My little sister will be joining me at
Binghamton!! Or maybe I’m joining her? Either way –
yay!!

Lex is getting pretty good with “mammama”
and “daddadda” these days. He seems to use them pretty
consistently and accurately. Alan said that the other day when
I came home, Lex heard the car door shut and immediately
started saying “mamamama” and looking around at the door for
me. Good baby!! The drawback, of course, is that when he’s
crying himself to back to sleep in the middle of the night he
calls “mamamammama” and it breaks my heart. I’m sure he knows
what he’s doing because he doesn’t make any other words, just
wailing, sniffling, and “mamamamma”. Luckily he’s getting
better at sleeping, so he doesn’t have to cry himself back to
sleep too often.

I think the hardest part of being a parent
is the continual self-doubt. Just when you think you have the
hang of things, baby changes and does something different and
throws you for a loop. For example, Lex has been napping well
all week with little to no crying. Today, however, after a bad
night of sleep (for no apparent reason), he just wouldn’t go
down for a nap. He was obviously tired, but he cried and cried
for 1/2 hour until I finally gave in and nursed him to sleep. I
don’t even think he was hungry, just wanted to cuddle or
something. Was that the best thing to do? I don’t know. I
really don’t want to get back in the bad sleeping pattern, but
maybe he really needed something today. Who knows.

Good morning Tessa,

It is my pleasure to inform you that you have
been accepted into the Accelerated Program at the Decker school
of Nursing. Congratulations! …

Have a
great day!
Sincerely, Fran

This morning he completed two
full crawl motions (coordinated arms and legs), but then he sat
back down and started playing with his toys. By time time I got
home tonight he was full on crawling!!! He’s so tiny and
adorable.

Watch a short movie
(2MB) of Lex crawling or a much
longer movie (64MB) that includes some playing and
other silliness (well worth it for those of you with
broadband).

Lex is such a little ham. This morning I
put him on the bathroom floor while I got ready for work and I
gave him a few “toys” (2 hair scrunchies and a plastic cup –
limited options in the bathroom!) He was trying to hold all
three, but each time he picked one up he dropped one. He’d have
the cup and a scrunchy and go for the other one, but the first
would fall out of his hand. So he’d get the second and try for
the first again with the other hand – dropping the cup. It was
so funny. He just kept trying over and over. He’s also very
mobile and he gets on his hands and knees and stretches to
reach objects. Then he backs up onto his butt again to sit up.
Each time he does this little maneuver he ends up in a slightly
different spot. This is largely how he gets around. He’ll do
this a few times then stop, look around, asses his current
location, and get right back to it. Last night he moved all the
way across the room like this. I’m pretty sure he knew where he
was going and very intentionally trying to get there –
roundabout and backwards. He cracks me up. This morning he was
wearing a sleep sack that Alan’s mom made, so he didn’t have
the full range of motion with his legs that he’s used to, which
just made the whole process funnier. And the best part is that
he didn’t get mad or frustrated, just kept trying.

He’s also a ham for the camera these days.
Whenever he hears me turn it on he stops what he’s doing (doh!)
and smiles big for the camera. He’s so adorable I could take a
million pictures, but I try to control myself – sometimes
:)

Happy 8 months to Lex!! The
day is almost over and he’s already in bed, but I’ll say happy
day anyway :) He celebrated with a cold and runny nose. Poor
baby is suffering because I let Des (and his parents) come
visit this weekend and Des had a cold. Lex had fun, but he’s
paying the price now. He took Des’s socks right off his feet
and ate them! And he used Des to stand up against. Poor Des sat
there looking confused as Lex climbed all over him. Sweetie
babies.

Alan and Lex are sleeping in
this morning, which gives me time to post a quick note and a
few pictures (of Lex, of course, completely unrelated to Alan’s
birthday). I bought him a few Dr. Seuss books – including Hop
on Pop – for his birthday and a card that says “Still a Kid”.
This is a birthday week for us. We had a party with friends
last weekend and the family party next weekend. And tomorrow
Lex turns 8 months. Big week :)

It’s amazing watching Lex learn. He is so
close to crawling, and almost as close to walking. He get up on
his hands and knees, and rocks back and forth. This weekend he
started to try and move his hands and legs, but he can’t quite
coordinate them. It’s adorable. He’ll get one leg up doing
weird things and sometimes even get his foot stuck at odd
angles underneath himself. He tries so hard. Then sits back
down on his butt. This morning he got his knee forward once and
one hand flailed out to catch him (good first try) – all in an
effort to catch this weird dancing chicken toy Grandma got him
for Christmas. I think it’s scary, but Lex finds it facinating.
The little chicken dances around singing the chicken dance song
(loudly!) and its wings flap and its cheeks light up. Very
disturbing. Lex was trying soooo hard to crawl after it though
– something he’s never done with the fancy toy I bought him
specifically designed to encourage crawling. Go figure.

We are also making great progress on the
sleeping front. Last night he slept for 9.5 hours – in a row!!
He didn’t even wake up when Alan and I went to bed. I think
we’re going to give him another night or two in the pack-n-play
in our room then try putting him back in his crib.

I’ll try to get a few more pictures posted
soon. The blog is looking rather text heavy (and I need a new
one for my monitor at work ;) ).

Last night was a good night. We had a
great party for Alan. Everyone had fun. Then we had a decent
night’s sleep. Lex went to bed around 8pm (very tired from the
party) and slept until about 12:30 when we came in to go to bed
(he’s sleeping in the pack-n-play in our room). So we got back
up, watched a show, I pumped, and Lex cried for abotu 10
minutes before falling asleep. The hardest part is that after 4
hours of sleeping I wanted to cuddle him :) So we all went to
sleep and slept until 4:45am. Alan and I decided that was too
early, so we got up and Lex cried for about 20 minutes. Then we
went back to bed and 10 minutes later he started crying again.
We let him go again for 20 minutes then decided that it was
time to nurse him (it was 5:30ish by this point and he’d gone
10 hours without eating). I nursed him in bed and we both fell
back to sleep until almost 8am. So I think we are making
progress. He may not have even woken up at midnight if we
hadn’t come into the room. I really wish we had a nursery for
him. That’s a top priority for our next house.

PS> On a completly different
note, I’m really sorry to those of you I owe holiday thank you
notes. I ordered special thank you cards and they still haven’t
arrived. I’m getting cranky. The company said they shipped
three weeks ago, and last Tuesday they told me they were in
WRJ, but I think they are full of it. I need to call again.
So… I haven’t forgotten you and I really do appreciate the
gifts and your official thank yous will be on their way soon, I
hope.