Merry (cough) Christmas!

On Christmas Eve we went, an hour north, to my parents house. Alex took a nap before we went, and we hoped he might fall asleep again on the way, but he didn't. He did pretty good in the car, but got a little antsy right before we got there. When we got there we had lots to eat, and the kids spent some time playing. Then once everyone was there my brother and his wife announced that they will be having a boy in the spring. (In two weeks we find out what my other sister will be having in the spring). After that we quickly did gifts, because half the family needed to get to church, some of the others were heading home, and my brother had to go to work. After church it was just my parents, us, and 1 of my sisters and her husband. We put Alex to bed, and then sat around telling funny stories. By the time we left my throat was hurting pretty bad. I thought it might have been from talking all day, laughing so hard, from the wood stove smoke, or because my parents are smokers (they smoke in their house when no one is there. When the kids are there they smoke outside, but I can still smell it in the house, and I believe we breath it in from off the furniture), or the fact that my brother-in-law had told everyone that he was not feeling well and that he woke up with a fever! Either way, by the time we got home both Joe and I were not feeling well.

This morning Alex woke up around 8. We gave him his bottle while the dogs got a few new toys. Alex was cracking up watching them play. Then we opened our gifts. Alex seemed a little overwhelmed. He would find a toy he liked and then he would play with it while Joe and I kept opening our gifts, and his. Then he would see something else he liked, and he would switch. A couple times he took off, and I would find him playing with a measuring cup, or the hose from the vacuum! Silly Boy!

When all the gifts were open I gave Alex a big hug, and noticed he felt warm. Turns out he had a fever. His nose was running, and then I could tell that he sounded a little scratchy too. I think his throat must hurt too!

After breakfast we all took a nap. When Alex got up, Joe did too. I stayed in bed a little longer, trying to feel better. It didn't work. As I sit here, my throat is stinging. Joe and Alex are napping again, and I just hope with enough rest, the three of us can pull through this quick!

I hope everyone in blog land is having a wonderful Christmas, and that all your Christmas wishes are coming true. Last year I begged and begged Santa for a baby, and Alex landed under our tree on the 15th, it is going to be pretty hard to ever top that, but it was pretty sweet seeing Alex's face when he came out of his bedroom this morning and he first spotted his train table next to the tree!

Nap Protest!

Alex had a good run for a month or so, but he is back to protesting naps! He takes two short naps a day, and I am starting to wonder if I need to just cut the morning nap, and see if he will take 1 good long one in the afternoon.
On Friday I had put him down for his afternoon nap, and then sat down with the 5 year old to read to her. Right away I could hear that Alex had gotten the monitor off the table near his bed and was playing with it. I quickly finished up the book and went down to see what he was up to. When I got to the main floor I could only hear a beeping noise out of my end of the monitor, so I went all the way down stairs to see what was wrong.

When I got down there this is what I found:Alex had gotten the monitor and turned it off. He also took his socks off and threw those into a pile with his blankets, cuddle bear, paci, and the monitor! What a stinker! I ended up putting the monitor on a different table, put his socks back on his feet, his blankets back in his bed, and the paci back in his mouth, and he did end up taking an hour nap!
I hope he gets his naps figured out soon, because he has been a little of a grump at night when he is up from his afternoon nap by 2:30 and has to stay up until bedtime at 8:30!

Happy 1st Birthday Party!

Happy 1st Birthday Party, Alexander!

We had Alex's 1st birthday party this weekend. It was (almost) everything I had dreamed of! Here are the things that make it (almost): I was running late. I thought I had plenty of time, but I was asked to stop and get some food for some people, and some how I ended up getting to the zoo right about 2, instead of 1:40 like I wanted to. Once I got inside I felt in a panic rush to get his banner up, gift table set up (which was covered in bags, purses and coats), and I wanted to take a few pre-party pictures. I did get the banner up, but the other two things never happened. After that it was a flash of 40 people, face-paintings, animals, games, cake and then saying good bye! The party flew by! We didn't even get to open gifts at the zoo.






