1) Clapping. My favorite. It
started with hand punching but is moving to full, open-handed
clapping :) It’s so cute.

2) He learned
to get his pacifier in his mouth – right side up! For a few
weeks now he has been able to get it to his mouth, and
sometimes in, but always upside down, sideways, or backwards.
Today it went in right side up. He seems to prefer it upside
down though :)

We made sooooo many cookies!
We’re at Jim & Julie’s house now. Ron, Laura, and Andy came
over yesterday and we had a cookie party. We baked cookies all
afternoon and late into the night. Soooo many cookies :) And
all so yummy! I’m up way to early here (Lex doesn’t seem to
comprehend weekends), but he just went down for his morning nap
so I’m heading back to bed too :) I like weekends.
I’m going to let the rest of
the pictures speak for themselves. Andy was up all night
entertaining the crowd. Lex – ever the life of the party –
crashed on the couch at 6pm :) He missed his nap on the drive
down. But he woke again at 11pm to say goodbye.

Cold, clear, sunny, and everything is snow
covered. Currier and Ives-type of day. Beautiful.

I feel like lately I’ve only
been posting when I’m tired and cranky, so I restrained from
posting last night and decided to start on a good note :) I’m
so excited about Christmas – less than two weeks now! We have a
little Christmas tree up and Lex is entranced each morning when
I turn the lights on. He just stares with his little O mouth.
He has also been “helping” me wrap presents. He loves the
wrapping paper (and it’s good because its thick enough that it
doesn’t rip immediately) and he likes playing with the ribbons
and bows. I think he’ll have fun on Christmas morning.

I decided this week that we
need to get serious about sleeping. He still isn’t sleeping
through the night, and it’s getting more and more difficult to
put him down for naps and at night. Right now it almost seems
like he’s in pain or something, but he screams his head off
when we lay him in the crib. No fun. Sometimes he falls asleep
after a few minutes of screaming, but other times it’s almost
impossible. He finally fell asleep last night after I rocked
him for a long time in the dark living room with some calming,
womb music playing. It breaks my heart though because I don’t
see him all day then when I get home I have about an hour with
him before bedtime and then I spend another hour with him
screaming as I try to put him to bed. He must hate me. Not
really, I’m sure, but it’s hard. And I know it’s best for him
to go to sleep, but it’s getting harder and harder.

I’ve read all the advice
about sleeping and the one thing that we don’t do, and I’m sure
will help, is a solid routine. We just aren’t very routine
people ourselves, so it’s tough trying to implement that for
him. All along I’ve sort of assumed that he’ll outgrow this and
start sleeping soon, but yesterday it occured to me that he may
not outgrow it and as he moves into the toddler years it will
probably just get worse. Ack!! So, we are going to work on
routine for Lex and by default routine for Alan and I. This is
a pretty bad time of year to start this (travelling next
weekend, Christmas the following), but I’m going to give it a
shot. Worst that will happen is no change :) I really like
cuddling with him the bed though when he’s sleeping nicely.
I’ll miss that once he sleeps through the night in his crib.
But, I know it’s for the best.

Ok, now back to work with me.
This month has been slower than the last few, and for that I’m
grateful. I feel like I’m finally on top of things at work and
able to go above and beyond – instead of just barely eeking by.
Imagine what I could do with a full nights sleep! :)

Happy holidays all!

Diddja miss me? I haven’t posted in
awhile, but I don’t really feel like I have much to say these
days. Life is going well, and all is good. We had a lovely snow
storm today, so I’m working from home. That’s always fun. And
the nanny is here today so Alan and I are getting lots done.
And she cleans! Great times.

Lex is
happy. Still not sleeping through the night, but I’m ok with
it. He usually wakes up around 4am and I bring him into the bed
to nurse. Then he sleeps with us until the alarm goes off at
6:30. Not too bad. I like cuddling him anyway.

I’ve been trying to post some pictures again.
Who knew it would be so tough to get such trivial things done.
Oh well. You’ll see them when you see them. :) He’s growing
again, and has little nubby teeth, but otherwise he doesn’t
look any different than last month. I’ll try to post soon
anyway :)

Big congrats go out to my
buddy Mark. Read his pages for more info. Looks like
Alan gets to be in another wedding :)

That’s all for now. I think I’m going to try making some
teething biscuits tonight. Lex *loves* the ones we bought, and
I think it would be fun to try baking some. I even found a
recipe for banana bread teething cookies. Yummmy!

