Thank you

Alex said thank you tonight! Justin and I both thought we were hearing things, but then he copied us a few times. I guess we had better be careful about what we say from now on. So I guess thank you is his true first words. That is a good sign of all the words to say he certainly picked the polite ones first. He even used it correctly. We handed him a toy and he said thank you. He has been sharing things a lot with us lately and we always say thank you when he does that so I guess it rubbed off on him. We are continully amazed everyday at the progress he is making. It is so fun to watch him grow and learn. He tool five steps a few times tonight. He is working really hard on walking and tiring himself out in the process. I keep saying that it is going to be anytime now, but it surely has to be because he has really been working hard in the last two days.

In other news, they dug for our foundation today. One day ahead of schedule! We were so excited that we went and took pictures of the hole. They already have it marked for pouring the foundation so that will probably happen by the end of the week. I can't wait until it is done!

First day back to work

Today was my first day back to work and Alex's first day back to daycare. I was sure that there would be tears and that it would be a sad day for me. Actually, it was much easier than I expected. When we arrived, I took off his jacket and he helped himself to the toys and smiled the whole time. There were no tears and he seemed to busy playing that he barely let me give him a hug. That certainly made leaving easier and even though I was tired, I had a good first day back at work. This evening was a bit of a different story. Alex was whiny most of the night and ended up going to bed at 7:45. There were lots of tears from him and frustration. I think it is a combination of being so busy at daycare and trying to keep up with all the walkers and perhaps missing me a bit. He also was not ready to get up so early this morning and perhaps needed a bit more sleep. I did notice that he was much more willing to try walking on his own today. Sometimes he forgot to get the feet to move and simply fell, but many times he took three to five steps. I think the extra motivation of the five walkers at daycare probably made him want to catch up. He is still quite wobbly, but that will improve. I did miss him a lot today, but I brought plenty of pictures and told everyone who asked how he was doing. Just having a picture of him on my desk always makes my day brighter.

An additional note....This weekend I made a big purchase and bought him an activity table with storage carts from Pottery Barn. I saved $105 because it was a floor model and he loves it. He can stand and play with all of his toys and it is big enough to hold everything. It has also made his play area much cleaner because he is not tossing toys all over. We also got him some chairs to go with his table from IKEA. These are fun and he likes them, but he is still too little and theay are put away because they are a climbing hazard right now. He got another bruise on his head and his cheek thank to my great chair idea!

Never enough hugs

Alex was more snuggly than ususal today. Before lunch I think that I got 12 hugs! Perhaps he knew it was our last day home together before I go back to work on Monday. He was a sweetheart today, but I do not think that he was feeling the best. We had several nasty diapers and a bad case of diaper rash. There was lots of crying with every diaper change so we went to get some more Burt's Bees diaper cream. This helped alot, still some tears, but it is looking much better now. We have also found a diaper that will last overnight. I am glad that I found something that works as it will cut down on the laundry.

It is too bad that I can't bottle all of those baby hugs and the soft and sweet "mama" that I hear everyday. I am sure that I will miss both of those things next week.

More baby steps

Alex is walking like crazy, but still will only take 3 to 4 steps on his own. He does want me to hold his hand and he will travel around the whole kitchen though. Yesterday he shared a lot. He shared his toys with me and his food. It was really cute. I am sure he will soon learn to say mine. He also got to visit his baby cousins Ethan and AJ. He was a bit too active with AJ and tried to climb on top of Ethan in his carseat, but was very interested in both of them and what they were doing. He didn't even get jealous when I held Ethan for a little while.

This morning we need to finally sign off on our house and we are bringing toys for Alex. hopefully he can keep himself busy for a little while because it is hard to sign papers with a baby trying to grab your pen all the time.

4 Baby Steps

Alex took four steps on his own today! They looked really good and he might have gone all the way to the railing (six steps), but he tripped on some of his little people stuff. He also practiced every version of Momma as well. It was really nice to hear and he says it so soft and sweet. So with only five days left of my summer vacation the walking might just happen. It was also his last Gymboree class. He really enjoyed going there and we will definately go back in the future. He was a climbing animal today, he is trying as hard as he can to get up on the couch. It is not quite happening yet, but he is close on that also.

He ate tacos yesterday and spaghetti today. He loved both, I think he enjoys the extra flavor.

Crab Crawl and Drinking from a straw

Today was a fun day with Alex. He has always had a bit of a strange crawl. He pushes off with his right foot flat on the floor and drags his left leg. This weekend he has decided to change it up, instead of crawling the old way he is now sticking his butt in the air and crawling with both feet flat on the floor crab-style. It is really funny to watch and his almost as fast doing it his new way and it makes for less red knees. He is full or bruises right now because he is getting more brave by the minute. Sometimes he decides to go headfirst off the step instead of turning around. This is not good technique and we always remind him that he needs to go backwards. He gets lots of practice at this because we have one step down between our dining room and his play area. He also is pulling himself up on things and walking along them as much as possible. When he runs out of room, sometimes he a will take a wobbly step or two which often results in falling down. Sometimes he seems incredibly coordinated and that he is just holding off on walking. Other times I look at him and think that he needs more practice because he is so unsteady. Things seem to be coming together for him so it will probably be any day now for him to let go and explore the world on two feet.
We went out to breakfast today at Perkins and Alex had success drinking from a straw for the first time. We forgot to bring his sippy cup and he was getting a bit antsy so Justin tried the kiddie cup with a straw. At first Alex just chewed on the straw, but them Justin showed him how to suck from a straw and amazingly he copied him! Alex then became so excited that he could drink from the straw that he drank 2/3 of his cup of juice before his breakfast came. That was a bit much for his stomach and he overfilled himself which caused some to come back up. We decided that this was a good time to go home.
He went to bed early tonight because he did not take a morning nap. Hopefully he will not leak out of his diaper tonight like last night. I made sure to wash his bedding right away this morning just in case we need to change it again. It is amazing how much liquid that boy can take in.

