We just got back from my company’s holiday
party. It was a great time! When I got home from work Lex was
fussy and he seems to have a bit of a stomach bug or something.
He keeps throwing up (or spitting up, sometimes its hard to
tell with a baby). But he seemed happy enough so we decided to
go and stay only as long as he was happy. Well, that boy is a
social animal! We were the last family to leave (with the
bosses who hosted the event). It was at the Montshire
Museum of Science. The boss had rented the whole
place after hours. We had dinner, then there were awards and
raffles (Alan and I both won gift certificates to Panera
Bread!!). Then we played with the exhibits for awhile. Lex was
getting tired but he really enjoyed the mirror display, a
spinning top display, and the Visco City display that had air
bubbles in all different substances. The thing he enjoyed the
most though was this wire-frame maze like thing with rubber
balls in it that constantly cycled around. Alan would be able
to tell you exactly what it’s called, but I can’t remember. Lex
sat and watched that thing go for a long time.

My favorite part was the awards. I sat on the
floor with Lex and my co-worker’s 9 month old crawled over to
play. He and Lex were patting each other faces, rubbing each
others heads and laughing and talking to each other. It was
adorable!! Each time the other boy crawled away (he came back a
few times), Lex would get up on his hands and knees/feet and
you could tell that he desperately wanted to crawl too. It was
great. I think if they played together for a few hours Lex
would be on the move (forward – he’s getting pretty good at
backwards these days)

My co-workers
love Lex and fought to hold him. I trumped them all and kept
taking him back (I worked all day and miss my boy!!) They
teased me for not sharing :) It was a good night. Then, as we
were putting on our coats, Lex threw up – carrots and something
green all over me, him, and the floor. We wiped him off and got
the heck out of there ;) Lex was a sleep in his car seat before
we were out of the parking lot.

A good
time was had by all.

Lex joined us at the dinner table tonight.
We had salad, he had Alpha-Bits (and avocado from our
bowls). Alan and I were chatting the whole time (lots going on
these days) and every time I looked at Lex he was either
chewing or just putting a piece of cereal in his mouth. He’s
getting so good with his pincer grasp! After refilling his
tray with cereal several times I began to wonder if he was
really eating that much or just dropping it in his seat. I
think we all know the answer to that, right?? :) Sing it with
me… “He’s got the whooole alphabet, under his butt… he’s
got the whole long alphabet, under his butt…” Yeah. I picked
him up and shook him off and it basically rained Alpha-Bits. We
need a dog.

It’s been awhile. Not much
going on really… Well, that’s not true. Lot’s going on, but
not much specifically to Lex. He’s minutes away from cutting
two more teeth and from crawling – but not quite there yet. He
can get around pretty good by dragging himself, rolling, or
scooting on his back. And he’s learned the concept of pulling
himself up, but he hasn’t started doing it on everything – yet.
He stands up in the laundry basket (no more of that), against
people, and against his dragon toy, but hasn’t figured out
couches, shelves, etc. Basically things that are at eye level
and easy to get his little fingers around. It’s amazing to
watch him learn new ways of doing things and getting places.

He’s still not sleeping through the
night, but we’ve decided he’s just very social and gets lonely
in his crib. He’s never wide awake or up for long periods of
time, just wakes up crying and looking for cuddles. It’s kind
of sweet :) I just hope it doesn’t last into the toddler
years.

I just watched a movie of Lex
that Alan made the other day. Lex is sitting here on my lap and
loved watching the movie. He’s so cute. He was smiling at
himself and laughing at Alan. How fun.

Anyway, he’s starting to fuss now so I’m gonna go. Here’s
a few more photos to keep you photo demanding people happy (you
know who you are!).

Happy New Year! We had a quiet night, just
hung out with Heroux (a friend from school) and his girlfriend
Whitney. For those of you who know him, don’t forget to wish
the new year’s baby a Happy Birthday :)

This morning Lex was awake at 5am (which was harsh because
we didn’t get to bed until 2am), but we all snuggled in the big
bed and he let us doze until 7:30 – a much more reasonable
hour. We woke to a beautiful snowfall to start the new year
off.

I could not have asked for a
better baby at Christmas. Lex loved the attention, the lights,
the wrapping paper, and even seemed to like the presents :) Now
that I think about it, we didn’t let him play with the boxes.
Oh well, he’ll probably enjoy them more next year anyway. All
in all we had a fabulous Christmas. It’s always hard saying
goodbye to everyone though.

I posted
holiday pictures on Snapfish for all
to see. Let me know if you have any trouble with them.

Monday night everyone came back to our house
for dinner and a movie (Chicago – I love that one!). I sat Lex
in the middle of the room playing with his new dragon
roll-around toy (roll-about toy? whatever) and he entertained
the crowd. We all cheered as he leaned forward, reaching for
toys, and ended up on his hands and knees – briefly – then his
belly. Then he rolled over and smiled up at the dozen or so
people clapping for him. :) Such a happy, loved baby.

