Lex’s birthday present to
himself this morning was a new tooth! He’s up to 7 now.
Hopefully it’s partner comes in before too long.

Here are the professional pictures that we had
taken. They actually did a bunch more, but are only allowed to
scan and post 6 poses. They seem to be displaying here in a
weird sort of way, but I’m too tired to deal with it tonight.
Hopefully the text isn’t too disjointed.

I’m so excited for this weekend. The weather is supposed
to be perfect, we’ve got a big crowd for his birthday, and I
think it’s going to be a blast. Yay!!

PS. I added new photos from last month and
pictures of his birthday day at photos.datdec.com

We have the world’s greatest
baby! We celebrated Lex’s birthday by hanging out, getting his
pictures taken, having lunch, going grocery shopping, and
eating cake. He was happy as can be all day. It was great
fun!

We were the first appointment
at the picture place so what should have been a 15 minute
session ended up being 45 minutes and they took 11 poses in
several changes of clothes. Then we had lunch at Ruby Tuesdays
and we let Lex try all sorts of things (peppers, french fries,
etc.) He made a huge mess and had lots of fun (don’t worry, I
tipped the waitress well). After lunch we went back to pick up
our pictures. They had printed all 1l poses, which was great,
but made our job of choosing what to buy much more difficult.
I, of course, wanted almost all of them. We ended up getting 2
different poses in their “packages” (1 8×10, 2 5×7, and 8
wallets), plus a close-up in black and white, and a free 10×13
– so 4 poses total. I love them. The people were having trouble
with the printer so we ended up waiting about an hour total for
them to print the black and white photo, which sounds annoying
but ended up being pretty fun. While we waited Lex got to play
with 9 month old twins (who were as big as he is!) and a 5 year
old who had a great time with Lex. Once the photos were done
and our order was complete, we headed home. Lex slept the whole
way.

At home I made him a birthday
cake (carrot cake with cream cheese frosting) and he sat in his
high-chair eating lunch and watching me. I told him the story
of his birth day one year ago today. He actually listened and
watched me intently. Maybe I’ll make that a birthday tradition.
When the cake came out of the oven I let him look at it. He
reached out and I thought he was going to pat it, so I let him,
but instead he took a handful right out of the top :) Then he
ate it happily.

After the cake was done and a
list was made we headed out for the grocery store and dinner
(Panera – my favorite). Lex made 3 more friends (cute little
girls) while waiting for our deli order to be completed. He
also enjoyed holding and touching all of the fruits and veggies
that I bought, although that game ended when he quite swiftly
took a bite out of a tomato! Later in the store I let him play
with a can of kidney beans and he enjoyed that until he threw
it on my foot! Alan rushed to my rescue with bandaids (it was
bleeding), ice, and an ace bandage to whole the whole thing
together. We finished the shopping with an ace bandage wrapped
around my foot and sandle. It was pretty silly looking. My
first day this season wearing open-toed shoes and I now have a
black & blue toe nail. Bummer.

We finished most of the
shopping, but skipped the last store because it was 7:15 and I
still had to ice the cake and give it to Lex – all before a
7:30 bedtime :) We hurried home and I though I was afraid Lex
would be too tired for cake, I was wrong. He walked in circles
around the kitchen while I finished the cake and Alan put away
groceries. Then we put him in his chair, sang happy birthday,
and gave him his cake. And he did exactly what I thought he
would – poked at it and made little weird faces. So I cut three
pieces (two regular, one tiny) and we all ate cake. It was
great cake – if I do say so myself. Lex ate his whole piece
happily. The sugar made him all silly and goofy so we sat
around eating cake and acting goofy for awhile. It was a
perfect way to end the day.

Happy
birthday baby! You are perfect and so very loved.

As an early birthday present for Lex we
opened a college savings (529) account for him. In a few years
he’ll probably have more money saved than I’ve had my whole
life :) Hopefully he appreciates it some day.

Today is the last day I have a baby. Tomorrow
he’s officially a toddler. Technically he’s been a toddler (a
toddlin’ anyway) for a few weeks now, but tomorrow it becomes
calendar official.

I made an
appointment to have his official birthday pictures taken
tomorrow. We’re going to the Picture
People who promise to have them developed and ready
within an hour. I’m excited. Sadly, Lex fell today and bumped
his head against the window sill. Now he has a big bruise on
the corner of his eye (right on the eyebrow ridge – I was going
to give you the medically correct term, but I can’t find it in
my A&P; book – oh well). So tomorrow his pictures will be
adorable and marred – just like his newborn pictures. Poor
sweet baby… excuse me, toddler.

Four days ’til my baby turns 1! Big week.

We went to visit Jim & Julie this
weekend. They got to watch Lex walk, Lex got to play with their
bunnies, and Alan & I ate Kimball’s ice cream twice in one
day! A good time was had by all.

