As promised, pictures from music class.

Background: There’s a program called “Music Together” which runs 10-week courses. It’s a 45-minute class, and we sing different songs (some with coordinating movements) and play with the various musical instruments. Or, in Alexandra’s case, try to eat the various musical instruments. She really enjoys the classes–BIG smiles and lots of giggles. Since I’m holding her or she’s sitting in my lap, it’s hard to get pictures, but here are a few. Next week, Ian is going to join for class, so hopefully we’ll have much more cuteness on film (or perhaps even video!) then.

Mmmm … rainstick. (January 17th)

This bell looks tasty! (January 24th)

Hmm … this vintage seems to be aging well. (Teacher Michael is in the background; January 31st)

Mom, where’s something I can eat? (January 17th)

All tuckered out after a morning of music. (February 7th)

No, Alexandra isn’t a bionic woman (though she is pretty fantastic)…I got a new laptop!! As those who’ve been following the blog may recall, my old laptop was showing its age and it finally hit the wall last week. I officially maxed out the hard drive and could no longer sync my phone or camera. Which meant no new pictures for the blog! The horror! Clearly, the situation had to be resolved, and quickly.

I’m now styling on a new MacBook Pro with a generous 500GB hard drive, which will hopefully support my photo-taking habit until Alex is at least a few years old.

In the past week and a half, the big news is that I finally connected with a playgroup. Alex LOVES hanging out with other babies, mainly because it involves new toys to steal and other children’s socks. (Yes, she has taken off other babies’ socks. Twice. Not making this up.)

MY maraca! (At her first playgroup, January 28th. Note that it’s not actually her toy.)

We also went to the Peninsula Humane Society last week, as Alex adores animals. While we were checking out the cats, I was holding her and unfortunately don’t have video of her giggling. They also have rabbits as the SPCA, but she didn’t quite know what to make of them. The dogs, however, she was very happy to see.

Doggie! (January 29th)

Can we take him home with us? Pleeeease?

We’ve also been attending Music classes, which Alex seems to like. At the very least, she smiles a lot and enjoys trying to eat all of the musical instruments. We’ll save that cuteness for the next post.

We made it to swim class today, much to Alexandra’s delight. While she always enjoys being in the water, she was quite the little fish today. (I would say she was “on fire” in the water, but that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.) She was splashing and kicking up a storm.

Yay for daddy-daughter time!

Her favorite part of class was the graduation to the “Run, Run, Jump” instead of the normal “slide” into the water. Basically, she held onto Ian and Teacher May’s hands to “walk” on the mat and then jumped into the water. We foresee many cannonballs in our future.

It’s hard to capture her speed on film.

As an extra bonus, our neighbors Mike and Karen joined our swim class. We had mentioned that we went to La Petite Baleen, and it turned our class was the only one with two openings. However, we didn’t realize this until we got to the pool, which made for a fun surprise and a fun impromptu playdate. (With our next-door neighbors. 10 miles from home. Let’s all ignore the irony and just enjoy the moment.)

With our neighbors Karen and Mike (holding their twins, Sienna and Easton).

The milestones keep on coming … Alexandra has graduated to the “big kid” highchair at restaurants.

First highchair, at Jack’s of couse. Bonus: fun cup to eat. (January 18th)

We also finally set up the highchair at home, now that we’ve finally put the Christmas tree away. (Thanks again to Aunt Corrine for the snazzy chair!)

Just before the inaugural meal. (January 23rd)

… and after said meal …

And a bonus picture. Alex and I surprised Ian at LeapFrog the other week and went out for lunch:

Daddy-daughter. This picture melts me. (January 10th)

The title would flow better on Friday, but I didn’t want to wait that long to post.

Not many new pictures this week, so here’s a blast from the past (i.e., last month). I realized that I never posted pictures from when Ruth and Jack (Nana and Granddad, Ian’s parents) visited in December. They swung by San Mateo after Annie and Nicole’s wedding in Seattle. (When you live in Florida, Seattle to San Mateo is pretty close.) Also, a few pictures from Alex’s 5-month birthday. The picture was a Christmas gift for Grams and Grandpa*, hence the delay in posting.

Happy Alex, post-bottle. Thanks to Nana and Granddad for baby-sitting while they were in town! (December 18th)

Granddad introduces Alexandra to the wide world of Apple.

At brunch. Great shot of Miss A’s big blue eyes.

Cutest cheerleader ever. (December 19th)

Alex’s “what’chu talkin’ ’bout, Willis?” face.

Alexandra has been babbling for a while now, but in the last few days, she started saying “da.” Specifically, she tends to say “ah-da!” which seems to mean either (a) dog, (b) cat, (c) look at me, (d) now, or (e) none of the above. We’re not quite sure. And, in heart-melting moments, she sometimes will say “dada,” though not yet while looking at Ian.

In other news, Bo seems to have completely accepted Alex’s version of “petting,” which consists of her patting him a few times, then grabbing his fur while giggling gleefully.

Great shot of Alex sitting up. (I put her in the position; she can’t quite get there on her own yet.) I especially like the look on Bo’s face here. This is when he starts to cave.

We are very lucky that Bo is a very patient dog.

Bo has surrendered.

Another milestone this week: Alexandra can sit up unassisted. Granted, she can’t get there on her own, but once we sit her up, she can stay that way (until she lunges for something).

We’ll try to get a worthwhile picture of said milestone. In the meantime, enjoy these pics of Alex’s first trip to the dog park (on December 28th). She LOVED the dog park and giggled for about five minutes straight upon arrival.

All giggles.

Hi doggie!

Bo also enjoyed his time at the park.

Impromptu tummy time.