Alex's first Christmas..followed by Alex's first stomach flu!

I know it's been forever since I wrote anything, and you are all thinking I have no excuse, since Abe and I have been off of work since December 23rd, BUT all 3 of us are finally recovering from a very bad bout of the stomach flu! So much has happened since my last post,so I'll break it down by day for you.

Christmas Eve: Abe was working all day, and Alex and I were both home, so we just hung out at the house together and played all day. Around 3 we headed down to Abe's mom's and then to a children's mass at Sacred Heart. It was really nice, but SUPER crowded! We were very lucky to be able to squeeze into a seat. Alex was so well-behaved. He actually fell asleep about halfway through and slept through the end of it. I was very much relieved! Abe joined us about halfway through the service as well, somehow managing to find us in the standing room only church. We then headed over to Abe's Mom's and had a feast.

Christmas Day: Alex woke up around his usual time (being only 9 months old, he wasn't in hurry to open up his presents he didn't even know he was getting! LOL) Abe and I opened his presents for him. We tried to get him to rip the paper once we started a tear for him, but he was uninterested and kept crawling away! He got a dancing tower, whch is probably one of his favorite toys so far, a push toy to help him learn to walk, and a baby grand piano (Alex really loves instruments--he's obsessed with the xylophone Melinda gave us). He also got some clothes, feeding items, sippy cups and a kid's ice pack for those falls that I know are coming with his first steps being just around the corner. We also got him some personalized rubber labels to put on his sippy cups at daycare and such. Abe and I also opened out presents to one another. His "big" present being a GPS navigation system and mine being a winter acket and a beautfiul necklace with a little boy charm and Alex' aquamarine birthstone. After packing frantically and running out the door around 9:30 AM, we went to Abe's mom's, ate breakfast and watched the chaos unfold as the kids tore into all of their presents. Alex got so many nice things there! I couldn't begin to name them all! We rushed out of there around 1:30 PM and drove the 3  hours to visit my family. We arrived and immediately opened our gifts before my Dad had to be out the door to work by 5! Alex once again got many,many nice gifts--too many to name! My grandparents came to visit later that night and brought him even more stuff! We went to bed that night exhausted but so grateful for all of the nice things Alex got from his family members and all of the nice things we were able to provide for him and for each other.

Fast forward to Saturday night 12/27: Alex wakes up in the middle of the night throwing up. Only does it once, so we are thinking it's probably from too much excitement that day. Uh-oh!

Sunday-Today: We come home with big plans to send Alex off to daycare for the week and accomplish so many tasks around house, especially cleaning our closets and painitng Abe's Mom's kitchen for her. We send Alex to daycare Monday, but I wake up feeling pretty crappy. I spend the day pretty sick and in bed most of the day, while Abe tries to clean one of the downstairs closets. In my haze of sickness I attempt to help him, and we get a little bit accoplished before I am too sick to do anythin else. Tuesday, we keep Alex home because he was sick at daycare the day before--I feel a little better, but Abe feels terrible. Wednesday, Ms. Joanna, our daycare provider calls--she is sick (surprise,surprise). It doesn't matter anyway though, Alex is still too sick to make it to daycare. We take him to the doctor and wait 2 hours for them to tell us everyone has a stomach bug and give him pedialyte every half hour in a syringe, he'll get better soon. Thursday--we all feel a little better, so we got some cleaning  and laundry done. It was much needed!

Weekend--Running around and then Abe'm Mom's 60th borthday party today. It was a surprise and I think she was definitely surprised!!! We all chipped in to get her a digital camera, so she can take lots of pictures of her now 5 grandchildren! So tomorrow it's back to the norm. Oh and Alex will be 10 months old tomorrow! Can you believe it??? *sigh* Some pics below..I'll put together a 9 month/christmas slide show later this week to show them all.

Daniel, Alex, Dylan, Matthew and Julia geting ready for Santa!

Mary and Julia hanging out before Christmas

Dylan at his chirstmas program--love the robe!

Daniel at his program

Abe, Maria, Mary, and Ms. Medy

Alex found my mom's potatoes, so he had to try one! LOL.