On a more positive note: The kids seem to love every minute of it. Everyone got their face painted, and got to play a games. There was a lot of fun to be had with the fake animals that where around the room. Everyone loved the chinchilla, ferret, and rabbit that they got to pet. Each kid got an animal print hat, and an animal mask, as well as a zoo cup. Alex loved his cake and ate every crumb off his plate. He even picked up his plate and licked it! It was so cute.

Everyone commented on how well he was walking around, and how easy going he is. I don't think he knew the party was for him, but he was happy to be around so many of his loved ones!

It really hit me, what a miracle Alex is! When everyone was singing happy birthday, I hate to fight the tears big time. I was singing, and looking at Alex while rubbing his leg, and thinking to myself, how amazing it is to have him. I have a hard time putting my feelings into words, so I will just say that I am forever thankful to Alex's birth mom, his brother, and sister, and entire birth family. I love Alex so much, and feel truly blessed to have him!

Flash back Dec 3rd-9th

Dec 3rd: I still LOVE to do baby laundry! I don't know what it is about it, but I love it. I hang up all of Alex's outfits. His onesies, and socks are in his bottom drawer. His pajamas are in the middle drawer. All his blankets, bibs, sheets, and towels have their own place in his closet. I have a thing about organized clothes! About once a week, at work, I pull all of the kids clothes out of the dressers and refold them and put them back. I also fix their closets, by putting like things next to each other. I do not like a messy dresser or closet!!
Dec 4th: We had a ton of snow storms at this time last year. It's not been so bad this year. We have Alex's big 1st birthday party this weekend, so I hope the roads stay clear for that!
Although I was talking about the snow storms on the 4th last year, it did end up snowing really bad all the way through the 15th, and after! I remember being a little worried when we were driving down on the 14th, but Joe is a very good winter driver so we got there on time and safe! Birth-mom's social worker did not make it in time! I never did post Alex's birth story on here, but I do plan on doing that very soon. I will talk more about the lack of a social worker in that post!
Dec 5th: The day before Alex's due date. The day before we thought we were going to meet our son! Little did we know, we had TEN more days to go! I feel anxious and upset reading last years post. I can remember all of the feelings that I was going through. I don't think I have ever been so scared and excited about something, at the same time, in my whole life!
Dec 6th: Reading this post from last year reminds me how sad I was that day. I didn't write it out, but I really spent almost the entire day on the couch watching lifetime and bawling my eyes out!
Dec 7th: Not much to say about that post. It was so hard going back to work that Monday, after thinking I was going to be off until the baby came. Looking back I am sure it would have been even harder if I had sat home by myself all day! Plus I was able to get another weeks pay before the baby came! It's always easier to see the positive in something looking back a year later!
Dec 8th: The second day past the due date, I remember it getting a little easier to wait at that point. We no longer had a date to focus on, so it took some of the pressure off from it. I talked about her being induced in that post, and that did turn into the plan, but then things changed again! I hope to post all about his birth in the next week!
Dec 9th: I remember this day very well! Joe had the day off, and he was very surprised to find me in bed next to him when he woke up! I was so excited for birth-mom to call at 1pm that day, that I did not even want to go to work. I had huge hopes that we would be packing our bags and heading south by 2pm. I also remember how upset I was when we were told that there would be no news until Monday, 4 days later! Again I bawled my eyes out, and stayed in bed with Joe the whole day.

Dec 2nd 2009

I have been going back to last year and rereading my post. It was such an exciting time, as we were days away from meeting our son. On this day last year I had talked about how our two dogs would react to Alex being in our home. Seems like such a silly thing, now looking back! Hero has never cared from day 1. He has been the same dog as the day before Alex was home. Alex also could not really care too much about Hero. He pulls his tail if it is close by, and he laughs if Hero's tail hits him in the face, but other than that there is nothing.

