Before leaving my office, we needed to take a mugshot:
Then we finally left the office and headed for the traditional trains. Alex saw the monorail:
But first we waited for the Seattle Streecar (previously known as the South Lake Union Trolley”):
Which was ridden with varying levels of interest:
We got off the train to look at a fountain:
If you look carefully, you’ll notice we left Alex’s backpack on the train.
Brandy called to make sure they knew it wasn’t a bomb. Then we made sure to catch the same train to go back, and retrieved the bag from the driver.
Then it was time to eat:
And monorail:
And running with sister at Seattle Center:
And there is the Space Needle!:
(Picture by Amy)
But eventually, kicking and screaming, it is time to start heading home:
One more monorail ride first of course:
And a trip to the bookstore:
Alex of course fell asleep on the car ride home. He almost made it. But not quite. Fell asleep and was sleep eating a rice crispy treat for awhile.
Then I put together my post about the 5th:
Later, once everyone was up again, Alex watched a portal walkthrough video while I got ready for my day:
A couple hours later he was still watching it. He had switched to the iPad, and hadn’t watched straight through, instead watching and re-watching parts he really liked. I’m not sure he has made it all the way through, but I know he has watched the ending a few times, and many of the parts in between. :-) He studies it very intently.
Finally, we headed out to the Apple store, because Amy’s phone had recently been acting up… and as she was getting ready to go to the Apple store for her genius appointment, she dropped the phone magnificently, and smashed its front, back and sides as bad as any smashed iPhone I’ve ever seen in person. So any chance of getting it replaced under warrantee because it was just acting odd went out the window. :-)
Anyway, on the way there, Alex fell asleep in the car…
And thus I spent the last couple hours of the 6th (and another hour or so of the 7th) sitting in the car with a sleeping Alex while Brandy and Amy took care of Amy’s phone and a few other things. Can’t say I was totally thrilled by this time in the car. But I did listen to a few podcasts and read a bit of my twitter and news feeds, so I guess that was OK.
As of the time this posts, 2013-03-14 00:59 UTC, Alex will be exactly three and a half years old. Yay! Such a big boy! In the home video above (from the 13th), Alex recreates the tractor tipping scene from Cars and sings with Roscoe.
[Note added 2013 Mar 17 14:58 – Since at least one person contacted Brandy with concern, 2 things… First, Roscoe is not mad, growling, or threatening Alex in any way. As you can see in the video, Roscoe licks Alex several times. The noises being made are ones that Roscoe makes regularly when “singing” with Alex, myself, or other family members. Roscoe sometimes does get impatient or upset with Alex, but this was not one of those times. Second… yes, I know what it looks like when Alex lies down, but he is three and a half, Alex was not doing anything inappropriate, and it is all completely innocent, so get your minds out of the gutter! Thanks!]
Some random notes on some things from the past six months:
Six months ago, Alex was regularly dreading going to pre-school, and was telling us how bad it was. These days, on the worst days he goes with a grudging acceptance, and on the best days, he seems to actually look forward to it. There was a phase where every day he was telling us he didn’t want to go because the other kids were being mean to him (including hitting him), but he hasn’t mentioned that in quite a long time now, so hopefully all that is under control. (We talked to the teachers about it several times.)
Although he did it longer than most kids do these days, Alex stopped nursing in October when Brandy had to go to Pennsylvania for a couple weeks when her mom had surgery. The day after Brandy gets back, Alex wakes up in the morning groggy and not to happy to be awake. I ask him if he wants to go see Mommy. He looks really sad, like he is about to cry, and slowly says “Mommy no ning. Ning all gone.”
Since then he has talked about this a few times as a way to reference time. He was telling the story of when we took Roscoe to the vet for some surgery. He described when it happened as when he was still a baby and drank Mommy’s ning.
He talks a lot these days about how he used to be a baby, and the things that were different when he was a baby. Like diapers. And the ning. And other things too. He likes to pretend to still be a baby a lot too.
In September, Alex and Brandy went with me to a doctor appointment (this was during one of my kidney stone episodes). For almost two months after that he would tell us all that I was a new Daddy, and we had left the old Daddy at the doctor. This was most disturbing, because until then I did not know I had been replicated, and now I wonder what happened to the old daddy.
He is very aware of growing bigger, and that he is getting bigger every day. He also has noticed that I am getting smaller (well, it must seem that way, right?) So he has told me that when he grows very big, and I grow very small, then he will be the one to carry me on his shoulders.
Despite having tons of trains at home, he still likes to go to the bookstore to play with the trains there… because usually he gets to pick a new train to take home… I will give him my card and he will take the train and the card to the counter at the front of the store to check out.
Alex and Roscoe continue to be best buddies. Sometimes Roscoe gets frustrated by Alex’s attentions, but usually his patience is incredible. They are good together.
