Alexander's Web Page

Happy Autumn!

Our family went to the pumpkin patch this weekend.  It was fun for all.  Alex was a little confused by all the people, but we still got some cute pictures.  Plus, we got a family picture finally!  Now, I can’t wait for Halloween to dress him up in his costume.

Alex and I also went to the zoo this week.  We had lots of fun with some of my friends from work.  The Dallas Zoo has a fun feeding station at the giraffe enclosure.  You get to walk right up to the giraffes at their head level and feed them lettuce.  I had never been that close to a giraffe before.  Even Alex seemed captivated.

Alex’s second tooth finally poked through this week.  So, now he has two!  Pretty soon he’ll have a mouthful.  He has also started rolling the ball back to us.  It is a lot of fun.  Enjoy our pumpkin patch pictures.  There are more under the pictures tab!

Today my son is 9 months old and we had his nine month check up.  According to his pediatrician, Alex weights 19 pounds and 11 ounces, he is 28 inches high, and his head circumference is 45.72 centimeters.  That puts him in the 30th, 50th, and 60th percentiles respectively.    He also has his first tooth poking through.  It is only a matter of time now!

Alex is the fastest crawler that I have seen!  I swear he is behind me one second and down the hall the next.  I don’t think I understood just how much you have to keep an eye on a baby until now.  He sure does love the fact that he can control where he is and what he is doing too.  Nothing makes him happier than to see me coming to get him and turning around and crawling the opposite direction while laughing.

We have introduced a lot of new foods to Alex this month, and so far he likes most of them.   Some foods he liked initially like squash and eggplant, but now doesn’t seem to care for them so much, while others like prunes he hated at first, but now he can’t get enough of them!  I added new pictures to his web site of some of his first bites.  Enjoy!

I don’t have any new videos to add yet, but here are some pictures of Alex taking a trek up the stairs.  He loves trying to get to Mommy’s plants!  Also, we took him to the park and let him swing for the first time.  There are pictures of that as well.  Just check out his picture tab!

A funny story: I have been trying to get Alex to wave to me for over a month now.  Today, sitting in the lobby at the doctor’s office he all of a sudden decides that now is the time to wave.  Alex started waving at all of the strangers in the lobby one by one.  It made everyone laugh how hard he was trying to get their attention.  Oh well, if he won’t wave to me, at least he is waving!  🙂

On one hand it is hard for me to believe that my son is already 8 months old; on the other hand, just looking at how big he is leaves little room for doubt.  Alex has added two new skills to his repertoire: climbing stairs and cruising.

Technically, he was starting to climb stairs before now, but he never made it past about the first two or three before he decided to sit down causing him to fall backwards into my arms.  Yesterday, however, Alex climbed up eight stairs without even pausing!  Then he turned and sat on the stair he was on without falling backwards.  As scary as it is watching him climb, it makes me feel good that he is learning new things.

He can also cruise now!  For those of you who don’t know what this means, cruising is when a baby can hold onto a piece of furniture and walk around it, or walk from one piece of furniture to another using the furniture for support.  Alex isn’t moving from one piece of furniture to another yet, but he can walk along the coffee table or couch holding on to the edges.

Last week we had to go buy Alex a new car seat.  At 20 pounds, he has outgrown his original one.  He is still in a rear-facing seat because the law says he has to be 20 pounds and 12 months old before he can face front.  So far he still doesn’t mind facing backwards, and as that is safer, I am happy with it too.

Alex also saw his first Dallas Cowboys’ game.  Well, at least he saw the first part of the game before I put him to bed.  We got him the only jersey we could find: Tony Romo.  Of course it is a little big for him, but at least he will be able to wear it for a while.

I have also added more pictures under the pictures tab.  Enjoy!

As to being a working mom, it is still my least favorite part of this whole parenting adventure.  I wish things were different and I could stay home with Alex, but I count my blessings everyday that we are fortunate enough to to have the support of my mom, mother-in-law, and neighbor to take care of Alex.  Thank you all!

