Dillierama

Tooth Down!

Alex's bottom tooth has been wiggly since, what feels like years.  He'd wiggle wiggle it all day long, but it wasn't going anywhere.  Then I noticed his adult tooth was coming in already, behind his wiggly baby tooth.  Like a shark.  So we amped up the wiggling, hoping that the tooth would just pop out on its own.  The holidays came and went, our trip to Utah came and went, we rang in the new year, and still that little tooth hung on. 

We started talking to Alex about pulling it out.  His favorite show is AFV (America's Funniest Videos) and they always have a clip or two of a kid tying a string to his tooth and trying to yank it out by some means like a remote control car, door, brick...  and we tried to tell him how funny it would be if we tried to do it that way.  He kept saying that he'd try later, tonight, tomorrow, tomorrow night... Finally he agreed it was time.

 

That tooth was a fighter, and John had to get some tweezers to finally get a good grip on it to pop it out.  Alex was brave, he was scared, and the little bit of bleeding his gums did freaked him out a lot, but he quickly got over it once he got to hold his tooth in his hand which he thought was super cool.

He asked John to write a note to the tooth fairy asking if he could have his tooth back.  He put the tooth and the note in an envelope and put it under his pillow.  So excited to go to sleep, just like Christmas.  Would the tooth fairy really come?  What would she leave him?  How would she get in?  How could she get it if it was under his pillow?

The tooth fairy did come, left $2 in quarters in a little green bag under his pillow along with his tooth.  He woke up in the middle of the night to check, thankfully she'd done the trade shortly before ;)

I got a little sniffly about the whole thing.  After all, I remember that tooth coming in!

2011 Holiday Redux

When I wrote about holiday traditions, I completely forgot to write about the Christmas Eve family game!  We've been doing it since we had Alex (and I think it's something John's family did when they were younger).  Last year John went an extra step and had an elf deliver it to our door on Christmas eve (Well, not an actual elf, there was a mysterious knock at the door and when we went to answer it no one was there, but there was a gift on our porch).  This year, as we were just hanging out together on Christmas eve, Max noticed something in the fireplace.  "Are you going to burn that present?" He asked John.  An elf had dropped the gift down the chimney!

The gift turned out to be Pop The Pig, the very game the boys had been BEGGING to get for weeks.  Sadly, Max's balloon phobia prevented anyone from really enjoying the game as he screamed THE WHOLE TIME we tried to play, out of fear that the pig's belly would actually pop.  Even after several demonstrations at how the belly doesn't really pop or explode, it just gets bigger and his hands swing out, no, the act of pumping up the belly was just too much for poor Maxie, and despite stuffing cottonballs in his ears, he couldn't handle it.

We left cookies for Santa and some carrots for the reindeer

Our Christmas was very nice, even though we didn't have much of a budget, as usual all of our money went to make sure the boys had gifts, we've been doing this since we've had kids long before we were broke because that's how it should be I think.  I wouldn't want any money going toward a gift for me when it could and should go toward something for the boys.

Santa filled the stockings and left a couple of presents and we gave the boys Leapsters and a couple of games to share. 

Santa left these, gifts from mom and dad not shown

The boys are at the perfect age, they didn't notice that the pile was smaller this year.  They didn't complain about not getting expensive gifts.  They were THRILLED with every single thing they got. In fact, I feel like this amount of gifts was just about perfect because there were enough to be excited about but not so many that they get overwhelmed.  Even if our finances improve in the future, I think this might be how we do it moving forward. 

