23rd month. We had a blast as usual. We stayed at Charles sisters house and Saturday night we had a wedding to go to in Thetford Mines. Although the wedding was fun, it was tough to drive there and back the same night. The kids stayed with mamie and papie at the chalet and apparently Alexandre was ” un amour” the whole time. He was MUCH easier than last year. This is great to hear since it now means we can try and get away for a weekend more often if need be! After that we did not go too far, we stayed local until Newport.

Newport beach was a trip planned around Fairfield Resorts. I got this deal where we got two free nights if we listened to one of their selling options for 2 hours. We did not end up buying, but did learn alot about it. We also learned that the kids, when healthy just LOVE the hotel. We had a nice room on the 1st floor of the Courtyard Marriot with sliding glass doors to an outdoor courtyard with a heated pool. Chloe and Alex loved it. Alex’d jumped in whole heartedly and Chloe swam alone with her vest for the 1st time ever. She was very proud. Alex slept on the kid aero bed and Chloe on the pull out couch. It was not a big room, but it worked out. We had a fridge and microwave which helped. We also tested it out their beach, but Chloe did not enjoy it, Alex on the other hand loved it, he loved the feal of the waves on his feet and the pull he felt when the wave retreated. He doesn’t mind so much being sandy where as Chloe truly hates it. We walked around one night and had dinner out. THe kids were great the whole time. We will definately take them again!

After Newport we were sick so we did not do much. My mom arrived a day after we got back which was helpful since i was not too well. Amanda also came a few time. OH that is what I forgot to talk about. Amanda is helping me again this summer. She is now 14 and big help. I get to go out and run errands alone twice a week now which she stays here while they nap. She wakes CHloe up after about an hour and plays all sorts of stuff with her. Normally I am back when Alex wakes up, but she sometimes wakes him herself. twice it worked out, today he was not in the mood and wanted mommy but she was able to console him with TV. I arrived shortly after and he was happy. Alex is definately more of a mommy’s boy. He gave Amanda a tough time at first, he would not even let her change him. He now gives her hugs and is happy to see her. I still cannot do much when we are all home. Alex will spend maybe 15 mins outside with CHloe and Amanda and run back in to be with me, so I cannot start any projects. Still, I know they are having a good time with her and gives me a small break to share some of the every day tasks with someone.

Then we got hit with a nasty storm, which my mom was here tuesday night, July 18th. It was the worst storm I ever saw. We had had a 3 day heat wave and even had hail the size of gumballs fall in the late evening, then aronud 10:30pm, we saw lightening like we’d never seen before. just lighting up the sky with no thunderstorm. Then it all came down and we lost power. the winds picked up and I got scared. the trees started to bend in half and we lost some pretty big limbs. I went up to wake the kids up and bring them down. Alex had heard the loud thunder and was already wailing. We also got my mom out of the attic, I thought for sure a tree would crash through. The kids were not happy and were crying, probably because i was panicking. We were thankful to have the DVD portable player charged, we sat them down and had them put head phones on so they woudl not hear the thunder and wind. Once it calmed down we were able to go out and survey. It was quite a site. We had three large branches down, one just missed our chiminey and house and the other two hit our front gutters and made a mess. We were over thuogh very lucky.

So because of this and the strep throat, we had to post pone our trip to Ocean City. I was very saddened because we would not be able to see my Dad, when we go in August, he will be away to see his brother. This is really too bad. Anyway, that is all the updates for now…time for more personal stuff on Alex!

Alex’s 2 year appointment is August 10th, so we will not know what his weight and hieght is until then, although I did try to weight him the other day on our scale and it said 31 pounds!! he also seems to be around 34 inchs tall. He wears a size two on the bottom and can easily wear of size 3 on top. His feet are still quite large, he seems to be about a size 8 1/2, still W or XW! Same size as Chloe except hers are not as wide.

He still has his deep chocolate brown eyes and seems to be tanning like his mom. He is already so brown and Chloe is quite white in comparison. He has brown hair with golden highlights. HIs skin is extremely sensitive and he breaks out in rashes or pimples quite a bit. We have to be careful with soaps and wash him frequently, especially with sun tan lotion and all.