Yesterday marked one year from Lex’s due
date. I was thinking last night about how we began the count-up
that day, wondering if this baby was ever coming out. We
counted down for 40 weeks and up for one. Now it’s just one
week from his 1st birthday. My how time flies!

m nj9rr trf mfv 89 8cgtf7h h o0fg n hb b b
b er0m,m

… says Lex.

And new photos up at photos.datdec.com.

He boy is on the move! We
counted Tuesday night as the offical “walking” date and now
he’s loving every step. On Tuesday we went to visit Grandma in
the hospital (she is home now) and Lex had a great time using
her walker to get around the room. Then he started letting go
and walking over to me or Alan. It was the first time we saw
confidence and intent.

This weekend we rearranged
our house. The goal was to get Lex a bedroom of his own (as
opposed to the glorified hallway his crib has been in and our
bedroom that he’s actually be sleeping in). He was a little
skeptical and nervous as we upended everything and completely
rearranged. He did have fun crusing around the kitchen
yesterday – from mattress, to dresser, to highchair, to table,
and back to mattress. It was like a giant fort.

This weekend we were planning to meet Jim
& Julie for a sheep/yarn thing. Julie promised us farm
animals and fair food. :) Unfortunately it’s been raining like
mad all weekend, so we didn’t go anywhere. Maybe we’ll go to MA
for ice cream next weekend. C’mon sunshine!!

After much deliberation we decided to take
Lex out of daycare for awhile. Two night ago (two days after we
started the antibiotics) he was up all night crying with a
fever of 102 degrees. It was awful. But then last night he was
perfect. Woke up a few times to nurse (we’ll work on that
later), nursed well and fell right back to sleep. It was a
great night for all. However, the recurring sickness just costs
too much — in terms of his discomfort, Alan and I catching the
viruses, doctors and medicine, and lost work all around. So we
decided to keep him home for awhile. I hope that was the right
plan.

Now I’m at Panera to study and
there is a little girl, about 18 months, next to me. Her dad is
on his laptop and she is making faces at everyone around. I
waved and she waved back. She’s very cute. Anyway, I should
probably start studying now. More later.

I forgot to mention that despite being
under the weather, Lex had a developmentally big weekend. He
had taken a few short steps last week, but this weekend he took
5 real steps and has gotten much braver about walking. Now
he’ll easily let go of what he’s cruising on and take 2 or 3
steps towards something else. Yesterday he even took a step,
turned, and took another before plopping onto his butt. All of
this with an ear infection and probably affected balance.

He is also starting to mimic words a
lot. My sister’s friend came over for a little while and taught
Lex how to say “uh-oh.” He says it more like “UH….oh” but its
clear what he’s saying. He was also making a good effort at
saying “dog” (he loves Keno) and “Tessa”. And yesterday at the
doctors office I was telling him that we had to be patient and
the doctor would come see us. After a few minutes of me talking
to him he said “DOK…tor” Similar to his uh-oh, but definitely
closer to doctor.

I think it’s amazing
watching him learn. At such a young age it seems like he’s
learning something new everyday and you can really see it
happen. It’s so cool.

PS: Lex
seems worlds better this morning after taking the antibiotics
yesterday. Hopefully this round clears up the
infection.

Lately my house has gotten
out of control. We never seem to have time to clean. I brought
home pizza for dinner and there wasn’t an empty surface
anywhere to put it down on. Yuck! Alan and I did a quick blitz
tonight and now we can see the floor and counters again.
Yay!

More importantly, we had a great
weekend. The weather was beautiful, the ceremony was sweet, and
the company was fun. I’ll post more pictures when I can. There
was a church thing (I forget what it’s called) just before the
ceremony and Father Joe invited a dozen or so elderly women to
stay and watch the wedding. It was cute. I think they all
enjoyed the ceremony and watching Lex in his little outfit
babbling and cruising around the church.

The only downside to the weekend is that Lex ended up more
sick than before. He was running so hot and cold. Sometimes he
seems fine, other times he’s a wreck. Sunday morning we went
out to breakfast and Lex was bascially lathargic for most of
the morning. Right towards the end he sat up, popped his plug
out of his mouth, and started babbling and smiling. It was so
cute. He ate Cheerios and banana and then slept the whole way
home.

This morning when we woke up Lex
was a mess. He was moaning and pitiful and hot and very unhappy
and just wanted to be held and cuddled. We kept him home from
daycare and ended up taking him to the pedi this afternoon.
Diagnosis — raging ear infection. I guess the first round of
antibiotics two weeks ago didn’t quite clear things up. Poor
baby. It’s so hard trying to guess at what’s wrong. So many
things have similar symptoms and then he’s completely happy
sometimes and we think all is well. Hopefully these other
antibiotics do the trick. Baby needs to be healthy for his
birthday party :)