Baxter on the other hand!!!! He was a mess when we brought Alex home. He had to know where the baby was at all times. He barked (in a concerned way) every time Alex sneezed, or coughed. I remember putting Alex in his bassinet and Baxter just looking in on him from the side (very Lady in the Tramp style). When I would put Alex in his crib Baxter would jump in the rocking chair to try to see into the crib. Now they are buddies. Whenever Baxter is sitting on the couch Alex will walk over and kiss him, or pat his butt. He pulls his ears, and tail but Baxter doesn't care. Baxter has even let Alex take his raw hides away, or he will let Alex hold it while he chews on the other end. It's great seeing these two together. I remember one of the first times that Alex really let out a laugh, and it was because he was playing tug a war with Baxter. I see these two being very close as Alex gets older. There is nothing like a boy and his dog!

Let it snow!

Today is December 1st, and boy does it look like December! It started to snow over night, but when I peeked out the window this morning there was just a dusting on the ground. But by afternoon there was not a green spot to be seen. It's great getting to be a nanny on days like today! Jenna, who is 2, keeps pointing outside saying "snow". Sarah, who is almost 5, says she wished for snow before bed last night, and is so excited to bring her snowpants to school today. Megan, who is almost 7, slid across the kitchen floor, when I got to work, and yelled "It's snowing".

If it wasn't for having to drive on bad roads, I might love snow as much as the kids! I don't mind playing in it, and I kind of like shoveling. Plus it is wonderful to look at from inside a warm house!

Alex even got excited about the snow this morning! He was trying to touch the snow, that was on the car, when I was trying to put him in the car. He was also trying to catch the snow in his mouth when I was carrying him into the house at work. He liked to watch it fall from the sky.

I can't wait to bundle Alex up, and take him outside to play in it. I'm not sure he will get much fun out of it, since he looks like the kid in A Christmas Story when he has all his stuff on, but we will see!

Vroom Vroom

Today another one of those moments happened, that I do not want to forget. I had sent Sarah off to school and was sitting on the floor watching Jenna and Alex play. Jenna had a hot wheels car and was pretending to stick it places that it would not fit. She was cracking me up as she was saying "no fit". She loves to pretend to do something that she knows is not right. Like this morning when she was trying to stick a star in a round hole. She says "here" with a naughty look on her face. She plays this game a lot! But this post is not about Jenna!
As I looked over to see what Alex was up to, I saw him grab a hot wheels car and start to drive it across the carpet. It was so adorable! He looked like such a big boy at that minute. I even said "awwww" out loud. He was even making a sound for the car, but it was not a car sound. It was more like "humming/sticking your tongue out and blowing" kind of sound. Alex turns 1 in 2 weeks from today, and you can really tell that he is becoming more of a TODDLER and less of a baby! I see fun times ahead! milestone

Who's funny?

Today Alex took a short afternoon nap and woke up grumpy! When I went to get him, he was crying (which he never does). Even after I sat down on the floor with him, he was still crying. I don't think he is feeling very well, but I did my best to get him to snap out of the grumps. When nothing I did was working, I got him his cup. He took 1 drink and then practiced walking while holding it. Since he is walking now, his new thing is walking with things in his hands! He almost has it down. I'm not sure what happen, but he ended up falling and the cup hit the ground so hard that milk (formula) spit up out of the cup and got on Alex's face. After making sure he was ok from the fall, I could not stop laughing at the milk on his face.
Well, he thought I was laughing because the cup hit him in the face. So he sat on his butt and gently hit himself in the face with the cup while waiting for me to laugh again. I said "no Alex, don't hit yourself with the cup". He kept doing it. I ended up cracking up at the fact that he was trying to make me laugh! Because I was laughing he kept doing it.
I was amazed at this, and even emailed Joe to remind me to tell him the story. We love to laugh in this family, and seeing Alex trying to make me laugh was so awesome! I can not wait for more of that! I am not a big fan of him hitting himself with a cup, but that will do for now!
Later that night at dinner he tried this trick out on dad! Dad cracked up and Alex kept doing it! I guess we are going to have to find something else that is funny, and fast!

Here comes Santa!

Alex got to talk with Santa today! We had his pictures taken at the mall, and thought it would be a good time to visit Santa since Alex was dressed in his Christmas best!

Just for fun, here is last years Santa picture:2009 is not as good!

Yep, There he goes!

