Drove under its own power for the last time on Saturday. Confirmed permanently dead by the mechanic this morning. 15 years and 9 months old. It is a sad day! Sniff. :-(
Well well, here we are. As of this moment… 16 Sep 2011 at 13:28 UTC (6:28 AM Pacific, 9:28 AM Eastern) I am the number of days old listed in the subject, which also happens to be equal to a number of years that ends in a zero, and starts with a 4. Yes, indeed, I am 400 years old. Oh, woops. Wrong number of zeros. But yeah. 40. Woo?
Of course, I have pre-scheduled this post. At the actual time mentioned, I hope to be asleep.
As of the moment this posts, at 04:16 UTC on September 13th (9:16 PM on the 12th Pacific, 12:16 AM on the 13th Eastern), Alex is exactly 2 years old. Happy Birthday Alex!!! These two years have sure flown by. I have not really posted any general updates since he turned 18 months old. So here goes again I guess.
He is in that vocabulary explosion sort of stage. Using new words every day. Asking what things are called. He is using simple sentences like “Daddy Juice Mommy More” when he noticed my drink was empty, as he took it from me and gave it to Brandy to fill up.
He and the dog continue to play with each other all the time. He is starting to learn to be a bit more gentle and (sometimes) back off when the dog has had enough. Roscoe definitely plays back too, it isn’t just a one way thing.
He can now load the DVD/Blu-Ray player with the disk he has decided he wants to watch. Still needs help setting it up and getting it going, but that won’t be long now I’m sure. He already does turn off our entertainment system when he is done watching whatever he is watching.
He says “Uh Oh!” when things go wrong or he finds something broken. This sometimes combines with the last bullet, as when we are trying to actually watch something else rather than a kids show. He realizes what is on is not what he was expecting, and starts saying “Uh Oh! Uh Oh!” and heads over to our receiver and turns it off. This is not always appreciated.
He is generally a holy terror, running around the house and getting into absolutely everything. I understand this is expected at this age. But it is exhausting.
As you may have seen in the video he loves playing with the hose. We will do less of this as it gets cooler I am sure, but at the moment this is one of his favorite things, that he asks to do almost every day. In addition to spraying the dog as seen in the video, he also will call me over, “Daddy! Daddy!” looking all innocent and such, then spray me as soon as I get close, giggling gleefully all the while. And then he’ll say “turn!” to let me know it is my turn, hand me the hose, and have me spray him.
He is playing more and different games on our iPhones. One of the new ones is a Thomas matching game. He also has a physical version of this. He sometimes actually matches things, sometimes he just plays. Either way, he likes them.
He is still upset and cries when we drop him off at day care, but by all reports he is OK and having fun right after we leave.
He loves to climb. Anything and everything. It is only a matter of time before we find him on top of a bookshelf or whatnot. He loves to go to playgrounds, where he is climbing and playing on jungle gym equipment designed for much older kids. He is fearless. I stay directly under him, ready to catch him when he slips, but so far he hasn’t.
He loves to draw. He’ll find a paper and then ask for a “Cran”, which is of course any writing utensil. Then he will happily sit and draw. Of course, sometimes he will draw on other things too. Basically any white or off white surface is up for grabs. This is also not always appreciated.
When watching movies he is familiar with, he will talk constantly describing what is going on as best he can. We can’t always get exactly what he is saying, but he is clearly referring to characters and what they are doing.
He points at every plane that flies over and excitedly tells us about the “ane! ane!”
He points at every bus (or buslike vehicle) as it goes by. “Buh! buh!”
Cars are still the best toys ever. He has many many cars now, and plays with them all the time.
Well, as usual, I’m there is a bunch more, but those are the ones spilling out of my head at the moment.
In any case, Happy Birthday to Alex! I can’t believe he is already two! It was just yesterday we brought him home and he was a tiny little thing. Now he is so BIG!
That’s right, I said Month Twelve. And yes, I know at this point in mere hours (specifically at 04:16 UTC on the 13th, which is 9:16 PM on the 12th Pacific time, or 12:16 AM on the 13th Eastern time… which is a little over 14 hours from now as I post this) Alex will be Twenty Four months old, or a full two years old. But gosh darn it I got this highlights video out less than a year late. Barely. I’d also said that this would be the last of the month at a time highlight videos. After this I’ll just post little video snippets instead of these longer videos I have no time to produce (obviously, since it took me a year to do this one) and which nobody has time to watch anyway.
Regardless… enjoy highlights from year ago Alex. This covers 13 Aug 2010 to 12 Sep 2010. He is of course much different now at double the age. :-) But the personality hasn’t changed much at all. Definitely the same kid. :-)
The house we have rented for the last five years is officially on the market again (for rental). See the lovely sign in the yard? If anybody is thinking of moving to the Newport Hills area of Bellevue, WA, hey, house.
After some back and forth on the topic, we decided there were other things we’d rather spend a few thousand dollars on, so we’re doing things the old fashioned way again and renting a truck and moving ourselves. This weekend. So if anybody in the greater Seattle area wants to help move boxes and furniture, we will buy pizza! (But we expect to do it all ourselves.)
Between now and then… packing!
Roscoe came with us to the new house for the first time today. We can’t let him loose in the back yard until we fix the latch on the gate, but he is getting to explore the new house for the first time, and we went on a short walk in the neighborhood.
Alex’s room is pretty much done. Nice two color thing with with a border with cars and trucks and planes and such.
Brandy’s office is all painted. Amy’s room is almost done being painted.
We’ve moved in a bunch of dishes and groceries and other essentials and have been spending a significant chunk of time here since we closed last week.
Internet (25/25 FIOS) will be installed sometime in the next 12 hours.
As I write this, Amy, Alex and Brandy are all asleep. I will join them shortly. This will be the first time we’ve actually stayed overnight here. Of course, there are no beds here yet, so this is a strictly floor based endeavor.
We hope to basically be moved by Sunday night, although we’ll still be moving some stuff from the old house, and dealing with cleaning the old house and such probably straight through until the 30th, which is when we officially have to be out of there.
