Things Alex Said This Month

December 12th - Alex says "Two" after Grandma Jan says "One" (he so smart!)

December 17th - Alex says "Bah-oon" for Balloon.

December 18th - Alex says "Nah-Nah" and meant me, Mama!

December 19th - Alex says "Santa!"

Alex Meets Santa

In retrospect, a huge stranger in a bright red suit is perhaps not the greatest idea for a one year old. Alex only sat long enough for me to record this moment of relative child abuse. :)

 

 

Alex eats a grilled cheese

Today Alex tried his first grilled cheese sandwich (cut in to small bites) on a fork - also a first for him too. Here's a little video of how cute he was!

From December 2008

Alex is One!!!

 

 

Our baby boy is one year old now! Last weekend we had his first birthday party and Alex had a grand time eating cake for the first time and making an utter mess of it all. It's hard for me to put in to words the emotions that come with a year of memories for this sweet, crazy, chaotic and wonderful little boy. It's been a year of the best kind of love any family could ask for.

Alex's First Birthday

Shoes

Alex loves our shoe pile by the garage door. He sorts them, chews on them (to my disdain), carries them around, etc. I have no idea what is so fascinating about our shoes. Lately we have had to hunt for our shoes too because Alex carries them off and stashes them in hiding places.

Last week I couldn't find Brandon's crocs. One ended up being in a kitchen cabinet. We didn't find it until later that evening because after 5 minutes of looking we decided to go get socks and have Bran wear his sneakers.

Today I took the kids out to run errands and it took about 20 minutes to find Brandon's missing croc shoe. I looked in all the usual hiding places, under all the beds, in the blanket basket in the family room, behind the sofa, in the laundry, in the master bedroom closets, in the playroom bins and pretty much everywhere else I imagined Alex had access to. I was starting to lose it but then I found his new hiding spot. In the playroom we have this little foam, folding sofa. It was half open, something that I didn't even notice because it's like that all the time. This time though the shoe was hiding under the little fold out. I never would have found it except I lifted up the whole thing and it came tumbling out.

Alex laughed when I found it.

Seriously!

October in Review

Our October was fantastic! We took the boys to a Pumpkin Patch/Corn Maze early in the month and later Alex enjoyed his first Halloween dressed up as a Teddy Bear. We figured that since we call him our Bear that it was the perfect first costume. He looked adorable and magically didn't pull off his hat the entire night.

Some of Alex's first steps

Here is a little video (taken with my camera phone unfortunately) of some Alex's first steps! His first official steps were at the beginning of October - just one or two here and there. Now he's putting 5-10 together in one stretch.

A Walk with Friends

This gorgeous October evening we took a nice walk on the beach with our friends Mandy, Leng and their son Kai. Mandy and I are sporting the fabulously comfortable Ergo baby carriers in this photo. No lower back pain!

It was a wonderful evening and the weather was perfect to enjoy the stroll with our dear friends.

 

Rock Band Rock Star

 

Tree Monkey & Bear Paw

Alex has become our Tree Monkey. When he's fussy or in need of some comfort we'll pick him up and he grasps on to our clothing and will just sort of perch there. He really looks like a baby monkey clinging to the side of a tree or riding on his mom's back. So that is one of the names we call him.

Another name we use is Bear Paw. (sometimes Bear Claw if his nails are sharp) I think of it as his spirit or Native American name in a way. It speaks so much to his nature. It's really funny but he sort of attacks things with this sweeping bear arm-like move, especially if he's super excited to see it in front of him. For instance he completely freaked out over an ice cold sippy cup of water last night. And both arms came out from his sides and he lunged for that cup so fast he ended up knocking it clear across the table, so fast that we barely had time to react to catch it. If you've ever see the Discovery Channel and watched a grizzly bear catch a salmon or fight another bear then you know the arm movements I'm talking about. It's really cute. But he's really strong. When his arm was all wrapped up from his trip to the ER I was unlucky recipient of some of these bear arm attacks. But since his arm was fortified it was more like he was clubbing me with cuteness. At the time I was just glad he was in a good mood given the situation.

