Pictures from Thanksgiving and Early December

Here's a not too great picture of Alex's tooth. It's on the bottom on his right side, you can just see a tiny little white speck. He is starting to feel better from his ear infection, but is still getting the icky pink medicine which he hates. There are a ton of pictures of him in his high chair because I am trying to catch the fishy face he makes, especially when he doesn't want to eat something. He pushes his lips way out and breathes fast and loud through his nose. It's so funny, but every time I try to get it on camera, he smiles instead. We were trying to trick him by giving him his medicine syringe to make him do it, but he would smile as soon as the camera started to take and then go back to blocking the medicine. He's too funny. He's also been mastering drinking through a straw and enjoys eating bread...so check out those pictures too.
Alex is crawling all over the place, mostly with his little crabby crawl with the left leg out and the right knee down. He is starting to be able to go pretty fast and is pretty fearless to explore now. He also loves to stand, can pull himself to stand and lets go sometimes. He even began a few tentative cruising steps along the ottoman and couch today.

He found the door stoppers, and likes to make them go bo-ing bo-ing. Here's a video of that new fun.

He doesn't like to stay still for a second, so often while trying to change or dress him, I end up with a naked baby crawling away. We spent Thanksgiving with some friends down the street at the Smet's house. It was fun and Alex got to play with some other kids. One little girl named Abby really liked him. We decorated for Christmas this weekend and went to the Wing Holiday Party on Saturday night. I had a good time dancing with the girls and then my friend Alice came over and we played SingStar.

Tomorrow I start my new job on base so it will be busy around here for the next 2 months. That's about it. Here are the pictures from Thanksgiving and Early December.

First tooth coming in!

Alex's first tooth is coming through. It's the front bottom right one. I can just barely feel the little sharp edge of it. Andy says I'm crazy, but it's there. Alex isn't very keen on me sticking my finger in his mouth right now, let alone looking at it. He has an ear infection and is pretty sick, plus the teething makes for a not very happy camper. Oh, and being told NO so much more now since he is crawling all over the house and discovering cat food, drawers, electronics, cords, wine bottles, and lots of other stuff proving that we need to baby proof the house finally. Just wait till he gets his hands on the Christmas tree!! (We got one last night but it's not put up yet.) No pictures right now, but we'll post some soon!

Officially a crawler!!

I don't know what you call this half knee, half feet crawling technique Alex has going, but he is going!! It is the cell phone that got him moving, and right now about the only thing that can entice him to actually go forward any distance. Other than that, he goes backwards or sort of rolls from sitting to prone to sitting again to get around.

And, he also pulled himself to standing all on his own today, using the ottoman. He's been trying, but since it's leather and soft, he has no grip like a regular coffee table.