2012 Resolutions

1. Stay on our current eating plan. We've been doing a Paleo-type diet since October and have been very happy with it.  I say Pale-type because while we eat mostly fruits, veggies, nuts, seeds and meats, we're still eating some processed foods and going out to eat a lot.  I want to try to move toward an all whole food diet with far less cheating and really limit our eating out.
2. I want to be able to run a 5k.  I can't even do one mile at a slow jog right now.  I don't know if I'll actually do an official 5k race, but I'd like to be able to at least jog a 5k on the treadmill by the end of the year. 
3. Earn some money. I have the ability to earn some money by writing, yet I lack the time and discipline to do it.  I need to start making a financial contribution to our household, even if it's not that much, something is better than nothing.  My goal is to turn in at least one small writing assignment every week day (or at least 5 days per week).  Ideally I will be able to find the time to do several more, but I'll start with one a day and go from there.
4. I think I'll unofficially join The Compact. I will attempt to buy nothing new for a year. I suspect we'll still buy new for gifts and some personal items, but my main goal is to THINK before we BUY.  To buy something used you have to go out and search for it, not just stop into a store and pick it up. Ideally I'll be able to buy from local and small businsesses for our new-stuff needs.  I won't enforce this with John or the boys, but I will encourage them to get on board with me whenever possible.
5. Learn something new.  Right now I'm thinking I'd love to learn to paint with watercolors, or make jewlery or learn karate.  By the end of the year I'd like to have learned at least one new thing.

2011 In Review

I can't believe this is my fifth year doing this review (2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010 )

1. What did you do in 2011 that you’d never done before?

Made money by writing.  Sure, it wasn't anything exciting or all that great, but as a person who would really love to earn a living as a writer, earning my first (albeit meager) paycheck as a writer was pretty awesome.

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

I worked on all of them, but without much success. I will be doing resolutions this year, I always do. 2011's resolutions here, but here's a recap:.

Lose 50lbs: No, I've lost 17lbs, but, I'd actually gained 15lbs in 2011, so I'm really only 2lbs lighter today than I was last year.  But, I suppose that's something.

Money management (I was going to be in charge of our finances and I wanted to get us out of debt): HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! You know what I did? I made a mess of our accounts, then gave up and handed everything over to John.  Then I quit my job. So, uh, yeah. The good news is, well, ok, there's no real good news in our financial situation other than it's helped us to learn to live more frugally and appreciate the things we do have. I've become very good at grocery shopping on a budget and finding awesome stuff at Goodwill.

Move into a bigger place: This didn't happen, but it almost did.  We looked at other places but when it came down to it, we didn't like anything we looked at more than our current apartment. We looked at a house in a great neighborhood, but the kitchen was weird and I wasn't happy with the school.  We found a townhouse just down the road from where we are now and finally, after much hemming and hawing, decided to rent it, but when we called it had been rented out already. We'll try again this spring when our lease is up again. The problem is our current neighborhood is very nice, but also very expensive. Alex's school is really great and it's hard for us to move away from this great area just for a bit more space. We can't afford anything bigger and still be in this neighborhood.  So, we're kind of stuck. 

De-frump, I wanted to stop wearing sweats all the time and try to feel better about myself: I worked on this a bit the first part of the year and then I quit my job and promptly fell back into the ponytail and sweats routine.  Then after spending 2 days wearing the same jammies and ponytail, yet still going out in public that way, realized I'd hit a new low.  I got my hair cut, dug out all my shoes from my closet and have made an effort to wear actual clothes, blow dry my hair and put on eye makeup every day. I feel MUCH better!

Reading, I wanted to read chapter books to the boys:Yeah, they weren 't interested.  They both still prefer the picture books.  Alex has started reading this year though, so we're working on level 1 readers, but he doesn't enjoy it, he's like me and gets frustrated when something isn't really easy for him.  I will put this on my 2012 list though, because reading to the boys is always important.

Potty train Max and end Alex's thumb sucking: Done and done! YES!!! YES YES YES YES!!! Max is having a little bit of a dribble problem due to the cold, but that's normal and though I had him in Pullups for our holiday vacation, he still did all his business in the potty and at home I keep him in underpants.  Alex hasn't put his thumb in his mouth for MONTHS. 

Take a good family photo:  Well, we took a family photo.  It wasn't really that great, but I'm calling it done.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?

Nope, but we have a new nephew on the way (John's brother and his wife expecting in the spring)

4. Did anyone close to you die?

John's Aunt Virginia. 

5. What countries did you visit?

I didn't leave the US, but John spent a month in Ireland on business.

6. What would you like to have in 2012 that you lacked in 2011?

Financial stability, a yard, the ability to run a 5k.

