Thanksgiving weeks

Hello all,

We have been very busy the last few weeks as everyone is during the holidays.

Aunt Katie [Carl's sister] and Uncle Gabe came into town the weekend before thanksgiving and Alex had a blast with them. We went to dinner on Saturday night and then church and the park on Sunday, then came home and made a yummy dinner from the Mario Batali cookbook. They headed out on Monday morning to go to Augusta. Then my cousins all started to arrive for thanksgiving.

On Wednesday night a group of us met for dinner at Fudruckers, probably the only restaurant that can handle that number of kids at once. Then we all went to my uncle's house for thanksgiving. We attempted to get a picture of all the kids together at once, but that is difficult with 2 of them under 3 and not wanting to sit still. Here is our best shot.

Mom and I went and did our Friday shopping the next day and got some really good buys - I have almost all my shopping done already.

This last Thursday was very stressful as we waited for the results of my dad's cancer screenings, but all good news - NO CANCER!

We celebrated by having lunch together and getting Alex's Santa picture at the mall. He loved Santa and had no issues at all.

This weekend we had Friday night dinner with our neighbors at a new restaurant that just opened Kaysons, it was very good and we are going back in 2 weeks again. Pretty good sign that we did not have any major meltdowns with 7 kids.

Then on Saturday, my cousin dropped his daughter Sarah off around lunchtime so they could go away for a night. I got to see what life with 2 kids is like... actually not bad... but Sarah is such a good girl and loves Alex and had a blast being the big kid and showing him how to do everything. He loved all the attention... they were too cute walking out of the Mexican restaurant hand in hand. Sunday evening we headed to Home Depot to pick out our Christmas tree. The rest of the inside of the house is done, so all we have left to do is the outside and the tree.

Alex is enjoying all of our decorations, and most especially his singing Elmo stocking that his Nana gave him last year.

Happy Thanksgiving

I just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving.
We are looking forward to a great family weekend with some of my Aunts, Uncles and Cousins that are in town. It will be interesting, it starts tonight with dinner at Fudruckers [probably the only restaurant where you can take 11 kids at once and manage it].

Friday...Finally!

This has been a very busy few weeks for me at work. We have gone through some restructuring, which translates to lots more work and more responsibility for me.
I am getting it done, but with some long hours.
Alex is doing great. His favorite things now are to review body parts [nose, eyes, ears, hair, teeth, knees, toes, and his most favorite is the belly] he has also started to come over and lift up my shirt and try and tickle me, to which he then dies laughing himself. He is a very active boy and climbs all over everything. He still loves the outdoors and never wants to come inside.
We have had some great times with friends over the last few weekends.
Nov 1 Alex got to have a spend the night at grandma and grandpa's house while Carl and I went to Birmingham AL for a wedding of one of my sorority sisters from college. It was great to be able to visit with some friends from out of town. That next day, I assisted with a baby shower for my friend Georgie, who is getting ready for baby #2.
Last weekend, we enjoyed Friday night dinner with 2 other couples in our neighborhood and their 2 boys each. Yes, we did take 5 boys ages 3 and under to a restaurant... we are going to try to make it a monthly event. Then on Saturday my good friend Wendy came over and we had dinner and watched football [sorry about Penn State Wendy]. Sunday we met our friends Michele, Hilly and baby Max at a park in Dunwoody for a picnic lunch. They brought their dog Charlie, which made Alex a very happy boy... they shared lots of hugs and kisses. We have been trying to get together for a long time and it was great to have it work out. I expect we will have many more park outings for Alex and Max.
This weekend Carl has to work Sat morning and on Sunday night we are going to see his friend from high school and college Luci play in the Transiberian Orchestra at Phillips Arena! I am very excited as I have wanted to see them in concert forever and now the added benefit of Luci being a part of the orchestra makes it so much more special.
That is all for now. We are starting to gear up for the holiday season and are excited about getting to visit with all of my family that is coming in to Atlanta for Thanksgiving and going to CA around the Christmas holidays.

