the big 1-5 (months, that is!)

For some reason I just haven't been able to find the motivation to do this post, but I must. Our faithful readers would be devastated if I waited any longer, I'm sure. Ha.

On Sunday, Alexander hit the 15 month mark. We don't have his next doctor appointment until mid-January, so again, no weight, height or head stats. You'll have to settle for our observations and cute pictures like this one:

this boy turns into a different person when you take his clothes off! Totally naked is his favorite, but has resulted in too many wet spots, if you know what I mean!

On with the post.

It's always difficult for me to look back at the month and try to remember what's new and different because life just kind of flows together. It seems like he's always been doing the things he's been doing, even if yesterday was the first time he did it. Does that make any sense?

So, language is still the big deal around here. He learns new words at a crazy pace and it's so awesome to watch/listen. Like "brush." The other day we were in the bathroom and he saw a brush and started saying "brush" and smoothing out his hair with his hand. When I gave him the brush, he did it to himself with that and then brushed my hair. And every time he sees a coffee mug, he says "coffee cup" in a way that would need to be interpreted, but it's definitely what he's saying. And when he sees steam, he says "hot." And on and on and on. And maybe these examples seem insignificant to other people, but man, we are so proud of him and that brain God has blessed him with!

There's no upward mobility yet, but for what it's worth, we are finding comfort in knowing that he is fully capable, he just doesn't want to. He gets around very efficiently and apparently sees no need to walk. So, we're just thankful that there's nothing physical stopping him from it. And from time to time we realize that life is going to be insanely different once he is solely walking. So we're enjoying this time now.

A few fun things that happened this month:

-We took a family trip 3+ hours east to visit our friends Dan & Diane (my college roommate & maid of honor!) and we had a great time! The visit was far too short, but it held me over until the next time we get to see them. Alexander even said "Diane" which was so cool!

Here they are looking into the oven, turning the light on and off. She was a GREAT playmate!

And Alexander and I went to a cookie swap this past Monday with a few girls (and some of their girls!) from our old church. Mmm. What a great idea! And a fun time, too!

We have no pictures to document the occasion, but we got to celebrate our friend Ryan's graduation from SUNY Oswego AND his birthday all on the same day! Here's a "throwback" picture of Ryan, Scott & Alexander from this past February. He's a great friend and we're so proud and excited for him to have that college degree!


And now for what you've all been waiting for:

Pointing to, not picking, his nose!

bathtime with his new Noah's Ark bath toy from Granny (the new "official" name for Scott's mom)!

looking, with wonder, at the Christmas tree. He's been pretty great so far about not touching it!

the mouse and keyboard, on the other hand, he'll grab whenever we turn our backs or forget to shut the door. It seems that his favorite mischief to cause is of the computer variety.

happy to start the process of bundling up for a trip outside. Boots and snowpants are from Lori, a co-worker of mine. They're a few sizes too big, but serve their purpose well!

Well, he WAS happy. Now we just have our own little "Ralphie" on our hands...

eating some of the snow that came in the house from our boots. Don't judge me!

a favorite pose in the highchair.

Ha ha ha! One of Lori's hats was WAY too small for this kid's noggin! Looks a little artsy, I'd say!

just a close-up.

another favorite mischief-causing spot. the Brita pitcher on the top right, that spout has been pulled a time or two. Whoops!

and more mischief. Ripping paper out of a notebook. And he doesn't look too sorry, does he?

sorry for the gross open-mouth shot, but he thought it was SO funny when he realized he could put his finger into the wagon wheel pasta and pick it up that way!

he loves to drink out of a real glass. He may love using a straw more, but I have no photo proof.

And finally, a picture of what happens when Mama's gone.
Papa stuffs a WAY too small apple hat from the LaFayette Apple Festival onto Alexander's head and calls him "a little Christmas apple elf." Poor boy.

Merry Christmas! We hope your celebration of the birth of our savior is a beautiful one!

Love,
The Rezsnyak 3.
(idea taken from the formerly Mangine 5 - now Mangine Many.)

hooded towels

It's Stephanie. Again. Looking for recommendations. Again.

I'm on the hunt for a really great hooded towel for Alexander. I want something thick and absorbent and good quality.

Is there anybody that just LOVES their hooded towel for their kids? If so, where can I get one?

month numero fourteeno

We are having SO MUCH FUN being parents to this little boy! He makes us laugh a gazillion times every day!

