Around Christmas Time

Baby's first Christmas... I remember how much we were talking about Alex's first Christmas last year when I was pregnant and we were calculating that he'll be ten months old this time of the year. Now that we celebrated it already, I can't believe these days we anticipate all year round go by so fast. The best part for us this year is that we get to experience Christmas twice, once with Mimi and Papa in DC and secondly, in New Jersey, at Julie's place during New Year's week.  Alex had a great time and received lots of gifts although he didn't realize too much what was going on. He did enjoy the many Christmas lights and decorations we saw around the city.

We started Christmas weekend with a walk to Union Station to watch the train display and catch a bite at the newly opened Pret A Manger. Alex rode in style there in his smart trike and turned heads everywhere.

The friendly staff at Pret took a picture of all of us. They all loved Alex of course and he didn't mind all the attention.

The train display was a big hit, he enjoyed checking out the cute trains circling around.

On Christmas Eve, Michael and I enjoyed the evening church service while Mimi and Papa babysat Alex. He was in a goofy mood all night and it continued when we arrived home too. Here's Michael chasing him in his crib with the giant monkey. Love Alex's laughter:)

Then Christmas morning came and we sat around and opened some gifts. This is a tree ornament Alex got from Mimi and Papa... next year we'll put up a Christmas tree so we can hang it. This year we kind of skipped that part. Despite the lack of a beautifully decorated tree, Santa wasn't picky and 'dropped off' still lots of gifts for everyone.

Later in the day, we had a few friends stopping by our house and hanging out for a bit.

By the evening, we decided to get out of the house for some fresh air and check out the National Tree by the White House. We will have to start a tradition where we take Alex there each year. DC is not as famous as NYC for its Christmas decor, but it's still unique and worth exploring during this special time of the year.

Monday was another beautiful day so we drove to Mount Vernon and visited the estate. Lots of people had the same idea and we almost gave up when it took us forever to find parking. We ended up walking around there and enjoying the beautiful views and decorations. I like this picture of us by the Christmas tree, only that Alex was ready to go down for a nap and was enjoying his milk instead of posing for the camera like mommy and daddy did.

I have to say one more thing, and maybe the MOST important thing of all. Besides gifts, lights, decorations, foods, the most special part of Christmas is whom we celebrate. Baby Jesus' birth was and still is the most precious gift any of us, human beings could have ever received. I really liked what my pastor said during the Christmas eve service when he summarized this extraordinary holiday into this: "He (Jesus) came to our place, so He could invite us back to his.' Happy Birthday, baby Jesus, thank you for coming to this world!

10 months

So, as I type right now, Alex is trying desperately to grab the container of nuts on the china cabinet behind me.  Needless to say, things around our house have changed a little bit since my last blog post, two months ago.  I know I had originally said that we were going to change to a more bi-weekly or even monthly update, but this seems to have gone a bit beyond that.

Since my last post, Alex has started crawling.  In fact, he's going quite a bit beyond crawling to pulling up on the furniture and even moving around it a bit.  He's also discovered stairs.  He thinks they're great fun to climb on and up.  The result of that one is that the gates we put at the tops of the stairs to keep him from bouncing down them aren't sufficient.  Instead, we're going to have to start looking for ones appropriate for the bottoms too.  In the meantime, I guess we can continue to put furniture and boxes in front of them or just keep running for him as he tries to ascend.

He's still a healthy and happy little(-ish) boy.  At his last checkup he was 27 pounds and 31 inches long.  That's 95th percentile if you're curious.  However, even with him being that big, as he's started crawling and moving around more, some of his baby fat-based chubbiness has gone away.  He's not really gained any more weight than before, but instead looks like someone's stretching him.  He's also not looking any more like me than before, in fact he keeps looking more like mommy (as this post shows).

