Quick baby update first. I think this pregnancy
is going to seem much longer than the first one. Probably
because I’m more out of shape than I was before. Anyway, I feel
so much bigger, so much sooner than I did with Lex. I think by
the end of 40 weeks I’m gonna be way past ready for delivery.
Hopefully this little one doesn’t keep me waiting an extra
eight days like Lex did!

We had a great
cookie party this weekend. Jim & Julie came, as well as
some new friends, Carl, Michelle, and Dylan. Dylan is a few
months older than Lex. They usually sort of play by each other,
but last night they had a good time playing together. They
chased each other around the table and slid across the floor
and played with the new blocks that Jim & Julie brought
(thank you guys!!). It was great. Meanwhile the grownups made
and decorated lots and lots of cookies. I made a bunch of
cut-out sugar cookies… well, I made the dough and then made
everyone else cut them and ice them :) We got to play with the
101 giant plastic cookie cutters I bought a few weeks ago. Lex
has been playing with them like toys up until now. Don’t worry,
I washed them well before we used them on the cookies!

Anyway, a good time was had by all and once
again we have tons of cookies for the holidays. I think we
ended up with the most…. three large platters full!! But I’m
sure they’ll get eaten.

This last picture is from this morning. Jim
& Julie also got Lex a foam box toy with different shapes
and textures and stuff. He likes it a lot. This morning he got
both feet into the circle hole. I thought he was stuck. I
laughed :) But just after I took the picture he got himself out
again, easy as can be. He’s such a smarty.

Today was a festive day. We
bought a Christmas tree from a guy who runs (ran?) a (now
condemned, I believe) motel. It was great. He came highly
recommended. We were looking at the five-foot trees and they
all looked so small! I started reminiscing about my childhood
trees… walking for a mile down a steep hill in three feet of
snow to cut a down an eight-foot tree, dragging it back up that
huge hill and into the living room, where we realized that
eight feet just doesn’t fit, so back out again to chop off the
top, then back in to see what we’ve got. Much more adventurous
than a motel parking lot. We settled on a nice five-foot
tree and then they wrapped it in string and Alan put it on the
top of the Subaru where it looked even tinier. I kept thinking
it was just way too small. But logic prevailed and when we
brought it in the house and unwrapped it, it was perfect! Alan
got it all nice and straight in the stand and we put lights on
and (for the first time ever) all of the ornaments we own. Lex
had fun with the extension cord we bought that has a big red
button on it. We plugged in the tree and the window lights and
he turned them on and off about a hundred times. The neighbors
must have thought we were insane. :) Lex was very helpful at taking
the ornaments out of the box, identifying them, and then
handing them to me to put on the tree. He got a little crazy
when we ran out of ornaments and started digging through the
boxes, throwing paper around, and then resorted to taking them
off the tree, identifying them and handing them back to me. I
think he was missing the point of our evening activity, but a
good time was had by all.

I took Lex over to the La
Sallete Christmas lights display tonight. For those of you not
in the know, this local La Sallete group (church? I’m not
really in the know either) puts up a huge Christmas display
each year. They have an entire hillside covered in lights,
mostly shapes and words like “peace” and “faith.” They also
have a big nativity scene and children’s activities on
weekends. We just went to check things out and Lex enjoyed the
many different shapes and colors of lights. We counted the blue
stars and Lex argued that the stars are supposed to be in the
sky :) Smart boy. It was a nice evening. He didn’t even
complain too much about the excessive bundling that marks the
beginning of winter.

I’ve also had the
chance today to reflect on how fortunate we are. I met with a
friend of mine this morning to be interviewed for an article
she is writing on the choices moms make regarding working
outside of the home. The conversation reminded me how lucky I
am that we are in a position that allows me to be home
full-time with Lex. While we aren’t financially well-off by any
means, we are certainly stable enough that we can prioritize
our child’s well being over money. Not enough people have that
option and I feel very lucky that we do. I also found out
recently that two women I know who are pregnant with their
second babies (both have kids about Lex’s age) are having
pregnancy complications. I feel very fortunate to be having yet
another smooth pregnancy and I can’t imagine, particularly at
this time of year, having to worry about the health and well
being of my little baby.

But enough of
that… Here are some pictures from the last few days. We went
down to visit Jim and Julie last weekend and Alan and Lex
enjoyed Jim’s video game setup. Lex also enjoyed Alan’s
breakfast the next morning. The bundled Lex pictures are from
La Sallete tonight.

Alan and Lex play hide-and-seek sometimes.
It’s quite entertaining. Lex likes to do whatever Alan is
doing, which doesn’t quite work with this game. Alan says “go
hide now” and puts his head down and starts counting. Lex sits
right next to Alan and puts his head down and starts counting.
So Alan will get up and go hide. Lex follows right behind him
saying “go Ide, go Ide.” Hehehe… someday he’ll figure out the
back-and-forth aspect of the game, but for now he loves
following Alan around and doing what he’s doing. It’s great
fun.