Lex rolled over today –
twice!! Alan put him down for a nap today on his belly. A
little while later I heard him babbling to himself (Lex that
is, not Alan) so I went in to pick him up and found him lying
on his back with his arm through the crib bars. He gave me a
big ol’ grin :) Later I put him on his belly on his playmat and
he promptly rolled over onto his back. Alan and I both
applauded him. We grabbed the camera and I rolled him back onto
his belly, but he just got fussy and wouldn’t roll over for the
camera. Oh well. :) He has also been particularly hammy lately.
Lots of big grins and silly, happy faces. And new developments
every day. He now holds on to things pretty good (when he wants
to), picks things up and brings them to his mouth, gets his
head and body up and leans on his elbows, and has pretty good
leg and hand coordination. He’s even starting to sit up a bit
(in fact he’s sitting on the table in front of me right now
while I type around him). He’s still a little unstable with the
sitting though and tends to fall over :) Silly boy. I don’t
have much time to post a lot of pics, but here are a few of my
favorites from the past few days.

I’m not sure what the official definition
of sleeping through the night is, but last night, for the first
time, Lex slept for 8 hours straight (9:30pm-5:30am). I was
psyched! Of course, it would have been even better if he slept
until 8am :) But I guess sleeping late comes later. So he woke
up at 5:30, nursed, and was back asleep by 6am. Yay. I crawled
back in bed, but it was all just a tease because he was back up
at 6:30. So we played for awhile (well, he played, I ate cereal
and read about Chief Justice Renquist’s death) and now he’s
very tired and talking to himself in his crib. I suspect he’ll
be alseep by the time I finish this post. Such a good baby :) I
was reading the Dr. Sears book yesterday (considered to be
the baby manual) and Lex is right on
target with all development milestones, with one exception. The
book says that in the 4th month he should be able to support
his weight for very short periods of time and now is a good
time to start holding him up to help encourage him to hold his
own weight. Lex has been doing that since about 6 weeks. He
also has been talking a lot lately. He’s very good at the
aahhhhs and oohhhhs. :)

Not
alseep yet.

Another early morning. Lex hasn’t been
sleeping well the past few days, and therefore neither have I.
He’s been waking up two or three times a night to nurse – and
the plug just won’t do. On the positive side, at least he’s
nursing well when he wakes up. I hate it when we get up and he
is fussy at the breat. Very frusterating when I’d rather be
sleeping.

So here I am with a happy,
wide-awake baby by my side, eating Lucky Charms (magically
delicious) and watching the sky go from dark to light. Once
again wishing I had an easterly view to watch the sunrise.
During the days I sometimes think of things I should
do/find/research/whatever online “when I have time”. But during
these early morning times, I’m so braindead I can’t even
remember what I wanted to do, let alone do it. So instead I
randomly read email (I’ve got *tons* of messages in my inbox
just waiting for me to do something with) and write here.

Other than the sleeping thing Lex is doing
really well. He’s holding his head up more and more when he’s
on his belly. And he arches his back so much we’re waiting for
him to roll over any day now. He’s also using his legs more and
more – which is funny to watch. He loves his playmat (probably
our best baby item) and now plays with the toys with his feet.
He’s also a master now at kicking the bar, which makes all of
the toys shake and rattle. And he loves talking to himself in
the little mirror that’s attached. He’ll play on the mat for a
long time until he gets overstimulated – then sometimes he’ll
cry and other times he’ll just fall asleep right there on the
mat :)

On an entirely different note…
I feel so sad for everyone hit by the hurricane. I don’t know
what’s wrong with me these days (maybe because it’s closer than
other disasters, or mabye it’s the maternal hormones running
rampant) but I keep getting choked up listening to stories
about people down there – especially stories about infants :)
One that particularly got me is when they interviewed a woman
who is staying in the Superdome with her daughter and 9-day old
grandson. I was just remembering back to when Lex was 9 days
old and how tired we were. I feel so bad for that mother. I
can’t even imagine living in a stadium with hundreds of other
people, trying to keep the baby quiet at night, no toys,
wondering where the next pack of diapers is going to come
from… and on top of all that wondering if your house is still
standing. I think I’d be crying every night. Even though no one
is surprised that the levies broke and the city is underwater,
I still feel bad for the people who live(d) there.