That being said, we think he's gotten more of my personality.  He can be a rather intense and focused little one, when he wants.  But at the same time, he seems to have a goofy sense of humor (though I think a lot of babies and toddlers have that).  He also loves buttons and knobs and blinking lights.  My parents always tell this story about me as a little one: when they needed a break, they would just put me in the playpen right in front of the stereo.  I would then proceed to spend a good amount of time playing with and turning the knobs.  I suspect Alex would do the same thing.  He definitely likes the stereo we have.  Oh and he's figured out how to turn on and off the clock radio we have in the basement.  I really like the video Feli posted of Alex ignoring his toys while going for the remote control on the table.

He's still sleeping through the night, which is very nice.  He tends to head to bed around 6-8, give or take, and then will sleep to 6 or 7 AM.  After that, his schedule is a bit more squishy.  He's still taking about three naps per day, one an hour or so after he gets up, one mid morning and one mid afternoon.  Of course, that tends to change a bit from day to day.  In fact this morning, we have no early morning nap and are hoping to hold off for the 10am nap.

Feeding time is definitely becoming more interested.  He's started to feed himself and sometimes won't eat unless it's that way.  He still seems to eat just about anything Feli and I feed him, which tends to make mommy very happy.  However, he definitely loved to eat fruits and cheese.  And of course he likes to chew on the occasional stick as well.  Yesterday, he and I were walking around the city after having played at the local playground.  When we got home, mommy found that he'd been chewing on a stick the entire time.  I guess he got his minerals that way.

Through it all, he's still remained the easy to handle, happy little guy that we've grown to love.  It's been a fun 10 months watching him grow and mature and flourish.  We're definitely thankful for him and couldn't ask for a better fit for our small, but growing family.

Comparing Notes (part one)

Michael found a bunch of photos he has been saving on his computer and shared them with me. Last night I couldn't stop digging through them, especially the old black and white photos he had scanned a while back. Lucky me, my dad was into photography as I was growing up so I have lots of black and white (and a few color) photos revealing my own childhood, in a totally different part of world. I am very thankful for my dad who took the time and energy to learn how to develop films, there were no expensive, fancy, smart DSLR cameras back then. I don't think I would be as good as documenting Alex's childhood, all ten months of it so far, with so many pictures (oh, and videos!!) if the camera wouldn't do pretty much all the work for me... I basically point and click at this photogenic baby of mine, him and the camera are the only ones working or posing.

If the old picture of me would have the same quality as Alex's, I think it would be hard to tell who's who. Alex looks very much like me, don't you think so? Both him and I were so cheeky and round:

 

One of my favorites photos of me is this one where my very young, good looking dad was holding me. I thought the photo of Michael and Alex was a great comparison... although obviously Alex already has a funnier side than I had... look how serious I was lol.

It's kind of amazing to see how big of a difference it can be from one generation to another. Sometimes it makes me wonder how is it going to be when Alex's will be an adult.... well, kind of scary thought because that means I will be old but most probably a very, proud, happy mom still:)

 

Flip Friday

It's 9 pm and the video I am posting today is something I recorded a few hours earlier. Alex was playing by himself in the living room with whatever he could get his hands on. As you can see there are a lot of bright color toys laying around that make great sounds and can play music and have fun claps to bang on. At one moment I started recorded him but I couldn't see what it was behind the toys that he was determined to get! I was intrigued what could be more interesting than the toys... See the video to see what a daddy's boy Alex is!!

Old Town Alexandria

It's been a mild December so far, giving us the chance to spend lots of time outside, either at the playground, walking around town, running errands or enjoying scenic places around DC. Last Friday, my mommy friend Roxana had the idea of going to old town Alexandria and getting some fresh air while walking around and doing some window shopping. We were joking how our husbands who work during the day (to whom we are very grateful to by the way!!), love us even more when we do that kind of shopping... no credit cards involved.

It was a beautiful, crisp day and the four of us enjoyed the beautiful area there. Here are some of my favorite shots I got that day.The boys by the waterfront, although Alex wasn't too happy with mommy taking pictures and not pushing the stroller.

This is my new Romanian friend Roxana, whom also is married to an American, whom also has a boy (just a few months older than Alex) and who lives just outside DC. We became buddies right away and we see our little guys falling for each other too.

 

Flip Sunday it is...