7. What dates from 2011 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

John's vasectomy in January because even though we were always done having kids after Max, it was a very big deal to make it official and permanent. Mark's successful cancer removal surgery in February. John's Ireland trip in August because it sucked to have him gone for so long, but also was cool that he got to go to Europe, for free, for the first time. Alex going to Kindergarten in September. It felt like such a huge milestone. John's first tattoo in October because I LOVE it and it's so cool (Alex's name in his own handwriting on John's arm).

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Finally selling that stupid house in Utah. 

9. What was your biggest failure?
Selling that stupid house in Utah for less than what we owed on it. 

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Bacteriafest 2011 was probably the worst of it.  It was pretty gross. 

11. What was the best thing you bought?
Our new couch and chair.  Our old corner couch was so gross.  We found this set at the Goodwill for $60 and has made me very happy.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
Alex's.  He started Kindergarten this year and has done a very good job adjusting to his new routine, being attentive and well behaved in class, eager to learn, responsible, etc... He's even riding the bus to and from school.  He's just grown up so much this year and I couldn't be more proud.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?

Mine.  I can be such a bitch sometimes.

14. Where did most of your money go?

Nothing exciting. Living expenses.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?

Alex starting school. 

16. What song will always remind you of 2011?

Dynomite by Tao Cruz, but I think that's just because it's the first song on my Zune playlist and I listen to it every day

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
 a) happier or sadder? 
b) thinner (by all of 2lbs) or fatter? c) richer or poorer?

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?

Excercising

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?

Eating

20. How did you spend Christmas?
We spent the actual holiday at home, going to see lights, parties with friends, etc.  Then we spent the week between Christmas and New Year's in Utah.

21. Did you fall in love in 2011?

I think I kind of did.  John and I were in a bit of a marriage funk, the stress of both of our jobs, never seeing each other, then I quit my job to fix some of our family issues, but added the stress of being REALLY broke.  Our marriage was never really in trouble, but things were stressful and we were fighting a bit.  Then John went to Ireland for a month and we missed each other terribly.  We'd talk on the phone 2 or 3 times a day and when he finally came home it was like we'd fallen in love all over again.  Kinda cheesy sounding, I know, but our relationship has never been better.  Maybe after 10 years we just needed a break to appreciate how awesome it is to be together.

22. What was your favorite TV program?

We always love Dexter, we've been catching up on How I Met Your Mother and love it.  The boys and I re-watched the entire Deep Space Nine series and re-started Voyager.

23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?

No.

24. What was the best book you read?

Hmmm, I didn't read as much as I'd have liked.  I loved the Hunger Games trillogy, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (only the first book), I re-read the Sherlock Holmes stories, Jitterbug Perfume and The Hitchhiker's Guide.  I read Gone With The Wind for the first time and absolutely fell in love with it.

25. What was your greatest musical discovery?
I didn't discover any new music. 

26. What did you want and get?
I wanted a better job.  What I got was a full-time Stay-at-home-mom gig.  Terrible pay, but great benefits.

27. What did you want and not get? 
I wanted to move out of our apartment into a bigger place with a garage and a yard.  We ended up renewing our lease for another year instead.  Maybe next year. 


28. What was your favorite film of this year?

Well, I didn't see many movies this year.  There was the final Harry Potter, The Muppets and The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.  I liked them all.

29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

I tured 34 and I didn't do anything memorable. My birthdays are always kind of a non-event.

30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
I can't think of anything. Quitting my job made me VERY happy and improved our family life ten-fold. I wish I'd have done it much sooner.  Then late in the year John changed his work schedule to a day shift (he'd been on nights for 2 years) and that made things even better, again I wish it had been possible much sooner.  We're just really happy right now when we can be together.

31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2011?

I have no concept of fashion. This hasn't changed.

32. What kept you sane?

My husband. As always. Also wine.

33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
I think I always have the same favorite celebrities.  NPH, Nathan Fillion, Queen Latifa, Ricky Gervais, Daniel Craig, Michael C. Hall, Drew Carey, Penn Jillette...This year we watched Dancing With The Stars again (we'd taken a few seasons off) and I became very invested in a lot of the cast members, Chaz Bono, David Arquette, Rob Kardashian's butt, JR Martinez, Ricki Lake, Carson Kressley...I get way too into that show!

