Ok, so I finally found a way to post
photos easily – thanks to JAlbum. I love it. And now I can
update my photos.datdec.com site more easily.
So check
it out! I just added pictures from our trip to
Montreal and the other day I added Lex’s 9-month old pictures.
When I have time I’ll backfill the months in between, but for
now I’ll focus on trying to stay current going forward. Wish me
luck! :)

Lex was a huge hit in
Montreal. He was all smiles and dancing (we call him the big
bopper these days) and everyone that passed waved to him and
said “Hey bebe.” He loved it. Lex and I spent the morning
walking around Montreal and doing a little shopping, and then
hung out in the hotel in the afternoon. We had to check out at
2pm, so we ended up wandering/strollering/crawling around the
lobby and hallways for awhile. All of the hotel staff loved him
and so did the geeky people from Alan’s ARIN conference :)

Our trip home was uneventful. It’s only
4.5 hours, including our stops. Lex is such a good traveller
these days that we only needed to stop once each way. When we
got home we put him down in the living room and he got sooo
happy. He crawled all around, playing with all of his toys,
making sure they’re all still here. Alan called it a systems
check :)

As I sit here typing Lex
grabbed my cell phone and started playing with it. A minute
later I heard a voice coming from it – Alan’s dad’s answering
machine! Lex was calling to say hi :) (sorry for the late time
of night)

Anyway, I have to go to bed
now. Actually, I have to eat some cereal, change and nurse Lex
and then go to bed :) So I’m outta here for now!

Here we are in Montreal. Lex
is an international baby before his first birthday. We drove up
to Montreal for the night. Alan is going to attend a conference
tomorrow and Lex and I are going to explore the city (well, the
few blocks surrounding our hotel anyway). Hopefully it will be
a nice day.

Lex is becoming such a
playful toddler these days. He’s developing a real personality,
likes the outdoors, like wrestling and tickling, and he’s
really talking a lot these days. He is so much fun! At the
moment it’s almost an hour past bedtime, but Lex is having a
great time putting stuff in his pack-n-play (his clothes,
blankets, toys, etc) and then we put him in the bed and he
throws everything out. He’s done this several times and loves
it. Silly baby. He has also learned (this is important!) to get
off the bed feet first. He crawls to the edge of the bed (or
couch or chair), looks over, then turns himself around and goes
down feet first. But the overall best part is that it’s so easy
to make him laugh. He smiles for everyone and laughs often with
a perfect baby laugh.

I’ve said it
before and I’m sure I’ll say it again – this is my favorite
age! :)

Alan brought Lex and lunch to work
yesterday. Most of my office is at a conference this week, so
it was quiet. We were sitting around with a few women from my
office and we started talking about how Lex knows a few baby
signs, like “big”. Alan asked Lex if he’s a big Lex and how big
is Lex. Lex looked around at the group of people for a minute
then made the perfect “little” sign. I
laughed so hard. Compared to the rest of the crowd, he is a
very little Lex.

We’ve gotten into a nice routine on
daycare mornings. Alan and I both get up, I take care of
getting myself ready and Alan gets Lex ready. Then I put Lex in
the car, drive to daycare, hand him over, and drive to work. It
works out well, EXCEPT that I don’t get any baby time in the
mornings. I miss that. When I dropped Lex off this morning he
was very sweet and smiley. He kept reaching for me, but not
crying when I didn’t take him out of the teacher’s arms. Then
he waved bye-bye to me. It was sweet. He seemed ok but I was
sad. Daycare is hard on mommy.

All weekend it was
beautiful weather. We went to the park with our friends Bill
and Elizabeth and had a really nice weekend. I kept meaning to
post a blog about how much I love spring. Then we got a
snowstorm! I drove home from my (final) class last night in a
blizzard! Ahh… spring :) Today we have snow on the ground and
snow in the forecast, but a sunny fog mix in the sky.

