Alexander - 5 Months Old

Alex,

You are 5 months old now!  Time continues to fly and you continue to get bigger and bigger.  Everyone who holds you says, "Wow, this boy is solid."  And you are indeed!  We went to the doctor a couple weeks ago and you weighed 16 pounds 11.5 ounces and were 25.5 inches long.

We have been very busy this month kicking off your very first holiday season.  We had your first Thanksgiving.  I had to bake a cheesecake so I waited until you fell asleep to work on it.  Of course you woke up right as I was finishing up, so we just brought your bouncy chair into the kitchen and you "helped" mom finish baking.

After the cheesecake was finished, we headed out to your Grandma Gerry and Grandpa Rick's house.  You had so much fun playing with your cousin Alyssa there and you just played and played in your exersaucer  while everyone else ate Thanksgiving lunch.  After that we went over to Gram and Poppy's house.  That place was crazy!  There were so many people there.  Only a few people were unable to make it this year so it was a madhouse.  Both you and your cousin Harrison were a little overwhelmed at times, but for the most part you just went with the flow.  Next year you are going to just LOVE this though.  You will have so many people to play with!  So much fun.  Here is a picture of mom with most of her first cousins on Thanksgiving:

Great Grandpa Herm wasn't able to join us for Thanksgiving this year, so we paid him another visit.  You made him so happy again!  I love this picture of you holding his hand:

After Thanksgiving, we started getting ready for Christmas.  We headed out to Eckerts farm to cut down a Christmas Tree.  We picked out a nice white pine and daddy cut it down:

When we finally got the tree home, you just weren't acting quite right.  It didn't seem like you felt very good, so we decided to hold off on decorating and we put you to bed.  I decided to go to bed too since it was a very long day!  Luckily I did because at 3:30am you were not breathing very well.  I tried everything I could think of to make you feel better but it became obvious that I needed to call your doctor's office.  When the nurse heard how labored your breathing was she had me call 911 to get some EMTs to check your oxygen levels.  Well, long story short, we ended up taking your first ambulance ride to the ER.  Please, let's make this your LAST ambulance ride to the ER!  Anyway, you were diagnosed with croup.  It took a while to get through it, but once you were finally feeling better we decorated the tree.

We also took some pictures for our family Christmas Card this year.  Everyone LOVES our card this year - I KNOW it's because YOU are on it.  You are just such a fun, smiley baby!  It was so good to see your smiling face after your week and a half of croup!

I wasn't sure how you would take it when I put those lights on you, but you LOVED it!  You may as well have been in Disneyland!  So anyway, we are all ready for Christmas now!  Just a few more days till your first one!  We are so excited!

We had a couple "firsts" this month.  Your doctor told us we should try to give you some rice cereal for solid food practice.  Well you did not like it AT ALL!  You started off so happy sitting in your bumbo smiling at mom and dad:

And then once I started putting the spoon in your mouth, you just lost it.



We'll try again in a few weeks!  Hopefully we can start trying to give you vegetables soon.

So you still prefer bottles.  And another development you have this month is that you are starting to hold the bottle by yourself.  You cannot do it for any length of time yet, but you have still really started to have much better hand/eye coordination.

We are very lucky because when you are healthy, you laugh and giggle all the time.  Daddy loves to play "transformers" with you and you just laugh, and laugh and laugh!  It's awesome.  You continue to be a morning person kicking and smiling as soon as I come get you from your crib.  You have also become a total maniac in the bath!  You kick and splash like it is your job.  Mom and dad can't wait till you can sit up all by yourself so we can get rid of the baby tub and just let you loose in the big tub!  It's so fun to watch and I don't even mind getting all wet while bathing you!

You also REALLY like to jump and go crazy in your jumparoo!



This is my favorite picture of you right now:

It has been a great month and we have so much to look forward to!  Your first Christmas is coming up and I'm sure we will have a blast.  Looking forward to it!  Here are your 5 month pictures:

Christmas here we come!  I love you!

Love,

Mom

Alexander - 4 Months Old

Alex,

You are 4 months old now!  We had quite the eventful month.  As I left off in the post before this, we have been having so much fun watching the Cardinals in the post season.  Well, during this month of your life, the Cardinals won the World Series!  Look at you, the only baseball season you have ever been around for and your team already won!  Mom and dad went downtown to celebrate and you got to watch the final game with your Poppy.  It was such a fun time!

Speaking of baseball, you got to meet Jim Edmonds this month!  We were out at his restaurant, 15, for Grandpa Rick's birthday.  You were being fussier than normal, so I took you for a walk.  We sat just outside the bathroom when a little girl came up to you saying, "Baby!"  She really wanted to see you.  So I held you out to meet her and right behind her came her dad, yep, Jim Edmonds!  You were still fussy, so Jim asked if he could try to calm you down.  He told me he had 4 kids and he knew what to do.  So I handed you over.  You really seemed to like Jim Edmonds because he was able to calm you down.  We went to his table and met his wife and son too.  They were a very nice family.  We did get a picture, but I was told it was blurry.  I may post it here once I get it if it isn't too bad.  We'll see!

Of course Halloween happened during your 4th month.  You were a monkey.  We delivered Halloween candy to all the neighborhood kids and then we went to visit your cousins.  We started by visiting Will and Harrison.  Will was pretty excited and gung ho about Trick or Treating, but you and Harrison were perfectly happy just hanging out with Poppy. 

After we left Will and Harrison's house, we headed over to Grandma Gerry's house to hang out with your cousin Alyssa.  We ended up doing a little Trick or Treating with Alyssa.  You really hammed it up and showed off much to your Grandma's delight!  It was a fun Halloween this year and I know it will only get better!

