Growing up TOO fast!!

Alexander is growing up at such an incredible rate. He now self feeds for every meal. Breakfast time he has a bottle and cereal. Lunch it's some fruit and a little bit of whatever I am having (turkey, bread, etc). Dinner time it's carrots, peas, and corn with a little bit of whatever Jason & I are eating. We barely ever feed him baby food anymore. It's so crazy.

He is sitting up in shopping carts and high chairs all by himself now.

He is pointing at things he wants! (Just ask Kevin, who sat laughing as Alexander pointed at the sofa talking. He obviously wanted to sit on the sofa, but aunt Katie had to pull him up since Kevin didn't quite get it).

He is talking. Granted it's not words I understand, but he is definitely looking at me and trying to communicate with me using words.

He crawls like crazy. Everywhere. Constant vigilance! (bonus points for people who get that Harry Potter reference) Luckily he hasn't discovered the kitchen or how to get to the bedrooms...yet.

Of course, he is pulling himself up too. He tries to stand up on his own, and while he is getting better at it, he definitely still needs more practice!

I can't believe he is going to be a whole year old one month from tomorrow! How time flies!

Alexander's First Halloween!

This year is Alexander's first Halloween, and tonight Jason and I took him trick-or-treating at Frisco Fire Safety Town. Our friend Mallory and her little girl Nevaeh joined us! It was chilly but we had so much fun!

We dressed Alexander up as a monkey! We found an adorable hat at Target on sale and I made a tail that I snapped on to some brown fleece pants (super warm). He wore a brown zip up hoodie over a onesie and seemed quite snug! He is such a cute little monkey man!!

Mallory and Nevaeh waiting in the loooong line

 The line to get into Frisco Fire Safety Town was VERY VERY long. We were waiting for about 45 minutes, but I think it was worth it. It was so much fun seeing everyone and getting to walk around in a nice, safe environment where everyone was so friendly. We brought our own bag and we got a little bit of candy. One of the "booths" of volunteers was giving out books! So Alexander now has a new board book that we can play with and read. How exciting!

 Alexander was in awe at everything around in. The whole time he was in his stroller and we were in line to get in, he was kicking his legs really hard. He had a huge grin on his face and thought everyone's costumes were very funny! There were lots of orange and purple string lights decorating Safety Town and Alex got a kick out of those too. He was so excited about everything and everyone, I don't think he even noticed it was cold (although he was pretty bundled up). What a sweet, happy boy he is!

 He ended up staying up WAY past his bedtime tonight, so of course I have too. I think it is time for this mommy to go to sleep. I have another Halloween event tomorrow! Hooray for dressing up!

9 month check-up!

Today Alexander went in for his check up! He is 3/4 of a year old. He weighs 20lbs and 8oz an is almost 29" tall. He is at the 60th percentile for his weight and 50th percentile for height!

The doctor says he is doing wonderfully and that I need to start feeding him food form the table... carrots, potatoes, etc. Anything mushy enough for him to eat. The problem is, we don't cook our stuff that way usually, because who wants mushy carrots?! Well, I guess this means I better start! After all, Alexander does have three bottom teeth in, and two top teeth breaking through. Can you believe it? It's so crazy that he is growing and changing so quickly.

Alexander "sliding" with his Aunt Kelly!

Alexander has started rolling. He rolls far and fast. And when he is done rolling, he just sits right up! I wouldn't be surprised if he started crawling soon, and I am not looking forward to the day when he begins pulling himself up. Oooh dear.

He was very sick, but he is much better now, and we are dealing with what we think is heart burn. I talked to the doctor about it over the phone last week and we have been doing a little bit of Maalox (1/2 tsp or 100mg) before his nighttime bottle and that has been helping a lot. IN FACT, he has slept through the night the past three nights! Can you believe that? The doctor said now that we know he can sleep through the night, we should no longer give him nighttime bottles when he wakes up, just to let him tough it out for a bit and see if he can put himself back to sleep. *sigh* We'll see. I'm sure we'll end up rocking him back to sleep or giving him a teething toy to suck on and bite until he relaxes enough to fall asleep!

A long, messy night

Last night was a long night. Thank God my mom was in town because I do not know if I could have survived otherwise!

Yesterday around 6pm Alexander threw up the apple juice he was drinking. Silly me, I thought he just got choked up, maybe went down the wrong pipe and he started coughing, and his body just decided to be sick too. It never occured to me that it could be something more... until about 10:45pm. He had been fast asleep and then all of the sudden we heard him SCREAM. My mom and I went in and he had vomited in his crib, and all over himself.

By the time we cleaned him up he was wide awake, so we took him out to the living room. As my mom was putting the dirty sheets and towel into the washing machine, I began dressing Alexander in some fresh jammies. He then began to vomit more. I quickly turned him over and he was crying and screaming as his dinner continued to come up. Oh my goodness. It just broke my heart to see him like that. He continued to throw up and cry hysterically once every 10-20 minutes for about 2 hours. Ugh. Horrible. The whole time I was just on the verge of tears. My poor baby boy.

We called the doctor. Thank goodness he was so sweet and calm, and explained every little thing to me, despite the fact that it was 1am. Of course he said "give him pedialyte when this wave of vomiting passes, and if he cant keep it down go to the ER." Well, THANK GOD it did not come to that.

Eventually, Alexander got so tired he was just tipping forward and falling asleep, folding in half. It was very funny, and nice to have something to giggle about. But, we had to build quite the set-up to get him to lay back propped up and stay asleep. Finally, he fell asleep and my mom and I decided to take shifts staying up with him. I slept first on the sofa and my mom sat on the floor and made sure he didn't roll over onto his tummy (which made him wake-up and be sick)... about 2 hours later my mom woke me up, we moved him into his pack-n-play, and he all three of us slept soundly, in our beds. Fantastic.