For about a month and a half, Alex has been working on walking. He started by letting go of the couch and taking 1 step before he would fall. Then he let go and would "throw" himself to the nearest thing that might catch his fall. It has been so cute watching him add an extra step each day. I think I am ready to say that "Alex is walking"! He is so proud of himself that he giggles and squeals the whole time! Today his Aunt Sara came over to watch him, and he was pretending to be shy, but then he would show off his walking to her! It was adorable!

Here is a video of Alex "walking". This was a few days ago, and he is walking even further now. Everyday we see him make it further and further. Enjoy!

Happy National Adoption Day!

We could not be a family of three if it wasn't for adoption!

I wouldn't be who I am if my grandma had not adopted my dad! I love our open adoption, and I pray that all of the waiting mom and dads out there will have your babies home soon!

Happy National Adoption Day!

Nov 15th-19th

Monday was alright. Alex has a hard time transitioning from work week to weekend, and back again. He was pretty good during the day, but didn't sleep well. Then at night he was a total grump! Joe had to work late, so that didn't help. Alex ended up going to bed a little early.

I spent all day thinking about how Alex is 11 months old. Still seems crazy! I continue to be super excited for his birthday party, but in shock that he is going to be 1 years old. I wonder if this gets any easier. I hope so! Maybe when he turns two I won't be so heart broken.

Tuesday always seems like a busy day! The funny thing is, the only thing we do is work during the day, and at night we take the trash out, and take Alex's weekly picture! Lol Doesn't seem like such a big deal, right? Yet all day on Tuesday's I'm thinking "Man, it's trash night.....and Alex's pictures". lol Seems crazy I know! For a few weeks now Alex has been OVER having his weekly picture taken! He jumps up as soon as I put him down. It takes an army to keep him there, and to try to get a smile out of him. I keep telling him "only 6, 5, 4 more weeks left". He doesn't care!

Wednesday I was treated to a BIG surprise! My husband took the day off from work (well he had planned it for about a week), and he stayed home and raked all day! He also took the futon apart and put it in the basement. Remember my last post when I was complaining about it! lol He didn't even read that, he just knew I really wanted it out of the living room! What a doll! He did not even tell me he was going to do any of this. He pretended called me at "lunch" just like any other day! lol What a goof! The sad part is that it is already dark when I get out at 5:30, so I couldn't really tell what he had done, but I did notice that our yard looked a little different when I pulled in! I am thrilled! It was looking bad! Now we just have to do the back yard.
Alex had a good day today, and had spaghetti for the first time. He liked it! He had to have a bath right after because we let him feed himself! He was also very cuddly tonight, which is always a wonderful treat!
Thursday we had a night out which was nice because we don't go out on week nights very often. They had a tree lighting downtown so we took Alex down to check it out. It was pretty cold, 40 I think, but we weren't out too long. I am finding that having a family/child makes everything so much more fun. Joe and I never would have went down there just to two of us. It is so much more fun experiencing things through the eyes of your child! I love doing things with Alex and sharing everything that I can with him. I hope he enjoyed his first time out in the cold hearing carolers, and watching the lights turn on!

And Friday looked a lot like this:

Our Weekend

Our weekend
Nov 12th-14th

Friday I had a half day of work, and spent my extra time cleaning around the house. That night we had another couple over for a game night. I had planned to get some pictures of them with Alex, but never did. The only pictures I have of them and Alex, is when Alex was 1 month old, and the pictures are really blurry. Maybe next time!

We have a futon in our living room right now. It was for extra seating when we brought Alex home. Almost a year later, and it still sits there, but it is moving to the basement in the next month. While I was cleaning on Friday, Alex saw me pull it out, and then push it back. Later while I was making our shoes look a little nicer under the futon I noticed little feet! I grabbed the camera and snapped this.

Later when I told Joe about it, he said the same thing, I was thinking. What if he had gotten back there, when we were not in the room. I would never think to look there for him, and I would have thought he vanished in to thin air!

