Surprises

Alec is constantly surprising us. Here are some recent experiences.

Nap Surprise - Alec has started getting out of his bed during nap/bed time. We give him 1 chance then we tell him we'll have to take away his blanket/ci-ci if he gets out of bed again. Most of the time that works, but sometimes we actually have to follow through. The other day after giving him his 1 chance, I didn't hear anything for a while so I assumed he fell asleep. Charlie started crying an hour or so later so I run up to take him out of the room before he wakes up Alec, and Alec is no where to be seen. I start to panic a bit and look around upstairs. I find him like this on our bed.

I should have known. One of Alec's favorite spots to go on his nap/bedtime escapades is our bed. He lifts up the curtains and watches the activity out on our playground. I guess this time, it wasn't entertaining enough and he fell back on our pillows to sleep. I'm not sure if the green pillow fell on him or if he put it there. Either way its cute. (Yes, I checked to make sure he was breathing before running downstairs to grab the camera).

Movie Surprise - Alec likes to watch movies. His favorites are Caillou, Berenstain Bears, Harold and the Purple Crayon, and now Madeleine. Actually these are all TV shows but we get them on DVD from the library. They are gentle, simple, short and entertaining. Chris and I think he watches them just barely shy of too much, but Alec of course, thinks he doesn't get enough movie time. This morning I was getting dressed/putting Charlie down for a nap while Chris was showering and I left Alec downstairs sitting at the computer watching his cousin's Andrew's recent-est blog movie of him singing, "Take me out to the Ball Game." All Alec has to do is push the space bar and the movie repeats. Mid-change I thought I heard a man's voice and some children laughing. I thought maybe the neighbors were watching TV really loud and I finish changing. Chris gets out of the shower and notices the noise too. We decide it needs to be checked out and we go downstairs to find this.

Alec is watching our newest library "movie" Madeleine, on the computer. Looking around I wondered if someone (any of our neighbor friends) had stopped by and Alec coerced them into putting on a movie and so they obliged and sneaked back out of our house and disappeared. Ok, that sounds a little crazy but so does the only other option: Alec did it himself. Then I notice the little chair right next to our entertainment center where we keep our Library movies, and I remember how yesterday, Alec was playing with the computer's CD/DVD Rom drive, pushing the button and watching the thing slide in and out. Apparently Alec went outside to grab a chair, used it to reach the library movies, opened the case, took out the DVD, put the case back!, went over to the computer, pushed the DVD-Rom button, put the DVD in, closed it, waited for it to load(here I'm guessing it had an auto-play feature... there is NO WAY Alec knows how to use the mouse to double click correctly), and then climbed in the chair to bask in the animated glory of all his hard work.

Not to be out-down by his older brother, Charlie surprised us this week by crawling up a stair for the first time. Actually, make that a whole flight of stairs. Good thing I was watching and good thing the camera was a foot away so I didn't have to leave Charlie to get a picture and video of it. Video coming soon.