Can We Go to the Jungle?

Yesterday Alex asked several times if we could go to the jungle. I told him there aren't any jungles in the Chicago area, but that we'd go to the zoo when the weather gets warmer. I asked him what lives in the jungle and he said "giraffes, monkeys, snakes, flowers, grass, kids, cars and Scooter". So, we turned his train tent into a jungle with his stuffed animals and Scooter. It was too crowded to take a picture, but you get the idea.

Today he asked to go to the beach...I second that request!!

Here's a photo of Alex playing on his new street carpet. It has train tracks, roads, lakes, and buildings on it and is perfect for him to drive on. I found it at a local church baby sale last Saturday and it had hardly been used.

A Good Sport

"Mom, Scooter needs a hat too". Of course, Scooter immediately thought it was something to eat.

Repetition, Repetition, Repetition

Driving home from dinner the other night, Alex began singing along to his CD in the car. We have had this CD in the car for as long as I can remember (a year or more) and he loves listening to "5 Little Monkeys Jumping On the Bed". Imagine our surprise when he started singing along to all the little songs on here. It was very cute, and he operated on about only a 5 second delay with the rest of the song :)

We also fall into these ruts where Alex wants to read the same 3 books over and over again at bedtime. Well, now he reads them back to us! I guess he has just memorized what each page says. Although, today I asked him "What can you do with a new baby?" and he replied "you can cuddle it, rock it to sleep, let it pull your nose, or take it for a walk to show my friends". These are the same answers given in the Mercer Mayer book "The New Baby". We decided to start reading that book because our neighbor's new baby is going to be joining us on Fridays and Alex hasn't had a ton of exposure to new babies.

40 Degree Drop

It is supposed to drop 40 degrees this afternoon and start precipitating. However, this morning when we went out it was surprisingly "warm". We'll plan to stay in during the great temperature drop!

Welcome Home!

Alex was so happy to see Daddy last night when he returned from his long trip to D.C.! He even got to stay up extra late to greet Daddy and was up extra early to wake him up :) I decided to break out some vintage photos for this post because they are so cute! Photos are from 8 months (above), 1 month, 9 months, 23 months, and 31 months (current).

My Bird, My Bird

Alex really likes the movie Happy Feet so for Christmas we adopted a penguin at the zoo. They sent him this plush penguin puppet (which I'm confident was probably half of the adoption fee)and he carries it everywhere. He can't go to bed at night without "my Bird, my Bird". I wonder when kids start to give their animals names. The penguin is "Bird", the teddy bear is "Bear" and his giraffe is, well, "Giraffe".

It is cold today, but at least the sun is shining bright. It is much easier to get motivated to get things done and be happy when the sun is out, even if it is in the single digits.

No Jacket

Even after bundling up in all this gear, Alex continued his daily "no jacket" mantra. We still wrestle him into it, but he's never happy about it. In his defense, I don't like wearing a big jacket either, but I'm not 2 and prone to croup.