On Saturday we had a lazy afternoon of hanging in our pj's and taking naps, but once we got up and going we had a great night at our friends house. We went over and had dinner with the family that I was a nanny for last. They have 3 girls. Ally is 5, and the twins (Olivia, and Lauren) are 3. I love this family very much, and love spending time with them. Alex had fun checking out all the girls toys.

Here is a picture of all the kids.

They really wanted us to have a "sleep over" and the girls were nice enough to offer their babies bed for Alex.

Sunday was another lazy day! We may not have made it out of pj's that day, but around dinner time we noticed we were low on milk so we all took a trip out to the store.

Later we let Alex have a sucker in front of the TV while we all watched a leap frog movie. Alex didn't really like it, so we sang the ABC's to him instead. He really is not into TV yet, which is good!

Of course a bath needed to follow the sucker.

Baxter is never far from Alex, and so I was not surprised when he wanted in the tub with him!

While I was getting Alex ready for bed, Joe found Hero (our other dog) in the tub, which was still filled with water. I didn't get a picture, but we got a big laugh about it!

I have a new goal to post at least 2 times a week. I have been so bad about blogging......no wait......I have written lots of post. I just never find the time to add the pictures, so they sit as drafts. I hope to post a weekend post, and a weekly post each week. Wish me luck!

What would you do?

I am looking for a little birth-mom advice. I would love some input from any of you birth-moms out there, or adoptive moms too!
When we made up our adoption plan, we had wanted to keep it open. Birth-mom requested to see Alex a couple of times over the year, plus Halloween, his Birthday and Christmas. We were open, and excited about this. Our first 3 visits, taking place between Feb and June, went well. At the June visit she made a comment about spacing the visits out more and more. This is fine with us. We love to see her and her kids, but if every other month is too much, then we are ok with that. My biggest nightmare is to lose contact with her all together, but as long as I know how to contact her, I know I can't make her want to see Alex.
Over the last month or so I have found out that she is really struggling with her day to day life. Prior to this set back she has been really open with me, and we would email, and text a lot. Now that she is having a hard time she has not emailed me back, and rarely text me back.
My problem is that I am a "fixer". I want to know everything that is going on with her, and I want to help her move past it. I think that she might be embarrassed about whatever the situation is, and that is why she is putting up a wall to me.
So, my problem is, I don't know if I should keep pushing. I've been texting her pictures, and telling her we miss her. Or do I back off and wait for her to contact me again? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Halloween Post

Babies First Halloween!

Alex got to go trick or treating with his good friend Jamison this year. They were so cute together. Jamison is a little over a year older than Alex. At one point Jamison was pulling Alex in the wagon! I thought this picture should crack them up when they are older!

Alex went trick or treating on Saturday night, so on Sunday we suprised his Aunt/god mother by dressing him up again, and knocking on her door! She loved it. We wanted to suprise her so we parked down the street and snuck up to the house, and after we knocked my brother-in-law yells out "Sara, your sister is here with Alex". lol She was still thrilled to see us. She gave Alex amost all of her candy. She said that in 5 years they had never gotten one trick or treater! lol I was glad Alex could be their first.

Alex really enjoyed trick or treating, his first Halloween, and a sucker! I can't wait to see him walking up to the houses on his own next year!

The best call we ever got!

Today marks one year since we got the call that changed our lives forever! I will never forget what we were doing that night, what we ate, what we did, and how the call went. I remember all the questions, and excitement after we got the call, and all the calls we made. What a wonderful night that was.
Now one year later I have the most wonderful 10 month old little boy that I could have ever dreamed of. He is the light of our lives, and has brought our home so much joy. Today I pray for his birth mom, and brother and sister. I think about all that they must have gone through in the last year, and the bond that will hold us together forever. I am forever thankful!

Our First Flu!