Halloween

We had a great Halloween - Alex was a duck... he hated the shoes so they did not last, but he did pretty well with the rest of the costume. He loves his pumpkin and still had it with him in the car this morning. We had a neighborhood Halloween party and then did a few houses of trick-or-treating.

Corn

So one of my friends thought that it was histerical that Alex will inhale an entire corn on the cob directly off the cob himself and asked for a picture so here you go Johanna!

Picture Update

I have updated some of the pictures here on the left. The top one of course is the day he was born and will not change, the second is Alex's first pony ride at Sander's 2nd birthday party in Sepember, the third is from Italy at Zia Mammila's house as he was chasing the cats and sweeping the driveway off [his favorite activity as many of you who have taken the time to look at the Italy pictures have found, he found a broom at every house we visited] , the fourth is from the wedding in Italy - this is Alex and his cousin Perino, we stayed with them while we were there and Alex just loved him as you can see here, and the last picture is from the pumpkin farm we went to this year.
Today Alex finally drank from a straw. We have been working on it trying and trying and today at Mellow Mushroom it took!

I know I know... forever

I know it has been a long time. We have had a lot going on. So here is a quick update and I promise I will be better about updating.

We were out of the country for 10 days in late Sept early Oct in Italy for Carl's cousin Leo's wedding and some time visiting family in Rutigliano. We had a wonderful time. The wedding was beautiful and we enjoyed getting to spend a week with all of Carl's Aunt's (Zia), Uncle's (Zio) and cousins (don't know that one :)) Alex really enjoyed his time there too. He learned how to say Ciao and Zia very well, he still says them now. He and his cousins enjoyed chasing cats in the garage and backyard of Zia Mamilla's house, Maria Rita and Alex spent time playing with the lights, which he still loves to have the inside light on in the car when it is dark now, and he helped his Zio with loading the grapes into the press to make wine and playing in the vineyards. We were sad to have to come back home and really miss everyone. You all should have gotten the "few" [yes I know400+] pictures that I sent out last week.

The second weekend of October we headed up to North Georgia to pick pumpkins with Aaron, Jill and Turner and Brian, Stephanie and Kamryn. We went to Burt's Pumpkin Farm, Hillcrest Apple Orchards and Uncle Shuck's corn maze. It was a great day and the kids had a great time. I will be sending those pictures out soon - only 100+ of those :) We did the same thing last year and it is amazing to see the growth of the kids. I will say last years pictures were much easier to get than this years...

I have gotten into facebook recently and am really excited that I have been able to reconnect with quite a few friends from high school and college. Last Monday we met a friend of mine from college Brett and his wife and baby boy. They live in Florida but were in town for the week. I had not seen Brett in over 5 years, so it was wonderful to catch up.

Last weekend Carl had to work Saturday morning so Alex and I met my friend Angela and her son Thomas at KangaZoom, which is a warehouse filled with inflatables, and the boys had a great time running around and climbing on everything.

On Monday, Grandma and Grandad were in Charleston, so mommy took a day off from work and we met Georgie and Sander at Wills Park and played in the morning, then went to Daddy's work and had lunch with him. This was the first time we had taken Alex to Carl's work. At lunch, we ordered some corn on the cob and you would have thought the child had never eaten corn before, he took the entire cob and ate almost the whole thing right off the cob... I think the people at Chili's were impressed, numerous waiters came over to see him.

Well that is the short version that brings us up to now. I will try to be better at posting more again now that we are back in our normal routine for the most part.

School

Alex started school last week, he will be going 2 days a week for 3 hours. 1st day he went in fine, but then they called back and said he was really upset so I went to get him, they had him calmed down by the time I got there, but you should have seen the look I got... very stern face that said... how could you leave me!!!
The second day Grandma took him and he did better, he made it till they came back in from the playground. As I have noted previously, Alex is an outdoor child, so that may continue to be an issue, he does not like to come inside.
They are being great and working with us each day. We of course will have to start all over once we get back from Italy as he will miss 3 school days while we are gone.
Work is very busy for me right now, we are in the final days of budget season and it has been stressful.
We are starting to get excited about our Italy trip. We received and email from Carl's cousin in Italy who we will be staying with, so it is starting to seem more like a reality now.
More to come soon... back to budget world.

