I worked from home today. Yay! Lex is
cutting two more teeth so he was a bit fussy today and because
of that he kept falling over or pulling things down on top of
him. It was sad, but funny. :) He got all excited about a cord
dangling from the desk and so he scooted right over to it, gave
it a good tug, and the phone came tumbling down (headset cord
connecting headset to phone). Earlier in the day he somehow hit
his head on the wall (neither of us actually saw what happened)
and left a little bruise on his head. Poor baby. Hopefully
these teeth come in quickly. On the bright side, he is extra
cuddly when he’s fussy. He gives great hugs and just wants to
be held all the time. He’s such a sweetie.

We’ve been singing finger songs and practicing baby signs
a lot lately. He doesn’t do the signs yet, but his fingers move
a lot, like he’s trying. When I sing Itsy Bitsy Spider his
hands open and close and wiggle, but can’t quite make the
motions. I sing a few times while I make the signs, then I sing
a few times and help him make them. He laughs. I laugh. Life is
good.

I miss my boy. It’s so hard going to work
every day and leaving him. When I get home I only see him for
an hour or so before it’s bedtime. I feel like all of my time
with him lately is spent getting him up or putting him down. I
wanna play!

I can’t wait until Spring. Lex is so
wiggly now that it takes forever to get him dressed. We
normally put him in two layers because it’s cold (winter
finally hit!) and he seems to get bored after about 1/2 layer.
I used to think it would be tough to have a newborn in winter,
but now I’m thinking that might be easier. At least a newborn
will lay there and let you dress him. Lex is off and squirming
with just a diaper and one arm in his shirt and nothing
more.

My friend Emma is over in Ethiopia working
at the Selamta Children’s Compound, a program of the Human
Capital Foundation, owned and run by my boss. I added
a link to Emma’s new
blog and I’d encourage you all to read it. She’s a
great writer and I’m sure it will be a fun read, and very, very
different from the life of Lex.

3/2/06 – UPDATE – Apparently the blog came down
for awhile. Hopefully she’s able to put it back up
again.

Lex started arm waving this weekend. We
were at my grandparents having lunch and Grandpa started waving
to Lex (who was on the other side of the table in his
exersaucer). Lex watched him for a minute then raised his arm
and waved it back and forth at Grandpa. Grandpa said “wow,
that’s pretty good,” and Alan and I said “wow, look at that!”
:)

Lex has been working on the hand
waving lately too. When I wave my hand (open/close sort of
wave) he will watch very closely, looking back and forth from
my hand to my face, and after a few seconds his hand will start
mimicing. I’m not sure he even knows he’s doing it. Sometimes
his hand will go a few times and it will catch his attention
and he’ll start watching his own hand instead of mine. It’s
amazing to see the learning going on every day.

So now he has been out of my
belly for as long as he was in my belly (plus or minus a few
days, of course). He’s growing up so fast :)

We took Lex to the Montshire Museaum today to play. He had
fun, I think. :) We had fun anyway. I tried to show him the
exhibits, but he was much more interested in all of the kids
running around. I said, “Look Lex, a solar system” and he
cranked his neck around to see a small child run by. I’d put
him down to crawl in a wide open space and he’d make a bee line
for some child’s shoes. :) Needless to say, the small childern
enjoyed him as well. A good time was had by all.

I love the third picture down because they
both look so happy and because you can see Lex’s top teeth. His
bottom ones took forever to grow in, but these top ones are
coming in like freight trains. They cut just last week and they
look so big already. I hope he’s not going to have enormous
front teeth :)

We have a really great
snowstorm going on today too. I wasn’t aware it was coming
(I’ve become weather-ignorant lately, I can guess at what’s
going to happen in about 5 minutes, but that’s as far into the
future as I have any weather knowledge). So it was snowing
lightly when we left for the museaum, and coming down like mad
when were done. Luckily Lex fell asleep in the car because we
ended up in traffic for a long time due to a big accident on
the highway. We both agreed that it’s better to be stuck in
traffic than wherever the drivers of the mashed up cars
were.

PS – I should mention that Lex cut his 4th
tooth about a day after his third. We were on the road then, so
I wasn’t able to post promptly. :)

Lex had his 9-month “well child”
appointment today (check-up). Not surprisingly he’s doing
great. He is officially 19lbs and 27 inches, which means he
gained 2lbs and 3 inches since his 6-month visit. The doctor
was impressed with his crawling, standing, walking, and
talking. Sometimes I wonder if she gushes over every baby or
just the “truly advanced” ones :) He was crawling around on the
floor (in his diapers – so cute!) when she came in and he
crawled right over to her and started playing with her shoe.
She gushed, we bragged, and he didn’t need shots – so a good
morning was had by all.

We have a top tooth! And we’re on our way
to Franklin today. Yay! What a good day!

So I spent $14.95 on this fancy crawling toy a few months ago.
It has lights and music and its supposed to encourage baby to
crawl after it. Lex likes it well enough, but never crawls
after it. He sits on his butt and plays with it. But… give
that boy an empty bowl or a bottle of water and he’s all over
the house. It’s hysterical! I gave him a small bowl of Cheerios
on the floor today. He dumped the bowl, first thing, then
proceeded to pick up individual Cheerios, put them in the bowl,
and then eat them. One at a time. Then he ran out (as far as he
knew) and so he started throwing the bowl (yes, another new
trick) and crawling after it. When he’d get close to it his
hand would hit the bowl and it would got another few feet. He
made it all the way around the living room like this. I was
laughing so hard. Then he came full circle, back to where he
had been eating Cheerios, and found a little pile of them that
he’d been sitting on! So he got his bowl back, put the Cheerios
in it, and ate them. Funny baby :)