Month: September 2009

Alex seems to have no problems when I drop him off at Mother’s Day Out. I think there are plenty of babies and adults to keep him entertained.

For a first, he was super excited when I came to pick him up today. That warms a mom’s heart.

Alex started off the day not too happy:

But then he found lots of things to put in his mouth:

Then the day got even better when Maren and Elise came for a visit. I was very sly and got rid of an entire storage container of maternity clothes. Maren will need them this winter and I will definitely not.

Alex was definitely worn out after all the playing. He took a 3.5 hour nap – the past two days have been nothing more than 30 minutes at a time. When he woke up he practiced his crawling a little – meaning he got up on his knees but only rocked:

It is starting to get colder so I decided to return to running. I think the last time I ran was when we lived in the apartment or maybe when we lived in Anderson. Alex was a trooper and promptly fell asleep:

The wind hurt my house! We had really strong winds today. A couple of branches fell out of a tree onto our neighbor’s garage – tearing out his cable lines and landing on ours:

Upon closer inspection, I realized there was damage to our house – the stress on the cable lines pulled the trim off the house, but our cable stayed on through it all:

Wade is my hero. He fixed the side of the house and we are good to go. Our neighbor doesn’t appear to have done a thing to his.

Wade, Alex, and I drove to Paducah last night and finally made it after way too many hours of traffic, rain, fog, and a very unhappy baby. Today was much better. We started off with a trip to visit Grandma while Wade caught up on sleep:

Have I mentioned that Alex is fascinated with shoes and feet? Right now shoelaces are a favorite:

Then we all headed down to the riverfront for BBQ on the River.

Paducah is Paducah so it shouldn’t be surprising that we ran into all kinds of people: Wade’s Aunt Sara, quite a few of mom’s friends, and the Upshaws:

Then Wade and I headed out for dinner at Patti’s and Amy’s wedding. There was a huge rain storm that held off just long enough for most of the ceremony.

Then we had some cake and did a little talking:

More wedding pictures here.
Mom and Lissy were more than happy to babysit. I hear they had quite a bit of fun with Alex’s new Halloween pajamas – they glow in the dark.

Today was swim class! Only Rebecca and Elisabeth joined us so we had a very small class, but a lot of attention from the teacher. Alex put his hand on Elisabeth all by himself:

Then it was packing and driving for Paducah:

No matter how grumpy Alex is Madison always seem to make him smile. Alex was working up a good cry when Madison walked in the room. Then he was content to sit and watch her. Finally Madison consented to a little petting:

We ran out for a quick dinner at Habanero’s and then it was back to work on the bathroom. Wade hopes to have a mostly usable bathroom by the end of the night.

Going into Alex’s room after a nap is always interesting. Sometimes he is very happy and sometimes he is super grumpy. Today he was all smiles:

We spent the afternoon playing with toys – he grows bored of them quickly so we move around a lot:

After Alex was fast asleep Nate arrived to help move the washer and dryer upstairs – the bathroom is getting closer and closer:

After trying out two walls and rehanging the pictures numerous times – the wall is done and the erroneous nail holes have been repaired. (FYI – the pictures are actually hung straight, but I evidently can’t take a picture very well.)

Alex was wide awake at 7 and ready to play.

We played for a short time, but then had to rush to get everything ready for Mother’s Day Out. While he was at MDO, I worked out, ran to the post office, bought paint, primed the bathroom, weeded the flowerbeds (the first time all year so this is a HUGE job), and hung pictures. Whew I need a break!

Alex has consistently been sleeping to 7 am – thank goodness. The 5 and 6 wake up was not working so well. I got up with him this morning and decided to go back to bed when he took a nap at 8. I woke up around 9:30 to see Alex playing happily with Wade supervising. Wade and I also had fun watching Alex realize he can roll back to stomach. I saw it for the first time yesterday and today he couldn’t get enough of the rolling one way and then back the other (always staying in the same spot on the floor).

Alex took quite a few naps today and I got a lot done. I painted the concrete ledges beneath the basement windows (evidently the painters didn’t think they needed to be painted).

In an effort to clean out the garage for my car, I built a few shelves for our car washing products. This project required lots of power tools! I got to use the miter saw and a pneumatic framing nailer.

While Wade was slaving away on the bathroom I decided to tackle a project too – lowering Alex’s mattress in the crib. I walked in yesterday to get him from his nap and he was attempting to pull up. It was rather cute to see both arms stretched out and latched on the top rail with his body still laying down, but I don’t want him to actually pull up at the current height. We of course didn’t keep instructions so it took me a little while to figure it out (longer than I will admit). Eventually I got it all put back together.

After dinner (yummy California Pizza Kitchen), we put Alex to bed and then had our first fire of the year:

Alex and I are taking “Shrimp” swim classes. He seems to really enjoy the 30 minutes of moving in the water. Here’s a before and after. It’s impossible to get a picture of him in the pool – I have to be in the water with him and our camera is definitely not waterproof.

One unexpected benefit for me is the 2-3 hour nap that seems to always follow. After the marathon nap we made a trip to the mall and then I tried to get Alex interested in his jumper. I’m not sure he understands the concept:

It took me a long time to figure out why Madison always wanted her head on the edge of the tub while I gave Alex a bath. Then I realized she couldn’t see what I was doing or what was so interesting otherwise:

Then it was time for a few books and bed for Alex.