Peanut Butter, Fork and a Slide

Well we know that Alex is not allergic to peanut butter and just like his mom, he loves, it... take a look for yourself.

He has also taken interest in feeding himself with a fork, check out his skills with mini waffles from Saturday morning

On Sunday we took our first trip to Toys R Us and got a sports slide. He took right to it, no fear at all, climed right up and down he went! He even tried to help Daddy put it together... too cute!

As you can see, we had a great weekend. I did some shopping with my mom on Saturday to get some new clothes for our trip to Italy and on Sunday night we had a dinner with our friends Joe and Christine. Hope everyone has a great week. We are excited about the beginning of football season... War Eagle!!! oh, and go dawgs too :)

Happy Thursday

Man I can't believe it is already Thursday... we are in budget season at work and it has been CRAZY! Last week I attended the briss for our friends Michele and Hilly's son Max. I also took Alex to daddy's soccer game, this is the first one he has been to since he was about 3 months old. They had been doing construction at the fields and there had not been a good place for us to sit [aka, me chase Alex all over the place]. He had a blast running back and forth and finally figured out how to run and kick the soccer ball, now he is a pro and kicks his all over the upstairs.
Then for the weekend, we actually had a somewhat relaxing day Saturday, just errands and some pool time. Alex loves the pool... Then on Sunday, Michele [a different one than above] and Lauren and Scott came over for dinner. In the last 2 weeks I finally joined the world of facebook - my how addicting... but I have already reconnected with some friends from college that I had lost touch, which has been fun. Tonight we are very excited that Aunt Hilary and Uncle Glenn are coming in and we are going to have dinner together with Grandma and Grandad.
Next week my MOPS group gets started back up again, which I am excited about, and the following week is orientation for Alex school.

Babies!

Well this last week has been full of babies. Tyler Guth, was born on the 29th to our neighbors Charlie, Jenn and CJ. Alex and I went down and met him last night, what a cutie!
Then on the 31st Max Blondheim decided he was ready to see the world a few weeks early. Everyone is doing wonderful and he was able to go home with Michele and Hilly. Carl and I were actually at the hospital with our friend Wendy when Max was born. We had gone over to their house to grab a few items for them and install their car seat so we got to see him right away. We went back and visited again on Saturday for a few minutes before they left the hospital. I can't wait for Alex to get to meet his new buddy Max. I have been telling him all about it and how he needs to be gentle with the baby. I think he thought Tyler was Max last night. I was holding Tyler and he came up and patted him very gently on the back and then went back to the playroom with CJ to see the big toys. We ended up staying in Dunwoody on Friday night and most of Saturday as our upstairs air conditioner went out. It is great having a handy husband, he went to the plumbing supply store on Sat morning and bought a new motor and had it installed and working before lunch! On Sunday we went up to Alpharetta to celebrate the christening of Cate Zavitz. Alex had a blast playing with all of the toys - they had a clubhouse and a "kitchen" set - this thing was crazy it had a kitchen on one side and a grill on the other. Alex loved the grill - he kept opening it up and pressing the buttons to make it light up and make the sizzle sound. Well that is all for now, back to the work week.

General Update

Ok, so I am finally up to date and to the recent weeks. We have been in party mode. We had 2 birthday parties the last weekend of June - CJ [our neighbor] turned 3 and Abbie [a friend from work's daughter] turned 1. We made it to about 1/2 of both parties as they were on the same day. We were supposed to go the lake the next day for Aunt Hilary's birthday but the weather did not cooperate with us. Last weekend we had our friend Melissa's birthday dinner Fri and then Thomas turned 1 on Saturday [a friend from work's son] and then we went to Chelsea's [a mom from the mom's group I was in before returning to work] baby shower on Sunday night. This weekend we had a baby shower for Michele [a friend from work] on Saturday. Next weekend Cate [a friend from high schools daughter] will be baptized. After that, things should be quiet until Labor Day weekend. That pretty much brings us up to date. Work is going well for both Carl and I, it is very busy, but we both love our jobs. We booked our tickets for our Italy trip for the end of September, we are starting to get excited, but nervous too about how Alex will do on such long flights when he has never been on a plane before.

