Addison's 2014 Christmas Wish List

Lets be honest, 4 year olds, they want EVERYTHING that they see.  Every commercial, every toy, everything.

This year we really didn't know what to get her because, again, let's be honest here, she has EVERYTHING she could want and then some.  Two parents who buy them everything because we can.  The kids want for nothing.

But when we told her she had to come up with something to tell Santa when she saw him, these are a few of the things she mentioned along with a few other things she's told me she wants.

Ninja Turtle "STUFF"

Anna & Elsa Dolls

Puppy Surprise, The purple one.  Anyone remember these from what the 90's??

Alex is Nine Months Old!

I swear I blinked and another month happened...sheesh.

No clue on the actual length/weight of this guy right now but stepping on a scale with him puts him between 24-26lbs depending on the scale.  I don't know how accurate that is at all, but lets just say that Addison was only 17lbs at 9 months.  Busting out of the seams of most of his 6-9 month clothing, Perhaps if I find the time this weekend we can make a switch over to 12 month clothing...or not, I mean some if it still fits fine. Still in size 4 diapers and still impossible to put shoes on his chubby, curled up toes feet.

Alex now has FOUR teeth, cut both of his top front teeth this month and is definitely working on some others as we speak.  He's been super momma clingy (if it was possible to be even more clingy than he previously was) this month, I'm assuming it's been due to the teething.

He's mastered crawling and is working on his couch surfing/deciding which day he's going to decide to take off running.  He's got the best balance I've ever seen in a baby and will just stand somewhere for minutes without using anything to support himself before plopping to his bottom.  It's kind of the weirdest thing I've seen.  He's also started "dancing" when music comes on which is really just him sitting down and rocking back and forth, but it's adorable.  He refuses to clap, he refuses to wave.

Still nothing I will consider a real first word yet.  He babbles a Da-Da, Ba-ba, and Mama sound but I refuse to accept it as a word until he says it directed to the thing/person he's babbling ;)  Is that high standards for the second baby or just me?

His hair is starting to calm down, it's still got a mind of its own but we've gone from flipping up straight into the sky to wavy and curly and looking like something out of the 70's.

Eating like a champ has only turned his nose up to some pre-made oatmeal thing I bought him from Gerber.  Everything else he eats like he's not had a meal in days.

Continues to have a mostly great attitude, super cute, super sweet, just getting a little bit of feisty.  As in, I scream like a banshee when things aren't going my way.

He loves to wrestle and rough house with his sister but the boy is seriously a biter.  Comes straight in with the teeth.  Is this something that he's going to outgrow, or am I going to have a kid with a biting problem on my hands.  Seriously, he does it ALOT!  He also puts everything in his mouth, look like he's sucking on something?  Probably a piece of: dog food, capri-sun straw wrapper, chunk of plastic shrink wrap from god knows what, dirt, anything else he can find to shove in there.  It's funny that Addison never was much of a mouthy (as in shoving EVERYTHING in her mouth) baby like he is.  Seriously, everything.

This month we went to Ohio for Thanksgiving and Alex got to meet some of his family that he hadn't gotten to meet yet.  He did great with everything, hotel stays and strange house naps.
We also got to see Santa this past weekend and while there were no tears or hysterics he definitely give the fat man a good "who the hell are you stare" but overall did great with him.

Alex Is Eight Months Old!

Let's hope that the 4th time I attempt this post I can make it work.  I'm determined to not suck at recording child #2's life.

I had a wonderful post all typed up all ready, and blogger lost it between the hours of 7am and 9pm..le sigh.  

Anyway, Alex is eight months old.  How.  How am I already making plans for a first birthday party?  I've tried to reason with myself that I don't need to be the pinterest party mom, but, lets be real here, I don't know how to do small.  Birthday's should be a big deal, surviving your first year on earth deserves to be a big party with cake in your face!!  So I'll be doing it, over the top, way too much time and money invested.  Consider it done.