Yet again I didn't manage to post the usual Friday video. I might have to change the rule of the 'Flip Friday'  to 'Flip Random Day'. This way I will not feel bad for always being late. Yes, I think I will do that and see how it goes.

Anyways, here is a clip of Alex (wearing his cute dinosaur pj's) feeding himself. He is into the stage where he likes to be a 'big boy' and take the food to his mouth and not just his food... .I don't like the messiness babies make when they attempt to feed their little mouths, so I was trying to hold off on this as long as I could. Maybe the fact that one of my (early) Christmas gifts was this amazing floor cleaner which makes washing the floor such a easy breezy job, Alex gets to play more with food now. He has such a satisfaction in his eyes when he gets to actually find his mouth.

Thanksgiving Week

I realize this entry about our week in Knoxville is a little bit late but then again, it kind of fits in with how updates show up on Alex's blog... a few days late. I did want to post a few glimpses of our fun days in Tennessee and show Alex's first video. He got a hold of the Flip and off he went, recording his first video segment. Alex had a blast visiting Mimi and Papa, especially that his cousins were down there. Charlie was a great gang leader, behaving well and helping out as much as he could. Alex is already looking up to him!

The weather was gorgeous all week so the boys had lots of fun outside. Tractors and cars helped out in keeping these active boys entertained and happy.

This next photo for me seems to represent the future for us: Charlie leading the crowd, Henry always going for the adventure part and Alex, wanting to imitate Henry while hanging on for his dear life. Oh boy, fun times ahead once Alex joins his cousins...

Alex would make a great cowboy, wouldn't he? Charlie let us borrow his awesome hat and pose with it.

We also managed to get a few family shots right before Michael and I went on a little date later that day. It was nice of Mimi to babysit Alex for us and on top of that to gift us with tickets to a Knoxville Food Tour.

Beautiful aunt Julie and Alex posed for the camera as well. Look at both those smiles!!

With three beautiful grandsons like these three musketeers, anyone would be as smiley as Mimi and Papa.

And finally a little preview of what's ahead... Merry Christmas everyone!

 

The conclusion is made by Alex as he grabs the video camera from Michael's hands...

Flip Friday

It looks like this blog is becoming a lot of 'Flip Friday's entries. I don't know really what I can do to get my act together and be more active about blogging. There are so many funny moments and stories I want to capture at the time when they happen but then I got distracted and busy with other things and never come around to do it. Well, one thing I do right  and I am not ashamed to brag about it: I  take pictures, lots of pictures of our little guy playing, eating, crawling, doing the funniest faces and all. I post these pictures on regular basis on Facebook or Picasa.

I was looking through the videos and I decided to dig through some of the earlier ones. Alex is only nine months old but looking at some of these early videos, I couldn't believe the change he went through in just a few months. I mean, just look at these cheeks!! He's still a 'chunky monkey' (yet another nickname for him) but he's thinned out since the trip to California back in June when I filmed this. I liked how intrigued he seemed to be about his hand and fingers. Now he's into 'blinking lights and buttons' just like someone else I know.

 

Flip Friday

It's Black Friday today but that doesn't mean too much to those who don't go on crazy shopping sprees. I had a great night's sleep last night except that Alex got me up at 5.45 am. Couldn't imagine being outside the local department store instead amongst the other hundreds of people who impatiently wait for the doors to open. We had a lovely Thanksgiving dinner last night and this is a short clip of the family just chilling and sitting around.

Flip Friday (on Sunday... again)

Last week Alex and I hang out pretty much the whole day with Ashton and his mommy, Roxana. These two boys are buddies now and can play together, ignore or pull each other, share toys and grab them from each other's hands, do all the fun stuff boys their age do. Here's a clip of them playing and communicating between them:

Flip Friday

WIth Alex crawling now all over the place, the first thing we did was to put a gate to the stairs leading to the basement. He knows daddy is down there (Michael moved his upstairs office in the basement after Alex was born) so that's where Alex heads first. He puts his head against the gate and just peeks down there, waiting for daddy to say something, come up and make him laugh. Sometimes daddy has to focus so the door is shut and that's when Alex sits by the door, just banging on it. He's so cute to watch. Anyways, this hilarious clip is of him laughing hard at daddy through the gate... the two of them make quite a pair:)

 

An Ordinary Day

Here's an entry about being grateful. With each day passing by of me being home with Alex, I am more and more grateful to God for providing for us in such a way that I am able to be a stay at home mom for now. I am very much grateful to my husband, Michael who agreed for me to quit my job and who works so hard that at the end of the day we have food, shelter and basic needs covered.

