Family Party! Visitors! Presents! Zzzzzzz....

Tonight we hosted our family party.  It was an amazing turnout.  Doria brought something vegetarian and delicious, of course.  I made my pulled pork, which was popular this year.  Tristan and his girlfriend showed up too.

But, most of all, Alex got presents. LOTS of 'em.  Lots from Grandma McCann. Lots from Aunt Ellen.  Lots from Aunt Donna.  Lots and lots and lots. 

It proved too much for the tyke, though.  He was soon yawning and stretching.  I dressed him for bed and he was thrilled!   At one point, he even flipped out when I turned away from his nursery.  I'd forgotten something, but he thought I wasn't listening.

Oh no, tyke.  When you say you're tired, believe me, I listen.

A Leap Forward! (Kinda)

So, this afternoon, I was busy doing some chores while Alex played quietly in his Pack N Play.  We have the family Christmas Party tomorrow, so I'm grateful for his willingness to play alone like this.  I have a ton of housework to do.

I came out from cleaning the bathroom into the living room to see this:

He pulled himself to standing!! He's tried many times before in the past few weeks, but this was the first time he'd accomplished it.

Which leads me to another thought: time to make sure I dress him in pants that fit.

Showing off Special Presents

A new thread on BabyCenter April 07 asked us to share photos of the most meaningful gift we received from our spouses this Christmas, being Baby's First Christmas and all.  This was the photo I posted:

I loved my aquarmarine jewelry too.  I'm wearing the earrings now and have been since Christmas Day.  But these Wishing Tree figurines are nearest and dearest to my heart.  I can't even imagine Alex being as big as the boy being held by the female figure.  I look forward to it too.   For now, I get all warm and fuzzy inside looking at the male figure.  That pose reminds me of a pose I've seen Dan strike while holding Alex many times. 

Playin' with Toys, Lookin' at Pictures

This morning after Alex's bottle and change, we played with some new toys.  Well, "new" to him, anyway.  He's been afraid of some of the Sassy toys I got at my baby shower.  Today, I wanted to see if he'd enjoy the rocking horse.  He did!!!

Also, since we have a trip to Florida coming up this month. I've been going through the family photo album that he got from Santa Claus and that I put together for him.   My hope is that he'll remember the faces of people he hasn't seen since he was only two weeks old.

How excited will Abuela and Abuelo be when Alex recognizes them?  

Now, let's hope it works!!

Funny Froggies and a New Year's Visitor

After naptime, I brought the rapping frogs into the nursery to see if Alex would enjoy dancing to their songs again.  He was more intrigued than excited to see them, demanding that they sing.  So, I placed his favorite one into the crib and played it. 

It wasn't exactly the response I'd been hoping for.  His first response to these frogs was hilarious.

About an hour later, Auntie Gail came to visit.  Alex likes her a lot.  But she couldn't get Alex interested in the rappig frog either.  Well, he was interested in one thing - trying to figure out how they moved, but singing and dancing along with them? That's SO last week.

Mental Leaps?

Alex keeps changing his schedule periodically.   Recently, he's pushed his bedtime back to 11 and I'm gently nudging him to get it earlier, aiming to get him back to being sleepy at 9.

He just got over a period of nap fighting.  Throughout October and November he simply refused to nap at his regularly established times.  Sometime in early December, he went back to wanting naps. Now, he's pushing the first one earier than it used to be.  I used to be able to count on him getting tired at 11 AM. Now, he wants it at 10:30. Recently, he's been waking up in the middle of the night. I figure that will change again shortly.

It seems that these may all be phases of mental development.  Right after turning six months at the end of September, in addition to getting his two bottom front teeth, he seemed to have made leaps and bounds in mental connections. I saw object permanance when I hadn't seen it before (like, we can't just hide the remote anymore to make it "gone"). He stopped babbling for a while, seemingly intently listening to everything.  He's now more physically rambunctious than he was before. He can't crawl yet, but he insists on standing while holding on to things and seems suddenly determined to walk.  He shows signs of recognizing and understanding certain words and even phrases.

All of those large leaps in his connections seemed to have occurred simultaneously with his nap refusal and changes in sleep times.

December 21, 2007

Peaches and Cream, Hold the Peaches

Chalk up another peach hater - Alex. He's not crazy about any fruits, but peaches are out on the curb as far as he's concerned. I get much further with apples and pears.

I hadn't thought much about it until I had peaches for dessert shortly after trying to give them to him. I totally "forgot" (took for granted?) just how tart they can be.

Ooops...sorry Alex. No more peaches for a while.

October 30, 2007