I have no idea how much Alex weighs or how long is is right now.  What I do know is that the kid can EAT.   And eat, and eat, and eat.  He LOVES, LOVES, LOVES food.  I swear I offer him just about anything that we are eating minus the too hard to eat/spicy foods or just plain junk that I shouldn't eat myself and the kid is yet to turn his nose up to anything or not want another bite.  Just tonight I'm certain he ate a full grown man sized serving of peas and a serving of apple sauce.  

This month Alex mastered the crawl.  He has the cutest little no extension leg movements I've ever seen.  It's kind of like a shuffle across the room on his hands and knees. All he really cares about right now is his pink hanger which is his absolute favorite thing to carry around and chew on.  (Hey second kids, they totally get to do/play with whatever they want.)

Alex is probably going to be running by nine months, he is constantly trying to stand.  Not the couch surfing type of standing either, he wants you to help him stand in the middle of the room then when he gets balanced he'll scream at you and try to push your hands off him so he can stand on his own.  For an eight month old who isn't into couch surfing the boy has some serious balance.  He can stand there for way longer than I would expect without toppling over.  

Alex is still in 6-9 month clothing but he can fit most things 12 months these days too.  But you know me, I'm squeezing him in the clothes for as long as I can!  He's in a size 4 diaper which blows my mind since Addison never went over a size four before she was in regular underwear and potty trained.  (no she wasn't potty trained at 8 months either, the kid was/is tiny)

Alex has been a teething monster this month, still only two teeth but those top teeth are working their way down.  We spent the majority of last week being fussy as all hell at night, not sleeping, running fevers and chewing on everything in sight.  Luckily that seems to have ceased but those teeth are still not though. 

He continues to get more and more vocal but he is still content to sit and watch the world.  Mostly when his crazy, loud, center of attention sister is in the room I think he's too enthralled with watching her to have much to say about anything.  Or as the doctor said, maybe she scares him.  Lol, he thinks shes about the best thing in the world, and giggles like crazy when she catches his eyes.  So cute.

  I love this age, I just wish it would just slow down and last a little longer.  He's still such a mellow man.  Just don't come between him and a boob when he's been at the sitter all day and I have been at work.  Wholly clinger.  

This month Alex's first Halloween trick or treat was ruined with bad weather so we sat it out at Grandma's while Addison went out with Daddy & Poppa Larry.  We also celebrated Uncle Nick and Aunt Joey's birthday at the bowling ally where Alex got to be my lucky charm as I bowled two strikes to start out my first game all the while I was wearing Alex in the Tula.  (Don't worry it was all down hill from there.)

Alex is Seven Months Old

Obviously,  still haven't been able to figure out how to pause time.  Or make it run in eternal continuum.  

Alex is seven months old already.    He finally had his six month well child appointment two days ago, so fresh stats!

Alex is:

 19lbs 12oz

28" long.  

That makes him already weigh more than Addison did at 13 months old.  

He continues to have monstrous feet, forget shoes you can't get his fat curly toes down in them and he's at least wearing a 3 already.  I had to buy him socks yesterday and they didn't have any infant size or 12-24 month sizes so I said screw it and grabbed the 2-4T size and sadly they really aren't much too big on him!  

Alex has two teeth already and is definitely working on no.3, possibly no.4 as we speak.  At this rate he's going to be one of those little alligator babies with a mouth full of teeth at a year old.  (Addison only had the two that Alex already has, at a year old.)  The good news is he seems to handle it pretty well.  Yesterday he made "MMM, MMMM, MMMM" sounds all day, played with his tongue a lot and was quite a bit clingy but I'll take that over sheer misery.

He is wearing size 3 diapers right now, depending on the brand they either 'fit' or we are forcing him to wear them because it's what we bought.  The boy is a growin!  His mysterious diaper rash FINALLY cleared up and he hasn't had any other issues with it again yet.  We went back to the same diapers without a problem.

Still wearing 6-9 month clothing pretty comfortably, some things have been tossed into the "yeah right, that doesn't fit any more" pile already because they are too hard to get his arms into.  If there is anything that pisses this baby off, its getting dressed!