Lex has reached some sweet milestones lately.
He apparently took several steps for Alan yesterday. I’ll
believe it when I see it ;) When I’m around he just wants to be
held. His babblings are also starting to sound more like
conversations. The words are still nonsensical, but the flow is
definitely more conversational and sometimes he even stops and
looks at you expectantly, as though waiting for an answer to
his babbly question. I have a feeling that once the flood gates
are open … :)

We had a nice, busy, sick weekend this
weekend. Lex was sick, but we went to MA anyway. He spent most
of Saturday moaning and sniffling and clinging to me. I felt
very loved, but bad for him. We had fun anyway. On Sunday we
went out to lunch with a friend of Alan’s from high-school and
his wife and 16-month old son. I love watching Lex interact
with other babies. This boy was a little shy at first, but then
he opened right up to Lex. We put them in high chairs next to
each other. By the end of lunch he was feeding Lex cheerios and
bananas and offering to share his milk. It was very cute. The
parents were nice too :) At Alan’s parents house for dinner
they were both sick, and Alan and I were starting to feel sick,
so we had a very germy get-together.

Lex is now feeling much better and Alan and I are starting
to recover as well. I think we got sick (at least me anyway)
just because of the lack of sleep the whole time Lex was sick.
Fun, fun.

I dropped him off at daycare
this morning and I was a little worried because he’s been soooo
clingy to me all weekend. I was hoping he wouldn’t have trouble
readjusting to daycare. So we get there and the teacher takes
him out of my arms and he’s immediately looking around at all
the kids and trying to get down from her arms. He wouldn’t even
look at me long enough to say goodbye! He just wanted to get
down and play with the other babies. :)

Two days at daycare and we have a sick
baby on our hands. He has been a miserable mess all night. Very
congested, gassy, and generally unhappy. Poor baby. He’s been
nursing most of the night, so hopefully my healthy immune
system will help make him feel better.

PS. 10 months old today!

I picked Lex up at 5:00pm
today and he was happy as can be. He crawled over, gave me a
big hug, and went right back to emptying the shelves of all of
the toys and books. I sat on the playroom floor and nursed him
and he was great. I think he had a good day.

Then we went to visit our friends Joanne and Des. She is
living in a very cute octogon-shaped house. Very small, but
very cute. Des and Lex played together, sharing teething
biscuts and lots of slobber. It was fun.

Tomorrow is another daycare day and then we are traveling
to MA this weekend. Poor Lex will be exhausted come Monday.
We’ll have to take a vacation some day.

Lex is in daycare right now.
As we speak. We dropped him off this morning and the owner
(Noreen) took him out of my arms and sat down at the table with
the other babies. Lex immediately reached for the Cheerios and
was a happy camper. They say the way to a man’s heart is
through his stomach and I think that holds true for babies as
well. At least this one. I had to leave for work, but Alan
stayed at the daycare for an hour or so. He sat at the table
and did some work. Lex didn’t even notice. Then he stopped by
work (to swap cars with me) and gave me an update on Lex. I
noticed :) My biggest worry was that official nap time is at
12:30pm, but Lex always has a morning nap as well. They babies
nap in the same room they play in, so I thought for sure Lex
would be a disaster by 12:30. Turns out all of the babies still
need morning naps, so although the official naptime is 12:30pm,
when Alan left around 9:30 (I think), he said all but one of
the babies was sleeping. One of the teachers rocked Lex to
sleep.

I can’t wait to pick him up this
afternoon. Daycare is definitely harder on the parents
:)

Things are going well with my baby these
days. He cut two new teeth (top) and he’s sleeping better these
days. We are starting him in daycare tomorrow (two days a
week), which will be good and bad. They have a completely
different eating and sleeping schedule then he is currently on,
so hopefully he adapts quickly. I’m really happy that the
daycare is just down the street from me (I get to bring him
there and pick him up) and I think he’ll really enjoy the other
kids. He’s on the verge of walking and I think a few days with
bigger kids will really get him going. I’m not sure if that
falls under the good or bad category!!