Baby Shower Picnic, Back to School, and 18 Month Old Mayhem

I realize it's been a little while since my last post, but things have been crazy with me returning to work two weeks ago, us planning and hosting a baby shower picnic for baby Arceo # 2 and Alex's everyday mayhem. First let me start by saying I've been back to school now for two weeks, and so far  I am liking my new 7th graders. Of course,any teacher will tell you, the first month is what we refer to as the "honeymoon period." Come October, the true colors willcome shining through! Secondly, we held a baby shower/picnic cookout type event to celebrate the upcoming arrival of our 2nd child sometime in November. We had the festivities at Wilson Point Park in Middle River and had a really great time with our friends and family. Wilson Point was a really nice place, with a playground right in front of us, a nice walking track, and it was right on the water with a nice breeze through the pavilion most of the day. That breeze was much needed as it is still very humid in B-more this time of year. The kids ran around and went crazy and we feasted on hot dogs and hamburgers, cooked up by our masters chefs, Abe and Dave, and side dishes brought along by everyoneelse. It was reallyan awesome day,and we got lots ofnew clothes for our baby girl. Alex played straight thru nap time and then took a 3 hour nap when he got home. He was so played out! My Mom was able to drive down and attend,which was great. We took her to Red Lobster for the endless shrimp promotion while she was visiting and she was in heaven, since Red Lobster is her favorite place and the closest one to her is an hour drive. Then on Sunday,we relaxed in the morning, and were visited by My Grandma and Aunt who were in Baltimore anyway.They were returning home from their cruise to the Bahamas, Grand Turks, and Caimon Islands. We were able to show them the new baby'sroom and hav lunch before they headed back West again. Okay and last but not least,and then we can get to the pictures--Alex is 18 months old as of yesterday!!! I can't believe how big he is getting. He's starting to talk some, mostly only around us and Ms. Joanna,his daycare provider. He repeats a lot of words,and loves to sing along to tunes he hears.His favorite right now is the ABC song. He kind of sings Abcd, then kind sings the tune for the rest. He goes for his 18 Month check-up on Thursday and I am anxious to see how much height he has gained.I really feellike he has gotten a lot taller in the last few weeks. Okay,thar's it for now. Enjoy the picture from this week. What I didn;t post here will be in an album on my facebook page, so feel free to check that out as well.

Alex with his big cousin Dylan at the Maryland State Fair in Timonium

Mary with her crazy bee sting wound at the state fair

Natalia sitting in the dirt playing with  a stick--so ladylike!

This was too cute! Alex spent most of the day with his BFF Kara, who held his hand and played with him all day long!

Abe grilling up the burgers

Mary changing Julia and Danielle changing Natalia--pavilion style!

All the kids that attended the shower from left: Daniel, Matthew, Dylan, Alex, Euripides, Kara, Julia and Cory--I think we're missing Antonio and Natalia though.

Me, Abe, and the belly at 28 weeks!

Our baby girl's closet after I hung all of the presents and hand-me-downs from Julia up...oh my!

Alex knocked out after a long day

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter to everyone who celebrates! We celebrated Easter today with baskets, suave new clothes, candy, presents, food, family, and even an Easter egg hunt, which we could finally do outside!! Alex celebrated his 2nd Easter by waking up to two Easter baskets. One from Mommy and Daddy and one from Nana and Pap. He is starting to sort of notice presents now and at least starting picking things out of the basket and throwing them! Then we dressed him up in his handsome Easter outfit (linen khaki pin-striped pants, a coral colored sweater vest over a white linen button down, and a pastel colored neck tie--I give all my credit to CP!). We traveled down to Dundalk to eat breakfast and spend the morning with Alex's Lola, Aunties, Uncles, and Cousins. First we ate a delicious breakfast of potato casserole, ham, sausage and egg casserole. cinnamon rolls, and a sausage and egg ball. Then, we took the party outside for a fun Easter egg hunt for the kids! Dylan, Daniel and Matthew took off and had a ton of fun. Julia watched form his Daddy's arms, and Alex, since he's only 13 months, just kind of stood in one spot with his basket and picked his eggs up and threw them back down. We then went in and exchanged some Easter presents, and all of the kids got some really nice stuff-- Cute clothes and cool summer toys! We then ran about a million errands with Abe's mom. We were really excited to get a lawn mower. It's the manual push kind, no gas or electric, but at least we're going GREEN. We also are grasping at straws trying to get Alex to graduate out of our bed, so we bought his own toddler bed. I know he's barely 1, but he hates his crib, with a passion, and since he already sleeps in our adult bed, which is like 4 feet off the floor, we figured it couldn't hurt to try! We're going to start by putting the bed in our room, but at least getting him out of our bed and into his own. I'll post some pics of it when it gets put together. Bless Abe--he's working on it now and the curse words are starting to fly. With that being said, I better go and help him! Hope everyone had a great Easter and spring break for those of you who had yours this week!