More sceaming!

Well, I have accepted the fact that we probably will no longer have a morning nap. It has just not been working the past week and a half. So I have decided to give up have lunch at noon and go for a 12:30 nap. Hopefully he will take one long nap and it won't be such a struggle in the morning and afternoon.
I met a couple friends for coffee this morning and Alex was on his screaming kick. It was really fun. Hopefully it will be short lived and I will pray for that. Nothing we do seems to make him stop. I am doing as much sign language as possible and he is interested, but still not signing back yet. We are also working on learning to clap and wave bye-bye. I am sure like everything else, one day it will click and he will be able to do multiple things with his hands all at once. I also stopped and bought him his next pair of shoes. Yikes are they expensive! It is too bad that Alex has such crazy feet. They are almost triple wide and really thick. The only place that we have had any luck getting shoes to work is Striderite. The velcro ones he takes off so we are stuck with lace up shoes. They seemed to help him walk a little better today before lunch. Perhaps barefoot walking is not enough support for him. They are quite cute. I will have to take a picture of him with them on later and use it for tomorrow's blog.

A Nice Day

Alex did not take his morning nap again, except for some light snuggling sleep about 11:30. Fortunately he went back down after lunch only to be awoken early by Max barking at the Simon Deliver's truck. Alex was in a great mood for the rest of the day. We played and I got lots of hugs. There was very little screaming so hopefully that stage is on its way out. Justin was at the fair tonight and we will go join him there on Wednesay or Friday. He said that our photographer has a booth right next to him and that people commented on how cute Alex is. She blew up a picture of him in a baby bathtub and it is front and center. We think he is pretty cute too.

Banana Ice Cream!

Alex had a good morning even though it took him 40 minutes to give in and nap. We went to downtown St. Paul today to do some shopping and Alex got his first taste of ice cream. Justin shared his banana ice cream cone with him and he loved it. Every time he took a lick he smiled and whined for more. He also tried strawberry, but did not like that too much. As ususal, Alex was a great shopper and there was not too much screaming because there were so many things to look at. The car ride was a different story. If Alex did not like the music that was on he would let out a huge scream, but if it was something he liked (lots of guitars) he would sing along. He has always been a music critic, but I think it is easier to drive with some crying rather than deafening screams. Thank goodness for 93.7, they have plenty of heavy guitar which always calms him down. We picked up some more fruit on our way home because Alex just can't get enough. It is a toss up these days between blueberries and red grapes as to which is his favorite. We ended the night with lots of giggles and plenty of hugs. I always love when he cuddles with his giraffe and goes to sleep with a smile.

No morning napping

Yesterday, Alex decided to skip his morning nap. He did not end up napping until 2:00 in the afternoon and then he only took a two hour nap. He was very crabby yesterday. Lots and lots of screaming. It made for quite a long day especially at Target when I took him to get some more milk and he let out several courtesy screams just for fun. I am sure that all of you reading this are just dying to babysit for him now! He also decided that he was not going to drink his morning milk in any presentation (bottle, sippy cup, cup). So far today he has only drank an ounce and he is off playing with his farm. Hopefully the screaming will pass. Perhaps it is a new fun thing to do and he will move on to the next thing in a day or two.

More steps toward walking

Alex was a much happier boy today. I enjoyed less screaming. There was still plenty but less than yesterday. He enjoyed spending some time with Great Grandma Bert and especially had fun bouncing on the exercise ball. Tonight, he took four steps while only holding on to one of my hands. This was a first and hopefully means that he will try to walk on his own soon. His balance has improved greatly and he is walking along the furniture to get to his destination as much as possible. He has twenty three more days as I would love to be home with him and see him walk on his own. The summer has went very fast. I have enjoyed spending so much time with him. It has been a real joy.

An Afternoon of Screaming

Today was an interesting day. Unfortunately, Alex refused his morning nap. We had a few errands to run and he did not finally get down for a nap until 1:00. He slept a solid two hours but that was not long enough to provide a happy baby until bedtime. Perhaps it is a combination of the new tooth and lack of napping, but he spent most of the afternoon with a bad attitude and a tremendous amount of screaming. Sometimes happy screams, but most of the time loud annoyed screams. I especially enjoyed the occasional blood curdling scream as I was driving us home. There was no impending emergency just some communication from the backseat. Justin got to enjoy the screaming when he got home from work and we both agreed that if he was like that everyday we might have waited longer between children. I guess there is quite a language barrier between us right now and we should work on sign language much more. Hopefully that will help to cut down on some of the frustration. We don't expect a whiz child like the one in "Meet the Fockers", but some basics would be good. All in all he is a very good baby. Not every day can be perfect and the great days far outnumber the rough ones!

Tooth Number Eight

Alex finally got his eighth tooth today. It has taken two weeks of suffering for it to finally break through. He is getting so big and eating most everything that I put in front of him. Yesterday he ate one of my old favorites...mac and cheese with tomatoes and ground beef.

This is my first blog and I am doing it so that I have a record of important Alex events for my scrapbook. I am much faster at typing than I am at writing in a diary. I also wanted to share this with friends and family so that you can all keep updated on our exciting events. I can't promise that there will be a new entry every day, but I plan to update it often so make sure to check back!