Trip to PA and TN

Alex and I went to PA and TN from Nov 4th-19th to visit friends and family. We spent a week in PA, visiting Grandpa Parini, and got to introduce Alex to Great Aunt Mary and Great Uncle Glen, and second cousin Alan. I forgot my camera the first night he met everyone, so I only have pictures with Mary from our lunch with her later on and with my dad.He also got to see his "Aunt" Kelly, my best friend, and her son Gavin who is 15 months. The boys stayed with Kelly's mom and her boyfriend, Great "Aunt" Chrissy and Great "Uncle" Willie in Allentown while Kelly and I took a quick trip to the Finger Lakes in New York to do some wine tasting and get some girl time. It's the first time I've been apart from Alex overnight! Here's Willie, who was buddies with Alex, and Chrissy and the blanket she made for Alex.We also visited my grandparents grave, old house, and the park in North Catasaqua that my grandpa used to always take me to. Alex played there for a while, and we even found a nice pile of leaves to play in and take pictures. After PA, we went to Knoxville, TN to visit with my mom and stepdad, Grandma and Grandpa Brooke. We went to the mall in Maryville, where they live, and they had this little play areas for kids, so I put Alex in there with the fish. Alex has been wanting to stand up all the time, and can pull himself up in his old stroller. He was tired of sitting I guess, and was only happy to ride in his stroller standing up and facing forward. The flights were good, only on one did Alex cry for about the last 20 minutes. We went to the pediatrician the day before our trip because he had been sick and the doc said he had a dual ear infection. So, it was 10 days of icky pink amoxicilin mixed with apple sauce twice a day, because he just puked it back at you if you gave it to him straight. But he did get better. He's been trying some new table foods, and he really liked cheese, but I think he got hives from it, so no more of that for a while. He doesn't really want to eat any of the pureed foods now, so I'm trying to get creative with giving him table foods that he can gum enough, since he still has no teeth. So, if you need any, I've got a freezer full of pureed foods. Here he is eating spaghetti at Macaroni Grill in Knoxville.Here's the rest of the pictures from our trip.
We went to the pediatrician for his 9 month checkup on Thursday, and he weighed 19 lb. 14 oz. (40%), he was 29' long (75%), and everything else looked good, including his ears. Friday I hosted a luncheon for a group of ladies from the Mothers of Preschoolers (MOPS) group I go to. It was good--we did soup, salad, and sandwiches instead of traditional Thanksgiving fare, since we thought we'd all have enough of that next week. I made my Zuppa Toscana and Chicken Salad Sandwiches, and PB&J for the kids. It was fun with lots of little kids here and getting to know some nice ladies from MOPS. Also on Friday, I did some pre-inprocessing for a temporary job I'm going to start on Dec 8th. I'll be working for the operations group commander here on the base, basically where I used to work before I separated, for 2 months doing some planning activities. They've been trying to get me as an emergency civilian hire for months now, and it finally all went through. I'll be working predominantly from home, just going in for a few hours a week. This weekend, Andy is very busy with work, as he was out of town for a few days last week. We installed the new car seat in my car finally, as Alex was busting out of the old carrier one. Thankfully, the new stroller and seat fit in my car, though I'm not convinced Alex is going to fit in there too. We'll see tomorrow morning I guess. Alex is getting more and more mobile. He has been crawling backwards and going from sitting to all fours to tummy and back the other way. He was sitting up in his crib when I went in to get him after I had put him laying down this afternoon...it was funny to see. That's about it. We are just getting ready to enjoy Thanksgiving with friends here in Minot and I'm having an open house wine tasting for my Traveling Vineyard business next Saturday. Oh, and I've got a new online wine catalog, check it out here!

Happy Halloween

Our little penguin!!

Luckily Alex's little costume was really warm, because it was cold out on Halloween night. We just sat on our porch to greet the trick-or-treaters and got lots of oohs and aahs on our cute little penguin. We eventually had to put mittens on him because it was so cold. He did really well with the costume, even through a few times on and off to webcam with the grandparents. He did go next door and picked out a candy bar from the neighbors' bowl--so I guess he's officially been trick-or-treating too. He is really enjoying standing up to play, but can't pull himself up yet. He looks like he is getting closer to crawling every day. He can stand to be on his belly a lot more now and does a lot of rolling over tummy to back to tummy, etc, all in one direction, so he kind of goes in a circle. He also is getting better at going from sitting to leaning forward or sideways until he is on his knees for a little. Then he rocks back and forth until he gets tired and frustrated and cries or lunges and falls to his belly. The poor kiddo has another cold. I'm not sure he ever completely got over his last one. I'm praying it clears up before our trip on Tuesday. Alex and I are flying to Philadelphia and visiting in PA with my dad, aunts and uncles, and friends, then after about a week, we are flying to Knoxville to visit with my mom and stepdad for a week.

Here's Alex playing with the pumpkin great grandma McElvaine gave him.

I forgot to mention in our last post that we officially found out we are moving next year to Montgomery. Andy will be attending Air Command and Staff College at Maxwell AFB. Two of our good friends here are also going so that will be fun. The rentals go very quickly once the school list comes out, so we've already got a lease in the works for renting a house in East Montgomery. The school lasts about 10 months, and we'll be moving from Minot in July 09. The countdown is on!!

Halloween pictures (plus a few others)

Alex likes to play with the big exercise ball I have. I put him on it to bounce and roll, but he also just likes to stand with it, and watch it bounce and roll.