I am so grateful for my life. I have a special family, I live in a wonderful city, I go to an amazing church... Simply put it, I live a good life and today, just an ordinary day made me realize that once again. We all got up a little bit after 7 am and I decided to go for a little morning jog while Michael watched Alex. It was an unusually foggy fall day I thought, giving the day an already feel of mystery and unknown. It was a short run as I am not quite back into my pre-baby capacities, but enough to put me in a good mood. By the time I got home, Alex was fed and totally involved in playing with his toys. He's very good at playing by himself, shows a bit of a self-sufficiency quality which can come in handy for me when I need to get things done. After his morning nap, him and I got ready to get out of door and meet a dear friend for lunch. The weather changed completely since morning- wind was blowing and temperatures dropped quite a bit. I bundled up the little one, grabbed the rain cover just in case,  put on my new pair of rain boots (yes, I gave in and bought a pair for myself) and got out of the door. We walked all the way to Chinatown where we met Melanie for a delicious sushi lunch. Alex got to try tofu and had some rice. He liked the food, sitting in his high chair, enjoyed playing with whatever I let him have and managed to broke the little soy sauce plate. Ops! I somehow thought he wouldn't drop it and let him fly it over his head but it did land on the floor.

After lunch, little one and I did a bit of shopping at Bed, Bath and Beyond than crossed the street over to our favorite museum, National Portrait of Gallery. Alex had a blast (his shrieks of happiness could be heard all over the indoor court) crawling around and playing with me. He didn't care too much about the people taking apart the impressive stage which was set up there for some Global Forum according to the sign. We didn't spend too much time at the museum because I knew little one was sleepy. We headed back home in the cold rain, but Alex fell asleep almost right away, all cozy in the stroller and covered up. I walked back and then close to home, I decided to swing by this Mexican produce store I discovered not long ago by us. It's in the warehouse district area, north of Florida avenue, kind of weird area to walk around with a stroller but the store is amazing- it has very cheap produce:)) Got some stuff than headed home. Little one was awake and eager to get out of the stroller. Now that he can crawl everywhere, he doesn't have the patience anymore to stay still in the stroller. He wants to get out and look around. Inside the house, he started playing with his toys as if he was seeing his old friends again after a long separation.

It was now 4 pm and outside was cold and wet so we just stayed inside. Alex played, knocked on the door to the basement knowing his daddy was hiding behind it, crawled all over the main floor, ate some yummy stuff (carrot cake cupcake anyone?) and tired himself overall from being way too excited about everything he was doing. By 5.30 pm I had to rush out the door to a chiropractor appointment I had by Eastern Market so Alex stayed behind with daddy. I decided to jog over, the rain stopped by now although it was already dark outside. Had a pleasant appointment, it's only my second time going in for the treatment but it felt really good. I felt so relaxed leaving that place. Anyways, on the way home I stopped by a consignment kid's store by Eastern Market and found Alex a new vest and a pair of boots for winter. They both costed me $10 as I already had some credit from some clothes I took in earlier and got sold. I love that! Notice that once during my description of the day did I say I had to drive somewhere or even get in the bus/metro. I absolutely love living in a city where I can walk/run/bike to places. 

Ran home the rest of the way, just in time to give Alex a bath in the sink (see the photo below). He's growing so fast that we are not going to be able to do this much longer. He absolutely loves playing in the water and just splashing around. All clean and fresh, we put him down to sleep and it didn't take long, he was tired after yet another fun, interesting day.

Here I am, sitting down and sipping a glass of wine as I type this. I am coming back to my point and say that I am very grateful for being able to enjoy every moment (pretty much) of the day with my son and see him grow and develop into such a beautiful, healthy, happy baby who wakes up with a smile each morning and is eager to experience another wonderful day.

