Alexander's Web Page

Happy Birthday to my 2-year-old! (One day late)

Merry Christmas morning! Above is the first picture I took of Alex on Christmas day.  Doesn’t he look eager?  He really understood Christmas a lot more this year.  He walked around saying, “Ho, ho, ho.  Merry Christmas!”  He also kept asking to listen to “Jingle Bells” and “Frosty the Snowman”.  Of course, he still didn’t have everything down pat.  If you asked him what a snowman says, he would reply, ” Roooar!”

Christmas was hosted at our house this year. My parents, James’ sister, James’ parents, and James’ grandmother all came over to celebrate.  We had a great time.  Alex loved opening his own presents and helping other people open theirs too!

First, he opened his stocking from Santa:

Then, the parade of presents began.  Here are some pictures from the day:

Alex loved all his presents and has built quite a collection of his favorite characters: Elmo, Cookie Monster, Ernie, and Woody.  All in all, I think this was my favorite Christmas ever!

Our neighbor down the street got a sweet Mercedes for Christmas, and on New Year’s Eve she, her parents, and grandmother came over to take Alex for a ride.  Did I mention that she is two and a half and the car only goes about 2 mph?

And so now it is 2012.  It is hard to believe that in just4 days my son will be two years old.  Here is the first picture taken of Alex in 2012.  I can hardly wait to see what happens next!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

First, let me catch up.  Alex had a Christmas show at his daycare this year.  It was a lot of fun.  He didn’t do much more than shake some jingle bells, but he sure was cute.

First, the kids got led in.  To me, it looks like Alex is waiting to direct.

Then they all found their places and waited for the song to begin.

We took video of the show, and you can see one of his songs at this link: http://youtu.be/KYnZp3_7tWo

He also got to see Santa at his Christmas show.  He was so excited to see Santa Claus this year.  He calls him “Ticky-taws,” but when he actually saw him, he really didn’t want to have anything to do with Santa — until he got some candy.  Maybe next year will be better.

Before Candy:

With Candy:

We took a couple pictures for our Christmas cards.  We ended up using the one with the tree.  The snowman picture is too busy.

Then we spent Christmas Eve with Mimi and Aunt Nicole.  Alex got to open a stocking from his Mimi and one present.  He loved both!

Coming up next: Christmas!

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

Before I tell you about our Thanksgiving, I just want to share some pictures from when we went to Alex’s Papa’s house a few weeks ago.  He lives out in the country, and Alex had a blast running around in the fields, picking up sticks, riding on the tractor, and watching his daddy chop down trees.

This last picture is my favorite.  Alex and I were walking across the field, when he turned around, sat down, and said, “Picture!”  He wanted me to take his picture.  This is the result.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year.  Alex’s Mimi hosted at her house, and he had a ton of fun playing with Mimi, Papa, Meemaw, Gamma, and Dee-paw (as he calls everyone).  We watched the parade, ate a feast, watched some football, and played in the yard.  Overall it was a great success!  We even had name tags for our seats that Alex made.  We traced his hands, let him color them in turkey colors, and then I cut them out and glued on beaks and wattles.  They weren’t perfect, but I think people liked them.  The only problem is that I didn’t take enough pictures.  I always have the best intentions, but things don’t always work out like I would like them to.

We were lucky that Alex was healthy enough to attend the Thanksgiving celebration.  He had been sick for about two weeks prior to it.  I picked him up sick from school the Wednesday two weeks before Thanksgiving.  He had a low fever.  James stayed home with him on Thursday, and he seemed okay in the morning, but by the time I got home from work his fever was over 103.  We took Alex to Care Now, and there his fever was 105.  They diagnosed him with strep, brought his fever down, and sent him home.  I stayed home with him on Friday, started him on Amoxicillin, and he seemed to get better.

Over the weekend he developed a horrible diaper rash that I learned was probably due to the antibiotic.  No one at Care Now warned me about that, however.  We tried all sorts of things for the rash over the next week, but by the Friday before Thanksgiving week his bottom was so sore that he screamed every time he pooped.  I got an oral medication from his doctor on Friday to help with the rash, but she didn’t want to see him.  On Sunday, he finished up his amoxicillin, but developed this spotty rash on his legs.  Since I had the next week off, I decided to wait and call his doctor on Monday rather than taking him back to Care Now.

On Monday, the rash was much worse and had spread to his stomach and back.  I called his doctor and tried to get him in, but the nurse told me it was probably a reaction to the Amoxicillin and to start him on Benadryl.   This didn’t make sense to me since Alex had been on the Amoxicillin for 10 days and had just finished it, but I decided to just try the Bendryl.  By Tuesday morning, the rash was much worse, had spread to his arms, face, and head, and was starting to itch.

These pictures were taken on Tuesday morning, but don’t do justice to how bad Alex looked.  The rash eventually covered about 70% of his body.

I called his doctor again, but they just told me to continue the Benadryl.   There were no words of comfort, no explanation, no guesses as to how long this would last, or when I should expect to see an improvement.  When I politely asked the nurse if I could please bring Alex in to be seen, she told me if I was really that worried to just take him to the E.R. since they didn’t have any appointments, and then she hung up on me.

Now I realize that first-time mothers tend to be over-protective and maybe a little needy, but all I really needed was some reassurance about what was going on and maybe some more information.  I was very upset.  It is true that his rash greatly improved over the next few days and was almost invisible by Thanksgiving, but I am still upset with the pediatrician’s office.  I am thinking about changing doctors.  What do you think?

Happy Halloween!