THEN this morning we had to deal with a grumpy, hungry baby who couldn't have anything but small amounts of water and pedialyte at short intervals... and tonight he ate applesauce for dinner. He wasn't sick once today! YAY! Kept the applesauce, the formula, and the pedialyte down. That means back to a regular diet tomorrow. Let's hope that he is better now and isn't that sick again for a VERY long time.

*sigh of relief*

Well, my mom was here from Monday-Thursday and we had a great time. I got my wedding dress (you'll have to wait until May to see it!) and we got a lot of wedding planning done. Tonight was my night off and tomorrow my sister and her wonderful family are coming to visit for the weekend! Hooray!

In The Works

Okay, so I have been working on a crafting and cooking blog on the side, so I will hopefully be able to update THIS blog a little more often! You're excited, yes?!

Well, Alexander is getting teeth in! YES! Three teeth, actually. On the bottom in the front. Two of them have broken through and are coming in quickly, and the last one is really trying hard to get out! Poor little guy :( If you look carefully in the picture below you can see them!


A few nights ago we let him try a new food. He did not like it at all. It was Chicken Noodle. He has had Macaroni and Cheese before and liked it a little, so it must have been something other than the noodles that he didn't like! His reaction was so funny we took a picture! We couldn't get a good photo of his looks of disgust, but this is the best of 'em.

We did get a great video though! Maybe I will upload it to YouTube so you guys can see it! Not only did Alexander not like the way the food tasted, something upset his stomach! He was up for a majority of the night (from about 1-4) with mommy for company! A bottle didn't help, and the tummy medicine only helped a little bit. In the end we ended up laying in the living room at 3:30am watching Nick Jr, Alex in his pack'n'play, and me on the sofa with a blanket. Luckily, he calmed down when he had something to focus on other than his stomach and he fell asleep somewhere between 4 and 4:30. Thank. Goodness.

Note to self: no more Chicken Noodle! I checked the ingredients and it had onion powder. I am allergic to onion and I am wondering if it upset his stomach, or if it was just his teething that was the culprit this whole time :/

Well, after all that he was fine the next day! So to end on a happy note, here is an adorable picture of a smiling baby in the bathtub!

One Month Down

We have lived in our apartment for a whole month now... almost. We have settled in very nicely! All of our pictures are hung (that we can figure out where to hang), our cabinets & closets are full, and Alexander has even managed to "christen" the carpet with some juice.

Now, I am in wedding planning mode. Yup. Wedding planning mode.
The venue is booked. We are holding the ceremony and reception at Frisco Heritage.
The photographer has been chosen, and we are in the process of setting up a date to meet.
A budget is in the works (now knowing those two big expenses.
Now I just need to figure out how I am going to afford everything else. *sigh*
This is hard work!

Alexander is sitting up on his own now. He reclines on his boppy and feeds himself his morning bottle while I get my coffee and cereal, which is just fantastic. It's so great to just plop him down, hand him bottle and watch him lift it up, put it in his mouth, and lean back!



Also! The best thing happened yesterday. Jason was leaving for work, and Alexander was sitting in his high chair while I was working on something at the table. He saw Jason leaving, got upset, looked at him and said "Da Da!" Even though he has been saying "dadada" for a while now, it was the first time it was CLEAR that was talking about Jason when he said DaDa. How freaking adorable. Brittnee was over too, so I am super glad there was a witness! haha

I have been feeling super crafty lately and have worked on a couple of projects and can't wait to share them at the wedding and wedding events! yay! I will post pictures of those too! :P

New Home :)

Okay! It's official. We are all moved in! Our furniture is in and we have almost everything out of Jason's parents' house. We love our new home. The apartment is wonderful, and I feel so at home here. Alexander has done really well adjusting to the new surroundings, though the first night here he did seem confused and did not want to go to sleep. Now he does pretty well and seems happy! Of course, as long as his belly is full and he is with mommy or daddy, he is usually pretty content.

We had to go a few days (4, actually) without cable or internet (thank goodness I have a smartphone) and I was sooo thankful for having so many DVDs and TV on DVD to watch with Alexander. It was fun watching all my animated Disney movies, but when Alexander fell asleep at night I HAD to put on something a little more grown-up. Princess Bride, Evolution, things like that.

So now, Alexander and I are watching Super WHY! on PBS while daddy gets to sleep in a little bit. He has a busy day ahead of him. Last night was a pretty easy night. Alexander woke up twice, I took one shift and Jason took the other. Both easy, he just wanted a bottle and fell back asleep. And, this morning, he slept in until NINE O'CLOCK. It was simply GLORIOUS to wake up at 9am. I felt strangely refreshed and when I looked at the clock, I knew why!

 Well, today Jason and I will be hanging up (hopefully) a couple of more pictures in the living/dining area and then all that's left to do is unpack the study stuff and a few boxes in the master. Moving is hard work! Such hard work I feel like I have been slacking on my cooking :( The first meal we made in the new apartment was chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast Saturday morning! Then I made some Chicken Fettucine Alfredo for dinner the next night. Don't get too excited though. It was Chicken Helper (like Hamburger Helper). It was still delicious though. I never did find my lasagna pan in storage, so I might have to make do with a small pan and make a lasagna soon! Yuuummmy!

Well, I better go wake Jason up so we can get our day started! It's almost 10:30! :)