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.

Christmas 2010

It was Alex's first Christmas with little santa hat and all which I thought was just so cute. Now that he is just starting to enjoy grabbing things, he was able to grab a corner of the paper and help pull some of the paper off. The grandparents got him some really fun toys which he absolutely loves including this little mailbox, an exersaucer and fishtank light that looks like real fish are swimming. Funny thing about the fishtank light is it is a way to get him to do tummy time for longer since he loves to look at it. It's pretty neat how much he is changing and able to play and interact more and more each day. 

We spent Christmas Eve with the Evans family and Christmas day with my side of the family at my mom's place. We had a great time spending the holidays with both families and above are some pictures from those celebrations. Jordyn and Jackson are so cute. Jordyn really got into the Christmas spirit this year and was so much fun to watch. Apparently, she asked santa to bring her candy which I thought was pretty funny.

Christmas felt a lot different this year...seemed like it sort of flew past without much time to get into the holiday spirit. I returned to work just a few weeks before and since then have been super busy. So I didn't have the time for baking I usually do or a gingerbread house. I did manage to make two small ones for Jordyn and Jackson though. I thought I had no time when I was home with Alex on maternity leave, but now I really have no time. At least when you are home with the baby, you kind of get breaks when they nap, but now I don't even get those breaks...just go go go. I know it will get easier and easier especially as Alex's need to be breastfed lessens. I had no idea how hard it would be to work and breastfeed/pump especially with a job like mine where I am on such a tight schedule.

For Christmas, Chris and I got new hardwood floors to replace both the existing hardwood and carpet throughout the whole downstairs of our house. So the day after Christmas, Chris began demo with his sister Chelsey and Vanessa....it is a huge mess. Then Eric came over the next day and helped pull up all the floor boards sitting on top of the sub floor and the existing hardwoods. It is so hard to see your house messy and dusty and only partially useable. Luckily, Chris is super motivated and planning to start installation maybe even as soon as next week. The original plan was to have it done by the end of January....but that is a very long time to have your house torn up. Turns out we will be oven/stove less for a week...yikes.