It’s been a long weekend and
it’s only Saturday (though the weekend basically started
Thursday). The whole family was in town to celebrate my
Grandma’s 80th birthday. Lots of food, fun, and family. I’m too
tired to write much now, but I wanted to say hi and post a few
pictures. Also wanted to point out that according to the
counter above, Lex is 1 year, 2 months, 3 weeks, and 4 days old
today :) I thought that was worth noting! Good night for now
and I may have more good news soon…

I love watching Lex learn and figure
things out. He’ll do something over and over as he perfects it.
Simple things like…

Up/down
One of our
new favorite games. Lex stands up and says “up” and squats and
says “douwn” This could go on for days. He’s actually been
doing it for a week or so now, but it was just in the last day
or two that he got the hang of “up”. Not sure why “up” is
harder to say than “douwn” but apparently it is. I try to use
up and down in lots of other situations too (“hands up, hands
down” or “the puppy is up, the puppy is down”), and he
understands.

Bathtime
Since
swimming lessons began, Lex has discovered that you can lay
down in the tub and swim. This is fun, but also annoying. He
used to sit peacefully and play with the toys, but now he’s a
crazy man all over the tub. Just last night he started blowing
bubbles in the tub too. Let’s see if he can transfer this new
skill to the pool on Friday.

Wild Animal Babies
His new favorite book. A magazine subscription, really.
This latest issue has a mouse in it and Lex loves it. If you
sit for more than a minute or two in the living room, he’ll be
there, at your feet, with the book, looking for a reading :)

Speaking of “douwn”, Lex just woke up
and is standing in his crib saying “douwn, douwn” Usually this
is accompianied by his little finger pointing down to the
floor. I love how smart he is!! :)

My Baby Lex blog is now about two
babies…. hmmmm….

I had my first
doctor’s appointment for B2. Alan wants to call this little one
Zig too, but I’m not so sure. Anyway, the midwife estimated my
due date at March 25th, subject to change after the ultrasound
(Oct 25). So we’ll just stick with “late March” as the offical
date :) The morning sickness is still in full effect, but I’ll
survive. Lex came to my appointment with me and was a perfect
angel the whole time. I very much appreciated that!

Lex’s newest enjoyment is throwing balls
around the house. We have lots of them in various shapes,
sizes, and textures. He is getting pretty good at throwing
them. He doesn’t like to play catch so much as throw them
across the room and run after them. Fetch, maybe, by himself.
Self-fetch?

Alan and I are also actively
house hunting. We are most like gonna be Vermonters soon :/ Not
thrilled about that idea, but our options (ie: price-range) are
limited. So, we’ll see. We are going back on Friday to look at
a house we’ve looked at once before. If my dad gives us the
thumbs-up and thinks he can make some of the cosmetic changes
it needs, we’ll most likely put in an offer. I’ll keep ya
posted.

We’ve had a very busy past few days. On
Friday night my co-workers throw Alan and I a
“goodbye/welcome/congratulations” party. My friend Andee held
it at her new house and everyone brought tasty food and their
families. Alan and I had a great time socializing and Lex had a
blast chasing a pair of 2-year old twins around. (Ok, to be
honest, I spent most of my time chasing Lex and the twins as
well). Lex even stayed awake for the entire trip home! It was
well past his bedtime before he fell asleep.

On Saturday we had breakfast with my mom and Grandma, then
went out house hunting. I’m a bit disappointed with what’s
available in our price range. We’ve looked at 6 houses so far
and none were right. We’re going to expand our range a bit and
see what else is out there. At the 3rd house yesterday, Lex
tripped over a pile of shingles (they are re-doing the roof)
and fell face first onto the driveway. Poor boy now has a big,
purple bruise right in the middle of his forehead. We were
supposed to have dinner with my grandparents Saturday night,
but we postponed because Lex was so fussy. I’m sure he had the
world’s worst headache!