Meanwhile, Alex is just getting to know my Mom’s dog Sara, and they don’t get along quite as well so far. Sara is still getting used to Alex. Alex is very upset by this, after the second time we visited my mom and Sara in their new apartment, Alex burst into tears “Grandma Ruth’s dog Sara doesn’t like me!!!”. They are getting better with each other, but it will probably take some time.
Alex got a small couch from his Grandmother Leslie for Christmas. He uses it ALL the time, including as a booster seat at the dinner table. He uses it along with a little tray table thing he got from his mom. He loves those things.
Just in the last month or so, Alex has stopped fighting bedtime. I’ll say it is time to go upstairs, and he’ll say “OK” and follow me up. Then he will help turn out all the lights and lie down. Of course, this is him curling up in bed with me, not him going to his own bed, and I let him use my iPad in bed while I go to sleep… I have no idea how late he is up watching YouTube after I fall asleep. So… maybe that isn’t really a big thing after all. :-)
Alex may not be quite “reading” yet, but he recognizes many words. The titles of his favorite shows, Mommy, Daddy, Alex, Amy, Dog, etc… I suspect he knows even more than he lets on. He also knows when shopping for trains he needs to get the ones that say “wooden” or they won’t fit on his tracks.
He has friends at school that he talks about by name. His best friend’s name is Apollo. One time Apollo said he WASN’T Alex’s friend. Alex was upset and talked about that for WEEKS until one of the teachers said that Apollo WAS his friend. Then everything was OK again.
“No! Teacher said!” is often heard, as we find out we are doing one thing or another wrong and the teacher said to do it a different way.
He met Santa! And was very into Christmas. Was on us for WEEKS about getting up the tree and decorations before we actually got it done.
He clogged the toilet! And similar things. Like pouring water into the air conditioner because “doggy needs it” only to have water spray out all over the room. Which was quite amusing.
For awhile he decided “trains like dark” so he would always turn out all the lights before playing with his trains. That lasted maybe a month.
He is very proficient playing with the iPad, figuring out new games without very much prompting from me, including some games that actually aren’t geared to kids his age. And just a couple weeks ago, I think I made a big mistake… he now knows how to use the App Store! He’ll browse through there looking for new games then ask me to get one for him. He still can’t type my password to do it completely by himself, but I’m sure that is coming soon…
He remembered walking his dog in the snow LAST winter and really wanted to do it again, but there was never snow that really lasted. I may try to take him up to the mountains soon to see some snow. Maybe Roscoe too.
There are several of Amy’s friends that Alex REALLY likes when they come over to visit. He loves to play with her friends.
He makes important observations: “Daddy… fish… they have no feet! They swish their tails. Swim under the water. Ducks have feet. They swim on top of the water.”
He can’t type, but he is starting to try to use the voice recognition in iOS to fill out search fields and the like. So far, it isn’t very good at understanding what he actually said, but give it time.
A couple of fish have died in the last six months, so Alex and I have had a few conversations about death. One fish died and he asked where it went. I told him mommy took it away after it died. He asked if mommy took it to fix it and make it all better. I told him that no, when fish die you can’t put in new batteries or fix them, they are just gone. He doesn’t entirely get it, but knew what to expect when his own fish Hush got sick and died more recently.
He has moved from Thomas to Chuggington to Dinosaur Train to Choo Choo Soul, to some videos with Micky Mouse and a train. Then back to just plain train videos on YouTube. HIs favorite things to watch have kept changing, but it has been all about trains for a year and a half now.
And that is more than enough for now. Happy three and a half Alex!
[Edit 2013 Mar 14 14:33 to add the first of the two parenthetical comments in the first bullet.]
[Edit 2013 Mar 20 21:24 to slightly change the wording of the note added 2013 Mar 17.]
Sometime in late January, our downstairs toilet starts not draining properly
Brandy spends several weeks fruitlessly plunging it and using all sorts of drain cleaners and toilet snakes.
Each time, it seems like it kind of works for a very short time, then it starts backing up again.
We are busy. We have other bathrooms. It sits with an out of order sign for weeks.
One of the many times that Alex tells us “downstairs potty broken, mommy fix it soon” we think to ask…
“Alex, did you flush anything down the toilet that doesn’t usually go down the toilet?”
“Ahh… (thinks for a few seconds)… Yes!” (It had now been many weeks since he must have done it.)
“Uh, Alex, what did you flush down the toilet?”
“My penguin light.”
“Alex, why did you flush your penguin light down the toilet?”
“It not spin. Me done with it. Flush down down down! All gone!” (Or something similar to that, I didn’t write down the exact words at the time.)
We are busy. Several more weeks pass.
About an hour ago, I get home from work, Brandy has removed the toilet from the floor.