PS -> Happy
September!!

We spent with weekend with
the family (some of it anyway) in Franklin. Had lots of fun.
Spent Saturday at Old Franklin Days and ran into some old
friends and classmates. It’s always interesting getting the
update on marriages, divorces, kids, etc. But then it can get
awkward as there isn’t much else to talk about. Oh well.
Weekends in Franklin are always fun because they are
unscheduled and relaxed. We just chill for a few days. Very
nice. Also got some good pictures of Lex and the family out in
the nature (my parents live in a nice rural area) and some pics
of Lex with his new toy – a giant Elmo! Thanks to Nate @ Sesame
Street :) I’ll try to get more pictures up in the next few
days. For now, it’s time for dinner and bed.

Lex had another 7 hour night last night.
Yay! But the problem with these longer nights is that it leaves
me with odd hours in the morning (and chock-full-o-milk and
ready to burst, but that’s another story). For example, this
morning the alarm was set for 5:30 (have to get to work a
little early so I can leave early :) ). Lex wakes up at 4:15,
so by the time he’s fed and sleeping again its 5:00 and I’m
wide awake. I think, well the alarm is going off in 1/2 hour
anyway, so I may as well stay up (’cause I’m wide awake). But
that means I’m starting the day at 4:15 in the morning! What’s
a person to do? Eat breakfast, blog, and take a nap on the way
to Franklin :)

I realized last night as
I was falling asleep that Lex has now passed his fourth
trimester. He’s really starting to look like a little
person these days, not as much like a helpless infant – except
when he gives me his sad little hungry cry. Then he’s just an
adorable tiny little thing.

While
searching for a good 4th trimester link, I came across this article. I like it. I also like
the quote, “what makes being a grandparent so great is that
finally you get to share the experience of parental love with
your child.”

Anyway, time flies when
you’re browsing the web before sunrise. I gotta go hit the
showers and get this day going. Happy Friday!!

I don’t have much time (gotta
pack!) but I wanted to say happy 3-month birthday to my boy :)
He’s growing so big. He’s wearing size 3 diapers now (which
probably doesn’t mean anything to anyone) and just in the past
few days started really picking his head up and looking around
when he’s on his stomach. He actually enjoys tummy time, for a
little while anyway. We were going to use our JC Penney coupons
to get 3-month photos taken, but turns out that Penney’s
doesn’t have any studios for miles around. So that was the end
of that thought. Too bad, so sad, ’cause we have lots of
Penney’s coupons. These days Lex is also very active and loves
to play on his playmat. He’ll lay there for a long time kicking
his feet, batting at the dangling toys, talking to himself in
the mirror, sucking on his hands (he loves those hands!!) and
just having fun. I understand now why babies eat and sleep so
much – he must burn a ton of calories just laying on that mat.
He’s always going. I’m sure that will be less enjoyable once
he’s on his feet (or hands and knees) and really going!

My blog here is serving me two
purposes – 1) keep friends and family fully satiated with baby
news, and 2) serve as a record of milestones and stuff.
Traditionally people kept baby books, but we decided to do this
instead. Someday I’ll read back through this stuff and remember
when he was just a baby :)

It’s been awhile since I posted last. I
always have ideas floating around in my head, but it’s hard to
get to the computer. I was thinking about a late night post
last night, but Lex slept until 4am (7 hours!!) and I had to
wake up at 6am, so I fed him quickly and we both went back to
sleep. It was nice. Now I’m sitting at work listening to a
webcast about Developing an Organization-Wide Mentoring
Program. I’m monitoring the webcast for technical
support and all, but that gives me nice time to do other stuff
to. Like blogging…