Alex's Visit to the ER

 

 

 

Saturday, August 2nd Alex visited the ER for the first time. The story starts like this.

Thursday we flew to Baltimore to visit both Joby's and my family. We stayed with his Aunt Shirley but the trip was packed around my sister's new daughter's baptism on Sunday. Thursday we spent the evening with his side of the family and Friday we planned to go visit my sister. On the way there that morning I called her to tell her we were on our way and she told me that she was monitoring Sophia's temperature because she was sick and Sharon might have to take her to the hospital. Kind of scary so we still decided to still visit but to steer clear of the baby for fear of adding to her body's fight against whatever ailed her. She is only 6 weeks old so a high temperature is an automatic hospitalization, spinal tap and series of blood work. It was hard though since that was our first day meeting her and we couldn't hold her.

Halfway through the day I noticed Alex was very warm. I decided to take his temperature because he had just gotten over an ear infection and since Sophia was sick I wanted to make sure he wasn't (not that I thought he would get sick from Sophia in a matter of a few hours). His temp was 102.3 so I put in a call to our pediatrician's office to talk to her nurse. I knew our doctor was also out of town that weekend and didn't want to bother her yet. Victoria told me that if Alex's temperature went over 103 to call Dr. Chally. Well later that evening after the long ride home from Sharon's to Aunt Shirley's I checked his temperature again. It was 103.3. I immediately called the doctor. She told us to do the usual alternating of Motrin and Tylenol all night and if he wasn't acting funny, vomiting or diarrhea then I didn't have to take him to the ER that night. If he was still sick in the morning then take him. Apparently Friday night is the worst night to go to the ER. I have no idea why.

The next morning Alex still had a temp of 102.7. And I was getting really anxious. So to put my mind at ease I decided to take him in even though it wasn't over 103. I didn't want him to have an ear infection, knowing we were flying again. And I didn't want him to be sick the next day for Sophia's baptism. So Aunt Shirley and I loaded him up and set off for a walk-in-clinic that in theory was only 6 miles from her house. Well after driving in the direction of the clinic and not finding it anywhere, we put the address in to her GPS... and discovered a car shop and some houses. Well the story continues (by the way I was driving because right before we left Aunt Shirley couldn't find her glasses.) and Aunt Shirley's cell phone dies. We used mine to call back and forth to the house where cousin Nathan looked on the maps for us for a place to take Alex. He even called the next walk-in-clinic to find out how long the wait would be. It turns out that in rural America there are NOT very many health clinics around. We drove for about an hour before finding a Patient First clinic. Luckily Alex slept the whole ride.

When we got there Alex was burning up. And he let us know about it. We were several people down on the waiting list but his wails had nurses and doctors all peaking in to the waiting area to see me rocking and swaying with him, apologizing to all the people around us. We got bumped to the front of the pack after I answered "Yes" to the question "Is the baby the patient?" The lady in registration even rushed that process telling us to worry about paying the co-pay later. They all couldn't have been nicer to us.

Needless to say Alex's temperature was now a cool 103.8 and that alarmed me. They ran his blood work and took a strep test (which we found out later in the ER was completely unnecessary because children under 4 apparently don't get strep throat). Later the doctor came in and told us that Alex didn't have an ear infection but his white blood cell count was 27.5 and a normal range is 5-10. He felt that it was high enough to warrant us going to an ER immediately to see an actual pediatrician. Thankfully the ER was directly across the street and the clinic called ahead so we didn't have to wait there either.