Today we went
out for a nice long walk (desperately trying to find a morning
sickness cure) and to the playground. Now he’s napping and then
we’re off to the G’s for dinner. Whew! I’m sooooo glad I’m not
going back to work tomorrow ;)

So I’m sitting in the office today,
freezing, nauseous, and wishing I could be anywhere but here.
Finally it occurs to me… take a walk! It’s beautiful out. My
walking buddy had her baby earlier this week so I haven’t been
getting my usual exercise lately. So I got out into the sunny
weather and take a short walk. As I’m walking I’m thinking
about how I wish I had Lex with me, or a puppy. It’s easy to
justify getting outside when you have a dog or a kid. (Friday’s
are doggy days around here so we currently have lots of
four-legged friends under foot.) Why is it so hard to justify
taking care of yourself? Why is it easy to get out if a kid or
dog needs some fresh air (or a pee break), but hard to leave if
it’s just you. Why?

Tomorrow is my final, offical last day of
work. I’ve been pretty bored this week. I’m training my
replacement, but she’s pretty good, so I do a lot of watching
while she works. I don’t even have my own computer to keep busy
with. Sigh. Last day tomorrow. Then a party at my co-workers
house, then I’m officially done.

This
morning was my first brush with morning sickness. For this
pregnancy anyway. As I leaned on the toilet wishing I could
throw up, Lex came barreling into the bathroom and gave me a
hug so big it knocked me over backwards. He’s going to make
this whole process so much more fun. My mom has started
teaching him how to be gentle with a baby. He has a teddy bear
that they play with and feed and dress. Alan and I got a laugh
when we found the bear, dressed in Lex’s clothes and diaper,
sitting at the table. :) She also give him a spoon and bowl in
his high chair and he immediately started feeding the teddy
bear. He’s gonna be a good big brother!

For those who haven’t heard, I decided to put nursing
school on hold for a few years. I was really struggling (for
months!) with how to do everything I want to do and do it all
immediately. I just wasn’t working out (obviously) and I was
getting more and more stressed. After lots of soul searching, I
decided that Lex is only going to be little once and I can
always go back to school. I think I’d be just as good a nurse
at 35 or 40 as I would be at 30, so what difference does it
make. That’s why Alan took a full-time job and I quit mine. Now
we are all much happier and less stressed. — so life is
good.

This week is my week back at work. My mom
has so kindly agreed to watch Lex for us. We left this morning
and he was so cute and a little confused. We hurried home at
the end of the day, hoping that it hadn’t been *too* rough of a
day for the two of them… Turns out he didn’t shed a tear.
They played and napped and had lunch and had a blast. What a
great baby and babysitter! And what a great relief for the rest
of the week :) Tomorrow is his first day in swimming lessons.
Have fun Mema!

There’s a word I never thought I’d have to
spell. Dictionary.com couldn’t even help me. Oh well. Lex gave
his first zerbert last night. He gave Alan a big hug and
zerberted his neck – twice! It was great. Alan called it a
“real blog moment,” so I figured I’d better make it
so.

Some people go weeks and months without
updating their blog, but when I go almost a week I start
getting nagged. Geesh! I wish I could say it’s because you all
want to hear about my interesting life, but I know the truth —
you’re just jonesing for a baby fix. Sigh.

We’ve had a fun week. Very busy. I wore him out. We have a
very busy weekend coming up too, so I took today off from
outings(except grocery shopping this evening) and Lex has been
taking very long naps :) I think he needed to catch up.

One fun development this week is that Lex has
discovered the joys of coloring. Well, the joy of putting the
crayons in the box and dumping them out again anyway. He
typically does a little coloring in there as well. When I get
around to it I’m going to scan in his first drawing and post it
here. That’s actually one of the reasons I haven’t posted
recently.

When I quit work I figured I’d
have tons of time to do everything and even worried about
getting bored. Not so far! It was a bit of a struggle to
arrange to stay in today. Busy, busy.

On
the homefront, we’ve started looking for a homefront :) I met
with a real estate agent last night, but had to tell him this
morning that I want to work with someone else instead. Man,
that was awkward. But when I called the other agent we know and
talked with her for a bit I felt much better about my decision.
Sometimes you have to do the hard thing up front to make the
rest of the process go smoother.

Anyway,
lots of cleaning to do before the big family arrival. Shhh…
don’t tell, but my house gets pretty dirty! ;)

Ohhhh….. a huge storm is rolling in. Drive
safely family!