Wade is working on the bathroom and I’m going to get a little work done.

Wade is once again sad to be living in the North where we cannot easily get GaTech football – especially since we don’t have cable. His boss invited us over for the game last night. Alex did really well playing on the floor:

or sitting in a lap:

Today I got to play with Wade’s new camera. Wade and Alex were hanging out on the couch.

Then we continued our monkey theme with sock monkey pajamas:

I enrolled Alex in Mother’s Day Out for the school year.

He goes on Mondays and Wednesdays from 9:30-2:30. My hope is that will provide just enough time for me to get most of my work done and some socializing for Alex. He started last Wednesday and did pretty well. He only took catnaps so he was worn out by the time I got him home. Today he napped much better and ate all his lunch. He’s currently teething (I think) and is not always a happy baby.

Our church friends love the game Rock Band. We were invited over for dinner, Rock Band, and the Packers game. We loaded up Alex and decided we would stay as long as he would let us. He was very entertained by Rock Band:

Nate provided a nice “pillow top” for Alex during the game. (This was Nate’s joke -I didn’t do it on my own.)

Alex got a little fussy at half time so we loaded up and headed home.

It’s great to be home again. Being home on a Saturday means Wade does projects – in this case working on the bathroom. Madison entertained Alex:

I got really industrious and cooked a turkey. It didn’t seem right to have turkey without mashed potatoes, dressing, and green beans:

Here is a picture of Alex during his first bath at home:

Today he loves his bath:

He has always loved snuggling after the bath, but let’s compare then:

And now:

And what bath would be complete without Madison inspecting Alex for herself:

We finally went in for studio pictures. They qualify as 6 month pictures by one day. (Excuse the poor quality – these are scans of pictures and my scanner is old and sad.)

Now I have a few random pictures from the trip. While visiting Krista she took a few pictures of Alex when Wade gave him a barstool to play with:

While visiting Krista, Wade bought her old camera. She was upgrading to a newer one and her old one was a big upgrade for Wade. Wade had quite a bit of fun with it on the trip.

He also played with it in Piedmont Park when we visited with Emily.

And my personal favorite:

Happy Birthday Granny!

I think Alex knew he was at Gram’s house. Instead of sleeping till 7:30 or 8 like he has done the entire trip, he was up and ready to go at 6 am. Mom happily played with him while Wade and I slept a few more hours.

After six hours of driving we reached Chicago and made one quick stop – at the Threadless store. Now we all have new t-shirts.

Now we are back home and I have a baby to put to bed, a car to unload, and laundry to start.

We spent a little time exploring the Choo Choo since it was dark when we arrived last night.

We decided on a quick breakfast at Waffle House and then it was on to Nashville to see my sister and Chris. Melissa had a present for Alex and let him open it (with a little help):

Melissa and Chris unknowingly picked one of my favorite restaurants for lunch – Mellow Mushroom. I had no idea there was one in Nashville or I would have made a point to visit on numerous occasions. Alex fell asleep in the car, but I made Melissa and Chris pose for a picture anyway:

Then it was back in the car with a two hour drive to Paducah. The first stop was to see Granny and Papa:

The final stop of the day was at my mom’s house. The Upshaws joined us for dinner and then it was bedtime for everybody.

This morning we returned to an old favorite church – Buckhead Church. We hadn’t been to the new building and were impressed (especially with their children’s area). After church we met Marshall and Tarver for brunch at Rosebud in Virginia Highlands. Their little boy should arrive in about five weeks.

Then it was on to Piedmont Park to meet Emily. She drove over from Auburn to see Alex. Unfortunately it was quite hot and Alex was pretty tired and lethargic. She did hear a few giggles though.

We hopped in the car and drove to Chattanooga to have dinner with Nate and Michelle. The last time I saw Bryson he was only a few months old.

That would be a pretty full day, but Wade and I always manage to encounter drama. We had planned to spend the night in the Chattanooga Choo Choo – something I had done as a child and always wanted to repeat. We arrived around 7:30 and were told our room wasn’t ready. Evidently they were having trouble with the air conditioning in our train car. They eventually gave us the keys after offering us a room in the hotel. We turned them down (the whole point was to stay in a train car). They sent us on our way with a couple pitchers of ice water, a fan, free restaurant coupons for breakfast, and a comp’d hotel bill. We stayed in the room for a couple of hours and it only seemed to get warmer. Alex was down to a diaper and still couldn’t sleep.

We are now in a regular hotel room, but it is nice and cool.

No trip to the South is complete without a meal at Waffle House. A breakfast of cheese eggs, raisin toast, and grits tasted wonderful. The Gilmans joined us partway through the meal.

After a nap for Alex (the first in a crib since our trip began) we made the journey to Tech for the big game. Brad, Jen, and Jamie joined us on the bleachers.

It turned out to be a little warmer than Alex could stand so we hung out under the bleachers for most of the game.

Tech won and most everyone (except Karen) was happy. We started the hike back to our car and stopped for a few more pictures along the way.

Everyone took a nap (or at least a break) after the game. Then it was dinner at Jock & Jill’s for the Auburn game. Alex couldn’t get into the game (maybe football isn’t his thing) so he played on the floor or in Adam’s lap (note Alex’s yeti shirt – courtesy of Lyz).