While I’d never call our daughter a pig, she is ridiculously happy playing in the mud.

At the park down the street, there’s a sand pit with a “water feature” (a fancy way of saying that you can press a button and have water pour out). At times, the water can overwhelm the sand, much to Alexandra’s joy on September 2nd.

(You don’t need to have the audio on to enjoy this, though you will miss her laugh at the end. You can also hear Ian and me in the background, commenting that we plan to show this to her future dates.)

Rather than continuing to wait for inspiration to strike, I’m just going to post some cute pictures. Enjoy!

Chilling with her buddy Myles. We intend to keep this picture for their college days. (August 8th)

Alexandra’s first time at bat (we were at AT&T Park for the Giants-Cubs game). She’s still learning the finer points of the game. (July 28th)

Granddad let Alex play with his phone while he was visiting. (July 18th)

Last picture of Alex at her birthday party. Someone was just a wee bit tired. (July 20th)

Heading home in style. (July 28th)

The creative juices are moving slowly these days. Perhaps I should switch to whole milk like Alexandra, as she seems to have LOTS of energy. 🙂

Yes, she’s done with formula (hooray!) and we’ve switched entirely to cow’s milk. Some other mini-milestones:

• “Kisses” us (vs. just slobbering)
• Has added the words hi, book, and ball (though the last two aren’t quite there yet, we know what she means)
• Loves stacking blocks (and knocking them down)
• Puts things into containers…parenting WIN! Now we can play the “pick-up game”!
• Signs “more” for food.
• Is entirely on sippy cups

And, as promised, some cuteness:

Double fisting the sippies. (Hanging out at Myles’ house, July 23rd)

Ha! I closed the door. Myles is suspicious of this development. (July 23rd)

Aha! OPEN door! (Alex really enjoys Myles’ playhouse. July 23rd)

First time with long noodles. (July 24th)

With Alex’s first birthday only a few days away, we’re truly realizing the meaning of “the days are slow, but the years are fast.” We still can’t believe that she’s almost a year old, although she has been racking up the milestones, big and small.

She:

• Is quite the walker, with only occasional “Frankenstein” moments.
• Has a solid handle on these words: Dada, Mama, dog, cat, bye-bye. She communicates much more, but those are actual words.
• “Reads” books on her own. (Flips the pages and, most of the time, the book is even right-side up. And for her favorite book, she’ll make some sounds. Unsurprisingly, her favorite book is Doggies: A Counting and Barking Book.)
• Interacts with books…for instance, she pats the bunny, puts her finger through Mummy’s ring, etc.
• Has mastered finger foods and is starting to use the spoon on her own.
• Waves bye-bye.
• Puts Mega Blocks together. And she can certainly take them apart.

We have pics of some of said milestones, and others are just for fun. Enjoy!

Mmmm…yogurt. I ate it all on my own! [Editor’s note: Some of it actually did make it into her mouth.] (July 7th)

Reading the Doggies book. And, yes, those are Christmas PJs. She’s already wearing her 18M clothes. (July 8th)

Future engineer. (June 26th)

Wonder Woman and her faithful dog. (At the neighborhood Fourth of July parade)

Swimming! (July 14th)

First time at the sandbox in the park. Yay sand! (July 9th)

Baby’s first mac-n-cheese. At Homeroom, of course. (June 26th)

First petting zoo. (At the San Mateo County Fair, June 16th)

Checking out a new ride. [Editor’s note: She does not have this car. She just was entranced by another kid’s car at the park. Thankfully, she did not try to hotwire it.] (July 7th)

Exploring the big-kid slide with Daddy. (July 9th)

Taking Myles’ new wagon out for a spin. (July 10th)

Beating the heat. (July 2nd)

Artsy shot. (June 26th)

I know this is a blurry pic, but the look on her face still cracks me up. (At Gymboree, July 2nd)

Can I help you with something? (At Gymboree, June 28th)

On our way to the county fair! (June 16th)

We’re very fortunate to have my parents so close by, as they see Alexandra on a regular basis. With Ian’s parents in Florida, it was a nice treat for Alexandra to see her Nana a few weeks ago. And we’re definitely looking forward to Alex’s birthday next week (!!!) when all of the grandparents will be together!

Post-brunch snuggle with Nana. (June 23rd)

Grandpa has brushed off his swing-pushing skills. (July 1st)

Whatcha gonna have for lunch, Grams? (May 23rd)

A small glimpse into the lives of the smaller McCulloughs. While Alex and Bo are the primary focus in the video, you can also see Bugsy in the background, ignoring both of them.

There’s a lot of cuteness in this video…enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvvXSOeQA78

As I’ve mentioned, we joined Gymboree last month. For the uninitiated, Gymboree “Play & Music” is basically a giant romper room. They have weekly “classes” which is more-or-less directed playtime (I suspect it becomes more directed as the kids get older). In addition to the weekly classes, we can also go to “open gym” which is basically a way to kill some time in an air-conditioned room where Alex can run around and tire herself out. Here are some of the highlights from the past few weeks:

Walking on the net for the first time. And, yes, that’s the Swedish Chef on her shirt. (May 28th)

Her continued love affair with bubbles. Note the one on the top of her head. (May 28th)

Pensive Alex. (June 4th)

Open Gym time with Grandpa. (June 7th)

It’s great. To be. A Michigan Wolverine. (June 11th)

Ha! My ball! (June 21st)