Alex's pictures were a little delayed this month because he has been on vacation in Bavaria. We spent a week at Lake Chiemsee in southern Germany, and Alex got a chance to see all kinds of new things like sailboats and even a castle. He was absolutely fascinated with the miniature refrigerator in the hotel room, too.

Most of Alex's big changes this month have to do with sleep. He seems to be giving up his mid-morning and late afternoon naps in favor of one long nap right after lunch. Alex has also gotten a new trundle bed, and he sleeps quite soundly on it. On the rare occasions that he does fall off the top berth, he just lands safely on the bottom berth a couple inches below, rolls over and goes back to sleep.

Alex is also becoming much more communicative and seems to understand what we're saying. For example, if we show him a new diaper and tell him that he's stinky, he will go find his changing towel and sit down on it. He has also started to throw his old diaper in the trash can, with a little prompting.

One of our newest sources of entertainment, though, is Alex's imitation of a phone call. He likes to pick up the receiver, say what sounds like "Hi," "OK," and "Bye," and then hang up the phone. He has the vocal inflections down perfectly, and if you saw him at a distance, you really would think he was talking on the phone.