Look Who's Cleaning!

Mom caught a monumental moment... Dad cleaning! Oh yeah, Alstan was trying out his new broom too.

Stealing Cookies

Today Aunt Nette, Alstan and mom made cookies for Alstan's first birthday. I guess he has decided he likes cookies. Here we caught him on camera with the cookie he stole. (He looked at mom to see if she was watching and then snatched a cookie from the finished batch.)

Having a Ball

Alstan got his first big ball today, and boy was he having a ball with it. Here he had fun chasing it down to hand it back to Aunt Nette. He found it pretty funny later when dad dribbled it in front of him.

Drawing

Boy, was the art teacher happy tonight! Alstan made his first "intentional markings" tonight. He was watching what he was drawing and interested in the lines instead of just making noise with the pens or crayons.

When he first started feeding himself we thought for sure he was going to be a lefty, but as you can see in the video, he is still undecided.

Cleaning

Alstan has started to imitate a lot of the things that we do. Here are pictures of Mom teaching him to sweep (notice Dad is taking pictures to get out of cleaning). Next winter, I'm teaching him how to shovel!

With this slide show program you can add the music by clicking on the speaker in the top left corner (the music doesn't automatically play). Also, if you want to see the images without the effects just click on View All Images.

Combing His Hair

Alstan is now combing his own hair and getting out his good smelling lotion to impress everyone he sees. Freshly combed hair and the smell of baby lotion is irresistible. The last picture is his sexy, on the prowl pose.

Blankie

It seems that Alstan has attached himself to his blanket. It is usually the blanket that is in the crib, but we had to wash it. When mom was folding clothes he pulled it out and started playing with it right way. He kept laying his head on it and carrying it around like Linus.

Close Up

Grandpa and Grandma Zielicke

Grandpa and Grandma Zielicke came down to visit Alstan (and his parents too) this weekend. Stan suggested a restaurant near Dodgeville for us to eat at which Jessie and I had never heard of. It's pretty sad when someone two hours away knows of better places to eat than we do.

The Moon Walk

Here is Alstan doing his version of the moon walk. He can only do it when his socks are off though otherwise he can't get the friction needed to scoot himself backwards. It's a short little clip, and I'll try to get a better one of him later.

Walk This Way

We got the video camera back just in time to record Alstan walking all over the house. This is all video from today (Feb. 9). In the last two days he has decided to take off all over the house. He gets up and goes again and again and again.

If your video loads slowly just click pause and wait for the whole bar to fill up (Grandma Van when she gets back to dial-up). Then you can go to other web pages while you wait for it to load.

It's a Man Purse...

...or a men's European shoulder bag (with a pink flower) maybe. Seriously, when we took the picture of Alstan with Amie's purse, it wasn't the best picture as he was getting sick. Here are some that are much more fun. He's been walking all over the house today. He is definitely becoming a full time walker. He is going all the way across the room and in to other rooms. It's so much fun having a snow day with him!

11 Months

Here's a little progression of Alstan walking. He can go about half way across the room now and usually falls because he's trying to run to get there.

For his 11 month birthday present he got a special treat: pink eye. He has been getting sick every other week it seems. Hopefully this will be the last one for a while.

Xylaphone

Alstan got a xylaphone as a present too. He really likes playing it. It may be one of his favorite toys already (it still doesn't beat Dad's remote though).

Dr. Dunk

Here's Alstan dunking on his new hoop from his Aunt Megann, Zach, and Brittany. He was a natural and knew what to do right away. Dunk It! It's supposed to be a tub toy, and we tried it there too, but we've also put it up on the oven and mirror.

More pictures to come this weekend. Stay tuned!

Hamming It Up

Here's Alstan showing off for the camera!

He's feeling better this week and back to smiling and walking/running everywhere. He's walked about half way across the living room on his own now. He also loves eating by himself and tries all kinds of new foods now. For breakfast he has Cheerios, bananas, and yogurt with Mom. Man, is he ever growing up quickly.