Alexander's Growing Up!

All day nausea kicked in the day after my last post. I think I jinxed myself. It's the same as it was with Alexander, only this time I'm working full time and have a toddler to chase around. After a week and 1/2 of nausea and feeling bad for Alexander that Mommy couldn't pull herself off the couch to play with him without feeling sick, I emailed my midwife team, and am now on Zofran (an anti-nausea med). It definitely takes the edge off, but I'm still dealing with some nausea. It's at least better than before.

I've also been dealing with a lot of heartburn at night. Tums has been my friend before I go to sleep.

Looks like this pregnancy is mirroring my pregnancy with Alexander so far, so hopefully I'll be feeling much better in about 4 weeks! Then I'll get onto something for my heartburn if it continues as it has been.

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In Alexander news, he is now singing his ABC's and doing pretty well with it. He loves to sing along to any song he can.

He and I went to his first mommy and me gymnastics class last weekend, and he seemed to have a great time. Alexander had fun being able to run around, somersault (with help) and lots of other things. He doesn't yet know how to jump, so mommy had to help him jump on the trampoline. He enjoyed himself.

He's growing up so quickly!

So, this is not on facebook yet as some people on there still need to be told, and I'm waiting to say anything there until after our 1st doctor appointment on February 1st.

Alexander is going to be a big brother!

We found out 2 weeks ago today, got it confirmed at the doctor's office 3 days later, and we're pretty excited. This one took 5 cycles to conceive, which is more than the 2 it took with Alexander.

We told our families on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day by wrapping up a gift under the tree with the announcement. We got folding picture frames. One side had a picture of Alexander in a big bro shirt, and the other side said "Reserved for (picture of a baby) due August 30, 2010". Our families were surprised, but everyone is looking forward to the new baby.

I've been really tired, had a number of headaches, heartburn and waves of nausea. So far, the nausea is not anywhere near what it was at this time with Xman, and I hope it stays that way (finds some wood to knock on).



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Now onto Alexander: he did great at our 5 family Christmas parties this year. He is such a little entertainer, and seems to truly be extroverted at this point. He got so many new toys that mommy and daddy had difficulty finding places for everything.

Alexander is using a lot of 2 word phrases these days, and his vocabulary continues to impress us. Our cutest new discovery is that he says "Deady, tet, GO!" (Ready, set, go) His little voice is so adorable, and I love the way he pronounces things.

He continues to be a total momma's boy, which is cute, but can also make things a little more challenging.

A week from tomorrow, we start mommy and me gymnastics classes. I'm looking forward to seeing how he does with it. He is such an active little boy that I think he'll love it!

Life with a toddler is BUSY! I haven't been on LJ in forever. Alexander has grown up a lot since my last post.

He'll be 18 months old on December 8th. We got Alexander's 18 month/Christmas pictures taken yesterday, and I'm wondering where my baby has gone. All I see is this little boy:



He is running, talking up a storm, dancing to any music he hears, and has quite the sense of humor. He recently said his first two word sentence ("bye Justice").

Alexander can identify just about all of his body parts. He loves building towers with his blocks or stacking cups, and can stack his six blocks all by himself. He has gotten over his fear/hatred of grass, so he now enjoys playing outside! We have a couple of toddler sized slides in our yard that he will climb up and slide down repeatedly.

He appears to still be allergic to dairy. He managed to get a hold of another child's milk cup at daycare recently, and his cheeks broke out. I really hope he outgrows this allergy, but we have to wait til after he turns 2 to get his full panel of allergy tests done. I miss drinking milk, and eating cheese, yogurt and ice cream.

Alexander is still nursing. He is not on any other kind of milk because I'm not comfortable giving him soy, and rice milk doesn't have the required fat he needs for his development. I'm ready to give up the pump, but he still gets 4 ounces of pumped milk in a sippy cup with lunch while he's at daycare.

Xman is very into Sesame Street these days. He loves "Melmo" especially. He was Melmo for halloween, and was very excited about it. He also likes "Coocoo" (Cookie Monster) and "Abboooo" (Abby Cadabby).

He is able to do the motions to pattycake, itsy bitsy spider, and open shut them, and makes requests for all of them. He loves "Ring around the rosie", spinning in circles and falling down.

