Happy Labor Day!

Well, it has been a while since I have blogged because there is a lot going on right now! Alex was sick and had double ear infections. One ER trip, lots of throwing up, and multiple doses of antibiotics later, she is better. Still has stuffy nose and cough but much improved. Alex is now crawling with the best of them and also is pulling up to stand. She can move sideways when holding onto the coffee table or tv stand and thinks she can stand by herself so she will let go and promptly fall on her booty. She is walking really good in her walker and will probably be doing it on her own pretty soon. This morning we went to the park in the neighborhood and fed ducks. They have a little park that had one of those bucket swings and Alex loved swinging! Here are some pictures/video.

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First day of school

Yes, I cried. I am still crying. I am glad that I took the day off.

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She was a very happy baby this morning and when we got to school she got very quiet. Her eyes were really big and she was watching everyone! There are only 8 kids in her class at this time but her teacher says that will change as the year progresses. By this time next year she will be in the next class (18 month-2 yr). It took a long time to get in the building and get to her classroom. There were a lot of parents there with the older children and it was really crowded. So we dropped off Alex with her teacher and had to turn medications (diaper cream, tylenol, etc.) into the school nurse. That took a while because she had to check the expiration date and labels on everything. When we went past her room again, I had to look in and she was sitting at the table still with her thumb in her mouth looking sad. Poor baby! I was fighting the tears the whole time and finally just had to cry. boo hoo.

Last day before school!

It is the last day of Alex being "home" and as she naps, I am reminiscing. She has come so far and I am so proud of her. It seems like she has grown up so much in the last week and I am having trouble keeping up with her. As soon as I get used to one thing she is doing something else. She is starting to crawl and pull herself up. She is starting to walk (with assistance) and talk (she says bobo, dada, uhoh).

Tomorrow I am finally putting her in Nursery school and, although I know it will be really good for her, I am sad that I will be missing things. Although I have been at work for the last 3 months, I was still basically "in charge". I was the one who made the schedule and planned her meals. Now someone else will be doing it. I took comfort in knowing that Alex was eating green beans for lunch. Now I just bring a whole bunch of food in and the teacher picks what she eats. I could call my family any time and see how she was doing but now I can't.

Geez, sorry for the somber mood-- I really don't know how I got to rambling!! Anyways, I still have a whole bunch of stuff to do. Right after I finish this I am going to fill out all the forms for the over the counter stuff. I have to fill out a form for EVERYTHING!! Even diaper cream. So then I am going to clean- I have already started (you can see the big fat mess from my cleaning behind her in the video) cleaning out the hall way closet. That closet is ridiculous. Enjoy the video of the squirt as she "eats" her puffs.

You know, the best thing about being a mom is that you have healing hugs and kisses. Today Alex hurt herself, started crying, looked for me and grabbed at my shirt. As soon as I picked her up and gave her kisses she was better. I love being that person for her. I am in love with my baby!!

8 months

Our baby girl is 8 months old and I can't believe it! She is getting so big and smart now. She is almost crawling--she gets up on her hands and knees and rocks back and forth. She can go backwards but not forward. She is much more interested in standing and pulling up on things. She can pull herself up but not for long which makes us very nervous.

She is starting nursery school next week and I am really excited to see how she does. She loves to watch babies and kids so school will be very entertaining for her. I am also happy that she is going because she is getting extremely spoiled!! Everything is about her right now and she knows it. She is very vocal when not getting her way or what she wants (she grunts very loud, it is not a pretty ladylike sound either). So I am sure at nursery school she won't be getting what she wants right away and maybe the grunting will stop?? Wishful thinking I am sure.

She has enough hair now to put a tiny little bow in (see above pic) and it doesn't bother her so you will be seeing that bow a lot now. Her daddy is in love with her and they watch sports together and she acts like she is interested. She is starting to want to do everything herself and is really into feeding herself. We took a video for you to see how her face lights up when we let her do it.

It didn't last

Alex pulled out her earrings and we couldn't get them back in. No damage was done, it was a clean pull. I told her that if she didn't let me put them back in that Daddy was not going to let her have earrings until she was 20 but she didn't care. She screams bloody murder when ever you touch her face, ears, gums, etc. She does not like to be messed with. I didn't think those suckers would be so hard to get back in but we tried for a whole day before we gave up.

Well, in other news-she is soooo good at sitting up now and can "scoot" around the room. It is at least her version of scooting (rolling and using furniture to push off of). She has gotten on all fours occasionally but doesn't know what to do from there. She loves to eat solids now and is losing all interest in the bottle. We are moving to second stage gerber foods this weekend and I am excited because they have combo foods like "squash and corn", "cherries and apples" and "garden vegetables". I can't wait to see Alex's face when she gets a mouthful of those.

She is not sleeping as well as she has in the past and I think that might be because of some teething issues or bedtime ritual issues. She wakes up once at night (around 2am) and then about half an hour early for her AM bottle (5:30am). This does not make a happy mommy or daddy. We were used to getting a full nights rest and then "bam" she changes it up. Holy toledo.

Any kind of change in her schedule is like the end of the world for her. Last Sunday we brought her to church which is right during her naptime and it screwed up the whole day and night for her. So we try to keep her to her nap schedule and food schedule but it is so difficult to get her to eat her bottle lately. She would eat green beans 15 times a day but her bottle is something that she wants to play with. I am trying sippy cups now and she just can't get the hang of it. I also tried a straw cup but she couldn't get the liquid all the way up. I could see it only go 1/4 of the straw. Poor baby girl.

Her next Dr appt is in Sept. and I am not looking forward to it because of the vaccines. She is old enough now to kind of know when bad stuff is about to happen and I really try to not get hyped up. It is just not in my powers to not get anxious. Here is a video of Alex squealing and putting her paci in her mouth.

June and July

We have been soooo busy with summer! Alex has been "swimming" in the pool. Basically that consists of her sitting in her float while Mommy and Daddy zoom her around the pool as she kicks like crazy. She is still doing good eating her solids but is not really liking the fruits. She LOVES green beans and squash, she likes peas, carrots and sweet potatoes, HATES bananas and tolerates peaches. She also has been spending a lot of time in her walker (see pic below) and hasn't quite figured it out yet. She thinks it is a jumper and will jump up and down when she first gets in.

Alex can now sit up on her own and can almost crawl. She rolls around the floor and can do it fast! She can't get into sitting position by herself but if you prop her up she can stay sitting for a long time. She doesn't have any teeth yet but I am sure they are coming soon because drooling and crankiness are increasing. Below is a video of her and her Daddy playing doggy.

She also saw her first parade on July 4th in her Gma and Gpa Masons neighborhood. It was a really good parade with lots of kids and animals dressed up. The fire engine at the front of the parade had their siren on and I thought it would scare her but she was fine. I don't think she was really that impressed at all the costumes but her Mommy was.