Look how much he's changed...it is truly amazing just how fast it goes. We are so in love with this new stage. But scooting, pulling to stand, clapping, waving, wet kisses, lots of "ma mas" and he really enjoys having you pat his mouth to make "wa wa wa" noises. So much personality coming out. 

I can't believe how long since I last posted. I am just so busy these days. The month of May flew by as usual. We started the month off with a weekend in Seattle for a continuing education class I attended. Alex loved downtown Seattle with so much to look at and we ate at the Crab Pot Restaurant which was so neat. Chris's parents came up for a couple of the days with us. You order this bowl of mixed seafood..crablegs, clams, muscles, sausage, shrimp, corn and potatoes and they just dump it on the table and you eat up. Very yummy especially when you like seafood but don't get to eat it very often.

Then there was Jordyn's 3rd birthday and my 29th birthday, then Chris and I celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary in Las Vegas and memorial day weekend...whew! Our trip to Las Vegas was the first time we had gone away from Alex overnight. He did great and we missed him of course and came home a little earlier. Traveling away from baby when you are still breastfeeding is not so simple. Planning our schedule of our day around what we can do around the pumping and then there was hauling the stuff with us and figuring out where I could do it. I'm used to pumping at work, but this was can I saw awkward...pumping at the airport and pumping at Caesar's Palace in just one of the regular bathrooms. Oh and I almost forgot, there was the problem with the hotel telling us they couldn't freeze our cooler ice packs so we could bring the milk back home with us due to health code. Seemed kind of ridiculous. So we ended up being able to get them cold enough by filling up lots of plastic bags of ice and putting them all in the cooler overnight before we left. Yes...I could have just dumped it all, but it is hard to be ok with doing that knowing how much time you spent out of your day producing this stuff and how good it is for Alex. The best parts of our trip were eating at Bobby Flay's restaurant called Mesa Grill at Caesar's Palace. The sauces were amazing to say the least. I need to find some copy cat recipes online. The other great part were the shows. We went to the improv comedy show at Harrahs and Mystere, a Cirque du Soleil show which I had never been to before. The things those people do with their bodies is absolutely amazing.

Weekend in Seattle May 7th

Alex and Daddy at Tree to Tree...a ropes course place at Hagg Lake over Memorial Day Weekend

He loves loves loves anything we do with cleaning..vacuuming, laundry and dishes..he but scoots so quick when the dishwasher opens to get to it.

First nice sunny day that Alex got to enjoy some time in the kiddy pool. He loved it and played for a couple hours.

For those of you who have never seen a butt scooting...this is in the early times of his scooting so he wasn't so efficient but it works. Now he can scoot way faster than crawling..he interchanges between the two.

Easter & 7.5 months old

Easter weekend - on the patio at Grandpa Higham's

First Easter Basket from Nana Evans

Checking himself out...well sort of. There is a little mirror but he also loves to stare at the pictures of animals around the mirror.

Chilling outside...he is a total outside baby

Eating his mum mum...a flavorless piece of cardboard rice cracker that Alex and other babies at his school absolutely love

We had a nice Easter Weekend. Alex and I had Friday off school and work and just really enjoyed the day together...just the two of us. I think we needed that. And the weather was so nice and sunny and warm so we mostly stayed outside for those two nice days. Alex loves outside and in fact, I have figured out that if he is wired and hyper it is a quick way to settle him down. Saturday we had dinner with my Dad and Patty and then Sunday with Chris's Mom, sister and Vanessa. Don had to stay in China longer so we will do another Easter dinner next weekend when he is home. 

As you can see, Alex is growing up so quickly. He is still a very fair haired baby. Quite different than either of us would have expected but I imagine his hair will get darker in time. He is just the sweetest little thing. Talking more and has now included "na, na" to his repertoire. He is also scooting more and turning around more quickly in addition to going from sitting to hands and knees. I think crawling is right around the corner. He goes backwards on his belly and gets very frustrated about that because he really means to go forwards. 

Our house project with the wood floors is almost done. Just some finishing touches with trim, paint, caulking and vents left. It really looks so nice and is a lot easier to clean. I am really pleased now that it is almost done. Now we are off to start the next project...the backyard but this time we will be getting a little help. We just don't have as much free time for projects like these anymore. I will have to post pics of the floor project when it is completed.

7 months old!

 

Alex is 7 months old and now I think it is really fun to look at the progression. Funny how last month he got the sheep and now he is grabbing the sheep and the blanket. He is so much fun and like I said in the last post, this is our favorite age so far. He has really gotten into talking and says "ba ba", "da da" and "ma ma." He was really talking a lot tonight. It was so cute. 

