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!