He is a tough cookie still and constantly gets hurt, the worst one so far was at the water park called Splash Down. we had gone with Barbara and Alex. He was sitting on a plastic chair and pushed back adn landed face 1st on a rock. He was bleeding EVERYwhere, it was scary. WE rushed him to the medic station but they wer not much help. HIs nose looked broken and I could not tell if any teeth had been affected. He swelled up like a ballon and cried so much. We brought him to Urgent care, had e-rays done and the next day saw DR. Gellar to check his teeth, he really really lucked out this time. Nothing major but lots of swelling and some scaring. This happed July 9th. Very scarey day for us.

Outside that though, he just falls so much. He seems to always hit his mouth too. He has had three other incidents since July 9th where he has had bleeding something in his mouth!! He also scrapes his knees a lot too, so much more that Chloe. He is a real boy I guess!

What else, he can now say about 3 words together and is getting better with pronuciations, still it’s not east to decipher, especialy for a stranger. He now says Coe instead or Oe for Chloe, which is an improvement and can count to 10 practically. He can repeat pretty much everything now.

His passion is anything that moves right now. He loves trains, fire trucks, cars, tractors, planes etc. His favorite toy right now is probably his brio train set and his wood train that Agathe and Michel gave him for X-mas. He is starting to color, but has a short attention spam for that kind of stuff. He also enjoys going through books and being read too, but also doesn’t sit put long. He loves to dance and sing and jump. Being silly is the best though! He also likes to imitate his sister. Walk his stroller with her. The other night we walked all around our block, both Chloe and Alex pushed their baby’s in the stroller. They really had fun doing it. Oh and he also dresses up with Chloe too…poor thing usually ends up in a dress of some sort with heals, it’s funny to certain extent. I also have a superman costume and Robin costume which the will both put on. he seems to like to be like Chloe though, so he likes the dresses that she practically forces him to wear. I will have to get him more boy costumes like fireman, or police officer type stuff. He is not big on puzzles and I stay away from play doh since last time we tried he was still trying to eat it. He loves to play outside. He loves the little tricycle but uses his feet to move, he found a way to go really fast doing so, faster than pedaling…even though he can reach the pedals he prefers pushing with his toes. I will have to try and tape this! They like to ride their orande cars outside too. We had the pool out for the summer and ALex is really starting to enjoy it. At first he thought it was too cold but now he lies in it and has fun.

He goes to bed around 8:30-9pm and wakes up b/w 7 and 8 am. Today was a fluke as he woke up at 9am, He had a short nap yesterday so taht is why. Normally it’s closer to 7:00am these days. He then goes for a nap around 1:30-2pm and sleeps for 2-3 hours. I try to wake him up around 4-4:30 no later. When Chloe does to preschool in the fall I will have to put him down earlier and wake him around 2:30.

He eats very well still. breakfast is not his stregnth, he is more of a meat and potatoes kind of guy. He will have some cereal and some toast for breakfast with water. Then he will have a bottle mid morning. then for lunch it’s either leftovers, or PB Jelly sandwichs, turkey sandwich, macaroni, pasta, eggs, pancakes or french toast..and more. After nap he usually has another bottle. At night they eat whatever we eat. His favorite though would have to be pasta I think, although he likes shepard’s pie, hamburgers, pizza, meatloaf, etc. We also finish with a fruit for dinner. he is pretty resistant to that, but I have found a few things he likes, cantaloupe, watermelon, banana’s, nectarines, plums. sometimes apples and pineapple. he prefers Veggies to fruit I think! he loves yellow peppers, sugar snap peas, corn, carrots, cucubers, etc. he will eat the veggies mixed in aswell. before bed he then has his last bottle. He loves to have water with meals and doesn’t realy like juice as much as he likes water and milk. I guess that is a good thing. Chloe LOVES her juice.