I got a call last weekend from my boss, asking how Alex and I were feeling. We were fine, but it turned out that the 2 year old that I nanny had come down with the flu. This was on Friday night so we all thought it would be fine for Alex and I to come to work on Monday. When we got there first thing in the morning everyone came running to tell me that the 4 year old had now gotten the flu, and was up all night getting sick. I was pretty worried, but thought we might skate by because her dad (who was also not feeling well) was going to stay home and the two of them just slept all day. We made it two days, and then it hit. Joe got up around midnight to let the dogs out, when he heard Alex stirring in his bed. He went in to check on him and found that he was wet. While he was changing him (thinking it was spit up) I woke up and went in to see what was going on. I turned the lamp on and found puke everywhere. Once we got him and his bed all cleaning up, I sat down to rock him, and that was the first time he threw up on me. Once we got cleaned up again I put him back in his bed, and I slept on the couch, because I was worried I wouldn't hear him from the monitor because I had not hear him the first time. He ended up getting sick two more times in the night, but by morning he seemed as happy as could be. Being a first time mom I was not really sure how to start the day so I gave him his normal 6 ounce bottle and as soon as he finished the whole the he gave it right back to me! At that point I called the doctor to see what I should be doing instead. That day Alex and I had a laid back day at home and he was doing well. We went back to work on Thursday, and other than a BIG blow out right after we got there we had a good day. That night at midnight it struck again, only this time it was my turn. I kept tossing and turning in bed, I would get up and race to the bathroom only to sit there freezing, so I ended up bring the trash can to bed with me, and it was a good thing I did! From midnight until 5am I was getting sick about every 20 minutes. It was the worst night of my life. On top of that there was no way my husband could take the day off so I had to figure out how I was going to be this sick, and take care of Alex. Luckily, about an hour into our morning my bosses offered to come get Alex for the day. Normally I would have said no. I'm a freak about who watches him, and him riding in the car with other people. He has only ever been watched by 3 different people, and never been in a car with anyone else, but there was nothing I could do. So I let him go and I spent the whole day in bed.
They dropped Alex back off about an hour before Joe got home. Joe got home just in time because Alex had another blow out just as Joe was pulling in. He is still having really bad diapers, but we are working on getting that under control. I spent all of Friday, and most of Saturday in bed, but I am up and feeling better now. Alex has been a trooper during his first flu, but I have not handled mine as well. I have not had the flu since I was a little girl, thank goodness, and I hope to not ever have it again! *fingers crossed*

10 months old (10/15)

Dear Alex,

Today you are 10 months old, and what a wonderful 10 months it has been with you.

You loved to be chased. We play a game at night where we leave the dogs food and water out and we let you try to get it. As you crawl to it we yell out "get Ally, get Ally" as one of us chases you. You crawl as fast as you can, but it's not very fast because you always stop and look behind you to make sure we are still chasing you. It is so cute and it really cracks us up.

Daddy likes to fly you around the room like an airplane, and you hate it when the ride is over. He swoops you down just as you pass over me and you give me the biggest smile.

"Mom, and mama" are your new favorite words and I am eating that up! You say them all the time, and I always answer to them, to be sure you know that you are saying my name.

You have taken 3 steps on your own, but are still very nervous about walking on your own. You walk really well when we hold your hands, even when we only hold 1 hand. When you are standing to the couch, you love to let go and land in our laps. A few times you have let go even when no one is there to catch you, but you don't mind, you just get up and keep going.

You are starting to eat more of our foods. Daddy is much more laid back than mom is when it comes to letting you have new things. Last weekend he gave you a bunch of his ice cream. He also shares pretty much anything with you. I am not sure you should even be eating pickles, but you LOVE them. Daddy thought it would be funny to give you a little taste when we were out to dinner, and you screamed when he took it away. He says your just like me!Fall is our favorite time of year, so we have been spending a lot of time outside, and going to cider mills, pumpkin patches, and farmers markets. You seem to be enjoying all the fresh vegetables too!

Four Years Ago

October 7th, 2006

Four years ago I married my best friend! I have had eight wonderful years with the man of my dreams, but I have to say this year has topped them all! Seeing Joe as not just my husband, but as a father has made me look at him in a whole new way! He is such a wonderful father, and an outstanding husband! I am blessed!

I Love this picture because Father Joe married us,

and almost 4 years later baptized Alex! So special!

Here we are last weekend at Joe's cousins wedding. Congrats Matt and Karly!

Who doesn't love a fall wedding?