Signing

During my pregnancy I read lots of different articles on lots of different things having to do with raising kids and one of the topics I was really interested in was signing. At our first daycare I asked the teacher if she signed with the kids and her opinion was it was a waste of time - they got their point across one way or another. OK. But ever since we started Early Intervention and the daycare he is in now both highly suggested signing as a mode of communication. I figured what the heck we can give it a shot and started with a few signs for "all done" and "more". Alex was about 9 months old when we started this and for months we got nothing - he just thought we were funny. But over the last month or so Alex has started to sign - now most kids do the basics - blow kisses and wave hi or bye bye. Alex loves waving! But I am so impressed - he signs all done and more now (especially when we have pizza) and the other day I was talking with the OT about his frustration and independence and she suggested teaching him the sign for "help". She showed me what it was and then showed Alex. Then 10 minutes later he was really frustrated and she signed to him and asked him if he wanted help and he did it back! Now I am sure he did not learn that from one observation so I asked the teacher if they taught it to him and she was SO excited - all their repetitions paid off too! So far here are his signs:

Waving hi or bye bye
all done
more
help
eat - this one he made up himself - he clicks his tongue and pretends to chew when he wants a snack

We are working on Mommy, Daddy, please and thank you right now.

Do I think this is going to slow down language? NO because he is quite vocal as it is and we always use the words and the signs together - its amazing the signs and words some of the bigger toddlers have at daycare. Unfortunately after starting to say Mum and Daddy we have given those words up and now just say uh oh and his version of kitty. Uh oh is his favorite and he says it constantly. I guess I should be happy its not NO! (yet).

Oh Kitty!

Over the past 13 months our two fur babies have been nothing but patient with Alex - patient beyond our wildest dreams. Syd our fluffy white male furball is by far the most patient. He loves being pet so much that he tolerates Alex "patting" him and I use that in the most general of terms! Usually it is pat and then grab a fistful of fur - but he deals. Not once has he hissed or swatted and for that I am grateful. I was truly worried about him.

Sally on the other hand has had NOTHING to do with Alex. From day one she has stayed out of the way and out of his reach - she is almost 11 and set in her ways. She just keeps to herself until he is in bed and then comes around for her love. Recently though I think she has decided she is going to stand her ground and not put up with him trying to poke and hit her. It started as her swatting his hand (no claws!) and he did not like that one bit! But today he pushed her too far - he was banging on the couch trying to reach her and she swatted him and the claw was out - she just grazed him on the back of the hand - and he did not even know it! I saw her catch his PJs so I knew she scratched him. A tiny little scratch on the back of his hand. I cleaned it out and put some medicine on it. He has to learn and I guess there are going to be some scratches along the way - as long as its not his face!

What a fast weekend

Whoa this weekend flew by! Alex was officially over his fever on Friday so we were able to go to our "holiday" party on Saturday - what my girlfriends and I have tried to do once a year - get all of us and all of our kids/husbands - significant others together in one place once a year. Last year we did not have our party - with Alex just being born and being in the hospital (and my fear of every germ imaginable) and Fay due around now we just gave up. So this year we have added 6! kids to the clan - we now have a total of 10 kids between the 5 of us with 1 more on the way! It was a great and relatively calm afternoon - I think next year with 6 kids between the ages of 1 and 3 it will be a mad house. But we had a great time with and even got a picture of all the girls with all the kids with Alex being the only one not sitting still and crying. Oh well.

Peeking between the banisters on Grammy's stairs

Sunday it was off to NH to visit the grandparents and to finish putting Alex's wagon together after Grampy had to do some emergency fixing. This time Alex was able to go for a ride - and Grammy's house is big enough that we could go for a ride inside too!


Yes he looks totally miserable outside but it was cold and he was tired so we were only out there for about 10 minutes tops! Grammy and Grampy and Carol stayed inside and watched from the window - they did not want to brave the cold!

Nothing like a 4 hour nap (and my Dr rant)

to cure what ails you! Since Wednesday night Alex has had a fever of 102 or so. We think its because of the MMR vaccine that he got 10 days ago - perfect timing for side effects. Good thing the doctor had me write on the calendar when 10 days out would be. Unfortunately Alex has been unable to go to daycare because of his fever so Chris has been working from home.

We went to the doctor yesterday to rule out ear infections - I always think he has an ear infection - and what an awful trip - we NEVER should have gone. I hate seeing doctors other than Alex's pedi - so far I have only liked maybe one of them. This guy was the WORST.

