First haircut!

His hair was getting kind of long on the top... and sides and back... so we took him to Snip-its the day after Christmas and got a little trim. Alexander was very serious about the whole event, and just stared at the lady or at us. I guess he knew that having scissors right next to your face is a pretty serious thing! We were so proud of him, and he looks great! He got to ride the carousel with Madalyn after the haircut... complete with goofy smile.

Alexander's first Christmas

Alexander celebrated his first Christmas in The Woodlands, TX at his Nanny's house. His cousin Madalyn had to "help" him open his presents, but he had a lot of fun playing with the wrapping paper and boxes! And he also loved his new riding / singing horse. We had a great time!

Georgetown Christmas Stroll

A few weeks ago, we went to the Georgetown Christmas Stroll about 20 miles north of Austin. Alexander watched the parade with Nanny, drove a couple of cool vehicles, and hung out with his buddies Elias and Zia (and their parents). It was a fun day!

Thanksgiving visitors...

Alexander got to play with his Baba and Grandpa Jim, and the Romericans (Uncle Justin, Aunt Bogdana and cousins Teo and Gabriel) over Thanksgiving.

Visit from Mirabelle and Maia!

Last weekend, our friends Maia and her beautiful 5 month old daughter, Mirabelle, came to visit. Alexander had a great time with Mirabelle! He tried to touch her a lot, but she took it pretty well. She's a pretty tough chick. :-) And Mirabelle had fun at her first music class! Thanks so much for coming to visit!!!

(The first half of this video is pretty dark, but it gets better toward the end.)

Chicago visit

Alexander and I went to Chicago last weekend to visit Uncle Zach and friends, including his buddies Beckett, Sydney, Evan, Elle and Ashlyn. We had a great time, despite the cold temps! Alexander saw his first snow flurries, but he didn't seem too impressed. Playing in Uncle Zach's empty kitchen cupboard was a much more exciting highlight of the trip...

More Chicago pics...

clapping

Alexander learned how to clap...

new shoes!

Alexander is walking so much now that his day care requested we get him some shoes! So here he is, learning to walk in the new kicks...

Peek-a-boo!

My friend Karen just came to Austin to visit us this weekend (thanks for coming, KJ!). Alexander really liked her and he started playing peek-a-boo! We always play peek-a-boo with Alexander, but this is the first time he was the one hiding. It was hysterical!

practicing for Halloween

Alexander is going to be an Austin bat for his first Halloween (pics below). And Baba (Grandma) just sent us another costume: an adorable dragon! It's a bit warm for our Texas weather, but maybe it'll cool down by Halloween!





And here's the bat... We went to The Woodlands last weekend to visit family, and we took Alexander and his cousin Madalyn (the "scary witch") to a pumpkin patch....

A little blue baby in a big red state!

more steps...

Last Friday we captured some good video of our little walker... He's really practicing a lot lately, and getting pretty good at it!

Look what I can do!

Not a very good quality video, but Alexander is showing off his new walking skills. He's very excited about it!

more fun at the park

fun at the park

We walked down to the park in our neighborhood this morning. Alexander loved the swing...

laughing or crying?

We went to Long Beach Island, NJ for a wedding last weekend - and we took Nanny with us to babysit. :-) This video was taken at the end of a long day - a delayed flight to Philadelphia, then a 2 hour car ride to the beach. Alexander was so good all day, but he started to get over tired and a bit delirious at the end of the car ride. He started hiccuping, so we were imitating him and he thought it was so funny. So he was alternating between laughing and crying!

swim lessons

Alexander has been taking swim lessons for the past couple weeks. He'll probably be the next Michael Phelps, with the obvious skills you can see in this video. :-)

I can walk!

Unfortunately we don't have video proof of this yet, but Alexander took his first steps recently! When we were in Cleveland over Labor Day weekend, his balance was really improving and he was getting very good at standing unsupported for 5 or 10 seconds at a time. Then on Labor Day (when we was just shy of 8 months old), we were at a neighbor kid's birthday party, and Alexander stood for about 5 seconds, took a step forward, and then continued to stand for another several seconds. We and all the other parents at the party were amazed!

Since then, he practices his new skill when he wants to (usually he just wants to sit so he can crawl - much faster than walking at this point!). Last Saturday, David and I were both playing on the floor with him. Alexander was standing by himself and took 2 wobbly steps toward Daddy before he slowly lowered himself back down to his butt. David and I were practically in tears with shock and excitement; meanwhile, Alexander acted like it was no big deal.

We'll keep practicing and try to capture it on film one of these days. Our little man is growing up so fast!

Now that the little guy is mobile, he wants to explore EVERYTHING! Yesterday it was the dishwasher... If only we could teach him to unload the dirty dishes.

Crawling: a great work-out

Now that he's an expert crawler, I guess screaming isn't necessary. But Alexander is breathing quite heavily in this video, showing how difficult this crawling thing really is.

Welcome home party

Alexander and David had a little party--complete with birthday hats--for me when I came home from my first work trip (to New York). I was SOOOOO happy to see them! The boys (Harvey too) had fun hanging out, but they said they missed me lots too.

Alexander loves to drink water!

Crawling (and sreaming)

Alexander is 7 months old today. He started crawling about a week ago, and has just gotten better and better at it every day. And he's so proud of himself when he gets to wherever he wants to go. His parents are very proud too - but we weren't quite ready for a mobile baby! Time to babyproof the house...

This is an old video (mid-May), but we're testing the video abilities on this blog...

Last week's play date

I know I sent most of you this picture already, but I wanted to practice uploading a photo. Plus, some of you asked about the photo with 8 babies... Alexander hosted his first play date last Friday. The babies in the photo are 2.5 months, 4.5 months, 4 months, 2 months (Alexander), 4 months, 2 months, 1 month and 1 month. Most of the moms I met in my prenatal yoga class, and one is a woman David works with and one is a friend of a friend from my study abroad program in college. The babies ate, laid on the floor, slept and cried... and the moms ate cheese and drank wine! Everyone had a great time and hopefully we'll do it again soon.

2 months old

I'm trying out this blog thing because all of our friends and family are far away and we want to keep you posted about the highs and lows of life with Alexander. I hope you all like it!

Today we took the little guy in for his 2 month check-up... I can't believe it's been 2 months! Time really does fly. He continues to be a tall, skinny boy with a larger than average head. :-) Poor Alexander had to get 5 shots and a heel stick to check his bilirubin level again. The heel stick was the worst part because it takes so long to collect enough blood from his little foot, and he's kicking so much now so he fights it more. The shots were difficult but the nurse was very fast so it was over before we knew it. We thought he might have a rough time after the appointment, but he was smiling at Grandma (Nanny) in the car on the way home! Actually, he was very smiley all day today. For you medical people, his total bilirubin level went down to 9 point something (from 12.9 before), but his direct level went up a little (from 0.6 to 0.9). SoThe pediatrician isn't really worried about it, but he wants to ask a gastro-enterologist for his opinion since the direct level did go up. We should hear about that tomorrow. In the meantime, Alexander continues to look "tan." 

OK, I need to get some sleep but I'll write more later.