My Little Weathermen

Those who know Eric may agree that he should have been a meteorologist - he loves weather and storms and has to be outside checking everything out when we have any kind of bad/weird weather coming through. We had some storms roll through last weekend and Eric took Alex outside to show him the heavy rain.... ( I couldn't do a video because I was ruining the father/son bonding moment by making sure that Eric wasn't letting Alex get all wet ;) ).

Clapping

Alex started clapping this week. He doesn't consistently imitate us or always do it on command - but does it more when the mood strikes him :). He has been hard to catch on video as he gets distracted and stops doing it when I take out the camera. We finally caught him in action for a few seconds this morning before he got distracted by Sports Center - what a boy! ;)

Date Night and Nursery

Eric and I had a Date Night on Friday night and Alex had his first "non-grandma" babysitter. Our generous and wonderful friend, Rachel, came over and babysat for us. She put her little boy down for the night and her mom came and stayed with him so Rachel could come and stay with Alex for us. THANK YOU! We decided to go see Avatar since we are probably the only people in America who have not seen it yet.


Cost of movie: $1.o0 each
Popcorn: $1.00
Pop: $1.o0
Snickers Bar: $1.00

Total Cost of Night Out: $5.00
Having a Night Out: Priceless

*On a side note - we may also be the only people in America who walked out of Avatar. (We did not see the 3-d version). It is 3 hours long - and did not need to be - too many filler scenes. Sore butts kicked in and we walked out with about 45 minutes left to go and got the ending summary from Rachel when we got home ;).

*Another first for Alex this weekend - church nursery. We have been lucky that he has sat so well in church with us up to this point. He loves the singing and would look at books, fall asleep, or take a bottle during the sermon. But no more - he wants to be on the go and is vocal - all the time! He did great when I left him in nursery and they said he was fine the whole time, but when I went to pick him up he had big tears and I could tell he had been crying. They said Alex had crawled over and taken a ball from another boy and then Alex cried and cried when they gave the ball back to the little boy and he couldn't keep playing with it ;). I think that the socialization at nursery will be great for him!

The Antomy of a Rear End.....collison

We were driving down US 72 leaving Madison, headed to Toys R Us and the car in front of us slams on their brakes, I slam on the van's brakes (yes, our new van, the one I just spent hours waxing and detailing) and stop, I swear within a few inches of the car in front of us. The thoughts which ran thru my brain were NO!!!!, whew, oh no. Yes, the lady driving behind us couldn't stop in time and rear ended our van. She was driving a Kia four door car. Her car was not drivable and had a lot of damage. The van didn't sustain too much damage as you can see. The good news is the lady who hit us, her insurance will pay for the damage to the van, not our insurance. So we don't have to pay a deductible nor will a claim appear on our insurance. I have spoken to a rep at the lady's insurance rep a few times and the rep seemed professional and easy to deal with.

The important thing is that Julie, Alex and I didn't get hurt, we couldn't have been going more than 30 mph when we got hit. Alex cried for a minute or two and then was back to his normal self. Medical attention wasn't required of the lady who hit us either. This was just a fender-bender.

Moral Dilemma

Eric and I (and Alex) are frequent customers of BWW. We went often when we lived in MI and were thrilled that there was one in town when we moved to Huntsville. Unfortunately the BWW here in town has HORRIBLE service. It really has become a joke among us and our friends. We basically place our order assuming it is going to be wrong when we get it. Anyway, the last time our service was the worst we had experienced, so Eric sent corporate an email. Well, they were very nice and sent us 4 gift certificates in the mail. However, they forgot to complete one important line: the amount....so, our moral dilemma is do we do the right thing and contact corporate and ask them what the amount should be or do we fill in the amount to what we think it should be? : )

Who Needs Toys...

...when you have cereal boxes and empty peanut butter jars. Seriously, Alex has so many toys, but like most babies, he finds everything besides his toys most intriguing.


Any cereal left in here???...


Here I caught him actually playing with some of his toys.... studying it so intently...

What a face! I went and got the camera because he was playing so cute in front of his farm...he was on his stomach with his legs up in the air and his feet were crossed at the ankles... but before I could snap it he turned and caught me and this was the face I got :)

He'll Eat Anything...

Except for plain yogurt...

