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!