Alex opening up a Christmas present

Walking with the help of his new walker he got!

Sitting with Uncle Brandon

Abe with Dylan and Matthew at Ms. Medy's party

Ms. Medy and Dave with the cake and all of the kids

Looking very serious at the party

         You can sort of see his two front teeth here--he now has 4 on the top and 2 on the    bottom!

Our Little Daredevil

I was looking at an article in Parents magazine that claimed to describe babies' personalities. It was saying their were certain types of baby personalities and that I would be able to identify Alex's by reading the desciptions. I think I have him pegged as an "Active" baby. The article said "Active" babies are always curious, want to investigate everything, and NEVER stop moving. That's our son!!! He is constantly on the go and constantly getting into something else these days. He appears to have no fear whatsoever, and while that can be a good thing (i.e. sitting on Santa's lap), it can also be a very bad thing indeed (i.e. trying to climb the stairs before he can even walk or pulling the nightliht out of the wall AND trying to plug it back in!) We can already see the daredevil personality coming out in him, especially since he started pulling himself to stand, and crawling at the speed of light. My prediction is he'll walk well before his first birthday, and then we'll be in for a world of trouble! He's also getting so good at crawling that he likes to crawl into small spaces and sit there for awhile looking around. He has such a typical boy personality that there's defintely no mistaking his gender...or his personality type.

                                                                                           Busted climbing on the stairs!

Really funny pic of Alex with his ninny

The kitchen is his new playground

Grandma feeding him some oatmeal

Hiding under our table

                                                                                 Playing  with an ornament on our tree

Eating his first finger food--wafers

Daniel at his Christmas program---look how handsome he is in his vest!

Dylan at his Christmas program--love the robe!

 

                                                              If you look hard, you can see his 4 top teeth coming in!

Check out my Slide Show!

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Turkey Day and 9 Months Old!

Alex exploring a newly wrapped present

We have been celebrating and preparing for a lot of firsts recently. That's the beauty of having a baby at this stage of development--they tend to do something new everyday! He just had his first Thanksgiving, will soon have his first Christmas and about 2 and half months after Christmas comes his first birthday! Alex is 9 months old today! It's so hard to believe. It seems like he looks older everyday now. His face is slimming down a little and those chubby cheeks may soon be a thing of the past. Oh they're still there, but when I look back on pictures of him a few months ago, they are much slimmer. He would really like to walk, but just can't seem to get the hang of keeping his balance without holding on. He defintely will try to take steps as he holds on to things, but it usuallyends in him plopping his butt right down on the floor and then getting back up and trying it again. Thanksgiving went well. We don't have a whole lot of pictures of him in his little outfit, mainly because we travelled a lot that day. We spent the morning and afternoon with Abe's family, eating a delicious feast, then travelled about 200 miles to eat with my family in Western, MD. We arrived at about 5:30 and everyone was just finishing! So Abe and I ate quickly and let my Dad and Grandma play with Alex on the floor. The next day, we headed out at around 3:00 AM to get some bargains. My Grandma came up to our house around 3 to watch Alex for us while we shopped. It was a little crazy, especially Wal-mart where we had to throw toys to people, but worth it! Among the amazing deals: A down comforter for $20, originally $160! Winter jackets for both of us, originally both over $100, just $30! Some cool toys for Alex originally $25-30, we got for $10! So even though we were a little sleep-deprived that day, the deals were totally worth it. Alex also visited Santa for the first time at the Country Club Mall in Cumberland. He liked Santa! He just kept staring at his beard and didn't seem freaked out at all. We were very surprised! He even smiled for the picture!We returned to B-more on Saturday and put upour Christmas tree that night. We had a 6 foot tree from when I lived in my little apartment in Dundalk, and we out it up only to realize it looks awfully small in our new house with our 12' ceilings! LOL. It's a little Charlie Brown-ish. Alec hasn't bothered it too much, aside from when I came in the living room tp find him licking an ornament. Alex likes to lick things instead of picking them up and putting them into his mouth! LOL. Well--I've gone on for awhile. Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! Enjoy the pics below and the slide show I'll post later of Alex's 8th month!

The only picture we actually took of Alex on Thanksgiving!