On a GREAT news note, my dad had his screenings earlier this month and we heard back last week and all came back cancer FREE! He does not have to go back until November again. YEA! We are all very happy and relieved.

We hope everyone is having a wonderful summer and I will try to keep this updated more frequently now that we are back in town for a while.

Birthday's - Nana, Nono and Uncle David

Alex turned 1 on June 11. He had 2 birthday parties. 1 big one on June 7 with my neighbors and friends from high school, college and work along with all their kids. The other one was with with family on June 22 when Carl's parents came in for a week. He got lots of wonderful toys and clothes, everyone was so generous. Alex LOVES balloons - yes we did get them in the fan at one point! He did great with his cakes, by the 2nd one he was a pro and got the chocolate all over his face. The pictures all turned out wonderful. Please check out the link to Stephanie Campbell Photography on the left and then look under the current slide shows for the 3 shows with Alex.

Nono, Nana and Uncle David were her for a week to visit and take care of Alex. Alex became VERY attached to his Nono, he could not even go to the bathroom without him! Poor Nana had to have a very unhappy baby when we left each morning until Nono or Uncle David came down.
They took him swimming at the pool and taught him how to go down the stairs all by himself. They also taught him to blow his nose, if you ask him, he will put his hand up to his nose and blow. We had been working with him to put his hands up for touchdown in preparation for football season... Nana worked with him and now he is a pro at it. Poor David was sick for the last few days they were here, but Alex thought he was great at bouncing him on his zebra - it was a sight to see Alex would sit on the zebra and David would stand next to him and use his foot to bounce it up and down. Of course Alex can do it himself... but why when you have an Uncle David there! We really enjoyed having them here and wish they could come more often.

Knoxville

The 2nd weekend of July we all headed up to Knoxville. Carl's friends from college were having a girls weekend and invited me to join. We had a great time, some relaxing time at the pool and we went to a place called Bath Junkie and made our own bath products. Carl, Alex, Grandma and Grandad also came up and visited with his Great Aunt Margaret, Great Uncle Stan and Cousins Steven, Janet and Eric. This was their first time meeting him and they also had a great time. Alex loved Eric's dog and from what I hear they played quite well together - lots of doggie kisses. Alex did get to come over and meet the girls for a few minutes and splash in the pool. This was the first meeting of boy/girl UGA 2000 offspring - Stacy and Rory had come in from TX for the girls weekend. Here is a picture from Bath Junkie of all the girls after we made our concoctions. From right to left bottom row is Kate, Kelly, Carrie and Rory... from left to right top row is Stacy, me, Michele, Lauren and Emily. Carl and I are very excited that Lauren and her husband Scott just moved back to Atlanta and are expecting a little one. More friends for Alex to play with.

Swing Time

We bought Alex a swing for his birthday and we have it up on our deck - well sort of, it is up for now, but needs to be adjusted a bit. We keep talking about redoing our deck and so we did not cut off all the chain, just tied it up out of his reach for now since there is a possibility of it needing to be moved again. Here are a few shots of our little man and his new favorite outdoor activity!

After swinging we went for ice cream and while we were waiting for daddy in the car he started playing peek-a-boo and I thought it was too cute and snapped a picture.

4th of July Weekend

We took our first family trip together for the 4th of July. The 3 of us drove over to Hilton Head Island for the holiday weekend. We had a great time. Alex loved the sand and the water, he was not afraid at all and walked right into the water. He enjoyed Daddy burying his feet in the sand and even ate some sand the second day. We enjoyed watching the fireworks in Harbor Town, Alex took a little nap after dinner so he woke up about 30 minutes before the fireworks and he did not get upset and kept pointing to them. Below are some pictures from the beach and the park they had in Harbor Town.

Long time!

OK so I know it has been a long time since I posted... shame on me. It has been very busy with birthdays and trips and work, so I plan to just do it bit by bit to catch up.So today I will update for the 12 month checkup which he had on his exact birthday - I can't believe he is a year!