He hasn’t changed in regards to the TV. He watches it for a little than moves on. He is still very much in a MOMMY MOMMY phase. He wants me for everything and does not like being with out me if he knows I am not far away. If I am OUT of the house and he knows it, he is much MUCH better with who ever is with him. He is worst when I’m around!

he also is great in time outs, goes and sits right down. Normally it calms him and he is good to go again.

Well that is about all for now, i am probably forgetting something but ti’s late and this is getting VERY long!

I love you baby Alex, your are my little man! Mouagh!

Maman
xx

In the past few week Alex has really been growing up. He can understand so much more and can now say quite a few words. He is much better at repeating to but can not yet say all the syllables. He has trouble with the s sound for example. He can count to 10 in french and we learned this week that he can also do it in English, even though we never taught him. He can also say most of them in Japanese!

In the last few weeks he discovered how to say Chloe, He says Oe! It’s sooo cute! He always looks for her and loves to be with her. They have a love hate relationship, one minute they love each other the next they are taking one an others things on purpose!

He is starting to distinguish a few colors. The one he always gets is Blue, others he has a tough time with. he can sometimes get yellow, green or red. We will have to keep working on him. He always talks about Bleu, solier bleu, tractor bleu. He loves the word!! So he can now string two words, maybe three, but not much more. He is getting better though. You can see he loves to hear himself.

OH and he also started to sing, he can sing quite a bit of au clair de la lune and freres Jacque and twinkle. he seems to enjoy it. He loves music and movement in general. He isn’t big on TV, not like Chloe anyway. He will watch a little but then move on to something else, unless he is in the car and can’t go anywhere, then he will stay tune!

He is still fiesty and stubborn, but if you work on it with him, he usually will get it and cooperate. He is very good in time outs and just sits there quietly waiting for his dismissal…where as Chloe would wail, still wails when put in one. It’s almost as if he knows he did something bad and now had to pay the price. 🙂

He has been getting better with sleep, although during our last trip to MOntreal he regressed to getting up at 6:00am or earlier for a whole week and then it took us a couple of weeks to get back to getting up around 7:00am, but then last week out of no where, he started to wake up around 8:00am consistantly! What a huge change! He has always been very good during the night and never waking up unless he was sick.

OH and all 4 last molars have come through. He was suffering for so long. Maybe it is why he is now sleeping later! He still has some pain, you can see where the tooth is growing that it is red, but that should be all over with soon!

I will not get into detail about his schedule since in 2 weeks I am supposed to write about his 23rd month!

We love you baby Alex!!

moagh!

Alex is doing so wonderfully. I just love my little guy. He is just so cute and huggly you just want to eat him up. I love to hug and kiss him and make him giggle. He has the cutest laugh ever.

We measured him tonight. He is about 34 1/2 inchs tall and about 29 pounds. I got a few more measurements but I will have to add them in later.

Mamie is visiting this week. Last week Grandpapa Michel came with Agathe for Easter and the week before that Grand Maman Gertrude was here for about 10 days. Our visitors always come in threes it seems!

We joined the Stepping Stones Museum while Grandpapa was here visiting. The kids just loved it. Alex loved playing in the water scape. Charles and Mamie took the kids again on Sunday while I took some time off to shop. They had a great time.

Alex is triing to say more and more words, but still has trouble getting the right sounds out. He can say everything eh was saying at 19 months plus a few words here and there. the one thing he is doing differently now is taht he can tie two words together like Au Revoire Mamie or En bas Maman. Actually I think he just recently started to say Mamie and Papy, so those are new.

He has about the same sleeping schedule. He was as easy as pie to put down up until 2 days ago. we don’t know what happened but Mamie put him down for a nap and he flipped. I went to see him adn she had forgotten his sleep sack and had not closed the blinds but still it was no reason for him to be so upset .I had to stay with him to console him otherwise he would not sleep. He did the same things 3 times in a row. He would just wail and wail until we went back in. LAst night though Charles just stayed near the end of the bed and slowly moved out and this seemed to work. He didn’t like it and he did wimper but eventually fell asleep. WE did the same thing today and it worked alright, but it’s so odd because he was just soooo easy to put to bed the last 6 moths or so. We hope it’s just a short phase and that he will go back to being easy.

