Like Father, Like Son

One of Eric's amazing talents and not-used-near-enough-in-our-son's-childhood hobbies is photography. The man can take pictures. He has snapped beautiful photographs at friends weddings. Gorgeous landscaping and scenery photos that hang on the walls of our home. But, like I said, he hasn't taken near enough of Alexander (blames it on too much equipment to lug around, ,moving target, blah, blah, blah). So I settle with photos taken with my point and shoot. I wish I was better at photography. I wish I was better with photoshop. Heck, I wish I was better at convincing Alexander to sit still for photos. But, for now, I'll settle for capturing the moment.

It seems as though our young son is striving to follow in his father's footsteps in more ways than one. He picked up my camera tonight and a photo monster was born! He must have spent an hour, saying "cheese" and clicking away. When we looked through the 80+ photos*, it was clear that a three year old views the world much differently than his parents...

*no pictures have been photoshoped since Alexander's assistant really doesn't know how to use the program.(Our Christmas stockings hang on the wall because we don't have a mantle.
Despite the lack of a fireplace, Santa hasn't let us down yet.)

They say a mother's love is blind and clearly, I'm not photography expert...but I think the kid did a pretty good job!

Where is Warehouse Mouse?

If you know the answer, you've probably watched Disney's Imagination Movers. Last night, Mommy took Alexander to see the Movers. LIVE.

Daddy took a few pictures of us before we left. These are the best in the bunch.

We joined Mika and Evan and settled into our nosebleed section balcony seats. We soon found ourselves surrounded by parents, grandparents, and little people, ages newborn to four or five. Clearly, we weren't the only one willing to search for warehouse mouse.

It was amazing to watch an always moving toddler sit still to "watch my tv show". He sat on his seat. He sat on my lap. He sat. Eventually, it became too much and Alexander finally sat on my lap with his ears covered for the remainder of the show.

"Too oud, Mama. Too oud".


At first, Evan wasn't too sure he was ready for the large, loud crowd so he cuddled with his mommy, with just his eyes peaking out. By the end of the show, two toddlers were enthralled with the show (and Mika sure looks excited too, eh?).

I think he and his little pal Evan enjoyed the show!
And the mommies enjoyed being with our little men!
Thanks for the fun afternoon, Mika and Evan!

I Hope You Dance

I hope you never lose your sense of wonder
You get your fill to eat
But always keep that hunger
May you never take one single breath for granted
God forbid love ever leave you empty handed
I hope you still feel small
When you stand by the ocean
Whenever one door closes, I hope one more opens
Promise me you'll give faith a fighting chance
And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance
I hope you dance
I hope you dance

I hope you never fear those mountains in the distance
Never settle for the path of least resistance
Living might mean taking chances
But they're worth taking
Lovin' might be a mistake
But it's worth making
Don't let some hell bent heart
Leave you bitter
When you come close to selling out
Reconsider
Give the heavens above
More than just a passing glance

And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance
I hope you dance

Visiting Santa Claus

After watching Polar Express AGAIN, the following conversation occured.

"Alexander, should we go visit Santa Claus this week?"

"Not Santa. Ho-Ho Papa"

"No, we wouldn't see Ho-Ho Papa. We would see Santa Claus and have a picture taken with him."

"NO SANTA!!!!! Ho-Ho-Ho Papa. Ho-Ho-Ho Papa. HO-HO-HO PAPA!"

I guess all these years of my father greeting his grandson with "ho-ho-ho" has confused the poor kid.

Beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Now that Daddy's birthday has passed, we have the green light to decorate for the holiday season!

Daddy and Alexander put up the tree last night while Mommy put up the snowglobes and stockings.

This morning, my biggest, BEST helper and I put ornaments on the tree. I used to be quite OCD about where each ornament is placed but this year, I let all that go. Watching Alexander's face, as he focused on the perfect placement of each ornament, was priceless. I think you'll agree that he did a great job!

Birthday wishes

Happy Happy Birthday, my dada!

A few reasons why you are my best dada:

• You are nocturnal. I'm not, and yet you never complain about my early hours.
  
  
• You are patient with my potty training when Mommy wants to pull her hair out over my stubbornness.
  
  
• You are able to tune into your inner 3 year old inside of you and play trains and hide and seek with me for hours.
  
  
• You've been known to make chocolate chip cookies for breakfast.
  
  
• You spend all day with me and never complain when I am less than stellar in my behavior.
  
  
• You love my mommy (and she loves you!)

Love you, my dada!

Big Boy Room

When it was time to decorate Alexander's nursery, we kept things very low key. We knew we were going to decorate into a big boy theme once we had the addition completed so we didn't want to spend a lot of money on a room 1) Alexander would never notice as a baby, 2) we knew we were tearing out and 3) we logically chose to spend money that could have been spent on nursery items on clothing and diapers instead.

Since the addition is currently on hold and Mommy is impatient, we have slowly been transitioning from this Mickey Mouse nursery theme...

to this Disney Cars big boy room!

There are a lot of great decorating items for this theme, but I was able to cut a few corners and save money while still decorating in style. Plus, I didn't pay full price for ANYTHING!

Ebay for the checkered border, lightswitch, and bedding.

Disney night light lamp was on sale at Fred Meyers, as was the Cars fleece throw.

The decals on the wall (which look super small in these pictures but I assure you, the real life effect is much better) and the curtain came from Amazon.

Posters are from an online company and will be framed with inexpensive frames from Michaels.

There is only one more thing we are waiting for - A tire toy box from Little Tikes!

I am still debating a bookshelf and I haven't given up the glider yet because I still like rocking my boy when we read every night.

BUT we have the makings of a big boy room and Alexander loves it!

And this great Mickey Mouse canvas painting that WAS hanging in Alexander's room?

Take a guess where it hangs now!
(guess you'll have to come by and find out!)