With Auntie Chels and Vanessa...he was so excited by what Chels had to say.

Funny story about this picture is that right after I took the picture, Alex stood up and leaped for me falling on his face. He seemed to think he could just fly to mama. He didn't cry or anything and was happy as could be to sit back up on the chair. He just look so cute and old sitting in it.

At School

Riding on his rocking frog from Tom and Cyndi Bez

 Right after a bath...our little monkey

 I wish I was that flexible

 Enjoying Uncle Jackson's basketball game with Grandpa Higham and Grandma Patty

 6 month picture

Visit with Great Grandma Evans...Wilma Evans...he was teething and biting on her finger the whole time...she just loved it

It has been forever since I did a real blog post. We have all been so busy over the last couple months. January and February seemed to fly by at the blink of an eye. I have now been back to work for almost 4 months and Alex has been going to daycare now for nearly 3 months. Alex has really enjoyed his school but the downside is getting exposed to new bugs. In fact, Alex has already had 3 ear infections in a matter of 7 weeks! This last one went away all on its own..yay! And the coolest part is we just gave him tylenol and drops of warm olive oil in his ear. It worked incredibly well to give him pain relief. He also got 2 teeth this week...his front bottom ones. I can't believe it. Teething took months...much longer than I would have thought. Alex also had his 6 month check-up this week and is 16lbs 4oz (50th percentile) and 28 inches long (90th percentile) and head circumference of 17.5inches (90th percentile). So he has stayed long and lean. He is a strong little guy and ready to be on the move before we know it. I was at my mom's today and he kept darting at fluffy the cat and practically leaping out of my arms. He does that on the change table too which makes us nervous. I am starting to change him on the floor since he seems to be in a very dare devilish mood. I really don't think it will be that much longer before he starts crawling. He is getting onto hands and knees but can't stay there for very long. 6 months is such an awesome age...I think my favorite so far. He is all smiles and just a really happy little guy...when he is not sick of course. He enjoys playing with his toys but only if someone else is playing or talking to him...He always wants to be wherever the action is. And at school his favorite thing has been the art projects...they are super cute. The other great part about this stage is getting better and more consistent sleep at night...for all of us. We are getting more consistent sleep with Alex waking no more than 2x/night and we even just had the last week with him only waking 1x and getting a 7.5 hour stretch. It feels so good to be more rested.

I think another reason why the last couple months have felt so busy is that on top of being a new mom, returning back to work and our wood floor project, I have been studying for the physical therapy orthopedic board specialist exam. I just took the exam las week.Yay! It is such a huge weight off my shoulders to have finished that and now I wait a whole 3 months to find out how I did. I actually felt pretty good about the exam which is great considering my very limited time I had to study. It feels so good to now have some real weekends back free of studying.

The wood floor project which started right after Christmas has kind of come to a little pause. The house is live able as we now have the kitchen, living room and our bedroom back which is partly why there hasn't been as much motivation to get it done. Chris and Don would have put in a long day to get it done last sunday but with Alex sick we decided it was best to take it easy and focus on taking care of him. So Chris was able to get back he to the project today and get some wood into the dining room and entry way...we are almost there.

I have attached a bunch of pictures...Alex over the last month and a funny video of Jordyn reading to Alex with her scary voice. She is such a hoot. So much energy and personality...she is so much like Katie.

5 month now! Look how I've grown!

The house project continues......

 No dishwasher

Down to the subfloor

 putting down the underlayment so the trim around the doors would still fit

The first bit of hardwood went down...yay!

A little bit of normalcy...we got to sit on the couch and enjoy the living room sort of for a couple weeks

 A leak...turned out we couldn't use the left side of the sink for 1 whole week

We went stove and ovenless for 3 weeks!!!

The fridge was moved out to the hallway for 3 weeks

Fridge in the hallway

Now as we work towards finishing the rest of the downstairs...it is starting to look like chaos again. 

Chris has been working really hard to re-do the floors in the downstairs of our house and it has ended up being a lot more than he had invisioned. The original plan was to be done by the end of January but now it will probably be the end of February if we are lucky. There were so many unplanned or unforseen things that would come up with each day of working on the project. We are quite thrilled to hopefully be getting our bedroom back this weekend...cross our fingers and getting our living room back. It was sure nice to get a working kitchen back. We did a lot of eating out and although fun at first gets really old really quick. I think the floors look really nice and I know we will be really glad we did it once it is all done.

4 months old...look how I've grown

Alex is 4 months old today...it's hard to believe. I have been taking a picture of him in the same spot each month which I think will be lots of fun to watch over the course of the year. Although looking at the pictures all next to each other there isn't too much difference between 3 and 4 months but he definitely looks older than the 2 month picture.