Time
So no matter
how early I wake up, I never seem to be able to get to work any
earlier. I try to get there by 8am, but usually don’t make it
until 8:30. Of course, this morning my nursing session lasted a
bit longer than necessary because Harry was fighting dead
people in an effort to obtain a Horcrux and it was quite exciting.
And if this is all greek to you, read the book! So, I ended up
getting to work at 8:30am again. Oh well. The group I work with
here is a bunch of workaholics (better than alcoholics at
least!). Everyone is here before me (even when I get in at 8am)
and leave much later. As 5pm comes and goes, and 5:15, 5:30…
I say I’m leaving and they say “Oh, is it that time already?”
Like I’m a part-timer :/ My boss even schedules meetings at 5pm
and later. Busy, busy, workaholics :) I say I have a hungry boy
at home and I’m outta here. Luckily everyone is super nice and
no one cares that I leave “early” .

Toes
I
think babies use their feet a lot more than grownups do to
explore and feel things. Lex uses his feet as much as his hands
to touch and explore. His toes are always going and always
dirty :) He even claps them together. I guess as you get older
you realize that the feet aren’t as useful as the hands so you
stop using them as much. It’s always fun watching him explore
things with his feet.

T-s
Jime and Julie
came to visit last weekend. We had promised we go to their
house this time, but we backed out at the last minute. Next
month though… definitely! Anyway, Jim brought Lex two
t-shirts that he found on Tshirt
Hell. One says “I can kick your baby’s ass” and the
other says “Hung like a four year old” :) Apparently they were
the “cleanest” of the options on that site. I’ll have to snap a
few pics of Lex in his new duds.

Travel
Going to
visit the parents this weekend. Should be fun. Mom wants to
show off her grandbaby at Old Franklin Days :) I have actually
been talking with a classmate of mine from high school who will
also be there. Probably lots of other people I know too. I
always like the opportunity to show of the baby. Like mother
like daughter, I guess :)

Thinking back
Thanks to my friend Mike, I was thinking back to freshman
year the other day. This time 10 years ago (yes, 10 years!!!)
we were moving into dorm rooms and meeting all sorts of new
people. Mike is so good at bringing things together and put up
a new blog for a bit of reminiscing. he’s
also a great writer, so read up.

Ok, I
gotta get back to work now. Been nice rambling.

Alan recorded the best video yesterday of
Lex laughing. He’s standing up, holding Alan’s hands and Alan
is laughing real big and Lex just starts laughing as well. It’s
hysterical. The movie is pretty big, but I’m going to try to
put a clip of it online this weekend. We couldn’t get Lex to
laugh last night, but we did watch the video several time. On a
related note, Lex is very intriuged by watching himself on tv –
sometimes its literally larger than life :)

Lex also started pushing up with his arms from his belly
last night. Does that make sense? Probably not. Usually when we
do tummy time he just fusses, but last night he started pushing
with his arms and getting his upper body up. He didn’t hold it
for long, but he got his head up a few times. It was a big day
for the boy :)

Alan and I watched a
bunch of the movies we’ve made of Lex so far. Even though he’s
only 2 months (almost 3!) he looks sooo different in his
newborn movies. There is one where he looks so scrawny and
lizardy :) It’s pretty amazing to see how far he’s come in such
a short period of time. We also realized that he doesn’t do his
cute little “o” face anymore. Ah well.

I got lots of ribbing about how long it
takes me to post photos these days (new baby, hello??) so I
tried real hard to get them up quick this time. Hopefully I’ve
apeased the masses :) Just playing, I know everyone likes to
see the pictures – especially the ones of my little one ;)
photos.datdec.com

On a happier note, today is my
sister’s 25th birthday. Yay! We are all getting older so
quickly. We had a little celebration this past weekend, but
today everyone should send her happy birthday wishes. I’m sure
she would appreciate birthday goodies as well ;)