34. What political issue stirred you the most?
I think I may have cried a bit when Obama said he was ending the war.

35. Who did you miss?
It might seem strange, but I've been missing my mother-in-law Diane a lot this year. I have thought of her so much and have really felt the loss of her.  Not to say I haven't been missing her before, but it just seems that this year her not being around has ached more than normal. Possibly because I am sad the boys didn't get to know her longer.  Possibly because I could have really used advice on raising two boys.  Possibly because I feel like I'm kind of understanding who she was a bit more.  I don't know, Diane has just been on my mind and her loss has been heavy on my heart lately.

36. Who was the best new person you met?

I met several new people this year and they are all pretty awesome

37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2011.
Thrift stores are AWESOME!

38. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
This is always a hard one for me because I'm not really a music person and I very rarely even listen to the lyrics in songs and even when I do know the lyrics, I struggle to understand what the hell the artist means by them.  I picked Love of my Life by Carly Simon this year because I just love this song and it is one I remember my mother singing and it describes exactly how I feel about my boys. 

"From the moment I first saw you
The second that you were born
I knew that you were the love of my life
Quite simply the love of my life"

Holiday Traditions

For the last couple of years John and I have tried to start some holiday traditions.  Strangely, both of us came together with only one or two family traditions to pass down to our boys.  Aside from Santa, there are very few things John and I do with our boys that remind us of our own childhood Christmases.  For John the big thing has always been to put the presents on the couch.  Personally, I'm a presents-under-the-tree kind of girl, but having the boys come out of their rooms on Christmas morning and seeing a pile of gifts on the sofa makes John really happy, so, that's what we do.  This year Santa will start leaving notes to the boys along with their gifts, something Santa always did for me.  And, that's pretty much it. 

Seeing the Salt Lake LDS temple lights was something I usually got around to most years, sometimes with my mom and dad, sometimes with my grandma, more often with friends.  There was a year here and a year there when I would have a holiday choir concert at a local mall or we'd have family over for Christmas or I was in a Christmas pageant at whatever church I was attending at the time...One of my fondest holiday memories was the little puppet show my mother made with puff balls that was put on to the poem "The Night Before Christmas", in particular I remember the moon with the boobs ("...the moon on the breast of the new fallen snow...") and the one little beleaguered reindeer puppet attached to a sleigh overflowing with a morbidly obese Santa with tags hanging off of him with all the other reindeer names.  I think my mother made that with my half-sister Krissie when I was smaller, I think it came out for a few years, but it is long since lost.

So, we're making our own traditions.  Decorating begins the day after Thanksgiving (much to my chagrin...not a decoration fan. I dont' like clutter, it makes me twitchy.) and the boys put up their tiny little tree with their handmade ornaments.  Right now that's the only tree we have because our place is too small for a bigger one.  The stockings go up over the fireplace and throughout the season the boys get to make art projects and hang them all over the walls (who knows how long they'll want to do this, but right now, they LOVE it.)

 

This year for the first time we watched the parades on TV and we went to see zoo lights, which will definately become a tradition, it was awesome. 

Zoo Lights

John joined us for the Beaverton Christmas tree lighting ceremony which was WAY better than last year when I took the boys by myself. We saw the Christmas Ship Parade on the Willamette (this year we saw it at the end of their route in Lake Oswego which turned out WAY better than last year when we went up to Vancouver to see it at the beginning of the route.) This week we'll go to the Portland International Raceway to see the Winter Wonderland lights which was a huge hit with the boys last year. Not sure if it was the lights or the fact that we were driving on a REAL! LIVE! RACETRACK!

Seeing Santa at the Beaverton City Tree Lighting Ceremony

Beaverton Tree Lighting Ceremony

Christmas Ship Parade

I am fortunate enough to have a group of wonderful friends here and this was the second year that we've had a kid's gift exchange and party.  This year we had Santa come and it was brain exlodingly awesome for the kids who like Santa (Alex), and kind of torturous for the kids who don't (Max).  The same group of friends ditched our husbands and kids for the afternoon yesterday for the second annual white elephant gift exchange and booze fest.  In years past John and I attended eBay's holiday party together which was always fun, but his current company doesn't do a party.  I'm hoping next year John and I can find time and money to go out and do something just the two of us.

I'd love to go to the Festival of Lights at The Grotto, but John's not too interested.  I also hope to take the boys to Peacock Lane this year, but if we don't make it, maybe next.