His daddy and I are definitely enjoying this age. Alexander is a lot of fun :)

A few weeks ago, X man started being able to point to his eyes, ears, mouth, tongue, nose, hair, hands and feet on command.

He is walking like a pro now. He decided at my family reunion in Boston July 18th that he could let go and walk without someone in front of him to walk to. X never did the typical standing on his own prior to walking. He walked for a little while before learning to just stand still on his own. A couple weeks later, he learned to get himself to standing without having to crawl to a table/person/object to pull himself up on.

X's vocabulary currently includes:

Mama
Dada
Duhtith (Justice...our cat)
Kitty
Melmo (Elmo)
Cacker (Cracker)
Bye bye
Nigh Nigh (Night)
Baba (for bottle)
Pop pop (cans/bottles/cups)
Papa (Gpa)
Gaga (Gma)
Uh oh
Clap clap
Big Bird (minus the "g" and "d")
Bubba (bubbles)

There may be more I can't think of right now, but not bad for a 15 month old. These are just the words he says where he knows what he's saying, and not just repeating after us.

It's been forever since I've written anything.

Teeth-wise, X man got his bottom left molar toward the end of July, followed by his top left molar in mid-August. He got another ear infection in mid-August.

Sometime between yesterday and today, he got his top left eye tooth followed by his bottom right molar.

Alexander's crib was recalled today. So we got to start the adventure of taking the crib back to the store, and looking for a new crib since the company that made his old crib is out of business. By the time we bought his new crib, it was time for bed. We'll see how he sleeps in his pack 'n play tonight. He hasn't slept in that since he was about 6 months old.

X man took a few steps here and there yesterday afternoon/evening :) We clapped and cheered for him, and he clapped and cheered for himself.

When I went to pick him up at daycare, he went a couple steps from my cousin to my aunt (his daycare provider), then we all sat in a triangle, and he went back and forth between my aunt, my cousin, and me 2-3 steps at a time.

After daddy got home from work, we had to show him, so X man went back and forth between daddy and me a number of times. He would clap for himself and then want to turn around and walk 2-3 steps to the other parent, before clapping and turning around again.

He'll be walking full time before we know it.

Happy 1st Birthday to my little man! We've enjoyed watching you grow and develop over this past year X man, and look forward to seeing what the future has in store for you. You are such a sweet and lovable boy.

All I see is this toddler:







X man will be 1 in just three short days. First birthday party tomorrow.

X man is 11 months old today. We have started planning his first birthday party. My baby is going to be a toddler soon. Wow. He's growing up so fast!

Alexander is a very active little boy. We have to watch him closely any time he's on the floor because he crawls really quickly and picks up everything he can find, proceeding to put it in his mouth if we're not fast enough.

He pulls himself up to standing consistently now, and has figured out how to sit down from standing.

His most recent development: he started saying "uh oh" on Monday (5/4) after Grandma B stayed with us for the weekend. He will throw a toy on the floor or knock something over and say "uh oh". It's really cute.

We really need to find our camera cord one of these days so I can upload some more pictures of our little man. In some ways it seems like we just brought him home from the hospital, and in other ways it seems like he's always been with us.

The little man officially pulled himself up to standing twice last night. The first time was to try to reach Justice (the cat) on the couch, and the second time was to try to get to mommy on the couch.

He had been pulling himself up onto his knees since Saturday, but had not yet gotten onto his feet.

ba ba (bye bye)
cap cap (clap clap: while clapping)
guhgih (Justice: any time he sees the cat)

He does say mama and dada too, but still says them indiscriminately.

Alexander has a ton of new skills. It seems like he's constantly learning new things right now.

He is officially crawling on hands and knees as of last week. He army crawled for quite a while, and will still resort to that after crawling on hands and knees for a little bit.

As of 3 nights ago, X can now move from being on his belly to sitting up.

X started clapping on his own a week and 1/2 ago. Prior to this, he would grab my pinkies or thumbs and make me clap. After all, I had been holding his wrists to make him clap before this all. Clapping is currently his favorite thing to do. If anyone claps, or says either "yay" or "clap", he drops whatever he's doing to clap. He gets a big smile when he's clapping and seems so proud of himself.

He also walks or runs with the assistance of anyone willing to hold him by his wrists or arms in a standing position. X finds this really funny. His Grandpa taught him to do a really funny, prance-like run, which he (and everyone else) laughs about. He learned this about 3.5 weeks ago.