We also carved some pumpkins this year.  I decided to do our innitials to represent our little family.  Daddy carved a scary scene:

You have started staying overnight with your Grandparents this month too!  The first time was not for a fun reason at all.  Your mom and dad were sick and so Gram had to pick you up.  Lucky for us though, you loved staying with Gram and you gave us some time to recover.  Yay!  Then mom and dad went to Chicago for Jackie and Willie's wedding.  You stayed with Grandma Gerry and Grandpa Rick for most of the weekend.  You loved being with them and they loved having you.  I really don't enjoy leaving you, but it's nice to know you are in such good hands when it is necessary.  It's also good to know that you have so much fun!  I know you will be spending many nights with your grandparents in the future!

You have had so many developmental improvements this month too!  Your fantastic head control has allowed you to do so many new things.  The first thing you do now is take a bath without the sling.  You are loving not having that silly sling in the way.  It allows you to sit deeper in the warm water and it also allows you to splash around in the water more!

You have also been enjoying your Bumbo and Exersaucer a lot!  I'm pretty sure you just enjoy doing something other than laying on you back now that you are able to.  Chrissy sends me pictures of you playing in your exersaucer at her house and you also like to play in the ones at both of your grandmas houses.  I put together your Jumparoo, but your legs have to get a bit longer for you to fully enjoy that.  Just a little more time and it will happen! 

Another thing you have started doing is grasping onto me when I hold you.  I used to just hold you, but now you hold me back.  It's such a wonderful feeling to have you clutching onto me!  Also, when you are breastfeeding, you have started to reach up for my face and you like to grasp onto my mouth and my nose.  When you are bottle feeding you like to try to hold onto the bottle. 

And the coolest thing you have started doing this month is rolling over.  You have been going from your tummy to back for a while now, but you started also going from your back to tummy!  Sometimes in the middle of the night you will roll over in your crib.  Although this wakes me up way more often than I would like, I'm so happy that you are so strong! 


You are getting to be such a big boy!  Here are your 4 month photos:

Mommy and daddy are having so much fun with you lately.  We know the best is yet to come too.  You make us so happy Alex!  Thanks for the first 4 months . . . we are looking forward to the rest!

Love,

Mom

Alexander - 3 Months Old

Alex,

You are now 3 months old!  You are getting so big and doing so many things now.  At your 10 week doctor's appointment, you weighed 14 pounds 1.5 ounces and were 24.5 inches long.  We had yet another eventful month with you. 

We have been having so much fun watching post season baseball.  The Cardinals weren't even supposed to make the play-offs this year and yet during this month of your life not only did they go against all odds to become the NL Wild Cards, but they also won the NLDS and the NLCS!  I think something special happened to the Cardinals when you were born . . . maybe that's just me though . . .

Either way, you have been having so much fun cheering on the Cardinals with mommy and daddy (Thanks to Vicki for the adorable Cardinals Sleeper!):

   

You and dad had a great "Man Weekend" together while mommy went to Jackie's Bachelorette Party in Chicago.  It was the first time we had been apart more than a couple hours.  You did just great and had so much fun with daddy!

         

 Speaking of good times with daddy, we also celebrated his promotion!  Daddy has been working so hard lately and it was so nice to see him get some recognition for it.  We are so proud of daddy!

Sadly for mommy, I had to go back to work this month.  It was so wonderful to be able to spend every minute with you for the first 2 months of your life, but we knew it couldn't last forever.  You have adjusted very well and have really enjoyed your time with Chrissy, your babysitter, and with your grandmas.  Chrissy says that you really enjoy hanging out with all the older kids at her house.  Also, Chrissy's son Tyler is just a couple months older than you, so you will be good buddies growing up!  And of course both of your grandmas are just loving their days with you too! 

This adjustment has been MUCH harder for me than it has for you, but as a special gift to me you started sleeping through the night this month so that mommy is not too tired at work!  Thanks for that my love!  I'm really getting used to and have started looking forward to our morning routine.  Since you sleep so well now, you have become a total morning person.  Another new thing you do this month is you laugh out loud.  So first thing in the morning I am greeted at your crib by happy Alex smiles, giggles and coos!  Then I pick you up and change your diaper.  Then we go back to my bed to eat and snuggle for a bit.  I love the sound of your happy suckling while eating, your sigh when you are finished and the sound of your breathing as we lay there snuggling.  I could stay that way all day long.  After about 15 mins of that we go back to your room and you squeel at your mobile while I pack your bag for the day.  I do wish we could just stay together all day long, but I know this is what is best for both of us.

Since mommy is back at work now, we make the most of our weekends and spend as much time together as possible.  One weekend we went to the Pumpkin Patch!  We had so much fun with you there and you really seemed to enjoy being outside in the fresh air.  Here are some pictures of us at Rombach's Farm (thanks to Bridget for the Halloween shirt!):

Another weekend we went to Aunt E's school, Parkway North, homecoming football game.  We decked you out in a Parkway North onesie to cheer the team on.  You had so much fun at first, but as soon as the band started playing at half time, it was just too much for you.  Aunt E and I took you away from the action for a while and then you fell sound asleep in the Moby wrap with Aunt E.

Besides going places outside the home, we have also been having so much fun at home.  We took you to physical therapy this month to work on some neck exercises for you since you seem to only want to turn your head to the left.  You really enjoyed physical therapy and of course we have continued the exercises at home.  With help, you love to roll over back and forth and you love to pull up to a sitting position.  You have such a look of accomplishment on your face after you do each of your exercises and it is so much fun to do them with you!  You are so strong!  I can't wait to see where this next month takes us in your development.

Your 3rd month has been such a wonderful one for us!  You have grown so much and have done so many things to make us so happy.  We look forward to seeing what you are doing next month!  For now, here's what you look like at 3 months old:

Love you Sugar Pie!

Love,

Mommy