Month: November 2009

It’s nice to be back home. Alex started the morning with his favorite balloon (thanks Kristy):

Then I got him ready for Mother’s Day Out:

There was time left over to play with Alex’s new rocking chair. It’s actually an old rocking chair. It was my dad’s when he was little. Alex loves to sit in it and have someone rock him.

I love pajamas. They are comfy and warm and you can never have too many. My current favorites are pajama pants from Aerie.

Not only are they flannel and a GaTech plaid, they have cute cuffs too:

And my favorite shirt to go with them? Gap’s featherweight waffle crew. It stretches out after a little wearing (buy on the small side) and is perfect for a pajama top.

Today was a typical day in Paducah. We got up early to go visit with Grandma. Alex is not much of a cuddler, but he was content to let Grandma hold him for most of the visit:

Then Kate, Scott, Taylor, and Anna came by for a visit. Alex was already down for a nap before I thought to take a picture:

Then I left Alex with Wade while Mom and I went to shop.

Alex did pretty well for his first Thanksgiving. He stayed at the table for the entire meal:

Alex has recently discovered balloons so we were sure to take one with us to Granny and Papa’s. It proved to be an entertaining toy most of the afternoon:

A few hour after lunch Alex was down for a nap, Papa and Granny napped in their chairs, Jerry watched TV, Emily was on the computer, Wade was snacking on ham, and I was taking pictures:

We gathered for a group shot before heading back to Mom’s House:

Then Alex had one more trick to show. Now he’s pulling up on everything he can find. Here we go….

I’m going to come home from Thanksgiving with all of my Christmas decorating done. We started in the living room:

Then the kitchen:

Then the dining room:

Then the downstairs bathroom:

There are quite a few more Christmas touches around the house, but I figured eight pictures was plenty. To celebrate the end of decorating we made s’mores:

I love to have my Mom put the finishing touches on most of my rooms. She has a knack of taking what I have and putting it together just right. This year I asked her to help me decorate for Christmas. We worked on the house quite a bit today, but didn’t quite finish (pictures of that tomorrow). I did get some cute pictures of Mom and Alex having deep discussions:

Then Madison tried to join in:

And another one just because:

Wade and I always string popcorn for our Christmas tree. It’s a tedious project so we also pick a movie series (normally a trilogy) to watch while working. We decided The Godfather II would be sufficiently long (and we have already seen the first one). We worked most of the day, but the tree is done.

In an effort to enjoy our Christmas Tree longer, Wade and I have been getting it the weekend before Thanksgiving. It worked well last year so we planned it again this year. While Wade was getting ready I let Alex play with my boots:

Alex even sat still long enough for a close-up:

Then we headed out to cut down our own tree. We returned to Greenview Tree Farm – the same place we went last year:

We finally found the one we wanted (hopefully a better size for our house than last year):

We got home just in time to put Alex down for a nap and get the tree inside before rushing out for Kristy’s surprise birthday party. We missed the surprise part, but I hear she hadn’t expected a thing. Emelia and Alex seemed to notice each other more this time:

Alex was quite happy to spend the morning in his room playing and I was happy to watch:

Wade and I decided Alex was overdue for a haircut. Today we tried Snip-Its – what fun. I have never been in a hair cut place especially designed for children. They even had an Alex sized chair with a buckle.

Alex did really well throughout the entire thing. I couldn’t believe how much older he looked when we got home:

When we began accumulating baby toys, I assumed Madison might have trouble understanding which toys were hers. I am happy to say she has never gone after Alex’s toys – regardless of whether they are left out on the floor when we are gone. It turns out Madison is even really good at sharing. Madison will be happily chewing on her bone and Alex will crawl over and take it. Madison lets it go without a sound, but watches it like a hawk. The minute Alex gets distracted she will paw it closer and then take it back. I tried to capture it in pictures, but video would be better. Madison is really a great family dog.

Alex has not been good about napping at Mother’s Day Out. I’m not sure if the ladies believed me when I said he sleeps 1-2 hours every 2 hours at home. When I picked him up today they were so excited. They got a 1.5 hour nap. Then they told me they put him in the closet to sleep. I laughed and said we do the same thing on vacations. Alex needs to be alone and talk himself to sleep. Because of the nap, he was in a great mood when we got home. We played and played and Alex got into his funny yoga poses.

Then it was back to chewing. His other front tooth is getting close.

Wade’s Mom is making Alex a Christmas outfit. She made the outfit below as a test piece.

Alex refused to take a nap before church so he was only too happy to go down afterwards:

Then Daddy and Alex played while Mom cooked dinner:

We stayed in and played most of today.

I did get Alex dressed after his second nap, but it didn’t last long. He quickly ended up in just his diaper playing with his toys. He has recently discovered he can get his own toys out of the drawer:

Today was a sleepy day for both Alex and I. I slept 8 hours last night and slept again during two of Alex’s naps. It took till late afternoon for me to fully wake up and then I found some surprise delivery flowers from Wade. That definitely perked me up! (Funny story about the flowers. Wade evidently sent them early afternoon. I was home all afternoon but never heard the doorbell. Wade comes home from work and finds the flowers he sent sitting outside and had to tell me to go look. I still loved the flowers, even if Wade had to essentially deliver them himself.)

I didn’t feel like cooking tonight so we tried a new pizza place – Transfer. It had been highly recommended to us and we did enjoy our dinner. They are well known for their garlic pizzas, which we thought was just okay. However, we loved the crust and can’t wait to go back again and try a more traditional pizza (with some type of tomato sauce). Alex was a trooper through it all and definitely ready for bed when we got home.

Today Alex is 9 months old.

We celebrated with lots of fun stuff like his 9 month checkup. He weighs 19 lbs and 9 oz (45 percentile) and is 29 inches long (75 percentile). He handled the entire visit wonderfully – until the nurse gave him his H1N1 vaccination. That and the fact that it was nap time sent him over the edge. We quickly got dressed and headed home for a nap.

Amber and Abram invited us on a zoo outing. We quickly bundled up and headed out:

The boys had a pretty good time. Alex is old enough to notice the animals and Abram has fun looking at everything up close.

I love these trees – especially in fall when the leaves are gone. Anybody know what I am looking at?

Wade and I get a kick out of Alex’s inchworm movement. Now we have a way to share it with everyone else. Enjoy!

Inchworm crawl from Wade Burch on Vimeo.

Happy Birthday Amy!

Today we raked leaves. I wore Alex in the backpack for part of the time and then we let him play in the leaves:

Until he started eating the leaves:

Then Wade rescued him for a hug before nap time:

Alex with all of his loot:

A nice family picture before Wade and I went out on a date (dinner at Meritage, a little shopping, and bowling).

Today was a marathon nap day. Alex woke up at 7 am. After a bottle and a little playing he was back in bed at 7:45 and slept till 10. (I also went back to bed and slept till 10.) At 10 am I found a very happy boy:

We went to the YMCA and then had lunch. I let Alex mostly feed himself today. Madison was on cleanup duty.

Then it was time for another nap:

Wade timed coming home with Alex waking up from his third nap of the day. Alex loves to play with Daddy:

Wade’s parents had given us a gift certificate to Rendezvous for our anniversary (in August). We decided we would order the ribs when the bathroom was complete. The ribs come overnighted with dry ice. Alex enjoyed the box:

Baked beans and cornbread rounded out our Southern dinner:

On a side note: While playing on the floor in the office, Alex discovered Wade’s felt donut. I got a kick out of him trying to chew on it: