Beat the Hell Outta Georgia!! WHOOP!!

A&M plays Georgia today in the Independence Bowl. Alex will be in his Aggie gear cheering on his Ags with Pop!

Alex's First Christmas

We had a great first Christmas with Alex...or as great of a Christmas as we could have without Jeremiah. We can't wait for him to be with us next year for Christmas! Jeremiah was able to Skype with us while Alex opened his presents, so at the least it sort of felt like he was there with us.

Here is our first official Christmas photo as a family:



One of my family's traditions is the annual viewing of "National Lampoons Christmas Vacation" every year. Here is Alex enjoying it!




Here is the big guy with his presents from Santa Claus! He must have been a good boy this year...Santa must not know what a bad sleeper he is!



Pop helping Alex tear into all of the new toys!



Playing with a new toy...thanks Aunt Suzanne!



Here he is with Grammy Gale, MiMi, and Uncle Sam...








Here is another one just because he is super cute...

Have you ever seen a cuter baby???

If you answered "Yes" to the above question, I'm sorry, but you are going to have to stop reading the blog. Because, in fact, Alex is the cutest baby ever! There is truly good reason for his cuteness, too. His cuteness is definitely helping relieve the fact that he still doesn't like to sleep!

Alex is 4 1/2 months now. He has finally started taking some good naps during the day. Most days, he is taking two 1.5-2 hour naps, with an occasional nap that is shorter or longer. His nights......now that's still a whole other story! It seems like everyone else I know that has a baby his age is sleeping through the night, but not us. Alex continues to wake up every 2-3 hours during the night. Sometimes I get lucky and he'll sleep 4 hours in a row. When he does that, I always feel so good the next day! It doesn't seem to matter what I do....let him sleep in the pack 'n play, sleep in bed with me, feed him rice cereal before bed, put him to bed earlier, etc. None of it seems to make any difference. There are about a million sleep books out there and they don't seem to help either. I have decided he is so special that the books don't apply to him! =)

His most recent nighttime escapade is waking up every morning between 4 and 5 AM. He is unbelievably happy and just wants to talk, talk, talk. Well, and also, pretend he's in the jumperoo and jump the best he can while laying down. It's so hard not to want to play with him when he's in such a good mood, but I just try to leave him to talk to himself and then soothe him back to sleep when he's ready. I really hope he'll learn soon that this is not play time.

Alex is also getting to be so much more fun! He smiles more often and laughs more often. He, in general, is enjoying life more! This also means I'm enjoying life more too! He is sitting up pretty well, but still loses his balance. The boppy helps hold him up though. He is also rolling over really well and his favorite thing to do is just be laid out on a quilt so that he can roll and move all over it. He wants to move really bad and I don't think it'll be too much longer before he figures out how to crawl and get where he wants to be!

He truly is the cutest thing ever and even in my sleep deprivation I couldn't ask for a cuter kid. The pictures above were from the other morning when it was very chilly. He jumped in the Jumperoo for a bit before we put him in the Bob to go to the park with Pop to swing.

Our Trip to San Antonio

Last weekend, I got brave and took off with Alex to San Antonio to visit the Walkers! Sondra went to med school with me. Jeremiah and I got to be very good friends with them through med school. We have missed them so much since we moved to Georgia! They had a little boy named Max last fall and he is now 15 months old. I never got to go meet him last year because of residency and then pregnancy, so I finally got to meet him for the first time!!

Alex did great on the car ride to San Antonio, but that was the extent of his good behavior. The rest of the weekend, he was extremely fussy and slept terribly. I guess it goes to show that he is getting used to the routine/schedule he has at home and I just wasn't able to keep it up away from home.

Aside from Alex's fussiness, I had a great time visiting with them! Max is so much fun...walking, talking, and curious about the world! It's hard to believe that Alex will be that way in less than a year!! The other great thing about the trip was that Alex got to try out all of Max's toys! It really helped me know what Santa Claus should bring for Christmas.

Max was so cute. When his mommy was holding Alex, he got kind of jealous and came up and tried to push Alex away. It was funny. Later, he was so sweet though. When Alex was in the swing, he went to the back of it and pushed it to make it go faster. It was so sweet!! It'll be so much fun to watch these two grow up and be friends in the years to come! I can tell they will be trouble... Hopefully, we will be able to convince Jeremiah that we need to move back to Texas and live near them, so that they can play and get into trouble together all the time!! Everyone should remind Jeremiah of this request ALL THE TIME!!!





Alex's new thing last week was constantly grabbing his feet. Any time you layed him on his back, he put his legs up and grabbed his toes. Sometimes, he can get his toes to his mouth. The Bum Genius diapers are a little bulky though, so they make it harder. He keeps trying anyway though! MiMi calls it his 'cheerleader' move! :)

College Station

About two weeks ago, Alex made his first trip up to College Station. We went up to take Uncle Sam out to lunch for his birthday. We went to Koppe Bridge for a delicious hamburger and fries. Alex was awesome and slept through the whole meal! That's a rarity for him. Usually going out to eat is a trigger for him to start screaming as much as possible. Maybe, it depends on the restaurant though....just maybe he was trying to tell us he likes going to bar and grills rather than to the Olive Garden!

Here's a picture of the two of them when he finally woke up in the car:



After lunch and a trip to the mall for birthday presents, Sam had to go to class. We had planned to walk around campus, but it was a really nasty, rainy, cold day out and our plans were spoiled. We did still get to go see Gabe though! Gabe is a good friend of Jeremiah's from grad school and one of the nicest people you'll ever meet. He is still there at A&M working on his PhD...lucky him!! We picked him up on campus and went to Starbucks to hang out with him for a little bit. Alex had fun meeting him!! Hopefully, we'll get to see him again soon!! :)

Here are the two of them. Alex stole Gabe's hat...I think it's because he was jealous of all Gabe's nice thick hair and he was trying to cover up his poor little bald head!! =)

Alex Loves the Jumperoo!!

Alex is having lots of fun at MiMi and Pop's house. One of the greatest things is the new toys here! They have several families on the street with young kids. They were so nice and let us borrow toys so that we wouldn't have to trek all the way from Georgia with them!

Alex's favorite toy is definitely the Rainforest Jumperoo. It is very cool!! He gets in there and is able to get out all kinds of energy jumping up and down over and over!! It provides him with at least 10-15 minutes of solid entertainment with lots of smiling and laughing. This is wonderful for mommy because she can then have 10 minutes to eat a meal, fold laundry, etc! I really don't know how people raised children before Fisher Price started making all these great toys. They are a definite lifesaver!!



Don't you just love those chubby thighs???


Here's another picture of Alex enjoying the play gym and catching up on a little current affairs with his buddy Barack (who shares the same birthday with him!).



Just because it's so cute... here's another one of him in the Bumbo helping Mommy make chocolate chip cookies to send Daddy in his care package.



If he just had some teeth, I bet he could take down a few of those cookies...

Meeting the Whole Family!!

Alex and I had a wonderful Thanksgiving with all of the family! We split the day between the two great-grandmothers houses. This was the first time for Alex to meet all of the extended family...aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. He was a great sport throughout the day and loved soaking up all the attention everyone was giving him!!

Four Generations With Great Grandma MoMo and MiMi



With Great Grandma JoJo and Aunt Suzanne



With Grandma Gale



Playing with Aunt Suzanne

Big Weekend in the Big D!

This past weekend, Alex went on a whirlwind trip up to Dallas to meet lots of new people! I had a wedding of a friend from residency to go to on Saturday night, so we took advantage of the opportunity to have a nice visit with the Rogers in Argyle. Alex was wonderful throughout the visit. He even napped better than ever!! I think he was completely overstimulated with everyone "ohhhing" and "ahhing" over him that he needed some seriously long naps!