This month Alex has eaten anything and everything that he can convince you to put into his mouth.  In true "growing boy" fashion, he just can't get enough.  He doesn't seem to discriminate, so far he's liked everything we've allowed him to taste.  His only funny reactions to food come from when you go from warm food to cold food.  He loves to be able to hold his own spoon/fork.

He's mastered sitting unsupported, now he's working on figuring out how to crawl and how to get into a sitting position from lying down.  He can roll, scoot, twist himself to anything he wants to get to.  He gets up on his hands and knees with no problem to rock back and forth in prep for crawling and can make himself go backwards.  He's so close to crawling, so close!  

He loves to stand up and get himself balanced, then have you let go so that he can stand by himself for 0.2 seconds before you have to catch him on the way down.  He gets a huge kick out of it which you can tell by the smile on his face and his happy squeals.  He's getting really close to the pull himself up on everything stage but luckily we are not there yet.  I see lots of getting pushed to the floor by sister in his future.  Not to mention fights when he can finally get a hold of all her things!

As you can see in his photo above he still HATES to be flat on his back, he wants to constantly be upright so that he can take in the world.  

Alex is still a quiet observer most of the time.  But, he's getting more and more vocal in terms of protesting things he's upset about!   You can catch him babbling if the room is quiet (AKA silly sister isn't taking the stage).  He doesn't seem close to saying any real first words.  I'm sure his first word will be something crazy complicated, since he seems to never care to talk.  lol.

We had a month of teeth, sickness and clinging to momma.  He's a stage three clinger right now.

We switched from the infant seat to the convertible this month.  Ahh, I hated that damn thing.  Technically he still was okay in it but my arms just had enough.  :)  Now my Tula and I will become even better friends so that I don't have to play, where do I put the baby, when my hands are full!

And if it wasn't obvious in his pictures, he's still rocking hair that does what it wants.

And, sister still loves him, wants to hold him and gives him random hugs and kisses. When she not being a jerk to him.  That just started.

Alex is Six Months Old!

Half way to one?!  WHAT?!?!?!  Just stop.

 I won't have any official Dr. Office stats this month as far as weight and length are concerned. But on my scale he's weighing in at about 20 lbs right now.  Which means I really need to get on that convertible seat, cause I hate the infant seat with a passion and he's about to outgrow the damn thing anyway!

Alex spent his first night away from me at Grandma Sharon and Poppa Larry's house.  He did just fine (aside from giving them a hard time about sleeping alone once he woke up at night, whoops, co-sleeping tends to have that affect.)  But while he was there my mom noticed as he was chomping away on a raw green bean that he had the starts of a tooth popped through his gums.  Would NEVER had known he was even teething!!  Other than a little drool he never gave us any sign.  He has been battling a randomly awful first time hes had one diaper rash, perhaps that was brought on by the teething?

We just made the switch over to 6-9 month clothing, I have a thing about squeezing my kid into clothes as long as possible I guess, cause he can actually fit into 12 month clothing already too.  I guess that way he gets his use out of them!

In size 3 diapers, hoping that his "diaper rash" was a diaper rash and not a reaction to his diapers.  Through some elimination trials we will find out I guess.

He loves to chatter to himself in the carseat or when he's trying to fight sleep.  You can hear him making raspberry/lip noises a lot lately.  Still content to just sit around and take things in, quite often you can forget he's even in a room he's so quiet.

He's majorly interested in food.  Often swiping your plate/fork whatever.  I've been letting him have little tastes of things here and there but haven't officially started feeding him foods yet.  I'm in no rush and will probably not even use puree's this time around.  Baby led weaning for this busy mom.  But so far he's actually tried quite a few things like banana, strawberries, potatoes, avocado, green beans, rice from stuffed peppers (LOVED), carrots.  You know whatever's on my plate that he wants to taste, I let him.

And to end this I'm just going to leave you with this bit of ridiculousness...