When we got to the ER I was very happy to see that they had an actual Pediatric ER wing and we wouldn't have to wait for all the adult broken legs and everything. We were hustled in and I had to watch them draw blood from his tiny little arm while I held him down. Then they put in an IV line and wrapped his arm on a board with some red sticky tape stuff so he wouldn't pull the line. It looked like he had a broken arm. They also did a urinary catheter to get a urine sample. Ouch!! His temperature there was 102.9 so the Motrin and Tylenol cocktail at the clinic was kicking in. He was also laughing and smiling up a storm in the ER - which made Shirley and I laugh at the 180 degree turn from two hours earlier when we arrived at the clinic when he was screaming in pain. Despite the arm brace which he hated, he was acting completely normal - himself - at this point, only crying when they drew blood or poked him - or when he needed to fall asleep.

An hour or so later the pediatrician told us his white blood cell count on their machine was actually 29 and she was concerned because he wasn't acting sick - but he was definitely sick. To top that off one of the blood work tests came back abnormal but she couldn't tell me what the test actually tested. So that prompted her to call the lab technicians, to no avail, then to two other pediatricians on the upper levels of the hospital. No one could answer her. How scary is that? The hospital orders a standard blood test on all children under one year of age but no one knows what it is or why they run in. Then when the results come back abnormal...?

So the pediatrician (her name was Dr. Julia Roselli by the way - anyone who goes to Upper Chesapeake Medical Center in Horford (sp?) County north of Baltimore County in Maryland - she was great!) told me she was willing to let us leave the hospital if I gave her my word that we would return the next day so we could look at the blood and urine cultures and to make sure a doctor "laid eyes" on Alex to see if there were any changes. Well that made me nearly cry because the next day was Sophia's baptism. But we worked it out to go late in the day after Sophia's special day. So we left with Alex having a shot of antibiotics "just in case" and no idea how much we were going to owe the hospital for our day's adventure. "We'll bill you."

The next day we spent a wonderful morning and early afternoon with my family and then packed up the kids again for a 1 hour ride back to the hospital. We were happy to see a nurse-tech who remembered us from the day before and had very little wait. This time it was a bit more interesting as Brandon was with us and we had to entertain him. I was also glad Joby was getting to see where we spent a ridiculous amount of time the day before. Luckily Dr. Roselli also arrived for her shift while we were still there and came right in to see us. That made me feel really good.

The good news on Sunday is that Alex's white blood cell count was down to 18. But nothing grew in his cultures so we still had a "fever of unknown origin" - the official diagnosis from the day before. So we got another shot of antibiotics and left with instructions to call the next day to get the final lab results. On Monday - nothing grew in the cultures. So our pediatrician thinks it was a nasty, nasty virus. The scary thing is our doctor told me that after Dr. Roselli said there were so many viruses going around . And then today I found out my sister's doctor said the same thing to her last week. So scary the things we don't know about but try to protect our children from.

So I also have to add that throughout this entire ordeal my pediatrician - Dr. Jennifer Chally was amazing!! She was on her own vacation but was on the phone with me more times then I can remember. I read her all our lab results, gave her updates. She called me to check on Alex. I adore her, seriously. I am so happy and lucky to have her as our children's doctor. I'll take Alex in next week to see her and get another blood cell count. Right now Alex is back to normal on the outside and we think on the inside too. No more fevers and he's our happy, steam-rolling baby again. He's so cute!

Also a big, fat thank you to all my amazing, amazing family and friends for checking on me & Joby, texting, calling, emailing, etc, etc. You are the best and I adore you all.

And finally - to Aunt Shirley - Thank you for spending 9 hours with me and Alex in the hospital and car. It was great to spend that time with you - even in that situation!

Hives & Hello

Well it has been an interesting weekend so far. Yesterday Alex had two major things happen to him! The first thing is that he purposefully waved hello at our friends Lain and Gwen Shahboz. It was so cute! So far he actually flaps his hand and kind of moves it around in a circle instead of wiggling his fingers towards himself like most babies do to imitate what they see.

The other thing that happened is that after getting his dose of Amoxicillin he broke out in to hives all over his body. It completely scared me. After a quick call to the pediatrician we gave him some benadryl and stopped the antibiotic until we see the doctor on Monday morning. It may be that Alex had a slow allergic reaction to it. It turns out that my sister is severally allergic to Amoxicillin and she had a slow reaction, having taken it several times, before she reacted too. My mother is also allergic to Penicillin. So maybe Alex inherited these allergies. Poor baby though. It's so horrible to see him covered in tiny red spots all over his body including the tips of his little toes!

