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...

 

Coming true

So, after posting the week in review post, I decided to start looking back through the old blog entries to see how things have changed and what if anything has come true already.  As I did so, I ran across this post from when he hadn't even been born yet.  Only one of the items has really come true, but hey it's definitely something.  Over the past month or so, Alex and I stared to get into the habit of getting up in the morning and just sitting on the front porch.  He'd have milk and I'd have coffee.  Those were fun bonding times for the two of us.

Week in Review 8/21/2011, 25 weeks

I was just looking back at the numbering of these blog posts and something appears to be amiss.  I think we may have missed a week somewhere along the line.  Oh well, no matter for now. (Edit: I went back and discovered that somehow the 8/7 and 8/14 blog entries were mis-titled)

We had a really event this week.  Alex got his first tooth.  Well, almost.  As of today, it's started poking through the gum and we can see a bit of white.  It'll be a while before he gets the tooth as a whole, but we're getting closer. I'm still struck by how easy going he seems to be.  Even with the pain of teething, he never really seemed to be out of sorts.  In fact, if you didn't know what was going on, you wouldn't even know he was in pain … or maybe he wasn't.  Who knows.  Maybe he's gotten mom's tolerance for pain.

Let's see what else happened this week.  To be honest, since I spend most of my days working while he and mommy go play, I often forget exactly what happened during the week.  However, I do remember at least one fun event we went on.  This week was DC Beer Week (I know, something strange to mention on a child's blog ….), so on Wednesday night, we headed over to Smith Commons near our house.  It's the first time in some time that the three of us went out on a "school night".  In fact, the picture posted with this entry was from that night.  To post it, I used an Android app called picplz and had it posted to Twitter.  Anyway, in addition to having a cool picture, the people and Smith Commons liked the post and retweeted it. Not bad, eh?

But I digress.

One other major milestone for this week is the continued transition towards solid food.  We've started adding more and different foods to the list of what he can eat.  This week Feli added smooshed peas to the menu.  I'm not 100% positive he likes them.  You should see some of the faces he makes.  However, he does eat them.  In fact, we have yet to find anything he won't eat.

Flip Friday

It's almost 11 pm so technically it's still Friday on east coast. Sorry for the slight delay if any of you were waiting to see Alex in action. I had this video of him eating his banana ready last night but I forgot to actually post it. This clip doesn't do justice showing the enthusiasm with which Alex usually eats. He got distracted with the little video camera daddy shoved in his face while eating, otherwise he opens his mouth for a new bit before I had the chance to scoop out more food. His favorite so far is oatmeal cereal, most of the mornings there are tears when the bowl gets empty. The zucchini didn't go too well, he almost gagged on it. He knows though he has no choice but to like his veggies so the second day, he made better friends with zucchini.

Metro Rider

So far August weather was quite bearable so Alex and I ventured outside every day. Lunch plans with friends, museum trips, errands running etc some of these outings requiring riding the metro. Alex loves it, he looks very serious and interested when we are taking the metro. He's a great rider, even checking out the ads on the walls.

 

Week in Review 8/14/2011, 24 weeks

I'll be interested to see, Feli and I were discussing who would write this weeks post. I'm out waiting for friends and she's back at the house with hot rod, so we could be writing this in unison.

Anyway, last week was an interesting week. The second half of the week Mimi came to visit. And boy did Alex enjoy that. And of course, so did we.

The other two biggies were he's really starting to eat real food now. So we've added apples to the foods he's eating.

That was Michael's part and now is my turn. I will just add some new pictures of him and let them speak for themselves of how well Alex is growing and developing. I am a bit disappointed with myself that I didn't get a single picture with Mimi and Alex together!! It was so special to have Wendy with us, especially right on her birthday. We got to celebrate her with cupcakes, a surprise massage appointment across the street and a healthy, grilled dinner.

This photo was taken on Saturday by Mimi while I was away in Philadelphia. It was hard to be away from my 'chunky monkey' (new nickname) for twelve hours, but I made it and he got upon my return lots and lots of kisses and hugs.

Over the weekend my friend Kate and her two kids, Maxim and Yana got to stay with us. They really loved Alex and asked for him the moment they made it to our house, the minute they would get up and come up from the basement and the moment they would return to the house from being out exploring DC.

Here's a cute picture of Yana holding Alex in her lap.

And last but not the least, here's our shirtless boy, showing off his cute baby fat:))

Sproingy boy....

Just a video for fun ....