First, he met Becky and Karla....





Then, he met Auntie Devin...



and my friend Dave (also from residency last year and in town for the wedding)...




He also met Rossi who he thought was lots of fun!!



He even got on a horse for the first time... (that's more times than his mommy has ever been on a horse!!)



He got to swing at Karla's house... (It made him giggle lots!!)



And, last but not least, on his way home to Houston, he got to go shopping at Bucee's with MiMi.... (Watch out everyone...she did some Christmas shopping!! :)




Overall, it was a great weekend!! I am so thankful for such wonderful friends and family! Life sure wouldn't be the same without all of you!! Ya'll are the BEST!!

At Home in Texas!

If Alex could speak, he would say "I love Texas" and "I love being spoiled by MiMi and Pop"!! Life is GREAT here!!

Alex's First Halloween

The cutest little zebra ever!!

What Alex is up to at 12 Weeks

Smiling Lots! (Gotta love those dimples!!)



Splashing Around in the Tub!



Getting Fat... check out that double chin!



Looking in the Mirror (Who's that baby???)




Strengthening His Neck Muscles




Testing out the Exersaucer (He gets pretty serious about those toys!!)




Hanging Out in His Swing




Singing Songs with Mommy... his favorite is Old McDonald with his favorite toy to provide the oink-oink, chirp-chirp, or moo-moo



And, last but not least, getting VERY EXCITED to come to Texas in just a couple of weeks!! Or maybe this last one describes his mommy..... =)

We're back in business!!

Sorry for the several week delay in posts. Inevitably, things break when Jeremiah is gone, so of course the hard drive on my Mac crashed a few days after he left. After much research and help from Sam, I finally bought a new Sony laptop yesterday. I'm sad not to have another Mac, but our Sony video camera is not compatible with the Mac and I want to post videos for Jeremiah to see how Alex is growing and changing.

Here's a link to the first video. I took it last week when he was 10 weeks. It's amazing looking back...he's already grown and developed so much in the last week!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VppfpnviMtk#watch-main-area

2 Months Old!

Alex went to the pediatrician today for his 2 month visit and his first round of immunizations. He was great for his office visit and completely behaved himself. He weighed 13 pounds, 8 ounces (90+%) and measured 23 3/4 inches long (50%). He sure is growing fast!! He had three shots in his chubby little thighs and he definitely let out some screams with them! I have to say though he was pretty strong through it. I was proud of him!

He has been really sleepy all afternoon after the shots. He spent most of the day sleeping on MiMi or I. He also got his first dose of Tylenol today. Here he is sitting in the Bumbo chair (he's still not quite sure what to think of it!) for the Tylenol.



Doesn't he look like such a big guy???

Alex's First Trip

The weekend before Jeremiah left for Iraq, we decided to take a quick trip down to Seaside, Florida. It was our first time to visit Seaside and we fell in love! The beach was gorgeous and it was the perfect time of year to be there. The water was still a great temperature, but there weren't too many people on the beach.

Alex did great on his first car trip. It took us about 4 hours to get there. He slept 3 hours and then cried the other 1 hour, but atleast it wasn't the other way around! He also got to experience the sand, the ocean, and even a swimming pool. I think most of the trip he was looking at us both going, "You two are the crazy parents ever! How'd I get stuck with ya'll???" But I guess it's better that he figures that out now rather than when he's 13, huh?

Alex wasn't real sure about the ocean. He did not cry, but he got a bit of a grumpy face. His daddy did let a wave splash him in the face, so that might have made me grumpy too! He seemed to like the pool. He really enjoyed Daddy moving him all around like he was a big boy swimming.

Here are a few of the pictures from our trip. We can't wait to go back!



Just Chillin'



Swimming with Daddy



Hey, Bring me a beer!!



The Happy Family! :)