No, Alex didn’t magically age 5 years in the past two weeks.  It was my first week back at school with the students.  That means it was Alex’s first time to stay with someone he is not related to.  My mom is keeping Alex 3 days a week, and a neighbor is keeping him two days a week.  Needless to say, I was a little worried about everything.  It turns out that I was all stressed out over nothing.  Alex seems to really enjoy going to his “Nana’s” house.  When James dropped him off on the first day he cried for a bit, but by the time the second day rolled around, he didn’t cry at all!  Tomorrow will be day three, and I am sure things will be fine.

Alex has decided that with me going back to work, he doesn’t want to sleep on any kind of schedule any more.  He has gone from waking up once or twice during the night to waking up three or four times a night, and sometimes even hourly.  I think he is punishing me for leaving him and going back to work.  Other people tell me that he is probably just going through a growth spurt.  Either way, I hope he settles down soon.

Speaking of growing, my not-quite-eight-month-old now weighs twenty pounds!  I can hardly believe how big he is.  We are about to have to go buy a new car seat for him because his original car seat is too small.

In the last two weeks Alex has also picked up two new skills.  He is not only pulling himself up to a sitting/kneeling position, but he is now pulling himself up to standing on any available surface.  He is very proud of himself too.  When he pulls himself up it is usually accompanied by a cackle of laughter and bouncing up and down.  His second skill is that he is finally crawling!  The real crawling — not the army crawl anymore.  And boy, can he book it!  There is nothing stopping him now!  I’ll try to get some good video of him crawling and post it soon.  In the meantime, enjoy some new pictures!

Using the coffee table:

Watch out stairs!

How do I get out of here?

Look at me now!

Alex and I have enjoyed our last week together before I am back at work full-time.  Yes, I have had to go into work a lot this month, but this week is officially the week before the students come back.  It is time to make sure all my ducks are in a row and ready for this year’s group of sophomores.

So, what did we do this week?  Since I had to go into work Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday — not much.  We mostly spent the time we had together relaxing at home.  We did get to go swimming with some friends in Richardson.  Here is a picture of us.  There are more under the photos tab.

We also introduced green beans to Alex.  He doesn’t like them as much as sweet potatoes and bananas.  Here is his face after his first bite:

Because he is sitting up so well, I put Alex in his rocking chair for the first time.  You might not know this, but this rocking chair is very special.  It was hand-made by my mother’s grandfather.  My mom used it, her brother and sister used it; my sister and I used it; my three cousins used it; Alex’s older cousin, Bella used it.  And now, it is Alex’s turn.  I have to say it still looks new.

Alex also has a new skill: pulling up!  I have to say I am excited about this one.  He isn’t supposed to be pulling up until he is 9 months old.  I am trying not to get too excited.  I know there are plenty of things that he is “supposed” to do at a certain time that he won’t do on time, but I can’t help but be a little proud of my boy.  Here are some of the various shots of him pulling up on different things:

My son was baptized today!  It was a truly wonderful experience.  Once again I have to say how lucky we are to have both sets of grandparents living close enough that they can participate in events like this.  We are truly blessed.

Alex was baptized this morning at Saint Barnabas Presbyterian Church.  It is the church that I attended since I was born, my parents still attend there, and both my sister and I were baptized there.  The event was made even more special because I was able to use the blanket that was wrapped not only around my sister when she was baptized and me when I was baptized, but was also wrapped around my father when he was baptized.  What a wonderful heirloom!

Alex was pretty well behaved during the church service.  Any noises that he did make were noises of joy.  He did get a little loud during the sermon, but I only had to step out with him for a moment.  Most of the time he was loud during the hymns, but I believe that is just because he likes the music.

During the actual baptism he was very quiet.  He went to Reverend Tom readily and even smiled up at him.  The funny part was that when Rev. Tom was walking around with Alex, Alex decided that was the perfect time to practice his teething skills and chew on Tom’s knuckles.  After the service Tom told us that, that was the first time a child chewed on his fingers during a baptism.  That’s my boy!

Here is my favorite picture from today, but I have added quite a few more under the pictures tab.  Enjoy!

So tonight I feel like a bad mother.  Let me explain…

Alex is still not technically crawling, but his army crawl has gotten so fast that he can make it from the living room to the kitchen or down the hall in just a few seconds.  James and I have started child-proofing everything.  Cords are moved out of the way, outlets covered, magazines and other items picked up from under the coffee table, and I mop and vacuum the floor much more often than I did before.  In other words, we felt safe letting Alex crawl around without having to watch him every second.