Our Little Cubs Fan, Cherries, and Standing Up

Here are some Pictures from mid-October. They are mostly of Alex eating cherries, dressed up in his cubs outfit (I was trying to get some good ones, so there are a ton of these), and a few of him standing up to play at his little table toy. He's started babbling dadadadada all the time now, which Andy of course loves. I still get a mamama every once in a while, normally while he's eating his puffs. He likes blowing bubbles and making raspberries noises too. He loves that he can stand for a long time holding on with one hand or two to things now, but he hasn't figured how to pull himself up yet. He's make some backwards creeping progress, and can spin on his belly, but no forward progress yet. Here's the highlights from the pictures:

Trip to IL

We took a family trip to Avon, IL to visit Andy's family last week, the 13th-17th of October. We flew our plane there. We had a tachometer gauge and cable break (it was the original in our 1968 airplane!) and had to wait overnight in Watertown, SD for the part. It arrived on Tuesday morning, but it didn't fit correctly, so we flew to Willmar, MN to get the right part installed...they have a great Mooney service center there. Then we were back on our way to Macomb, IL to land on Tuesday evening. It was a good but short visit. The rain kept Andy from helping his dad with the harvest except for Thursday afternoon. Alex got his first tractor ride--Andy drove us in the tractor hauling a wagon full of corn. The weather was good Thursday morning to fly (but too wet to farm), so we went on a formation flight with Andy's dad, who owns a Cessna Cardinal. Andy and his dad were in the Cardinal and Andy's mom, Alex, and I were in our Mooney. We had fun and got lots of good pictures of both airplanes in flight. Alex got to visit with his great grandparents Dallefeld, great grandma McElvaine, grandparents McElvaine, and Phil, Jean, Jeff, Kristi, and Addison Kramer. Addison was 18 months old, full of energy, and very entertaining for Alex. Phil and Jean got this airplane rocker for Alex, and Andy's mom painted it. He really liked the propeller. Unfortunately we couldn't fit both Alex and the plane in our plane to come home, so we'll have to get it shipped later. Here's all the pictures from our trip.

Early October Pics

Just a quick post for a few pictures from this month so far. Alex really likes to eat crackers now, so there's a bunch of those pictures because it's funny to watch him shove the whole thing in his mouth and then play with all the pieces it crumbles into. There's also some of the little Bears fan, including this one of him with his hand over his heart for the national anthem playing at the start of the game. We are trying to fly to IL Monday to visit with Andy's family, but the weather might not let us go (we are flying our own little airplane). We plan to return Friday. If you want to track our flight anytime we file a flight plan, go to flightaware.com and put in our tail number N6702N. That's about it, here's the pictures.

Papa's Pumpkin Patch in Bismark Oct 4th

On Saturday we took Alex to the Pumpkin Patch in Bismarck. It was great, and if he was just a little older, he would've really enjoyed it. As it was, we just took some cute pictures. So here they are.

Pumpkin at the Corn Maze- 71/2 months old

I took Alex to the corn maze east of town this past Sunday with some friends. There were lots of pictures ops (which is why I wanted to go), and he seemed to have a good time in the maze, moreso than I expected. We have been able to get him to prop up on all his knees now, but he won't get there himself yet. He tries to move, but ends up just plopping down and getting frustrated. We went to the pediatrician earlier this week for his runny nose and a bug bite on his leg. She gave me Singulair granules to give him to see if that helps clear up any allergies and cortizone for his bite. He weighed 18 lb, 15 oz (that was Tuesday, Sep 30th). Andy and I are both sick with colds I guess this week, so it's been pretty low-key around here. That's about it, here's the pictures from the maze.

Oh, and here's a video of the jump n go, though he isn't quite as crazy and laughing as he is in there sometimes.

Late September

We don't have too much to report, just wanted to share some pictures of Alex from the past few weeks. We got a family picture in front of the B-52 that hopefully we'll get to see and share soon--but we have a few contraband in the cockpit photos we took first. Alex is eating some new finger foods, like cut up carrots, pasta, and pears, but he still totally loves Cheerios and Puffs. He's getting really good at picking them up himself. There is a cute video of him having family dinner time with his carrots and pasta all over the tray...we had to abandon the plate we started with or the walls would be covered. We also switched to a new inflatable bathtub and as long as we don't wait until he is too tired, he is starting to enjoy his baths (finally). He likes to sit up and play with his toys and splash...so there's a cute video of him playing...rated G, don't worry.