In walks doctor to Alex who was already crying because we were changing his diaper and he did not want it changed. Doctor proceeds to listen to Alex's chest while he is SCREAMING at what I thought was the top of his lungs - HOW can you hear anything with that racket? Strike 1. Doctor then proceeds to look in Alex's ears - with me holding him down and him still screaming - now at what is the top of his lungs. Incompetent doctor decides that there is ear wax and he cant see and thus needs to clean out his ears. Lovely. Strike 2. Now Alex ramps himself up to a whole new level of SCREAMING. So after cleaning and looking and cleaning and looking and cleaning and looking (and not really getting much out) he GIVES UP!!! At this point I am holding Alex and he starts to gag from all of his crying and luckily I knew what was coming so we went over to the sink where Alex proceeded to throw up - cleanly in the sink - YOUR WELCOME Dr. because what I should have done is let him puke on YOU! Then dumb Dr. says "Well maybe now he feels better" - Gee thanks we all feel better after crying so hard we throw up! Now because he cant see in Alex's right ear - his problem ear anyway - we have to go down the hall to this machine that will tell us if there is fluid in his ear! So all along there was a machine and you made my kid this upset with your incompetence!!!! Strike 3. I would rather see no one than this guy again! All he can come up with is maybe its the vaccine, maybe its a virus. THANKS.

Changes, Changes

Everywhere we go lately there are big changes! At daycare today Alex slept on a mat like the big kids! He took both of his naps on the mat today and the teachers got pictures! He looked so cute!

Alex got tooth #5 today - upper left next to his front tooth!

Here are some pictures from last night in the tub - he looked so cute with his we hair. He was having so much fun in the tub we let him play in there for quite a while. He had pruny fingers and toes he was in there so long!

Back at daycare

Back to reality today - work and daycare! Sue the OT came this morning and is really impressed by all the progress Alex is making with eating and his development. We set our appointment for the 6 month Early Intervention evaluation and she really does not think he will need her help anymore. My concern is speech but who knows - maybe let it go for a while and see how he does. We can always have them come re-evaluate at a later date!

When I left daycare this morning Alex was sitting at the big boy table with two of his friends eating Cheerios, crackers and banana thinking it was the best thing ever. He waved bye bye and continued on with his day!

We had a great day yesterday playing with Auntie Laurie and Nicole and going out to lunch even though Alex really wanted nothing to do with sitting in his own chair and eating - but as long as someone was holding him he was fine and he ate his first DD Munchkin - YUM!

We are getting excited for our party with our friends this weekend - lets keep our fingers crossed everyone stays healthy!

The beginning of the end?

On of the things I am most proud of as a first time Mom is nursing Alex for the last 13 months! The only time he has ever had formula is during the few weeks he was in the hospital and the first week at home because we had to supplement my breastmilk with some extra calories to help maintain his weight. Normal BM is 20 calories/ounce and he was taking 22 calories/ounce. We are introducing milk in his sippy cup and he is doing very well as you can see from previous posts - I figured the two hardest to switch would be first thing in the morning and before bed. Well this morning I was totally rejected - Alex kept biting me! The biting thing has been getting more and more consistent over the last week or so and harder and harder - and he thinks its funny - like everything else in life. So I made him a sippy cup of milk and he sat with Chris and drank the whole thing! I am sad yet happy that he is choosing to make this transition on his own. He is a VERY independent kid!

Leaps and Bounds

We never seem to do things one at a time or slowly - with Alex its pretty much all or nothing. I think he waits until he is really ready to do something and then just does it. So far this weekend we have:

1. Moved the car seats from rear-facing to front-facing and had our first car ride that way! I think he likes being able to see us and its really weird to turn around and have him look back at you. At least I can check on him now.

2. We are trying REALLY HARD to break the bottle habit during the day. So Alex is drinking his milk from his sippy cups. We are still working on finding the best one but at daycare on Friday he drank about 3 oz of milk from his cup COLD! Woo Hoo. He has been having it slightly warmed at home but not above room temp in a cup.

3. Walking - Alex has really shown no interest in walking - he stands up and sits down, he cruises around the furniture but nothing else. We have been "practicing" a bit with his shopping cart which is nice and stable with a wide wheel base but really it is a challenge - keeping the cart moving slow and prodding him to move his feet and picking him up off his knees every 2 steps. Quite frustrating and back breaking - this was Saturday. Sunday morning we decided to practice some more - Chris put Alex in front of the cart and was getting ready to help him along and he just took off with it across the room. One foot in front of the other walking right along and LOVING it! He was so proud of himself. We thought - OK its a fluke - so we turned him around and he has been doing it all day! He has no idea how to turn the cart around or maneuver obstacles but from one day nothing to the next almost running with the cart - its pretty funny! He thinks its so funny! I will try and figure out the video thing and post one!

