My life so far …. a post by Alex

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Hats (updated version)

Love how Wendy keeps the hats picture current. Thank you Mimi!:)

 

Flip Friday

Alex can roll over now and he does it with more and more gusto every time. He gets excited rolling, pulling his hand out but then after a minute or two he gets all unhappy on his tummy. Here's a short clip with him being determined to roll over.  Well done Alex!!

My first blog post

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Week in Review 7/24/2011, 21 weeks

Ok, so with all the writing Feli’s done lately, you, our dear reader, should be well and truly up to date with what Alex has been up to lately.  But I will give you a quick recap.  This week saw the three of us go from DC to Chicago and back to DC, then up to Philly for a night and then we got to spend a couple of days in the heatwave here in DC.  Ick.

While I’m thinking about it, I do want to post a quick link to our pictures collection on Picasa (http://picasaweb.google.com/uthanda/).  This is where we keep all our pictures posted and it’s a great place to watch as the little one keeps on growing and maturing.

On a personal note, I do want to point out just how lucky we are to have a baby like Alex.  With as much as Feli and I like to get out and about and travel, live with a baby that couldn’t do any of that would be miserable.  Instead what we were given was a baby that seems happy regardless of where he’s at and is at his happiest when he’s out and about looking around and watching the world go by.

Philadelphia

Not even six months old and baby Alex scored another city and state down: Philadelphia, PA. He's already traveled to Virginia, California, Illinois and now Pennsylvania. Way to go Alex! He might not have any choice in this one but become world traveler like mommy and daddy.

Besides being in four different states, Alex traveled with all sorts of public transportation so far: bus, metro, airplane and this week it was his first time on the Amtrak train. Daddy went to Philadelphia for a short business trip so we decided to join him. He absolutely loved the train, looked out the window with much interest and enjoyed a nap while being rocked by the train's movement.

 

 

On Tuesday when we arrived, daddy got busy with work, but I was able to take him on a stroll around my former city. We were conveniently located at a hotel by Market East so we walked by the City Hall (picture below), browsed the Reading Terminal Market, stopped for gelato at my favorite place Capo Giro and for dinner we all went to a restaurant in Chinatown.

 

On Wednesday, I met up with my bestfriend, Veronica and her older daughter Camila. It was the first time Alex met auntie Vero but it was love at first... and just like mommy, auntie Vero could not stop kissing those chunky cheeks. Sorry buddy, you are way to yummy, we can't help ourselves.

It was a hot day so we were hiding from a coffee shop, to different stores, to the gelato place again and then around the Market East station. A funny incident happened while we were enjoying gelato. I was holding Alex in my lap when suddenly I felt the very distinctive warmth on my legs. I figured, oh, he peed and leaked a little. When I took a look though it was much more than that: my pants were covered in yellow poop, plus a little pile was spotting the floor too. It was lots and stinky but the weirdest thing was that he hasn't spotted his shorts at all. Somehow all the poop came out through the sides of his diaper and did not touch him. Luckily Vero was there so we all dashed to the bathroom where I was able to wash him and clean my pants enough to be able to came out in public again. I was inspired to put a dark color ones that day. Here is a great shot taken by Camila (5 yrs old) while we were catching up at the coffee shop.

 

Vero and Camila came with us at the beautiful 30th St. station where we departed in different directions. Alex and I took an earlier train as daddy had to stay until the end of the business day but we managed just alright. He was tired after the busy day in Philly so he slept pretty much the whole way, then he woke up and charmed the older lady sitting next to us. It was yet another successful trip!

Flip Friday

It's Friday again!! This great week flew by but it was a wonderful one as it included two fun trips to Chicago and Philadelphia. We recorded lots of stuff that made it hard for me to choose from. The cutest clip though was of Alex and Nino meeting up for the first time. We met some of my Romanian friends while we were in Chicago. Anca had a baby boy just two weeks before Alex was born so we've been chatting on the phone and wanting our boys to meet up... well, here they are. It would be more fun if you understand Romanian, but the video of them is still very enjoyable.

Chicago Trip

Obviously, the highlight of Alex's twentieth week of life was the trip to Chicago. I selected a few of the pictures taken over the weekend to show what a good time we all had.

Here we go again!! Another airplane trip for our Alex who once again, did very well on all the flights. He already mastered that semi-bored look people have while walking around in the airports.

 

 

It was a gorgeous day on Saturday when the wedding took place at the beautiful chapel of the Loyola University, by Lake Michigan. Here we are all dressed up for the event.

 

The best part about the wedding was that we got to see our cousins, Charlie and Henry, auntie Julie and Mimi and Papa.

Here we are at the beautiful reception. Despite the gorgeous decorations, music, dancing and delicious food, Alex got a bit bored and had to play with daddy's tie to entertain himself.

 

 

While being in Chicago, I took advantage of being so close to wonderful friends of mine, class mates from my high school years in Romania so Sunday we organized a little get together. It was even more meaningful to meet up with them as Anca and Ionut had their own little baby boy just two weeks before Alex. Our boys, Nino and Alex met up for the first time and even if Alex seemed to be a bit moody and uninterested in making friends, Nino kept reaching out and wanting to interact. They were both so much fun to watch!

At one point, they both got tired and fell asleep like this. Sweet sleeping angels...

 

Dana, Felicia, Maggie and Anca.... good friends for some time.

Here's a final picture of all of us, friends who traveled from all over: DC, Cleveland and Indiana and hosted wonderfully, Romanian style by our local Maggie.

It was a short trip but enough to add some more life long memories to our repertoire. Alex will not remember these early trips but he's already getting used to travel, exploring and enjoying seeing new places, meeting people.  It's what they say, the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree.