Flip Friday

It seems like all we are doing is post videos of little one. I SO wished I could make the time to sit down and write how funny, smart and curious our boy is. He's over eight months old now and my days are busier than before... there is no more laying him down and staying still. I have to watch him non stop as he crawls everywhere and puts everything in his mouth. With all that, Alex is cutter than ever and so much fun to observe. Besides crawling and pulling himself up on his own, he even makes a few steps with my help. I predict that by Christmas our boy will be walking around. In one hand, my back wishes that (it's not easy carrying around 26 pounder on my hips), but on the other hand... oh boy, praying for more energy already!

This is another clip of Alex from when the family was in town. Mimi was recording him, happily jumping in his jumperoo... aunt Julie saved us by letting us use their jumperoo. It should get a reward for making it through three energetic boys jumping up and down in it!

 

Cousins

Alex had a great time last week and his cousins, Charlie and Henry were in town. Being surrounded by older kids made him wanna be a big boy too because soon after they left he started crawling. I have also noticed other changes in him that suddenly make him a not-a-baby anymore. On one hand it's exciting to see him grow up so fast, but on the other I can't believe the baby stage is almost gone!!

Here's a clip of the boys sitting at the table. Alex just had his lunch so he's just observing what's going on, where Charlie is happily eating his food, while Henry is misbehaving a little. It's fun to watch.

Weeks in Review 10/17/2011, 33 weeks

A bit over two weeks now have gone by since my last post.  And it's definitely been an interesting 15 days.  Since the last post, we went on a family vacation to Miami Beach.  It was nice getting away for a few days and just relaxing.  We did some of the usual beach-y things, including spending time on the beach itself.  The beach there on South Beach is beautiful and in early October isn't too busy.  I personally found the water to be a bit chilly, though my wife thinks that I'm a weenie.

But I digress.  We're not sure yet if Alex likes the large bathtub as I'm sure it looks to him.  He sort of poked his foot in (or really mommy put his foot in).  And what he did was look slightly frightened and slightly perplexed.  The end result wasn't the sand castle and frolicking in the water vacation we may have wanted.  Instead we spent more time walking around the shopping and touristy areas of South Beach.  And that's fine by me.  Alex seemed to enjoy looking at new and different things, plus it was nice for a change of scenery.

However, don't think the whole trip was touristy areas and nic-nac shops.  We did take a quick trip to the Miami Children's Museum where alex got to play with squishy things and see mom and dad act kind of goofy.  Well, dad act kind of goofy.  We also found a nice city park and playground (which I am currently mayor of) with swings for him to swing on.  It's fun to watch him sit in one of the smaller swings and just smile as we push him.

All in all it was a good vacation.  And again, Alex traveled quite nicely.  No major meltdowns and no major issues.  Not really sure I'd recommend South Beach as a family get away spot, but it really worked better than it could have.

Last weel, then, was a much more normal week for us.  We tried to get back into the swing of things and tried to settle back into a bit more normal schedule.  I do know that Alex was glad to be home.  It was so cute to see him when we brought him back to his room.  He definitely recognized it and appeared to be glad to be home.  And you should have seen the smile on his face when we stared playing his Romanian kids music.

Perhaps the biggest item of note for him was he now has at least one new tooth.  And of course, they are coming in slightly out of order.  He got his bottom two teeth first, as is normal.  And now he has two (well, one and a half) of his upper teeth.  However, they're not the front to.  Nope.  They're the canine (partly) and the one between the canine and the front teeth.  (Dentists all over are groaning at my lack of knowledge of the teeth).

He's also moving closer to crawling and maybe even walking.  I suspect that our next entry will come when he does one or both.

Flip Friday

I missed last week's post being in vacation and all, but here is a short clip of Alex and Michael jamming at the Children's Museum in Miami. We took our little one there for an afternoon but I think Michael and I had a bit more fun than he did. It's funny how sometimes I think he's much bigger than he actually is because he's not that tiny baby anymore I hold in my arms six months ago, but still, he is not big enough to understand and play the tambourine... we tried though.