One this he now does is hum tunes or sing La la to different tunes. It’s really cute. He likes to read more and more and is showing interest in knowing what different things are in the books. WE recently bought a cloth parachute and he really loves it. THey also us that at the his french class and he has a ball with it.

Oh and we had an Easter egg hunt with every one from our play group and Jordan. The kids just had a blast. We hid over 200 eggs all over the back yard. We did another mini Easter egg hunt on EAster Sunday. Alex was really into it. he loved looking for them and putting them in his little bad. He of course went nuts trying to open them when he figured out there were Chocolate inside some of them!!

He still eats very well over all but we stil have a tough time feeding him fruits and veggies. His favorite fruit is now water melon and Cantaloupe. He won’t eat grapes at all, sometimes apples, sometimes banana. it’s just so odd! He will eat red peppers sometimes and carrots, more so if there is dip like hummus. He LOVES hummus! He will eat pretty much any pasta and enjoys eating his cereal with milk like Chloe. I give him oatmeal sometimes too and he likes that. He enjoys most breakfast foods. He drinks on average about 3 bottles a day. When we give it to him varies. I sometimes give him one arond 10:00am and then a small one fore nap and another before bed at night. But sometimes he just get one before bed each time or one when he wakes up from nap.

He is teeting I think. He has been cranky lately and red on teh cheeks. He is drooling and keeps putting his fingers in his mouth. He also has been getting this weird skin reaction. It looks like mosquito bites. if he scrathes himself it puffs up. We are not sure what to make of it but will probably have to go see the Allergist about it soon. I actaully thought he might be fussing to sleep because he was either teething or had an ear infection, but he doesn’t have a fever and in general he is in a good mood.

He loves to listen to music and dance with Chloe. They do ring around the rosie, it’s so cute. He loves his trucks and cars, but also enjoys dressing up with CHloe. Playing outside though is by far his favorite thing to do. He coudl live out tehre. He loves the little red coupe and the tricycle. He really knows how to manouver them well.

What else? I’am sorry I’m all over the place tonight but it’s late and I really have to go to bed so I’m not thinking straight!

I should probably go to bed and continue some other times. We love you Alex!

Mouagh!
Mom

Where to begin!!!! we were ALL sick ONCE again. This time it started with Chloe and I on Columbus day weekend. I started to get a soar throat and then I could tell Chloe was getting a runny nose and not feeling too well because she would not eat much. She also started to cough. Alex too had a runny nose. Chloe had it bad for a few days, mild fever, woke up with eyes glued shut, soar throat and cough. Then on wednesday Alex got a fever and was sick and had green gook in his eye so DR prescribed him Augmentin, which is just VILE!! then He was sick an hour after we gave him his first dose and threw up again the next day after his bottle, he then had diarrea for about 5 days after. We thought it was the antibiotic, but looking back now, I’m not so sure because we all got some kind of stomach virus after the cold. Alex also went into a coughing hysterics after his nap on the thursday, I had to call DR stevens’ cell because I did not know what to do , he was wailing and coughing non stop. He said to put him back on the nebuliser. Meanwhile I got a real scare and thought he was going to stop breathing right there and then. Poor Chloe was left downstairs to fend for herself. Charles came home early that day to help me. I was very thankful because I was a mess and Chloe needed someone to watch her while I attended to Alex. Anyway, the nebuliser helped after about 10 mins. he was very tired and was able to have him nap shortly after. Needless to say we started to do the nebuliser 3 times a day and that night we woke him up to do it. After a couple of days he was better.

