Alex, the mischievous boy...

Greetings, loyal readers! As usual, I have been up to no good! It's all part of being two and keeping Mommy and Daddy on their toes! I was piddling in the kitchen as I often do, when Mommy came in to find me going to town with my finger paints! She was impressed, though, that I at least was good enough to keep the paint on the dry erase board. She foolishly gave me a sheet of paper to paint on (it was raining outside, which is the only reason I was allowed to paint in the kitchen.)



So I went started working with the paints. Open one up, and GLOB! All over the paper. So Mommy tried frantically to scoop up the excess and get it back into the tube. While she was doing that, I started work on the next color! She finally wised up and took them all away before cleaning any more :)



Here's an overview of my mess...Mommy'd been meaning to mop the kitchen anyway! The finger paints now reside on top of the fridge where I can't reach them :)



We've gone to the zoo quite a few times. They have a new lion statue display right by the entrance, which is my absolute favorite! I love the baby lion best of all. I climb on his back and hug away!



We went to Gabe's house for Tuesday night dinner last week. We came unprepared, and I didn't have a bathing suit, so I just played in my diaper. Of course, diapers soak up water rather quickly, so eventually I was playing naked. Everyone has seen my naked more times than they care to mention, so nobody even blinked. I had fun playing on the swing set, and giving Lindley a push. However, I'd take precaution before eating off that swing set any time in the near future....



The following day, at our weekly scrap day, we all got to have ice pops! We lined up all nice in a row to eat them, so we wouldn't make a mess all over the house. Toni made the awesome bench we're sitting on!

Anakin, Lindley, Alex, and Kailen


Toni's next door neighbor just had a baby three weeks ago. She brought Maddy over to show her off. Mommy was holding her and letting me look at her. After petting her a few times, I asked if I could hold her. I got all washed up and went to sit on the couch and got to hold her! I thought it was pretty special! I can't wait until I have my own baby to hold and love. But then again, I was able to give Maddy back after a few minutes, but my own baby will always be at home with me....hmmm...I'm going to have to think about this one.



Lindley took a turn after me, and she liked holding Maddy too! But then she got a little fussy, so we gave her back to her mommy.



One of the parks we like to go to is located right by a police station. There are frequently various public service vehicles driving by. I get so excited when garbage trucks pass by! I got so worked up and started shrieking "dump truck! Dump truck!" It was rather exciting! Everyone was impressed with my two word skills :)




To get out of the house, we went to Barnes and Noble and then Olive Garden with my friends Madison and Marley. When we were leaving, we all had to hold hands! It was just about the cutest thing ever.



From all these mischievous pictures, you probably think that Mommy never watches me. I just know how to take advantage of the system and sneak away when she's trying to get something done! It's lesson one in How to act like a Two Year Old for Dummies. Really, parents need to find a copy and read it!

This day, I opened the hall closet, climbed up, and got out the diaper rash cream. By the time Mommy found me, I was elbow deep in Penaten Creme and had it smeared all over myself and the bed! It took quite a while to clean up...the sheets had to be washed twice to get it all out! I was rather proud of myself. Then while Mommy was cleaning that mess, I went into the kitchen to wash my hands. Of course, I got it all over the kitchen as well! It's so nice and thick and creamy...Mommy's hands were super moiturized by the time she was done cleaning my mess! She learned that you always clean the child first, then clean the mess...otherwise more messes are created! Maybe she did read a couple chapters in the book after all...but not soon enough!



We went back to the zoo and I had to give my little lion pal another hug :)



The flamingos had a whole bunch of nests with eggs. One egg had even hatched, so there was a baby flamingo! It was so cute and little and fluffy. I loved looking at it!



We had a bit of a scare this weekend. I started feeling really warm Sunday night. My temperature was up to 102, so Mommy and Daddy gave me some Tylenol. I played for a bit, then fell asleep on the couch. When they went to move me to bed, I felt really warm again, so they took my temperature. It was up to 104.3! They took it again, just to confirm, and it was still 104. I was quickly stripped and tossed in the shower (kicking and screaming) with Daddy. After a few minutes in there, my temperature was down to 101.7, so they gave me some more Tylenol and tucked me in bed with them. Daddy set up two fans and turned on the ceiling fan, and I wasn't allowed under the big blanket - I just got a thin little receiving blanket. They took my temperature periodically, and fortunately, it didn't get too high again. Although, Daddy freaked out several times...Mommy said my temperature was 100.8, and he heard 108! I've never seen him wake up so fast in my life!

When we woke up in the morning, my temperature was down to 97.7. It was probably so nice and low because of the three fans blowing on me! To be on the safe side, we called the doctor and told them what had happened the night before. I was already on antibiotics for an ear infection, so they wanted me to come in so they could make sure my ear wasn't getting worse. The good news is that my ear looked much better! The doctor drew some blood to confirm that it was a virus he suspected. After all, you just have to let a virus run its course, so knowing that there was nothing we could do would be nice. However, the results came back and my white blood cell count was crazy high. My lungs sounded clear, but I did have an ugly cough, so based on all the other signs (fever, cough, breathing funny) the doctor determined that it was occult pneumonia - it's basically a sneaky kind of pneumonia where you only realize it's there when you see the elevated white blood cell count. So I got an antibiotic shot and was sent home with instructions to return the following day.

The most unfortunate part of this whole ordeal was that I wasn't allowed to go to Kailen's birthday party that afternoon! The doctor said that as long as I had a fever (which came back pretty much as soon as I was away from the fans), I should stay away from other kids. We stopped by Kailen's after the doctor's so we could drop off her birthday present. I did get a nice party favor though - a fish! I loved that fish. I carried it around like a little trophy and kept trying to tickle it through the bag, so we named it Tickle Fish! We set up a nice little vase for it at home. Alas, poor Tickle Fish died before dinner time. I'm just glad Mommy and Daddy have managed to keep me alive for 2+ years since they can't keep a feeder fish alive! I just walked around all evening, saying "all gone fish!" Maybe a new fish is in my future...we'll have to wait and see!



My new favorite thing to do is make my Monster Face (I stick out my lower jaw and raise my eyebrows really high). Sometimes I even do a monster growl with it, and do my monster walk (I walk with my arms and legs stiff and growl really loud!) Yeah, I'm pretty scary!



Mommy got a new camera for her birthday (Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ5)! It just came in the mail today, so she's been playing with it a bit. It takes some really nice pictures! Here's the first good one of me, just goofing off :) She was trying to get me to make my Monster Face, but I just kept giggling every time she'd hit the shutter! But the picture still came out really cute!



That's all for now...stay tuned til next time!

xoxo,

Alex