Countdown to 2008...

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Here are a couple pictures of our New Years Eve. Dan & I had a quiet evening at home (chinese food & Harry Potter DVD). At one point, I was even tempted to go to bed before midnight (I was tired if you couldn't tell from the pictures) but I decided to stay up.

Then Alexander gave me another reason to stay up. The little guy woke up around 11:40pm, WIDE AWAKE. He obviously wanted to be a part of the celebration and not miss anything. He must know when big things are happening because he did the same thing for the last inning of the World Series and watched the Red Sox win with me.

I brought him downstairs when it was clear he wasn't going back down easily. He stayed up for a bit and then we went upstairs around 12:30am and finally fell asleep around 1am.

Hope everyone had a nice New Years Eve and that 2008 brings you health & happiness.
(Good God - I look exhausted!!)

Fun in the Snow...

Alexander & I went out to play in the snow today. This was him before the snow suit:

This was him after I put him in the snow suit:
I felt so bad for the kid, but I couldn't stop laughing. This was the worst thing I have ever done to the kid - no amount of photoshoots will ever come to this level. He was worse than the kid in the "Christmas Story" - that kid might not have been able to put his arms down, but at least he could wake. Alexander could only lay there unless I propped him up. He was not a happy camper.

Then we got outside and into his sled. At first, he didn't know what to make of the snow but once we started moving in the sled, he was enjoying himself. I pulled him around our back yard, and even down a little hill. He didn't cry or fuss once! I even got a few little laughs out of him.

I gave him some snow to see if he wanted to eat it. Not yet. It must have been cold, because he'd put his tongue on it then move away. I'll just warn him of yellow snow in the future.

And before we went back in, I laid him down to see if he would squirm around to get his first snow angel - but alas, he just laid there.

Week Forty Pictures

Week Forty Pictures (Monday, December 24th - Sunday, December 30th, 2007) - I'll add pictures to each specific post and not klump them all here, technically these are from 26th, 27th, 28th, & 30th

Week Forty Glance

Week Forty Glance (Monday, December 24th - Sunday, December 30th, 2007)

This week was such a fun week. Not only did Alexander celebrate his first Christmas Season, but he's really starting to make some headway with crawling & eating big boy foods. I won't go into a lot of details with Christmas and the different things we did and the places we went, because I have separate posts started.

• Didn't sleep a full night in his crib this week - would wake up screaming at one point or another and would not calm down.
• Wednesday & Friday nights, he was fussier than usual and didn't go down to bed like normal. Friday night he cried & screamed quite hard for 10 minutes before he calmed down and went to sleep
• Short Week at school (Only Thursday & Friday)
• It was his last week in Miss Linda's class as he goes to Miss Dannielle's room (Older Infants room) next week. Mommy & Miss Linda are going to have withdrawals but Miss Dannielle is very excited. I like Dannielle, but I'm just very fond of Miss Linda. I'm sure I'll get that way with Dannielle too.
• Christmas Eve started in NJ with Grandma C, Uncle Matt, Aunt Laura, Cousin Michael, Aunt Catherine & Uncle DJ (who was his buddy for the weekend).
• Christmas Eve night was lowkey at home
• Celebrated Alexander's First Christmas!
• Received an obscene amount of presents (and out of all those - only one duplicate). He's one extremely lucky little boy.
• Afraid of wrapping paper, tissue & bows - does not like to touch it or have it given to him
• Auntie Alyson came over the day after Christmas to deliver all the presents from Auntie & Grammie & Grampie's. We couldn't fit them in our car from their house.
• He took a great nap the day after Christmas (I think it's because he napped well that whole weekend because he was sleeping in the car from all our driving)
• Back to school on Thursday & Friday with a new outfit (shocking!) each day
• Inched backwards all around the room
• Did a great job of eating (his bottles & his food)
• He now hates to have his diaper changed. He will scream & roll over. It just started happening this week, if he's drinking his bottle or not tired, then it's easier... but if he's tired or fussy - then it's near impossible to change it with just one person.
• Takes baths with his new light up froggies
• Pulled himself up to his knees in his crib after his nap
• Spaulding Family Christmas on Saturday
• Lowkey day on Sunday - hung out at home. Mommy & Daddy took down the tree while he took a 2 hour nap
• Played with some new toys
• Really likes to play with the clothes in the hamper. He likes to take all the clothes out and put them around him. I'm working on getting him to put them back in once he's done.

Good stuff:

• Finally showing an interest in big boy food. Had some lasagna, ham, meatsauce, meatball & bread on Christmas day and some Ham the following day. On Saturday, he had some cheese, diced apples & cracker. On Sunday, had our first arrowroot cookie and did very well with that cookie. He made a mess on his chair which now qualifies him for a full-fledge baby certificate.
• Really getting the hang of going from sitting, to his belly, to up on all 4s, scooching forward and then back on his belly to sitting again.
• Sunday afternoon, he really did well with sooching back & forth. He even took a few crawling "steps" to get a ball
• He's also getting really good at pulling himself up and standing on his own (leaning or hanging on to things)

Spaulding Family Christmas...