Week(s?) in Review 10/2/2011, 31 weeks

Ok, so last week's post didn't really happen …. It ended up being a rather busy week and frankly the post just slipped my mind.  However, what came out of it was a decision that instead of weekly entries, well start doing this bi-weekly.  Turns out that as time has progressed and Alex gets to be a little bit older, the big events tend to happen a bit less frequently.  This means that I've had a hard time lately coming up with what he's been doing each week.

Now, of course, as we decide to do this, it's after a rather busy week for our hot rod.  The week started with a trip to Guguta, a Romanian (well, technically Moldovan) mom's group.  Alex seemed to enjoy himself and it's great to see him around other children who are also learning Romanian (or Moldovan in this case).  I'm sure Feli has some video of this she can post at some point.  After that, a coworker of mine came into town for the week, so we had to head to the airport for that.

Since my coworker was in town to work on a big project with me, Feli decided this was a good week to get out of town.  So, she decided to make a trip up to the Philadelphia suburbs to visit a college friend and her two girls.  From what they tell me, they had a grand time hanging out.  Oh, and I think my little guy liked being the center of her two girl's attention.  I'll let Feli write more about that part of the trip if she decides to.

The second half of that trip had me driving up to Bucks County, north of Philly, to meet up with them for the Philadelphia Biblical University homecoming.   And after that, it was spending the night with a dear friend, Lucille.  We haven't seen her since Feli's baby shower almost a year ago.  It was good for her to meet Alex.

That's the review of the week, now a bit more about hot rod and his development.  He's started sleeping on his stomach at night.  Guess he takes after mommy on that one.  He's also starting to scoot.  He's not crawling yet, but he has started pushing up on to all fours and then scooting his legs backwards.  I remember seeing one of my nephews doing the same thing, so I know it's only a matter of time before Alex is crawling around and basically keeping us even busier than before.

Flip Sunday again!

After mentioning that we hang out with Veronica and her Camila and Elena, it's only appropriate that I post some proof of that. With three energetic kids, two of them running around and one wanting to be held almost all the time, didn't give me the chance to record as much as I should have. Each kid, seven months, two and five years old were as cute, funny and beautiful as they could be. Their mommies could not be happier watching them interact. Check it out!

 

Flip Fri... Sunday!

Being away from home breaks the routine in so many ways. Alex and I hang out with my girlfriend, Veronica and her girls for a few days. We had a blast and you can see pictures here.  Of course Friday came and went without me having the time to post any video of him. Here it is a segment with daddy making Alex giggling.

Flip Friday

Bath time for Alex is either in the sink or in the shower with one of us. The sink though is his favorite, he loves 'catching' the water as it sprinkles out from the faucet. I love his cute baby layers showing off in this video:)

Week in Review 9/18/2011, 29 weeks

I guess I'll call this one the "sticking out the tongue" edition.  This week our little guy decided that sticking his tongue out would be a neat trick.  I wonder who he learned that one from ;).  (For those of you who don't know, it's not mommy).  Anyway, it's rather cute at this point.  Not sure how cute it'll be in a couple of years ….

Other than the tongue thing, Saturday was a big day for the family as it was the first real yard sale we've ever had.  In fact, we ended up making it a block-wide sale, trying to glom onto the whole H Street Festival that happened today.  Not sure if it was the best idea or not, but we did have OK foot traffic and most importantly managed to get rid of a bunch of stuff we no longer wanted.

I hate to keep making these short, but as time goes on, there are fewer "big changes" and more moving on with life.  At least there's Flip Friday where Feli posts a video of our little guy.

Also, don't remember if I've mentioned this before, but our little guy really does like water.  We've stared bathing him in the kitchen sink.  He's so cute as he sits and splashes in the water.  It's kinda funny just how much he loves the water.

One thing we have started to notice is that he's getting overwhelmed in crowds.  If there are too many people or too much noise, it's starting to freak him out a little bit.  Not sure if that's a phase or if he's really going to be like that.  Guess only time will tell.