Length 29 3/4 inch 50-75%

Weight 22 lbs. 3.2 oz. 25-50%

Head 47 cm. 50-75%

He did fine with his shots, actually was worse getting his ears checked than getting the shots. And then he slept through the night for about 2 weeks, but then a molar started to come in and that went bye bye in a major way!
We also got word that he is now off the waiting list for mothers morning out, so he will start in Sept. on Wed and Fri mornings from 9-12 at Dunwoody United Methodist, which is just a few minutes away from my office and between my office and grandma and granddad's house. He will probably be one of the oldest in his class as many of the schools around here cut off on year end instead of beginning, so the cutoffs are May 31 and his birthday is later, so he will be the big boy in school, which is fine with me. Not sure how he will like school to begin with, our child who had never met a stranger and had no clue what separation anxiety meant in his 1st year, has hit separation anxiety with a vengeance in month 13. Wed night Grandma and Grandad and Alex and I went to a buffet veggie place and we even set him up so he could see the buffet line, but if any of us got up to get food [note that the other 2 of us were still at the table with him]- he cried huge tears and full on red face, like we were all leaving him there. He even cried in the car this morning with me when we backed out and Carl went back in the house, he stops about 30 seconds later, but it is still funny.
I am going to try to add a link to my page to my friend Stephanie's photo website as she took the pictures for his birthdays and year pictures and they are AWESOME! When you get to the page look down the right and there are 3 in there Alex party with family, Alex party with friends and Carl Alicia and Alex that are all of us. If there is anyone in Atlanta looking for a photographer, Steph is great, and I am not just biased because she is my friend, check the pictures out for yourself and see!
There is so much to still talk about, 1st birthday parties [yes he had 2] - 1 year pictures - visit with Nono, Nana and Uncle David - first beach trip for the 4th and a visit to Knoxville - all of these I will post soon along with the June pictures.

Happy May!

May has been a great month for us.

Mothers Day and my birthday were great. We had a great brunch with Grandma and Grandad and then Carl took me out to dinner that night for my birthday. Here is a picture of Alex and I on Mothers Day/my birthday.

We also did Relay for Life this month, which I am one of the organizing committee members for my company. It was really busy but was a wonderful time, even Alex had a great time walking around and visiting with people.

I also held a play date with 2 friends from high school Jill and Sam and their girls Turner and Cate the Sunday after Relay. We had a great time visiting together while the kids played.

This last weekend was Memorial Day. We enjoyed a cookout with our neighbors and also some time visiting our friend Wendy who was recovering from surgery and I went baby shopping with my friend Michele and her husband Hilly. We took Alex to the pool for the first time on Sat afternoon and he loved it, we took him back again on Mon morning. He was not a huge fan of his float on Mon, mainly because he realized he can't splash as big [he is definitely Carl's son], but he LOVED the water. We were getting ready to go to the pool on Mon and I asked him if he wanted to go down to pool to splash and he started kicking his feet in his highchair and smiling huge! Here are some of my favorite photos, I know I know Auburn folks, I just could not resist, he looked too cute in daddy's hat.

Our biggest news for May is that we have a real WALKER now! He has been cruising very fast on furniture for quite some time and with his walking toys, but over the last few weeks he has slowly started to let go and go from couch to couch - then from couch to table, but as of this last week, if we set him down standing and walk away he will walk to us! He has even started to choose to walk over crawl in the house, pulling up on the coffee table then walking all the way over to the kitchen. I think the fact that he is now in shorts and he was scraping his little knees gave him the motivation to get up off them. The funniest to me is he still loves his push toy, but now he walks with it and when he runs into something - picks it up - turns around - and keeps going... he is even learning to steer it before he hit something too. He is also trying to turn every piece of furniture in our house into a push toy - our laundry basket is his most favorite.

He loves to play in his room and bathroom. When we come in at night, he surveys the family room toys, then takes off for the stairs to go up to his room and make sure everything is still there where he left it. He loves to go up stairs himself - then when he gets to the top, he looks through the rail to see the bottom then claps proudly! We are using our gates to full advantage now.

I am now in my new job full time, which is great, but is why I have not had more time to update the blog. It is taking some adjusting, I think it is actually more strange to go to a new job in the same company than it is a whole new one. I am very busy, but am really doing things to make a positive change which is cool.

