Into the Second Year II
He was being exceptionally good when I took this one.
Wearing the same shirt that he wore for his haircut a few weeks before, Alec waits to see Dr. Lawrence for the fifteen-month checkup. Alec wasn't walking yet the last time we were here...
...He's walking now, of course, and with quite a bit of confidence.
I was supposed to strip him down to his diapers, but I knew there'd be a bit of a wait, so I let him keep his trousers on, and we took some pictures.
At last, Dr. Lawrence examined him, and gave him a kiss for good measure. Alec was diagnosed as being healthy and unusually good looking. The doctor then left and the nurse came in with the shots for Alec. Dr. Lawrence is clever enough to not have the kids associate him with the shots.
Later that day, Alec discovered that Carter had taken over the crib. Carter saw nothing funny about this at all..
Watching Toy Story 2 on the computer with me, and not for the first time, certainly. He likes any scene that Pete the Prospector (aka Stinky Pete) is in, for some reason, and points to him, shouting "Bah...Bah!" whenever he spots him.
For a while, Alec had some tough mornings due to separation anxiety. It was hard to leave him day after day when he was red-faced and crying. I was told that it ended soon after I left, but I still felt awful. But, it ended soon enough, as the ladies who look after him distracted him with food. In this picture, he's already forgotten that I'm there and is focused on the French Toast. GET IN MAH BELLY!
March 8th: The Great Blizzard of '08! Alec likes to touch snow, so I let him go out glove-less for all of a minute or so to experience it, and he seemed to have a great time. He didn't want to leave the house without his bottle, though, so I obliged. He also managed to unzip his coat, which is one of his favorite activities these days. I didn't notice until after I took this shot.
Visiting the Easter Bunny at the supermarket the following weekend. Alec was great with him...no tears at all. He had to be forcibly removed to let other kids have a moment with him.
Easter came at last, with baskets to be found at Aunt Sessie's.
Time up until first haircut: 15 months.
Time between first haircut and this picture: 7 weeks.
Waiting for Mommy to finish with dinner on a Wednesday night. He gets pretty surly when he's really hungry and the food isn't ready yet, but here he is still being a gentleman.
Shopping cart pictures are becoming the best way for me to get everyone together, happy, and in a well-lit place these days, so here's another one, at WalMart. We were having fun making Alec wear his new summer hat, which we got for him in anticipation of the hot Florida sun in a few months.
Listening to Mommy ask him to smile a moment later. Ava knows how...she's still holding her pose.
The following Wednesday, 7:53am. Alec woke up before I was done getting Sister Ava ready for the bus, so I moved him to the pack-and-play in the living room and he watched the Wiggles...quite happily.
With the colorful ball collection at daycare, just like his sister several years ago.
Warmer weather at last! Alec now joins his sister and I outside as we wait for her bus in the morning.
Alec's first Hanami picture. We didn't do one last year because an April snowstorm ruined most of the blossoms.
He didn't stay put too well for the Hanami picture with his sister in front of the same tree the next day. If I had a camera that took ten shots a second, I might have gotten something, but Alec had walked out of the frame by the time my camera was ready to take the next shot.
Getting a hug from his Sissy a few minutes later. Ava is always very good to her brother and speaks highly of him, even when he doesn't exactly earn it (e.g., pulling her hair or grabbing her coloring book while she's using it). She is exceptionally forgiving and kind, as this picture likely shows.
Another one from the same evening.
Want to hear one some of Alec's favorite songs? YouTube makes it pretty easy these days. Right now, I'd say it's a tie between the Wiggles' "Rock-a-Bye Your Bear" and "Mercy" by Duffy. Both of them bring a smile to his face when they come on.
On this evening, I couldn't carry him any longer, and I put him down so he could walk on his own, but he protested by just sitting there and staring at me for while. Then he explored the pavement around him and discovered (not for the first time) a cigarette butt that he offered to me.
He's really not that big, perhaps. It's all relative. Alec stood motionless for some time to let me take several pictures here, because he was standing on a sewer grate, which is endlessly fascinating, because, you know, you can stand on it, and yet you can see several feet down at the same time.
A very cool toy is spotted at Wal-Mart.
Having fun at Cousin Megan's First Communion party at Uncle Mark's house, knocking down his tower of boxes yet again.
A detail of the picture above.
(1/80 of a second at ISO 800 for anyone interested...this camera continues to make some pretty clear and fast low-light images for me. I could do better, but not with a camera that could fit in my pocket.)
...and again, this time with Mommy and Aunt Sessie helping. The plastic animal that they'd put on the top has hardly moved, although Mommy's already been hit by one of the middle boxes that Alec smacked (1/100th of a second, 800 ISO).
The next evening, heading out for another walk with me, much like I did each evening with Ava when she was this age.
We often stop at this bench on campus, as we did with Sister Ava a few weeks ago (a few pictures above).
He likes to drum on the armrests, which vibrate a little when he does.
The spring colors are perhaps the best that I've ever seen them this year.
I decided to try to do another Hanami picture. Usually Mommy helps out with these but since it was just the two of us, I had to hold Alec and take the picture with my outstretched hand (before he lost interest!), so I'm lucky that I got anything here. Notice that one petal fell on his jacket...
On a merry-go-round for the first time, about five minutes after the thrill of being on a merry-go-round for the first time had worn off.
He looks a bit older than 17 months to me at times, or, at least he looks a lot like Mommy at times.
Stopping for a moment during a walk on the day before his 18 month mark.
