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 :)

1) Grandma had successful knee surgery.
She was in there most of yesterday morning (as was expected)
and was recovering well last night. I had hoped to get over
there to visit, but there was no time. I’m sure she was very
groggy anyway. Happy healing Grandma!

2)
Our friends Ron and Laura gave birth to a beautiful baby girl on Tuesday. Her
name is Bethany Jee-Mei Lau. Congratulations and best
wishes.

3) Today is our 6 year
anniversary (what a great 6 years its been!) and my parents 26
year anniversary!

4) It is a beautiful
day and we are driving to Franklin for a long weekend. Yay!
Tonight my parents will be getting married in the eyes of the
Catholic church. I guess the state was OK with their wedding 26
years ago, but God isn’t so sure. So tonight they will be
having a nice ceremony in church. I’m really looking forward to
it and it will be Lex’s first time in church :)

5) Thank you all for the outpouring of concern
over my last post. I probably shouldn’t post when I’m cranky.
(Kind of like drunk dialing – just don’t do it!) Wednesday was
a much better day at daycare. I got there right at 5:00pm and
found him in the arms of the daycare teacher. He had his
pacifier (apparently he uses it a lot there, but I’m ok with
that), but he was smiling and she was talking to him. That made
me feel good. I also got to speak with another mother about
daycare sickness (her son is 9 months and has had similar
symptoms to Lex, including conjuntivitis, since he started in
December). Overall the daycare situation is ok and I’m ok.
Thanks again for all the calls and emails. I’m feeling the
love!

And I don’t cry often these days. My job
is getting worse and worse – and I thought my last company was
dysfunctional! I was tired from a long, stupid day, and so I
left a few minutes early to pick Lex up from daycare. Normally
I get there right at 5:00pm and most of the other kids are
gone. Today I got there about 5 minutes earlier and arrived
right during the pick-up rush. I passed the owner first and she
told me Lex had a rough day and they thought he might be sick
again. Then I turned the corner into the baby room and found a
flurry of people around Lex sitting on the floor in the middle
of the room, pacifier in his mouth, moaning and rocking back
and forth. It broke my heart. Other mothers were stepping over
him to get their children ready to go and the daycare teachers
were talking to the mothers and packing up the other babies.

Now logically I’m sure that wasn’t the
case all day. I know he is very cuddly and they are working on
having him play on the floor with the other kids and be held
less these days. When he first started he was new and they
loved holding such a cuddly baby. Now they have younger babies
(as young as 3 months old) who need more holding and attention.
Lex isn’t too happy about this. I’m sure he was well cared for
all day, but just the sight of him in the middle of the floor,
rocking back and forth, was horrible.

So I drove home in tears. I so badly wish I didn’t have to
work. Won’t someone give me a hefty salary just for being a
good mommy???

PS: Everyone
please send “get well soon” vibes to my grandma who is having
both knees replaced tomorrow morning. Keep her in your thoughts
and prayers. Thanks.

Cleaning up after Lex is like an easter
egg hunt. He puts his little toys in the most random places. At
the end of the night, just when I think all the toys are away,
I find a rolly-ball in the inner-workings of our rocking
ottaman. Or a teething biscuit in the dragon’s mouth
(seriously!). Or a plastic toy trapped under the crunched in
lid of the empty oatmeal contain (hard to explain, but he made
himself a rattle and loved it!). He’s the funniest, cleverist
baby. I love that I put him to bed and hours later he still
makes me laugh.

And boy are they happy. Alan
and I are mostly recovered (though Alan is having a bit of a
relapse due to lack of sleep), but Lex is 110% better and he’s
sooo happy. These past few days he’s been laughing so much more
and he’s extra playful and cuddly. And best of all – he’s
sleeping better! Yay!! Maybe, just maybe, he’ll make it all the
way through the night before his first birthday. We can only
wait and see.

Now that he’s feeling
better, its amazing how playful he is. He likes to crawl around
and lock all of the wheels on his highchair, and he is walking
everywhere with the help of chairs, the ottoman, his toy car
walker thing, and anything else he can manage to push around.
He also likes to get Alan and I to crawl after him, and he
peeks around corners at us, and he’s just so amazingly silly
and playful – and a total ham for the camera. Everytime he
hears the camera beep he makes a huge, open-mouthed toothy
smile and says “aaarhhhh”. I love it!

We’ve started planning his first birthday party. We went
to the party store last week and ordered a bunch of balloons
and we bought some decorations and stuff. It will be fun. I’m
excited.

PS> More pictures
online at photos.datdec.com

Alan and I went to the doctor today and
she prescribed the same stuff Lex is on (only $41/bottle
though, instead of $50, bringing our CVS bill for this week to
just over $200!). She said it should clear us all up. I’ve also
started taking an old family remedy (honey and cider vinegar),
which is doing great things for my throat and cough. Thanks
Mom!! Sadly, the doctor said I have to wear my glasses for 5
(!!!) days in order for my eyes to clear up. I said, “but they
seem fine now.” She said, “No.” :( I hate glasses.