Last year we went to Utah early in December to see family and exchange presents, this year we'll be going after Christmas until the new year.  While I prefer to go before the holiday, this year's plan will likely become the tradition because John always takes the last week of the year off work and that coincides with Alex's winter break.

 I'm getting less grinchy about the holidays as the years go by and as I watch my boys get excited about the things they remembered from last year, it's impossible not to feel the holiday spirit.

Then and Now

John and I started on a diet (or as John insists a "Lifestyle") the first of October.  We've both lost weight, but he's been wildly more successful than I have.  I suppose my post-baby body just doesn't lose weight the way it used to.  Anyhow, he's recently gone out to our storage unit and brought in several boxes of his skinny clothes  In one of those boxes was my favorite sweater of his. 

I remember this sweater well.  I remember he came over to pick me up for a date, only, John and I didn't really "date" we "hung out" so I was dressed in jeans and a t-shirt and he came to my door wearing this sweater, nice pants and smelling like he'd put cologne on, which he'd never done.  We were in between "dating" and "relationship" at the time.  It was such an odd thing for him to be all dressed up to come see me that I took a picture:

Today he put on the sweater for the first time since that day

I think he's WAY hotter now in that sweater than he was then!

Good Stuff

A couple of weeks ago John changed his work schedule.  He used to work 2pm-11pm (but he'd actually leave for work at noon and come home well after midnight), now he is working 5am-2pm (but he's getting home closer to 3 or 4 most days).  This has changed everything about our family life.  With his old schedule he'd get up at 10am, eat breakfast and get ready for work then leave.  We hardly ever saw him.  Now we see him every night, for several hours!  We eat dinner together, we watch TV in the evenings, John reads bedtime stories to the boys by the fire, we get some couple time after the boys go to bed...It's like a whole new life.  After two years of hardly seeing each other during the week, we appreciate these "normal" evenings so much more.

I'd been pushing John to look into changing his schedule because next year Alex will be going to school all day and Alex would only get to see his dad on the weekends.  This opportunity came up and John was unsure of it at first because of the early start time, but it turns out to be perfect.  Even if he works late (as he often does), he's still home in time for dinner. 

***

Alex brought home his first ever report card yesterday and we couldn't be more proud.  He's meeting all of the academic expectations even exceeding a few.  The best and most informative part of the report card were the teacher's comments:

Alex is a pleasure to work with.  He is very affectionate and caring.  He loves to create and make things.  He has a little trouble with transitions.  He doesn't want to quit a project he's working on when it is time to move on to another activity.  He also needs to work on solving problems in a positive way instead of outbursts.  I compliment him on trying to do his best.  This trimester we have worked on letter and letter sound recognition, identifying beginning, ending and middle sounds of words, blending syllables, listening for rhyming words, alliteration and "robust" vocabulary words.  Alex has been successful in working on these skills.  He reads 11 high frequency words.  He should continue to practice blending sounds together to sound out new words as he practices reading at home.  his handwriting is progressing as he gains more skill through practice.  I am pleased with the progress he has made and look forward to watching his skills grow and grow.

In math, he does what is asked and tries his best. He understands the concept of patterning.  He counts to 39 by 1s. He should practice counting to 100 by 10s and then 1s.  He needs to practice writing numbers to 20.  He knows math facts up to 5.  Our goal for the end of the year is to know math facts to 6.  He needs to learn his address, phone number and birthday.

He is doing a good job on his homework. He has completed 7 out of 7 homework assignments.  During our group time, he is attentive, participates, raises his hand and does what is asked.  He gets along well with the other children. He seems to enjoy his association with his classmates.  He is cooperative and helpful. He is a great member of our class.

Outbursts and trouble transitioning have been issues since his first year of preschool and is something we try to work on with him.  He is much better than he was last year, and I'm sure that he'll continue to get better as he gets older.  Also I'm positive he knows his birthday, he must not have been paying attention when she was asking him, because if there is one thing Alex knows, it is September 25th.  Maybe not the year though.  We'll work on that. 

