While a comparison may not be fair, since there's only one of him, I wanted to see anyway. 4 nakey Aldens and 1 set of nakey girls.
There's no perspective, but he weighs what they did when they were about 12 months, and I feel like he's as long as they were then too, though maybe a bit shorter (he's definitely rollier). I also don't really think he looks like them, but then again, I think that Anna and Kara don't look all too much alike either.
I have a penchant for giving my children strange nicknames and then calling them exclusively by those names. Alden is currently referred to as "Jamie," "Jamie James," or "Mr. James." I have to remind myself to call him Alden so that he'll actually learn his name.
He's now 5 months and has acquired a lot of new skills in the last month. Just after I told a lot of people he couldn't roll front to back, he started doing it, preferring that to tummy time. He started sitting all the time mid-month - I'm so excited - it's definitely my favorite baby stage. And the last couple weeks he's been talking a lot more, adding bla bla, other consonant sounds, and most importantly, dada and mama - he only says mama when he's crying, so we'll pretend he knows what it means. :)
Pictures from the last 2 weeks or so.
Toes are a big favorite of his, since sisters can't take them away...
Smiling at sissies always comes first. (This is how I trained him to sit for longer periods of time - hanging a toy off the edge of a crib).
And the new talent of the day...
I loved all of these silly pictures...perhaps just because the girls actually wore bows for the majority of the afternoon? We celebrated with the Brooks family, as we did last year - thanks guys! Oh, and poor Alden was asleep during photos, so we missed capturing his first Thanksgiving. Sorry, bud. You were the best and sweetest, as always. Thankful for silly girls, a sweetie boy, and the best husband.
A little bigger than the last foot-to-foot pic we have of them, just after we brought them home...they've nearly doubled their birth lengths.
Here are the incoherently yelled greetings...separately, then together, to add to their unintelligibleness. :)
(These are from Oct. 24th; note we still had our wagon).
And just a little less of this...given the choice of anywhere to go, the girls always choose the playground. And we always sing the 90s ABC "Playground" song because it gets stuck in my head. Ha.
These 2 are actually from apple picking in early Oct. in Cleveland.
And Alden's first time swinging, Oct. 17th. None too impressed. We do always take him out when he'd rather be sleeping, in his defense.
Meanwhile...lots of naked babies in a crib...that's a favorite game. At least the girls didn't strip everyone TOTALLY naked this time. I do have some pictures of that from a couple months ago, but they're censored. :)
These are from when we had the flu about a month ago, but last week everyone was hit with colds (and Alden with reactions to his 4 month vaccines) on top of still lingering coughs. So, sick again.
Before we were felled by illness ("a little bit sick" according to K and A), we spent the weekend in Branson, MO (kind of a Bible-belt Vegas and outlet mall destination) and Harrison, AR and visited with Andrew's family. After some hotel snuggling and swimming the next morning, Alden and I shopped with the girls and Andrew took our girls to play at his grandparents' with the guys.
Pretending to sleep...Anna was laughing too much to be good at it...and a blurry everyone "sleeping" while we waited to meet up with family before bed.
Not as many purposeful near-drowning incidents as the last time in the pool, and fun playing.
The next morning we hung out a little bit then headed home, but not before visiting (a very sad) outdoor safari place in the middle of nowhere MO. We didn't go in, or take the complimentary bus tour, but we did talk to some goats and find a baby turtle. 
And Kara took a liking to these turkeys from Nana, which were perfect for car nap-time snuggling. I guess the fun weekend was worth the resulting illness. Though I really wish I were done hearing "Anna has snot" and "Kara has snot."