Charles got the cold mid week which started with that nasty soar throat. He then got a horrible cough which he had for another week afterwards. Actually kept him up for about 4 nights! Meanwhile, he also got this stomach virus where he had major diarrea for over a week. Chloe was finally better with the cold the following Monday, but looked weak in the morning. I took Alex in for a check up and Dr Stevens said he was all clear I coudl stop the Augmentin. He checked Chloe, all was clear. After the appointment after getting Alex’s refill for his nebuliser meds, She started to feel really hot and threw up. I was about to put her hat on to leave, so she threw up in there! I wasn’t sure what it was, but she was better after that. Alex continued with Diarrea even after stopping Augmentin, which clued me in to the fact that it might have been a virus, and then Charles getting it was not a coincidence either. I started to feal nausea on wednesday. It progressively got worse until I too had diarrea, luckily mine was not as bad as Charlse adn it only lasted two days, but i was still sick to my stomach. After TWO full weeks we were all finally better this past saturday. What a waste of a winter!!!

Oh and Alex had what is called the Rodavirus 1 month ago. they tested him and gave us the results a few days later. So perhaps he had a second round this time, and we all caught it, or it was something new all together. whatever it was, it was awful!!

Other than sickness, Alex has been doing wonderfully. He is always so cute and everyone wants to hug and kiss him. He has the best smile. He is really trying hard to say new words now. He can repete some and will make an effort to repeat even if he can’t. I’ll say dit le, dit le, and repeat the word and he will try to say it. He can now say Suce ( for pacifier), cheese, poire, apple, nana (banane), pomme, po (for chapeau), pied, caca, Tracteur, owl, wow, Maman, papa, en bans, en haut, up above the world (so high twinkle…) and a few more that I can’t think of. He can understadn so much more than that. He can say letters and sounds too and make noises for things like Chien, horse, vache, auto, fire truck ( pain pont pain pont) and such. He hasn’t shown me that he can tell colors yet, but he is getting more interested in books now, We can sit him on our laps and read a few short stories or show him those word books where he can point to things. He pretty much calls all fruits Apple, which is very funny.

He currently has an obsession for Cars and Trucks, mostly trucks and tractors. He will point them out all excited. OH and also vacuum cleaners. He will go crazy if he sees one, which is tough when it’s not at home. He will usually cry until he can go push it around. we got him one at Toy s R us which we had to unpack because he was going nuts on us. he really realy wanted it. He left the store with it and would not let go of it even getting into the car! so funny! He just loves to push things, even the strollers. he likes the real ones too, which can be difficult if it’s not ours! He and Chloe will walk around with their strollers, back and forth from the kitchen to the living room.

One thing he is good at it figuring how things work. he can turn on the TV, play the CD’s, and change channels and stuff no problem. He can figure out the computer too. He likes to sit with Chloe when she plays Elmo or Cauillou on the computer.

What else. He is getting to be pickier about food, but still has a great appetite. Still tough to get him to eat veggies and fruits. Still loves his Cantaloupe and Apples. His night routine is the same. He LOVES bath time with Chloe. He goes down around 8:30 and usually is up by 7:00am. Lately he has been staying happy in bed for up to 30 mins but then is VERY clingy when he wakes up. He is also very cranky after naps, not sure why.

We have been taking them to swim classes now since January, they seem to really be enjoying it. Some days are better tahn others, but over all, they are progressing. We are signed up for another 8 weeks.

I have to run, Alex is up from his nap, just slept two hours. that is about his usual time.

I love you!!
Mom

Already 1 and half! How time flys.

Alex has had a tough week. He started out with a little Diarrea on Sunday then I found him in her bed with vomit monday morning. He then ate a little later because he was hungry and then vomited again, all over himself and me! Not fun! He then continued with diarrea and a little fever. He was very cuddly with us, lieing on us and just holding on. He definitly wasn’t feeling well. It was nice to have him so close though because he normally doesn’t do that for long.

