Alex's Birthday

I really cannot believe my baby is now TWO! Brett and I were talking about how it seems like only yesterday he was our little baby, and is now more like a little boy. He has been such an easy child, and loves his family. We spent some time at Grandma Deb's celebrating his birthday last Sunday, and had a small family celebration at home on the 21st. We all went to the Training Table restaurant for dinner and enjoyed the guilty pleasure of burgers and fries smothered in cheese sauce - mmmm, it was yummy! After dinner, we came home and opened his gifts. It was fun to watch him, because he can actually tear open the wrapping paper and enjoy what is inside.

Here he is in "the birthday chair" opening a present from Grandma Cindy, and holding out Grandma Judy's $2.00 dollars (which will go to replenishing Alex's marble collection). Alex just loves carrying around marbles, and I can often find them rolling around the van, stuffed into his pockets, and in every nook in our home!
After opening two of his gifts, both Baby Einstein books, he had to take a few minutes to "read" through them. I truly think that we own every Baby Einstein book ever made. It is a true passion for him!
He got a vacuum from Grandma Deb, and loves helping me clean the house.
Another Alex favorite is Hammy Mammy (or Handy Manny as he is known on Playhouse Disney). Daddy bought Alex the Talking Handy Manny with all of the tools. He really loves playing with him, and even wanted to take him to bed, but he is HARD plastic, so we had Handy Manny wait for Alex to wake up in the morning on the floor by his bed!
Another fun gift was a package of Pops - the little wrappers you throw on the ground and they make a little explosion. What Alex really enjoyed, was throwing them at McKaleigh, Colton and Daddy!
When no one would let him throw pops at them anymore, he opted to sit on the porch and throw them at the potato bugs crawling across the porch.

Alex also really likes playing with his squirt gun - from Grandma Deb- but has a hard time getting the water out. He likes mommy to squirt him right in the mouth with it!

Another fun gift was this bubble lawnmower. He loves pushing it all over, grass or no grass, it's fun!
Daddy and I thought it would be fun to get these paint crayons for the tub! Even McKaleigh has enjoyed playing with them! As you can see, we may have a future artist in the making!
All in all, it was a pretty low key year for our little boy. Following this bath, we will find him enjoying a favorite activity - watching the opening songs to his most watched shows on YouTube (Hot Dog, WonderPets, Little Einsteins, and of course Handy Manny) before bedtime. I just cannot believe this is the last of our little Cushings - growing up so very fast! I guess everyone has a new puppy to look forward to!