Flip Friday

I was digging through older videos of Alex and decided on this one. It was an early Sunday morning at the end of June when the three of us walked over to the Pier from the hotel. It was Alex's first time at the ocean but he was too little to realize it (about 4 months old). We are taking him again to see the ocean, play in the water and sand, but this time to Florida at the beginning of October. Can't wait!!

Hats (yet another updated version)

I like how our little one can pull of any style. He might have no choice but be into hats like mommy and daddy are. Thank you Mimi for keeping up with Alex's fashion!

Week in Review 9/11/2011, 28 weeks

Another week, another blog entry and another instance of what do I want to say.  Some weeks are easy, like when we have a 6 month anniversary, a hurricane, an earthquake and daddy's birthday all in the same week.  Others like two weeks ago are a bit harder where nothing momentous happened.  Last week was probably a bit of both.  Monday was Labor Day of course, so we had an extra day of relaxation.  Of course, part of that was daddy working out in the garage to finish a project that's been on tap for quite some time.  However, we were able to head over our church's family picnic.  Turns out there's a rather nice little park area south of the city where the Anacostia and Potomac rivers meet.

Tuesday through Thursday mommy will have to tell you about because I was out of town on business.

Friday was a big day for Alex as it was his 6 month checkup.  And … get this … he's almost 25 pounds and over 31" long.  We knew he was getting to be a rather chunky little monkey, but we didn't realize just how big he'd gotten.  Other than that, he's a healthy little 6 month old.

The weekend had us going out ti visit his girlfriends out in the Reston area.  Not sure he really liked the car ride as we had a slight meltdown about half way through.  However, it may not have been the car ride, but rather that he was hungry.  On the way back, he crashed hard and slept the whole way home.

 

Flip Friday

I know this is more like Flip Saturday but I just can't keep the days straight anymore. I realized late last night that it was Friday but didn't have the energy to do anything about it and then today we got all busy. My quick solution was to 'steal' this clip recorded by Michael with his phone about a week ago. We went for a walk to Union St and bought a baguette from one of the vendors outside. We gave Alex his first piece of bread and he absolutely loved it ... not that I am surprised there... he seems to like everything we give him.

Week in Review 9/3/2011, 27 weeks

Ok, so this is almost a two weeks in review entry.  My apologies for the delay in getting this one up and online, but it has been a rather busy few days.  Also, his last week wasn't terribly eventful.  That being said, I think Feli will end up posting a few videos and pictures of our little guy.

My 27th week in pictures

Like daddy will say in his future entry about my week, it was not quite as an impressive one like the previous week but it was still fun and eventful. Mommy really likes taking me places and I enjoy being pushed in the stroller and watch the world around me. Mommy is also a bit obsessed with the camera and she takes it everywhere, but I know when I older, I will enjoy looking at these images and see how little I was and how much I have changed.

Sunday after church, mommy and daddy took me to the Newseum downtown. This was my third time here because we have a yearly membership but I was a bit tired so I didn't enjoy it as much as I could have. We got home and mommy asked daddy to take some pictures of us on the porch. Mommy dressed me up really cute with jeans and a shirt so she wanted to show me off a little, right mommy?

I like this one of mommy and I... where she goes, I go, we are quite inseparable these days.

Monday we went for a long walk on the Capitol Hill and we saw quite a bunch of trees that got destroyed by the hurricane Irene. After a while I got tired chasing fallen trees with mommy so I took a nap but she kept finding them.

Tuesday mommy took me to a MOTH (Mothers On The Hill) group with other babies between 6 to 12 months. We went to a park where they had swings for babies like me so I got to experience my first time on a swing!! I had so much, I hope mommy takes me back there. Look at me, I am a big boy, aren't I?

Wednesday we went for a long walk to IMF where mommy used to work. Here's me sitting up in the park in front of the building, I am pretty good at sitting like this and I like it so much better- I can see much more than being on my back!

I don't remember what we did on Thursday because there is no picture (mommy took a break that day) but then on Friday, we all went for a live music concert at the Yards, the beautiful park by Anacostia river. Some of mommy's friends came along, check me out with the pretty ladies again. I like all the attention I get from them!