Here's a sneak peek into some of things happening in his/our life lately:

Here at my parent's house we change him on a changing pad on a spare twin bed in his room. His favorite thing these days is to roll off the changing pad when he's diaper free and bask in the glory of his nakedness. He starts giggling like a mad man and usually sprawls out on the pillows striking model poses or stands up to look out the window, bare lower half for all to see. (Good thing we live in the country...) This boy absolutely loves being naked!

He's doing great with eating lately, mostly eating what we eat. Potato soup, pizza, grilled cheese, tuna noodle casserole. I still bring a jar of baby food with us when we go somewhere that I don't know what we're eating. It's a sure thing that he'll eat it and I'd rather feed him and make sure he's not a cranky guest than try to figure out what he might eat where we are. I recognize I need to start weaning off of that process soon...

I'm pretty sure that the mystery of why Alexander hasn't taken his first steps yet has been solved. On Friday night we were spending time with friends of ours and they had some sort of push and walk toy from their 2+ year old daughter. We had Alexander give it a shot and he thought it was the best thing ever! He took right off and was all smiles.

Then it clicked!

He LOVES pushing his stroller in the same way (throws a really nasty fit when we have to stop). And that's pretty much the only opportunity that we ever give him to stand up and get the feeling of walking on his own. I do things like lining our dining room chairs up so he can go back and forth and he definitely does the cruising thing around all of the furniture, but we didn't invest in any independent walk-encouraging toys for him. So, in came the one toy I totally forgot all about that's been sitting on the porch for months:

(FYI - this is a random photo from the internet because we're down a camera at the moment)

I've got to imagine that now that we've figured out the error of our ways, he'll be walking in no time! You can be sure the next kid will be up and at 'em by the time he's 2 months old! Just kidding, obviously.

His vocabulary and comprehension is, to be honest, a little bit shocking to us. I have to brag on my boy for a minute here and just say that he's making up for not walking by being a pretty big genius of a baby. Not only is he able to point to tons of things and identify them (both solicited and unsolicited), he also clearly understands a lot of concepts and which noises go with certain things/actions/animals, etc. We are amazed by his brain more and more every day.

And now for the most fun part of any blog post:

We didn't do the trick or treating thing, but Nana got him this Scooby Doo gear for the day!

pointing the way on our Mama and son trip to Highland Forest

one of his first couple days in the car seat facing forward. I LOVE being able to see him!

guitar lessons start early for Rezsnyak children

Papa and son sharing a chocolate chip cookie bar. Mmm!

our sweet sleeping boy. This is a pretty common position for him when we go in to check on him every night.

really into watching Sid the Science Kid (best show EVER!) in Grandpa's chair

Alexander, Mama and Great Grandpa Irwin.
Checking out the progress on our land!

Grandma and Grandpa Borek and Papa, the deforestation crew, taking a MUCH deserved Mickey D's break!

this is how Nana spent her time at a baby shower - the boy put her to work!

flipping through the Wegmans ad on the coffee table

the only picture I got from a visit with cousins Theo and Luke (and their mom, Jess!)

a typical messy face when he "helps" serve himself food

he has a strange tolerance, perhaps even like for the coon skin hat we brought back from Alaska.

Man, he's cute!

doctor, doctor...

give me the news!

This is Stephanie again. And this post is NOT about Alexander. Weird, right? (His 14 month post is due to be published in just under a week, though)

I'm soliciting recommendations for a primary care doctor for myself. Scott has one. Alexander has one. I haven't had one since I was in high school and I don't want to go back to her.

If you like your doctor, I'd love to hear about it! Two things that are non-negotiable: I'm looking for a female doctor and she needs to be in the central New York area.

Bring on the opinions!

13 months

Our little guy's personality is coming through more and more every day and it's hysterical to watch! He's becoming sneaky and funny and remains curious and observant of everything around him.

Earlier this week we went to The Hollow, a pumpkin farm-ish type of place near OCC. They have a bunch of "barnyard animals" (alpaca, pigs, mini pony, goats, etc.) and Alexander's face didn't change the whole time we were looking at them. They came up to the fence, pretty close to him, and he just watched. No smiles, no squeals, just looking. That seems to be his approach to most things. He takes the world in!

He's talking a ton and has a good list of words that I can understand, anyway:

mama, papa, nana, duck, on, water, car, tractor and cracker (which sound exactly the same coming from him) and a bunch of animal sounds. He's also really great at mimicking. I'm glad to know that all of the talking I do with/to him all day long seems to be paying off!

