With the help of a fancy new
bucket (thanks Ron & Laura!) Lex has discovered two of the
time-honored toddler pastimes — “filling and dumping” and
“bucket on the head”. And boy does the love them! We got some
great pictures and movies of him walking around the house
tonight with a bucket on his head. He’s such a ham though,
every time he noticed I was taking a picture he grinned real
big and started running (walking fast anyway) towards the
camera.

We had a big weekend. Went
down to MA to help our friend Andy celebrate his 2nd birthday
party at a cool place called Davis
Farmland. Sadly it was closed because the weather was
horrible. I was bummed because I think we all would have had
fun there. So we visited with Jim and Julie instead. Then had
breakfast with Andy (and his parents and sister and lots of
other familly) then drove back to NH for a co-worker’s
babyshower. She has a beautiful house, view, and pool! So Lex
and Alan went swimming. Lex was a little nervous at first, but
once he got used to the cool water he had fun. We had his
rubber duck with us (can’t travel without at least one duck!)
and Alan threw it in the pool, so Lex and the other kids spent
the afternoon playing with the duck in the pool. It was
cute.

The other big thing we did this
weekend is turn Lex’s car seat around. He can now see where
we’re going, instead of just where we’ve been, and we can now
reach him without special contortionist moves. Seems like a
win-win for everyone. He seemed to like the ride too. I think
it will make our trip to Franklin next weekend a bit
nicer.

What a beautiful day today. We started
with an 8 mile walk (yup, you read that right). I had mapped
out a 3 mile walk for us, but the roads didn’t actually exist
like the map said they would, so we ended up going for 8 miles
instead. It was great exercise. Although Lex was in the
stroller the whole time, he was exhausted when we got home and
took a 3 hour nap!

For dinner we met
Grandpa and Grandma at Salt Hill (a nice Irish pub). Grandma
was telling us how much she enjoyed the pubs in Ireland. She
said over there people bring their whole family out to the
pubs. She said the kids all dance and the families have fun.
Then around 10 they bring the kids home and put them to bed,
and the grown-ups come back. I tell you all this because part
way through dinner an Irish band started playing and a bunch of
little kids started dancing. When we were done eating we went
up near the band and Lex danced. He was the smallest one there
(dancing, anyway) and he had a great time. There was a little
blonde two year old girl who kept dancing with him. We hung out
for awhile just listening to the music and letting Lex dance
and play with the other kids. It was so nice.

First of all – WILL THIS RAIN EVER
END????? It’s making my whole house (and state, and surrounding
states) tired and cranky! Blah!!

But on
to baby news.

DATELINE: Last Tuesday
I recently introduced Lex to self-feeding and he’s taken
to it with gusto. So much so, that he doesn’t really like us to
feed him anymore. At dinner last week Lex was grabbing for the
spoon and I finally gave up and put the bowl and spoon down on
his tray and let him at it. Needless to say, things got messy.
He did manage to get about 1/3 of it in his mouth, but the
other 2/3 ended up all over him and the highchair.

When he was about done eating I scooped him
out of the highchair and popped him right into the tub. He was
a happy boy – splashing and bouncing around. Then he stopped
suddely and started making a weird, concentrating face and it
occured to me, “Oh no, he’s pooping in the tub!!” Since this
has NEVER happened before, I had no idea what to do. I grabbed
him out of the tub and just held him in the air for a second,
then whooshed him over to the toilet. Picture me, squatting in
front of the toilet, holding a slippery wet baby precariously
dangling over the thing. I couldn’t even sit him down because
his little butt would have slid right through.

At this point Lex is happy as a clam – sitting
(sort of) on the toilet, looking out the window, jabbering
away, with mommy right in front of him. I kept saying, “Lex,
are you done or do you have more?” He knows the signs for “all
done” and “more” and did a great job of communicating his
needs. When he was all done he made the sign and then turned
and started reaching for the toilet paper!! (Yes, he has seen
us in the bathroom numerous times. When you’re alone with the
baby all day you do what you have to do.) So I do my best to
balance his wet body on my shoulder (butt still over the
toilet) while I get some toilet paper and wipe him. Then I
brought him to the changing table and slapped a diaper on that
thing! :)

The other big sign of readiness is that he knows
when he has a dirty diaper and works very hard to let Alan and
I know. He’ll walk back and forth between us (and back and
forth and back and forth) until we catch on and check his
diaper. We are trying to get him to do the “dirty diaper” sign
(pat hip), but so far he just rubs his belly and its hard to
tell if he’s signing or just rubbing his belly ’cause he likes
to rub his belly :)

So today, in the
miserable rain, we went out and bought Lex a bright yellow potty. He likes to sit
on it in the living room and read books. He’s such a cutie. He
also likes to pull the middle “pot” part out and flip it over.
I’m a little nervous that when he does actually do his business
he’ll yank the pot out and make quite a mess. Hopefully Alan
and I will be quicker than him. I’ll keep you posted
:)

Lex learned to stack blocks today. It’s
really cool watching a baby learn. His little hands hold a
block over another and then he concentrates really hard to
release the block where he wants it. At first it would miss the
other one, or his hand would bump it just after he released, or
he would try to release and end up throwing the block… :)
Very funny and amazing. We practiced a bunch this morning and
he got pretty good at it. I clapped each time he made it, so
now he stacks two blocks and looks at me expectantly. :) Funny
baby.