This morning hair is the main reason he got a 2nd haircut this week

It was so nice to have my Grandma with us this week--this is her and Alex outside of Dock of the Bay

Ms. Medy with Matthew, Julia, and Alex

A nice family Easter pic

                                     The Chauncey's, Dove's and Alex--this was the best shot of the bunch, believe it or not!

Party Time!

Abe and I threw our very first birthday party this Saturday and Alex was the man of the hour--or two hours I should say. We celebrated his first birthday with a small family and friends gathering at our house on Saturday afternoon. It was the most perfect weather we could have asked for, with temperatures around 70 degrees. That's amazing for early March! After having a blizzard on Monday, I was really worried too. But I had no reason to be. We kept all of the windows open and Alex actually had to wear hs Easter vest and a pair of shorts, because his special birthday outift was too hot for the weather. Lots of people showed up and we had a feast and enjoyed eating cake and watching Alex shovel some cake in his mouth. We also had a Blues Clues pinata, which thorougly entertained the kids! Daniel was the lucky winner who released the candy and then all 6 big kids--Dylan, Daniel, Tristan, Rebekah, Matthew and Ava scrambled to pick up candy. Some kids had a strategy (Matthew went for the M&M's and Ava rounded up the Twix), while others just went for anything. Alex got so many nice presents too! We handed out favors, and made special "baby" favors for our three under 1 girls (Natalia, Julia, and Charlye). All in all it was a great celebration of our special little guy! He's becoming so independant lately. Taking a few steps, and saying a few words. He said his first word besides Mama and Dada today. When playing with his Thomas train in the bathtub. He said "Choo, choo!" repeating after me.Now when I show it to him, he says "Choo. Choo!" I can't believe he's 1 already. The year has just gone by so fast! There are many pictures of the big day, so I will make a slide sho, but enjoy the few I am posting with this!

Covered in cake reaching for his balloon

Abe, Alex and Blue before his head was severed

The adorable cake Mary and Dave picked out

Alex with his own little smash cake

I had to post this--look at Julia's little pose! LOL.

We decided we're going to take a picture in front of our birthday flag every year!

Me, Mary and our switched kids

Alex Turns 1!

Alex celebrated his 1st birthday yesterday! I cam't believe it's been a year. Last night at certain points, Abe and I kept looking at the time and saying things like: "Right about now my water breaking." "Right about now we were being checked in" "Right about now we were watchig American Idol and waiting." Then at 10:51 PM, we both looked at the clock and said "Alex was being born right now." It's so crazy to think that a whole year has gone by since then! And now instead of a wrinkly little newborn, we have a little boy who's staking a few steps and crawling everywhere and talking non-stop. We spent the day at work and daycare. Since I turned 25 yesterday as well, my kids were all excited at school to wish me a happy birthday and write it all over the blackboard. I also got a few homemade cards from them and an apple and a teddy bear from two students. Then wwe came home and gave Alex his first taste of cupcake. He LOVED it! And he didn't play around with it either. We put it in front of him and he picked it right up and shoved the whole thing in his mouth! He finished the whole thing in about 5 minutes! Then we went to Chick-Fil-A for dinner and ran over to Party City to order balloons for Saturday's birthday party! Below are a few pictures from our birthdays yesterday!

 Our 1 year old on his birthday!

He wastes no time!

Playing with his birthday present--wooden blocks!

 

Alex and Julia's Christening and Alex's First Tooth!

On Saturday, September 27th, our son Alex and our niece Julia were christened together at our church in Dundalk. The weather was certainly interesting, as we ushered the babies in the church under the guise of huge umbrellas due to torrential rain. The priest was about an hour late because he had to eat at Denny's. All in all though, it was still a beautiful day! The babies looked adorable in their white satin outfits. Alex looked like such a handsome little man with his little tie and vest and satin shoes, and Julia looked like such a sweet little princess in her lacy dress. They both did very well during the ceremony itself, accepting the oil and water without a second look. Alex just kind of looked around the whole time and didn't seem too impressed by the whole thing! LOL. Julia was a little disturbed by the process in the beginning, but fell asleep shortly after the start of the ceremony. After the ceremony, we went to Damon's Grill at Arundel Mill and had a celebration dinner. We feasted on BBQ chicken, garlic mashed potatoes, glazed carrots, smoked turkey, herb rice, beef brisket, chicken tenders and mozarella stucks. We also had two beautiful cakes, provided to us by Maria--one baby boy cake, and one baby girl cake! Alex received many nice things for his christening. He  got a nice keepsake engraved box with a cross necklace from his godparents--Mary and Dave. He also got some savings bonds, sleepers, toys, and a blanket from other guests. It was a lovely day for both of our families. In other news, Alex got his first tooth on Wednesday! It is his lower right incisor. It looks like the left incisor will be pushing through next. He has been a little fussier than usual, but nothing too out of the ordinary. We can't believe how big he is getting and how many new things he learns everyday. He's sitting up really well now too. I'll try to post a video of him showing off these skills. He can sit without falling for up to 30 minutes, or even more sometimes. Below are some pictures from the christening and the week. I can't post them all, but will do a slide show of the christening so you can see them all! Enjoy the first week of October!