This next 2 weeks we will be preparing for Alex's first birthday which I am very excited about.

I hope everyone had a great holiday weekend.

A tired monday morning

I have finally uploaded the April pictures and will send them out today. These were mostly from when Carl's grandparents visited and when Deb visited and we went to the park. Carl was very camera happy at the park, so we have quite a few pictures. I will add a few of my favorites here.




This past weekend Carl had to work at the Smyrna Jonquil festival for the Smyrna Tree Board and I went to the Inman Park Festival with a group of friends. It was a good time, we got rained on for a few minutes, but Alex loved it - combining his 2 favorite things... the outdoors and bath!
Sunday we were going to go the the Jonquil festival, but when we drove up there it got rained out, so we just went back home and got some things done around the house. Carl ended up wrenching his back last night so he is going to the doctor today to get it looked at, hopefully it is just some muscles that need to calm back down.

Carl's dad [aka Nono] ended up in the hospital this last week and had to have a blood clot removed from his leg, but is home now and doing well, we are very happy about that!

This is my last official week in my current job in the Finance department - I am moving over to the IT department as a Finance Manager. I am excited but nervous too. I will be pulling double duty in both groups for at least the first month, but hopefully things will calm down by the end of May and I will be able to settle into my new position.

Speaking of May, I am very excited about celebrating my first Mothers Day and it is more special that my first Mothers Days is also my birthday! We are planning on going to brunch at Rays on the River with my parents so we will celebrate 2 moms and a birthday all at once.

I don't think it will be long before Alex is walking on his own, he will take a few steps [really leaning lunges] to either me or Carl from the coffee table if we are sitting near on the floor, and he will walk along outside and only hold 1 of our fingers. His dexterity is also getting better, he now can move the small slides in his new truck book [thanks Aunt Deb!] and he puts his balls into his Pooh toy and watches them go down the slides and then claps at himself proudly when it reaches the bottom.

Hope everyone has a great week

Happy Tuesday

Last weekend we had a great time. We picked Deb up at the airport and then headed up to Turner's first birthday. We had a great time, Alex played well with all the other boys and girls and had his first try of cheese. He would not eat his baby food with all the commotion so I tried cheese, he loved it [hello he is my child]. Then that night we had dinner with my parents and then Sunday we went to brunch and to the park. Alex had a great time, we had the park practically to ourselves and he figured out the slide and loved it. Then Alex had some daddy time while Deb and I went and got our nails done.

This weekend Carl participated in a trivia tournament and Alex and I met up with Stephanie and Kamryn Kaye at Northpoint for some playtime and shopping.

Carl will be going out of town today to visit some growers in south Georgia and it is my crazy week at work, so we are looking forward to a relaxing weekend coming up.

Alex is really motoring around now. He can stand on his own and after going to the mall Sunday and watching Kamryn Kaye climb up stairs to the slide, he climbed 2 stairs last night! He LOVES his books. He knows some of them by heart and if he knows there is a page he likes coming up he will try to skip past the page before to get to the one he likes, then he giggles and claps.
He is clapping a lot now, he loves to patty cake and do the Itsy Bitsy Spider.
He also is a big fan of giving 5.

I will be off with him on Friday this week since Grandma and Grandad are going to KY to the horse races. I am really looking forward to it!

