14 Months Old

This past month will go down in family history as the month that Alex finally started walking. Up until now, he would take a step or two, but that was it. Suddenly, one day, he just took off. He's been spotted toddling up to 12 feet at a time, and he's picking up speed. He looks a bit like a penguin because he puts his legs far apart and sways from side to side as he walks. But he definitely prefers it to crawling, and he only crawls now if he needs to go long distances quickly.

Alex has also added a couple new words to his vocabulary. He starts games of peek-a-boo by putting his hands up to his ears and shouting "Tigga-woooo!" Matt has managed to teach him the word "tattoo" and Alex will crawl onto Matt's chest, poke his tattoo and say the word. Alex has also learned the sign-language symbol for "milk," which makes it alot easier to figure out what he needs when he's being fussy.

Now that the weather has been nicer, Alex enjoys playing on our balcony. He especially likes banging plastic flowerpots together and putting the smaller ones inside the larger ones. We had to remove most of the smaller toys from the balcony, however, because he figured out he could throw them through the railing to the ground three floors below. We didn't want passersby getting hit in the head with Duplo blocks.


Alex shows off his new walking ability.

Alex spends a good part of his morning sitting on the top of the couch and watching out the front window.

"OK, I've got Buford all ready for his walk now..."

Just woke up from a nap and is very upset about it.

A minute later, though, he's all smiles.

Riding in his new hiking-style backpack.

Mmmmm, meatballs. (Alex's first two molars are coming in, so he can chew quite a few "big people" foods now).