A Day to Myself

I decided today I would "work from home" and send Alex to daycare for a few hours to get some things done. Well no actual work happened but I did get some chores done - 3 loads of laundry with probably another 2 to go but I wanted to wait until I had all the clothes and sheets and blankets from daycare before I finished, I vaccuumed the floors and I wet vacced the nasty areas of the living room that have needed it for way too long (I wonder if Chris will notice!). Other than that I sat on my butt and read a book for a few hours - one of my favorite hobbies and took a trip to Walmart to get the fabric I need to make a little something for the babies at the annual holiday gathering we try to have with my girlfriends and their families. If they come out good I will take a picture and post it. It may even give me the needed motivation to quilt!

Thanksgiving Thursday

One of the blogs I ready frequently - What a Trip - started a Thanksgiving Thursday to list off 10 things you are thankful for each Thursday. Here is my list this week and since its my first one a few might be obvious:

1. Alex - That despite his runny nose and cough he is still a happy kid. We overcame so many hurdles to have him and he had such a rough entry into the world - I am so thankful that he has progressed with leaps and bounds and is a joy to be with!

2. The NICU staff at Children's Hospital Boston - the nurses that took care of Alex were beyond words - an no amount of thanks will ever be enough to convey how much they touched our lives and made the hardest moments of my life bearable.

3. My family - for letting me be who I am and loving me anyway

4. My husband for the same reasons and that he is such a great Dad - it shows every day how much he loves our little boy!

5. My new job - I applied on a whim and made a huge leap of faith - basically changing the direction I had been going 180 degrees - from being a biomedical researcher to teaching biology. I am so thankful that I took that leap - so far it is working for me so much better than my old job - gone is the guilt and I am more independent than I have been in years - that's how I work best!

6. Baby kisses - I love baby kisses - the open mouth, slobbery wet, almost lick, almost bite.

7. The other 4 of the fab 5 - we dont get to see each other all that much but we have been closer in the past year or so with the addition of 6 of our 10 kids in the last year alone! I am so thankful for our emails.

8. Our general situation - we are comfortable. We have a roof over our heads (although I hope to buy a new roof this year) and food to eat and jobs to go to every day. In this economy we are lucky.

9. Kitties - fluffy and mischievious - frustrating and lovey. The ultimate contraditions all wrapped into two balls of fur.

10. Alex being comfortable enough at the daycare he goes to that he does not cry when I leave. He loves playing with the other kids and the teachers and I think they love him back. It would break my heart every day if he cried when I left. I am even more thankful that he LOVES when I pick him up every day and gets mad if I try and put him down once I pick him up!

Alex's Cakes

Alex had had three birthday cakes this year! I forgot to post pictures of them as we went:

The train was cake #1 that I made for his actual birthday. He did not eat any of this one!

This is cake #2 that Auntie Kathie made for Alex when we went to her house a few days after Christmas.

Cake #3 was the cake we had at his party last weekend - it was "Cars" from BJs. Of course the store bought cake was the one he ate!

Big Kids!

Daycare has been making lots of adjustments in the last few weeks - changing classrooms and adding new ones and new teachers - as they are expanding! So Alex's classroom is changing a bit too. The older kids are going to be learning to sleep on mats (I think Alex has a way to go on this) and also they are learning to eat at the table rather than in high chairs. Yesterday Alex got a a chance to eat his snack at the table and he LOVED it. Not surprising as he has always loved to sit up at the table when we go to restaurants. He got a bit upset when one of the other babies was pushing the table over and squishing him but otherwise he did great! I think now we really need to work on drinking milk from a sippy cup and not from a bottle. I think we will aim for that goal this weekend.

12 (and a 1/2) Month Doctor's visit

Yesterday was our 12 month doctors visit - we had to cancel the first one due to illness so here are the stats:

22 lbs 7 oz (44%)
30.5 inches tall (although he was very wiggly so I think he's taller) - 75%
47 cm head circumference - 75%

To compare to 1/11/08 when he was just home from the hospital - 5 lbs 11 oz and 19.75 inches! He has gained 17 lbs 3 oz and grew 11.5 inches since birth!!!!

All % are unadjusted for age! He is doing great - he was so good for Dr. Benz and his ears still have fluid in them but its clear - lets see how things go. He said we can turn the carseat around - especially if his feet are bunched against the seat. He can have honey - although we are not big honey people. He should start meat - we tried some of that nasty baby crap today - never again - I almost gagged opening it and Alex cried eating it - I will make him some myself.