Anyway, wednesday night was my turn. I was sick from 12:00 to 6:00am, throughing up every hour, if not more. Charles stayed home to watch the kids while I tried to recoup. Alex still had diarrea quite a bit and was still very lethargic and clingy. But he still had an appetite. As I was started to feel a little better, Chloe got sick. After her nap she threw up her lunch….and contiued to throw up until bed time. Then Alex joined in again, right at dinner. He was about to take a bite to eat and threw up all over his platter and high chair!! I thought he was threw with vomitting!! I made the mistake of giving him milk which probaly made everything worse. I did not realise until after talking with Annabella that milk was not good if you had diarreah. So of course now I am being very careful with him. Chloe was much better today, she had some breakfast and some lunch without a problem. We even went in for the class group picture so she would not miss out on it. Alex was extremely tired after lunch and wanted to pass out on the changing table. he was out within seconds after I started to rock him. poor thing, I hate to see him not well. Still he managed to sleep his nights, every night even when not well. On the other hand, Chloe woke up at 1:00am and harrassed us for fluids until 2:30 am. I was trying to give her just a little at a time but she would not stop asking for more, I was worried she would vomit again!! Anyway, that is life! I am feeling better too. Only Charles hasn’t gotten sick ( unless his nasea from the week before was his way of handling the virus).

Other than being sick, Alex is doing quite well. He is so funny. His new thing is doing this song from Sesame street “la la la la, Elmo’s world” he will do the la la and uh oh instead of Elmo, it’s so cute. If we do the la la part he always chimes in with uh oh.

Also if we say it’s time for bed, he starts to sing parts of Twinkle little star. He can sink up above the world so high ( it’s not as clear as this, but it’s close). It’s funny how it is the only part of the song he can sing.

we also set up an Aquarium last week. We bought two Gourami’s which Chloe named Sweet potatoe ( because he was orange and we happened to have eaten that for dinner the night before we got him) and the other one Cookie. When we talk about “poisson” alex will pucker up his lips to make fish noises and point to the tank. He loves to look at them.

He is still a big fan of music. We put the Aquarium where our radio was so now he has learned how to turn on the Karaoke machine to play music. He also asks us to plug in the mike from the piano.

He loves to be outside and will cry when I try to bring him in each and every time. It’s just amazing. I wish I had a gated back yard so I could just let him out once in a while on his own…it’s sad but some times I just don’t feel like going outside ( like Chloe) and he does. I feel bad that he has to stay inside because of me. Oh well.

Our Porch is still not done. Much of the work was done before X-mas, but since then it’s been on stand by. We basically just need to get Carpet in there and paint so it can be usuable. We also want to get built ins done, but the price is way too high. One guy gave us a quote of 4500 for labour…3 weeks! way way too much. Charles thinks he might be able to do this…but it will just suck up every spare minute he has…not sure it’s worth it.

Well that is all for now…not much has changed in terms of his feedings and sleep patterns from last month so I’ll spare you this time!!

We love you baby Alex!!

Mouagh!

I missed the 16 month journal so now I have some making up to do.

Alex is just the cutest little guy, he has the biggest brown eyes, the most amazing smile and perfectly oval face. When he smiles it makes my heart melt! He is a big boy too, about 28 lbs and wears size 2T quite nicely now ( the pant legs are a little long).

He is talking more and more and more but still prefers to point and do eh for things he wants. He can say Maman, Papa, enbas, enhaut, na na for banana, apple, cheese ( for when we want him to smile), Booh bah ( he loves them) and HI! He says a few others too. He understands way more than he can say of course. We hope he soon learns how to express himself better than EH because it can get frustrating for all of us, although Chloe seems to understand what he wants more than we do!

He and Chloe play quite a bit together. So much so that when she is watching her movies or TV he will turn it off to get her or our attention. That CAN be quite annoying and so far we haven’t found much that will make him stop doing this. I tried a time out a couple of times but he is juts too little to get why he is in a time out. When Chloe is crying or in a time out he will actually run over and give Chloe her Lily. He hates to see her cry and will often cry with her. Then again he will turn around and steal her lily and take off running and she will cry after him!! I guess it’s give and take in his mind! They dance together, play hide and go seek and just chase after each other. They love playing together in the house tunnels.

Alex loves music and can hum a few tunes like Poq poq poq la poule a pond du, twinkle little star etc. He loves to dance and will turn on the radio and start moving to the beat. He really enjoys french class and can say LYvia’s name now too.