I haven't posted about potty training since May. This is because we quit trying to potty train and were content with partially potty trained girls with no underwear at home and going out in diapers. I wasn't going to push it with Alden and those changes. We've progressed and they can now wear underwear and do when we go out (unless it's long car trips or the playground - they'll never choose the potty over swinging). Still diapers at nap and night. Kara has refused to poop in the potty for, oh, almost 7 months - since the first time she did it. She told me she would when she turned 2 - false. It was a big effort to even get her to "try" on the potty first. She did once; it was amazing. I told her if she pooped on the potty 5 times she could get a fish. We decided on a name for her fish. Anna got a fish in 5 days. Kara was content to look at Anna's fish. Lollipops were also offered - Anna got lollipops. Anyway, she had some tummy issues last week and I pushed for the potty. There were a lot of tears, but after she got over her initial fear and received a lollipop for a job well done (I literally cried I was so happy), she warmed up to the idea a little bit (that was a week ago). She is now the proud owner of Dory-Emo (she wanted to name him "Dory and Emo" (Nemo)). Unfortunately he's dead on the counter right now, along with Anna's aged Buzzah - not sure what went wrong with the transfer to the bowl.
Oh yeah, and she gets to call dad and tell him when she poops on the potty, and there is the "hooray dance." Never underestimate the power of a hooray dance...
Alden, long overdue for his own post, which is coming soon I hope - there are SO many pictures of his last 2 months of life I haven't posted, has developed his own new skills over the last week (in addition to the ones he's been working on I haven't posted about).
The first is spitting. All over. On everything. All the time (except when I try to film it, of course).
The second is a bigger deal - sitting. Alden tries to sit up all the time when we lay him partially reclining, and has started to be able to sit a few minutes by himself, as long as he doesn't go for his toes. This isn't the best representation, but his favorite things to look at - his sisters - were asleep, so he wasn't as motivated. :) The girls started sitting without falling over around 4 1/2 months, and he seems to be on that same track.
I'm proud of my big girls and big boy.
After a Halloween party at a friend's yesterday and emergency Pooh washing (Kara fell into a huge mud puddle), we were ready to get back into costumes for trick-or-treating. They actually told me they'd rather stay home (just like mama!), until Andrew told them they got to wear their costumes if we went. They switched from this post, in case you're confused as to who's who.
Awe-struck was the look of the evening. When asked to tell people "trick or treat" or "happy Halloween," the response was usually "not right now" or "maybe later when we get back to our house."
Alden-monkey napped, then graduated to the umbrella stroller, where he fought to keep his hat from covering his eyes.
Snack and loot, post trick-or-treating. Pretty happy about their lollipops, but chips and gummy spiders were their favorites, and that glow stick we found.
After several attempts to get a decent video of them saying "happy Halloween" Kara told me she was going to take a movie of nothing and Anna's mouth...my ever-cooperative sweeties. :)
Birthday present from Grandma and Grandpa, 2008.
Birthday present from Nana and Pop, 2009.
Alden has now gotten to meet all of his immediate family members (aunts, uncles, grandparents), except for Stuart's fiancee Mandy. Most of these pictures are from our Cleveland trip, but some are from when the Pierces visited in August (and there are more of those I never posted too...one day...I never posted the girls' belated birthday celebration either).
I learned during the Pierce visit that Alden will pretty much be happy if anyone holds him - totally different from the girls, and very appreciated by mom and holder alike. I really like the picture with Derek and Beth - he rode the train with them at the zoo (I only freaked out a lot, not a TON, that I couldn't see him) - almost looks like he could be theirs. :) We didn't manage to get a picture of him with Uncle Stu, unfortunately.
Meeting Uncle Michael in Ann Arbor, then with Uncle Matt in Cleveland. No picture with Uncle Peter, but I did finally manage to get him to hold Alden, under duress, for about 20 seconds, which was an accomplishment. Michael (in addition to babysitting several times) got Alden to laugh for the first time, which Matt also achieved.
Alden was great friends with Opa and Grandpa. He and Opa had a great conversation - Alden is definitely a talker. He and Grandpa were buddies, and both enjoy their naps immensely. That night of babysitting Alden would only sleep on Grandpa.
Aunt Sarah carried Alden for a little bit when we went apple picking, in addition to her babysitting help. Alden loves you all very much!