First time being sick...

Poor Alex has an ear infection. I hate that he feels so bad. We had him to the doctor a few weeks ago with a suspected infection but it was just fluid in the ears, nothing more. But this week started with clear drainage from his nose and then he didn't like being laid down to sleep and would only sleep upright on me or in a swing. Then yesterday morning the gunk from his nose turned dark yellow and light green. So we were off to the doctor's office a few hours later and now Alex is on antibiotics. I hate that he's on them so young when Brandon was 18 months before he had an ear infection. But with an older brother to spread the germs it was inevitable that Alex got sick for the first time at a younger age. Boo. Here's hoping he feels better soon... and will start sleeping longer than a couple hours at a time at night.

First Fourth of July

Alex had a blast today for the Fourth of July. He was keenly interesed in the American Flag. Mostly he enjoyed the tasted of it. A close second was the taste of grass!

 

 

 

Noteable in June

June was a great month. Alex got some teeth and learned to crawl. We also had a great visit at the beginning of the month with Aunt Shirley too! Alex also is learning the art of wrestling. He is starting with tackling Baby Tad but we know he'll work his way up to larger, living objects - like us and his brother. We also started train rides around the house with Brandon in the laundry basket! That's a great workout but it kills the lowerback!

 

 

 

 

Another Tooth!

Alex now has two bottom teeth! The other one came through sometime this afternoon. :)

Maybe we'll start some cheerios soon.

A Tooth!

Well tonight we dropped the kids off at the Kid Kare zone at the gym and picked them up an hour later... only to discover that in that hour Alex got a tooth!

He's busy drooling extra now and making all sorts of raspberry noises trying to figure out what this pointy sharp thingy is in his mouth.

Crawl, Crawl, Crawl

Announcing He's Bouncing!

Alex Crawls

Alex is a movin' and a groovin' now. He started out a few weeks ago moving backwards on his stomach. He would push himself backwards to whatever it was he wanted, then turn around and push back to another toy. Now he is moving forward in an alligator crawl. He's up on all fours and a rockin' (which is just so darn cute!)

Bathing with Brandon

Until today we had kept the boys' baths separate and I bathed Alex in the little tub that fit over our kitchen sink. Today we decided to put them together and simplify the cleansing process. Alex provided the whirlpool action by kicking his legs constantly. He loved being able to play with his big brother.

 

 

 

 

A Day at the Beach

For my birthday this year I wanted to go to the beach with the boys! Here is Alex's first trip to the beach where we actually camped out and enjoyed the surf. Luckily he slept quite a bit of the time and didn't try to eat any sand!

 

 

 

Starting Solids

 

 

 

I am proud to say that we lasted nearly a full six months before Alex started eating solid foods. This was his reaction to some rice cereal!

Easter

 
 
 
This stylin' little man is all dressed up for Easter Sunday in an outfit given to him by my Uncle Bruce and Aunt Trish. He looked ridiculously cute in this little hat. I think I took 50 photos of him. These were my favorite.

Meeting Aunti P

 
 
My Aunt Priscilla visited us for a week! The boys adored spending time with her, Alex especially because I don't think she put him down much!

Alex is Baptized

 

 

 

 

Alex was baptized today at the same church we were married in and Brandon was also baptized in. His Godparents are my cousin Erick and his wife Molly. I couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day in February. It was warm, sunny and I know a welcome relief for the Cincinatti crew. My parents, Joby's parents and our great friends the Taggerts all came for the day. We missed Aunt Sharon, Uncle Chris, Patrick, Grace and Olivia though.

The blanket that Alex is laying on was made by Alex's Great-Grandmother Dorothy Horn. She crochetted it when she was 90 years old!