Alex turns 1! and labor day weekend trip to Spokane

Fireman's hat and truck from Romen

Some of the goodies from the party

The ice cream cake..strawberry and vanilla ice cream with graham cracker bottom and middle with caramel

He loves it!

Alex and uncle Tom Bez at Pig Out in the Park

Alex pigging out on while chocolate covered strawberry at Pig Out in the Park

Nana got him glasses and he loves them...they even helped to get him to walk 4 steps to mommy because he wants to put them on mommy and daddy and take them off and on again

Playing with water on Tom and Cindi's deck in spokane

Alex is 1! We had such a fun time celebrating on Friday September 2nd with family. It was perfect. All his grandparents, great grandma...aka "gigi", auntie Katie and cousin Jordyn were all there to celebrate. We had a truck themed party, had some of Alex's favorites...pizza and ice cream cake and of course a birthday movie of pictures and video clips of Alex's first year. The birthday boy really enjoyed the party, the food, the cake, his visit with family and gifts. I had so much fun making the ice cream cake which I had planned for for some time knowing that Alex didn't like regular cake yet and his tummy didn't seem to agree with chocolate yet. I ended up doing strawberry and vanilla with a graham cracker crust bottom and middle including caramel. The truck decoration on the top is a frozen buttercream transfer. 

I had decorated the house the night before so when Alex came downstairs the next morning he was so excited and pointing at all the directions. His excitement made it all worth the time..hours..I spent making the birthday banners from cardstock. 

Alex got lots of really nice gifts including a firetruck and fireman's hat, an activity table, book and probably enough clothes to get us through the better part of next year. 

The next morning we got up really early to catch a 7am flight to visit Tom and Cindi Bez in Spokane. There is a festival up there every year called Pig Out in the Park where there are 40 some food vendors. Alex looked like a little chipmunk while he was eating his white chocolate covered strawberry. Poor Alex did not have such a good time while we were there because he was cutting a tooth. Although, the way he was acting, it almost seemed like an ear infection because he would cry whenever he tried to lie him down. I realized it was a tooth when I put together the pieces that he was nursing very briefly but frequent, biting and drooling and had what seemed like a tooth that was trying to poke through for a few weeks. Once the tooth cut through late Sunday, and a couple doses of tylenol, he was back to his old self...yay! I sure hope the next one doesn't bother him like this one.

Alex is not walking yet but very very close and today he took 4 steps to me while trying to put his sun glasses back on me. I think we are any day now from him walking all over the place. His balance is very good, but he is very timid. In the food department, he still doesn't eat more than a few bites of most foods, but still has more interest in foods that are spicy and flavorful. This weekend, the things he liked most were spinach, chicken and artichoke crepe and yakisoba noodles with spicy asian ginger dressing. He is so funny. Such a foodie already. He really is not into the regular kid stuff like mac and cheese. He is now into all cupboards and drawers so the real baby proofing has begun. He absolutely loves to drum everything and I think we are all convinced he will be a drummer. The other new thing is a little big of attitude and tantrum coming out if he doesn't get his way. Hard to believe that this is starting. He says "dada" A LOT...almost all the time. "Mama" use to be said a lot but now not as much. Lots of babbling of sounds but not really any other words at this time. 

Now that Alex is going to bed so early now...by 7pm, Chris and I finally have more time both for each other and ourselves which makes a world of difference. Alex is really funny about the bed time. He pretty much falls to pieces if you don't keep to the schedule. His internal clock is ridiculous...I guess sort of like me though.

4th of July

Just sitting and waiting for the parade to start. 

First picture that you can see the top two teeth in..soooo cute.

My dad's band

Dad is the farthest gentleman with the clarinet

We had a very nice quiet holiday weekend and for the 4th went to the Hillsboro 4th of July Parade. We all enjoyed it. Alex seemed to be most interested in the big trucks or tractors that went by. My dad's band was also in it and there are some pics of him above. 

Grant's visit home, first picnic in the park and 10 months old!

eating avacado

 10 months old chair pic

Alex at the park 

 Jordyn

Auntie Katie and Alex

Alex and mommy in the water fountains

Alex in the water fountains...he loved them so much we went two days in a row

The kids and grandkids..Katie, me, Grant, Jackson, Alex and Jordyn

Alex and uncle Grant

Uncle Grant and Alex

 Don and Chris...I thought this picture was funny to show how strikingly similar they look. Even the same outfit on.

 Alex and Uncle Grant

Alex having chocolate pudding for the first time and not for a while...we think he might be sensitive to chocolate like uncle Grant was. He was spitting up and upset tummy for two days afterwards. I'm sure glad I am not allergic to chocolate,,, that would be horrible.

Jordyn and Uncle Jackson on the awesome swings at the park

The Cousins

Hard to believe that today is the 4th of July and for the first time in several years we actually have nice summer weather in Portland on the 4th. We ended up going to the park near our house twice this weekend and you can see some of the pictures above of the picnic we had with Katie, Jordyn, Jackson and my mom and Eric. Alex really enjoyed the park and it was just the perfect place for a family get together with the water fountains, sand box, and playground. I was really quite surprised how much he was able to enjoy the park already.

Over the last two weeks, Grant was home to visit and this was his first visit since Alex was a week old. I think this was the best visit we had had in a while. Usually when he comes to visit he is in town for 1 week and trying to get all his visits in with friends and family and so we are lucky to see him a few times and this visit was awesome getting to see him so much more. He even dropped by my work a couple times for surprise visits which was really nice and we got to go to breakfast together a couple times before work. Alex seemed to really like his Uncle Grant. Cross our fingers he gets to come visit again soon. He is trying to get leave in July to help coach Jackson's basketball camp.

I don't mention work too much on my blog but I did have some exciting news to share that I passed my big exam I took in March and am now a Board Certified Orthopedic Clinical Specialist. I am super excited about this accomplishment and congrats to my colleague Kevin Hanson who also passed...yay! It was definitely not easy preparing for this exam with a little baby who isn't a good napper and during our floor remodel project of our house. So now I have some loose ends to finish up my residency...hopefully by October. 

Alex is 10 months now! We had his 9 month appointment and he is 19lbs (30th percentile), 29.5 inches (70th percentile) and 90th percentile for his noggin. He continues to be such a joy to be with and more personality coming out. He is just starting to have a little more interest in food other than breastmilk, greek yogurt and sweet potato fries. He is just such a picky little thing. Turns out he really likes chicken tortilla soup. Yeah..who would have thought with all those spices...even his teacher was really surprised knowing how picky he is. He is now down to about 7-8 nursing feedings a day which feels like such a break for me. I know that probably sounds like a lot to most for a 10 month old baby but this is amazing considering he was still at 12 feedings just 2 months ago and he is consistently waking up 1 time which feels great for me to finally be getting some sleep. Alex is now moving around a lot, going from butt scooting to crawling to standing and a little bit of furniture walking. We made the mistake of giving him a bit of chocolate pudding which ended in a sick tummy for 2 days. Now I am very afraid to give him chocolate for a while..maybe over a year...especially knowing how horribly allergic to chocolate my brother Grant was as a baby. 

Also...just because I thought this was funny. Look above at the picture of Don and Chris. Isn't that crazy how strikingly similar they look. They are even wearing the same outfit...not on purpose. Just because they really do look a lot alike. 

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.