We did get to fly today to Bismarck for lunch and Alex did great in the plane, and we can finally put ear plugs in his ears and they stay instead of the cotton and sock headband you've seen in the previous pictures. Plus he's got his own headset on the way so hopefully that will provide even better noise protection (if he'll keep it on). He's also loving his jump n go (like a johnny jumps up) that goes in a doorway and he jumps in it a lot now---he loves to bounce and jump all the time, so this gives mom and dad's arms a break. We had a cute video of it, but the background noise of my pureeing food is not too pleasant, so we'll have to take another one and post it next time.

7 months old!!

Alex turned 7 months old today, so I got a little picture happy. Just lots of him playing with some toys and some the playground. His face is really red in some because he still has some excema on his cheeks, some days it looks better than others. But he also got a bite on his left cheek and it was really swollen this weekend, so it is actually looking much better now. Looks like he inherited my tendency to swell up from every bug bite and Andy said he did the same thing when he was little...at least he grew out of it, so maybe Alex will too.

He loves the swing at the playground and gets really excited about the phone, so I got him one his own to play with, which of course he tries to eat. He's tried his first meat with some chicken, but I think it is too dry for him. He's been making lots of "mmm" sounds, so he makes this mmm face that makes him look like a cabbage patch kid. I like it cuz sometimes it sounds like mama. He just looks at me funny when I say mama over and over and make the sign for it, but maybe he'll eventually catch on. That's about it for this week. Here's the pictures.

Badlands Trip and First Bears Game

I haven't been able to post recently because my camera connection started crashing my laptop since I downloaded Windows XP Service Pack 3. After 1 1/2 hours on the phone with Microsoft about the issue, it still wasn't fixed. They told me to download a new driver for the camera (printer did some thing), but I did that and it still crashes. So, now I'm working from the desktop for pictures. Fun stuff--aren't computers wonderful?

Ok, enough ranting. We flew down to Rapid City from Friday to Sunday on Labor Day weekend. It was a nice little family vacation to celebrate Andrea's birthday. It was pretty busy. The highlight of the trip was our hiking through the badlands at Badlands National Park. It was very hot but we went in the morning with Alex in the Baby Bjorn and had a good time. We ate dinner at two nice restaurants downtown and enjoyed the nice weather all weekend. We came back early Sunday and had some friends over Sunday night (Monday was a holiday) for a big dinner, drinks, and Singstar.

The week was pretty uneventful and then this past weekend, Andy and I went to the AF Ball while Heather and David watched Alex for us. (Bless their hearts because he still doesn't want to drink milk from a bottle or sippy cup!!) Sunday we had a bunch of people over to tailgate for the Bears first regular season game.

Alex is doing great eating lots of fruits and veggies and also likes little finger foods like Cheerios, Gerber puffs and wagonwheels, and little pieces of banana and cooked carrot. He still is working on learning to pick the little things up himself, so mostly we have to feed him those. He doesn't have any teeth poking through yet. He loves to help with the spoon during his meals, but often gets more of the food on his fingers and face (and hair and ears) than into his mouth. He still likes the sippy cup with water, diluted apple juice, and milk (as long as its not replacing a meal from mom). He's been doing better spending some time on his tummy and can turn himself side to side. From sitting, he reaches forward until he falls over to get things, but hasn't started to creep or rise up on his knees yet. He seems to have his first little cold, or it may just be allergies, I'm not sure which yet. He likes some new toys like his soft blocks and stacking rings and a new favorite pasttime is to walk around while we hold his hands. He almost had his first group daycare experience today while I was at MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers)--they provide free childcare there. But there were so many little ones at this first meeting of the year that several of us had to keep our babies on our laps--so he lucked out and got to stay with mom. He's been enjoying stopping at the little playgrounds on base during our walks and riding in the bucket swings and down the sliding boards. He is quite the little studmuffin and gets all kinds of comments from people when we are out. Some say he looks like the Gerber baby and some say like a Cabbage Patch Kid...funny! I had some pictures taken at Sears this week that turned out pretty good. Here's a link to the Sears Pics. I've also uploaded a few sets of our own pictures. Here are those links. Enjoy!

Badlands Trip

Late August

AF Ball and Bears Game