He really enjoys going outside and playing, much more than Chloe ever did. He is a true boy in that way. He loves to climb on things and get in trouble. He also hurts himself quite a bit but shakes it off most times. He has bled from his mouth so many times but the worst was a few weeks ago when he bit through his tongue after Chloe shoved him aside and he lost his footing and his chin landed on the chair. It bled forever and was everywhere. Poor little guy. He could not sleep for 2 days because he could not suck properly. Then a couple weeks later a cold turn into asthma. He started to wheeze and was put on the nebuliser again. WE had to do treatments every 6 hours for 3 days then 2 times a day, and now one time day for the next month for prevention. No more ear infection thankfully. CHloe had a pnuemonia about 4 weeks ago and we thought he might get something from it, but he never did. Chloe recovered in about 1 week but she was quite sick during that time. He was quite good about it though.

He loves to play on the key board, even though we try to keep him off. He likes to play with cars and push the broom around the house. He also like to push things along like a stroller or toy. Mostly though he likes to get into things, like my tree and decorations, cubboards, TV stand, toy bins etc. He likes to dump things on the floor too.

HIs schedule is basically the same. He gets up around 7am, eats, plays, gets realy hungry just before noon, has lunch, bottle then naps around 1:30 to about 3:00-4:00pm depending on the day. Then goes down around 8:30-9pm depending on how long he napped. He has s bottle right before bed. He is a very good eater and will eat most anything except fruit. He only likes watermelon, canteloupe, pinapple and sometimes Banana and apple, but not all the times. He loves yogurt and pasta of course.

We had a wonderful Christmas here at home. We had Shihan and family over along with Barb and her family. Jordan and Chloe played together quite a bit and Alex tried to follow. They even play a little with Baby Ryan. Santa came to pay them a visit. Shihan did the honors this year and Amanda was the elf. Chloe knew it was him though…I think she understands that it’s a costume but that there might be a real santa somewhere, just like when she dresses up as Cinderella, there is still a real cinderella out there. Anyway, Alex would not sit on his lap, when he did he cried…I guess not this year! had it beed Charles he might have. They got some nice gifts, his favorite though was one from us I think, it was his big blue Booh bah doll. BOth Chloe and Alex have played with it qiute a bit. Chloe also loves the costume box she got from Barb. We had a nice Beef Burgandy with Lasagna, sala, meet pie and plenty of orderves and desserts. After Barb left we put our kids down and played Taboo with Shihan and family. It was quite fun.

We were along for CHristmas day. The kids woke up and opened their presents. we ate leftovers and had a great day. unfortunately it poured and our basement got wet so Charles had to spend the latter part of the evening cleaning up down there. It really sucked. But this morning we went to the Aquarium and had a really good time. I spent the rest of the day packing while CHarles stayed with the kids. I hate packing for long trips in the winter.

Oh well. Tomorrow we are leaving for ORford…lets hope the weather is nice!

We love you Alex!

I just reread what I wrote last week. the general routine stuff if the same, but he has made some huge progress and has started to do some really cute…and not so cute things…

The biggest change is that he can now say a few words now. Maman was his real first word which probably happed before 14 months I thought but I did not see it written. his second word was Apple. right in the midst of apple picking with Chloe’s Preschool he said Ahh el for Apple! he could not say the P’s. THat was about 3 weeks ago. Since then he has gotten better with the P’s since he started saying PaPa two weeks ago! He started to mimick in a humming kind of way how we say things, like Chloe. He will hmm the two sylabbles. This is hard to discribe. Anyway, he is definitly progressing. He can pretty much say Assi too. You can see he is trying harder now to immitate what we say and the sounds we make.

OH and he started to point at just about everything. He sticks his finger out and turns it and makes noises like mm mm. It’s really adorable. he can do High fives really well. He puts his hand all the way behind his head turned in a karate chop style and comes down as hard as he can! He still loves to dance and turn and climbing all over the place.