Spring is here

It has been a crazy beginning to spring. Easter was so early, but it was great. Alex saw his Easter basket right away and was very excited by it. Nana got him a soccer ball basket and he loved it. We went to church and had Easter lunch at my parents house with all of our cousins/aunts/uncles that live here in Atlanta. I will send out pictures soon. I think his favorite part of the day was playing peek-a-boo with his cousin Billy!
This last weekend, our neighborhood had it's kickoff event for 2008, our 2nd annual Walk and Talk. I am on the social committee so it was very busy trying to get everything planned and set up. The weather was not supposed to be good, but we lucked out and it was wonderful. Everyone enjoyed the walk and lunch. Alex was so happy to be outside, he is his fathers child for sure. He cried when we came in, even though we were out from 8:30 - 12. He had a great time playing with the other little ones out there.
This week Carl's grandparents are here to spend a few days on their way back to NY. Alex has loved spending some quality time with them and loves to try to climb and take Gigi's cane.
I was a complete klutz last night and reached over and grabbed a hot metal cooking sheet without the potholder that was sitting right in front of me and burned my finger. Typing with a blister is not fun today!
Alex is getting more and more mobile everyday, not only is he crawling everywhere, but he has started to let go and stand on his own for a few seconds. And last night he began to let go of the table and take a few steps towards either me or Carl and would squeal with delight.
He is also starting to hold his bottle a little and drink from his sippy cup. Of course the first one we bought he uses as a teether, then we bought the cheapest ones, and he took to them right away.
This weekend we are looking forward to Alex's friend Turner's 1st birthday party and Aunt Deb coming in town for the weekend. Like I said it is crazy busy!

Travel

Grandma, Grandad and Mommy took Alex up to Kentucky for a few days. He did wonderful in the car. Slept pretty much the entire way up and back. He was friendly and not afraid of anyone while we were up there and enjoyed all the attention he was getting. He got to meet some of his great aunts and uncles and some cousins he had never met before. We got some good pictures that were included in what I sent out this morning. Following our return trip, unfortunatly, my aunt in DC passed away. So my dad and I headed up for the funeral, which was very nice.

Alex had his first St. Patricks Day last week. We got him dressed in his Irish shirt and green socks and got out the camera - what a ham, he was all smiles. Here are 2 of my favorite pictures. I am still trying to catch back up after being away for a while both at work and at home.

Update

Sorry it has been a while, it has been very busy at work.
Carl took his first trip for work this week, he went to Cairo Ga on Tues and came back Wed. He likes his new job very well so far.
Alex is spending most of his time perfecting his tricks of pulling up on EVERYTHING and crawling. Especially to things he is not supposed to have.
He is going to be a hand full I think... he will look at us to make sure we are watching, then will crawl right to what he knows is a "no no" like my parents screen doors, or the heating vent, or the outlets. He always looks back at us right before he reaches out for it.
Alex has a new toy that he is in love with... it is a fisher price crawl through toy. It is like a screen and he has 3 sections he can crawl through and then he can pull up and play with toys on the top and sides. He is so proud of himself as he crawls through and walks around it.
Carl and I went to a dinner on Sat night for the MOPS group that I joined and they had an amazing speaker. This guy is the world record holder for being the only double amputee to complete the Iron Man on prosthetics. His talk was absolutely incredible. We enjoyed the dinner and getting to spend time with our friends Sarah and Cory.
This weekend we are going to dinner with some friends of Carl's from college who are in town on Sat. to Eclipse di Luna, a great Spanish Tapas restaurant in Dunwoody, I am very excited.
Alex and I are going to head north to Kentucky with my parents next week to visit my family there and introduce them to Alex, unfortunatly Carl has to work and can't join us. I am nervous about the drive and how he will sleep in the pack-n-play, but excited to be taking him on his first trip and meeting his aunts, uncles and cousins.

We are now mobile!

We have had a very busy week...
Last weekend when the weather was nice, we took him to the park for the first time. The swings were a huge hit! I sent out some [oh say 40] pictures today of our visit, so check your emails. Man digital cameras are great!
Our little man got it together and is now crawling. Mainly to get to a table to pull up on, or to follow his race car toy. We took a video of it last night, I will try and see if I can cut it down to get it on here somehow.
I have started to go to my first moms group activities. I tried a MOPS group at Dunwoody Baptist, where we got married, last Wed night and that was really nice. We are doing a dinner with them this weekend. This is only a 1x a month group though.
I also joined an online moms group for the area of Atlanta that I live in, nwatlantamommies, and we went to our first playgroup this weekend. It was great, and I think that may have spurred on the crawling a bit, he would go for a toy and another little one who could crawl would get it first, so I think our little man just needed some competition.
Carl had a good first week of work. We spent most of the weekend shopping around for new shoes and clothes for him. He no longer needs to wear steel toed monsters, so we got some nice new shoes at REI.
Well that is all for now.