Flip Friday

The clip I am posting this week is not that much about Alex but about the beauty of Skype:) Don't know what would we do without the mighty Skype! Bunu and buna seem to always be on line, waiting for us to call and say hello. When we called this time around, auntie Lucia and cousins Lorena and Timi were around too so we got to see lots of eager faces. Alex loves skyping, his favorite thing is banging on the keyboard although in this clip taken back in June was less reaching for the computer. Sorry for the not so stable image, I was holding a laptop, Alex and trying to operate the Flip.

 

Weeek in Review 8/07/2011- 23 weeks

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It seemed that last week the weather was a little bit better in DC so little Alex and I had plans and people to see each day of the week. That meant Alex and I walked and took the metro a lot. It's becoming easier to manage the public transportation with a stroller, although it helps that I do travel off peak. Alex loves riding the metro and all those elevators we need in order to get in and out of a station.

Our city outings this week took us to IMF where I used to work. We had lunch with a friend there and afterwards we went up on the 12th floor and visited my former coworkers there. Another day we hang out at the National Portrait Gallery  with two other neighbors and their kids. We had lunch sitting in the beautiful air conditioned indoor court. It's such a wonderful, hidden place in the middle of bustling Chinatown. On Thursday there was a special event at Family Health Birth Center where Alex was born. I drove there with the little one (it was the very first time I drove by myself with him) and hang out for a couple of hours with other moms and babies and did some itsy bitsy yoga. Everyone there, including the midwife who delivered him were very impressed of his size. Friday we were back downtown hanging out with a girlfriend of mine.

Alex is very easy going so it's not a dread anymore going somewhere public. I just need to make sure I have milk prepared and ready to go once he gets that hunger going. His lungs are well developed now so his cry is quite loud. We went to hang out at a coffee shop on Friday morning, thinking that dad will be able to work for a couple of hours and us will keep him company. Oh no, Alex had a loud cry in his agenda... so loud, we had to pack and leave. Of course the moment we stepped outside, he was all fine.

Big first for Alex this week was that he started eating solids. Each morning this week I would mash a piece of banana and feed him that. Oh my, does he love food!! He opens his mouth so big and knew pretty much right away how to handle that spoon. He's a great eater and can't wait to keep introducing more fun and healthy veggies and fruits to him. At night I also give him rice cereal in his milk so his stomach gets full and happy for the night.

Speaking of that, this week I tried something new during the night. Whenever he would get up to sip a little milk (he would sip a few times and then go back to sleep), I let him cry a little. I was pleasantly surprised that he wouldn't cry in the real sense of the word, but whine for a while and then eventually go back to sleep in 10 minutes or so. Towards the end of the week he stopped waking up every two-three hours, for the past three nights he slept from 8 pm to 5 am straight! What a blessing to have him rest this well! I hope he will continue this great trend, my body loves this uninterrupted sleep!

Other big first is that Alex discovered his feet so now he grabs them all the time, pulling his big toe. He continues to love playing in the exersaucer which is great for me, it allows me to do my work in the kitchen or around the house. If we lay him on his back now, he will pretty much turn on his tummy right away, get stuck and whine about it. He's never been big fan of tummy time. He's also very strong so he is able to hold all his weight on his feet, he love standing. I wouldn't be surprised if he starts walking soon:)

 

Flip Friday

This one minute clip of our little guy is the funniest yet. Alex is absolutely cracking up at daddy. Hilarious!!

Week in Review 7/31/2011, 22 weeks

Five and a half months. It’s hard to believe that Alex has been here for almost 6 months. It’s amazing to see just how much he’s changed. This was a big week for his development: he’s started eating real food. We let him take a sample of watermellon last week and this week he’s started eating banana.

You know, given all the traveling we've done lately, it felt kind of strange to spend a whole week at home. Unfortunately, it was a very hot one here in dc. And that meant that Feli and Alex were kind of stuck around thud house.
Which isn't a bad thing from my perspective, as I like the company. I think they would prefer to be out and about though.
I am starting to think this whole parenthood thing does take a bit of a toll in the mind, though. This entry may be a good example. I've written a couple hundred words and said a whole lot of nothing.
Anyway, I'm still struck by just how happy and easy going our little guy is. Seems like very little bothers him. If he's tired or hungry, he will let you know. Otherwise, he's just smiley and happy. What more could we want for a little guy.
I know everyone says to enjoy these times because you can never get them back. I do now understand what they mean, but at the same time, I really what him to grow up a bit more so I can start showing him the world around us. There are so may great things to see and I am really looking forward to showing them to Alex.

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