The one unpleasant habit he developed was head butting. He started to bang his head on us. either from teeth pain or from ear pain. We think both since just last week we brought him to DR. Stevens because we thought he had an ear infection because he woke up at 3am and would not go back to sleep. Turned out he had both ears infected. ON top of that he is getting his last inscissor so he must be in lots of pain. Today was his last day of antibiotics. This is his second infection to date. HIs problem is that once he gets a runny nose, it just won’t go away. He had a runny nose for 3 weeks and eventually it turned into an ear infection.

What else. He must less picky about food. He is back to eating pretty much everythign except fruit. So odd. He really doesn’t like many kinds. He will eat watermelon and Cantalope…sometimes bananas and apples. but he dosen’t really like that. He hates pears, mangos, plums, peaches and things like that. I tried strawberries again tonight and he ate a few pieces but it wasn’t a huge hit. He is getting better at getting his spoon in his mouth but he is still a big fan of using his left hand to get most of in…and on the floor or his bib!

We are still going to Karate. We had Sara baby sit once more and it went well. We skipped once and my mom babysat one night. Tonight we were going to have Sara come but she had too much work to do. We ended up bringing both kids to the class and to our huge surprise, Alex did very well. He had his whiny moments…mostly when we had him gated in the little TV room with Chloe, but once out he insisted on going on the matt. So everytime he went on, I put him behind the gate. He cried a little, I’d let him out, he’d run right for the matt so I started over again. I did this 3 or 4 times and he never went on again! Worked like a charm. So he was happy for most of the night and even played with Chloe near the end. I had to get off a couple of times, but not bad at all. We were there two hours and I actually felt I got a work out. Chloe had to pee three times which kind of sucks, but we get the hang of it now so it goes fast. Anyway we were both very proud of Alex. We will have to try it again. It’s nice that he and Chloe will have a chance to play together and have fun at karate rather than be seperated.

We brought the kids over the Aquarium last weekend. They had a blast. they especially loved the ocean scape. Alex was able to walk across these foam beams that were about foot of ground without any difficulty. He is so agile it’s scary!

IN terms of toys, he really enjoys this little Piano Chloe got for her b-day. It’s in our dining room and he will play it when he walks past. He also like to hit the keyboard, play with Chloe’s cash register ( he broke it by slamming it around!) pushing the stroller and walking aroud with books like Chloe. He loves books now. Unfortunately he is not too gentle with them so we have to watch him.

Preschool is going well for Chloe. On Tuesday I try and switch with Jackie. She takes Alex one week I take Will the next. He has been to Jackies now three times, he seems to enjoy it. He gets a little whiny once and while but over all does well. He has fun at his french class with Lyvia. Nina is in his class with him. It’s nice to have them together. Just last week I started Chloe on wednesdays at the french school. Nicholas and Maia are in the class with her so it’s really really neat that they can be together again after having known each other since they were just 10 months old. Alex and I get to run around and do errands. It sucks for him, but at least he is with me. When he gets older perhaps we can use the time to do an activity together like the library or gym.

He is still very destructive with all of Chloe games and toys. So poor Chloe doesn’t get many chances to play games with us unless he is asleep. I assume this will change soon enough.

He is now wearing a size 18 months. a few 12-18 months things still fit, but over all 18 is best. he can wear 2T in tops and sweaters. I sometimes have to roll the sleeves. He is still an 6 XW. We will probably just but 6 1/2 though since it will last longer.

In the last couple of weeks I started to take them on walks in the wagon and they just love it. We haven’t gone to the park much lately. It’s too cold at night and with preschool now three times a week and their naps it’s tough to find time. 🙁

He is still very very cuddly, especially with me. If I leave though, I”ve been told he becomes very affectionate with however is there. I guess he likes to be close. It’s such a wondeful feeling to have him cuddle with you. He loves to stare at people too and if he is comfortable enough, he will go right up to them and sit on their laps ( if they are low enough!).

well not much else taht I can think off right now. Over all we love him and he is doing just great. We can’y wait to see what the next month has in store for us to discover with him. We love you Alex!!

Mom and Dad