Almost There...

Our little man is getting more mobile every day. He can now army crawl on his elbows across the floor to get to what he wants [usually something he should not have... aka the remote]. He is almost ready to crawl for real; he has just started to figure out how to use his arms a bit more yesterday. I sat him on the floor just a bit away from the coffee table and he used his arms to crawl the little bit over and then climb up. Once up, he is so proud of himself, he bangs on the table and smiles and giggles. He has started to discover the other items in his crib. I looked in the other afternoon after a nap and he had pulled himself up and was standing holding on to his fish aquarium [thanks Uncle Brian and Aunt Hisae, he LOVES it] for dear life.
Carl started his job this week; it is going very well so far. It is definitely an adjustment not having him home when I get there in the evening though, I miss him very much.
Alex is happy being back with Grandma and Granddad, especially since their coffee table has handles he can grab to pull up!

Carl has a new job! Alex is on the move...

Carl has now received the official offer letter from John Deer Landscape, YEA! He will start work middle of next week.


Alex is really beginning to move now. He rolls everywhere and can now pull up to his knees on his toybox and on the coffee table. He is also getting better at going from laying down to sitting up on his own. He has started a new thing when he wakes up; he pulls down on the bumper on his crib and peers out. I guess he wants to make sure we don't walk by. He looks so sad and cute laying there crying and peering between the slats.

Our boy who ate everything has begun to be a little picky, he is NOT a fan of green beans and Peas are so so. If we mix with Applesauce, ususally we can get about half a jar in. He loves any fruit or any orange veggie and inhales all cereal.

He is getting so tall, his feet are already over the end of his carrier, we are going to have to switch to his big boy car seat very soon. We already have that in grandma's car and he much prefers it.

Hope everyone is having a great week.
Alicia

Happy Birthday Sarah!

Happy 2nd Birthday Cousin Sarah!
I really enjoyed your birthday party yesterday. Thanks for letting me play with all of your toys and giving me such a great bath seat, crawling ball and race car to play with at home.
Alex

Babies & More Babies

Well the last few weeks have been full of babies... 3 of our friends have welcomed new additions to the world.

Aaron Lionel Blau arrived on Jan 19 in Florida to our friends Andrea and David Blau

Amélie Marie Whalen arrived two days ago on Jan 29 here in Atlanta to our friends Nicole and Don Whalen

Catherine "Cate" Marie Zavitz arrived yesterday Jan 30 here in Atlanta to our friends Brian and Samantha Zavitz

Holding Cate yesterday absolutely amazed me as to how much Alex has grown. Cate is just 1 inch and 4.5 ounces smaller than Alex was when he was born, and it seems like I can't remember him being so little.

I have added some pictures to the side of Alex. We were very lucky that he loved Santa this year. I hope that we will be that lucky next year; Santa was a hit when he allowed Alex to pull on his beard. It helps that Alex LOVES the color red. Thanks Uncle David for letting me borrow your Santa outfit from when you were my age!

Finally, it snowed here in Ga over MLK weekend. I should watch what I wish for... I remember telling someone in the fall that I was sad that Alex would not get to have snow like I did as a kid growing up in New York. Better watch what I say, it snowed on Wed & Sat. We got a few pictures of Alex with the snow - hope you enjoy.

Alicia

The Beginning

I thought this may be a good way to keep up with what is going on with the Valenzano family, since our family is spread across the globe. Once I really learn how to use this, I will try to keep this updated with what is going on with us, but lets be honest, it will be mostly about Alex.

This morning was a cute one... I was heading out for work and as I was walking downstairs I kept hearing this noise that sounded like a lollipop from that 60's song. So I looked around, finally I realized it was coming from his room. I looked in there and he was wide awake and had found his pacifier and was putting it in his mouth and pulling it out to make the sound. Once he saw me he burst into giggles, like he knew that I had been looking around for the noise.

He is teething, so we have reverted back, no longer sleeping through the night. He has two teeth, but based on the fact that all he wanted to do yesterday was shove everything [including my lip - Ouch!] in his mouth, I assume we have more on the way.

More to come later - Alicia