First Birthday

We are on our way to the beach to celebrate Little Man's First Birthday! But, we're stopping at the Venezuelan bakery first! Woop Woop!

First birthday gift

Aunt Lori and Aunt Teresa and their families sent Alexander a birthday gift this week and it was his first one ever. We let him open it today before we left for Florida because Aunt Lori said there were fun toys inside. He LOVED opening the gift and seeing what was inside. Now, he has little trucks to take on the plane!!! Thanks everyone!

FLORIDA HERE WE COME! WE'RE COUNTING DOWN!

Tell me this isn't the cutest thing you've ever seen!

The making of a bedroom

Now that Grandma Igsora is gone and birthday #1 is quickly approaching, we decided it was time to fully turn over the spare bedroom to Alexander. It began with the moving of our weight equipment into our room and is now coming to a close with painting and decorating. Thankfully my family has been so awesome and has come down to help us with moving stuff and all the painting. Last weekend Steve, Ricardo, and Shawn moved the weight machine and this weekend Sarah, Shawn, and Noah came down to help again. Friday night Sarah, Mel, and I started painting while Shawn and Ricardo took the boys out to eat ribs. Alexander and Noah just love spending time together. We can see there's going to be a bit of healthy competition between the two of them. During our painting, we ordered pizza and drank wine coolers and had a great time...we're pretty convinced a lot of it had to do with the horrible smell of the primer that was probably making us loopty-loop! Yes, that is a weight belt that Melanie has on. On Saturday Sarah and I did some shopping and picked up some things for his room and then later that day Ricardo, Alexander and I ran to Menards to get blinds and a laser level so I could paint the stripe down the middle. Ricardo taped everything off today and we finished the painting. And, I spent the rest of the day hanging things. Alexander loves the room. He just laughs and smiles everytime he goes in there. We'll be moving his bed in there this week before we leave for Florida but we still have some things to do aside from that. Gotta say, we are looking forward to some rest and relaxation away from home for a few days!

Hat Buddies

Aunt Mel watches Alexander in the evening for a while in between the time that Ricardo leaves for Karate and I get home from work...typically there are pictures being taken like these to document the fun that takes place or at the very least the similarities in their

clothing choices or expressions!

TV with Daddy!

I looked up after downloading all the pics to see Alexander and his daddy watching The Backyardigans together. It was so cute to see him laying there on Ricardo. My two favorite guys in the whole world!!!

First Friend Party...

This weekend Alexander's friend Gracie had her 1st birthday party. He was of course invited because we (the parents) have arranged for him and Gracie to be married some day. So, with gift in hand we headed to Gracie's grandparents to enjoy an afternoon of snack foods and sugar! We had so much fun. Ricardo and I played corn hole and watched Alexander play around in their beautiful yard and of course watched the dozens of kids run around trying to get into trouble. Thankfully, their house is kid friendly...after all they have like 100 grandkids so Alexander could crawl wherever he wanted and everyone enjoyed watching his wildness. Ya, can't keep a little boy down, that's for sure. Gracie was just adorable with her pink shirt and little black tights. Alexander tried to paw at her at one point. We didn't realize just how much of a boy he really was until we saw him around a bunch of babies and got a glimpse of just how not graceful he was climbing over the kids to get to the toys. BRUTE! And, an embarrasing moment occurred for Ricardo and I...Alexander attempted not once but twice to kiss one of the little girls and it wasn't Gracie. Oh, how mortifying! Poor little Sophia didn't know what was coming. He was going in and when we told him to stop he did but went back in for another smooch. I have never felt my face get so hot and Ricardo actually put his head in his hands out of pure embarrasment. Everyone got a good laugh but now Mike, Gracie's dad, has the eagle eye out on Alexander and Melissa, her mom, is rethinking our arrangment. :)

Birthday party at the park

This weekend was my little cousin Noah's second birthday. It was a beautiful day and all the kids had a great time. Alexander had so much fun trying to eat the leaves and hanging out with Noah's dad Shawn. Alexander has really grown to love Shawn which I attribute to the fact that he's a big teady bear. My mom took pics of Melanie and I playing frisbee and enjoying the playground equipment. Fortunately for me, Steve hasn't sent them yet so they're not getting posted...at least today. . Afterwards we went to Shawn and Sarah's and Alexander got to play with the puppies which he absolutely loved!!! Then we picked up our BRUNOS pizza and drove back to Kokomo to eat and play with Grammy and Grampy. They have a ton of toys at their house for Alexander to play with and he was in heaven. He also had a great time playing with Grampy and daddy. Needless to say, the drive home was fairly quite in the backseat. Poor Aunt Mel's entertainment was fast asleep the whole way home!

Funny Moments

Last weekend we went to my mom's to spend some time with the fam. And, to eat the top of my grandparent's anniversary cake. Ricardo and I decided to grab the knife and perform a romantic reinactment of our wedding.

Crazy Driver

By the look on Aunt Mel's face, she is clearly concerned about letting Alexander drive her Jeep the next time!

First time at the beach!

After we left the zoo we decided to head down to the beach on LakeShore. They had a live band playing at the beach restuarant and Alexander was so excited as soon as he heard the music. He was dancing in his car seat before we even got stopped. This was his first trip to the beach and we were so excited. Most people know how much Ricardo and I LOVE the beach. We contimplated staying all night across the street just so we could go back today but decided against it. Alexander loved the sand but wasn't all that cracked up with the water. There were a lot of waves and it was pretty loud...not to mention COLD! Feet were all that saw the water yesterday. Even with the cold water, we were convinced that moving to the beach someday was definately something we were set on doing!!! After we left the beach Ricardo insisted we look for a pizza joint downtown to get the full Chicago experience so I went online on my BlackBerry and found Chino's East. We opted for the large so we could have leftovers today so while we waited we went for a walk for about 45 minutes, bought Alexander a t-shirt, fed him, and then went for our yummy pizza. It was enormous! We instantly thought we'd made a huge mistake on the size. Well, we didn't realize how hungry we actually were. So, we sat in the car and chowed down. We finally headed home around 8:30 our time and after a 3 hour drive we were back in Indy. Alexander slept the whole way home, played for a bit when we got home and then we all fell fast asleep after our busy busy weekend!

At the zoo...

We stayed all night in Ottawa Saturday night which is right next to where Lori and Pete live. But, before we left, we hung out at Pete and Lori's so Ricardo and Pete could have some guy time and play ping pong and Wii. We found out that Alexander loves his uncle Pete. He hung out with him all day and then played with him some more before we headed out on Saturday night. Sunday morning we left for Chicago to go to the Lincoln Zoo. We were very thankful on Sunday that he liked Pete so much because we left his pacifier in the car and while Ricardo ran to get it, Pete entertained him. He wanted nothing to do with me of course...it's always fun when it's someone else. We all had so much fun watching the kids play and having such a great time.