It isn’t like I leave him alone in a room.  I still keep my eye on him, but obviously not enough.

Tonight, a leaf from one of our plants on the window seat in the kitchen must have been dangling down just enough that Alex could reach up and pull on it.  Did the leaf snap off?  No.  Did it slip out of his grasp?  No.  Instead the whole plant came down off the ledge.  Thank goodness it was a small plant in a thin metal pot instead of one of our larger plants in a ceramic pot.  Nevertheless, Alex ended up with dirt all over him, screaming, with a knot on his head.

30 seconds after I picked him up, he had already stopped screaming and was smiling again, but my guilt had just begun.  The knot began swelling.  I applied ice to try to get the swelling to go down.  Do you know how hard it is to keep ice on a baby’s head?  Alex was feeling fine and just wanted to get down and crawl around again.  He didn’t understand why Mommy kept trying to hold something cold against his head.

Anyway, he survived and I learned a lesson about turning my head away from him while he is exploring.  I am also going to have to re-examine how “child proofed” my house really is.

Here is a picture of Alex after I iced his knot.  It doesn’t show up too clearly in this picture, but it sure stands out in my mind.

Sorry, Baby!

We got some more professional pictures taken a couple of weeks ago.  In honor of his father, Mimi, and James’ dad we got Alex an outfit like the Navy dress blues.  Go Navy!  I think the pictures turned out adorable, if I do say so myself.  I have to give Sears props.  They may not be a trendy photo boutique, but the lady there always gets Alex to smile and the pictures are always cute.  I posted the best ones under the photos tab.  Here is one of my favorites:

I can’t claim that I thought of this idea on my own.  This summer I have been reading many parenting blogs, and quite a few of them have featured a “day in the life of” picture day.  I really liked the idea.  Plus, I thought it would give you an idea of what we have spent our days doing all summer.  So, enjoy!

Time to wake up!

Diaper Change!

Playing in the pack-and-play while Mommy gets dressed

Exploring the hallway with Xena

In the car running errands with Mommy

After errands, it is playtime!

Time for first lunch: cereal!

Time for second lunch: bananas!

Swimming with friends.

Packing up to go home from swimming

More swimming!  (Bath time after the pool)

Playing with Daddy’s keyboard.  I already love computers!

Hanging out with Xena

Dinner: sweet potatoes

Helping Mommy cook dinner for her and daddy

Drinking from my sippy cup like a big boy!

Relaxing in pajamas with Daddy.

Night, night!  (Or so you think…)

It has been a pretty eventful two weeks.  First, and probably most exciting, Alex can do the army crawl.  I know it isn’t the same thing as really crawling, but he is that much closer.  It has been lots of fun watching him scoot his way down the hallway in pursuit of Xena.  I can’t wait to see what happens when he can catch her!

Alex has also been introduced the the world of food beyond rice cereal. We added sweet potatoes.  I am making my own baby food right now, and it hasn’t been too hard.  We’ll see what happens when school starts.

My parents and I also took Alex to meet my sister for the first time.  Alex and I drove the 45 minutes to get to my parents’ house only to pile in their car for the 2-hour drive to Kilgore.  Alex did pretty well in the car and only fussed for about 20 minutes.  I think he had fun meeting Laura, and she seemed to smile and laugh at him.  If only we knew what was going on in their heads!

James also took a week off the spend with me and the baby.  One day we went to the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History.  It was a lot of fun.  We tried taking Alex into the IMAX theater, but that was too loud for him.  He did seem to enjoy the planetarium show.  In fact, he enjoyed it so much that he started squealing and I had to take him out about 5 minutes before it was over.  We also spent some time in the Leonardo Di Vince exhibit and the Fort Worth exhibit.  All in all, it was a great day!

The only sad thing is that I have to go back to work in about another week.  Yes, the kids don’t start school until the last week of August, but my first day of inservice is on August 2nd.  Oh well, I do feel truly blessed to have gotten to spend the summer with my son!