We had a big weekend. Went
down to MA to help our friend Andy celebrate his 2nd birthday
party at a cool place called Davis
Farmland. Sadly it was closed because the weather was
horrible. I was bummed because I think we all would have had
fun there. So we visited with Jim and Julie instead. Then had
breakfast with Andy (and his parents and sister and lots of
other familly) then drove back to NH for a co-worker’s
babyshower. She has a beautiful house, view, and pool! So Lex
and Alan went swimming. Lex was a little nervous at first, but
once he got used to the cool water he had fun. We had his
rubber duck with us (can’t travel without at least one duck!)
and Alan threw it in the pool, so Lex and the other kids spent
the afternoon playing with the duck in the pool. It was
cute.

The other big thing we did this
weekend is turn Lex’s car seat around. He can now see where
we’re going, instead of just where we’ve been, and we can now
reach him without special contortionist moves. Seems like a
win-win for everyone. He seemed to like the ride too. I think
it will make our trip to Franklin next weekend a bit
nicer.

What a beautiful day today. We started
with an 8 mile walk (yup, you read that right). I had mapped
out a 3 mile walk for us, but the roads didn’t actually exist
like the map said they would, so we ended up going for 8 miles
instead. It was great exercise. Although Lex was in the
stroller the whole time, he was exhausted when we got home and
took a 3 hour nap!

For dinner we met
Grandpa and Grandma at Salt Hill (a nice Irish pub). Grandma
was telling us how much she enjoyed the pubs in Ireland. She
said over there people bring their whole family out to the
pubs. She said the kids all dance and the families have fun.
Then around 10 they bring the kids home and put them to bed,
and the grown-ups come back. I tell you all this because part
way through dinner an Irish band started playing and a bunch of
little kids started dancing. When we were done eating we went
up near the band and Lex danced. He was the smallest one there
(dancing, anyway) and he had a great time. There was a little
blonde two year old girl who kept dancing with him. We hung out
for awhile just listening to the music and letting Lex dance
and play with the other kids. It was so nice.

First of all – WILL THIS RAIN EVER
END????? It’s making my whole house (and state, and surrounding
states) tired and cranky! Blah!!

But on
to baby news.

DATELINE: Last Tuesday
I recently introduced Lex to self-feeding and he’s taken
to it with gusto. So much so, that he doesn’t really like us to
feed him anymore. At dinner last week Lex was grabbing for the
spoon and I finally gave up and put the bowl and spoon down on
his tray and let him at it. Needless to say, things got messy.
He did manage to get about 1/3 of it in his mouth, but the
other 2/3 ended up all over him and the highchair.

When he was about done eating I scooped him
out of the highchair and popped him right into the tub. He was
a happy boy – splashing and bouncing around. Then he stopped
suddely and started making a weird, concentrating face and it
occured to me, “Oh no, he’s pooping in the tub!!” Since this
has NEVER happened before, I had no idea what to do. I grabbed
him out of the tub and just held him in the air for a second,
then whooshed him over to the toilet. Picture me, squatting in
front of the toilet, holding a slippery wet baby precariously
dangling over the thing. I couldn’t even sit him down because
his little butt would have slid right through.

At this point Lex is happy as a clam – sitting
(sort of) on the toilet, looking out the window, jabbering
away, with mommy right in front of him. I kept saying, “Lex,
are you done or do you have more?” He knows the signs for “all
done” and “more” and did a great job of communicating his
needs. When he was all done he made the sign and then turned
and started reaching for the toilet paper!! (Yes, he has seen
us in the bathroom numerous times. When you’re alone with the
baby all day you do what you have to do.) So I do my best to
balance his wet body on my shoulder (butt still over the
toilet) while I get some toilet paper and wipe him. Then I
brought him to the changing table and slapped a diaper on that
thing! :)

The other big sign of readiness is that he knows
when he has a dirty diaper and works very hard to let Alan and
I know. He’ll walk back and forth between us (and back and
forth and back and forth) until we catch on and check his
diaper. We are trying to get him to do the “dirty diaper” sign
(pat hip), but so far he just rubs his belly and its hard to
tell if he’s signing or just rubbing his belly ’cause he likes
to rub his belly :)

So today, in the
miserable rain, we went out and bought Lex a bright yellow potty. He likes to sit
on it in the living room and read books. He’s such a cutie. He
also likes to pull the middle “pot” part out and flip it over.
I’m a little nervous that when he does actually do his business
he’ll yank the pot out and make quite a mess. Hopefully Alan
and I will be quicker than him. I’ll keep you posted
:)

Lex learned to stack blocks today. It’s
really cool watching a baby learn. His little hands hold a
block over another and then he concentrates really hard to
release the block where he wants it. At first it would miss the
other one, or his hand would bump it just after he released, or
he would try to release and end up throwing the block… :)
Very funny and amazing. We practiced a bunch this morning and
he got pretty good at it. I clapped each time he made it, so
now he stacks two blocks and looks at me expectantly. :) Funny
baby.

Not much time these days, but
I wanted to make a quick update. We took Lex in for his 1 year
well-child visit yesterday. Not surprisingly, he is a well
child :) He is also a pretty small child. He officially weighs
20.72lbs (19th percentile) and is 28.74″ long (17th
percentile). The pediatrician wasn’t concerned about the size
though, because he did a great job of walking around the
office, talking to her, and showing off his clapping and
responding skills. She said he was doing great. In case we had
any doubt :)

We also had a fabulous
birthday party. Twenty-six people who love Lex all showed up to
celebrate with him. Alan ran the grill and everyone was well
fed. Presents took awhile because Lex just wanted to “read” his
birthday cards and lead the crowd in outbursts of clapping. He
was great all day and fell asleep in his carseat before we were
out of my grandparent’s driveway.

I’ll
get pictures up soon. That’s all for now.

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!