Babies

The last set of pictures from Thanksgiving are my favorite. These are pictures with Serena, who is only a day older than Alstan. She was more aggressive than Alstan trying to play with him. She was screaming and trying to grab him from the beginning. After a while Alstan become more interested though.

It sure was neat to see another baby so close to the same age. You can see that she is bigger than he is.

Cousins

Here's a picture of Great Grandma Akers with all her great grandchildren. Good thing Thomas has dark hair or else it would look like Alstan shouldn't be in the family. Lots of blond hair in there and lots of size that Alstan isn't going to get. He's going to be the runt of the group.

Great Grandma Akers

Here are several pictures with Great Grandma Akers. The last picture in that group is my favorite.

Aunt Amie

We had lots of pictures with Aunt Amie. She fed him prunes, which actually went a lot better than the picture looks. She also got him a little Santa hat and bib. The Santa hat barely fit, but we squeezed it on. I said I wasn't going to let him wear those goofy clothes, but it seems like a loosing battle.

Window

The window at Jim and Stacey's was just Alstan's size. He could stand up and look outside all he wanted. Sorry about all the finger prints!

Thanksgiving Friends

I'm sending out my batch of Thanksgiving photos today. The first set are some Thanksgiving friends from Stacey and Jim's house. We got several photos during the long weekend, but once again took none with Grandma and Grandpa Van. Sorry about that, and next time we'll have to be sure to pose for some pictures. I just don't get it out when we are visiting.

Drying Off

These pictures are for Alstan's cousin, Brittany, who gave him the towel. In the first picture I was trying to show him how to growl and look mean. He hasn't learn that yet, but he's pretty much perfected looking cute as a button.

Phone

Alstan's favorite toy is Dad's phone. I have music on there and he loves to listen to it, shake it, and chew on it if nobody is paying attention.

November Walk

It's not very often that we get such beautiful weather in the middle of November. It was in the mid-50s today so we went for a family walk.

Weekend Posts

It seems we are only good at taking pictures and posting on the weekend. We didn't have any new pictures of Alstan all week. Every weekend we have to work on childproofing something as he is getting around better every day. Last weekend was putting bumpers on the coffee table. Alstan was helping a bit.

Upside Down

More Standing

Here's a video of him standing too. It's not the best quality, but you still get the idea.

Standing

Here is Alstan standing in the living room. He NEVER wants to sit and play anymore. He just wants to stand up and talk or play with something he can hold with one hand. He isn't trying to move around too much yet. In the second photo he's decided to go after the remote, the one thing he'd like to play with most. I think we should buy his Christmas toys now and then just show them to him and not let him play with them. That way when Christmas comes he'll be super excited to finally get his hands on them.

Eating Puffs

Alstan has started eating little puffs for breakfast. It took a few days, but he's doing a much better job of feeding himself now. He's even starting to pinch things with his first finger and thumb. Also, notice which hand he's using to feed himself. There may be another lefty in the family!

Ready for Winter

Alstan is getting ready for winter with his new hat. I just think he's so cute wearing that thing. He doesn't try to pull it off to often either.

Fourth Tooth

If you look close you can see his fourth tooth coming in. You might need to click on the picture to zoom in, but it's there. The top teeth seem to have come in without too much trouble. He's still drooling all over the place, but hopefully that will slow down a little now that he's got this first group of teeth in.

Close Ups

Here are a couple of close up pictures. I'm going to be sending a bunch of pictures and videos up on the blog tonight.

Giggling

Amie, since you get a scowl on your face when I don't post do you laugh like this when I put up lots of posts in a week? For those of you that didn't see, she wrote a comment about it being a week since I posted.

New Halloween Video

This is a longer version of the Halloween video. I didn't know I could make a longer version using this program.

Folding Laundry

Here's Alstan helping Mom fold laundry. Check out our clean house in the background. There are signs of Alstan in every corner of our house.

New Videos

According to Jessie, yesterday was Alstan's golden month birthday. 8 months from March 8. I'll try to get some more pictures up this week, but it's parent/teacher conferences week so they may be kind of slow. This will be the first time he'll have a babysitter come watch him. He's had relatives watch him and he's gone to daycare, but never had a babysitter come watch.

Here are a few videos of Alstan talking and/or screaming.

Alstan's First Halloween

It's not the best video, but it's a free program on the Internet. There's two versions and the second one has a couple less pictures, but doesn't run quite as fast. I like the second one because I like the "mad mouse" picture best and it stays on the screen longer in the second video. I'll post some of the pictures later.

No More Pictures!

A Halloween video is on the way.

Crawling and Standing

He's not doing either on his own yet, but as you can see in the pictures he's getting closer.