Starting two days ago, he opens and closes his hands to the "open shut them" song my Aunt sings at daycare.

X mimics arm and hand movements, and loves going to story time once a week at the library (his daycare goes). The story time lady does a lot of arm movements, which X now tries to copy.

He's a little sponge, learning so much so quickly now!

No pictures yet...still looking for our camera cord.

We got family pictures taken March 14th with my parents, brother, niece, and the 3 of us.

Here are a few of the pictures our photographer has posted. We're getting a CD of all 100 or so pictures soon!

X man and my niece:



( Click here for a couple more )

We got Alexander baptized on March 29th. A number of family and friends came to the service, and we then had lunch at our house afterward.

Here's X in his baptismal outfit (professional pic we got taken in March):



Here he is with the pastor:

I'm way behind on updating on my now 10 month old little guy, so I'm going to do a series of shorter posts. We lost our camera cord, so I can't upload anything right now.

Alexander got tooth 6 (bottom right side incisor) March 21st, tooth 7 (bottom left side incisor) on March 27th, and tooth 8 (top left front tooth *finally*) on March 28th. It was quite the 8 day period.

March 24th, we took Alexander to urgent care for a stuffiness/cough/fever and found out he had an ear infection in his right ear.

March 31st, Alexander was running a fever again. I took him to the doctor that morning, and we will not be returning to see her ever again. She brushed everything off, said it was viral, ( slight rant about ignorant doctor ) then sent us on our merry way. Well, X was then lethargic and sleeping for pretty much 7 hours afterward, and his temp continued to increase. After all the lethargy and a 104 temp, we went in for a second opinion. His left ear was infected, so we got some antibiotics.

He sure does like to get lots of teeth at once, and all three of the ear infections he's had in his life have been when he's had teeth come in.

Alexander got his 5th tooth yesterday. It's his top right front tooth, and the top left should be coming soon. We can see the white line on his gums, but it's not through yet. He's growing up so fast. Longer post with pics to come soon.

It's been a little while since I've posted an actual detailed update. We bought a house and moved, then didn't have a working home computer... Computer is fixed, but I'm posting from work, so no pictures today.

Alexander is over 8.5 months old now, and has grown by leaps and bounds. He is picking up new things left and right at this time, and it's been fun to watch him build new skills.

He has added a fake laugh to his repertoire of sounds. It cracks me up, so he keeps doing it. Alexander's had a fake cough for a while, so the fake laugh is a nice change :)

We have a musical little guy on our hands. Alexander now has two dance moves that he does regularly, even sometimes when there's no music. One is the head bob that I posted video of. The second is a whole body side to side movement. He sure does love music!

Alexander now waves to people (he especially loves that baby in the mirror), loves to be upside down, and he loves to fly.

He is not yet crawling, but he does get where he wants to go. Alexander rolls like a pro, and pushes himself forward with his legs. Saturday night, he finally started getting up on his hands and knees, so I have a feeling crawling is just around the corner.

Food wise, he now eats cereal, carrots, sweet potato, peas, green beans, bananas, apple sauce, peaches... He always has to make a face at his first bite of everything, but then he eats pretty much whatever we offer him. We have yet to have him completely refuse a food (other than 1 day a few weeks ago, but he was sick and didn't want any solids at the time).

We had to take Alexander in for a doctor appointment a few weeks ago because he was running a fever and not eating well. He had hand, foot and mouth disease, but just had the blisters/sores/lesions in his throat. His ped said to back off the solids for a while, and just nurse, nurse, nurse, and he seems to have recovered well.

For the last few weeks, we've been dealing off and on with the 8 month sleep regression. It has been quite challenging, but Alexander has finally allowed us some sleep the last couple nights in a row (just waking up once between 8 PM and 6 AM to eat, and then going back to sleep). He had one night where he woke up TEN TIMES in that 10 hour period! Mike and I were both dying of exhaustion.

One of Alexander's top front teeth looks like it wants to come in. We can see a white line, but it has not quite broken through yet.

I'll try to post pictures soon!

I've had requests for pictures of Alexander's teeth. I've been able to get 3 of his 4 teeth on camera. Here you go:


Bottom Teeth


One of his top teeth (the other is on the right side of his mouth in the same spot)