I help turn it sideways so we can see in the bottom:
Yes, indeed, there was the handle of Alex’s penguin light. It was one of those things where you push a button and the little lights inside the globe at the top spin around. But this one had extra plastic bits to make it look like a penguin with a Santa hat on with the lights spinning in the stomach of the penguin.
So after a few minutes of lifting the toilet up, flipping it in different directions, and shaking it, out popped the penguin.
Amy has told me that I am not allowed to post the pictures I have of the actual penguin, due to it being disgusting and caked inside and out with human waste and all, but if anybody wants to see pictures, just ask, and I’ll happily send them along.
We’d been talking to Alex since he told us about flushing the penguin about how that was why the toilet didn’t work, and how he should never flush things other than the things that normally go in a toilet. But we took this opportunity to show him the penguin and ask him if he would ever do that again. He said he wouldn’t. We shall see I guess.
As I was writing the above, Brandy calls and asks me to come down so I can help her with something. I say “just a minute” while I finish writing one of the bullet points. Then I go down. By that time, she had decided not to wait for me, and had already put the toilet back on, and it looks like it is just about all set again.
Anyway… I know just about every parent gets this at one point in time, but it was our turn this time. Fun fun toys in the toilet fun!
With his iPhone in one hand, and Mommy in the other, Alex was ready to go!
Amy was ready too!
They had these cool antique cars.
But Brandy wanted to sit in some less cool cars because the seats were more comfortable. Alex was not impressed.
OK, maybe that was me that was not impressed. I was bummed that the car we were in was less cool than the others, plus the windows were much dirtier making it basically impossible to take pictures out the window.
But that didn’t last all that long, because Amy discovered a place between the cars with the top half of a door open, so you could actually just essentially be outside with no window in the way. That was MUCH better.
There were lots of views like this.
Of course Amy took lots of pictures.
At this point, Alex had not yet been convinced to leave his seat. He just wanted to sit and watch Thomas the Tank Engine on his phone. But he was ON A TRAIN! So this would just not do.
So I insisted, and took Alex to the place he could look out. He was just tall enough to look out standing tiptoe. He barely left that spot again for the rest of the train ride.
There were of course more pretty views.
And some horsing around.
Much of the ride looked like this. With Alex and Amy together, checking out the views.
They really do have lots of fun together.
Then, as it was starting to get dark, the train made the first of several stops. The crew was investigating a problem. As we would soon find out, the generator that served the front half of the train was acting up…
But there were still some good views. This is looking back toward the steam engine that was pushing the train.
As it got darker, photography out the window becomes more impressionist.
But Alex maintained his vigil.
Then, suddenly, there was snow!
And then, and then… it was time for… SANTA!
Now, I was an idiot. Looking at the screen on my camera it seemed like it was just too dark, and the movie was going to come out without you being able to see anything. Now, obviously, it turns out you could see things just fine. But I panicked and cut the movie short and switched to stills with a flash. The video and stills from the video were much better than what I took after. And you could of course see how the whole thing played out. But I missed the second half because I stopped the video short. I missed the good part…
In the next few seconds, Alex actually did manage to have a short conversation with Santa, and got his courage up, and told Santa he liked trains. This was a big deal for him. He’d been talking about talking to Santa for weeks, and had chickened out several times. This time he managed it. Of course, I cut the video off too soon. (And frankly, I missed some of the actual event myself as I was fiddling with the camera instead of paying attention.)
Sigh! I can’t tell you just how annoyed I am at myself…
Anyway, back to the stills…
When he first sat down Alex was not too sure of this whole thing, and really just wanted to watch his show on his phone.
But then he turned up, he smiled, he almost laughed… you could see that part on the video.
He was actually getting almost comfortable as Santa asked him about what he liked and what he wanted for Christmas.
Alex accepted a candy cane from Santa, but told Santa he didn’t want a sticker.
Then it was right back to Alex’s favorite spot!
Of course, they never had fixed that generator. The last three cars on the train were in complete darkness, and with no heat. Oops. Of course, Alex and I were just hanging out between the cars without a window between us and the outside world anyway, so it didn’t make much of a difference to us. But it probably did to some of the other folk…
Then the train pulled back into the station…
And it was time to disembark…
With a final look back at our steam engine, it was time to go home.
Another big day for Alex. He was asleep long before we made it home. It was a good day.
And he made sure Santa knew he wanted trains for Christmas. Which is very important. Cause otherwise how would Santa know?
12 hours of timelapse total crunched into 3:45. There is a bit of me cleaning before the construction starts, and a bit of me recording my podcast after construction is done.
Actual construction from about 1:30 to 3:00 on the video.
Roscoe and Brandy help a little bit too.
This is of course a snippet of the kind of thing always available on the AbulCam.
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. :-)