They say new skills tend to
come in bursts and so far that seems to be the case with Lex. A
few weeks ago Alan and I were commenting to each other on how
it seemed like Lex was refining skills, but not really doing
much new. Then all of a sudden – lots of changes! We’ve got
teeth (not really a skill, I know), clapping, mamamamama, and
today – he pulled himself up. He was sitting in the laundry
basket (yes, we keep him in a laundry basket ;) ) and reached
over to the edge, grabbed ahold, and pulled himself right up
into a standing position. It was so fun!! Of course, that’s the
end of our laundry basket days :)

Although Alan and Lex went to bed hours ago, I stayed up
to get a few little things done (and “little” things always end
up taking much, much longer than anticipated). I finally got
all of our photos online at the Snapfish site. Try clicking here to view the photos. It
works for me, but they are my photos. Someone else let me know
if it works for you or if you have problems. Right now there
are pics from 4 months, 5 months, and 6 months. And a separate
album from last weekend’s cookie party. So when you log into
the site (yeah, you need a Snapfish account) you should see 4
albums. If that doesn’t work – lemme know!

And on that note, my fingers are frozen so that’s my cue
that it’s time to go to bed. Have a happy, happy
holiday!!

PS. The pictures you
see here were taken this evening. How’s that for fast
turnaround!?!??

Lex is the cutest little
clapper. I’m teaching him the word “clapping” and sometimes he
will clap when I ask him to. Such a good baby. It’s amazing how
the smallist, silliest things are so exciting when your baby
does them. This morning he was clapping with Grover – he had
Grover’s hand in his and he was clapping his hand to Grover’s.
He’s so much fun.

1) Clapping. My favorite. It
started with hand punching but is moving to full, open-handed
clapping :) It’s so cute.

2) He learned
to get his pacifier in his mouth – right side up! For a few
weeks now he has been able to get it to his mouth, and
sometimes in, but always upside down, sideways, or backwards.
Today it went in right side up. He seems to prefer it upside
down though :)

We made sooooo many cookies!
We’re at Jim & Julie’s house now. Ron, Laura, and Andy came
over yesterday and we had a cookie party. We baked cookies all
afternoon and late into the night. Soooo many cookies :) And
all so yummy! I’m up way to early here (Lex doesn’t seem to
comprehend weekends), but he just went down for his morning nap
so I’m heading back to bed too :) I like weekends.
I’m going to let the rest of
the pictures speak for themselves. Andy was up all night
entertaining the crowd. Lex – ever the life of the party –
crashed on the couch at 6pm :) He missed his nap on the drive
down. But he woke again at 11pm to say goodbye.

Cold, clear, sunny, and everything is snow
covered. Currier and Ives-type of day. Beautiful.

I feel like lately I’ve only
been posting when I’m tired and cranky, so I restrained from
posting last night and decided to start on a good note :) I’m
so excited about Christmas – less than two weeks now! We have a
little Christmas tree up and Lex is entranced each morning when
I turn the lights on. He just stares with his little O mouth.
He has also been “helping” me wrap presents. He loves the
wrapping paper (and it’s good because its thick enough that it
doesn’t rip immediately) and he likes playing with the ribbons
and bows. I think he’ll have fun on Christmas morning.

I decided this week that we
need to get serious about sleeping. He still isn’t sleeping
through the night, and it’s getting more and more difficult to
put him down for naps and at night. Right now it almost seems
like he’s in pain or something, but he screams his head off
when we lay him in the crib. No fun. Sometimes he falls asleep
after a few minutes of screaming, but other times it’s almost
impossible. He finally fell asleep last night after I rocked
him for a long time in the dark living room with some calming,
womb music playing. It breaks my heart though because I don’t
see him all day then when I get home I have about an hour with
him before bedtime and then I spend another hour with him
screaming as I try to put him to bed. He must hate me. Not
really, I’m sure, but it’s hard. And I know it’s best for him
to go to sleep, but it’s getting harder and harder.

I’ve read all the advice
about sleeping and the one thing that we don’t do, and I’m sure
will help, is a solid routine. We just aren’t very routine
people ourselves, so it’s tough trying to implement that for
him. All along I’ve sort of assumed that he’ll outgrow this and
start sleeping soon, but yesterday it occured to me that he may
not outgrow it and as he moves into the toddler years it will
probably just get worse. Ack!! So, we are going to work on
routine for Lex and by default routine for Alan and I. This is
a pretty bad time of year to start this (travelling next
weekend, Christmas the following), but I’m going to give it a
shot. Worst that will happen is no change :) I really like
cuddling with him the bed though when he’s sleeping nicely.
I’ll miss that once he sleeps through the night in his crib.
But, I know it’s for the best.

Ok, now back to work with me.
This month has been slower than the last few, and for that I’m
grateful. I feel like I’m finally on top of things at work and
able to go above and beyond – instead of just barely eeking by.
Imagine what I could do with a full nights sleep! :)

Happy holidays all!