The way she describes what he's like in class makes me glow with pride.  I volunteer in his classroom every month and I see how he is in class, but it's great to know that's really what he's like everyday and he's not just on his best behavior because Mom's here today.  Kindergarten has been great for Alex, he's happy, he's learning, he's growing and gaining valuable social skills.  Seems he's started his school career on the right foot, I hope we can keep up this momentum for the next 12 years!

***

Also in Alex news, he has a girlfriend, Zoe, who makes him little projects that he brings home every day. 

Zoe drew a picture of the two of them holding hands.

 ***

Poor Max doesn't have much going on these days.  He won't start preschool until next fall, so he gets to just hang out with me in the afternoons while Big Brother is in school.  We've been walking to the park on nice days and it's been very fun to spend some one on one time with my baby.

***

Life has just been really good lately.  Our finances are still in the toilet, but because everything else is going so well, it's kind of just an afterthought.  We're working on making it better, but not stressing out about it at all.  For the first time in my life I really feel like I'm living in the moment.  Enjoying life right now.  It's a big deal for me, I've always been so focused on making a plan for the future, I've often missed out on everything happening in the present.  What are my goals for 2012?  I don't know.  I don't much care.  I think I'll just go play hide and seek with my boys and not worry about it.

Thanksgiving Recap

This year John had to work on Thanksgiving, so we had our big meal the Sunday before, which was awesome.  Since John and I are following the Paleo diet, we had a sugar-free, grain-free, dairy-free, low-glycemic-index meal.

Roasted rosemary and thyme sweet potatoes, garlic creamed spinach (with tofu and mayo), beef, apple and walnut stuffed acorn squash, crock pot turkey and gravy.

I was really worried about making this meal because I don't cook, and have never, ever made a Thanksgiving dinner out of food that didn't come out of boxes and cans.  So, it was kind of a big deal for me to produce a meal that was not only edible, but conformed to our diet. 

Pumpkin stuffed bacon (stole the idea from Fussy.org) I cheated a little with a pinch of brownsugar on the tops of these. It was worth it, these were AWESOME!

As nervous as I was, the family declared it a great meal and we had a wonderful day. 

Alex and Max went a little crazy decorating for Thanksgiving.

The leftovers fed us all week and the best part for me was on Thanksgiving day I was able to relax and NOT cook.  Ahhhh :)

Halloween 2011

Halloween is Alex's favorite holiday by far.  He looks forward to it all year and once his birthday is over, he goes into Halloween overdrive. (Max would like me to mention that he likes Halloween, but it's not his favorite holiday, Christmas is). 

This year Alex dressed up as a ghost and Max as Blue Batman.  They looked great and were both very happy with their costumes.

(for trick or treating we ended up putting Alex in his old karate uniform so he was all white underneath his ghost costume.  And warmer.  Max got to wear a pair of feetie jammies underneath his bat suit and he has a blue sweatshirt he wore under his cape when he got cold.)

We were busy this year with Halloween celebrations and these costumes got a lot of wear.  So much wear I was really starting to worry that Alex's ghost costume wouldn't hold up by the actual day.  Every time we went somewhere pieces were falling off.  I was hand washing Max's batman costume every night to get chocolate and paint and mud off of it.

Final total was five parties, a scavenger hunt at the zoo and last night's trick or treating.  The boys got so much candy and little Halloween toys I have no idea what we're going to do with it all!

Ink

I'm pretty sure John was the only male, perhaps the only HUMAN in the greater Portland area without a tattoo.  Until today:

He's been talking about getting a tattoo for years.  Back when we were still living in Utah even.  A couple of months ago, just as Alex was starting school, John had him write his name on a piece of paper intending to have that tattooed on his arm.  And it sat on our desk until this afternoon when he took it into a tattoo shop and had it permanently inked on his arm.  When Max turns five, he plans to have his name put on his left
 arm in Max's handwriting.

(the blue line around it is just from the transfer paper, it will wash off.  The ALEX won't)

I LOVE this.  I love it so much!  My own dad had my name tattooed on his shoulder and it always made me feel happy and special to see it there.  John has gone a step further by having Alex actually design the tattoo.  It isn't just the word 'ALEX', it's a snapshot of this time, when Alex just started writing, started school and made the transition from baby to boy.  I love it so much I'm tempted to do something similar myself!