At our 9 month visit last week, the doctor said we could start slowly introducing some dairy into Alex's diet. So, we tried some plain yogurt today - trying to avoid all the sugar in the flavored yogurts....not so sure Alex agreed with my choice :). (Mixing a little fruit in helped after the initial bites he had).

Fetch Buddy! err Alex

Dutch Power

I made $175/hr today. Spent two hours on the phone/internet shopping for less expensive home and auto insurance and voila! Saved $350. Mainly on the home insurance. Its crazy how much the cost of insurance can vary - all for the same coverage. Doesn't make sense, kinda like airline tickets.

Maybe you should make some calls and save yourself a few bucks?

HAPPY 9 MONTHS OLD!

I say it every month - but I seriously can not believe that Alex is already 9 months old.

We had our Wellness check up today and once again were blessed to hear that Alex is a very healthy baby and developing right on track.

*Weight: 20 lbs exactly - between the 30-50th percentile.
*Height: 29.50 inches - 90th percentile
*Head: 47 cm - 90th percentile.

As the doctor said - he continues to be long and lean.

He has some mild allergies - but seriously with all the pollen we have right now - who doesn't? He just has some eczema outbreak and itchy/gunky eyes.

So, here is what he is up at 9 months old:

*Alex is constantly on the go and exploring and is commando crawling like an Olympian.


*He is still OBSESSED with golf clubs!!! Chews on them, drags them around with him, etc. His arms just start shaking with excitement when he sees them.

*LOVES to be outside. Thinks it is great fun to walk on the rocks in our backyard and loves to play with (and try to eat) the rocks. (Must take after Buddy). He is so aware of everything outside and will gesture toward noises - birds, dogs barking, airplanes, etc. and try to tell you about it.


*Is starting to show more independence and wants to do everything by himself - including eating. He does not like to be spoon fed anymore - he just wants to feed himself finger food. So, to get him to let me feed him with a spoon he must have his own spoon.

*Has a new "angry man" face and sound that he does when we tell him NO or he wants something he can't have- or kind of like the nose sniffing and squealing phase, he does it just to do it.

Here is a video to demonstrate:



*Food - still eats about anything. Loves Cheerios, puffs, pieces of banana, carrots and sweet potato.

*Has 2 teeth - the two bottom teeth.

*Sleeping - THANKFULLY he is back to sleeping through the night now that he is healthy and not teething. He sleeps 10-12 hours at night and takes 2 naps. He goes down so well now for naps - yeah!

*Is taking a Mommy and Me Music class and really enjoys it.

Awkward but Efficient

Alex is still commando crawling, but he is getting faster, especially if he has his eye on something - like Buddy's dog food, a dog toy, a magazine, or anything else in reach that he is not suppose to have...

Garage Sale Finds!

I love a good bargain so Alex and I went and did a little garage saling on Saturday morning. We only had time to stop at a couple, but I have to share my impressive finds.....

I got the Fisher Price Little People Animal Sounds Farm.....in excellent condition...makes all the noises....(but has no animals, so I will have to buy those separate)...guess how much I got it for???(Answer below)


I also got the Fisher Price Little People Ramps Around Garage - also excellent condition......guess how much I got it for??? (Answer below)





I got them for $1.00 each!!! I was so proud of my thrifty purchases ;)

Genetics and Bed Head

It is amazing to watch Alex grow and wonder what traits he has inherited from each of us. From Eric it appears he has his love of outdoors, his obsession ;) with golf and his inability to sit still! Alex apparently has decided to take on my childhood bad habits - the finger sucking and now the leg up at the dinner table. We did not make it through a meal during my childhood without hearing "Julie, put your leg down" as I would love to have one leg up on the chair (and just noticed I am sitting this way currently as I type)....well, here is Alex in his high chair.......




On another note, do they make hair products for babies???? We were hoping he would inherit Eric's curly hair - so far looks like my flat, does nothing but sticks out hair....

Weekend Visitors

This past weekend my parents (Julie's) came to visit from MI. Eric and I got a night out - whoohoo!! My mother split her time between Alex and my garden,(which is now completely weeded, annuals are planted and perennials are transplanted - THANK YOU MOM!).




Here are some pictures of Alex having playtime with his papa...

Swinging Video

Swinging!!

We stopped by the park this week on our nightly walk and introduced Alex to the swings...it was love at first push...



Alex was watching boys play basketball on the courts by the swings...