On Friday, Alex had his daycare Halloween party.  First the kids all got into their costumes.  Then they all paraded outside and trick or treated around the parking lot.  Once we finished that, we went back to the classroom, had Halloween snacks, and read Halloween stories.  Alex had a great time with his friends:

Then on Saturday we had our first Halloween block party where the adults visited and the kids trick or treated.  Again, Alex had so much fun running around with the other kids.

Happy Halloween from us to you!

We have had a busy October.  So far we have been to three pumpkin patches and a Halloween carnival, and it isn’t even Halloween yet.

First, we went to Calloway’s pumpkin festival with Mimi.  Alex had a lot of fun with the pumpkins and drawing with chalk.

A couple of weeks later we took Alex to a pumpkin patch that is close to our home.  It is the same one we went to last year.  This year, since Alex can walk, he had a blast running around and around the pumpkin patch.  The only problem was that he didn’t want to sit still for any pictures.  And when we finally did get him to sit still, he didn’t want to smile.  These are the best pictures from the day:

This past weekend we were invited to a Halloween carnival with some friends.  Alex got to wear his costume for the first time this year.  The carnival was at a preschool in Dallas, and it was really fun.  There was a playground to play on, pizza to eat, and games to play.  Alex had a great time!

Later that same day, our neighbors invited us to go to a popular pumpkin patch in Flower Mound with them.  It was crazy how busy it was!  There were so many people there that it was hard to get a picture without a ton of other people in the background.  The kids both had fun posing with the cartoon characters, and the day ended with both of them throwing little pumpkins down a little hill while both dads chased after the pumpkins.  A great time was had by all!

With a neighborhood Halloween party on Saturday and trick or treating on Monday, expect more pictures in the near future!

Picture from the first time Alex went outside and played in the rain:

Getting ready for a bike ride:

Pictures from a trip to the park:

Me and my son:

Well, I have been a bad mother and have not been keeping up with my posting on Alex’s web site.  Nor have I been taking as many pictures as I used to do.  I have to admit that this school year is keeping me much busier than the past couple of school years have done.

Alex has not only been surviving day care – he has been thriving.  It took 11 days of him crying and throwing a fit every morning when I dropped him off, and then on the 12th day, he turned around, waved at me, and said, “bye-bye.”  Since that twelfth day, he has whined occasionally when dropped off, but mostly he just starts playing with the lady who is there for early morning drop-offs.

When I go to pick Alex up in the afternoons, he has to run around and hug his teacher, the morning lady, and both managers before he’ll let me take him home.  I would definitely say he is enjoying himself.

And, he is also learning.  After only being in daycare for a month, he can already recognize and name a few of his letters.  The only thing I am worried about is that he is losing his sign language.  I knew it would happen, but it still makes me sad.  I also thought that when he started losing his sign, he would start talking more, but he really hasn’t picked up many new words lately.  His pediatrician said that by the time he is two years old, he should be speaking 200 words.  That seems crazy to me!  He just turned 20 months, and he still doesn’t have much more than 27 words.  He better start speaking in a hurry if he is going to make 200 in the next 4 months!

Since I haven’t taken many pictures lately, I thought you might enjoy seeing some of the artwork Alex has been making at daycare.  More pictures soon!

We survived!  Alex and I both survived his first day at daycare.  Woohoo!

I woke Alex up this morning and told him it was his first day of school.

I got him dressed, and he still seemed excited.

We loaded ourselves into the car,

and we arrived at the daycare center.

When Alex and I arrived in his classroom, we found out that his teacher was out sick, so he had a substitute on his first day.  She seemed very nice, but hopefully we will meet his teacher tomorrow.  As Alex gawked at the kids and toys spread out before him, I managed to slip out the door.

I worried about him all day, but managed to keep busy at work.  The lady who runs the daycare recommended that I not pick him up until after nap time at three.  So, promptly at three o’clock I pulled up to the daycare to pick up my son.  They told me that he cried some when he noticed I was gone, and he cried again and asked for me at naptime.  Other than that, they said he did very well.  I wanted to take another picture of him when I picked him up, but as soon as I got in range to take a picture, he saw me, burst into tears, and sprinted across the floor.  There was no chance to take a picture.  He stopped crying after making sure that I wasn’t going anywhere without him, and he even managed to say “bye-bye” to his teacher and friends.

All in all, I have to say it was a successful first day.  Here’s hoping that the rest of the week will go as smoothly.  🙂

Alex and I have had a great summer.  It has truly been a blessing to get to spend so much time with my son.  We have read books, played tag, played with endless toys, visited with good friends, gone out to eat, gone swimming, gone to parks, and a hundred other things.  Most recently we went to the Fort Worth Children’s Museum with James:

We went out to eat with my parents for my birthday:

Enjoyed a new swing at Mimi’s house:

And went to an indoor safari park:

I have also spent a lot of time indulging his new obsession: dinosaurs.  He has a couple of dinosaur books, a small stuffed dinosaur, and a plastic dinosaur toy that he loves.  When he wakes up from his nap sometimes I will hear him up in his room saying, “Dino, dino, dino!”  It is like he thinks a dinosaur will come rescue him from his crib.  I have to say, it is very cute.

I wouldn’t change a second of anything.

But, it all changes tomorrow.  I go back to work and Alex starts daycare for the first time ever.  Everyone keeps telling me not to worry.  That it will be harder on me than it will be on him.  That even if he has a horrible time in the beginning, he will adjust and not have any memories of the experience.  And yes, most of that advice makes me feel better, but I just wish it didn’t have to happen.  I love my job; I love teaching students, but I wish I could stay home with my baby for just a couple more years.  Oh well, I can’t stop time.  A new adventure begins tomorrow…

Wish us luck!