ELEVEN months old!

It's hard to imagine that Alexander is nearly a year old. Just a few more weeks! We have certainly had a fun month with him. He is walking a lot more now. Matt and I play with him on the floor and he will walk back and forth across the room between us with a big grin on his face. He's the king of cheesy grins, and they make our hearts melt!

Of course with walking comes a lot of other things. He now knows that he can open all of the cupboards and drawers and pull everything out. He can put the shapes into his shape sorter toy all by himself (even the hard ones!). He figured out how to unscrew the lid to his teething tablets, which he really likes, last night while daddy and I were talking. THAT was exciting. He only got 12 though, and poison control said that a kid could eat the whole bottle (125) and only have a tummy ache because it is a very safe product. ANYways...

In the mornings we have to pull up all of the blinds because if we don't I'm sure he will pull them off the wall. We officially figured out how to strap the fireplace shut so that he can't get into the ashes. Yuck. One day he ate a bit of coal (cold of course) and I had to wash it out of his mouth, which took forever. That was the end of the fireplace. : )

He is STILL wearing 12-2T clothes (depending on the brand), the same size he's been wearing for months now. He is really loosing a lot of his baby fat, and so quickly. He's getting taller, I can tell by how long his pants are on him, but he is just such a skinny waisted little guy.

He has seven teeth still, but he is going through another teething stint on both sides of his mouth, so we'll see where he is at after this run. Luckily I don't think it's his molars yet. Hopefully it won't be until he's about one and a half until he gets those.

What to do for a birthday party? I am at a loss. I would love to have everyone come over and have a party but I don't know what to do for someone so little. Maybe a birthday party for a baby is more for the parents than for the baby. I don't know. I bet he'd be pretty interested in unwrapping them, and he would definately enjoy toys and books... so who knows. Anyone who has fun ideas for a little guy, they would be most welcomed.

The weather has definately turned COLD the last week or two. BRR!!! I am ready to go buy some warmer clothes. It's been windy here the last few days and I realized that Alexander hates the wind as much as I do. It's pretty comical actually, he is SO dramatic about it : )

Last weekend was really fun because we got to go to a children's pastor conference and that was AMAZING!!! We learned SO many good things. I am exicted to download the podcasts and be able to listen to all of the classes. We had to choose a few out of a list of ones to go to, and I wanted to hear them ALL and now I can! It's a great feeling to learn how to best teach a child about God by your own example and to equip other parents to do the same. You can't just teach a kid head knowledge, if they don't learn how to live a life of worship themselves, they will reject it every time. I've seen it over and over!

Parents nowadays seem so ill prepared to be an example to their children at home. It's like the philosophy that if I want my child to be good at piano, I take them to a piano teacher. If I want them to be a good baseball player than I take them to a baseball coach, if I want them to be a "good Christian" then I take them to church. It doesn't work that way!!!

I pray that parents everywhere would realize that they have to make a conscious effort every day to live a life pleasing to Christ in everything they say and do as an example to their children. More is at stake than they realize.