Then the nurse came back and gave him two shots - one for chicken pox and the other for MMR. Now I've done the reading and understand the studies but that vaccine and its issues bother me but I had him get it anyways because just my like he would be the kid with measles.
He really did not like it and screamed and screamed and screamed - but nursing helped. Then it was off to the lab to get his blood drawn for lead and anemia check. And again he screamed and screamed and screamed - not because the finger prick hurt - oh no - he was screaming because we were restraining him and he wanted NOTHING to do with that! Once it was over he had gauze and tape on his finger and that was enough to soothe his woes - and he tried to eat it.

To compare to me and Chris when we were comparable ages:

Chris - 22.5 lbs 19"
Me - 25 lbs 31.5"

So still Alex is right in line with Chris' weight and my height as he has been all along! We go back again for a 15 month and that should be it for the shots until he is 4!

New Tooth!

Alex now has 4 teeth! I originally thought he had the top 2 front ones a few weeks ago but my mom pointed out the second one was not down yet - now it is! Really he has 2 full teeth and one 1/4 tooth and one ridge! He is getting better at letting me look for his teeth if I do it early in the morning when he wakes up and he likes to brush his teeth too!

Where did the weekend go?

This was a VERY busy weekend. We had Alex's birthday party on Saturday - even though some of us celebrated on his actual birthday we were able to get most of our family and friends together for some cake and ice cream. We had Chris' parents down to my parents house and had some lunch first - YUM Genarro's! Alex did great. This time he actually ate his cake. I gave him a plate (why I'm not sure) but he flipped it off and ate his cake quite methodically. It was funny watching him especially where he has texture issues I was not sure if he was even going to eat it. Here is is a before and after picture:

He got so many nice presents - not too interested in opening them still but was DEFINITELY interested in checking them out!

We made it home before the snowstorm and spent Sunday playing with all his new toys and books. We also decided to see what Alex thought of his sled and see if his snowpants fit or not so after some practice:

we bundled him up and off we went:

This lasted about 1 minute and then he touched the snow - I know where are his mittens? He HATES mittens - then I learned he HATES cold snow more! So for about 5 minutes Chris pulled him around on the sled (with mittens) while he cried intermittenly and then we went inside where he continued his babbling protests for another 20 minutes - it was pretty funny.

One Year Ago Today...

Alex came home from the hospital - he weighed about 5 lbs 9 oz when we brought him home - what a peanut! What a difference a year makes! Here he is all ready to go home with the sweater and hat my grandmother made him on with his little Preemie outfit on that was still too big.


He was still VERY jaundice and recovering from all the bruising he sustained at birth but over time all that went away!

Things I never thought I would say to another person...

1. Please don't eat my shoes
2. Stop chewing on the chair
3. NO! That's the cats food!

These are three examples of the daily routine with Alex. I dont understand his facination with licking shoes - I finally had to move them away from the front door.

Teething is rough - Alex's is chewing on everything and anything he can get his mouth on - usually the kitchen chairs or me.

I broke down and moved the cat food to the kitchen from the dining room. I was tired of moving Alex away from the food and water bowls - which he managed to soak himself with on Christmas morning!

Most of the above things he now considers games and thinks its so funny when I say NO and move him away - he goes right back because I "chase" him. He actually stops and looks to see if you are watching him before he does the things he is not supposed to.

Unfortunately now that I have move the cat food he has moved to the next thing over - my wine rack which until now he has ignored completely. Ugh. I NEED A BIGGER HOME!

I also think that Alex is starting to shake his head no. He got his hand stuck in a cat toy this morning and after I took his hand out and he was better I asked if he wanted to sit with me and he shook his head and moved on to the next toy!

He really is growing up!

We're Here!

Well its official we have moved here from our Totsite! We made it through the holidays and officially went back to work and daycare today. I thought Alex would have a hard time getting back into the groove of daycare - NOPE! He went right in - I put him down and he crawled to some toys and started playing while I put all his things away. When I was leaving I put him in the jump thing (which he LOVES!) and off I went - no crying, no fussing - NOTHING! I guess I should be happy he is so comfortable there.

The nice thing though was he was SO EXCITED to see me when I picked him up this afternoon. He makes my day! We really are lucky to have such a good kid! He is my heart.

So what is Alex doing thats new? Quite a few things actually!

1. He has a new tooth - I thought both top front teeth came in but really only one did.

2. Alex likes to point at things now and babbles away - no idea what he is saying though!

3. He LOVES the kitties - he follows them all over the house

4. Alex is slowly attempting walking with his new shopping cart. It moves too fast for him alone so we have to control the speed.

5. Alex loves it when we do funny things - he has a great laugh.

6. Alex has started drinking cow milk during the day. I am slowly mixing it in with his bottles for daycare to get him changed over.

Alex had his 1 year pictures taken last Saturday. Here are some...