That’s right, teeth! Come home today to
find he had cut two (2!!) of his bottom teeth. They are just
peaking through the gums now, but you can definitely see and
feel them. :)

The hardest thing to do at night is put
Lex in his crib to sleep. He’s such a perfect angel, I just
want to cuddle him forever.

Act I: Guilt
I have this
uncanny ability to make myself feel guilty over just about
anything. I worked from home yesterday. I’ve do so before and
things went relatively well. Not so yesterday. Lex was happy
until about 10:30am, then we went down hill from there. He got
fussy, my co-workers started rapid-firing emails at me, and I
started feeling ill. I found myself stressing because I
couldn’t get anything done for work and at the same time
stressing because I couldn’t play with Lex and make him happy.
All of my stressing just made Lex more unhappy. Self-fulfilling
downward spiral :( Around lunchtime I ended up sending my
coworkers an email just apologizing for my slow response and
explaining the situation. Everyone was super nice and
understanding. After that I tried really hard to make myself
let go of work and just take care of Lex. But the guilt was
there and with it the stomachache. Needless to say Lex got
happier when daddy came home :) In the future I’m just going to
take the day off from work and not try to multi-task like that.
It’s not good for anyone.

Act II:
Bathtime
I’ve been bathing Lex more these days,
instead of showering him. He’s funny though, it’s hard to tell
if he likes the bath or not. He splashs and chews on his rubber
ducky with gusto, but doesn’t laugh, smile, cry, or anything.
Just goes after those ducks like he’s on a mission. It’s hard
to tell if he’s having fun or not. Silly baby.

Act III: Nanny
Yes, I said it –
nanny. We’ve hired ourselves a nanny (oh-la-la!) She’s really
more of a mother’s helper for Alan. She’s going to come one day
a week to watch Lex and do some light housework. She seems
really nice. I met her at the salon when I was pregnant and she
gave me her name and number. I said thanks and threw it on the
enourmous pile of baby paperwork we had – figuring we’ll never
have need for a nanny. Just found her info the other day and
Alan loved the idea. Today is her first day so we’ll see how it
goes. The house was a mess to – maybe she’ll take care of that
for us :)

PS. Congrats to my
friends Ron and Laura. Check out their
website for details.

Well, yesterday anyway. It
was great. We hung out and did nothing for most of the day :)
Made apple cinnamon scones for breakfast (yummy), took a nap,
and just relaxed. Lex was really fussy in the morning and has
been off and on for a few days now and not sleeping well. He
also developed overnight a red spot on his lip that looked like
the beginnings of a cold sore (I’m prone to them, so he may be
as well). I thought that might explain the fussiness. I called
the pedi yesterday morning and the nurse said there wasn’t much
they could do at the moment, but told me to watch it and see if
it got worse, or if he got a fever or stopped eating. He ended
up taking two really good naps and by evening he was happy and
the spot was even starting to fade. Soo…

We took Grandma and Grandpa (the two Gs) up on their offer
to babysit and Alan and I went out to dinner and shopping. We
dressed up (Alan was eager to since it’s been ages since he’s
worn nice clothes) and while we waited for food I told Alan
everything I’ve learned so far about nursing school. I was
feeling sort of stuck in my progress so it was great to talk
with him, get his feelings on things, and now I have a path to
continue down. Good times. Then we went shopping at Penney’s. I
got a gift card from my mom (Mom, it came on time!! Thanks!!)
which was awesome because I really need some clothes. I was
trying on jeans (need them) and looking at shirts (need them)
when I remembered that what I really need is a winter jacket
(really need). So I ended up with a snazzy gray peacoat, red
gloves, and a nice sweater.

We got a
call from Grandpa just as we were finishing shopping saying
that Lex was crying inconsolably and they were getting worried
about him. It was great timing to call since we were almost on
our way home anyway. So we paid quickly and rushed back to get
Lex. When we got there he was sleeping in Grandpa’s lap in the
recliner and it was the most perfect thing ever. I was kicking
myself for not having a camera. (I really, really need a built
in eyeball camera. That would be super convenient!) So we hung
out for a while and chatted and let him doze. It was beautiful.
When he woke up he was all smiles again. We took him home,
nursed him, and he went right to bed (of course it was 11:15pm
by this time – way past bedtime!). So a good day was had by
all.

Oh, I can’t forget my funnest
present – a new palm TX. I told Alan I wanted
a new palm and he’s had a great time for the past few months
researching all the options and finding me the best one. It’s
like a present for both of us :) I love it. It’s got a huge
color screen, wi-fi so I can get Internet access in lots of
places, new programs, etc. It’s awesome.