Alex with his Great-Grandma Glenrose, Nana Cindi, and Mommy

 Alex with his Lola and Daddy

Family Picture at Damon's

 The gymnastics meet at Damon's! LOL.

Being held by his Great-Grandma

Ms. Cathy (Dave's Mom) holding Julia

Ms. Cathy and Ms.Medy holding the stars of the day

Alex showing off his special party outfit

Alex with his Nana Cindi

Ms.Medy with her 4 grandsons-Alex (6 mos.), Daniel (6), Dylan (8), and Matthew (2)

Ms.Medy with all five kids!

Alex with his godparents- Mary and Dave

Monsignor Parks putting the sign of the cross on Alex's head

Alex being christened with the water

Alex's cake!

Dylan and Renee did such a good job reading!

Having his first taste of icing

I think our son is part lizard!

 

Wedding and Honeymoon...All With A 5 Month Old in Tow!

The big day has come and gone, and now we're back from our honeymoon already! We had a wondeful ceremony andrecption on Sunday, August 10th. Everything went off without any problems. No babies screamed during the ceremony, nobody passed out, and nobody got so nervous they had to visit the bathroom. So I would say it was a huge success. I can't wait to get the pictures back! Our photographer said about 4 weeks until they would be available online for viewing, and I can't wait to see how they turned out! We all got to the church by 3:30, which was a miracle. Everyone looked great too. I can't wait to see our colors together in our pictures! The reception was a blast. Alex had a tough time towards the end and Abe and I had to leave the reception to calm him down. I think he was just missing Mommy and Daddy, because once we took him outside, he calmed down immediately and we were able to return to the reception and dnace with him and eveyone else. It was a lot of fun though! We have to thank everyone for traveling and helping with all of the preparations, as well as the plethora of wedding presents we received. It was amazing to have so many people we care about together to help us celebrate. After the wedding, we headed down to Ocean City for 3 days with Alex. His first vacation and trip to the beach! We all ahd a blast! It was nice to have just the 3 of us together celebrating and enjoying Alex's first vacation. We took him to the beach for the first time on Tuesday, and put him in his bumbo seat under our makeshift "camp", complete with a tent and tons of towels! LOL. We also took him down the shore for his first dip in the ocean. I held him while he sat in the sand. Once a wave came up and touched his little toes and legs, he sat shocked for a minute, then started crying, so his dip didn't last long. The water was cold! He also took his first tram ride on the boardwalk, which he LOVED! He smiled and laughed the whole way down, and just couldn't get enough of looking around. In fact, he isn't looking in most of the pictures that were taken outside because he was so busy looking at all of the things around him. He also loved beng in his floatie in the pool. He was so lazy in it! He just laid back and didn't even kick his legs that much. Unfortunately, we had to come home today, because I had to squeeze a doctor's appointment in for him before I go back to work on Monday. He needs his most recent shots and his 5 month check-up. He has them every other month now, instead of every month. I can't believe I am back to Middle School on Monday! I'm going to miss Alex so much! I'll defintely be counting down to June again. Alex will be 15 months old by then. How different he will be  by June 2009! I am going to add some pictures to this posting, but because there are so many, I'll make a slide show of the wedding and the beach and put it on top of this. I can't believe the wedding, the honeymoon and the summer have all come and gone, but they have, and now I am looking forward to what's next for us. Our future together, Alex's firsts--- Halloween, Christmas, Birthday , steps, crawling, talking, etc. It's all very exciting to look forward to those things, and I know we'll treasure the memories of the past week forever.

 

 

 



          Family Picture on Wedding Day



        He'll be crawling before we know it!



Our 4 ringbearers--Dylan, Daniel, Matthew and Alex entering the ceremony



Me and Grandma just before the ceremony



Happy after a long walk on the boardwalk



Abe and Alex on the beach



  Abe and Alex under our beach tent

His first taste of the ocean water!

Me and Alex ready for lunch

Alex in his floatie

   

Abe and Alex in the boardwalk

Alex looking cute in his stroller

Family Portrait on the boardwalk

Alex getting some sun on a lounge chair

Alex relaxing in his floatie

His flirty smile