Surfergeeks

On Saturday night it was the Santa Claus Parade here in London. Rob, Alex and Grandma (Andrea) all went. My parents had also wanted to go, but my mom ended up getting sick that day so they couldn’t make it. They had really wanted to go seeing as this was Alex’s first Parade.

We got there early in order to be able to sit right at the front. But then we had to deal with waiting. This was no fun for Alex. I was able to keep him happy for a while by just letting him walk back and forth along the sidewalk. Then it started to get a little crowded as it got closer to Parade time. When I got back to our spot, Alex did not want to sit and he started fussing. Andrea bought him a windmill toy which helped keep his attention for a while. He’s even playing with it a lot here at home. And shortly after that, the Parade started.

We are all pretty sure Alex loved it. He would just stare at the lights of the passing floats. He would sometimes dance to the beat of the marching bands. He even started waving back by the end of the parade. It was very cute when he started doing it, especially since he’s never been one for waving. He was also given lots of treats by the members of the parade. We know Alex loved it because for pretty much the last half hour you could see how tired Alex was getting. He hadn’t napped during the afternoon and it was getting close to bedtime. You could see that he was forcing his eyes open to watch every minute of it.

I’m definitely glad we went. And this will definitely be a great family tradition to have every year. Hopefully, my parents will be able to make it to the next one.

So this past Friday we were doing our weekly Costco spree and what did they have there? Pop Shoppe pop! For those of you that are old enough, you may remember The Pop Shoppe. It was a place founded here in London where you would go to buy pop. They did all the bottling on site and sold it directly to the customer. You would go in, pick up an empty plastic case and fill it with your choice of flavours. If I remember correctly they had around 20-30 flavours of pop including Black Cherry, Cream Soda, and Lime Rickey.

Well, around the mid ’80s Pop Shoppe fell on hard times and closed. It turns out that in 2004 a guy resurrected the brand. Apparently Sam’s Club started selling it last year but this is the first time I’ve seen it in Costco. Unfortunately, the “choose your own flavours” method has gone the way of the dinosaur. A case of 24 355ml bottles is $9.99. You get 6 flavours. Yeah, it’s a premium price but the case I bought was pure nostalgia. I certainly wouldn’t be buying it again at that price, but the trip down memory lane was definitely worth the price.

Well, I’m not 100% certain, but I think Alex can say a word.  Andrea seems to think so as well, and she mentioned that when she asked Rob if he thinks it’s a word, he agreed that it might be.

Anyway, I think Alex can say “Thank-you.”  Of course it comes out more like, “ta-ta” or something like that.  But he says this every time we give him something and I tell him to say “Thank-you.”

Okay all you whiners. I just uploaded a whole bunch of (LONG OVERDUE) new pics. These pics cover pretty much May through October. Needless to say, I didn’t post every picture that I took – only the best ones. Enjoy! There’s 76 of ‘em.

The link is in the right hand column near the bottom of the list. Or, if you’re really lazy, just click here.

Wow, another month has gone by.  I’m already 14 months old!  Of course, they seem to be going a little slow now.  That’s because Christmas is right around the corner and I can’t wait for PRESENTS!!

Anyway, here’s how I’m doing.

By the end of this month, I SHOULD be able to…

*walk well – yup
*bend over and pick up an object – yup
*use at least 1 word – bah, still nothing truly recognizable yet.

…will PROBABLY be able to:

*use 2 words – can’t use one, so can’t use two.
*drink from a cup – sippy cups are fun!  But mommy and daddy need to get me more, I only have 3 right now.
*scribble – I have once.
*point to a desired object – nope, not yet.

… may POSSIBLY be able to:

*point to one body part when asked – both grandmas are still working on this with me.
*use a spoon/fork – I do, sorta.  I hold it and put it in the food, but I’m not really good at picking any food up.  I also put it in my mouth, but again, there isn’t usually any food on it.
*build a tower of 2 cubes - yup, I like stacking.  I can also put one object inside another if it fits and then take it out.  I like doing that.

…may even be able to:

*“feed” a doll - I don’t own any dolls, I’m a boy.  I have some stuffed animals, but I don’t try to feed them.