Our traditional Spaulding Family Christmas was held on the Saturday, December 29th, after Christmas at my uncle Billy's house.

Almost everyone was able to make it - my cousin Amy was in Miami working at the Aquarium who couldn't get the time off and my cousin Brian also didn't make it. Thankfully, everyone else was there. My aunt Kathy was excited to play with Alexander as she has a rule that she doesn't hold babies until their 9 months old... it was the perfect time for Kathy & Alexander to bond. And he seemed to really enjoy hanging out with her. They played together and she was showing him the ceiling fans. The kids, mainly Kiera, were interested in Alexander and his toys.
Alexander did very well all day. He was happy to play along with everyone and he was even trying new food - cheese & crackers. Dan had a hard time watching the solid food but Alexander did very well. It was present time and the kids were, naturally, excited to open presents. Then it was Alexander's turn. My Dad held him on the table while I opened the presents because Alexander really hasn't figured out the whole opening presents thing. Plus, he was afraid of wrapping paper, tissues or bows. He wasn't as afraid of the presents as he was on Christmas Day but he was definitely excited for what he did get. Everytime I would open the next one, he would say "ooh" and move his arms & feet around in circles the way he does when he's excited!
Some of his goodies was a Amazing Animals set to go along with this train, a rider buggy, hide & seek balls, flash-light Cookie monster, a few outfits - one cute Boston Red Sox sweater, and a touch & learn puppy. The one thing that still amazes me that with the crazy amount of presents (toys/clothes/books) that Alexander got for Christmas - I'm amazed that he only got one duplicate present. Just one. Alyson was the one to get the duplicate gift, so that made it easier to return it.

Overall it was a very nice day as it always is when we get together. We headed home so we could watch the Patriots game. Alexander fell asleep in the car and our plan was to just move him from his carseat to his crib. However, I gave him a bottle in the car and somehow I didn't put the nipple on right so it leaked all over him. We couldn't put him to bed with wet pj's. Once home, I changed his pj's to drier ones and he slept thru the entire process. It was really quite cute.

Time To Update...

**Updated: I did more blog updating tonight that I expected. Remaining entries are: 'Christmas in NJ' (I'm working on now); 'Christmas Day' & 'Spaulding Family Christmas'. Check back - hopefully, I won't take too long with those.**

It's been a busy few days here as we celebrate Christmas. We've driven hundreds of miles, took some naps, spent some time with family, and shared in the Christmas joy. But man, are we tired!
I realize I have some blog updating to do but between the celebrating, driving, cleaning & organizing all of Alexander's new goodies, time is a bit sparce.

I promise that I'll get to the updating pronto, I'm even going to start blog posts so I remember what to update.

Stay tuned!

Alexander's First Christmas...

Alexander's first Christmas started off pretty early. He woke up @ 5:30am and since we had another busy day ahead of us, we all got up. We came downstairs to see that Santa had come to our house with presents for Alexander.

Santa decided not to wrap all of Alexander's presents because he seemed to be afraid of wrapping paper, plus this would allow him to play with his toys right away. He immediately went for his pile of books. He loves books. He opened up his other toys. Santa didn't leave a lot of presents at our house because he knew that Alexander may have a LOT of presents at Grammie & Grampie's house.

Santa got him a busy ball toy where the balls come up the top and slide back down and he *loved* this toy. It gets him quite happy & all excited. His feet go crazy. After opening presents, we got ready to go to Grammie & Grampie's. Thankfully, Alexander slept the majority of the ride which was a nice nap.

At Grammie & Grampie's, we opened our Secret Santa presents first so that Alexander could have enough time to open his (insane amount) of presents (btw, it was a Hannah Montana christmas). We put Alexander in his sled in between both Daddy & I so that we could jointly open the presents from both Grammie and Grampie & Alyson. Have I mentioned how lucky this little guy is?? He is so spoiled - it's a good thing he's a good little boy.

He got a CAT truck, a tricycle, clothes, a LeapPad for Babies, baby stage, piano, colored froggies, Red Sox Hat, Gap Clothes from the Dahan's, books, puzzles, Sesame Street driver, blocks, see & spin alphabet, and so many other things that I can't remember off the top of my head.

Alexander got so many presents from Grammie, Grampie & Alyson that we couldn't fit them in my car. Alyson said she would come to our house the next day to drop them off. He was a bit nervous of the wrapping paper, so we tried to keep that part away from him but let him see what the goodies were. After the overload of presents were done, it was time to go to Gary & Sharon's for dinner. He slept on the way over and even slept for a bit more which helped keep him in a good mood. Alexander sat in his own chair during dinner and even tried some new food.

He did really well all day. Gary, Sharon & the kids gave Alexander a musical table that he really enjoys playing with. Alexander & Daddy slept during the car ride home and Alexander easily switched from his carseat to his crib. Then the next day, Auntie Alyson came over to hang out and bring all of Alexander's presents.

Overall it was a wonderful first Christmas for Alexander! (Pictures below are in order of the days events - waking up Christmas morning, opening presents at home, opening the mass-loads of presents at Grammie & Grampie's house)