 

 

 

 

 

Week in Review 7/17/2011, 20 weeks

So our guy basically turned 5 months old this week. Or at least has been here twenty weeks. As I'm writing this, Feli and I are having to backtrack and count the weeks to make sure we have it right.

Regardless of how long he's been here, this week was another interesting one. This week had us going to Chicago for my cousin's wedding, so we left DC on Friday and returned on Monday evening. And again, our little guy did wonderful on the trip. Everyone thought he was as cute as can be and he behaved wonderfully. Well, he did whine a little bit as his teeth were hurting a bit, but who can really blame him for that.

We did get some pictures and video that we will have to post later.

Other than that big event, I don't know of much else that happened, thought to be fair, I was in Toronto for two nights .... Maybe @Felioland will have more to share.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Lincoln Rd,Florence,United States

Flip Friday

The video this week is coming in a little early because Friday morning we are leaving for Chicago so we will not have time for blogging and such. I picked this 30 seconds clip of Alex sporting his new cool pair of shades. He's so cute wearing them! I put them on when I take Alex for strolls on sunny, bright days and I find serious people walking by us breaking into huge smiles when they seem in, sitting in his stroller with this cool shades on.

 

 

 

Week in Review 7/10/2011, 19 weeks old

Well, I’m running a bit behind this week.  It’s amazing how these weeks seem to fly by.  Just seems like yesterday it was the 4th of July.  Now, it’s not anything special, just the dog days of summer here in what is listed in a recent report as the 6th hottest city in the US.  Yipes.

But this blog isn’t about the weather, it’s about our little buddy Alex.  Speaking of, he had a doctor’s appointment on Friday.  He’s now 22.5 pounds and 28 inches long.  A large, but very healthy little boy.  As the doctor put it, he came out big.  And boy is he still getting bigger.

This week was fun to watch.  He’s now rolling over on a regular basis.  Saturday, I was watching him while Feli was upstairs and he just up and rolled over on his stomach.  What’s funny is once he gets there, he doesn’t know what to do.  And to make matters worse, he’s never really liked being on his tummy.  So after a few minutes of grunting and pushing, he’ll start whining.  So I turn him back over on his back and guess what … Yup, you guessed it, he rolls right back over.

Firsts: This was his first 4th of July.  Not that the fireworks really did anything for him.  He just slept through them as the neighbors shot off their purchases.  Now as for Feli …  We also took him to the Newseum where we just picked up a year membership on Groupon.  Side comment, that’s quite a place, and I recommend anyone coming to DC should check it out.  He’s also started using his bouncy chair.  And boy does he like it.  Put him in there and he’ll just bounce and bounce and bounce.

Ups: He’s still a mellow baby and still likes to hang out with mommy and daddy.  Seems like just about wherever we go, he’s more than happy to ride along and look around.  In fact, as I type, he’s in the crib cooing and blurbling and making very happy and contented sounds.

Downs: He’s still not sleeping as well as we (or should I say mommy) would like.  His nighttime sleeping pattern is still a bit erratic.  Some nights he sleeps better than others, but no matter what he still seems to sleep for a while then wake up just long enough to drag one of us out of bed for a little nip off the bottle or for us to jam his pacifier back in his mouth.  Then he’s off to dreamland while we’re left trying to get back to sleep.

Flip Friday

Michael mentioned in a couple of posts that we got this cute and tiny Flip video camera. It's so easy to pull out and shoot a fun, short video of our little one. We figured it would be nice to share some of these funny moments we catch and create a weekly "Flip Friday" blog entry.

We caught this bath time video a couple of weeks ago and I think it's way too precious not to be shown. If you watched him in one of the first video clips we took of him in this special 'tummy tub' where you could hardly see his head, see this one and be amazed along with us of how much our little Alex has grown!!

And speaking of growth, we had a doctor's appointment today and his measurements are quite off the chart. It was supposed to be his four months check up but it's more like 18 weeks old. Alex is 28 inches long and weighs 22.5 pounds! Attaboy!

 

Week in Review, 5/3/2011, 18 Weeks

Happy Fourth of July for those of you here in the United States of America.  For the rest of you, well, I hope you have a good day at work.  Once nice thing about a day off is it gives you a chance to sit back and relax a bit.  And in my case, catch up on this week in Alex.

Of course, as most of you know, the three of us spent last week in Southern California, Santa Monica and Costa Mesa specifically.  I had a training meeting out at the old FileNet offices and one last hurrah with the old team before I move to my new position.  But wait, this blog isn’t supposed to be about me, but about Alex.

Anyway.  While I was working, Alex and mommy were able to take a much needed vacation and spend some time relaxing.  When not by the pool at the hotel, Felicia and Alex were walking around the area or hanging out with friends.  See pictures: Sunny California and The Camp, OC.

In addition to the pictures, here’s a quick Flip Magic Video of the trip.  Now, when preparing this, I missed two videos, so if you’re not in the video but spent time with Alex, my apologies.

Alex in California

We all had a good time on the trip and Alex seemed to do quite well for a 4 month old child.  He did have a couple of moments, but otherwise, he was just happy to be brought along.  His curiosity seems to know no bounds and one of his favorite activities is to look around and just enjoy watching the world go by.

He still loves color, but has started to key in a bit more on other things as well.  He’s also started to decide that sitting up is a much better way to look around.  He can only sit in the stroller for so long before he decides he wants out.  And when he wants out, he will tell you about it by arching his back and squealing.

Ups: We’re back home in DC and very glad for it.  At least I am.  I think mommy might have been able to take a second week of vacation.

Downs: I guess the biggest downer for the week was the schedule.  I had to work all day and with Alex and the rest of us stuck in limbo somewhere between eastern and pacific time, by the time I got off work, Alex was almost ready for bed.