  

Alex playing with his cousin Julia--It's so cute that they are starting to play together a little bit!

 

Our Charlie Brown christmas tree

 

I love his little smirk AND his candy cane pants of course!

 

Alex is telling Santa what he wants!

 

Giggling with Elmo

 

This is TOO funny--Alex discovered that his humidifier blows out air and he couldn't get enough!

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Standing on his own two feet!

Alex is growing so fast; it seems like he learns something new everyday. On Thursday, November 13th, he pulled himself to stand all by himself for the very first time! The daycare lady told me he did it using her couch when I picked him up that afternoon. I was a little bummed that I missed his very first time, but then thought, it's always going to be the first time seeing something for us rather he did it before or not. He did pull himself up again later that night using the platform of our stairs, and he's been doing it ever since. He actually has been holding on with just one hand lately and taking a few steps as he holds on. It seems like he just hits one milestone after another. We just got used to him crawling around everywhere and now he's standing! We also tried to introduce him to a sippy cup this week, but to no avail. We will continue to offer it to him, but he's just not interested now, and he'll use it when he's ready to. He either A. throws it or bangs it on the floor or B. tries to bend all the way down while it's sitting on the floor and drink from the spout! He's getting his own little personality lately too! He does not like tp be dressed and usually fights like crazy when we're trying to change his diaper or dress him. He also whines when we tell him "no"! LOL. He's been saying "dada" for awhile now, but said "mama" finally today! Yay! He does know who I am! Of course, we're not sure that it's for real or he's just babbling (after all, he said mama about a month ago and then starting saying dada all the time and now is saying mama again), but it's cool to think that he's communicating with us in his own way. We also has some family photos and photos of Alex taken for Christmas at JC Pennys. He did really well. We got some smiles and some looking at the camera, but he's defintely harder to entertain nowdays, so we'll take what we can get at this point when it comes to pictures! His little outfit is absolutely adorable and he looks like such a little man in it!It's in the pictures above and below, but basically it's a checkered button down under an argyle sweater vest with gray pin-striped pants and shiny black shoes! So cute! Below are some pictures from this week of him playing and showing off his new skill--standing up tall!

 

                                                                 Alex's one-handed hold

Riding on Matthew's old fire-truck

I just love his two teeth smile!

Showing off his Christmas outfit with Daddy

Drinking from his sippy his-way

                            We can't believe how long his hair is getting--look at those bangs! LOL

He'll use anything to help him stand--including his beloved swing!

Alex in his new "play-corner" we set up in our living room using foam puzzle pieces as a mat

Playing and giggling near his corner

Alex turned 8 months old this week!

On Wednesday, Nov. 5, Alex turned 8 months old! I can't believe he is this old already and wearing size 6-9 and 12 month clothing! He has become quite the little comedian lately as he's been developing new skills and showing more personality. He loves to look in our stainless steel trash can abd see his own relfection and he bats at his reflection. It's hilarious to watch! He also "chases" the cats. As soon as he sees them. he crawls as fast as his little knees can take him to try and grab at their fur. His whole face lights up when he sees them, and both of them do very well with him too. Oscar will lay next to him all of the time and even lets Alex attempt to pet him in his own way. I'm glad that he will grow up with an appreciation for animals. I always had a pet growing up, and loved taking care of all of my animals as a kid. He's also pulling himself up to his knees. He can stand of we pull him up and put his hands on the edge of the furniture. He can actually balance himself quite well for awhile. He just can't ull hiself all the way to his feet yet. I think my favorite thing right now is his adorable laugh. I wish I could bottle it up and keep it. We do have it one video though. It's such a loud and cute laugh! He's just getting so big so fast. He'll be 1 in 4 more months! Below are some pictures of our favorite 8 month old!

Alex standing after we helped him get up there

Alex hanging out with Daddy--I think he's been watching the 5 dollar footlong commercial too much! LOL.

               Alex pulling himself up to his knees--mainly because he sees Oscar in the laundry basket!

Amazed by his own reflection

Still likes to stick that tongue out!

He spends most of his time crawling around on his tummy nowdays

Ms. Medy holding Julia..I love her bow!