Saturday we hang out around the house and then we took a long walk together. We stopped by one of mommy's favorite museum, National Portrait Gallery and enjoyed the cool air inside. Here's me and daddy playing in the inner court of the museum. I have to say that I enjoy very much growing up in this city. Life is good!

 

 

Flip Friday

We cannot get enough of Alex's laughter. We try to make him laugh any chance we get and sometimes he starts chuckling at the slightest goofy face, sometimes it takes all the effort and than some. Here's daddy making Alex laugh after a pleasant, laid back dinner on Michael's birthday, at a neighborhood restaurant.

Happy Wednesday!

Not saying much, just this...

Week in Review 8/28/2011, 26 weeks

Wow!  What a week this was.  First and foremost, our little guy turned 6 months old.  Hard to believe that he's already a half a year old.  It's amazing just how much he's changed in just 26 weeks.  We have sure enjoyed having him around.

So, in addition to the whole turning 6 months things, his first two teeth came in.  Now he can bite the phooey out of us.  Fun.  But at least the first part of the whole teething thing is over and done with.  And, to be completely honest he was actually such a trooper.

Of course, aside from the above events, we had three little events here in DC.  First of, it was my 30th(+5) birthday.  We spent it in the usual way, work, dinner … an earthquake.  And there was that.  I can't believe that after all the time we've spent in Southern California (including the trip earlier this year) and the first earthquake we see is here.  The quake certainly weirded us out and of course Alex picked up on that.

The other major event of this week was the storm.  Hurricane Irene hit here on Saturday night.  And of course, Alex slept right through it.  Fortunately for us, the hurricane wasn't nearly as rough as it could have been.

What a week.  And I'm sure that Feli will have something to add too ….

Flip Friday

On Monday this week, Alex turned six months old! I can't believe how fast this first half a year of his life flew by... Here he's enjoying his morning cereal before we headed out for a fun day.

Week 25 in Pictures

So mommy took me all over the place this week. I do enjoy getting out and meeting my friends, making new friends, riding the metro, the bus, walking around and just seeing this fascinating world I was born into.

My week started with a lunch with all these pretty girls and ladies. My two buddies Ellie and Sofia and their mommies were all over me, the only boy in the crowd. 
I did enjoy the attention, I must admit.

My favorite person was Sofia... she's so pretty. Can I call her my girlfriend? Well... one of my girlfriends??

The next day, mommy took me to this new, beautiful park in SE DC, called the Yards. We met up there with some other mommies from our neighborhood and their kids, but the camera acted up when mom took pictures of me and my other girlfriend, Gracie so all we have is this one of me, taking a nap away from the noise of the water fountain. The kids were playing there loudly, disturbing my afternoon siesta. Mommy was smart to walk away with the stroller so I could get my beauty sleep. How do you think I've grown into this hot stud surrounded by pretty girls??

Another day this week, mommy and I took the metro all the way to IMF where mommy used to work. We met up with two of her many international friends, Maria and Violeta. I like them a lot because once again, I was the only guy in the crowd so all the attention was on me.

One evening this week was more special than usual because daddy and mommy took me out to a neighborhood restaurant. I behaved the whole time and let them enjoy this interesting looking drink they had. I can see my milk on the table and that's all I can think of right now... nam-nam...

Saturday came along and despite the hot weather, the whole gang gathered around my stroller and mommy who took the picture walked over to Florida Avenue to a free ice cream event, DC Scoop. Look how everyone centers around my stroller, I think they all like me.

Even if I couldn't taste yet the yummy ice cream I saw around me, I had fun playing the macho baby. I am a big boy, I can pull it of... can't I?:) Not too sure about the mustache look, but the muscles are totally mine!

Saturday wasn't over yet. Had a good nap after being in that heat earlier and then when I woke up, I was in Paradise... look at all these pretty Romanian ladies around me! I was the man once again... my life is good!

One last picture of the week showing me in action... the action of eating! Mommy introduced me to more yummy food and I like it ALL! Yumm yumm...