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.