We woke up to a beautiful morning this
morning. It was cold (turned the heat on for the first time
last night), but sunny. I scraped frost off the windows and
enjoyed the bright colors of fall and the mist on the lake as I
drove to work. Lex slept all night last night, with only a
brief awakening (to be rewrapped and plugged) at 3:30am.
Needless to say, I was feeling good this morning. After a long
day at work I was exhausted (corporate life can be draining!)
and excited to come home to my boys. I love coming home to my
boys – easily the best part of my day. Throughout the day I was
thinking of interesting things to post here, but now, as usual,
it’s 9:30pm and I’m not thinking of anything but the big bed.
We’re off to MA tomorrow to visit the J’s and a couple from our
childbirth class. Should be fun. I like introducing Lex to
other babies. Speaking of Lex (aren’t we always??) he’s doing
great these days. I think he has hit another growth spurt
because he’s eating like mad. He took 23oz from the bottle
today!! That’s almost twice what he normally eats. He’s also
rolling over all the time (only from belly to back, over the
left side), talking, laughing, and being perfectly adorable. I
know I’m deliquent on the photos and I’ll try to get some more
up soon. I have so little time at home on the computer – and
lately I’ve spent all of it researching my nursing project.

We made it through another night. He still
woke up a few times, but I re-wrapped and plugged him and he
went back to sleep. It was really hard at 3am though. I woke up
to the sounds of him cooing and talking in his crib. It was
sooo adorable. I stayed in bed for a few minutes just listening
to him. When I got up he was all smiles – waving his arms and
playing with his blanket. (I was also full of milk and ready to
nurse!) It took everything in my power to avoid eye contact and
just cuddle him back up and put him back in the crib. I think
it’s for the best though. As he’s coming up on 5 months now we
really need to start sleeping through the night. As much as I
wanted to go back to bed, I also wanted to get up and nurse and
cuddle him for awhile. :) Not sure if this is tough love for
him or for me.

Last night Lex made it through the night
last night. He woke up very briefly around 3am, but we
re-wrapped him and plugged him and he was right back to sleep.
I won’t tell you about the milky mess I faced in the morning
though ;)

Alan says Lex has been eating
and sleeping all day today. Maybe we’ve hit another growth
spurt. Let’s see how we do tonight. He just now fell asleep,
but he’s been happy as can be all evening :)

My grandpa is going in for surgery at 7am tomorrow morning
– wish him luck and happy healing!

We have a roller! Our days of tummy time
are over. I put him on his belly, he rolls onto his back. Just
like that :) And consistently. He also rolled into the coffee
table and bumped his head. Let the fun begin.

I’m so happy he chose to learn this new skill on a weekend
so I could enjoy it with him. He’s such a good baby.
:)

Especially when it’s quiet, peaceful, and
just the two of us. I love watching his face and his little
hands while he nurses. Such a perfect thing.

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention, Lex rolled over for us
today – 3 times!! Is this the start of things to come? We’ll
have to wait and see.

We started Lex on solids a few weeks ago
and I don’t think I ever documented it anywhere. We started him
on rice cereal and he didn’t have any problem with it. I think
his belly was grumbly for the first day or two, but he loves
the cereal and gobbles it up. Today I gave him some oatmeal
(baby oatmeal, not Quaker Oats :) ). He likes that even more. I
can’t say I blame him, it certainly looks and smells better to
me. It’s fun introducing new foods to him. He seems to like
eating (and playing with the food and smearing it all over).

We also started giving him a sippy cup
with water in it. He like to play with the cup and gum it, and
sometimes he even manages to suck on it enough to get water
out. He doesn’t seem to like water much though :) He always
makes a yucky face and spits it out. He keeps it down better
when I give him water with a straw. I still don’t think he
likes it, but at least he keeps it down.

As Lex gets older it’s fun watching his personality start
to come out. He’s starting to develop preferences for toys, he
is an attention hog (which I think is common of babies) and he
loves to laugh. He has the most contagious laughter. Sometimes
we know what he’s laughing at (like if I’m making funny faces
at him) and sometimes we don’t. He thinks Alan is the funniest
person in the world though and loves to laugh at Alan – even
when he isn’t doing anything at all. Alan can walk into the
room and Lex will look up at him and start laughing with big
belly laughs. For no apparent reason. Only 4 months old and
already idolizing his daddy :)

Anyway,
not much going on, just a quick update.

I LOVE MY BABY
He makes me
happy every time I see him or even just think about him. I’m
such a lucky mommy.

About a year ago I decided to give this
whole blogging thing a try as a means to keep family and
friends updated on my pregnancy and impending baby. Now, I
think I like it :) Recently I started thinking about a career
change so today I decided to start another blog as I explore
this new path and see where it may lead. Check it out!

Lex has been talking up a storm last night
and this morning. A few weeks ago he was chatting like crazy,
but then it seemed to subside a bit… now he’s right back to
it. Last night I tried to get it on video, but he quieted right
down as soon as I turned on the camera. I got some other fun
footage, but very little talking. This morning he woke up at
5:30am with a story to tell and hasn’t stopped since. :) What a
fun baby!

I’m not doing very good at
keep track of firsts here. We started Lex on rice cereal last
weekend and he seems to like it. He gobbles it up when I feed
him, and likes playing with it when he can. We also started
putting him face forward in his stroller (instead of lying in
the infant carrier facing backwards). He really likes that
because he can sit upright and see what’s going on. He’s so
cute too. A week or two ago Lex discovered his feet and is now
able to put them in his mouth (all of his toes at once!). We
try to expose his feet for him sometimes, but it’s starting to
get cold now so he can’t go barefoot too often. He takes full
advantage of his “toys” when they are bare :)

This weekend we had lots of family in town. The last few
times there has been a crowd Lex has been pretty calm, but this
weekend he was just a mess. He cried and fussed the whole time
– except when we were home. He was very happy when it was just
a few people at our house. It’s interesting to see the
different stages he’s going through, mentally, physically, and
emotionally. Lately he’s started crying with tears and hiccups
– sounding more and more like a grownup cry instead of an
infant.

Along the lines of crying,
we’ve been having a heck of a time putting him down lately.
He’ll fall asleep in our arms, but soon after we put him down
he wakes up crying. Not just fussy crying, but real, loud,
almost scared crying. Makes me wonder if babies have
nightmares. Alan is in the living room with him right now
trying to soothe him back to sleep. It’s really a heartbreaking
cry :/

I haven’t posted photos in
awhile, so here are a few from the past few weeks. We had a
really nice day last weekend (or the weekend before???) and we
went for a walk down Quechee Gorge. It was great weather and
Lex enjoyed the outdoors. Carrying him up and down was good
exercise for me too!

Alan’s parents
brought us a highchair this weekend. Lex is so cute and small
in it :) He loves the toys on the tray, but only likes the
highchair for about 3 minutes. Then he starts hollering. I
think he just likes hollering :) Sometimes I confuse him by
sticking a spoonful of cereal in his big mouth. That typically
quiets him for a few minutes.

Anyway,
enough of my random spew of thoughts. Lex is in bed, so I’m
outta here. More later.