He is still doing the "cruising" bit, going all around the furniture and anything he can find to climb up on. The other day he was a regular old Spiderman, clinging to the walls and going from closed door to closed door. We've been saying for months that walking will be right around the corner, but who knows. There's something about letting go that seems to be a little too scary for him still.

He's had 4 teeth (2 top, 2 bottom) for a while and it's super cute now that you can really see them when he smiles. There's another one coming in and it's doing a number on him. Poor little man!

We're really enjoying the crisp weather and being outside. We're trying to take walks and just get outdoors to take in the beautiful colors of fall! We've also been going to a sing along/storytime at the Dewitt library every week for kids up to 18 months. That's been a nice outing and a really great chance for me to watch Alexander in action. We leave him in the church nursery each Sunday, but I don't get to see what and how he does, so I love this! He generally has no interest in any of the toys or books or other kids. He usually roams the perimeter of the room and examines things like the stack of metal chairs and the wheels on the strollers from all of the kids. And during the songs and stories, he still just takes it all in, not knowing what to think of the silliness!

Our (my) big question this month pertains to food. What can I feed this boy?! I've heard that toddlers go through stages of not having much of an appetite, but I really want to pack an at least semi-nutritional punch with what food he does eat. So I welcome your ideas. He seems to love toast and all things in the bread/cracker family, but I don't want to turn him into a carb addict like his mother. He does okay with yogurt, broccoli and most any fruit although...

...another issue. He mostly doesn't chew anything that doesn't slide down easily. He squirrels it away and then stuffs his mouth SO full that he ends up getting frustrated and whiny because he won't just spit it out. It's a battle for us to help him get the log jam out of there and then the process just starts over once his mouth is clear. Could it be that he doesn't want to chew with the new tooth coming through?

Anyway, I'd seriously love suggestions for the food situation.

I'll leave you with a "few" pictures (I should make it clear that I KNOW I always put too many pictures in these updates. I have a terrible time picking and choosing!).

a close up of Alexander's first fat lip!

and his first pony ride at the Apple Fest!

Lumberjack Alexander, all bundled up for a morning of work at our new land!

the boys, watching a Yankees game

not quite sure what to think of this goat.

or this gorilla, but I guess I'll shake his hand!

Yeah, this one looks good, Mom!

a new favorite "toy" (the stick vacuum)

and a new favorite pose (arms crossed - not sure where he got this one from!)

a view of the 2 top teeth (and the whole rest of the inside of his mouth, too!)

a very skeptical boy who doesn't know what to do with these crunchy leaves.

thinking on a rock.

Thanks for caring enough about our son to read this!

12 months = 1 year = WOW!

This Sunday marked the big "1" for our baby boy! We had a party to celebrate and I unfortunately only have 1 picture to commemorate the occasion. There's a video of Alexander being sung to and being presented with his cupcake, but I can't get it from the camera to the computer, so...1 picture from the party will have to do.

First, the stats from his doctor's appointment yesterday:

height: 30.75 in (80th percentile)
head circumference: 47.5 cm (80th percentile)
weight: 20.8 lbs (20th percentile)

Doctor said he looks great and is very pleased with all aspects of growth, which makes mama and papa pleased, too!

He is such an incredible kid and we are so, so in love with him.

Onto the pics:

squeezing the life out of his carrot cupcake!

just laughing!

making sure the apples are good at Deer Run Farms with Nana

not the best quality picture, but a glimpse at his birthday morning pjs. Aren't they ridiculously cute?

Tooting a Corn Horn!

that's just corn on my face - no need to get grossed out (Uncle ANDY!)

I can yell just as loud as you can, Papa!

all bundled up for a walk

opening birthday presents from Nana & Gramps (No, they don't both have lazy eyes - they were looking above the camera at me while Scott took the picture!)

I had to take this just to show off this hysterical article of clothing. It turns out I have a thing for pajamas, I guess!

Hooray! Babies on the kitchen floor with pots and utensils - the best!

Oh, you know. Just thought I'd hang out here naked on the windowsill before bed...


We were having fun splashing around in water for a while when Alexander decided to try out the drinking style of a dog. It doesn't look like I have to worry about him lapping up the rest of meals...


Just a quick video of our boy doing his thing.

In other news - Alexander has his first 1st cousin! Aunt Lexi gave birth to Brayden Alexander Wednesday morning! Welcome to the world, Brayden! We love you already! (we'll post pictures after we get some!)

Thanks for sharing in the joys of our son!

Until next post...